VAGA GENERAL 10 BARCELONA

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VAGA GENERAL 10 BARCELONA

Postby ionnsaigh » Sun Oct 03, 2010 1:49 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnnX97EHvq8

Sendero Luminoso and I, in the front line - No Pasaran.
Last edited by ionnsaigh on Tue Oct 12, 2010 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: VAGA GENERAL 10 BARCELONA

Postby ionnsaigh » Fri Oct 08, 2010 2:03 pm

Now let me think....when was the last time that our Trade Unions, had the balls .. and power.. to call a General Strike ?
Nineteen Canteen.. hell for the first time in my life - I was, ( if not preplanned ) involved in a national strike.. exciting times.
The first thing of any real difference, happened the night before, the elevator had a notice tapped on it's skin, it explained that the general strike would cause some distribution, and that they - the hotel ...would endeavor to maintain services.. in French Catalan, and English. Great stuff I thought - as we bade that day farewell.
We had a top floor room.. which offered views to the hills.. these mark the western boundaries of Barcelona, with views sweeping down eastwards to the med. They have a motorway ring road that passes the hotel.. this road has in all Twelve lanes - Six in either direction.. chock a block is a word that springs to mind, ( too many times spent in gridlock on the M8 ) However the hotel was modern.. and the sound insulation thankfully worked, so it wasn't until I drew back the curtains, that I noticed the effect of the strike. The motorway had been miraculously transformed from a fume spitting snake, to that akin of a country lane.. well not quite.. but you catch my drift. :D
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Re: VAGA GENERAL 10 BARCELONA

Postby ionnsaigh » Sat Oct 09, 2010 1:55 pm

Non antagonistic contradictions

This mornings weather was clear blue skies, the temperature gauge crept by 18 degrees Celsius by 8AM. I noticed to my surprise a public bus on the road below, followed by two distinguished Black and Yellow Barcelona cabs. I turned on the TV to catch a brief on the news networks. This told a number of things, the Power Workers and the TV Journalists and those concerned with the water supply, where working. Coverage mainly concerned picket lines set up along motorways with burning barricades, and the picket of some Industrial Giants... As we left the hotel that morning, and in an act of solidarity with the workers - I attached the - please do not disturb sign on the door. We comrades must stick together.

First things first ,as Ive previously stated.. we were totally unprepared for the strike, I had seen the words Vaga painted along some walls in the city ( I thought it was some radical vegan type lot ) anyways we needed fags coffee and some kind of transport to the beach. We had walked the distance the day before, and it turned out to be a grueling Three Hour slog ( although interesting it was however very draining ) After a fairly short walk of a couple of miles, we stumbled upon a wee district perched on the hillside... with a open cafe and cigarette machine... wonder of wonders sorted.. two birds with the one stone.We sat at the counter, the place was busy with locals smiling and laughing, joking about today's strike, with the cafe workers - they may have owned the small business who knows.. anyway the guy pulls out a big knife.. and the girl, a baton from under the counter .. both laughing and gesticulating. The small supermarket across the street was also open, as another couple of taxi's flew by.
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Re: VAGA GENERAL 10 BARCELONA

Postby ionnsaigh » Sun Oct 10, 2010 3:29 pm

We hailed a cab on the main drag, the driver seemed pleasant enough, he explained that some of the roads had been blocked by the police - and that if we pass strikers - then we shouldn't be surprised - if they throw paint at the side of the car.
( Great I hope so, I thought ). We passed various groups of strikers from some way off - they used horns whistles and fireworks - to create one hell of a racket, and make their presence felt, anyway the car was doing over Sixty Kilometers per hour - sweeping down the city streets - exciting times. Although I could never understand why someone would work during such an important time, perhaps the rosary beads and the crucifix, complete with dead Jesus lay in the answer. I watched the beads swing hypnotically from side to side, thinking fascist bastard. On saying that he received a handsome tip... as we two strike breakers descended into Chaos and Anarchy.
Up the Workers.
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Re: VAGA GENERAL 10 BARCELONA

