1st May: Alternative Demonstration

Members of the Barcelona student movement formed part of an alternative May Day demonstration which unified anti-capitalist activists against the current crisis.

Unlike the main demonstration, which is protagonised by the unions and ends in front of parliament, the alternative march took a route through the working class Raval neighbourhood and ended in Rambla del Raval (at its centre). As well as students, the block was composed of unemployed workers, squatters, immigrants and other militant anti-capitalist organisations. There were approximately 5,000 demonstrators.

The march started in Plaça Universitat with a performance of a television-headed preacher calling a heard of zombies (also dressed as nurses, construction workers, prostitutes, etc.) to worship money (in the form of a giant cardboard Euro and the effigy of a business man). At the end of the march the Euro and the effigy were burnt in front of the ostentatious Barceló Raval Hotel, which presides, with armoured windows, as a symbol of ruling class arrogance in the poor neighbourhood.

The march begins to arrive in Rambla del Raval, the Barceló Hotel can be seen on the left

Slogans such as “Against the Capitalist crisis, class war!” and “It's going to end! Social peace is going to end!” were shouted. Although there were no altercations with police, a number of banks and hotels on route were vandalised with smashed windows and “RAGE” painted on them.