International Women’s Day, strikes, demonstrations

This AFP photo shows an International Women’s Day march in Manila, the Philippines, today.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

Massive strike by Spanish women on International Women’s Day

In Spain, millions of employees have participated in the “feminist strike” on International Women’s Day. Spanish trade unions support the strike of women, but men were allowed to strike today as well because the law prohibits discrimination. Activist women demand equal pay and a safe workplace without sexual harassment.

According to the biggest unions, 5.3 million people have left work this morning for two hours. “When we stop, the world stops” is the slogan of the striking women. Elsewhere, the strike is for 24 hours.

Throughout the country there are 120 demonstrations this afternoon and tonight; they promise to become massive in Madrid and Barcelona. The mayors of both cities, Manuela Carmena and Ada Colau, support the actions.

#DiaInternacionaldelesDones #DiaInternacionalDeLaMujer #Huelga8M #HuelgaFeminista24Horas #8Marzo #8MaLaHuelga #Huelga8Marzo pic.twitter.com/L2QxQ0dDDG

— Ada Colau (@AdaColau) March 8, 2018

This morning, striking Catalan women already blocked a highway in Barcelona. The riot police quickly ended the protest event. Hundreds of trains stopped across the country, and no female presenters were heard in the media. …

Also elsewhere in the world attention was paid to International Women’s Day. For example, there were demonstrations in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India for equal rights and against sexual violence.

In the Philippine capital Manila, hundreds of women protested against President Duterte, in their eyes the biggest violator of women’s rights in Asia. The activists handed flowers to the wives and mothers of drug users and dealers who were shot dead by the zero-tolerance president. Duterte recently angered people with his statement that soldiers should shoot female communist rebels in their vaginas.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain today:

At rallies in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, its largest city Karachi and the cultural capital Lahore, women denounced men’s violence against them. Nearly 1,000 women in Pakistan are killed by close relatives each year in what the male attackers call “honour killings.”

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was the target of a protest in central Manila by hundreds of activists in pink and purple shirts, who said he was among the worst violators of women’s rights in Asia.

Protest leaders sang and danced at a lively rally in Plaza Miranda, handing red and white roses to mothers, sisters and widows of people killed as part of Mr Duterte’s crackdown.

He has previously ordered soldiers to shoot female Maoist rebels in the vagina, to make them “useless.”

Hundreds of South Koreans, many wearing black and holding black “#MeToo” signs, rallied in central Seoul. South Korea’s anti-sexual violence movement has gained significant traction since January, when a female prosecutor began speaking openly about workplace mistreatment and sexual misconduct.

Several high-profile South Korean men have resigned from positions of power, including a governor who was a leading presidential contender before he was accused of repeatedly raping his female secretary.

In India, hundreds of women marched through the capital New Delhi to bring attention to domestic violence, sexual attacks and discrimination in jobs and wages.

“Unite against violence against women,” one placard urged. “Man enough to say no to domestic abuse,” said another. “My body, My choice.”

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) sent women’s day greetings but posted online a picture of a woman communist badly beaten in Tripura by men linked to the ruling BJP party, asking whether the crime was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message to women.

Violence against communists has swept Tripura since the BJP won legislative elections in the state last weekend.

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Spanish government doubling military spending

This video from Madrid in Spain says about itself:

27 March 2017

Homsec is an exhibition for the [so called] Defence and Security sectors.

More than 15,000 visitors from 40 countries and 195 exhibitors participate.

Activists, and even the Madrid City Council, have opposed this exhibition.

The anti-militarism group Desarma Madrid has demonstrated against Homsec.

19 protesters have been detained by the police for identification.

…

Spain is a geo-strategic country in its relationship with Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.

…

Spain will spend close to 7 billion euros on Defence in 2017.

By Alejandro López in Spain:

Spain to double its military spending

8 February 2018

Defence spending will double by 2024, Defence Minister María Dolores de Cospedal has told Spain’s parliamentary Defence Committee. The defence budget will increase from 0.8 percent of GDP (€8.7 billion) to 1.53 percent (€18.47 billion).

