A "European Day of Action and Solidarity against Austerity" on Nov. 14 marked the first time strike action has been held simultaneously across four countries. General strikes were held in Spain and Portugal, with widespread stoppages Greece and Italy. Large solidarity demonstrations were held in several other countries, including France and Germany. In total, 40 trade union organisations from 23 countries were involved in the mobilization. In Spain, the General Workers Union (UGT) and the Union Confederation of Worker Commissions (CCOO) claimed 70% compliance with the strike. After nightfall, violence exploded in Madrid, as police fired rubber bullets to disperse protestors. Strikers erected barricades on several streets, and garbage bins were set on fire, filling the downtown area with smoke. Street clashes were also reported from Lisbo; more than 100 were injured and some 140 arrested across both cities. Brussels also saw violence, after eggs were thrown at the Geman embassy. The continent-wide day of strikes and solidarity was organised by the European Trade Unions Congress (ETUC). (Europa Press, Europa Press, Euronews, Euronews, Euronews, Nov. 14)

Angry protests exploded throughout Jordan on the night of Nov. 13, after the government announced an increase in fuel prices. Demonstrators burned tires, smashed traffic lights and blocked roads in several cities, as riot police responded with tear gas.  In Dhiban, a city of 15,000 south of the capital, Amman, protesters burned pictures of King Abdullah II—defying laws imposing a prison term for criticizing the king. In Salt, which has been a focus of popular discontent, protesters destroyed two cars outside the prime minister’s home, which was empty. And in Amman, thousands filled the circle outside the Interior Ministry near midnight, chanting, "Revolution, revolution," and "The people want the fall of the regime"—slogans made famous in Egypt and Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began. The fuel price hike is part of an effort to close the country's growing budget deficit and secure a $2 billion IMF loan. (RIA-Novosti, Nov. 14; NYT, Nov. 13)

Hundreds of thousands of indignados—"indignant ones," as econo-protesters call themselves in Spain and Argentina—filled the streets of Buenos Aires and other cities in the South American country Nov. 8 to protest the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The main focal point was the capital's iconic Obelisk Plaza, which was occupied by multitudes beating on pots and pans (cacerlazo), and chanting "We are not afraid!" Protesters opposed rising prices, corruption, and a proposed constitutional reform many fear will allow Fernández to hold onto power indefinitely by ending term limits. By popular consensus, the only banner at the protests was the national flag—to emphasize that it was an action of Argentines and not political parties.

After an all-night session, Panama's National Assembly agreed Oct. 27 to repeal Law 72, which approved the sale of land in the Colón Free Trade Zone (ZLC)—responding to nine days of strikes, protests and riots that began in the Caribbean port of Colón and spread to the capital, Panama City. Thousands of vehicles clogged the capital's main arteries, immobilized by protest roadblocks. The Unitary Syndicate of Construction Workers (SUNTRACS) and allied citizens' group, the Frente Amplio Colonense, rejected government offers to increase the amount of money from the land sales to be directed into social programs, insisting the sale be cancelled altogether. "We are not participating in any type of conversation until the entire law is revoked," said Felipe Cabezas of the Frente Amplio. Three were killed in the nine days of protests, including a 10-year-old boy, as police repeatedly used tear gas against demonstrartors who fought back with bricks and sticks.

Two were killed and over 100 injured—including 50 police officers—in riots that caused damage worth millions of dollars in the Peruvian capital Lima Oct. 25. The riots broke out when police blocked the entry of delivery trucks into the city's giant wholesale market, La Parada, which was ordered closed by the administration of Mayor Susana Villarán for not meeting safety and hygiene standards. Violence spread to the nearby industrial zone of Gamarra, where a police post was attacked with Molotov cocktails and ransacked, and shops and factories quickly closed their gates and halted operations. Some 5,000 police have flooded the district.

By a 13-2 vote on Oct. 17, the Honduran Supreme Court of Justice (CSJ) ruled that Decree 283-2010, the constitutional change enabling the creation of privatized autonomous regions known as "model cities," is unconstitutional. The decision confirmed an Oct. 3 ruling by a five-member panel of the CSJ; the full court had to vote because the panel's ruling was not unanimous. The "model cities" concept was promoted by North American neoliberal economists as a way to spur economic development in Honduras. The autonomous zones, officially called Special Development Regions (RED), would "create hundreds of thousands of jobs in Honduras," according to Grupo MGK, the US startup that was to manage the first project. (Honduras Culture and Politics, Oct. 17)

Wow. We called out Obama's Peace Prize in 2009 as Orwellian, but the Nobel committee have now sent the irony-meter into full tilt. An appropriately exasperated commentary in Spain's El Diario, wryly titled "That Which the Nobel Prize Calls Peace," states: "The Nobel Prize goes to a European Union being ruled for the banks and financial power, at the expense of the increasing asphyxiation of the people: In Spain the misery index has already reached 26.4%... In Greece, operations are being denied to cancer patients who have lost their health coverage and cannot afford treatment. There are growing cases of diseases such as tuberculosis. Public hospitals limit the supply of vital medicines, and are denying care to the needy..." And the debacle that Euro-unification has become is actually causing a bitter divide in Europe—not this time between Germany and France, but between Germany and the Mediterranean nations of Greece, Spain and Portugal—where a new austerity budget sparked angry protests yesterday, AP notes. And we should probably add Italy, where students clashed with police in protests against austerity measures nearly across the country, Reuters reported Oct. 4. Greek protesters against German-led budgetary whip-lashing have been quick to recall that their country was occupied by the Nazis in World War II, reopening old wounds—even as a Greek neo-fascist movement has emerged to exploit the misery with the usual bogus populism that scapegoats immigrants, leading to a wave of violent attacks. Wow, what an astonishing advance for world peace the European Union represents!

A court in Kazakhstan on Oct. 8 sentenced an outspoken political activist to seven-and-a-half years in jail for allegedly colluding with a fugitive billionaire to overthrow the government. Specifically, Judge Berdybek Myrzabekov found Vladimir Kozlov, head of the unofficial Alga! party, guilty of inciting dissent among striking oil workers in what became a series of violent clashes between police and workers that left 15 people dead last December. The judge declared that Kozlov had turned a labor dispute into a politicized strike on orders from billionaire Mukhtar Ablyazov, a rival of Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Koslov, however, has consistently denied the charges and proclaimed that his case was an attempt by the President to quell civil protests within the country.