They carried huge banners calling for an end to funding
cuts, the government to resign and the Troika to be kicked out, and
campaigning for ‘bread, jobs and a roof for everyone’.
Some of the participants, who marched from the central
Atocha station from 17.00hrs as far as the Plaza de Colón, say their
trek through Spain had shown them ‘just how many people really have
nothing’.
Pensioners joined in the march, saying the government has ‘taken away all their rights’.
At the end of the march, journalist Olga Rodríguez and
actor Willy Toledo read out a manifesto stating that the country, now in
2014, was ‘in an extremely hard situation’, had ‘reached its limits’
and ‘had enough’, and that the conditions of Spanish society had become a
‘social emergency’ pushing them to demand a ‘collective and massive
response’ for the working-age population, society and the people.
“Millions of working-age men and women are unemployed.
Having a pair of hands to work with, having finished university, having
both manual and intellectual capacity and being unable to find a decent
and worthy job is humiliating,” the manifesto read.
It called for ‘all governments who reduce or cut out basic social rights’ and who ‘cooperate with Troika policies’ to resign.
“These governments are using the financial crisis as an
excuse – they are using it to their advantage in order to cut back on
human rights. And these cuts are causing suffering, poverty, hunger and
even death – all so that the banks and those with economic power can
continue to enjoy great financial benefits at the cost of the quality of
life, or even the life, of ordinary people.”
Although the mammoth march which represented every sector of the working-class and its allies was represented in peaceful dignity, a very small group of anarchist provocateurs began to incite trouble as their trademark 'contribution' and let
off fireworks, leading to 70 people
injured including at least seven National Police officers.
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