Spain (and beyond): 15 May demonstrations updates and discussion

Any thoughts?

Apparently the movement is basically leftist stuff lead by ATTAC. However considering there is nothing going on aside from parcial fights, I'm gonna attend. I'll let you know my thougts.

edit: repeated comment

I have not been able to find English-language info yet, but there are reports in Dutch papers of big protests on 15 May in several cities. De Volkskrant has an article whose title translates as: "Tens of thousands demonstrate against cuts in Spain" The article mentions Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona andSevilla as places where people protested. The NRC has almost the same story, under a similar title same title, but mentions besides that there were protests in more than fifty cities.

Around 4000 demonstrators in zaragoza, no clashes with police. Hardly any news in the local press: no account in the local far right paper and a shy mention in the social-democrat one. A quite harmless action in the local savings bank that however apparently gets much support in youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ0yC0AlvVc
CGT supported the demo with other groups, CNT didn't. Quite boring leftist thing. However what interested me the most: i've seen people yesterday who i've known for ages who were utterly unpolitical and that yesterday were there not because any ideological conviction but because of direct and brutal experience of exploitation. Hopefully we'll see more of them in the future. Anyway we are still a long way from anything massive.

The cops charging in madrid; 24 under arrest

http://www.publico.es/espana/376474/palos-de-la-policia-y-24-detenidos

CNT didn't support it. I'd like to know salvoechea's opinion too.

AFIK in Barcelona this movement have grown up from different collectives in colleges and even activists. Some media like Publico is supporting up to a point this pro-democratic movement. But the biggest and fastest media are social networks like facebook, twitter and also meneame.net (a kind of digg.com). Traditional activists media (i.e. indymedia) are clearly overpassed by this situation.

Anyway in Barcelona, we've had on last sunday a demo of about 15,000 people, which is quite big for our standards. Right now there is an occupation of Plaça Catalunya [a square in town center]. I've seen plenty of activists from social movements (mostly linked to the past VdeVivienda movement or trotskists, leftists from IU/ICV, greens and also squatters and anarchists), and of course, lots of newcomers.

In my opinion we may see in the next months a wave of new protests. At this point the thing is quite pro-democratic. However police repression is making people question this whole system. Also mass assemblies are making people debate. And the feeling against all politicians is huge in barcelona (even against the left parties). We can get something from this (at least some new militants :) ).

In my opinion we - the anarchists - lost a huge opportunity in the past with the anti-globalisation movement, when there were lots of people moving and getting increasingly political. However anarchist didn't want to participate in mass assemblies as there were lots of communists and trots. anachist prefered to create a new space based in black bloc and insurrectionists theories that attracted very little people in that context. Of course, when anti-globalisation movt. was coopted by political parties it was its final death.

As for CNT, unfortunately we live in another world. We're fully concentrated in labour issues and in our workplace sections leaving aside the leftists political millieu of streets. In our case, we go to the demos personally, but unorganised.

Unfortunately the streets are going to be filled with leftists. Better that they are forced to share them with other more interesting species.

It's quite obvious that this movement (?) run the risk of being coopted by any opportunist (and not only leftists, the far right too) able enough to exploit all its anti-political, inter-classist, petty-capitalist, human-rightist contradictions. Sam that lives in france probably knows the term citoyeniste, it's in france this kind of position that talks about a good and bad globalization, fair trade, tobin tax and all that crap. I think that many of the protestors in the demos have this kind of thinking with the important difference that this protest is not lead anymore by a moral outrage like in the 90's and early 20's but by the anger at seeing your very immediate future life chances bruttally attacked from all fronts (i've just known after the elections our wages are gonna be cut again, 2nd time in 2 years)

If in any open assembly the pow are diverse, is our task to point at the weaknesses of petty-bourgeois discourses (a movement that concentrates ONLY in the elected representatives is unable to see the root of the thread or the obligingness towards populiust shite, for instance) and show other possibilities. However is quite clear that the composition of the protest differ remarkably from town to town: quite clearly in madrid or barna was more radical than in the inner towns like mine, therefore the occupation of sol square in madrid.

Nevertheless, being able to have any chance to influence the movement from outside is simply impossible. To focus only in workplace issues like the cnt's been doing a long time ago according to Salvoechea's (and mine) opinion, is a disaster for them and one of the reasons it is increasingly seen from many people outside (not only wankers, no fucking way) as a XIX century esoteric cult. Please take note that i'm talking about the cnt (and not even about all the regional sections) not the anarchists, i'm fully aware that cnt in barna doesn't represent the totality of the anarcos milieu in the slightest.

Meanwhile there have been big demos all around the country against our current political representation and political economy (and that's a fact, what the supporters want to replace it with, it's another song) without the support of any party or union and that should matter.

In Granada police has cleared the camp:
http://lockerz.com/s/102548979

This is a link to an article that talks about the 14 arrested at the 15 may demo in madrid
http://www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/esos-pantalones-maricon-como-vas-encontrar-trabajo

For more up to date info you can check
http://www.meneame.net/

-------

As far I can see, 10,000 people mobilised by trade unions (ie CGT, IAC, COBAS, left parties, etc.),are not decently covered by mass media. In saturday (14 may) there was a demo of that size in Barcelona, in fact, it was even bigger because CCOO and UGT also called for the demo and gathered about 15-20,000 people. As for 15M demo, there were around 15,000 people in the streets. The thing is that the 14M demos didn't exist for the media while the 15M were fully covered.

As far I can see, 10,000 people mobilised by trade unions (ie CGT, IAC, COBAS, left parties, etc.)

ejem. I forgot to mention CNT-AIT in that demo, we were also present :oops:

One of our folks went and reported:

"...Though of course there were the usual reformist
demands being made what i thought was encouraging was the strength of the
explicitly anti-market anti-capitalist sentiment being expressed...

"...Here in my home city of Granada - normally very staid and conservative -the
turnout was much higher than I expected. The Newspapers put it at 5000 but I
think it was nearer double that - though this would be tiny compared to the
turnout in Madrid or Barcelona . Here's a youtube presentation of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkQ4nZHymxo

[What's the trick to embedding these things here??]

It is an interesting development I think and possibly more hopeful than the
usual kind of protest with a marked absence of opportunistic leftist groups
circling like vultures to seize any opportunity to flog their papers. More a
kind of gut popular sentiment against capitalism and what it stands for."

Map of italian camps
http://www.ikimap.com/map/XCYF

I encourage to make this a European movement against politicians and against the "bourguoise democracy" for a real direct democracy.

Been listening to different podcasts, later on i will get myself to the assembly in my place. In one of them a 19 year old kid remarked the ones that stay at night in Sol receive all kind of help from anonimous people that go there to give em food, blankets, drinks, etc...Interesting to see how uncomfortable the media is not being able to put a face to the movement, being unable to find them drunk and partying, having to admit 1st) that there are young people that cares and not only nihilistic junkies (the most usual way to decribe youngsters in the spanish media) and 2) that there are old people too, that is, people with experience and not a bunch of headless chickens (another nice usual patronizing description) Equally irritating is for them the, for the moment, lack of orders from any major organization being obeid or followed. It's frankly amusing seeing them that uncertain and scared. The far right press is accusing the protestors of being secretly organized by the socialdemocrats, to the general amusement. Many crapy clichés are falling down right now. I hope "ces't ne pas que le commencement"

A media narrative fail is usually a sign that somethings gone right.
Foreign media will have an even harder time, considering Spain doesn't have a bloodthirsty dictator to act as the focus point.

Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling

A media narrative fail is usually a sign that somethings gone right.
Foreign media will have an even harder time, considering Spain doesn't have a bloodthirsty dictator to act as the focus point.

