Today's demonstration, or as it was labelled here in Catalunya, a student strike, was held for a combination of reasons around university staff pay and conditions, general concerns about the privatisation of education, and in solidarity with the Valencian students who had recently been brutally attacked by the boys in blue for the temerity to demand the heating to be turned on when it was freezing cold. Police violence had been a recurring theme in discussions and placards at the protest. There were various chants about the state of Spain no longer being a democracy, or that the current government was fascist. While it is easy to dismiss these claims, as Spain is clearly not fascist, it is nevertheless disconcerting for a people only 30 years away from a genuine fascist government to see an increasingly aggressive police and government presence on campuses and in neighbourhoods.
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