Mossos Deploy Thousands of Officers for Catalonia’s Nov. 11 Strike
Catalonia's police are putting more than nine thousand officers on the street for the Nov. 11 general strike, which combines health, education and rail stoppages.
The Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalonia’s police, will field more than nine thousand officers for the general strike on Wednesday, Nov. 11, according to Metrópoli Abierta. Internally the force does not see the day as an ordinary labor dispute. It places it within a wave of social unrest affecting major European countries.
The strike covers Catalonia and the rest of Spain. In Catalonia several separate sector disputes land on the same day, which police analysts call unusual.
Why the Mossos call it an atypical strike
Mossos analysts quoted by the outlet contrast the 11-N, as the date is known, with traditional general strikes. Those are planned weeks ahead around one list of wage demands agreed by the biggest unions. This one grows out of a more scattered discontent that cuts across sectors.
Police see the same ingredients that fed large protests in recent months in France, Italy and Switzerland: the rising cost of living, worsening public services and insecure work in industry.
Which sectors are stopping work
The report names three groups of stoppages that normally run separately.
- Health and education staff are striking at once, after years of heavy workloads and tight budgets.
- Train drivers are in dispute too. The outlet says this could block thousands of commuters and magnify the effect of slow marches and road closures.
- Meat and metal industry workers are stopping in areas such as Tarragona, Girona and the Garrotxa. The report says this shows the unrest reaches beyond metropolitan Barcelona, and it points to higher energy costs and global competition.
The outlet gives no dates, unions or demands for these individual disputes.
What it means for people in Catalonia
The size of the deployment shows how large the Mossos expect the day to be. Their main worry, the report says, is unpredictability. Standard mediation and crowd containment work less well when ordinary labor calls overlap with assembly-style organizing, mutual-aid networks and combative anarchist and libertarian groups.
The report adds that some groups use mass demonstrations to wreck city centers and loot shops. It does not say how many people are expected to do so or where.
For residents, commuters and visitors, a drivers’ dispute combined with school and hospital stoppages and possible road cuts is the part most likely to disrupt travel and services. The source does not say which Rodalies (Catalonia’s commuter rail) or Metro services will run.
Where to check for disruptions
The Mossos expect the day to measure European discontent that is no longer settled only at negotiating tables and instead seeks the street and the blocking of strategic services, the report says. Notices from the Generalitat (the Catalan government) and the transport operators are where specific disruptions would be announced.
Source: Metrópoli Abierta
