Geração à rasca

Banners of protesters on March 12, 2011 in Lisbon

Geração à rasca (German: Generation in trouble or Lost Generation ), or M12M (Movimento 12 de Março) (German: Movement of March 12th ), is the name of a movement that in 2011 launched a series of mass protests in Portugal initiated. The name is a play on the term Geração rasca , which was coined in the mid-1990s by the journalist Vicente Jorge Silva during the student protests against the then Education Minister Manuela Ferreira Leite .

Protests

The protest movement, which describes itself as “non-partisan, secular and peaceful”, is not supported by parties, trade unions or other institutions, but began with a call on the social network Facebook . She calls for the improvement of working conditions, especially for young qualified people. A manifesto posted on Facebook called for participation in a demonstration in Lisbon on March 12, 2011.

Demonstration on March 12, 2011 in Porto

The protesters filled the Avenida da Liberdade in Lisbon. The protests were directed not only against rising unemployment and poor working conditions, but also against falling living standards and drastic austerity measures by the government. The organizers estimate that between 200,000 and 300,000 people attended the rally in Lisbon. Further demonstrations took place in Porto with an estimated 80,000 people, Funchal , Ponta Delgada and Viseu . The Polícia de Segurança Pública assumed 100,000 people in Lisbon and 60,000 people in Porto. The spontaneity of the demonstrations reminded media observers of the beginnings of the unrest in Tunisia or Egypt.

The initiative's manifesto was influenced by a song by the band Deolinda called Parva que sou ( how stupid I am ). In it it says:

Que mundo tão parvo (What a world, so stupid)
Onde para ser escravo é preciso estudar (Where one must have studied to be a slave)

The band members did not take part in the protests, although they sympathize with the demonstrators.

The protest movement got a boost after the Festival da Canção , the Portuguese preliminary decision for the Eurovision Song Contest . The humorous winning entry A Luta é Alegria (Eng. The fight is joy ) by the comedy and music group Homens da Luta is based on revolutionary songs by Zeca Afonso , an important singer and composer who helped spark the 1974 Carnation Revolution .

Consequences of the protests

After the protests of the “Geração à rasca” and subsequent protests by the trade union associations CGTP and UGT on March 19, the conservative Partido Social Democrata withdrew its support for the austerity and cutback programs of the Portuguese minority government. This in turn led to the rejection of the government's plans in parliament and the overthrow of the government. The government crisis led to new parliamentary elections on June 5, from which the liberal-conservative PSD emerged victorious and replaced the ruling socialists.

See also

• Protests in Spain 2011/2012
• Generation internship

literature

• Ismail Küpeli: The Carnation Revolution Reloaded? Crisis and social struggles in Portugal. edition assemblage , 2013, ISBN 9783942885270

Web links

Commons : Geração à Rasca  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• The manifesto in German, on the website of the organizers (pt, multilingual), on wordpress.com, accessed on March 16, 2011
• Fórum das Gerações - 12/3 eo Futuro , (German forum of the generations - March 12th and the future ), on facebook.com, accessed on March 16, 2011
• Portugal's "lost generation" mobilized hundreds of thousands of Nuremberg News from March 13, 2011
• Economic situation in Portugal The time on June 25, 2010
• Ismail Küpeli: Now it's getting loud - In Portugal there is resistance to neoliberal crisis management. In: analysis & criticism (No. 560, April 15, 2011, p. 24)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Protesto Geração à Rasca Alastra no Facebook ( pt ) publico.pt. February 19, 2011. Archived from the original on February 22, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 13, 2011. 
2. ^ Protesto / crise: "Geração à rasca" enche a avenida da Liberdade até ao Rossio ( pt ) dn.pt. March 12, 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
3. ↑ "Geração à rasca" leva 300 mil manifest distinctive à Avenida da Liberdade ( pt ) jornaldenegocios.pt. March 12, 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
4. ↑ Organização fala em 300 mil participantes em todo o país ( pt ) dn.pt. March 12, 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
5. ↑ Geração à rasca: protesto chegou ao Funchal ( pt ) tvi24.iol.pt. March 12, 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
6. ↑ Geração à rasca: protesto forte em Ponta Delgada ( pt ) diario.iol.pt. March 12, 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
7. ↑ Geração à Rasca: Viseu protestou no Rossio ( pt ) diario.iol.pt. March 12, 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
8. ↑ Protesto Geração à Rasca juntou entre 160 e 280 mil pessoas só em Lisboa e Porto ( pt ) diario.iol.pt. March 12, 2011. Archived from the original on March 15, 2011. Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 13, 2011. 
9. ↑ Portugal's “lost generation” mobilizes hundreds of thousands of Nuremberg News, March 13, 2011
10. ↑ ^{a b} Resistance in notes . dradio.de. March 15, 2011. Retrieved March 15, 2011.
11. ↑ Deolinda, o grupo que dá voz à "geração à rasca", presente "em consciência" ( pt ) sapo.pt. March 12, 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
12. ↑ Homens da Luta aumentam adesões à 'Geração à Rasca' ( pt ) sapo.pt. March 12, 2011. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
13. ↑ I. Küpeli: Now it's getting loud - In Portugal there is resistance to neoliberal crisis management. In: analysis & criticism (No. 560, April 15, 2011, p. 24)