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bananas

(27,509 posts)
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 08:07 PM Mar 2013

Hundreds of thousands march against austerity in Portugal

Source: Agence France-Presse

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Lisbon and other Portuguese cities Saturday to protest against the government's austerity measures aimed at rescuing the debt-hit eurozone nation.

The rallies were organised by a non-political movement which claimed 500,000 marched in the country's capital and another 400,000 in the main northern city of Porto. There have been no official estimates of the crowds.

But the mood of the crowd was clearly political, calling for new elections with banners declaring "Portugal to the polls!" and "If you fall asleep in a democracy, you wake up in a dictatorship".

Another banner showed a picture of centre-right Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho with the caption: "Today I am in the street, tomorrow it will be you."



<snip>

Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20130302-hundreds-thousands-march-against-austerity-portugal-0



Also see http://www.democraticunderground.com/12526053
11 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Hundreds of thousands march against austerity in Portugal (Original Post) bananas Mar 2013 OP
Good luck. One World Government is here blkmusclmachine Mar 2013 #1
What's with "austerity measures aimed at rescuing the debt-hit eurozone nation" starroute Mar 2013 #2
I read this in the paper this morning......... socialist_n_TN Mar 2013 #6
I guess that's media in this increasingly neo-liberal world Cal Carpenter Mar 2013 #7
K&R! Fire Walk With Me Mar 2013 #3
Capitalism doesn't seem to be working too well in southern Europe. Comrade Grumpy Mar 2013 #4
Capitalism doesn't seem to be working too well anywhere anymore. n/t fasttense Mar 2013 #5
The actual background dipsydoodle Mar 2013 #8
It wasn't a propensity to spend their homes fasttense Mar 2013 #10
That was true of some but not all instances. dipsydoodle Mar 2013 #11
In the US: we just go shopping. nt Earth_First Mar 2013 #9

starroute

(12,977 posts)
2. What's with "austerity measures aimed at rescuing the debt-hit eurozone nation"
Sat Mar 2, 2013, 09:56 PM
Mar 2013

There are at least two lies in that sentence -- that Portugal's central problem is debt and that austerity can, or is even intended to, rescue it.

The pro-austerity spin in that sentence trashes everything that follows, giving no explanation for why people are actually taking to the streets and making it seem as though they just have an inexplicable fear that their country is turning into a dictatorship.

Horrible, horrible, horrible reporting.

socialist_n_TN

(11,481 posts)
6. I read this in the paper this morning.........
Sun Mar 3, 2013, 01:07 PM
Mar 2013

(it must be some sort of wire service report), I thought the EXACT same thing. But this is par for the course for the capitalist owned MSM. I've come to expect bullshit like this from the mouthpieces of the PTB.

Cal Carpenter

(4,959 posts)
7. I guess that's media in this increasingly neo-liberal world
Sun Mar 3, 2013, 06:58 PM
Mar 2013

It's like when there are major strikes that have an effect on shipping or transportation, most articles and reporting are focused on the impact it has on 'business'. No matter that workers are getting screwed and organizing and fighting back.

Thanks for pointing it out.

dipsydoodle

(42,239 posts)
8. The actual background
Sun Mar 3, 2013, 07:53 PM
Mar 2013

to the woes of both Portugal and Spain is the collapse of their construction industrys and real estate markets. The root cause of that was American financial institutions capitalising on the propensity of US citizens to "spend" their own homes.

 

fasttense

(17,301 posts)
10. It wasn't a propensity to spend their homes
Tue Mar 5, 2013, 06:01 AM
Mar 2013

It was out and out fraud.

The banks admitted it and Obama got his DOJ to make an extra special deal with all the banksters.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-zuesse/obama-foreclosure-settlement_b_2170927.html

Banksters conned, forged, manipulated and altered documents so home owners appeared to be eligible for loans that were way over their heads. Loans the banksters knew they would default on. Loans that had no real documentation to support them.

You can thank the dancing supremes for this. Besides picking the worse president in history of the country in 2000, the 9 robed junta made it so that money could buy politicians. Now if you can con, manipulate, cheat and steal enough money you too can be forever safe from prosecution if you bribe a few judges and politicians. That's how America works.

dipsydoodle

(42,239 posts)
11. That was true of some but not all instances.
Tue Mar 5, 2013, 06:34 AM
Mar 2013

What I wrote was not intended as a criticism of those who were defrauded. The aggregate issue was caused by overall re-mortgaging where no change of home was involved - running up debt then remortaging to pay it off in an endless cycle.

Similar circumstances arose in the UK with the mere existence of non status mortgages - mortgages where confirmed ability to repay as a function of income was discarded as an underwriting criteria. That's been clamped down on now and I would assume the same has happened your side too.

Another time bomb sits around as we speak. Many now have low interest mortgages the payments for which would not be sustainable in the invevitable future increase in interest rates.

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