Red Star Over Donbass: Madrid activists to join Antifascist Caravan to Donbass

By A.C.

Madrid, February 27, 2015: Just 24 hours after the National Police detained eight Spaniards for their involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the Madrid Committee to Support Antifascists in Ukraine confirmed it is sending a new internationalist brigade to the Donbass and has posted a video on YouTube calling for participation, either physically or through collaboration.

The activists will form part of the second Antifascist Caravan of Banda Bassotti, as they did on the first one, which was in Ukrainian lands last September. They will travel to the Donbass for humanitarian work in May.

The goal, organizers explained, is "to bring our solidarity to the people of Donbass who heroically resist the fascist onslaught" and deliver basic necessities, but also to denounce "media manipulation" and the role of the U.S. and NATO in the political conflict.

The caravan, which is scheduled to arrive on May 9 -- a symbolic date which coincides with the 70th anniversary of Victory Day over Nazi Germany – has at least a dozen volunteers from the Spanish state comprising the “Rubén Ruiz Ibárruri Brigade,” in homage to the Spanish partisan, son of “La Pasionaria.”

Some of them also traveled to eastern Ukraine during the summer, including Ramiro who, in an interview with DISOpress on his return, recounted his experience in Lugansk and described the situation in Ukraine as "an authentic medieval warfare."

At the police station, Becerra found his former comrades. But he insists they were unfazed by their arrests. "We were quite calm. I thought: I've come from a war, this doesn't scare me at all."

Shortly after the arrests VICE News spoke with Becerra and another of those arrested, Hector Arroyo, who had arranged to meet 50 others in the Puerta del Sol to protest their detentions. With them was Ramiro Gómez, a spokesman for Madrid Committee in Support of Anti-Fascist Ukraine, who admitted to having traveled to Luhansk, but only for "humanitarian work," he said. At the end of the demonstration, a Luhansk refugee woman, now living in Spain, approached us. She told Becerra that they had the "support" of the population and that "what you are doing means a lot to us." His swarthy, bearded face lit up. "We also felt this support when we were there, madam," he answered, visibly moved.

Complete story at - Red Star Over Donbass: Madrid activists to join Antifascist Caravan to Donbass

'I Will Go Back as Soon as I Have the Chance': The Spaniards Arrested for Joining Ukraine's Rebels Vow to Keep Fighting | VICE News

In Madrid's Puerta del Sol square, a small group of Spaniards waved the flag of Novorossiya, the territory once ruled by the Russian empire that encompasses swathes of modern day Ukraine. With the Russian revolutionary symbol of the hammer and sickle fluttering behind them, they denounced the arrest of eight Spanish nationals for fighting with the pro-Russia militia force the International Brigades of Donbass — the first police operation on European soil against foreign civilians who have joined the separatists in the country's conflict-ravaged east.

The men, aged between 20 and 30 and hailing from six different Spanish provinces, were arrested in the first phase of the ongoing Operation Danko, a series of swoops beginning early on Friday morning. The self-styled "anti-fascists" have since been released on bail, but charged with jeopardizing the neutrality of Spain abroad, with alleged crimes of cooperation or complicity in murders, and, in some cases, of possessing weapons and explosives.

Sergio Becerra, 30, told VICE News that he was sleeping at home that morning, about two months after his return from Ukraine, when the doorbell rang. "The next thing I remember is a group of hooded policemen who entered the house without giving any explanations whatsoever. They just asked my name and whether I had been in Ukraine." Sergio responded that he had, since he believed he had "nothing to hide." The policemen searched every single piece of furniture, but found no weapons in his house, he said, adding "that's impossible, I don't own any." They did however find uniforms and military badges the United Armed Forces of Novorossiya, the Russia-backed rebel alliance comprised of the Donbass and Luhansk People's Militias. The force aims to bring the region firmly back into Moscow's orbit; Vladimir Putin has consistently referred to it by the long-buried name of Novorossiya, breathing new life back into the notion of this Greater Russia.

