A PressTV video reveals the sheer weight of the economic upheaval in Spain. Spanish coal miners are protesting against such harsh austerity measures, which are slashing jobs and causing even more instability in the country. You might say there is a war going on in northern Spain at this moment. Will Spain be the next Greece?
There are thousands of coal miners, some say as many as 30,000, that are losing their jobs due to cutbacks of government subsidies, and the miners are collectively taking it to the streets. The activists staged a miners march from Asturias to Madrid, walking some 270 miles of road, with the temperature reaching up to 95 degrees. They arrived on the outskirts of the capitol in the early part of July, to spread their message. If you listen to the EuroNews video you can hear the concerns of the people.
The miners had been on strike since May of 2012.
One marcher replied: “Our goal is to stop the cuts and to force the government to give what belongs to us. We are not isolated. We are the miners of Asturias, so we are talking about 3,000 people.”
Another miner articulated: “There is an interesting saying — When the rich steals from the poor, it’s called business. When the poor defend themselves it is violence.”
There had been a proposal to cut subsidies to unprofitable mines by 2018, but the government wants to speed up the process as early as next year.
The Spanish miners have even fired rockets in clashes with police. The miners have blocked some roads with barricades.
The end of mining in the region could mean the end of the region itself. “Only idiots would leave the country depending entirely on foreign energy,” one protester remarked. “The only energy resource we have here is coal.” And if the coal mines are shut down, Spain will be required to buy the coal from another country, probably Germany or Poland.
Spain’s unemployment rate is around 22 percent. Can Spain be saved? Can the Euro be saved?