True, there is simply one of the hugest bunch of cunts ever...I truly think once it got started it's not gonna stop.
Attention must be paid too to the old left; a friend of mine told me yesterday (he could attend, i couldn't) some old leftists were lecturing the people to join their old ongoing microfights, right and true thing to do, instead of carrying on as they were doin. Many cretins will be pointing to their stripes in the near future to show the poor, young and naive protestors who shoul be in charge.

Edit: i wonder how much talking we'll be hearing soon on the necessity of controlling internet. They must be hysterical right now lol

Just popped over to the square in front of the town hall here in Granada which has been in more or less permanent occupation. Pain in the arse that I work during the assembly times. Anyway, here is a rushed translation of the agreements from the last general assembly - sorry about the clunky phrasing. No mention of class or even capitalism, but my impression is that things seem to be moving fast, so let's see what happens. I noticed a CNT member in the square but I didn't get a chance to swap impressions, will pop back after work and report back if there's anything to relate.
Agreements of the open general assembly, 17th May 2011, Plaza del Carmen (Granada)

Minimum Agreements:
• The assembly declares itself without union, party or religion (in the Spanish they use the “a” from “apolitical” more than we do in English so really they declared themselves asindicalista, apartidista etc, as opposed to “without”)
We don’t deny that people who participate in the assembly can be affiliated or otherwise to these organizations. Either way, the movement finds itself outside, and therefore, totally independent, of them. That being the case, people organized through these associations are invited to participate, but in no event will the movement become a space for the spread and promotion of these public groupings, but rather, will be a meeting point to channel our indignation and as a form of social self-organisation.
We do not want in any way the acronyms, flags or leaderships of organizations inside this movement.
• The movement has a pacifist character, therefore the actions we carry out will be pacific. If others respond with violence, our position will always be one of non-violent resistance.
• We want to take creativity up again in our forms of action. To retake the initiative and with it, our creative capacity.
• We want to reach out to all of society. Everyone is invited to debate, create, and be responsible for the movement.
• Responsibility for the movement is collective; for the decisions and actions carried out, and for the positive or negative consequences they may have.

Mechanisms to bring about the minimum agreements:

• The primary form of organization is the open general assembly, the decision making centre. In the assemblies there will be a chair and a minute taker, so that people remember the agreements and can consult them in case of not having been present.
• When necessary, work groups will be created to elaborate proposals or organize technical aspects. The proposals will be debated, a consensus reached and decided upon in the general assembly. In the work groups there will also be a chair, respect for the right of expression and minutes.
• The chair and minute taker will be rotated to strengthen the democratic and learning process.
• It has been decided that propagandistic work will take on a physical form (throughout the suburbs, workplaces, self-organising spaces etc), as well as the free and decentralized networks and alternative media. The traditional media will be kept informed through communiqués and invited to actions we consider pertinent. We are in permanent dialogue and communication.
• We are in solidarity with other cities and with the problems their citizens may face (such as arrests)
Permanent communication and coordination has been established, along with the propagation of their actions.

Yeah, this is really interesting. As for why isn't there more discussion, I have been reading the reports but don't really have much more to comment at the moment. I mean I guess I am concerned that without developing some form of organisation, the movement may just fizzle out, and if it does develop some form of organisation, it may be taken over and manipulated by left groups, who will end up demobilising the movement. But I didn't really wanted to be unnecessarily pessimistic. At the moment it looks like things are developing, and I look forward to hearing more about what is going on.

Thanks very much to Mark for these updates, and to other locals (great report Danny) for your impressions

it definitely seems like the whole non-violent apolitical democracy thing is spreading again in relation to the no future and arab spring. one thing i am wondering is how they will respond to those who will take violent action, and i just heard that provocateurs are showing up.

i bet they are reading "from dictatorship to democracy" too...

I'm back. Around 6000 people, more than in sundays demo. Anyone could climb to the tribune and speak. No allusions to political parties or unions, when it appeared to start one the speaker was kindly remembered that he/she should only talk representing him/herself. The agreements here are basically the same that danny mentions. A respectful atmosphere even towards nonsense. Loads of good will and desires to do things...but still no talk of class issues: politicians, banks, some local nuisances and the catholic church were the targets...The level of discourse is very low and much confusion is still to be resolved. It needs to go much further. Apparently numbers weigh a lot: there is a fear that a more radical agenda will divide the movement in ideas as in tactics. That's a quagmire we need to sort out, otherwise it will die as another moralistic burst of outrage more.

Quick translation of a text in greek on athens indymedia which I thought was very good and gives a 'greek' take on things.

Barcelona, the hot arabic wind passes through the Mediteranean. In which direction?
(by "It is blowing" a participant in Barcelona)

It definitely is an important event. It seems horizontal and direct-democratic, although a few 'committees' for 'connections with the press' have sprung up, especially in Madrid. In any case, people are getting together, speaking, making assembly, eating, in short there is a space of collective expression and freedom, a space that really is public.

On the other hand of course, the content is completely confused. A feeling that prevails is a complete avoidance of the concept of "confrontation", as if the bosses are going to go back on any of their decisions because they have been convinced by the grandeur of those assembled. And yet, this naivete dominates most of the participants. The very general and non-confrontational character of the mobilization has created wide-reaching sympathy both social as well as journalistic, by celebrities etc.

Nevertheless the facts have their own dynamic: on Sunday in Spain there are municipal elections. Every gathering is prohibited from Friday on. The electory committes of the state have begun to rule the gatherings as illegal. Some lawyers have gotten involved to fight the validity of such decisions legally.

What will Authority do? Will it assault to clear the central square of Barcelona and the occupied squares in the other spanish cities? In Madrid (where it should be noted that in the demonstration which began the occupation a part of the demo was confrontational, and the cops have already cleared the square once but the people re-occupied it) yesterday the police enforced checks on everyone who wanted to enter the square (IDs, checking bags, etc). In Barcelona nothing like this has happened till now.

So we wait and see the next days or hours. A violent evacuation of the square would be very serious, given that the character of the gathering is not particularly radical. Many of those gathered insist on its peaceful character. There is of course a vague anticapitalist vocabulary (about the banks, against consumption etc) which reminds me of Synaspismos (greek party) to put it in greek terms. One thing that is for sure is that because it is so "loose" it could escalate, but it could go anywhere.

As a footnote let me say that journalists and cameras have complete and absolute free access to the square. Namely anything you do and say goes on youtube, to the secret police, to your neighbour, anywhere in the universe. Which is another extra reason for the rationale of "we are all good guys" to dominate.

But, I repeat, even if the people do not want confrontation, the bosses might. We'll wait and see.

The American media has revealed a grand total of jackshit on this story even though it's days old. Washington Post had a tantalizing photo of the square in Puerta del Sol at night on the front page, but had a completely unrevealing caption and NO STORY at all.

I've noticed something. The media only seems to be reporting on stories like this that take place in the Arab world. Nothing about the protests in Croatia, or Spain, or any place else that faced unrest during or after the Arab Spring that wasn't actually in the Middle East or North Africa. It's like they're incapable of writing any stories on their own without having their hands held by Al-Jazeera.

My theory is that the media capitalists don't want the Arab Spring to spread in Europe, so they've developed a two-point strategy.

1. Give the protesters in the Arab World a complimentary pat on the back, to give the illusion that the American media isn't a tool of the same process of control that propped up Mubarak and Ben Ali.

2. Never report when the same sort of thing catches on in the English-speaking parts of the world, so that they can make people think that since people aren't protesting over here, our systems of government have nothing in common with theirs, so there is nothing wrong and nothing to protest against.

In Berlin 300 people took to the streets yesterday in order tu support the Spanish movement. There is another demonstration scheduled for saturday. I don't know anything about the organizers but their wording on indymedia “People gathered peacefully and democratically” suggest that they are not the “usual suspects“.

I just watched a video online, and the commentator was saying that various groups of workers with ongoing disputes have been going to the plazas, he mentioned bus drivers in Zaragoza, and in Barcelona health workers, firemen and some workers from a factory threatened with 40% layoffs.

