Thousands in Portugal protest austerity (videos)

In yet another example of the fact that austerity just doesn't work, hundreds of thousands of Portuguese people took to the streets in around 30 cities all over Portugal on Saturday and protests will continue on Sunday.

The mass protest, probably the largest since September last year, was dubbed 2m, and will continue on Sunday under the name 3m, and is also generally known as "Que Se Lixe a Troika", or "Screw the Troika."

Organizers are estimating numbers at around 500,000 in Lisbon, with many thousands more countrywide. Some protests are also being held in other cities around the world outside Portuguese embassies.

Coinciding with a quarterly review by the EU/IMF bailout inspectors, thousands of people hit the streets, protesting the austerity measures imposed by a government which hopes to avoid the bailout, and lift the country out of recession. 

As with similar ongoing protests in Spain recently, the protests were coordinated with several different groups. In Lisbon, teachers protested outside the Ministry of Education. Healthcare workers demonstrated outside one of the major hospitals which may be closed as a result of government cuts. 

All the various groups joined together for a major protest march through the center of Lisbon in the afternoon and an estimated 200,000 people filled the Lisbon street leading up to the Finance Minister's office. 

People have had enough of the Troika, referring to the lenders from the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. Banners and placards seen in the street reading, "It's time for the government to go!" and "Screw the Troika, we want our lives back."

 Other protesters were heard to sing "Grândola Vila Morena", which is a protest song from the 1974 "Carnation revolution" which ousted the fascist dictator Antonio Salazar and brought the end of the military rule in the country. 

Apparently activists have been heckling government ministers throughout the week by singing this song when they make public speeches. The video below shows a speech by the Prime Minister in a recent plenary session, interrupted by activists singing the protest song:



Major reasons for the mass protests countrywide are cuts in public wages and an increase in taxes, which has been imposed by the "Troika" in exchange for the 78 billion euro bailout which was agreed in mid-2011. These measures have effectively pushed unemployment in Portugal to record levels of 17%. 

On Thursday last week, Portugal's Prime Minister, Pedro Passos Coehlo, promised yet more spending cuts as part of a deep reform. He says these are necessary to make lower taxes possible in future. 

However, protesters are this weekend demanding a complete change of government policies in an aim to revive Portugal's economy, as the country faces the worse recession since the 1970's. 

Veronica Pereira, is an unemployed mother who has no means to send her daughter to college. She said: "Our people have the habit of letting things happen, but I think this is changing radically now. We need to protest to change things." 

49-year-old journalist and protest organizer, Nuno Almedia told the WSJ, "We want the government out because it is pushing through a program that is only bringing hardship to the population." 

"People are desperate, seeing their incomes fall sharply, their families and friends without jobs." he added.One elderly protester in Lisbon who preferred not to give his name told Reuters, "We are in a new dictatorship. Everything that the revolution achieved is being destroyed." 

Euronews interviewed protesters including a woman, angry at Portugal's prime minister, who said, “I just want to tell Passos Coelho that I have the right to scream and show everyone how revolted I am at his incompetence, mediocrity and dishonesty – at everything.” 

Another man told the news service, “If the government pays attention to what is happening and understands that the people are against them, they should get out. If not, this wont stop.” 

Reuters quoted one of the protesters, Fabio Carvalho, a movie-maker, as saying, "This government has left the people on bread and water, selling off state assets for peanuts to pay back debts that were contracted by corrupt politicians to benefit bankers."

 "If not today, things have to change tomorrow and we need to remain in the streets for the government to fall," he added.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/344711

Thousands march in support of New York bus drivers (Video)

On Sunday, thousands rallied at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn and then marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to support New York's striking school bus drivers. 

Digital Journal reported on January 16 that more than 8,000 bus drivers and aides went on strike in New York City that day. As a result, some 152,000 parents struggled to find their children transportation to school. 

Due to the fact that the union is blaming New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for refusing to negotiate, the strike is still ongoing, nearly four weeks later. As part of an ongoing strike for job protections, school bus drivers, matrons, mechanics and supporters got together in New York on Sunday afternoon to march across Brooklyn Bridge. This was followed by more than 1,000 members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) rallying near City Hall.

Reportedly, city officials say it is illegal to offer job protections in contracts. The strikers are calling Mayor Michael Bloomberg “heartless” as the city prepares to open competitive bidding for new contracts. Bloomberg wishes to strip the drivers of job protections that have existed in the city for nearly half a century.

A Staten Island driver, John Scotto said, “We’re not asking for one benefit, or 10 cents. It’s simply for the right to come back to work in September.”

One of the protesters was Noah Gotbaum, a Manhattan widower raising three children with special needs, one of whom was being bused to public school. The other two take public transportation. Gotbaum said that the city is “trying to cut costs and the workers are saying, `If you want to squeeze the profits of the bus companies, that’s fine. But stop trying to lower the bids on the backs of the workers.’"

Gotbaum stressed that guaranteeing job security would lead to attracting and keeping workers with more experience. “I need and count on these folks every single day,” he said. “They’re as important to me as the teachers.” 

The event was called only two days earlier. Sponsors of the march included the ATU, New York Communities for Change, and Parents to Improve School Transportation.

The video was made and uploaded to YouTube by Occupy TVNY.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/343250

Tens of thousands march in the streets of Madrid, Spain

Angered by the latest austerity measures and budget cuts, and calling for the Spanish government to resign, thousands thronged the streets of Madrid on Saturday.

Tens of thousands of Spaniards marched on Spain's parliament in Madrid on Saturday evening, accompanied by a massive police escort, and closely guarded by officers with dog teams and in full riot gear and many police vans. The march, which was 2.3 kilometers long, was organized by the "Surround Parliament" protest group, as part of the ongoing anti-austerity protests in the country. On arrival at the parliament building, the protesters were met by an even bigger police presence, which pushed them back, using a chain of metal barricades.

As tens of thousands of jobs were lost in the third quarter of 2012, with a bank bailout a strong possibility, demonstrators have had enough. 

 

70-year-old Alan Pipo told the AP, “And now they are going to give banks a bailout, rescue them as if they were princesses." 

 

"They should be put out on the streets, just like all those families who are being evicted from their homes because they are unable to keep up with mortgage payments!" he added. 

 

Paloma Martinez, 62, said, We can't go on like this. We have a right to a public health system and quality schools for our kids. We are indignant and have no fear." 

 

At one stage, the protesters held a minute's silence, with their backs turned on parliament, showing their condemnation of the Spanish's government's policies which have caused a quarter of the Spanish people to become unemployed. They then shouted "resign" with their fists clenched. 

 

Part of the crowd also protested in front of Bankia bank, where a group has been camping out since Monday of this week, demanding a halt to the evictions that have so far affected 400,000 families in Spain

As reported on Digital Journal, earlier in the day, almost 3,000 off-duty police officers also took to the streets to protest austerity measures and the fact that their Christmas bonuses are to be take away and carrying banners stating "Police officers can no longer take it." 

 

With 25% of the country unemployed, with a staggering 52.34% of the young unable to find work, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has hiked taxes, introduced harsh labor reforms and cut spending, as he tries to persuade investors that his government can manage the crisis without a full bailout. 

 

Spain's troubled banks have been granted a 100 billion euro ($130 billion) loan facility by the 17 eurozone countries. 

 

However, some researchers say that instead of cutting spending, it might be wiser to increase it. 

 

Jerome Roos, a searcher on the EU debt crisis at the European University Institute in Florence, and founder of ROAR Mag, told RT, “The alternative is actually not to cut spending, but to invest in the economy, to invest in growth to make sure that there are jobs. And the only way to ultimately get out of this debt, is to grow out of debt and not to cut your way of debt.”

 

“Clearly things can’t continue the way they are now. Spain would do very well to heed the lessons that were learned in the past decade from three other countries - Argentina, Ecuador and Iceland - each of which defaulted on part of its external debt.”

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/335665#ixzz2AaQRGtiO