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Spanish State

“Democracy kidnapped!”, “Government resign!”

Monday 22 October 2012

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These two manifestos are those of the initiators of the 25th of September demonstration — Coordinadora 25S and Plataforma ¡En Pie!. For an assessment of the importance of the day of mobilisation see Massive mobilisations against austerity.

Manifest of Plataforma "¡En Pie!"

September 25, we encircle Congress. On 25 September, the people will be sovereign!

We are ordinary people, tired of suffering the consequences of a system conditioned and constrained by the markets, which in all respects cannot be sustainable and renders us victims of a huge scam called the “crisis”. We unite to compose this manifesto and invite all citizens to join our claims.

We consider that the situation has passed all tolerable limits, and believe ourselves to be victims of an unprecedented attack of economic power that uses the crisis as a pretext to ruin our lives. The culprits are those who, with the complicity of all the political forces represented in Parliament, have constituted this untouchable oligarchy that manipulates all the powers of the state to maintain its privileges and its inordinate and illicit enrichment.

Today, it is no longer possible to conceal this gigantic social fraud, created from the systematic betrayal of election commitments and non-judicial punishment for the guilty bankers, politicians and big bosses. We see how the corrupt and immoral structure of power establishes policies endangering our rights and our lives, and how we suffer unjustifiable repression when we request a change.

We believe that the problem is of such magnitude and that these roots are so deep that the solution cannot come from reforms based on the current political system and this is why we demand:

 the resignation of the government in place and the head of state, as well as the dissolution of the Assembly, because of their premeditated treachery which led the country and all the citizens into disaster.
 the opening of a democratic constituent process, to draft a new constitution with the participation of all citizens, so that it belongs to them, because we recognize no democratic character in the current constitutional text, written without the involvement of the citizens, dedicated to the domination of the heirs of the Franco regime and of those who made the pact with them. It must be the people that determine the model of social organization in which they want to live, and not the reverse.
 the audit of Spain’s public debt, with a moratorium on payment until it is clearly determined which parts do not have to be paid by the nation because they have served private interests using the country for their own purposes and not those of all citizens. We also demand the trial of all persons suspected of such manoeuvres, and the confiscation of their property if convicted.
 the reform of the electoral law for a new election process that truly represents the will of the people in each election, this being necessary to facilitate the development of a democratic process.
 the immediate cessation of all budget cuts and all the reforms which are contrary to the welfare state because they cause a restriction of the rights and freedoms of citizens: taken with the excuse of crisis, they are not only a disaster for the country, but increasingly they have been imposed by betraying the will of the people.
 a deep fiscal reform that would mean those who get most of society’s benefits paying the most. We also demand the repeal of the tax amnesty decreed by the government, whose injustice is a real fraud on honest citizens.
 the removal of all the privileges of those who have political or public responsibilities, and the establishment of effective mechanisms for the control of the performance of their duties.
 the immediate cessation of all housing evictions, and the making available to the population, at the price of social housing, of housing belonging to banks and funds that have been helped with public money.
 the creation of new jobs whose first condition is the sustainability and whose goal is human development. Thus, the coherent management of jobs should be carried out so that everyone can work for a living. The fact that we are forced to work still more is a huge deception, supported by the greed of major interests and contrary to the interests of most people.

For all the above reasons, we call for the citizens to assemble on September 25, 2012 outside the gates of the Assembly, for an unlimited demonstration until the resignation of the Government and the opening of a constituent process, through the unity of all the struggles for a fairer society.

“We are the majority, we are the people, we are right, and we will not allow you to pass!”


Manifesto of the Coordinadora 25 S

Democracy has been kidnapped. On September 25 we will save it. On September 25 we will surround the Congress of Deputies to save it from a kidnapping that has converted the institution into an unnecessary entity. A kidnapping of popular sovereignty carried out by the Troika and the markets, and executed with the consent and cooperation of the majority of political parties. Parties which have betrayed their electoral programs, their voters and all citizens in their promises and have contributed to the increasing impoverishment of the population. We will surround the Congress after more than a year of intense mobilization in all sectors of society, and after having verified that it is not democracy when institutions that supposedly represent act in interests that are not those of the majority.

For we have nothing to discuss with a regime that has been shown consistently to be blind, deaf and dumb to just demands for equality and social justice. We surround it to save politics from an unsustainable and predatory economic regime: the capitalist system.

We surround the Congress because we want to make a leap forward in social mobilization and we want to highlight the objective of recovering sovereignty and citizen power, that is, recovering democracy. We have created many processes of control, spaces of participation and discussion in social networks and in the streets, in neighbourhoods and workplaces, and we have started initiatives we want to continue to develop starting from below, without shortcuts and little by little. We believe that the time for decisions made by a small restricted group is over, because, against those who want to deprive us of our future, we have the means and collective intelligence to decide and build the society we want. We do not need false intermediaries, but resources and collective tools that actively encourage the political participation of all in affairs that concern us all.

We surround the Congress on 25 September to say no to those who tell us, to say that we disobey their unjust taxation, to pay their debt, and we defend our collective rights: housing, education, health, employment, democratic participation, income. To begin a process that means those responsible for the crisis no longer go unpunished, that the pyromaniacs who caused our crisis are not rewarded and begin, on the contrary, to be judged.

On September 25 we will demonstrate around the Congress because we want to retrieve the responsibility for our future without constraints. We endeavour to say to those who have kidnapped democracy that the time to leave has come, and to demand the resignation of this government in the first place, because we’re going to replace it by creating a constituent assembly. This assembly will start a participation process which is direct and open, with which we will identify and create the political institutions, participatory tools and judicial and political mechanisms we need to ensure that collective decisions are totally effective. This process starts, but will not end, on September 25.

To save the Congress is to launch an invitation to the unity of other social movements, such as the struggle of public employees for the defence of public services, the different “tides” and other struggles for equality and social justice. To save the Congress is to refuse to accept the fear, powerlessness and disorientation resulting from the submission of politics to the economy and its consequences - fascist, xenophobic, racist and chauvinistic. And to save the Congress means look for a way out in common.

We encourage all those who wish to accompany us to surround the Congress on 25 September, to say “enough!” and continue this way to save democracy and sovereignty.

We want rights, democracy, justice and freedom for everyone. We are getting there, we are not afraid.
See you on September 25... and beyond!