(The following diary was cross-posted to Peaknix - living through the peak)
It is hard to miss what is happening in Spain these days.
With $10.00/gallon gas the following is happening right now:
- More than 90,000 truckers have been striking and blockading Spanish routes for some three days now - gas pumps have gone dry and grocery store shelves are empty
- more after the jump ...
- ....
- On the streets of Madrid, people raided supermarkets in bouts of panic buying. Eva Villafafila, a 34-year-old workplace safety inspector, said she stocked up Monday. "There were unbelievably long lines, and the supermarket staff said that if the strike continued, they would run out of chicken and eggs right away." SOURCE
- Riots have been erupting
- Police are suppressing riots
- People are being beaten by those police
- At least 2 protestors have died at the picket line in Spain and Portugal
Long lines of traffic formed at Spanish-French border crossings and television stations showed pictures of abandoned lorries with broken windscreens, lights ripped out and tyres punctured after they were attacked for attempting to defy the strike. SOURCE
By Thursday June 13, 2008:
Spain promised "zero tolerance" for violence by striking truckers after a string of incidents including an arson attack on a strike-breaking truck that left the driver with burns to 25 percent of his body.
...
The government said it had arrested 71 picketers for offences including intimidating non-striking drivers since the stoppage by 75,000 truckers began on Sunday night to call for government help to cope with high fuel prices. SOURCE
Is even harder to stem the small thread of panic that you might feel if you see their troubles as an early harbinger of what collapse looks like in the western world. It really mirrors the doomer projections in so many peak oil collapse scenarios.
Humans are so predictable aren’t we?
Some people will wonder if it will remain in the Spanish context, there are signs that this contagion is spreading with similar strikes across the globe:
- UK Shell truckers (members of Unite, the union representing 641 tanker drivers) have threatened a 4 day walk-out – lines are forming at gas stations as people panic
- These same drivers are in a panicky mood because Gazprom (Giant Russion Gas/Oil Company) made public statements that oil prices could hit $250/barrel in some "near" future
- 50,000 Polish lorry drivers held one-hour protests across the country although without blocking roads
- Dutch truckers announced plans to block roads at 18 points across the country for 30 minutes
- In Thailand truck drivers voted to begin strikes next week and block roads to the capital with 400,000 lorries unless the government helps them pay for soaring fuel costs
- While in Hong Kong about 500 minibuses, lorries, garbage trucks and coaches staged a go-slow protest, crippling traffic in a demonstration calling for fuel taxes to be scrapped
- Communists burned tyres and blocked roads in parts of eastern India angered by fuel price rises but elsewhere in the country calls for strikes were largely ignored.
- In South Korea truckers voted to strike on Monday, ignoring a $10.2 billion (£5 billion) government aid package designed to cushion the impact of soaring fuel prices.
- American Truckers struck in small numbers several weeks ago with a convoy of some 500 truckers that ended up in DC where they blew their horns all at once and shook everyone for miles
- SOURCE
As I sit in my peaceful and quiet spot on the eastern seaboard of the US, far from these worries, its hard to conceptualize the upheaval that people are experiencing across the world. We, so far, are very insulated from this vibe. I can complain about having to take ice cold showers and wash clothes and dishes with the same frigid water due to our inability to buy oil for our water heater system or our utter inability to find assistance to replace this aging and inefficient system with a better alternative.
At least I can go to the gas station to buy my small stop-gap fillups for my very inefficient gas consuming vehicle without the threat of violence. I am certainly grateful for this!
I do recognize though that this is a gift of a democracy and government that works very hard to maintain our status quo. Would not do to allow the consumers to become afraid of consuming.
By that I mean that shopping is the opiate of the masses and this stupor must be maintained at all costs. We are accustomed to a smooth one-click, express lane, fully stocked shopping experience. Its practically a pillar of the American Way (tm). Any degradation of that high-maintenance experience WILL be noticed.
Not that Americans would strike.
At the moment, I am tending toward the notion that we will be the frogs in the beaker, not jumping out, even when the water comes near to a boil.
Its a false "we" though. Of course, there really is no monolithic "we". There are many different types of communities (transition towns, bolt hole communes, etc) that are gaining popularity even as many many more people go on shopping as usual.
Editorial Update:
I want to thank you all for making this go to the rec list. I really didnt think that this would be THAT interesting but I guess I was wrong on that one :-)
An interesting couple of comments below prompt me to add a bit to the end of this diary (see above) to help complete the thought.
UPDATE (2):
I am updating this diary because (1) there is new news (as always) and (2) you all contributed so much in the comments! I am going to put some of it here. I recommend anyone visiting this diary for the first time to read the comments for sure.
