Following the mass, peaceful, anti-austerity demos across Spain on February 23rd, I noticed a far more militant call to mobilize from the platform that organized the September 25th protest of 2012 which saw protesters attempting to surround congress violently charged by riot police. Will provide my best translation of the flyer below and document realized by organizers.

“We will not continue playing by your rules, our patience is up. We have lost fear & will change the rules of the game. The rules this time are set by the people.”



The call to “Besiege Congress” which you can find its original Spanish version here. (Can also find the facebook event page here where some 2,500 people have already joined)

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Date: April 25th

Place: Around the Congress of Deputies.

Time: To be Announced.

Duration: Indefinite (Until the objectives are achieved).

Primary Action: Siege and definitive liberation of the Congress of Deputies.

Secondary Actions: Scattered Autonomous actions that impact the ruling power (always within the margin of human rights).

Objective: The fall of the regime (resignation of the government, dismissing Congress and the head of state), and the opening of a transition process to make a new model of political, economic and social organization truly based on justice and solidarity.

Just as we announced this passed December [https://plataformaenpie.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/convocando-a-la-rebelion/], from the platform ¡En Pie!, original organizers of the action “Occupy Congress” and therefore initiators of the movement 25S, we make a new appeal to society for a call to popular rebellion, that will continue the movement started last September 25th.

A small group of ordinary people can propose an action like this, and a single person can create the event from a computer, but this proposal will only be realized if everyone of us wants it to happen. When last June we brought forward the call “Occupy Congress”, the proposal was met with unprecedented support. We expected the fighting spirit to fade away, it has become stronger, and this time there are even more of us involved in it. For our part, with the appeal to action that this time can be an inflection point in the history of this country, and with the pledge and commitment to do everything in our hands to make it so, we call upon people all across Spain to travel in large numbers to Madrid next April 25th, and surround the Congress of Deputies, carrying out the main action of maintaining siege until forcing the resignation of the government, the dissolution of congress and the head of state, & starting a transition process to make a new model of political, economic and social organization based truly on justice and solidarity.

At the same time, we invite those who are interested, to organize themselves in small affinity groups to carry out, both in Madrid as in the rest of the country, secondary actions that affect control centers of the ruling power, such as occupations, blocking highways, thereby supporting the main action around congress & complicating the work of the regime’s oppressive forces, Creativity to Power!

From the platform ¡En Pie! we invite everyone to take up this action, whether from organizations or as an individual, since it can bring together all demands for which we’ve been struggling for in the streets. And because we believe that through this appeal we can channel all the outrage and all the pain that we are living through as a society, and transforming this suffering into dignity and in victory for the people. This is an appeal with a defined character, with a clear insurrectionary spirit, that can be joined freely by whoever feels affinity with it. We don’t seek to unite under any single organization, nor seek to recruit, replace, lead, subordinate, or to control. Our intention is to coordinate with respect for differences, heterogeneity, and autonomy of different approaches by groups and individuals, therefore, we demand the same respect given to Platform ¡En Pie! and the spirit of the appeal.

We want in this appeal to make a special consideration to the community of woman, with whom the system has been especially malicious. We consider it essential that women step forward and exercise leadership so that this revolutionary process is done on equal footing, women and men, shoulder to shoulder, struggling for a shared objective.

Accordingly, we encourage all individuals and groups to organize themselves with respect to individual responsibility, and respect the different forms of struggle, always within the margin of human rights, having considered the consequences of each decision on everyone else who is present there.

For our part, we position ourselves in favor of legitimate self defense before the brutality of the regime, and we promote solidarity among protesters, resisting the tactics of manipulation by political power, that with its repressive laws will construct a police state with the aim to intimidate, control and stop protests. We should lose our naivety, the enemy to beat is strong and without qualms, but now we’ve gained experience that before we did not have. we have seen it happen, we have suffered its beatings, we prepare ourselves, we learn to defend ourselves.

we remember that the objective of this movement isn’t to protest, to give pity, or awaken compassion. The objective is to achieve a real change, the liberation of the people, definitively, taking the reigns of our destiny. And this effort demands the utmost. In this sense, as we already said on more than one occasion, we will not force anything that as a society we aren’t prepared for, however, neither will we prevent anything that the people gathered decide, because we don’t want to foster a controlled dissent in any way.

In any case, regardless of the personal option of each person, we are clear that there’s a place for everyone in this struggle, so that we can help do away with the cruel, current regime, and build something that as a society we can feel pride in.

Beyond the borders of our country, we want to expand this call, to send a message of support and to propose unity to the brotherly people of Europe, that just like us, are living in incredibly difficult moments. It is imperative that we make a common front of resistance to the capitalist dictatorship, the struggle will only be won together.

Will be the desire, determination and strength of the people that decides if this new mobilization is the definitive date or yet another battle in this war between rich and poor, in which we are forced to fight, and that we are certain that we will win sooner or later.

Find your place, organize, and come!

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Video of the september 25th protest that was brutality set upon by police, an action that has clearly radicalized the movement and an action, I suspect, the police will come to regret as the 25th of April approaches: