Spain’s indignants out again in protest at Capitalism

Spain’s “indignant” activists celebrated their first anniversary Tuesday, taking to streets around the nation to cap a four-day show of strength at the height of an economic crisis.

Tens of thousands have packed Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square each night since the come-back demonstrations began Saturday in 80 towns and cities around the country.

In the early hours of each morning, police have cleared the Madrid square of activists determined to defy the city hall and keep a permament presence throughout the night.

Madrid police, who arrested 18 people as they cleared the square on Sunday morning and two people when they did the same on Monday, said they had detained another eight Tuesday.

By early afternoon Tuesday, dozens of activists, who decry inequality, sky-high unemployment and spending cuts, as fruits of Capitalism, were holding assemblies in the square again ahead of a mass rally at night.

Madrid police estimated about 30,000 people had taken part in the first protest Saturday.

The authorities in Madrid insisted they would not allow a repeat of last year’s month-long sprawling encampment in Puerta del Sol that included everything from a canteen to a kindergarten and a library.

The movement, which relies heavily on online social networks to campaign and organise, has inspired similar protests from Britain to the Occupy Wall Street campaign in the United States.