Postby ionnsaigh » Thu Oct 14, 2010 4:58 pm

Stepping out from the relative comfort of a air conditioned scab cab, my senses are assaulted by both noise and heat. It was a little after 9AM and the gauge showed 23C, a group of around 50 strikers began to gather outside an apartment store in the city centre, they had red flags and where blowing whistles ( they looked like civil servants ) they successfully managed to close the doors within minutes. They covered the windows and doors with green stickers ( the type that's difficult to remove ) Some sat down outside the entrance, the local TV station was on hand to record the event. We made our way down La Rambla, we noticed that most of the restaurants had decided not to serve people outside, chairs and tables ( potential missiles ) where conspicuous, only by their absence.
Sendero decided to walk through the Gothic Quarter with it's many small shops, the owners where standing guard outside, with one hand on the metal shutters, and an ear to the ground, ready to shut shop at any given notice.
A disturbance occurred further down the street, a tall black man was arguing with another group of strikers, and it was coming to blows ( my cigarette was knocked out my hand, as the black guy pushed a striker ) this upset me - and I began to remonstrate with him - when Sendero held me back... I reckon the guy was a north African, who failed to realise the history of the trade unions, in Spain and Catalonia. Nevertheless he was a arsehole. On to the beach...
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Re: VAGA GENERAL 10 BARCELONA

Postby ionnsaigh » Sat Oct 16, 2010 12:37 pm

How amiss of me, I have concentrated on things that have appeared diminished - on the opposite side of things, I could not help but notice, the huge piles of cardboard and litter, that appeared on the streets that morning - I assume that the strike started at midnight.... Just goes to show how efficient and effective the Barcelona cleaning service is, oh and they employ Women as well as Men to empty bins, equal opportunities - take notice district councils.
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Re: VAGA GENERAL 10 BARCELONA

Postby ionnsaigh » Mon Oct 18, 2010 12:03 pm

La Barceloneta - is a small thriving working class neighbourhood of Barcelona, it lies close to the shores of the Med, with railway and ports nearby. This area was badly bombed during the civil war, largely by the Italian Fascist Air Force, and the German Condor Legion. Civilian targets were deliberate, costing thousands of deaths, so the area has a long history of working class resistance - it was hardly surprising that on the day of the vaga general the place was closed for business ( apart from one or two shops )

From the beach, we noticed that huge ships had been begun queuing up about two miles off the coast, the dockers were out ,and in the last three hours, only two aircraft took off from the airport. Helicopters buzzed the clear blue skies
( mentally I flicked them away like fat, blood gorged mosquito's ) the distant sound of sirens - mingled with the crashing thumping waves.

Time to join the fray.
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Re: VAGA GENERAL 10 BARCELONA

Postby ionnsaigh » Tue Oct 19, 2010 5:37 pm

Absolute chaos, incidents are happening all over the city, we made our way towards the noise,
( what we thought was a demonstration march ) Groups of heavily armed riot police, littered every corner, people are being arrested all over the place - doorways and foyers are full of police and detainees - large litter bins ( car size ) are lying on their sides wounded - their unwanted guts spewed out on the streets. Heaven I thought....
By this time I was pretty well embroiled, I was shouting at some policeman, who were being a wee bit over enthusiastic, with their batons - on the heads of children ( 16yr circa ) The police who had the guns, began firing indiscriminately into the crowds - they would shoot - then take some cover behind a partner with a riot shield.. so it went on. I always imagined that their would be some battle lines drawn during civil disturbances - this wasn't the case, although we would be on the barricades later that afternoon.

VAGA VAGA GENERAL... the cry went up. :D
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Re: VAGA GENERAL 10 BARCELONA

Postby ionnsaigh » Thu Oct 21, 2010 1:03 pm

As we made our way up the road the air was heavy with acrid smoke - the large trash containers are on wheels - full to the brim and hey presto - you have a portable burning barricade - some of the junctions had been blocked by strikers, while others by police. We passed a burning police car near Catalonia Plaza, as you can imagine it attracted lots of press attention. The banks appeared to be a major target ( one wonders why ) some had the glass windows broken, whilst the ATM machines had been damaged with spray paint and those sticky stickers. The banks had all been painted with slogans mainly Vaga. We reached a junction at Passeig de Graci,
police vans had been charging up and down the road in pairs - eight vans a time - the cops would get out and fire a few shots - then arrest a couple of stragglers ( one had to be on the tip of ones toes ) It became clear that the police where provoking much of the violence - I turned and to my surprise - saw Sendero throw a lump of concrete at one of the passing vans - unfortunately it missed by a few inches - however my aim was slightly more accurate - I lobbed the missile, hitting the roof square on - after that I began booting passing vans. I found myself in the front line taunting the police - along with the young masked guy in the video. If you listen closely to the audio tracking you can hear me speaking to Sendero, and shouting to a fireman, who was about to douse a fire - oi oi oi oi.
Scottish revolutionaries on holiday. :lol:
The End.
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