indignados

There was an enormous demonstration and march in Madrid yesterday and last night to mark the one-year anniversary of the first protests against fiscal austerity in Spain.

There were also large 99% protests in London and in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. This movement is not going away, and it appears to be gathering strength with the return of good weather.

No mention of any of this on the front page of the New York Times, of course. We're back to playing the news blackout game in the US, but comprehensive news and photos are always available at the Guardian (UK) site where I got these pictures.

Besides protesting the ongoing felonies and follies of our plutocratic overlords, demonstrators in New York had something to celebrate, as the first OWS trial in that city ended with the acquittal of photographer Andrew Arbuckle (they must be trying the cases in alphabetical order), who was found not to have been blocking street traffic after the jury saw defense evidence provided by other photographers and videographers which clearly showed the only traffic impediment at that time and in that place was da police.

And there's a nice little irony here too, in that Arbuckle was not a 99 percenter, but a conservative journalism student who thought the police were being abused by protesters, and wanted to document it. Details here.