The streets of Madrid resembled a war zone on Tuesday, as thousands of demonstrators surrounded the Spanish Parliament demanding the government resign. There were several arrests and injuries as riot police clashed with the demonstrators.

Spain is under immense pressure from banksters to slash government spending and pay down its deficit, but those most affected by this sort of austerity like public sector workers aren’t having it. And already, Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the Eurozone, which will only get worse with more austerity.

Demonstrators called for a national referendum to let the Spanish people – and not technocrats – decide their own fate when it comes to paying the nation’s debts. To make matters worse, the Catalonia region of Spain called for an early election at the end of November – which could be a vote for independence from Spain altogether as the region runs into its own financial problems.

Meanwhile on the other side of Europe, workers in Greece are on strike today to protests another round of spending cuts under consideration by the Greek government. Public employees, teachers, medics, lawyers, and even bankers walked off their jobs and took to the streets to protest salary and pension cuts.

It’s the first such strike since the new Conservative government took power in June. Organizers of the strike were expecting upwards of a million people in the streets of Athens. Austerity is literally ripping nations apart in Europe – and it’ll do the same thing here in the United States if Republicans win big in November.