I'm going to try to make an infographic of every day
There's a lot of unreliable numbers and the infographic would never be as correct as I would wish, but do you think it's worth the effort?

Here's the link for the one I already made: http://tildepee.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/spanishrevolution/

Cheers!

This isn't a media friendly story though. It is simply bad business to run with a story about lots of different people sitting in squares in Spain because they're against austerity. Plaza culture does not exist in the UK simply because it's too cold, we can't relate to these communal gathering areas that exist around the Mediterranean. Plus the only way this story develops, involves police repression by western democratic governments or genuine direct democracy by normal people ( or both), and neither are stories that the media wants to bring to our attention.

I'm sure the media will find some perceived Hispanic character defect and create a narrative around that.

I think that the pacifist approach could be better than some people on here are saying. This approach will hopefully mean that the occupations can continue for longer and have more time to set up working democratic structures. There's not much point in immediately trashing a few banks and therefore loosing any chance of having unopposed square occupations. Anyway people always adapt to situations and previous events so you would think that after one kicking by the cops then self-defence would become more rigorous.

Edlit:

I'm going to try to make an infographic of every day
There's a lot of unreliable numbers and the infographic would never be as correct as I would wish, but do you think it's worth the effort?
Here's the link for the one I already made: http://tildepee.wordpress.com/2011/05/20/spanishrevolution/

Don't know how much effort it involves or what possibly better things you would do if you didn't put in such an effort, but I'd say go ahead - and maybe included Italy, and even information about other global movements - if only, say, mentioning the kind of action (strike, square occupation, social space occupation, socially subversive riot, socially subversive demonstration, etc.) plus estimates of numbers (cop figures, journos' figures, demonstrators' figures) . A lot of work but it'd be good to have the info all in one place (maybe with links to relevant articles), and I'm sure if you gave it a high profile thread of its own, everyone who knew something would send you the info (like with Mark's "Tunisia effect"). But this is just my opinion. And of course, it depends on how much you want to commit yourself to doing it, and whether there'd be others you could get to share the load.

This isn't a media friendly story though. It is simply bad business to run with a story about lots of different people sitting in squares in Spain because they're against austerity. Plaza culture does not exist in the UK simply because it's too cold, we can't relate to these communal gathering areas that exist around the Mediterranean.

Though I'm not sure if you're suggesting that this might get more significant coverage in Mediterranean countries or not, there seems to be virtual silence from TV & newspaper media in France: the only thing i've seen is this, from a relatively unknown paper. Fear of contagion seems to be the only reason for this. Which is why the media prefers to be full of some big shot contender for the presidency, whose legal participation in the rape of the lives of millions worldwide has been considered perfectly acceptable to this media, whilst him getting nicked for sexual assault has become a useful distraction from the social question increasingly being raised all over the place.

Thanks Mark and Samotnaf for your replies.

In the meanwhile, while working on the may16th infographic, I realised I would never find all the numbers for all the days. Also, I don't speak Spanish, so I can't acces to the biggest part of the information.

It's these two reasons that make it hard to get to the infographics... If I did'nt have my jury for my last year of graphic design (in a month and a half), I would have the time to do the research.

(It's also these two reasons why I didn't divide the protests into the different kinds of action, I loved to do it, but the info wasn't clear or not there)

The only solution would be to find a site or any document in wich someone -who's active and well-informed- noted all the action...

I'll keep on searching and if anyone finds any useful complete info, it's all welcome!

Edlit, i speak spanish and can help you if you want. Give me the links or tell me what you are looking for and i'll help you.

I think that the pacifist approach could be better than some people on here are saying. This approach will hopefully mean that the occupations can continue for longer and have more time to set up working democratic structures. There's not much point in immediately trashing a few banks and therefore loosing any chance of having unopposed square occupations. Anyway people always adapt to situations and previous events so you would think that after one kicking by the cops then self-defence would become more rigorous.

About Sir Arthur concerns. Maybe i didn't explain myself properly; I agree that immediatly looking for confrontation is a stupid thing to do, it'd be seen as an attemp of sabotaging the occupation and rightly so.

But in my opinion there is no time anymore for putting at the front a transversal or interclassist discourse and for many reasons: all the attacks against basic social services are undoubtly a class war issue. Here workers don't see each others as workers anymore most of them use the word "operario" instead of "obrero", not even "clase trabajadora" is used anymore. "Operario" like using "humilde"(humble) instead of "pobre"(poor), is a bourgeois euphemism. The language i listened to yesterday was an awful mix of cheap newspaper sociology and "we all love each other so much" hippy stuff. In a situation of increased repression, impoverishment, where the suicide rates have increased in spain to the point that they kill more that traffic accidents (http://www.publico.es/espana/298923/los-suicidios-superan-a-los-accidentes-de-trafico-como-primera-causa-externa-de-muerte-en-espana), the least that can be expected is that the protestors recognise themselves as the dispossesed, the poor, the working class, what they are. Any other way of evaluate the situation it's gonna be an obstacle for its development.

You cannot consider to be in the same barricade as you someone that goes there because is fed up with corrupt politicians but is irrationally opposed to increase direct taxes and in favour of cuts to reduce public spending. Maybe he's a honest bloke but it's not in the same fight as you. I'm tired to see angry workers supporting cheap rantings against bankers and politicians, that's "qualunquismo", "honest-down-to-earth-blokeism" populism and it doesn't help any worker it misslead him/her. I've been hearing this right wing populism for the last 5 years everyday.

Language is important; it's the first field where defeat takes place.

ffs; every time I load this map there's more: (it takes a while for the sites to pop up)

http://www.thetechnoant.info/campmap/

And this is interesting:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/European-Revolution/103396813083042?sk=wall

Thanks for the map, that's brilliant. And, yes, literally every time you do a CTRL-F5 there's more camps (that server's struggling as well)

My advice is that you guys that are already politicised, try and go to those concentrations. Have a chat with spaniards, and you'll see that hardly anyone is politised. If they decide to camp, come together, mix up with them.

What a group of anarchist here are doing, is not talking about anarchism at all, but about self-organisation, popular power, assemblearism, horizontality. Speak about how politicians are (shit), but also explain that they are like that because of the rules of the game. It is the game which is viced not people. People can be honest, but, they play a dirty game.

People need to think for themselves. They need time. Most of them are middle class living the last days of that social class in Spain. And of course the can't belive it is the end. There must be something to do. My point is that with the peak oil here, crisis only can deepen more and more. So, there's no point in trying to live like 5 years ago, with cheap credit, and easy money. Life has changed a lot in Spain and obviously people who thought that this situation will be forever are angry right now.

I imagine, there might be a similar mood in Ireland.

I imagine, there might be a similar mood in Ireland.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Call-for-a-revolution-in-Ireland/116110171774654

Thought your advice on how to interact was spot on Salvoechea. I've no idea what all this represents or where it will lead, but it certainly represents something. The number of actions on that map has doubled in the past few hours; Chile is going crazy & there's one in Shanghai now; some bottle to do that.

Salvoechea

My advice is that you guys that are already politicised, try and go to those concentrations. Have a chat with spaniards, and you'll see that hardly anyone is politised. If they decide to camp, come together, mix up with them.

What a group of anarchist here are doing, is not talking about anarchism at all, but about self-organisation, popular power, assemblearism, horizontality. Speak about how politicians are (shit), but also explain that they are like that because of the rules of the game. It is the game which is viced not people. People can be honest, but, they play a dirty game.

People need to think for themselves. They need time. Most of them are middle class living the last days of that social class in Spain. And of course the can't belive it is the end. There must be something to do. My point is that with the peak oil here, crisis only can deepen more and more. So, there's no point in trying to live like 5 years ago, with cheap credit, and easy money. Life has changed a lot in Spain and obviously people who thought that this situation will be forever are angry right now.

