Int'l indignados meet in Madrid for common strategy

Sovereign debt, civil rights, democracy now, and a common strategy for mobilization are under debate at Agora 99%, a four-day meeting of 'indignados' from all over Europe, which begins today in Madrid. ''We need to share our experiences, compare the situations we are living in each of our countries, and coordinate our mobilizations from now on,'' organizer Eva Munoz told reporters on Thursday. Activists from France, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Tunisia, and many Spanish cities have convened to write up a new social rights charter, share civil disobedience experiences, and debate how to defend water, land, housing, culture, and the common good. ''The idea is to include movements from the southern Mediterranean countries as well,'' said Munoz, who along with other activists, has been organizing the event for months on social media. ''Due to logistical travel difficulties, only some representatives from Tunisia and Egypt could attend.'' Following on an international activist meeting in Frankfurt, Agora 99% organizers will come up with a common calendar for international mobilizations against harsh austerity policies, which have sparked mass protest movements in the southern part of the continent. ''We want to prove throughout Europe that those on the bottom, those who pay the consequences of the debt crisis, make up the 99%, and we are united,'' the activists explained. A round table called Against and Beyond Debt, Steps to a Real Democracy is on tomorrow's agenda, while a great assembly is scheduled for Sunday in Puerta del Sol, where the first indignados demonstration, called Occupy the Square, sparked a chain reaction of Occupy protests in capitals around the world. The next big Spanish action, called 'Toma la Huelga' (Occupy the Strike), is to take place on November 14 along with the anti-austerity general strike called by Spain's major unions. A platform of environmentalists, women's collectives, students, alternative unions and indie social centers, the Occupy manifesto calls on everyone to not only stay home from work, but also to extend the strike to ''consumption, communication, all territories and all networks,'' and finally to surround parliament under the slogan: ''For democracy in Europe, against the troika, against the intermediary government of Mariano Rajoy.''