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AFP. 15 March 2002. Barcelona braces for EU summit protests. BARCELONA -- Riot police lined Barcelona's famed Rambla avenue on Friday, and fighter jets prowled the skies, as Spain confronted the double threat of anarchist riots and terrorist attacks during the EU economic summit. More than a dozen protests -- some well-organized, others more ad hoc -- were scheduled in Spain's biggest Mediterranean city, ahead of a major demonstration Saturday. In the first reported acts of violence, Barcelona transit authorities said burning tires were thrown Friday onto the tracks at Can Boixeres subway station in the south of the city, causing a one-hour delay. They also said nails were thrown onto bus lanes at various locations. Some 8,500 police are in the Catalan capital, many of them bused in from other parts of Spain, where the EU heads of state and government are meeting at a convention center five kilometers (three miles) from the city center. The venue is sealed off with high chain-link fences, and guarded by police with armored cars and attack dogs. The Spanish air force has sent F-18 fighters to overfly Barcelona, backed up by a E-3A AWACS radar plane on loan from NATO and a battery of anti-aircraft missiles at the city's airport. On Thursday, some 100,000 workers marched through the city center in a loud, colorful but disciplined demonstration organized by Europe's biggest labor group, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). ETUC chiefs met later Thursday with EU leaders and Europe's main employers' groups, and urged them not to sacrifice hard-won workers' rights as the European Union liberalizes its economy. On the Rambla, the elegant avenue that runs up from Barcelona harbor, police were seen Friday spot-checking IDs of young people they suspected might be planning to take part in a demonstration -- while ignoring the many British and US tourists ambling by. Items on the protest menu Friday included three separate bicycle demonstrations, a rally against political lobbying, the painting of a mural supporting Zapatista rebels in Mexico, and a symbolic "burial" of the euro. Many left-wing political activists consider the European Union, including the single European currency, as a Trojan horse for big corporate interests. In the city's Genoa square, demonstrators also planned a memorial for Carlo Giuliani, an Italian who became the first fatality of the anti-globalization movement. He was fatally shot by police during the Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italy last July. Many of the demonstrations in Barcelona are being organized by a coalition of about 150 groups called the Campaign Against Capitalist Europe, which is led by the Spanish branch of the protest group ATTAC. Its strategy favors smaller events in various neighborhoods, thus attracting more support from local citizens -- as well as more concern among the authorities. "What bothers us the most is not what's expected, but rather the unexpected," a Spanish interior ministry spokesman said. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