I imagine, there might be a similar mood in Ireland.

You are right. I see i sound too negative. In fact it's much better now that something got started than a mere month ago. I want only to be accurate about the limits right now.

Do you remember? This was a joke-poster made up last december talking about spanish youth passivity:

in the bottom: Crisis? When they legalise slavery we'll call for a party-protest to avoid it.

Ha! Of course i remember that shit, how ironic lolol In fact apparently a big concern those past days of the protesters was not to turn it into a "botellón" (drunk party) I think people have better things to do right now than booze (i ain't no saint anyway) ...Down to the assembly we'll see if there is any news, Salud!

Crunch time again. Not quite "massacre or mutiny", this time the political choices are still in the hands of the political power - I guess that's the difference between liberal democracy and dictatorship - but still the quandary is there. Initiative is to put the enemy into a lose-lose situation. By that index, then within a week, the m15ers have taken the initiative. What happens next? We'll see shortly I guess.

French media only just beginning to mention this (eg Libération).

CNT has published a statement concerning M15. There is a (rough) translation into German at the FAU website.

Just in case anybody should be wondering what the hell CNT wants to tell us with “Cualquier noche puede salir el Sol“: This is a quite famous song by Los muertos de Christo. On the other other hand la puerta del Sol is Madrids Tahrir place. So this would make a pretty nice anthem ;-)

http://libcom.org/news/its-our-moment-may-occupations-disobedience-continue-spain-cnt-21052011

In Barcelona the General Assembly was taken over by leftist politicians (troskits and so on)

http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/?q=node/17704

Organizational map of Puerta del Sol in Madrid:

Bigger version, source: tomalaplaza.net

edit: Live video feed from Madrid

It's spread to Brighton. Trots already trying to recuperate.
http://spanishrevolutionbrighton.wordpress.com/

an SWP trot in my college was very excited about Barcelona, which i knew meant something was up

I'll have to read the Alasbarricadas thread to get the full scoop

Thanks Valeriano for wanting to help.
If I'd make a map of every day (and a new one for may15, cuz it's still not representative) I'd need for every day passed at least:

- any place where has been an action
- the camps
- for every action: the kind of action / if there has been an interventions by the police / the number of people
... that's a lot of info to find

I feel like it's an impossible quest... unless I could get information from someone who's organising this or someone who really knows everything about every place of action.

Are there any good English news feeds about what is happening in Spain right now?

I'm currently stuck in the office doing unpaid overtime all weekend - I could use something to read to keep my spirits up!

What's happening? That people keep on occupying the squares ignoring the ban, that discourses evolve at the speed of light: yesterday it was talked about class issues A LOT as it was remarked that power must be kept by assemblys. My impression is a LOT BETTER than before yesterday. I don't know how much the occupations will last but they won't be the last word you'll hear about us. It's just started. ALL POWER TO THE ASSEMBLYS!

Cheers Mark. :)

Mark.

Protests continue across Spain despite election weekend ban

El Pais

The Supreme Court turns down 11-th hour appeal filed by the United Left against the prohibition; Madrid's Sol square filled by up to 30,000 demonstrators as Valencia, Málaga and Barcelona sit-in numbers swell; government decides not to send in security forces...

Ha! Bottled it.

Government don't want to be seen a repressive body. They want to mark differences with Syria or Egypt to note that we are already living a true western democracy. In fact, the whole world is watching. Last night in Cairo's Tahrir Square there were thousands of people cheering up the spanish movement. This is an international movement that should not end after tomorrow spanish elections. It must continue and spread to other territories and social sectors.

As for Barcelona... Last night I went home highly dissapointed after hearing the speeches. They were making a programme, which was a copy of some leftist parties (CUP, Desdebaix, En Lluita). Speakers were 80% people from that movements or quite close to them. And as anarchist some proposals made me sick (the call for 3rd spanish republic, for instance, cheered by 10,000 people in the square). Anyway, let's see what happens today. We're talking about creating an anti-authoritarian space, like the one in Madrid, to break up with those would-be politicians.

I didn't spend all the night down there. It's true that the shouts for a 3rd republic received a huge applause (the royal family is much hated here and a constant reminder of franco's heritage) however when here some people tried to kidnap the assembly someone spoke and reminded the protestors that the assemblys were already a growing power and that the decission must be retained by them and the response was equally powerful. We'll see how the balance shifts. I understand your disappointment Sal but i think that burning issues are arising very quickly and all the obstacles were predictable. Maybe as the catalan is a more organised society the bad side is that politicos are craftier than here.

Anyway and as usual the effectiveness will depend on how much the protest spreads internationally. If we gain confidence enough to start thinking in repealing the pensions reform (something much talked about) and the ongoing collective bargain reform (the unions were harshly critized here), it would be definitely something.

I'm really happy about developments in Spain and I would like to share some of Croatian experience.

As, you all may know in Croatia there were recant demonstrations against government. Those demonstrations where ideologically “in the fog”, full of confusion, both right wing and left wing on the streets etc. Still, we from Network of Anarcho-Syndicalists manage to do some good work there in the way of creating “platform” for next actions, demonstrations, struggles...

In Rijeka there was this Libertarian bloc, in which MASA members took part, which created Coordination of Rijeka’s protests, a “platform” consisted of various people of various political ideologies who wanted to protest for a change. This “platform” was based on anarchist principles of direct democracy, direct action, rejection of parliamentary parties (both government and opposition), Church etc. Coordination forbidden it’s “members” to use flags or symbols of political parties. Only symbols which were allowed were Croatian national flag and anarchist black and red flag. Also, Coordination managed to put some social requests (like defence of workers’ rights, social rights, idea of fighting for better worker conditions and anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian rhetoric’s etc.) instead of request for elections etc.

But the most important thing is, and that is what really is related to this topic, after these demonstrations ended, Coordination didn’t stop existing. Coordination transformed into Network of Mutual Aid (or in Croatian: Mreža uzajamne pomoći – MUP; note: MUP is also short for Ministry of Internal Affairs ;)). Job of this Network is of course, defence of social rights and Network had two actions against local bosses. What’s interesting that in this Network a lot of people participate, people who came from different ideological backgrounds, but their goal is to protect their class – working class. This is really good strategy because it made us possible to have stronger connection with local community. I think that same stuff could be implied in this case.

Here’s short analysis wrote (in Croatian – sorry) about situation in Croatia: http://www.masa-hr.org/content/ovo-je-tek-po%C4%8Detak

ocelot

Mark.

Protests continue across Spain despite election weekend ban

El Pais

The Supreme Court turns down 11-th hour appeal filed by the United Left against the prohibition; Madrid's Sol square filled by up to 30,000 demonstrators as Valencia, Málaga and Barcelona sit-in numbers swell; government decides not to send in security forces...

Ha! Bottled it.

Yep.

PS. Thanks to all the spanish comrades posting on this thread for keeping us updated, i hate having to decipher stuff from the bourgeois media

Salvoechea

Anyway, let's see what happens today. We're talking about creating an anti-authoritarian space, like the one in Madrid, to break up with those would-be politicians.

I've read something about the decision making processes from a report in the Guardian. In your opinion how accurate is some of this journalism?

But a neat, disciplined circle of people intently debating social reform showed many were here in earnest. They took turns to stand up and make their proposals, the audience listening and using the sign language applause of the deaf – by shaking their hands above their heads – to show approval without drowning the speakers out.

The proposals, due to make their way through a laborious process of committees, working parties and general assemblies, varied from calls for less spending on the military to helping businesses. "Because it is not just money for the owners. They are the ones who give people like us jobs," said one young man.

For some younger protesters, it was a political baptism. "I don't know what will come out of this, but it is enough just to show everyone how upset we are," explained Javier de Coca by phone from the protest camp in Barcelona's Plaza de Catalunya, where there was a surprising absence of the nationalist or separatist symbols of protest movements in recent years.

