"Toma la calle" - Campings and protests throughout Spain

I'm not sure if any of you all have read about it, but there is some real political unrest happening all over Spain right now. Since 15 May, in almost every city, Murcia included, there have been campsites set up where people have literally been sleeping in the streets to demonstrate their discontent with the state of the government, the economy, high enemployment, and a handful of other grievances. Below is a posting that a friend shared with me from a website she found:

The day has come,
We have taken the streets for a true democracy now
The day, when the citizens have decided to meet and join their voices
The day, when we have covered the streets with a clear message
WE ARE NOT SAFE IN POLITICIANS AND BANKERS HANDS
And the message took the streets across the whole country
And the streets celebrated that day as the first day that we have taken a true change.

A change depends on YOU, on ME, on ALL OF US:

young people, elderly people, workers, unemployed people.

The Media won’t silence our voices any more because we have seen we are REAL people,

just as the DEMOCRACY we are demanding.

There is no excuse
HISTORY is looking at us and it is our turn to make a movement

We are ready to CHANGE:
Change Injustice into justice
Change Corruption into responsability and dignity
Change Outrage into action

Today, May the 15th, 2011 has been of something unstoppable
The true Democracy of people who consciously choose their path
True democracy who chose consciously the way
We are demanding a true democracy, now
Are you thinking that you can´t do anything?
To accept your responsibility is to take the challenge
Be a part of the necessary change for a world which will be as you want it to be.
Democracy is your choice. Use it.

There are Twitter feeds coming from the camp in the Plaza del Sol in Madrid and the Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona, where things have sadly gotten a little out of control this past week. Up until Monday, all of the protests had been very peaceful and there were no problems with local authorities; that changed when the police (dressed in riot uniforms with barricades and nightsticks) in Barcelona cleared the Plaça Catalunya, using force when the seated protestors refused to move. Here's a link to a Youtube video to see what's happening there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqXHOe7FrL8

I hope things remain peaceful here. I wanna go talk to people and get more opinions on what's happening and how people are feeling. When I was in Zaragoza and Barcelona last week (that I'm just realizing I forgot to blog about - damn.) my roommate Keyla and I went to the camping that was going on there with Rubén, the guy we CouchSurfed with.

The whole plaza went silent as people held up their hands.

People chanting and singing

I find the whole thing fascinating. It´s really cool how people of all ages --I´ve literally seen families with young children, elderly couples and everyone in between-- are simply trying to make their voices and their concerns heard. I´m thinking of doing interviews and turning this into my senior research project for my Spanish degree.

They´re calling it a Spanish Revolution. They´re saying that they´re making history - and they just might be.