To limit popular opposition to war and anger against increased military expenditure, while austerity has decimated public services and made life more precarious for millions of workers and youth, Cospedal refused to publish the letter addressed to NATO outlining the increase, as she had initially promised. She claimed that part of the content was classified as secret.

Secrecy also surrounds the real level of current military spending. According to the pacifist organisation Centre Delàs d’Estudis per la Pau, there is a whole swathe of military related expenditure that is excluded from the defence budget. If social security, pensions and insurance for the military, missions abroad, state aid for military research and development at private companies, the budget of the militarised Civil Guards and NATO fees were included, then the true figure would stand at around €18.8 billion. By 2024, it will really be “the implausible figure of €28 billion a year,” the Centre declared.

Spain’s increase in military expenditure is in response to the agreement made at last May’s NATO summit, under intense pressure from the Trump administration, for all NATO members to increase defence spending by 2024 to 2 percent of GDP.

Cospedal admitted that the increase to 1.53 percent fell short of NATO’s objective, but insisted it would “facilitate the achievement of that horizon in future years” and was in line with targets set by other European countries.

An idea of the scale of the upgrade and renewal of the military can be gathered from the list of new equipment that will be purchased. Included are 348 new Piranha 5 armoured infantry vehicles, which are designed for close combat situations, five F-110 frigates, four S-80 submarines, three Multi Role Tanker Transport refuelling aircraft, 23 NH-90 helicopters, a Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and a new training aircraft. In addition, the army will acquire a new Command and Control System and the renovation of its barracks, 17 Chinook helicopters will be modernized, and Spain will contribute funds towards the replacement for the F-18 fighter jet.

Cospedal confirmed that the military spending in Spain’s participation in 17 military missions around the globe last year was €835 million, 8.2 percent more than the previous year. Spain will participate in the European Union’s (EU) Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) on security and defence and will head the Command and Control System for EU Missions and Operations. PESCO was agreed last November by 23 of the EU’s 28 member states “to jointly develop defence capabilities and make them available for EU military operations.”

Spain’s commitment to PESCO reflects the attempt by the ruling elite in Spain and in Europe to defend their economic and military positions vis-a-vis actual and potential competitors, in a situation threatened by Brexit and the Trump administration’s “America First” policy.

The Spanish government is attempting to straddle the contradictions of supporting both the German-led PESCO and the US-led NATO, two militarist projects that are incompatible in the long term. This was reflected in a resolution proposed by the government to be debated in an upcoming parliamentary session, which calls for improvements to EU-US relations in the sphere of defence, while concluding that “Europeans must assume more than ever before the responsibility of our own security.”

The growth of Spanish militarism, as elsewhere globally, is the response of the ruling class to rising inequality, the deepening economic crisis and the growing conflicts between the major powers. Its aim, as recently expressed in the new US National Security Strategy, is the conquest of new spheres of influence, markets and raw materials—above all in conflict with Russia and China—and to deflect social tensions outwards.

The main obstacle for the Spanish ruling class is the population’s traditional hostility towards the military. This was recently revealed in the attempt to open a debate to re-impose conscription, following the example of France under President Emmanuel Macron. All the main dailies published articles and opinion pieces bemoaning the population’s hostility to such a measure.

The pro-militarist senior researcher for the Real Instituto Elcano, Félix Arteaga, complained to El Mundo, “Raising it [conscription] here would be political suicide, first because there is no military need to justify it, and second, because the concept of obligation is not liked by Spanish society. There is no mentality or culture of national identity and, of course, no one believes that you should lose your life for the defence of the country.”

…

On January 24, Cospedal appeared before the Defence Commission to get belated authorisation for approving Spain’s taking over control of the mission and sending in more troops on January 9. She warned the commission that increased involvement in the EU intervention was “fundamental” and that North Africa was “a strategic place” for Spain.