"It's as if they've realised they have more serious problems to deal with," said one protester. One of those problems is 45% youth unemployment.

On a wall beside the tarpaulin-covered command centre in what some were calling Madrid's "Republic of Sol" – home to a press office, an infirmary and a legal centre – a list of needs had been pinned up. Toilet paper and food were scratched off the list. Bookshelves, wood, rubber gloves and bottles of cooking gas were on it. Volunteers were needed for a creche.

"We process the proposals and try to turn them into something that makes legal sense," explained a volunteer at the legal centre.

However, the open assemblies are painfully slow. Some last for hours, as everybody is given their turn to speak. After almost a week of protests, the demonstrators have failed to come up with a coherent set of demands.

However, the open assemblies are painfully slow. Some last for hours, as everybody is given their turn to speak. After almost a week of protests, the demonstrators have failed to come up with a coherent set of demands.

As for Barcelona, General Assembly has set about two pages and half of demands. However, they are minimum demands, I mean, they are so reformist, that some of them are already included in some political parties programmes.

As for continuity, thanks Kontrrazvedka for your reports. In Barcelona, last september it was born a thing called Assemblea de Barcelona, which was made of activists (squatters, trots and some anarchists) and some unionists from CGT (maingly the "red" sector*) and other unions. After 29 sept. - which was thought to be a big failuire and in the end in Barcelona it wasn't so much a failure - people was optimistic and follow with actions and assemblies. There were about 10 district assemblies; there was a call for a demo every month that ended up in the general strike of 27 january. In the end that strike was a failure and the movement had its crisis here.

They were re-born for mayday, and from now on I imagine they will follow up doing stuff but with a different name (i guess).

* In Barcelona CGT is so big (about 10,000 members in the city) that have a few political tendencies inside. The most important ones are the anarcho-syndicalists sector, (the blacks) and the trotskists (called the "reds"). Buy those trots are quite ultra-revolutionary and make CGT to take part in things doomed to a big fiasco, like that strike of january.

Edlit

Thanks Valeriano for wanting to help.
If I'd make a map of every day (and a new one for may15, cuz it's still not representative) I'd need for every day passed at least:

- any place where has been an action
- the camps
- for every action: the kind of action / if there has been an interventions by the police / the number of people
... that's a lot of info to find

I feel like it's an impossible quest... unless I could get information from someone who's organising this or someone who really knows everything about every place of action.

Edlit, this is an "alternative" paper which is following the spread of the movement in spain: places and numbers are being published. Look if it's of any help: http://www.diagonalperiodico.net/

Thanks a lot Kontrrazvedka, your info is of much interest.

Mark.

There was serious talk earlier in the day of the protests being cleared after midnight. It would of course have been madness to try this in the early hours of Saturday morning in Madrid. The camp in Granada was cleared though, a while after some of the police joined them, so I'm not sure what was going on there. Other camps seem to have been left alone.

Edit: According to this report in La Vanguardia the two main police unions came out against clearing Puerta del Sol.

That didn't happen, not really sure where that's come from. The square got cleared on Tuesday night so maybe someone misread that? Anyway, there were thousands of people last night when I left at 1ish. Today there's a hippyish party thing going on which I suppose is fair enough as it holds the square and keeps things ticking over till the assemblies, although I had gone with the hope of hearing debates about the nature and direction of the whole thing. I read that in Madrid there are 3 general assemblies a day. Here there is one, at 8 o clock. Last night I arrived late (went to the football, Granada secured their place in the playoffs! A la primera!) but it seems to have been a fairly similar scene to those described above in terms of people taking it in turns to push political agendas.

Solidarity action in Amsterdam square this evening. About 300 people, mainly Spanish, about forty Dutch. Tomorrow, a demonstration. Couldn't make it myself, unfortunately, but I hear that the mood was very lively. Indymedia report (in Dutch)

So when do we begin the #globalcamp?

http://www.facebook.com/WorldRevolutionNow?sk=wall

We finally got Al-Jazeera coverage. I've got 3 different stories here. An opinion piece, a story about the poll commission's ban on protests, and one with a video of Puerta del Sol.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/201152264452749575.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/05/2011519233112661224.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/05/201152122336663.html

The Spanish elections have been won by right-wing Partido Popular thanks to an historical socialist collapse. In the basque country Bildu (a left wing nationalist party) has won the elections.

All the camps are planned to continue at least until next sunday. However, due to the political turn to the right, it is possible that some camps may be cleared. As for Madrid and Barcelona, the idea is to decentralise the movement. It has been called to form neighbourhood assemblies. Here is the amazing list of Madrid assemblies to be held this week:

http://www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/movimiento-15-mayo-convoca-asambleas-populares-barrios-pueblos-madrid

The idea is to recover the neighbourhoods and to connect with the ongoing struggles.

Valeriano Orobo (post 80):

ALL POWER TO THE ASSEMBLYS!

Yes, but beware the fetishism of the assembly form: see On Assemblies. And how come Trots can take over an assembly when there's an apparent suspicion towards all political parties? Obviously, the process and progress/retreats are different within different assemblies.

But we cannot avoid the danger that awaits this movement, that of the co-option on the part of the political parties and of the unions (even the president of the "Circle of Businessmen" has shown himself sympathetic with the camps in the Sun!) and its recuperation within the terms of "citizen" ideology, whose formulas are trying to be imposed on a mobilization that was out of their hands, whose wake they lost the first day and that now they aim to profit from.

- a very rough, and possibly not very accurate (my rusty Spanish is crap), translation of a small part of this:

