heres an updated account of the madrid action... sorry for the repetition

Friendly Fiesta Spain

The anti-war movement has been building up slowly here in Spain, with the PP party led by Jose Mari Aznar have thrown themselves into the crusade with an astonishing zeal. The war is deeply unpopular here and has seen unprecendented numbers of people at demonstrations first on the 15th of February, then the 15th of March and then everyday since the war begun in earnest against Iraq.

There have been Protests every day in the main squares, outside the parliament, the American Embassy, the PP party headquaters, blocking traffic, and shouting, the normal kind of stuff. The crazy thing is the police here, who are incredible. They throw spinning flares shooting sparks into crowds to disperse them, shoot rubber bullets as if they needed to get rid of them and beat anyone they can find. They chase protesters trying to hurt them in one way or another in a kind of perverted instant justice. The protesters aren´t doing anything they can be arrested for, so it seems they need to be punished on the spot for their insolence.

On Thursday I was with a small group of people walking to the American Embassy after being repulsed from the PP party headquarters by flares and rubber bullets when we were acosted by a police van. I took out my camera (naturally, being a tourist) and the leader of the gang of "antidisturbios" told me to put it away or he would break it! A guy tried to stand up for me, saying that we weren´t doing anything wrong and got punched in the stomach for his trouble.

On Friday night I followed a demonstration towards Sol, one of the biggest central squares. Despite encountering police on the way who fired at us and forced us to change our route, we made it to Sol eventually. The square was full of people, shouting playing drums and at the worst, stopping the traffic. Suddenly without warning a group of police vans sped into the square with police firing indiscriminately at the crowd. Fifteen minutes later the square was full of police vans, fire engines and ambulances for the casualties. We were chased through the streets by gangs of police with guns shooting rubber bullets at everyone. Hours later I could still hear the bangs and smell the fires as people built barricades and burnt rubbish on the streets. The traffic was still blocked, but by the police... I don´t know what they thought they had achieved but their motivations seem obviously more political than about public order. The chaos and anarchy that the press here have been attributing to groups of “radical youths” follow directly after the panic of several thousand people running in fear of police with guns firing rubber bullets. I am surprised there haven´t been any deaths in these kind of situations and with the attitude of the police here. It is becomin really fascist... A teenager was not allowed to wear a peace sticker on his school trip to the parliament. The old people I have met in the streets are emotional and say this is how it was under Franco, or that they haven´t seen anything like this since Franco´s time. What is basically clear is that millions of people want to protest the government´s policies and that the government is surpressing this protest with violence. (Look up terrorism in the dictionary to check up on this one).

Now it is Sunday... last night there was more fighting. A huge crowd converged at Moncloa, hoping to march to the president´s house. The demonstration had been declared ilegal just hours before it was due to begin and there was widespread confusion and fear. Anyway we arrived to find a big mixed crowd which made us feel alot safer. The route to the president´s house had been blocked by thirty police vans, fences, and loads of the “antidisturbios”. The demonstration turned on it´s heels and headed into the middle of town rather than confront the police. We marched a long way back into the centre of Madrid, through a small rainstorm, and past the airforce headquarters, with Franco´s name still proudly emblazoned above the Neo-classical entrance. We passed through Plaza de España and headed towards Sol (again) it seemed to be passing off nicely, with enough people and enough “respectable” people present to keep the police at bay. I arrived at Sol without trouble, where there were speeches, music, more chanting and only the sound of helicopters and shots in the distance...

Today I have been told what happened, and things were worse than Friday. According to El Pais, the trouble started when the police intervened to stop those ubiquitous “radical youths” destroying a McDonalds. When I passed the McDonalds before the trouble begun it was already covered in graffiti and red paint, with most of the windows cracked...

A friend who was in the middle of the sounds I heard in the distance told me another version of the story. She was with a group from a local squatted social centre who have built shields out of polystyrene and tape to protect themselves and the crowds behind them from rubber bullets. They have been at most of the demonstrations and have been near the front many times using their shields. The police spotted them and intervened in the main body of the demonstration to separate them from the rest. Why they did this was unclear but it does not stretch the imagination too much to see that the police had singled out the longhairs, the squatters and the activists for a quick punishment beating. They charged and began shooting and hitting them... Chaos ensued and the streets turned into a battlefield, from about 9 pm untill 2 am.

We in Sol were pretty much unaware of this. The police were told to leave Sol by an MP of the Izquierda Unida (United Left) party and by chants of “policia asesina” (police murderers) from the crowd. They left the main crowd in Sol alone but continued fighting the demonstrators in the streets nearby.

Many people have been hurt. There was some shocking footage shown on TV recently of police hitting a girl asking them for help for her injured friend. Last night´s fighting saw 60 injured, including 18 police. I cannot imagine how the police got injured, as they are so well armed and organised. With their helmets, guns, armour, rubber bullet guns and truncheons. Fighting like military teams against unarmed citizens, the taxpayers, with a brutal zeal that has left many wondering if they are on drugs... Certainly thier fantatical aggressiveness is not the worst thing on TV, but I thought only people with turbans did that kind of thing?