Yesterday, the French Council of Ministers viewed the Military Planning Law (LPM) for the 2019-2025 period, which imposes a vast increase in military spending. Total spending over this period is to be above €300 billion, and the yearly budget will increase by more than 35 percent to reach €44 billion. This is to fulfill Emmanuel Macron’s pledge, during last year’s presidential election campaign in France, to increase military spending to 2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP): here.

Prude Spanish priest censors picture of saint

Este cuadro del apóstol Santiago ha sido retirado de la Iglesia de Membrilla por ser demasiado "sexy" ¿Qué os parece? pic.twitter.com/a0fxYjYCO8

— Roberto Macedonio (@romacedoniovega) February 7, 2018

From Dutch NOS TV today about this picture:

‘Too sexy’ painting of apostle removed from Spanish church

A painting of the apostle Saint James (Santiago) was removed from a church in the Spanish town Membrilla because it was supposedly be too ‘sexy’. In the painting, the apostle wears a tunic and a bare thigh and two bare knees can be seen.

Painter Antonio Ximénez is furious and asks the parish priest for explanation, writes the radio station SER. He demands that the painting be shown again or returned.

Gift

The 87-year-old artist made the painting years ago, commissioned by the previous parish priest, a friend, and donated it to his birthplace. He now lives in Miami.

Does this priest know that in most crucifixes in Roman Catholic churches, Jesus Christ wears only a loincloth?

Many pictures intended for churches, by Hieronymus Bosch and other ancient painters, show completely naked people. Does this priest know?

Where was this priest when his fellow clergy in Spain and elsewhere abused children sexually, and the church hierarchy covered that up?

Where was this priest when a right-wing Spanish politician condoned rape?

Where was this priest when a right-wing Spanish archbishop condoned rape?

Especially for that priest-censor, this music video.

The video is called Right Said Fred – I’m Too Sexy (Original Mix – 2006 Version).

Pin-tailed sandgrouse video

This is a pin-tailed sandgrouse video.

I saw these birds in Spain.

Greater short-toed lark video

This is a greater short-toed lark video.

I saw this bird species in Spain.

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Spain’s Rajoy loses Catalan elections

This 22 December 2017 video from Brussels, Belgium says about itself:

’A slap in the face’ for Madrid: Puigdemont hails Catalonia election win

Catalan pro-independence parties have held their majority in snap regional elections, dealing a severe blow to the Spanish government, which had called the poll in the hope of heading off the secessionist push. Together for Catalonia – the party led by the region’s deposed president, Carles Puigdemont – took 34 seats, the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) 32 and the far-left Popular Unity Candidacy four. Making his victory speech, a jubilant Puigdemont said the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, had been ‘sunk’ in Catalonia.

By Alex Lantier and Alejandro López:

Catalan nationalists win narrow majority in crisis elections

22 December 2017

Late last night, Catalan nationalist parties were set to win a narrow majority of 70 seats in the 135-seat Catalan parliament, in special elections the Spanish government called amid the crisis unleashed by the October 1 Catalan independence referendum.

Together for Catalonia (JxCat) had won 34 seats, the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) 32, and the Candidatures of Popular Unity (CUP) 4 seats. In the anti-separatist camp, the Citizens party won 36 seats, the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC) 17, and the Popular Party (PP) [the right-wingers of Rajoy‘s minority government in Spain] 3. Catalonia en Comú (CeC)—the Catalan branch of the Podemos party, which claimed to be neutral between Spanish and Catalan nationalism—won 8 seats. Voter turnout was high, at 82 percent.

This result puts paid to hopes in the Spanish ruling elite that elections would allow them to rapidly resolve the standoff between the Spanish and Catalan regional governments. Instead, the conflict between Madrid and Barcelona is set to continue and escalate, amid deep political uncertainty.

The PP government of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy called the election as part of its repressive strategy in Catalonia, which is backed by the European Union (EU). On October 1, backed by Citizens and the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), it organized a brutal crackdown on peaceful voters in the independence referendum organized by the Catalan separatist parties. It then invoked Article 155 of the Spanish constitution to suspend the Catalan government and called yesterday’s elections in the hope of obtaining a pro-PP majority.

