La Huelga General

"Huelga es en el aire, no?"

That's what my professor said as he entered the classroom this morning. He was referring to the Huelga General (General Strike) that was planned for today, and he was right--you could feel it in the air. 

As I walked to school this morning, I strolled past empty streets with closed restaurants, coffee shops and stores. Thousands of people not only in Seville, but all over Spain did not go to work today as a demonstration against the government's recent economic policies. They instead marched through the city, demanding ratification of those economic policies. 

The cafe where I sometimes eat lunch near my school closed today due to the strike

The front gates to the University of Seville
The University did indeed close today due to the strike--all classes canceled (including mine!)

After my class I wandered through the city in hopes of finding the location of the demonstrations. Needless to say it wasn't difficult. By this time there were hundreds of people walking in the streets with red flags. So, I just followed them.

I ended up in Plaza Nueva, which is where the city's town hall is located. There were already hundreds of people gathered there with flags, signs, balloons, bull horns, and whistles. They were chanting, singing, and all around just being noisy with their whistles, drums, sirens, and oh yeah--smoke bombs.

The smoke bombs sounded like canons going off (and scared the crap out of me every time)
I actually had a bit of a headache after hearing them for an hour

It was really a sight to see. Normally the streets are so relaxed and calm, everyone just taking a stroll through the plaza. But today the people were highly energized, active, and quite angry. Although I did not see any violence today in Seville, there have been reports around the country of police-protester violence and other incidents in larger cities such as Madrid and Barcelona. (My Señora closed her small jewelry store for the day out of fear of the strike--she thought that the union members would vandalize her store if she didn't close for the huelga, and she did indeed have good reason to think so).

Seeing the strike actually made me think of Madison quite a bit. The feeling of intense activism and engagement that I have so often felt in Madison made me think back to other demonstrations I have seen in the States.

As I was standing in the plaza watching the crowd, I suddenly felt a slight uproar in the level of excitement. I had heard that the demonstration was to begin at noon, and as I glanced at my watch that read 11:59, I understood why. Then the bell tower of the town hall rang, and the crowd began to march.

They marched from Plaza Nueva to la Avenida de la Constitución,(a main road in the city) to el Palacio de San Telmo, which is the building that houses Junta de Andalucía (the institution which organizes the self-governing region of Andalusia).

El Palacio de San Telmo

The healga was pretty amazing to watch--young people, old people, moms and dads all participated. And something about seeing the scenes of demonstrations against the backdrop of classic Seville buildings was incredible.What's more, I always like to watch a good strike, with people running to the streets to stand up for their rights!

If you would like to read more about the strike, here's some more background information:

From El País, a major Spanish newspaper:
La Huelga General 2010 marks the seventh general strike of democracy in Spain. Unions estimate that 10 million workers did not go to work today. 



From BBC:
A general strike has begun in Spain and protests are planned in Greece, Poland, Italy, Latvia, Ireland and Serbia.

Many governments across the 27-member bloc have imposed punishing cuts in wages, pensions and employment to deal with spiralling debts. In Greece and the Republic of Ireland unemployment figures are at their highest level in 10 years, while Spain's unemployment has doubled in just three years.

In Britain the government is planning to slash spending by up to 25% in some areas, while France has seen angry protests against a planned increase in the minimum retirement age.
The union warns that the financial crisis - which it describes as the worst in Europe since the 1930s - has already made 23 million people across the EU jobless. It fears that the austerity measures being implemented by various EU governments could "result in even more unemployment". 

Listen

Read phonetically

The Union urges governments to guarantee workers stable jobs, strong social protection and better pensions.