It seems the strike is not ACTUALLY over...
SPAIN: Truck Strike Continues, Despite Deal
"MADRID, Jun 12 (IPS) - Although the Spanish government reached an agreement with the main truckers’ unions, around 10 percent of drivers continued blocking roads Thursday on the fourth day of a strike over soaring oil prices."
...
"But truckers who rejected the agreement with the government continue blocking important access routes to cities like Madrid and Barcelona, and attacking non-striking drivers, mainly keeping them from delivering goods and supplying large supermarket chains. "
...
"
Trade ties with Latin America have enabled the government to get around some of the effects caused by the truckers’ stoppage and by a partial fishermen’s strike.
Planes from Chile have brought in frozen hake, for instance. And the rate of deliveries from that country has not slowed down, since Madrid has 200 storage chambers capable of holding 200 tons of frozen fish each.
But the roadblocks have not only affected food supplies. The pharmaceutical industry has warned that the transport strike could affect distribution of medicines to pharmacies around the country.
Prime Minister Zapatero said Thursday that everything was under control, and that timely measures had been taken. But Mariano Rajoy, the leader of the centre-right Popular Party -- the main opposition force -- retorted that the country was in total chaos." SOURCE
"Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said she hoped the "12 percent" still on strike would come on board." SOURCE
A quick look at El Mundo today and you can see that things are not all sweetness and light. After all, the news at the end of the week was that SOME truckers (it seems not the ones actually striking) got some consessions. Sounds like a bait and switch of some oddness.
See this article about the looming trucker protest in Madrid:
http://www.elmundo.es/...
Here is the poor translation
I am not finding a whole lot more via googling at this time, might get more in the AM.
Various commentors claimed that the action was all over, siting spanish news from within Spain (en espanol):
http://www.elmundo.es/...
http://www.elpais.com/...
Read another post on The Oil Drum: Europe on their take on the Spanish "situation" - Post Peak Iberia http://europe.theoildrum.com/...
Read about how Paris is being impacted these days by high oil prices. This link is posted up before the onset of potential French trucker strikes - http://www.eurotrib.com/...
calipygian shared his/her experience that is illustrative of recent changes in the Spanish economy
"prices have inflated in Spain over the last decade, when I was stationed at the Navy Base in Rota in 2001, I was getting appx 500 plus dollars/month for overseas housing allowance, rent plus utilities, and that got me a three bedroom apartment on the beach with underground parking.
Now a single E-6 gets $2,630/month rent and utilities. That a %500 increase in seven years.
I didn't get a cost of living allowance, or maybe a hundred or two dollars a month, I cant remember, but if I got COLA, it wasn't significant.
Now the COLA is $28/a day. $850/month."
TigerMom shared a vignette of how things are going in South America:
"Truckers were on strike here in Chile for several days because of rising petrol prices. It looked like it would go on for some time until President Bachelet announced a USD $1 billion subsidy to help offset the rising costs of fuel and the accompanying fuel taxes.
Same thing was going on in Bolivia. I'm not sure if it is continuing, though.
The rising fuel costs, and subsequent rising costs to food, are being felt down here, albeit not as urgently as in other parts of the world. However, the inflationary costs are becoming quite clear, as Chile just reported the inflation rate over the past year was 8.9%! Combine that with a declining dollar here, and we are a bit screwed. My husband estimates we have lost approximately 10% in income due to these factors.
I think we have only seen the tip of the iceberg."
Cliss added an excellent synopsis of the State of Affairs in Spain:
"Spain has some enormous problems which come as hugs blows. I was there a few years, ago, and I was struck by the horrific desertification they are going through.
Here are the worst issues:
1. Spain has had a real estate bubble. They've been overbuilding for years. They are dealing with the same subprime housing meltdown that's happening in the U.S. It's expected to devastate real estate prices, and ultimately the economy.
2. Spain is dealing with desertification. Due to global weather changes, Spain is drying up. Their precious vineyards are shriveling. They are trying to cope, by moving their vines to higher elevations and hoping
3. Spain's crops are all at risk: olive groves, cork trees, vineyards, other produce. They are trying to introduce drought-resistant plants, but so far the desert is moving in faster than they can run from it.
4. Spain along with Europe is dealing with higher gas prices. It's affecting their fishing industry, the trucking industry which is really vulnerable right now.
It's just a tough situation with not many solutions in sight.
And Yeah they are the harbinger for what's to come for the rest of Europe. And here."
Peak Oil Resources (info and action, take your pick):
http://worldwithoutoil.org/
http://relocalize.net/
http://www.transitiontowns.org/