Manifesto of Spanish nun Sister Forcades taps anger at austerity

From her small convent in the mountains near Barcelona, Sister Teresa Forcades, a Harvard-educated Catalan nun, has emerged as a leading advocate of Spain's "indignant" protest movement against capitalism's excesses.

Forcades denounced the austerity measures implemented by Spain's conservative government, which include cuts to health and education spending.

The government imposed the cuts to rein in the public deficit. But Forcades said: "The cuts go against the needs of the majority and go in favour of the interests of a minority."

The feminist and radical thinker has lived at the convent at St Benet, about 50 kilometres north of Barcelona, since 1997. Forcades is a doctor by training. She rose to prominence during the height of the global swine flu outbreak in 2009 when she argued that vaccines against the disease rushed out by pharmaceutical companies had not been properly tested for public use.

Now, with Arcadi Oliveres, a 67-year-old economist who is one of the ideologues behind Spain's "indignant" movement, she has launched a political manifesto. And in just two days it has collected 14,000 signatures.

Among her proposals is a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia, a region of about 7.5 million people with its own language and culture. She also advocates the nationalisation of banks and energy firms, housing rights and tough measures against corruption.