'Portugal's market has died. Banks aren't lending. Everything is blocked'

[marmar]

'Portugal's market has died. Banks aren't lending. Everything is blocked'
Jon Henley is travelling through Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece to hear the human stories behind the European debt crisis. In Lisbon he meets Indignados Lisboa, a growing movement of activists who say young people are in despair

Jon Henley in Lisbon
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 October 2011


There are maybe a 20 of them, sitting cross-legged on the grass as the shadows lengthen across the Príncipe Real gardens in Lisbon. A graphic designer, a primary school teacher, two economists, a photographer, a business intelligence analyst, an antique restorer, a tourist guide, aged from their mid-20s to their late 50s.

This evening they're debating the main event of the weekend: Saturday's demonstration and march through the Portuguese capital, finishing with a "people's assembly" in front of the parliament building. What happens after that, they're not quite sure; Lisbon's last major protest parade, in March, saw 500,000 people take to the streets.

Indignados Lisboa, inspired by the Arab spring and the 15M movement in Spain, brings together people from all backgrounds: "Some are students," says Luis Alves, a 30-year-old freelance graphic designer and one of the movement's members. "Others took part in the 1974 revolution, and are sorry it didn't bring about the society it should have."

They are united by a desire for change. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/oct/12/indignados-lisboa-europe-on-the-breadline

[formercia]

1. Beware of false Prophets

"Others took part in the 1974 revolution, and are sorry it didn't bring about the society it should have."

This is one of the problems with Revolutions, The old leadership manages to create the 'new' leadership.

Meet the new Boss, same as the old Boss.

[xchrom]

2. recommend

[OneGrassRoot]

3. These two excerpts sum up the shift we need to make globally:

in my opinion :)

"We believe that the people really do have the power," continues Alves. "People think someone else will fix this, but we have to. The people who are supposed to find solutions, our elected representatives, clearly aren't. We have to show we're not merchandise in the hands of bankers and businessmen."

The movement's aims are ill-defined ("It's normal, we're only just beginning," says Alves) but boil down, explains Pedro Murteira, a social education student, to common sense. A more participative democracy: a system that works for the good of all rather than the profit of a few.

Murteira says he hopes the crisis will lead to "a whole new way of organising our lives, and of consuming. Not a personal perspective, but a collective perspective. Because the real problem isn't the crisis, it's the system."


We can't afford rugged individualism. We must think and act collectively. What harms one of us, harms all of us.

[BR_Parkway]

5. Its interesting how every time a society has crashed, they've managed to

get back up without banks, then the banks become indefensible, then things crash again. Maybe its time for the world to be talking about the fact that there may never be enough work for everyone again, that we've reached some pinnacle and start looking at other ways to organize our lives

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. kick