The Return of the Indignados

Tens of thousands of protesters have gathered in Madrid to mark the first anniversary of the indignado (the indignant or outraged) movement. A year ago, the "indignados" pitched tents and occupied town and city squares across Spain for weeks. Yesterday and over the next few days they will be defying a government that has pledged to stop it re-occupying Madrid's Puerta del Sol square and reclaimed the streets. In Barcelona at least 45,000 people also took to the streets. Other protests took place in Bilbao, Malaga and SevilleThe clampdown on protests comes after a year in which unemployment has risen to 24%. One in two Spaniards under the age of 25 are out of work. "This is a long-distance race, no-one can change an entire political system in one day or one year, it takes time," Noelia Moreno, a former spokeswoman for the Indignants movement in Madrid. "...the situation is much worse now, so we need to keep fighting to get things better and that's why we are here today," said activist Ana Pancorvo.

Capitalism has once again shown that it cannot meet people’s needs properly. The Indignado movement is united in its outrage against grotesque social inequality and in its desire to bring an end to the dominance of a tiny minority over the will of the majority. As austerity measures are tightened on people everywhere political democracy has become increasingly an empty shell. Most people are aware of this but what has been called apathy is really more resignation or fatalism. This is why we can only welcome any sign of people beginning to realise that present-day society has nothing to offer them and to think about doing something about it. The Indignado and the Occupy movement are a sign of spreading unrest. Perhaps it and the Occupy movements and the Arab spring movements may lapse into a preoccupation with trying to patch up aspects of the existing society and so become mired in futile reformism. But what should be encouraging for socialists is just the evidence that people can change: they can cease to take for granted what they have accepted so far, they can develop critical attitudes to what has previously been unquestioned. The key, of course, will be whether the protest movement can involve the rest of the working class and organise to take democratic control of the whole of social life.