VAGA GENERAL

Today was an interesting day to say the LEAST. If you're in the States reading this and haven't listened to the news today you probably have no idea why today is such a big deal, unless you're normally in tune with what's going on in Europe and Spain. If you're in Europe reading this, then chances are you know exactly what I'm referring to (unless you live in a box that is). I'll be posting several links to other sources in this post (in orange text) so make sure you check them out!

Today there was a general strike in all of Spain. This strike also coincided with strikes in Portugal, Belgium, Greece, and Italy amongst other smaller rallies in other countries as well. Here is an article that will explain the general gist of the situation. An interesting point in this whole situation for me is that the divide between the European Union countries is now becoming more evident, as the wealthier countries today, such as the Netherlands and the Nordic nations, saw very few strikes and protests. I could probably go on all day about all of the protests in every country, but for purposes of this post we will stick with Spain!

About a week ago or so they started announcing that there would be a strike on November 14th. I actually didn't really think anything of it because there had previously been a strike in the metro on Halloween (conveniently the day before a holiday here in Spain). Coincidence? I think not. It wasn't really a huge deal, for me at least, except for the fact that I had to wait an extra 10 minutes to catch the metro. When they said there would be a "general strike" today, I mistakingly took it with a grain of salt. When I left my apartment this morning my whole neighborhood was almost deserted. Within a 10 block radius there were about 4 or 5 stores open. About 99% of buildings were closed with metal sliding doors covering every entrance. The 1% of stores that were open had their metal covering hanging half way as if to say "we're open, but if we need to close shop in a hurry we will". It was seriously a sight to see on a normal weekday. Not only was everything closed, but everywhere you turned you saw "VAGA GENERAL" or "HUELGA GENERAL" meaning general strike in Catalan and Spanish. There were flyers hanging everywhere and all over the ground too. But all in all, that was nothing compared to what I saw the rest of the day. I'll let my photos below do most of the explaining. There was vandalism all over the banks here in Barcelona. I've never seen anything like it. People here are angry with the banks to say the least, and rightfully so. Unfortunately, I can say I'm one of those people. They seriously have a license to steal. The banks are terrible, and EVERY bank on the way to my work was just utterly destroyed with vandalism. It's quite a shame that people have resorted to vandalism because that is NOT the answer. However, with that being said, I'm hoping that once the banks see how ruined everything is it will cause them to rethink how they are running their business. I doubt that will happen, but one can hope right?

Oh and that $70 that La Caixa Catalunya took from me? Still gone with the wind. I spent another 2 hours arguing with them again last week. Then they sent me to BBVA, another bank here in Spain, who also wouldn't help me because I'm not a "BBVA client" and sent me back to La Caixa Catalunya. At this point I was told to fill out a complaint form. Would it surprise you if I told you they made me walk 4 blocks to make a copy of the complaint form for which I paid almost a dollar for 2 copies? True story. When I finally handed in my "official complaint" the guy told me it would take at least 2 months before they looked at it. Say what! On my way out I kindly asked him not to lose my paper because it was important. He responded by joking with me like "hey lady, what kind of ship do you think we're running here?", at which point I told him that he REALLY didn't want me to answer that question. To conclude this bank nightmare, someone might want to give TD Bank a heads up on the verbal smackdown they will be getting from me the second I get home. Pelotudos... todos.

Perhaps my favorite photo from the day is below. Translation: "the means (i.e. government, media, etc.) lie, the walls speak [the truth]".

Interesting right? I'm not done yet! Although I haven't been feeling well since returning from France (my body is seriously terrible at handling climate changes) curiosity definitely got the best of me as I went walking after work to the center of Barcelona where all the protests were happening. It didn't take long before I ran into thousands of people in the streets. One of the most lively streets in Barcelona, Passeig de Gracia, was closed completely and was flooded with people waving flags for Calatunya and for CCOO (the confederation of labor unions in Spain), marching with signs, playing music, shouting chants, the whole nine yards. Not to mention every 5 minutes or so you would hear a cherry bomb or some other means of explosion go off. I was handed several flyers and even a newspaper in protest of the current Spanish government.

The protests were all really very peaceful, although the amount of police in the street would indicate otherwise. On my walk home almost every other corner was occupied by blue flashing lights from police vans. Every street that leads to Passeig de Gracia that occupies at least 10 blocks of the city was also closed. Plaça Catalunya, Plaça Urquinaona, and Plaça de Jaume  were also closed. If you look at a map you'll see that we are talking about a huge chunk of the city being occupied by people walking in the streets protesting. Public transportation was running "servicios mínimos" today. They were open from 6:30 to 9:30 am and then 4:30 to 8:30 pm. Everything was also only coming every 20 minutes instead of every 5 minutes like the normal schedule.

Everything is all over the news. In fact, I think I may have been on TV at one point because I did walk behind a reporter! Celeb status!!

Anyway, I find this whole protest very interesting. On one hand you have the Spanish government saying this general strike was a "huge mistake" if nothing else for the image it gives off to the rest of the world. On the other hand you have all of the people and the unions protesting against their government and the injustices they have suffered most recently and calling it a success. They are fighting for better economic conditions and less corruption within the top financial tier. Obviously, I'm only telling you what I know. There's much more to the story, pero no soy española así que no te puedo decir todo because I don't know everything that's currently going on. All I know is that I've never seen anything like this in the US. The entire country has practically participated in this strike, not just Barcelona. Here is a quick video that will show what's been happening today. Sorry most of you won't understand it! I found it interesting that the Ministro del Interior basically said that there hasn't been any huge incidents and that the arrests and injuries that took place so far were part of the normal happenings during strikes. Umm... I'm glad to say though that Barcelona was very peaceful and handled the strike like a strike should be handled.

Lastly, I wanted to point out that many of the people I came across protesting today in Barcelona were actually protesting against capitalism. All of the flyers and newspapers I was handed said the same, although I couldn't read them because they are all in Catalan. I feel like the people are protesting against capitalism because they truly don't know a capitalistic system that actually works, such as the one that we have in the US. Granted, our system is flawed in many ways, but overall I would say it is more fair than any other system I know, financially speaking that is. I have traveled quite a bit, and I would definitely say Americans have much more financial liberty than people in any other country. I wonder how people from Spain would react to our tax system. It may certainly not always be fair (although I think it gets as close to being fair as you can get), but it works much better than the VAT system they have going on here in Spain. I mentioned this a few posts ago, but to reiterate, the sooner the VAT is gone, I think the quicker Spain can get back on track. A few states in the US actually use the VAT (value-added tax), but the majority do not. Why? Because it doesn't work as well as our traditional income tax. The VAT is just one issue in a very complicated economic position that Spain is in currently, but taxes are the main driving force behind the Catalan independence ordeal and at this point it shouldn't be ignored. Today we saw the labor unions starting to make a push for a better economic process. The starting point is the government. We'll see if anything comes to light from this demonstration.

Les diré sobre mi viaje a Francia en la siguiente :-) Hasta entonces!