At the police station, Becerra found his former comrades. But he insists they were unfazed by their arrests. "We were quite calm. I thought: I've come from a war, this doesn't scare me at all."

Shortly after the arrests VICE News spoke with Becerra and another of those arrested, Hector Arroyo, who had arranged to meet 50 others in the Puerta del Sol to protest their detentions. With them was Ramiro Gómez, a spokesman for Madrid Committee in Support of Anti-Fascist Ukraine, who admitted to having traveled to Luhansk, but only for "humanitarian work," he said. At the end of the demonstration, a Luhansk refugee woman, now living in Spain, approached us. She told Becerra that they had the "support" of the population and that "what you are doing means a lot to us." His swarthy, bearded face lit up. "We also felt this support when we were there, madam," he answered, visibly moved.

Complete story at - 'I Will Go Back as Soon as I Have the Chance': The Spaniards Arrested for Joining Ukraine's Rebels Vow to Keep Fighting | VICE News

The new exodus: 700,000 young people have left home looking for work abroad

NoBC4U Note: Coming soon to Ukraine too. Hell, it's probably coming soon to a country near you.

December 3, 2014
Santiago, Chile

When Francisco Pizarro returned to Spain from the New World in 1528, he told King Charles I of the vast material riches that were found in abundance on Peru’s shores.

He petitioned for permission to conquer the new lands in the name of the crown, and was granted governorship over a vast amount of territory as long as he succeeded in conquering it.

Hungry to get their hands on Incan gold, some 168 Spaniards joined him on the conquest.

In the first battle, the Incans lost 2,000 men while the Spanish lost only 5.

In subsequent battles against the Spaniards, Incan troops were massacred in horrific numbers due in large part to Spain’s technological superiority.

(It also didn’t hurt that the Incan empire was undergoing a civil war at the time.)

The Spaniards would go on to conquer the rest of Incan lands over the next 40 years, which included parts of modern day Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

And over the next few centuries the Spanish empire would grow to encompass a significant portion of the Americas, some parts of Africa and the East Indies.

Spain was, in fact, the greatest power in Europe during a significant chunk of the renaissance, and she had her overseas dominions to prove it.

How times have changed. Today Spain is in financial straits, and most of her former colonies are in far better economic shape.

And as the gloomy economic landscape in Europe has dried up opportunities for young Spaniards, many have started to look to South America to start new careers.

Complete story at - The new exodus: 700,000 young people have left home looking for work abroad

Spain prepares for an autumn of discontent by buying €1m of riot gear | World news | The Guardian

The Spanish government is readying itself for an autumn of discontent, spending nearly €1m on riot gear for police units as disparate protest groups prepare a string of demonstrations.

Since June, the interior ministry has tendered four contracts to purchase riot equipment ranging from shields to stab vests. The ministry also finalised its purchase of a new truck-mounted water cannon, an anti-riot measure used during Spain's dictatorship and the transition to democracy but little seen in recent years. Despite attempts by opposition Socialist politician Antonio Trevín to paint the purchase as "a return to times that we would rather forget", the ministry said in its tender that the water cannon was necessary, "given the current social dynamic".

The government's spending spree comes as groups across Spain are predicting a season of protests. "We're calling it the autumn of confronting power and institutions," said the activist group Coordinadora 25-S which has its roots in the indignados movement.

Rallies are being planned to counter draft laws by the governing People's party that would curtail access to abortion in Spain or see unauthorised protests levied fines of up to €600,000. Months after former King Juan Carlos abdicated the throne in favour of his son King Felipe VI, protests are also being planned to demand a referendum on the monarchy. In Catalonia, the push continues for a vote on independence, while the Canary Islands has said it wants to put the idea of oil exploration in the waters around the region to a referendum.

Complete story at - Spain prepares for an autumn of discontent by buying €1m of riot gear | World news | The Guardian