Comunicado del Bloque Libertario y Autónomo
Por la extensión de las revueltas. Todo el Poder para las Asambleas.
El pasado 15 de mayo se celebró en Madrid una manifestación ciudadanista con el lema Democracia Real Ya, pese a las evidentes diferencias con los organizadores y sus gastados lemas, algunos libertarios y autónomos convocamos un Bloque dentro de la manifestación. La participación en este bloque fue masiva, cálida y contundente en sus consignas. Han pasado solo unos días pero tan deliciosos que semejan siglos.
Viendo todo lo que ha tenido lugar desde el domingo, creemos que no nos equivocamos al estar presentes en la manifestación. Como no nos equivocamos al participar en todo lo que ha sucedido después. Entre las personas detenidas hay varios compañeros que necesitan toda nuestra solidaridad. Queremos a todos y a todas las detenidas libres de cargos ya. Y también había algunos de nosotros entre los primeros que acudieron a la Puerta del Sol y plantearon tomar la plaza, entre quienes empezaron a mover el apoyo a los detenidos, entre los que se unieron a las asambleas y comenzaron a formar comisiones.
La pasma desalojó la plaza el martes a las 5:30 de la madrugada, pero esa misma tarde volvió a ser ocupada y se levantó un campamento aún más grande. Acudió aún más gente y, como comentaba un amigo, era difícil salir de allí, un imán nos atraía y dábamos vueltas alrededor de las fuentes, charlando, encontrando amigos, participando en una asamblea o aportando ideas para acciones. Era un momento hermoso.
Comisiones de trabajo, asambleas abiertas, autoorganización, el auténtico poder popular, aunque sea a la escala reducida de una plaza.
Son muchas las diferencias con parte de la gente que participa en estas asambleas, pero nos reconocemos iguales en la lucha y creemos que al calor de las experiencias pueden surgir nuevos amores para los viejos revolucionarios. Llega un momento en el que cuanto más te golpean más fieramente miras a los ojos del amo, cerca de ese punto se encuentra mucha gente que aún no ha encontrado un lenguaje propio, una estrategia y una dirección. Quizás se puedan cruzar nuestros senderos.
Pero no podemos obviar el peligro que acecha a este movimiento, el de la cooptación por parte de los partidos políticos y de los sindicatos (¡hasta el presidente del Círculo de Empresarios se ha mostrado comprensivo con la acampada de Sol!) y la recuperación ciudadanista, cuyos lemas están tratando de imponer en una movilización que se les fue de las manos, cuya estela perdieron el primer día y que ahora tratan de rentabilizar. Se celebran fiestas cuando debería llamarse a la multiplicación de las asambleas y las comunas en todos los barrios y ciudades.
Asimilación. Ése es el verdadero peligro para el naciente movimiento asambleario y no el que esgrime la prensa hablando de violentos que pretender reventar las protestas pacíficas, cuando lo cierto es que esos violentos y radicales estuvieron en el comienzo de todo lo sucedido, junto a muchas otras personas. A izquierda y derecha el miedo es generalizado. Especialmente la izquierda está tratando ya de absorber y recuperar este movimiento. No podemos permitir que se apropien de él. Tenemos que defender nuestra libertad de los perros del poder, vistan de uniforme o enarbolen la bandera verde o roja.
Por ello, creemos necesario avanzar en las propuestas prácticas, que reflejen el sentir generalizado de la gente, que no se queden en la pura fachada del problema y que apunten al corazón de la bestia.
- Exigencia de la retirada inmediata de la reforma laboral y de la reforma de las pensiones.
- Autoorganización por medio de las Asambleas, único poder que reconocemos, y multiplicación de las mismas en barrios y curros.
- Fuera políticos de las Asambleas.
- Ningún diálogo con el Crimen Organizado.
- Multiplicación de las acciones, huelgas y deserciones.
Hacemos un llamamiento explícito a los compañeros y compañeras, amigos y amigas de todo el mundo: Solidaridad urgente con la revuelta. En Túnez, en Siria, en Grecia o en España, nuestra lucha es una y la misma. Que el fuego prenda de ciudad en ciudad, de país en país y de continente a continente.
Libertarios, autónomos y antiautoritarios: nuestro lugar está en las Asambleas. Hay que sumar y aportar empuje, buscando el equilibrio entre la crítica radical y el trabajo compartido con el resto de personas y grupos que forman este movimiento.
Esto es sólo el comienzo de una hermosa puesta de sol...
Por la extensión de las revueltas:
Asambleas antiautoritarias y anticapitalistas en todas las ciudades
Todo el poder para las asambleas!
Libertarios y Autónomos de Madrid

there's a small camp and assembly in Brighton, mostly Spanish people with some climate campers and trots. today they were discussing whether/how to protest and the legality figured. a lot of people didn't seem to know the law, so i've knocked up this text to give the discussions a factual basis (obviously the decision whether to break laws is that of the people involved...). If anyone has any corrections/improvements on the english or my spanish translation, please post up. Will be printing some tomorrow afternoon.

________________________________________

Information about the law and protest in England
The European Convention of Human Rights, via the Human Rights Act (1998) guarantees the rights to freedom of expression (Art. 10) and freedom of association and assembly (Art. 11). This means all other laws (including those below) have to comply with these rights, subject to limits “necessary in a democratic society”. But in practice, the police will use several laws against protest. These are the most common laws they use: it is not comprehensive. For more information see http://greenandblackcross.org/legal/keyadvice

The Public Order Act (1986)
Section 12 (processions) and Section 14 (assemblies) allow the police to impose conditions (duration, route, location) on demonstrations “to prevent serious public disorder, serious criminal damage or serious disruption to the life of the community”. Breaking these restrictions can lead to arrest. Section 5 allows arrest for behaviour likely to cause “harassment, alarm or distress”.

Breach of the peace
The police have the power to arrest people 'to prevent a breach of the peace', what this means is at their discretion!

Private property
Some 'public space' (like Churchill Square) is private property. The owners (or their agents: security/management) can use reasonable force to remove you, and the police will normally assist. It is only a crime (aggravated trespass) if you trespass with “the intention of disrupting, or intimidating those taking part in, lawful activity”.

Stop and search
When you are stopped or searched under any search powers, you DO NOT have to give the police your name and address.

Remember: the police can always find a law to use if they want to stop a protest. But it's up to protesters to decide whether the to ignore the police or comply. It is often a question of numbers: if there are lots of protesters it is easier to protest freely. If there are few, it is harder to ignore police instructions.

Información sobre la ley y protesta en inglaterra
La Convención Europea de Derechos Humanos, por la ley de Derechos Humanos (1998), garantías los derechos de libertad de expresión (Pro. 10) y libertad de asociación y reunión (Pro. 11). Eso significa todos leyes otros (incluye esos debajo) tienen que para cumplir con esos derechos, sujeto á limitos “necessario en una sociedad democrática”. Pero en la practica, la policia usara algunos leyes contra protestas. Esos es las leyes utilizan con mayor frecuencia: no es completa. Por más información (en inglés) ver http://greenandblackcross.org/legal/keyadvice

(traducido por gente quien no hablan espanol muy bien: ¡si tiene dudas, leer en inglés sobre la página!)

La Ley de Orden Publico (1986)
Sección 12 (procesiones) y Sección 14 (asembleas) permitir a la policia para imponer condiciones (duración, ruta, localización) en manifestaciones “para evitar los desórdenes públicos graves, daños criminales graves o graves perturbaciones a la vida de la comunidad”. Actos contra esos condiciones puede llevar a detuvar. Sección 5 permitir a detuvar por “comportamiento que pueda provocar el acoso, alarma o angustia”.

'Violación de la paz' (perturbación del orden público)
La policia tienen el poder detuvar gente 'para evitar una violación de la paz', ¡lo que esto significa es, a su discreción!

La propiedad privado
Algun 'espacio publico' (como Churchill Square) es la propiedad privado. Los propietarios (o sus agentes: las guardias de seguridad o la gestión) pueden utilizar razonable de la fuerza para quitar tú, y la policia normalmente ayudar. Lo es solo un crimen (entrar sin autorización en propiedad ajena agravado) si entra sin autorización con 'la intención de perturbar o intimidar a los participantes en la actividad legal'.

Detención y registro
Cuando usted es detenido o registrado virtud de las atribuciones de la búsqueda, usted NO tiene que dar a la policía su nombre y dirección.

Recordar: la policia pueden siempre para econtrar una ley si desean para detener una protesta. Pero es la elección de los manifestantes a decidir hacer caso omiso de la policía o el cumplimiento con ellas. Muchos veces, es una pregunta de los números: si hay muchos manifestantes es más facile a protestar con libertad. Si hay pocos, es más dificil de ignorar las instruciónes de la policia.

________________________________________

Weirdly i couldn't find any activist text like this; there's either in-depth guides to protest law or bust cards relating mostly to arrest or stop-and-search. the people in the assembly were mostly concerned with what would happen if they just demonstrated without giving the police notice, so i tried to include the most common laws used in such cases.

Hey I took a crack at the Spanish end.
This is different from what I usually translate and I did it on the quick (plus translating out of English is much harder), so it isn't a perfect translation - mostly I corrected for number and gender and some vocabulary. I'm posting it up here in case anyone else wants to print something off, or offer improvements.

Good luck with the Brighton folks!

Información sobre la ley y protesta en inglaterra
La Convención Europea de Derechos Humanos, por la ley de Derechos Humanos (1998), garantiza a los derechos de libertad de expresión (Pro. 10) y de libertad de asociación y reunión (Pro. 11). Eso significa que todas las otras leyes (incluye esos debajo) tienen que cumplir con esos derechos, sujeto a limitos “necessarios en una sociedad democrática”. Pero en la practica, la policia va a utilizar algunas leyes contra manifestaciones. Esas son las leyes que se utilizan con mayor frecuencia: no es una lista completa. Para más información (en inglés) ver http://greenandblackcross.org/legal/keyadvice

(esta información fue traducida por gente que no habla muy bien el español: ¡si tienes dudas, leer en inglés sobre la página!)

