The entry into prison of Pablo Hasél for a nine-month sentence for exalting terrorism has been the trigger for the numerous protests that this week have taken place in Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid and other Spanish cities, which have ended with violent clashes with police. But the outbreak of the demonstrations, carried out mainly by young people, also reveals a deep malaise and a satiety that go beyond the arrest of the rapper, the defense of freedom of expression and the influence that the most groups may exert. radicals, according to some protesters. “There is a lot of accumulated anger,” explains one of the ten consulted by this newspaper in Barcelona, the epicenter of the altercations, and in Valencia, where there have been eight detainees. Most of the young people come from groups and formations of nationalist, independence, anarchist, anti-fascist ideology and from a wide spectrum of the left.
“There is a lot of anger and a host of injustices and problems that young people suffer the most, but that extend to the rest of society. We cannot access the labor market or we have very precarious jobs, although I don’t think a 50-year-old person would have it easier, for example, ”says Alex Cantón, 24, a graduate in Political Science, a master’s degree in Cooperation, who earns the life as a Just Eat delivery person. He has participated in the two concentrations in Valencia, together with Babacar Diagne and Juan Antonio García Ruiz, his fellow student.
“I am 27 years old and have no prospect of being able to leave home and have a vital project. I’ve worked as a waiter, in a clothing store, and even had a one-day contract. There is a lot of exhaustion and not only because of the year of the pandemic, which also affects everyone, ”says Juan Antonio, along with a hundred young people who were waiting last Friday for the detainees to leave in the demonstration on Thursday in the City of the Justice of Valencia. Both are active in the youth groups of the Poble Valencià Initiative, the party of the Valencian vice president, Mónica Oltra, who is a member of Compromís, which has publicly denounced the police charges as disproportionate.
“We come to the protest, but Hasél is one more excuse. We protest for the evictions, for the defenseless and unprotected people, for the years of repression that we already have. The incarceration has only been the straw that broke the camel’s back ”, denounces Laura, 40, shortly before the protest on Friday in Barcelona. She is dedicated to the world of business communication. Rubén, 36, to the field of technology. He does not want to give more details: “It is the breeding ground in which we live and more so with the pandemic. People have lost their jobs, for months no one has been able to demonstrate and express that this does not work and a boy comes and sings something that is true and they imprison him ”, says Rubén.
In Barcelona, many protesters decline to speak to EL PAÍS. The independence protests have their own means. And a certain reluctance has penetrated in front of the state-level media that, demonstration after demonstration, are victims of a proclamation repeated by a chorus that usually surrounds those who, for example, enter to make a direct: “Manipulative Spanish press”. Of those who speak, almost none give their surname. They all justify this search for anonymity in the “fear” that the Mossos would associate them with the altercations, the destruction in ATMs and shops and the burning of containers and furniture in the Catalan capital. There have been numerous injuries and arrests. Last night, protests continued in Barcelona
Anthony Corey Sànchez is a History student born in Honduras 23 years ago, but who has lived a large part of his life in Sabadell. He is proud to have occupied the 63rd position on the JxCAT list for Barcelona in the last elections. “There are jailed political prisoners, activists, rappers … On the other hand, nobody says anything about the ex-military who said in a WhatsApp chat that they want to shoot millions of people [el ministerio de Defensa ha llevado el caso a la fiscalía] or the barbarities that journalists like Federico Jiménez Losantos say every day, ”laments Sànchez.
Between two crises
“Estem fartes” (we are fed up) was the banner of the concentration on Tuesday in Valencia. It was summoned by Arran, among others. Núria Martí, a 25-year-old historian, works as a waitress and is the national spokesperson for this “youth organization of the pro-independence left of the Catalan Countries”. “Young people born after the 1990s, between the 2008 crisis and the pandemic, we have precarious jobs, if we do; we live with evictions of neighbors and our reality has nothing to do with the promise of the welfare state that if you make an effort you will get where you want, the fallacy of meritocracy ”, he points out. “We have no future and they have the audacity to ask us to be peaceful and not throw away containers,” he adds.
“I prefer not to tell you my name because I am one of the nine from Lledoners”, confesses a 28-year-old in Barcelona. The nine are accused of placing objects on the road to prevent the transfer of the imprisoned independentistas from the Lledoners prison, near Manresa, to Madrid to attend the trial of the procés. The prosecution requests penalties of up to seven years in prison for them. “Hasél’s arrest is just something else. We are here every night for dignity. It is the lack of democracy in which we live. It cannot be that the political parties override the will of the people ”, he laments.
Oriol is from Cornellà, he is 24 years old and studies History. “Independence will do us no good if we create a republic that replicates the lack of democracy in which we live,” he warns. His classmates Edu and Marc nod. They believe that the pressure from the parties is not enough. “Social changes are only achieved with the fight in the streets. We have already held too many quiet demonstrations. History shows us that changes are not achieved alone ”, explains Edu.
The two graduates in Political Science modulate their discourse but point in a not very different direction. “Violence provided after a police chase is justified if you have to protect yourself. We do not justify violent acts against people or local businesses, but if they attack you, you have to defend yourself, ”says Juan Antonio. They consider that Spanish democracy is representative and has many deficiencies in justice, for example, or in the power of the elites. “There should be no problem talking about them to overcome them”, Alex adds. “Media tension, individualism, inequality and conformism” contribute to the situation, they coincide, while criticizing those who achieve a very precarious job and conform, without defending their rights and, therefore, those of others .
source https://pledgetimes.com/there-is-a-lot-of-anger-and-a-host-of-problems/
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