All together, we can do it!

by Rocío

At the present time people from all around the world are suffering due to increases in cuts to public services and attacks on their rights as workers. This is a direct consequence of the inequalities promoted by the capitalists and the neoliberal economic system. As well as this we have seen violation of civil rights becoming increasingly common.

Around the whole world, it is possible to see how the economic system and its defendants struggle to maintain their positions, forcing workers and all those that are not part of the ruling class to pay for their greed and mistakes.

But we have also seen, during this last period, people becoming increasingly angry. In many different countries people are standing against this unjust punishment. Protests in Greece, Spain, Arab revolutions or Chile are some examples of people becoming fed up with their governments and with those institutions that control them, such as International Monetary Fund or European Central Bank.

As the economic system collapses -it is obvious that it cannot be sustained much longer- the states and their politicians pretend that things are normal in order to convince rating agencies, powerful countries and investors that everything is under control. While they are busy reassuring financial bodies that loans received to ‘save the economy’ can be afforded and that policies will be modified to balance deficits, people have been taking to the streets to demand the end of social impoverishment, where we are being made to pay for the crisis, while the rich benefit.

The different kinds of protests going on in different countries are representative of the idiosyncrasies in their societies and the particularities of the struggles they are facing, but there is a common factor in all of them: the repression carried out by the state security services.

Some suppose that the duty of police and security services in each state is to ensure the social welfare; but this is only true so long as those in power do not feel threatened. As soon as the protests -or riots- are focused in denouncing the governments incapability or even more, demanding that the rich stop looting public services, the state forces – police, armies and other security services- become the enemy of their own societies.

This is something that people may expect in countries where dictators or authoritarian regimes persist, but in Chile today, and 10 years ago in Genoa, the assassination of demonstrators show the real role of the state security services: the defence of capitalism. In Spain or even here, we have witnessed excesses of the agents of the state: provocative attitudes, unjustified detentions, violence against demonstrators or press members. These are some examples of the importance that our politicians give to keeping their status and benefits, even when they threaten democratic principles.

Fortunately we have noticed that the intention of the ruling class is to keep us frightened and to divide us in order to control us. We've gathered photos and video footage of the actions of the police, meaning we can show to the world the repressive actions that the state is willing to undertake. This makes it easier to involve more and more disenchanted people.

It is the time to unite all our strengths as workers, students, unemployed, retired, all of us. We need to organise ourselves in order to create a movement against those that want to control us and make us suffer for their benefit. It is time to say enough is enough, and keep ourselves firm, even if we are scared of the violence of their bulldogs. We are the majority and we have the capacity to defeat them. Don’t let them divide us with mistaken racist ideas or false promises. All together, we can do it.