La Ley de Orden Publico (1986)
Sección 12 (desfiles) y Sección 14 (asembleas) permiten a la policia a imponer condiciones (duración, ruta, localización) en manifestaciones “para evitar a graves desórdenes públicos, graves daños criminales, o graves perturbaciones a la vida de la comunidad”. Actos contra esas condiciones pueden motivar a la detención. Sección 5 permitir a detener por “comportamiento que pueda provocar el acoso, alarma o angustia”.

'Violación de la paz' (perturbación del orden público)
La policia tiene el poder a detener gente 'para evitar una violación de la paz', ¡lo que esto significa está a su discreción!

La propiedad privada
Algunos 'espacios publicos' (como Churchill Square) son propiedad privado. Los propietarios (o sus agentes: las guardias de seguridad o la gestión) pueden utilizar fuerza razonable para quitarte a ti, y la policia normalmente los van a ayudar. Sólo es una crimen (entrar sin autorización en propiedad ajena agravado) si entras sin autorización con 'la intención de perturbar o intimidar a los participantes en la actividad legal'.

Detención y registro
Si eres detenido o registrado bajo las medidas de registración, NO TIENES que dar a la policía ni tu nombre ni tu dirección.

Recordar: la policia siempre puede econtrar una ley si deseen impedir a una manifestación. Pero es la elección de los manifestantes a decidir hacer caso omiso de la policía o cumplir con ella. Muchas veces, es una pregunta de números: si hay muchos manifestantes, es más facil a manifestar con libertad. Si hay pocos, es más dificil de ignorar las instrucciónes de la policia.

Gracias hombre!

I have "polished" the text

Información sobre la Ley y la Protesta en Inglaterra
La Convención Europea de los Derechos Humanos, mediante la Ley de los Derechos Humanos (1998), garantiza los derechos de Libertad de Expresión (Pro. 10) y de Libertad de Asociación y Reunión (Pro. 11). Eso significa que todas las demás leyes (ver debajo) tienen que cumplir con estos derechos que están sujetos a los límites “necesarios en una sociedad democrática”. Pero en la práctica, la policía puede utilizar algunas leyes contra los manifestaciones. Estas son las leyes que utilizan con mayor frecuencia (no es una lista completa). Para más información (en inglés) ver http://greenandblackcross.org/legal/keyadvice

[please, put the name of the laws in english. People must get used to heard about them in their real language.]
La Ley de Orden Publico (1986)
La Sección 12 (desfiles) y la Sección 14 (asambleas) permiten a la policía imponer condiciones (duración, recorrido, localización) a las manifestaciones “para evitar a graves desórdenes públicos, grandes daños delictivos, o grandes perturbaciones a la vida de la comunidad”. Los actos contra estas limitaciones pueden motivar la detención. Sección 5: Se permite detener por “comportamiento que pueda provocar acoso, alarma o angustia”.

"Violación de la paz" (perturbación del orden público)
La policía tiene el poder para detener gente "para evitar una violación de la paz". ¡Lo que significa que pueden detener a discrección!

La propiedad privada
Algunos "espacios publicos" (como la Churchill Square) son propiedad privada. Los propietarios (o sus agentes: tanto los guardias de seguridad como la gerencia) pueden utilizar una "fuerza razonable" para sacarte, y la policía normalmente los ayudará. Sólo es delito (si entras sin autorización en propiedad ajena es más grave) si entras sin autorización con 'la intención de perturbar o intimidar a los participantes en una actividad legal'.

Detención y registro
Si eres detenido o registrado bajo las medidas de registro, NO TIENES por qué dar a la policía ni tu nombre ni tu dirección.

Recordar: la policia siempre puede encontrar una ley si desean impedir una manifestación. Pero es elección de los manifestantes el decidir hacer caso omiso de la policía o cumplir con su voluntad. Muchas veces, es cuestión de número: si hay muchos manifestantes, es más facil manifestarse con libertad. Si hay pocos, es más dificil de ignorar las instrucciónes de la policia.

gracias; it's up here and i'll print some later today.

In Melilla, our spanish colony in Marrocco, the muslim youth has revolted against the victory of PP in the town. The riots in Melilla and Ceuta has been erupting for months in a similar way that the french banlieus.

Segunda noche de barricadas y graves disturbios en Melilla tras la victoria del PP

Por segunda noche consecutiva, jóvenes musulmanes han causado graves disturbios en una barriada. Policías y viandantes han resultado heridos.

La holgada victoria de Juan José Imbroda en Melilla el domingo no ha gustado a una parte de la población musulmana en la ciudad autónoma. En la misma noche electoral, decenas de jóvenes colocaron barricadas, quemaron contenedores y arrojaron piedras a viandantes y policías. Los agentes tuvieron que emplearse a fondo para proteger el colegio electoral para poder concluir así el recuento de votos. Tras estos incidentes una persona fue detenida.

Los energúmenos [olé ese libro de estilo] que protagonizaron estos disturbios pertenecen a la Cañada Hidum, barriada de mayoría musulmana, y protestaban por la victoria del PP en las elecciones y de los malos resultados de Coalición por Melilla, segunda fuerza política en la ciudad.

Sin embargo, los incidentes no han cesado y anoche se recrudecieron de manera alarmante. A las piedras y barricadas hay que sumar ahora brutales agresiones a viandantes y la quema de vehículos. Según informa Infomelilla volvieron a protagonizar violentos episodios quejándose de que la victoria del PP "no les dará trabajo".

Cualquiera que se acercara a las barricadas era recibido a pedradas e incluso los jóvenes musulmanes que protagonizan los disturbios dieron el alto a una furgoneta que trasladaba verduras, le propinaron una paliza al conductor y más tarde calcinaron el vehículo, según cuenta el diario.

La quema del vehículo provocó que las llamas se extendieran por varios edificios colindantes, quemando un comercio cercano. El balance de la noche se ha saldado con decenas de señales arrancadas, decenas de coches dañados, diez contenedores quemados así como las viviendas y el comercio dañados por el fuego.

Además, varios agentes fueron alcanzados por las piedras y el conductor de la furgoneta tuvo que ser trasladado al hospital comarcal con fuertes contusiones y heridas en la cara.

beware the fetishism of the assembly form: see On Assemblies. And how come Trots can take over an assembly when there's an apparent suspicion towards all political parties? Obviously, the process and progress/retreats are different within different assemblies.

Sam's intervention above gives me the opportunity to make some considerations about the whole thing, today.

In the first place, I was in the assembly thursday, friday and sunday. Took the word two times and chatted with quite a lot of people. I think i can assure you that this ain't gonna be the flavour of the day: it's going to last, people is really pissed off and quite obviously PP politics ai'nt gonna change anything basic.

I agree in full with bloque libertario's text above except for one thing: politicos out of the assembly, yes, but you can't prevent anyone from doing his speech, you can unmask him tho (I did twice with most of the assembly's approval i must say, no showing off here, guaranteed) and remind the assembly that every intervention you only represent yourself.

The assembly in my place have certain characteristics: it's fiercely jealous of its independent nature. Highly significant of this is that the explosion here went far above the heads of veteran leftists (who, sal probably knows prowl around a hood called "la magdalena"), that means that none of them took any part in the organization of the protest: nor leninists (here the trots are residual) neither the local cnt: in fact the local section only reproduces the madrid section manifest on the occupations and locally only called for the umpteenth concentration against the elections, quite meaningful that the place to meet and protest was several streets far from where thousands were gathered. Besides ex-members who had a chat with current members told me yesterday that still yesterday they were thinking that was a show prepared by the secretary of interior (sigh)

I think none of the organisers have a clear ideology besides being "left", more or less citizenists or anti-globalization. I'd say there is a clear drive to bring the assemblys to the hoods in every city and a less clear drive to make its decissions known in the factories. Why? because of externalization. Here there is a huge opel factory whose workers are seen as privileged, corporativists and selfish and there is some true in this view. Where it fails it's in considering the lot of precarized workers who while working for other companies work in there too.

