BARCELONA, SPAIN, March 31 — This week, thousands of workers and youth squared off against a mass of cops in the center of this city during a nation-wide general strike protesting austerity measures that is impoverishing millions. The general unemployment rate is 25%; for youth it’s 50%.

Demonstrators dragged dumpsters into the middle of main avenues and set them on fire to block police vehicles from passing. They threw cans, bottles and debris at the cops, the elite Mossos D’Esqudra, who were dressed like storm troopers with large black helmets and visors, all black clothes with no identification.

The Mossos, carrying batons, shot tear gas and rubber bullets at the protesters. The streets were filled with gas and smoke from the tear gas and burning dumpsters. The cops used armored vans to attempt to push the dumpsters to the side to enable police cars to pass. When eight police vans fled the scene, the crowd cheered.

Workers in Spain are suffering from the same worldwide capitalist economic crisis afflicting their brothers and sisters across Europe — declining wages and pensions, mass unemployment and cuts in benefits. The bosses’ government is trying to shift the burden of the crisis onto workers’ backs in an attempt to maintain profits. Only destroying that capitalist system will bring any relief to the working class that creates these profits sucked out of their labors.