By Nikolas Kozloff - September 29, 2008

[Socialist Prime Minister of Spain José] Zapatero seemed to agree with [Hugo] Chavez's desire to create a more "multipolar" world in which smaller nations unite and deal with the U.S. on more equal terms. Now that Chavez has consolidated power and is extending economic and political ties not only with neighboring South American countries but also with Europe, the United States looks increasingly bereft...[I]t's easy to see why [John] McCain might view these developments with alarm. Consciously or unconsciously, he may [lump] South America and Spain together within his own Axis of Evil.

By Peter Gelderloos - July 23, 2008

When the bus drivers of Barcelona took to the picket lines under the red and black flag, not seventy years ago but just these past months, it was an occasion for excitement and an opportunity to learn about the relevance of radical syndicalism in a post-industrial world. Catalunya has a culture and history that make it a likely spot for a major anarcho-syndicalist transportation strike, but on the other hand we should not romanticize it so much to imagine it as much different from the rest of the hyper-consumerist, alienated Global North.

The story of these heroic freedom fighters against the forces of fascism.

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade was an American contingent of about 2800 volunteers who fought on the side of the Second Spanish Republic during the country's 1936 - 1939 Civil War against the fascist Nationalist rebellion under General Francisco Franco.

It's been almost two hundred years since Venezuela first declared its independence from Spain, but over the past few days Hugo Chávez stoked Venezuelan nationalism again by attacking King Juan Carlos of Spain. The spat, which could damage diplomatic relations between the two nations, began over the weekend during a hemispheric summit held in Santiago, Chile, during which Chávez called ex-Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar a "fascist." In one of his typical rhetorical flourishes, Chávez added, "fascists are not human. A snake is more human."

The primary...concern of the U.S. government in Spain was to preserve its military and economic interests. Democracy in Spain was the least of its concerns. As a matter of fact, the U.S. government would have preferred to keep both [Fascist dictator General Francisco] Franco and the...regime alive and in good health, rather than open up a democratic process with an uncertain outcome..."It will be much easier to reach an agreement with the Spanish Government to renew the military bases in that country if Franco stays in power".

Anarchist author & organizer Peter Gelderloos faces up to 6 years in a Spanish prison after taking part in a Barcelona Squatters protest against gentrification. Gelderloos has called the charges 'ridiculous'; meanwhile, he's been released on bond awaiting trial, which could take over 2 years. As he's required to check in at the Barcelona courthouse every two weeks, he is effectively barred from returning home.

...[A]s much as the Barcelona police have a vendetta against squatters and anarchists, along with immigrants and anyone darker than them, this [latest] repression is not a grassroots initiative: it's an order from on high. "The Mediterranean triangle" [is] the term applied by the European Union to what it identifies as a top internal security threat-the anarchist movements in Greece, Italy, and Spain. These states have been directed to neutralize the threat, and it seems they will do whatever it takes.

Madrid (dpa) - African would-be immigrants travelling to Spain by boat attacked a Spanish police vessel with petrol bombs, preventing the officers on board from detaining them, the daily El Pais reported Tuesday.

[Note from b&r: The following is an excellent, though quite lengthy, analysis of the weaknesses inherent in much of contemporary anarchism; if your time is limited, skip the literature review.]

[In the Anarchist movement]...one divide that is growing more sharp is the same one that runs through much of Europe, the debate between insurrection and organization...[T]here seems to be a lingering affinity for certain Western values that are at the heart of the state and capitalism: a worldview based on dichotomies, and a logical structure that is startlingly monotheistic...For example, when there are two different strategies for revolution, many of us do not see this as two paths for different groups of people to walk...but as evidence that somebody must be Wrong.

(W)e need to recognise the sub-Saharan African and Latino workers who die attempting to open up the labour markets of the rich world for what they are: globalisation's unsung martyrs.