500,000 protestors in Madrid

[BadDog40]

A friend of mine that lives in Madrid is saying the local media is putting the number at half a million.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlu6XARYswc&feature=youtu.be

http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2011/10/15/madrid/1318668980.html

[sarcasmo]

1. Europeans know how to protest, that kicks ass.

[malthaussen]

2. That would be one person in six

Or thereabouts. I love OWS, but boy, are we behind the rest of the world.

-- Mal

[nichomachus]

5. There are reasons for that

In the European cities, there are large concentrations of working class and young people in the cities and there are large squares they can occupy. In the US, working class and young people live in the suburbs. There is no public transport. And in many places, the only "downtown" is the mall, which is corporate owned.

[gateley]

6. I was thinking that, too, but I think part of the perception

problem is just that we're so spread out across the country.

Could you imagine what it would be like if we were all in one place?

[nichomachus]

3. Awesome photogallery

The photo from Madrid is incredible

http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2011/10/15/album/1318675228_581822.html

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. WOW

[Edim]

14. Wow indeed.

The World is rising.

[BadDog40]

18. Nice!

[xchrom]

4. Awesome! Nt

[Seedersandleechers]

7. Does anyone know what they are chanting in

that youtube video?

[Throd]

10. They are chanting in Spanish.

[Tansy_Gold]

11. I think, but could be wrong

"Que no, que no, que no nos representan."

Loosely translated, "They don't, they don't, they don't represent us!" (or, rough equivalent to "THIS is what democracy looks like!")


See http://www.redpepper.org.uk/los-indignados/

[Common Sense Party]

15. We don't want them to represent us, is closer.

"That they don't represent us."

[Tansy_Gold]

16. Yes, that's a closer literal translation

English just has such a difficult time with the subjunctive. :evilgrin:

[Common Sense Party]

19. It took me FOREVER to get the hang of the subjunctive

Then, once I sort of learned it, I wanted to use it ALL the time, even when it wasn't remotely necessary.

[Tansy_Gold]

20. yeah, it's kinda cool, even in English

I wasn't absolutely sure if that's what they were chanting, though it seems likely. And I was trying to give a sense of what they were saying with a rough equivalent in English.

It's like converting the lyrics to the anthem from Les Mis: Not that they be a literal translation from the French, but that they convey the same sentiment.



TG, subjunctive fan

[progressoid]

8. Wow

Big Rec!

[BR_Parkway]

12. This is why we can't have nice things.

[nichomachus]

13. And another 250,000 in Barcelona nt

[FarCenter]

17. The Spanish started last May -- look how they've grown

Inside the #SpanishRevolution
Kono Matsu , 24 May 2011

http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/inside-spanishrevolution.html

For the last several days, thousands of Spanish citizens have occupied the central square in Madrid and demanded systemic political, economic and social change. Rallying under the battle cry of "Real Democracy Now: we are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers," these everyday people turned rebels have brought to the shores of the West the popular spirit of insurrection that has swept across the Arab world. Perhaps it is not a historical coincidence that of all the Western nations, Spain has a most unique historical relationship with Islam: the country was once part of the Islamic Caliphate, Arabic was the main language of large areas as late as the 15th century and many of its citizens have ancestors who were once Muslim. Let that be a question for future movement historians to debate, the fact remains that the people of Spain have done far more than simply transpose Tahrir onto Madrid. They have actually transformed the model of Tahrir into an even more democratic form. They have conceived of how to carry out a popular revolution in a way that will soon catch fire in the imagination of the West.

Generally speaking, the tactical insight of the Egyptian activists was the idea of seizing a public square and transforming their presence into a symbol powerful enough to topple a tyrant. To be fair, this model had been successfully used before, such as in the 1986 Filipino People Power Revolution in which two million protestors occupied the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, but the major breakthrough of the Egyptian activists was to prove that this tactic was once again relevant and that even the most highly policed state cannot stop the people if they organize themselves spontaneously. The gift of the Egyptian revolution was a sense of optimism, that a revolutionary spring has arrived in which, to use the slogan of the 9/11 antiwar movement, another world is possible.

---

And the Icelanders were before the Spanish.

[L. Coyote]

21. REC. Viven Los Indignados

***** OFFICIAL Occupy Everywhere BLOG - 2011.10.15 *****
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2122264