So the Spanish like to go on strike every once in a while, and this year September 29th was one of those times. The "huelga general" or "general strike" was planned well ahead of time, and everyone, including the government knew about it. I want to first off say that, despite Spaniards' fondness for going on strike (and other Europeans' too for that matter - the French went on strike yesterday), they are pretty peaceful about it. There were a few less than peaceful incidences on the news, but aside from that, they mainly seem to want to skip work and attempt to get their point across (however effective that may be).
Either way, businesses were closed, some banks were closed, Spanish newspapers didn't go to press, and practically every mode of transportation experienced delays or cancellations. People started gathering to protest a little after midnight and stuck with it for the next 24 hours. About 70% of the working population participated, apparently. I had class that day, but since I live about 3 miles from school and could never convince myself in a million years to wake up an hour early just to walk to a 9:30 class, I stayed over at some friends' apartment the night before (they live about ten minutes from NYU). However, I decided to risk it and take the metro home (trains were running at I think 20% their normal frequency during non-peak hours), and got to the platform just as a train was arriving. Success! I don't really know if the strike itself was a success...everything pretty much just went back to normal the next day.
Anyway, I thought this might be interesting to share since we don't really have general strikes in the US. If you're interested in reading a bit more, this article can give you a better idea of what went on.
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