Riots broke out in Italy [2] and Greece [3] Nov. 17 as new Italian prime minister Mario Monti won a parliamentary vote of confidence in his new government. The vote was held after Monti announced new "reform" measures to address a financial crisis that he calls a "serious emergency." Student protesters took to the streets in Milan, clashing with riot police as they tried to reach Bocconi University. More than 50,000 took to the streets in Greece to rally against similar austerity measures announced by the parliament-appointed emergency government headed by Lucas Papademos, former governor of the Greek central bank. Riot police fired tear gas during an anti-austerity march in Athens. The Greek protests marked the 38th anniversary of the 1973 uprising at the Athens Polytechnic University against the dictatorship then ruling Greece, which saw many students die but led to the fall of the military regime.
Thousands of students and teachers also marched in Madrid and Barcelona to protest public spending cuts announced by the conservative coalition poised to win in Spain [4]'s national elections this weekend. "Education is not for sale, it is for defending," read the banners carried by chanting students along a major thoroughfare in the capital.
Hundreds of Spain's "indignant" protesters also marched through the streets of Madrid on Nov. 13 to protest spending cuts, unemployment and corruption, under a banner reading "Change the Model Now!" Protesters have established an ongoing General Assembly in Barcelona's Plaza de Catalunya, which is being streamed live on the website Bambuser [5]. (Radio Australia [6], Nov. 18; The Telegraph [7], Reuters [8], Expatica [9], Nov. 17; Expatica [10], Nov. 13; LAT [11], Nov. 10)
See our last posts on the global econo-protests [12].
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