In the event, however, Rajoy’s strategy backfired. Despite the PP’s threats and its jailing of many Catalan nationalist politicians, the Catalan nationalists retained their majority. The PP, traditionally weak in Catalonia, suffered a humiliating collapse of its vote.

Already last night, recriminations were appearing in the pro-PP press. In an article in the right-wing newspaper ABC titled “Elections for this?” columnist Curri Valenzuela declared, “Mariano Rajoy made a mistake in calling elections as quickly as possible.”

The precise outcome in the Catalan parliament remains unclear. Eight of the 70 Catalan nationalist deputies to be elected cannot physically go to the parliament. Five have fled abroad to avoid Spanish arrest warrants (deposed Catalan regional premier Carles Puigdemont, Clara Ponsatí, Toni Comín, Lluís Puig and Meritxell Serret); three (deposed regional vice-premier Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Sanchez, and Joaquin Forn) have been jailed. This would leave the Catalan nationalists six votes short of the necessary 68-vote majority.

These individuals could give up their seats to lower-ranking JxCat or ERC members to obtain the necessary parliament majority. However, Puigdemont might also seek to return to Catalonia and demand his reinstatement, citing the victory of the Catalan nationalist forces, among which his party was the top vote getter.

The PP’s initial response was to signal that it is preparing stepped-up repression. Yesterday, Rajoy repeated his threats to again invoke Article 155 and suspend the Catalan government if it did not obey Madrid, declaring, “Obey the law, or else you already know what will happen.”

The Guardia Civil announced new accusations before the Supreme Court against more Catalan nationalists, including Marta Rovira (the leader of the ERC while Junqueras is in jail) and CUP spokeswoman Anna Gabriel. They also laid the grounds for new accusations against more Catalan nationalists, by denouncing a peaceful protest called on the Diada national day as an act of treason.

The Guardia Civil alleged that the protests promoted “a dangerous germ of a sense of rejection or even hatred of the Spanish state and the institutions supporting it. … In these citizens’ protests, there were calls for implementing a permanent strategy of deliberately planned disobedience.”

During the election campaign, PP officials dispensed with the pretense that these are independent investigations by the judicial branch of government. In fact, the PP is using it to settle accounts with its opponents, as PP Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaría told a rally in Girona: “Who has left ERC and the PDECat leaderless after decapitating both parties? Mariano Rajoy and the PP. Who put an end to the law being flouted? Mariano Rajoy and the PP. … So, who deserves the votes to continue liquidating separatism? Mariano Rajoy and the PP.”

Voters delivered a rebuke not only to the PP, however, but also to the coalition of Catalan nationalist parties. The results of the Catalan elections, while humiliating for the PP, did not signify majority support for the Catalan nationalists’ reactionary program of building an independent capitalist Catalan Republic oriented to the EU and hostile to Spain—a program which traditionally faces broad opposition among urban workers in Catalonia.

The Catalan nationalists failed to win a majority of the popular vote, or to substantially increase their vote. The Citizens party received the most votes (25.36 percent), followed by JxCat at 21.68 percent and the ERC at 21.4 percent. Together with the CUP’s 4.45 percent, this signifies that the Catalan separatist parties collectively obtained only 47.53 percent of the vote.

They obtained a majority in the regional parliament, however, as an unintended consequence of the gerrymandering of electoral districts by the Spanish fascist regime during the Transition to parliamentary democracy in the late 1970s. This gerrymandering favored rural districts over urban ones that, at that time, voted for social-democratic or Communist Party candidates. Since then, however, this has turned into an advantage for the Catalan nationalists, whose electoral support is now concentrated in rural areas.

Separatist forces only won 44 and 49.5 percent of the votes in Catalonia’s two main urban districts, Barcelona and Tarragona. However, they won 63.7 percent in Girona and 64.2 percent in Lleída.

