anti-austerity movement in spain Anti-Austerity-Movement-in-Spain | Page 3

3.1
May 2011
which would result in the following day’s protests. [34][35]
3.1.2
16 May
3
4,000 people, according to the authorities. As evening
fell, the protesters put up a large tarp canopy beneath
which they passed out signs with the intention of spend-
ing the night. [43] Three hundred of them stayed until the
dawn of 18 May. [41]
During the day, several people gathered in Puerta del Sol
and decided to stay in the square until the elections on 22
May. Meanwhile, 200 people started a similar action in 3.1.4 18 May
Barcelona’s Plaça Catalunya, although police initially at-
tempted to disperse the crowds. That day the tag #span-
ishrevolution, as well as other ones related to the protests,
became trending topics on Twitter. [34]
3.1.3
17 May
Sol, 18 May, early morning
According to a reporter from El País, many protesters
wore carnations, imitating protesters during the Por-
tuguese Carnation Revolution. In addition, protesters or-
ganized a food stand, which provided food donated by
local businesses, and set up a webcam to provide news
The night of 17 May in Puerta del Sol
from Puerta del Sol through the website Ustream.tv. The
In the early hours of 17 May, police cleared the Puerta protesters were advised not to drink alcohol or to organize
as these acts could
del Sol square and removed the 150 people who had into groups of more than 20 people,
[43]
provoke
a
legal
police
crackdown.
camped out. Two protesters were arrested and one
injured. [36][37] In response to the eviction and police vi- The police ordered protesters to disperse in Valencia,
olence, protesters (independent of the ¡Democracia Real Tenerife and Las Palmas. During the evacuation of
YA! organization [38] ) used SMS, Facebook and Twitter the Plaza del Carmen in Granada, three people were
to call for a mass response at 8 p.m. in several Span- arrested. [41][44][45] Speeches continued throughout the af-
ish squares. [36] Large groups of demonstrators returned ternoon. The protests grew to include León, Seville
to protest in various cities, standing apart from the group (where a campout started as of 19 May [41] ), and other
in Madrid. The police allowed protesters to camp out provincial capitals and cities in Spain. Protesters cre-
in a few cities, like A Coruña, where more than 1,000 ated support groups for each campout on Twitter and
people gathered. [39] In Madrid more than 12,000 peo- other national and international networks. Google Docs
ple gathered and about 200 protesters organized into an and other servers began to receive download requests for
assembly, during which they decided to organize them- documents needed to legally request permission for new
selves for spending the night in the square, creating protests. [46] In the morning, the Federación de Asocia-
cleaning, communication, extension, materials and le- ciones de Vecinos de Barcelona (FAVB) announced its
gal committees. Previously, small businesses had pro- support of the protests in Barcelona. [47] Protesters agreed
vided a great deal of assistance with supplies, including to hold meetings between their organizing committees
food. [38][40][41] Dozens of people also gathered in front each day at 1 p.m. and assemblies at 8 p.m. [48]
of the courthouse in Madrid, where the people arrested The Washington Post covered the protests on 15 May; on
during the 15 May demonstration were being held. All 18 May, more media outlets began to publish news re-
detainees were released. [36]
ports. Among them was Le Monde, the most widely cir-
Protests and nighttime camp-outs took place in 30 cities
around Spain, including Barcelona and Valencia. [42] The
protests gained the support of some people in the United
Kingdom, who announced that they would sit outside of
the Spanish embassy from 18 to 22 May. [42] The protest
in Plaza del Sol on the night of 17 May consisted of about
culated newspaper written in French, with an article that
noted the rarity of such large-scale protests in Spain. [49]
The German newspaper Der Spiegel noted the impor-
tance of the effects of what has been called “The Face-
book Generation” on the protests. [50] The Portuguese pa-
per Jornal de Notícias reported on the protests in Madrid