BABYLON’S BURNING

Well not really, compared to Kreutzberg on May Day, or Belfast most weekends, the rioters in Barcelona are lightweights. 

But then again only the poor bloody infantry were put into the field today: the garden variety trade union shouty types, whitey-dread crusties and old hippies. There was no sign of the hardcore Black Bloc elite anarchists.

There were a lot of firecrackers, whistle blowing and half hearted shouting but when the more adventurous fancied a bit of agro the police clamped down fast and hard. The particularly brave, or stupid, received an old school pelting with baton rounds. (That is going to hurt in the morning.)

At 8.00 o’clock everyone knocked off and went home for dinner. It was rather amusing that the strikers / protesters were moaning that they had to wait longer than usual for a train.

Spain’s general strike and day of protest, which had been well flagged up in advance, turned out to be a bit of a non-event. 

There were attempts to block roads during the morning rush hour, but everyone just had a bit of a lie in and a long breakfast before dandering into work around 10.30.The Metro and buses were running, albeit with a reduced service, and the big stores were open for business.  

Apart from the odd Belfast-style street barbecue (quite nostalgic driving over burnt tarmac) and a few scuffles most people went about life pretty normally. The riot police are becoming a tourist attraction. Only the small shops seemed to really suffer.  

Given the scale of the economic mess in Spain it is hard not to have some sympathy with the frustrations of unemployed, but you have to wonder what this achieved except to inconvenience those trying to get the local economy back on its feet.

Despite the graffiti and posters, recent elections have demonstrated that the protests do not have popular support and trying to wreck the joint is not going to make them any more friends.