… The traditionally anti-separatist “red belt” around Barcelona—the working-class suburbs that historically voted for the social democrats or the Communist Party in the period immediately after the Transition—voted not for the PSC or Podemos, but for the Citizens party. Citizens, a right-wing party with close ties to the PP, nevertheless ran a campaign criticizing the PP and proclaiming that it wanted a more rational and less aggressive strategy to resolve the crisis.

See also here.

Catalonia’s hopes for peace stall as further wave of arrests feared. Tensions continue to rise as Catalans elect 19 jailed, exiled or bailed politicians, and separatists claim the judiciary is acting on Madrid’s orders: here.

In the new year, supporters of independence need to build a mass movement in Catalonia and solidarity across Europe: here.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has made clear that his response to the marginal victory of the Catalan nationalist bloc (70 seats in the 135-seat parliament) is to step up his government’s anti-democratic attacks: here.

Spain admits spending £77m on extra police to quash Catalan independence movement: here.

Saturday, March 24, 2018: Spain: 13 Catalan separatist politicians charged by Supreme Court judge over secession attempt: here.

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Catalan pro-independence parties win election

This video from Brussels, Belgium says about itself:

Catalonia‘s sacked president Carles Puigdemont is expected to deliver statements in Brussels on Thursday, 21 December 2017, following the announcement of the Catalan regional election official results.

The election was called by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on 27 October 2017, when the Spanish government fired the Catalan leaders and dissolved the parliament that staged a unilateral referendum on separating from Spain and voted to establish an independent republic.

From daily The Independent in Britain:

Catalonia election: Puigdemont’s party claims victory as independence movement set to gain overall majority

Kim Sengupta, Barcelona

Thursday 21 December 2017 22:52 GMT

Catalonia’s independence movement claimed victory in the region’s election with parties seeking secession set to gain an overall majority in parliament – a dramatic and unexpected result which will have huge impact not just on Spain but the European Union.

The outcome, looking increasingly likely with 90 per cent of the votes counted, is a shattering blow to [Spanish right-wing Prime Minister] Mariano Rajoy who had called the election with the expectation of reaffirming Madrid’s control over Catalonia with an emphatic victory.

The Spanish Prime minister now faces, instead, the probable prospect of an ongoing confrontation with a separatist coalition once again in power in Barcelona.

The three separatist parties, Esquerra Republicana (ERC) and Junts Per Catalunya (JxCat) and CUP have the numbers required to reach 70 seats, two more than needed for a majority. The pro-unionist Ciudadanos (Cs) may end up as the single largest party, but, adding to Mr Rajoy’s travails, his Popular Party (PP) has performed very poorly.

JxCat is expected to get 34 seats: ERC 32 and the CUP 4. Ciudadanos is due to get 36 seats: the Catalan Socialist party 17; the anti-austerity Comu-Podem 8 and the People’s Party (PP) 4.

Rajoy’s PP had 11 seats in the Catalan parliament dissolved by Rajoy; in this election, they collapsed to just four seats. Or just three seats, according to the BBC, and according to daily El Pais.

Late on Thursday JxCAt, led by former president Carles Puigdemont, claimed victory and demanded the release of political prisoners. Agusti Alcoberro, vice president of Catalan National Assembly, said: “We can say that pro-independence forces have won the elections.”

The Spanish Prime Minister will now face pressure and critical scrutiny, not just for gambling on the snap election, but his heavy handed response to the Catalan government under Mr Puigdemont’s calling of an independence referendum when the Guardia Civil were sent in and clashes broke out injuring hundreds of people.

From the BBC:

“It’s sad to turn on the television and never see a black face or an Arab personality,” says Najat Driouech, who is likely to become Catalonia’s first female Muslim MP. …

She arrived in Catalonia from Morocco with her parents as a nine-year-old, in 1990. She has been a community worker for her local council in Masnou, a town outside Barcelona, for 17 years. …

Despite not being a member of any political party, she agreed to join the electoral list for the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), to take her fight against prejudice to a higher level.

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