By Vandana Shiva* – TRANSCEND
On May 15, 2011, young people occupied the squares of the cities in Spain. They called themselves Los Indignados – “the indignant”. I met them in Madrid where I was attending the meeting of the scientific committee that advises the Spanish prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Wall Street Area. Image: Ibagli | Wikimedia Commons
Their declaration states: “Who are we? We are the people; we have come here freely as volunteers. Why are we here? We are here because we want a new society that gives more priority to life than to economic interest.”
In the US, the ongoing “Occupy movement” commonly cries: “We are the 99 per cent”. This people’s protest, inspired by the Arab Spring, is directed against the unequal distribution of wealth; the “99 per cent” here refers to “the difference in wealth between the top one per cent and all the remaining citizens”.
