Huelga General 14N

Today is the third general strike in Spain since I started living here. Three general strikes in a matter of only a little over two years. And that doesn't include all of the other protests, public transportation strikes, airline strikes, air traffic controller strikes, multi-month camp-outs in Madrid and Barcelona's main squares, etc.

One of the various ads for today's strike.

Seeing as I'm obviously not a Spanish citizen and my future isn't dependent on this country's economic or societal well-being, I don't really feel right in expressing my feelings in detail on the topic of the general strike. Don't get me wrong - I have a very strong opinion on the issue, but I only feel justified in saying this: based on the past strikes and the current one, the 24-hour general strike doesn't seem to be a very efficient way of going about finding or working towards a solution for Spain's current problems. (Spain, by the way, is not the only country responding to the current crises by means of strike - Greece, Portugal, and Italy have also been going on strike, although I couldn't tell you to what extent.) In my personal opinion, attempting to halt the economy for 24 hours really doesn't seem like an effective or responsible way to respond to what the Spanish government has been doing lately (or, perhaps better said, what it's failed to do lately). I get the irony - but it's irresponsibly counterproductive.

It's definitely an interesting time to be in Spain. Unfortunately, I'm still pretty certain that things are going to plummet further before they start to look up.

29-M

Well, I'm definitely not in the running for the best blogger of the year award; I'm so far behind that there are things I did way back in February that I still haven't talked about. I've even got a Post-It note on my desktop with a list of things I need to write about. Oops.

Today, I will recollect on a wonderfully annoying thing ever so common in Europe: the general strike. I should preface this post by saying that I do support a country's people fighting for their rights, better work conditions, etc. I think it's important to be politically involved, even if it means just being aware of the problems facing a country's government and economy. What I don't really understand, and therefore have a difficult time supporting, is the ways in which some peoples go about fighting for solutions to these problems. While I don't know a whole lot about politics or the Spanish government, I really don't think that having a general strike is an effective way of speaking to the government. For one thing, when the economy is really suffering, unemployment rates are rising, and salaries are lower than most of the other countries in Europe, how does skipping work for a day (and therefore a day's worth of pay), closing down privately owned businesses, or reducing services to "servicios mínimos" prove a point? All I feel that does is hurt the economy and affect your fellow citizens.

Protesters in the Plaza del Sol on March 29th, 2012. Photo from El Pais

But this isn't meant to be a rant about how the Spanish people go on strike to make a point. What they do for their own patria is their business, regardless of whether or not my American attitude agrees with it (and whether or not I get annoyed by the metro running at 30%, just for example). And I do think that it's a good thing that the Spanish people want to be so involved and want to fight for their rights, particularly when it comes to employment. Anyway, mainly I just wanted to mention the general strike last month on March 29th. Spain's unemployment rate is up to 23%, roughly 3.5 million people. Nearly 50% of Spanish youth (I'm not sure if that's people under the age of 25, or 30, or what) are unemployed. Needless to say, Spain is in trouble, and because of that, last December the country elected a new prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, from the Partido Popular (People's Party) after eight years with José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). Since then, Rajoy has been working to try to get the government and the economy more on track, including several labor reforms that would greatly affect employment for many. Recent changes include laws that would make it easier for employers to fire their employees (who, for example, don't perform up to par; something that was very difficult before), freezing or cutting salaries, and reducing severance pay.

So what does this general strike mean for politically and economically ignorant people like myself? Servicios mínimos, for example. Across the country, those who decided to go on strike stayed home from work and went to demonstrations to protest. Public services, such as public transportation, the postal service, etc. either reduced services to 30% or shut down completely for 24 full hours. I actually had no trouble getting to work on time (I got lucky and didn't have to wait long for either of the two metro lines that I take in the morning), but I heard stories of people who waited 30-45 minutes for a metro, or waited for just as long for a train that never came.

Anyway, if you want to read more about the general strike on March 29th, here are some articles that are sure to be more informative and eloquent that my own post:

CNN
NY Times
The Guardian

Huelga general del 29 de septiembre

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.