Happy to credit if anyone knows the source on this.
Several thousand protesters rallied in Lisbon, Portugal this past weekend, objecting to severe austerity measures, with parallel protests taking place in Spain. Subsequently, I'm seeing photos like the one above (see also here and here) tweeted by activists, like here by @OccupyWallStNYC.
The hashtag for the Portugal action is #olixoaosbancos but the original, in Spanish is #TuBasuraAlBanco. Yes, let's all dust off those Spanish lesson synapses together, shall we?: Your garbage to the bank.
Poking around for an explanation I find the site of what the New York Times calls "a new activist group cum performance troupe known as Gila." Gila, named for the Spanish comedian Miguel Gila, explains that the tactic is rooted in a targeted protest action aligned with a November 2012 garbage worker strike in Madrid.
The message is clear enough: If there is money to bail out the banks but no money for garbage workers, let the banks deal with the garbage.
As other cities have dealt with garbage strikes and harsh austerity measures in general, #TuBasuraAlBanco has spread. Admittedly it might be hard to know the difference between a pile of garbage at a bank and any other pile of garbage given how quickly garbage strikes can get out of hand, but it's a poetic gesture nonetheless.
Bonus: Even though on first listen it sounds like the music for the video in the Gila entry was made for this protest, it turns out "Basura blanca, basura Banca" by Sindicato Del Crimen, a rap metal band from Madrid, pre-dates the action (but seems generally sympathetic with the politics?).
As ever, any further insights you can share are appreciated.
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SimpsonsWKRP did it!Dr. Johnny Fever:
I'd say we could do that same tactic with all the children left uneducated to pay for yet more military adventurism and weapon-based penile enhancement, but I'm afraid that having a mass of ignorant people to shove into uniform fits the GOP playbook too nicely. After all, if they don't know anything, they won't question whether we've always been at war with Eastasia, or if 2 plus 2 really equals 5.
People should be reminded that with all the money poured into the military our troops were under-protected when they went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And if our government is going to hire mercenaries at $1000 a week, they should at least pay our troops the same.
I think the better caption would be
"Austerity Stinks!"
LOVE this. Perfect.
I can think of a few more appropriate protests when it comes to the banksters, but "if my thought dreams could be seen" Newsvine would "stick my head in a guillotine."
I get the applicable tokens of appreciation for the garbage workers' strike. But I need to know if this is becoming a cultural trend. I mean, are people protesting our National Parks when they do things like this? --> http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/07/san-francisco-park-mob-fourth-of-july.html I'm not sure I'm getting or that they're sending the correct message. (And I'm having a difficult time fitting in with the new kewl.)
I'd wager a dozen diabetic needles and a mixed bag of chemicals that not one bank executive had to help clean up that mess.
It was nice Rev. Al you mapped the GOP brain. But you need to check that the GOP brain is actually functioning and actually has a soul there. First check to see if that GOP brain is in a comma state. And second make sure that GOP brain isn’t actually dead. Is there any actual life signs there?
This is genius. Think of all the things that could be delivered to the US Chamber of Commerce.
I think that there can be another tagline for this protest: "You're only worthy of managing our trash". Might as well work.
I hope that's a major pile of used Depends.
Portugal, dears..not Portual.
Can we do that to the Congress?
Think they'd get the hint?
I know it's old fashioned, but I recommend rotten tomatoes. Biodegradable is the only Earth friendly way to go. Plus, tomatoes are good for healthy heart function.
It seems Germany is tired of floating money to them. They need to find additional sources to finance their government. Maybe people who feel strongly about it should buy Spanish and Grrek bonds. That way, you would be able to show you really care and you could back it up by proving you think they are a good investment.
"O lixo aos bancos" = "La basura a los bancos."
"They need to find additional sources to finance their government"
It was the private banks that tanked the Spanish economy, not the government.
Truck drivers used this tactic on a 5 mile stretch of highway in Jackson Mi. when the police were ticketing them unfairly. The highway looked like a dump with all the trash thrown out the windows of moving trucks.
This tactic could be used on retailers that sell junk. Take the crap back and throw it in there parking lots.
That's brilliant. 100000000 pounds of rubber dog @!$%# imported from China that falls apart within a few weeks (i.e. everything Walmart sells) dumped into their park lots and stores instead of our landfills. And they would have to pay overtime to their workers to clean it up instead relying on the government to take care of it.
Talk about justice.
has anyone here figured out that this is coming to america if we don't change drasticly quickly. lets do some fun math. the us government is not a living person it can roll over debt into pertpatuity. this means that 1k borrowed 30 years ago at 7% interest can be rolled over at 1-2% today. that means $70 of interest payments drops to 10 or 20. that is why our current 16 trillion in debt causes only 450billion in interest payments today almost the same as in 08. but, as rates increase the interest will rise too, much like an evil arm mortgage. the only solution to this problem is to pay down debt or go on austerity or print so much money that prices go insane.. see gas prices.
you've been warned
Well, the "printing money" option is being pursued, paying down the debt is impossible since this would require some form of "budgetary restraint", and I'm not sure American political parties are for austerity "Portuguese Style" at all. So that leaves not so much room for operation.
If all is for naught, people at the least have become creative geniuses, one way or another our voices will be heard above the rest.
Trash removal is a great example of a service better done socialized. I live in a small city and have 2 to 3 trash trucks a day going thru my alley when it should be 1 truck per week.