otrx que quiere arreglarlo

What I've seen so far [#spanishrevolution]

Thu, 26 May 2011 06:16:00 -0700

Before May 15th, most of the Spanish mainstream media ignored the preparations for the demonstration. Meanwhile, we organized through the internet, but also in small assemblies. It gave us the opportunity to talk about politics without talking about politicians or political parties, a much needed relief during an election month. Some -mostly people that were not following the organizational procedure closely- were worried that flags from political parties or unions would be brought, or that the far right would join us, or that violent groups would displace the peaceful protest. It did not happen.

The attendance on the 15th was kind of impressive, as a small number of new citizen groups had been able to mobilize as many people as the two large and historical unions on Mayday, which in Spain is a big day. I saw Anonymous/V/Guy Fawkes masks, I heard happy chants of "Más payasos y menos policías", I distributed free copies of a free manual for assemblies that I like. There were geeky inside jokes in some of the banners, there was at least one Icelandic flag, there were loud chants to get the president of the Valencian government into our local prison "El president a Picassent!". There was no official plan of camping, but I had read someone suggest it somewhere. A friend thought that the fact that tens of thousands had taken the streets for a few hours would give legitimacy to the tens or hundreds that might have the will and resources to camp in a city square for a few days or weeks.

Indeed, some did camp, at least in Madrid. Soon many more followed, all over Spain. The video of the first eviction of #acampadasol, in the wee hours of the morning and among chanting of "¡No a la violencia!" produced an intense backslash, and in the next couple of days people were camping everywhere, organizing the work in comissions and having open assemblies every evening. According to some right-wing politicians and mass media, the whole movement had been planted by the ruling party, the nominally socialist PSOE. Either that, or the opposite, we were protesting specifically against them. Someone even
suggested that we had ties with the basque terrorist group ETA. And even as we were occupying roughly half of the front pages of most Spanish newspapers, displacing politicians and their campaigning, many still thought that this was about the elections, and that we would just go back home quietly after May 22nd.

In the camps, the gift economy was hard at work. The needed materials were read in the assembly, written on a board, listed on blogs and retweeted, and the camps soon overflew with the solidarity of the citizens. A sign read:
1. If you need something, take it.
2. If you use something, bring it back.
3. If you ask us for something, we will get it for you.

Elections came and went, some of us voted, some of us cared about the results.

Because of our non-hierarchical structure, the media said that we were "all complains and no proposals", or they ridiculed our demands as incoherent. Now, instead of being puppets of the government or antiglobalization punks or terrorists we were a bunch of stoned hippies. Either that, or university students from the petit burgeoise that were afraid not to get the life of luxury we had come to expect. Or maybe all of the above. Meanwhile, we were busily brainstorming through our wildest dreams, planning actions, sweeping the squares, taking care of each other and trying to reach consensus on a few key demands and proposals that most citizens would probably agree with.

Now, in several cities, we are starting to reach out from the central square to the neighbourhoods and nearby villages. Perhaps we try to "think global, act local". Or we are preparing a strategic retreat to continue our work when the central square is evicted by force or abandoned by the last disillusioned, burned-out teenagers as we fail to achieve anything significant. Or maybe we are preparing for a popular constituent assembly.

At the same time, these days we see that our struggle has inspired some people in Greece, as the Greek, French and North-African struggles contributed to inspire us. We might very well not get everything we aspire to, for our hopes are sky high, but we will definitely show that we are not at Fukuyama's "end of history".

otrx que quiere arreglarlo

What I've seen so far [#spanishrevolution]

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