Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Central Madrid on Fire

Mule Foreign Correspondents | 02.03.2008 15:13 | Anti-racism | World

With just days to go before the Spanish general election, anti-rascist campaigners fought running battles with riot police in Central Madrid this Friday, building huge burning barricades and entirely gutting several banks, after the local PP (rightist) council allowed 'Combat Espana' and other fascist groups to gather in Tirso de Molina square, traditionally Madrid's most leftist area and now home to much of Madrids immigrant population.
Mule reporters were on the front lines with a camera and a bottle of beer to bring you this report....

Fuego
Fuego


Photos:

 http://theplatform.nuevaradio.org/index.php?blog=4&p=652

With just days to go before the Spanish general election, anti-rascist campaigners fought running battles with riot police in Central Madrid this Friday, building huge burning barricades and entirely gutting several banks, after the local PP (rightist) council allowed 'Combat Espana' and other fascist groups to gather in Tirso de Molina square, traditionally Madrid's most leftist area and now home to much of Madrids immigrant population.

As a few hundred fascists met in Tirso de Molina at 8.30 (29th Feb), chanting various slogans relating to immigration and growing unemployment, waving Nazi flags and rather predictably making Nazi salutes, surrounded by several hundred police, 1000's of immigrants from the Lavapies district and anti-fascist campaigners gathered in protest. Emotions were running high both on account of an increasing number of fascist attacks against immigrants and leftists in Spain and what was seen as an act of total provocation by the cities right-wing council, in allowing fascist organisations to march and gather on the edges of Lavapies (a barrio in Madrid with the largest immigrant population, and most associated with left-wing politics), and specifically in Tirso de Molina a square with historic left-wing connotations, where anti-capitalists and anti-fascists gather every Sunday to man stalls, exchange campaigning materials and chat.

This is the latest provocation from Esperanza Aguirre, the Mayor of the Madrid region, and a high-ranking party member of the PP (conservative party), who is widely seen as sympathetic to far-right causes. Pre-Election debate has become increasing focused around immigration. With the Spanish economy slowing down and unemployment rising, the right-wing Partido Popular has been taking a noticably harder-line than previously, calling for much tougher immigration controls, and the ruling PSOE (socialists) responing with accusations of 'xenophobia'.

The fascists arrived early in Tirso de Molina to find their meeting point entirely covered with anti-rascist graffitti. After an hour or so of calm, police began to fire rubber bullets and tear gas to hold back the anti-fascists (blinding one campainer), then chaos ensued and huge burning barricades were built to block all the street entrances to the Lavapies district, as the anti-rascists fought running battles with riot police, in the La Latina area and near Plaza Mayor (the tourist district). While the two groups were successfully kept apart by police, several banks were destroyed inside and out and cars set alight, leading to a potential political headache for local politicians and questions being raised about the march being given the go-ahead.

More reports and pictures below...

 http://news.aol.com/story/_a/spanish-police-break-up-clash-between/n20080229190409990009
 http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D943591F-1C4A-4129-A6C3-096FDEDBDE46.htm
 http://www.mapmagazine.com/madrid/Riots-in-Lavapies/
 http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L29492025.htm
 http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0301/breaking5.htm
 http://www.lahaine.org/index.php?p=28349
 http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanza_Aguirre

Pictures:

 http://www.elpais.com/fotogaleria/Disturbios/Lavapies/5189-6/elpgal/
 http://theplatform.nuevaradio.org/index.php?blog=4&p=652

Alex Sand, Mule Madrid Correspondent

Mule Foreign Correspondents
- Homepage: http://www.themule.info

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech