Spain has been in the grip of a 24-hour general strike against the government’s austerity measures. The criticism of austerity measures is that they tend to pass the impact of recessions on to the poorest sectors of the population.
During the 1980s and 1990s, after currency speculators caused market crashes in predominantly Asian countries, the same speculators would come in and buy up the debt at pennies on the dollar. The IMF would then require the same countries to pay off the speculators at 100 cents on the dollar. (1)
The IMF would also impose an austerity regime on the affected countries, which had the effect of lowering living standards. The worry is that the global elite is now trying to do the same to Europe.
The wave of Spanish demonstrations is expected to spark further protests around Europe.
Here is raw footage of a Brussels’ demonstration.
Here is raw footage of street battles in Spain.
SaLuSa has commented on the wave of expected unrest:
Thanks to Steve.
Footnotes
(1) See, for instance, Michel Chossudovsky, “Financial Warfare, Part 2,” at https://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/25/059.html