BARCELONA -- Mobile World Congress -- Anti-capitalist protestors threw a spanner in the Mobile World Congress 2014 works on day one by halting the main train service that transports the majority of attendees to the event.

Early visitors got a clear run to the Fira Gran Via showgrounds on the outskirts of Barcelona but by 9 a.m. protestors had set up camp at the entrance to the overground train line at Plaça d'Espanya in the center of the city, denying attendees access to the trains that had been shipping thousands of people per hour to the event. The event is expected to attract more than 70,000 visitors this week.

The handful of protestors are part of a coordinated campaign to disrupt the giant annual mobile show, which according to the protest organizer, "Revolta Global," is targeted at the opulence and greed of a few in the IT and technology sector who exploit the majority of the population, who are paid "miserable wages" and forced to do "precarious work."

Figure 1: 'Walk, Capitalist Pigs!' Protestors block the way to the Mobile World Congress trains, holding up thousands of attendees on day 1 of the event. Picture by Michelle Donegan, who was one of the unlucky travelers.

The show, according to the protestors, is "an attack on our dignity." And in a call to arms -- issued to all protest and anarchist groups in Barcelona, of which there appear to be many -- Revolta Global issued a call to "Stop everything."

They succeeded for about 30 minutes before normality resumed, but the protestors appear to have plans to disrupt the event in different ways throughout the week.

Let's hope they don't target the coffee stands…

— Ray Le Maistre, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading