The demonstration was organized by the Birregional Network European Union-Latin America and the Caribbean, which comprises groups from those regions and which is holding the Peoples Summit Linking Alternatives 4 in Madrid.

Several Spanish trade unions joined the protest to reject the social cuts proposed by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s administration to face the economic crisis.
The march began at 1pm with demands against the Europe of capital and crisis caused by the neoliberal model. The demonstrators marched down Alcala street to ask for the EU policies to respect the peoples’ sovereignty and human rights in Latin America.

The general spokesperson of Linking Alternatives, Alfonso Moro, said in the closing event of the demonstration that the “brutality of the crisis has to be paid by those who caused it, the transnational corporations, the banks and the states that have surrendered to capital”.

The member of the movement of Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, Nora Cortiñas, underlined the importance that “the people do not pay the debt of the rich. That debt is for them to pay, not for the ordinary people”, she said.

Photo: Radio Mundo Real