Spain rises up against austerity

Trade union led mass protests were held in over 80 Spanish cities and towns on Thursday evening. Hundreds of thousands protested as Parliament approved a further €65 billion of austerity cuts and tax rises. "The new cuts harm the weakest sectors of society without one single measure that involves any effort by companies and the highest earners," said the CCOO Spain’s largest union confederation
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/20/us-spain-protests-idUSBRE86I1HZ20120720

Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, CCOO General Secretary sets out the background to the protest on the TUC Stronger Unions blog: ‘the new austerity plan presented on 11 July by the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, is an unprecedented blow to workers’ rights, to the unemployed and to civil servants, to the founding principles of our constitution and to democracy itself. The measures will have an impact on society, on the economy and on the labour force, but the government is playing with fire’
http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2012/07/they-want-to-ruin-spain-and-we-have-to-stop-them