And that's where the main problem lays: lack of a clear vision and lack of a clear agenda to be carried on from now on and the inevitable necessity of a horizontal organisation that could implement (or try to implement the decissions taken)

In short: the extreme left here are jokers, buffoons, nothing to care about (for the moment), the movement is too big and complex for them to handle. The problem lays in the extremely volatile views of the protestors about the society they live in: They believe in democracy (wrong) beacuse they think their State is not democratic (right) ...And yes every time i can i try to sharpen their (and mine too) view.

When (and if) the assemblys take place in the hoods being smaller, it exists a possibility that they are kidnapped by leftists. But we'll care about that when the former takes place. Right now a good job to do is to demolish what's left of the leftist cults. Pity that i'm ill right now and can't do as much as i'd like to but i have some friends and we share different tasks.

I went yesterday to my neighbourhood assembly. It was impressive, at least 300 people in a relaxed mood. Not so indignats, but reflexive. The assembly passed motions supporting health workers, who are right now being cutted. We went also to a "cacerolada" in front of the headquarters of CIU the winner in Barcelona's city council.

Today a group of 200 students occupied the University of Raval (UB) asking to stop cuts. It was a temporary & simbolic occupation, but is symptomatic of what is going to happen right now.
http://www.lavanguardia.com/local/barcelona/20110524/54160016905/unos-200-estudiantes-obligan-a-suspender-el-consejo-de-gobierno-de-la-ub-contra-los-recortes.html

In Murcia, amidst an incredible victory of a right wing and also corrupt PP, indignants occupied the regional TV studios.

http://www.laverdad.es/murcia/20110524/local/region/centenar-indignados-toma-sede-201105241304.html

Also a young protester entered into the Europarliament to protest:
http://www.europapress.es/nacional/noticia-15m-joven-espanol-interrumpe-comision-eurocamara-pedir-democracia-real-20110524123104.html

Protest are trespassing the squares. Right now the possition is to decentralite the struggle and to connect with other ongoing struggles (labour or neighbourhood issues). And I guess that students may start to move as well. Also other temporary occupations, like banks

http://twitpic.com/50108d

are the caceroladas a Spanish thing, or are they a reference to Argentina and 'que se vayan todos'? do they have the same class connotations (i.e. middle class, 'citizen' politics?)

I think it is an old method of protest here. However, it was popularised by Argentinian crisis. It is more like "que se vayan todos" than a "we want more democracy" thing. I has no class connotation. It was used in 14th March 2004 after the terrorist attack in Madrid trains, when government said it had been ETA and not Al Qaida. When people knew they had been cheated the anger was really impressive.

According to a right wing newspaper in Granada the radicals have won:
http://www.ideal.es/granada/20110524/local/granada/acampada-granada-entre-christiania-201105232251.html

I imagine it is the most 'anarchistic', hippyish camp in spain.
In Barcelona even some nihilist punks have joined in a comission! they run out of speed!

:)

Joseph Kay

are the caceroladas a Spanish thing, or are they a reference to Argentina and 'que se vayan todos'? do they have the same class connotations (i.e. middle class, 'citizen' politics?)

I wouldn't say so, more as a popular protest. I think is important to remark that confidence and communication amongt strangers is reapearing here and that the people's mood was fantastic, no pasiveness, really willfull to do things and in fact doing them spontaneously.

Finally in Barcelona was passed an "anarchistic" programme:

http://acampadabcn.wordpress.com/

Finally in Barcelona was passed an "anarchistic" programme:

http://acampadabcn.wordpress.com/

interesting debate in the Discussion part of the article, mainly on the last point of the demands (violence and broadening of the conflict). for example, people ask who approved it. generally, it is interesting to read it, cos the participants to the assemblies write and one can get an interesting picture of the mood and motivations of the participants.

Salvoechea

Finally in Barcelona was passed an "anarchistic" programme:

http://acampadabcn.wordpress.com/

brilliant quote from that:
"Elimination of stewards and create assemblies of workers and trade union committees. We do not want parliaments within the workplace!"

(original Catalan:)
"Eliminació dels comitès d’empresa i crear assemblees de treballadors o comitès sindicals. No volem parlaments dins els llocs de treball!"

I'm really excited to see them focusing on spreading it to the workplaces

People is learning at light-speed. It's amazing to see previously unpolitised people catching the spirit of 'assemblearism' and class struggle in just one week.

Salvoechea

People is learning at light-speed. It's amazing to see previously unpolitised people catching the spirit of 'assemblearism' and class struggle in just one week.

So would you say that people initially involved for "pro-democracy" (anti-cuts) reasons are beginning to grasp class struggle? Genuine question.

Harrison Myers

Salvoechea

People is learning at light-speed. It's amazing to see previously unpolitised people catching the spirit of 'assemblearism' and class struggle in just one week.

So would you say that people initially involved for "pro-democracy" (anti-cuts) reasons are beginning to grasp class struggle? Genuine question.

Some of em do, some of em don't...I think class politics at a masses level have been forgotten in spain since the 80's, since the clashes involving the industry restructuring. That is twenty some years ago, many of the protesters weren't even born so in fact i think it's going amazingly quickly.

Syntagma Sq. livestream!

http://roarmag.org/2011/05/greek-revolution-protests-live-stream-syntagma-square/

Good for the greeks, all my support!

In my place it has been decided to bring on friday the points made by the assembly to the biggest factory around.

Today (25th May), there've been demos and camps against austerity throughout France - inspired by Spain ("they take the money, we take the streets" is the slogan). The following cities have been involved in this mid-week protest:
Bayonne, Bordeaux, Brest, Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Montluçon, Montpellier, Nancy, Nantes, Nice, Paris, Pau, Perpignan, Rennes, Rouen, Strasbourg, Toulouse and Tours.

See this in French. A lot of crappy ideology that even the Front National can agree with - "real democracy", "international finance", "the people" "citizens" - and which they are busy recuperating. But it's early days yet.

Edit: Today (now May 26th) camps and /or demos will take place in the above cities but also Besançon, Dijon and Nimes.

Went to the one in Montpellier. Over a hundred people. Apparently on Monday there were less than 50 (just about 20 sleeping there Monday and Tuesday nights), so it's growing a bit, but since there's a massive annual bookfair in the square starting later today it remains to be seen whether the powers-that-be will continue to allow it.
Atmosphere obviously friendly.
Some people criticised the pacifism: one French guy cited the March 26 demo in London and the fact that the Black Block were 'violent' whereas UKUncut wasn't, saying all tactics are not necessarily at all incompatible, adding that he was as opposed to pacifists denouncing violent tactics as he was to those with violent tactics hiding behind the peaceful majority. One guy mentioned how Marine Le Pen was demagogicly using themes arising from these movements to recuperate them. Another, however, was clapped for saying that a simple thing like buying en masse silver 10 euro coins could upset the whole system by creating massive problems in the silver market. People like to have risk-free "solutions" to combating the system to avoid the consciousness that we're going to have to take the risk of a wholesale attack on the totality of our alienation, and the hierarchical powers maintaining it, if even the simplest notion of confronting what causes our misery is to be taken seriously and practically.
There was also a little discussion criticising the use of the term "people" and "citizen" with some saying "proletarian" is better, whilst others saying "proletarian" sounded too much like old fashioned USSR-type communists, to which was replied that the terms "people and "citizen" came from the French Revolution of the 18th century.
A banner was hung up from a flat above the mini-camp saying "The problem=The system".

The limitations of these camps is that - so far at least - these assemblies seem to be too content with discussion and debate without practical consequence; anybody can rapidly "adopt" a class point of view but if tht doesn't lead to concrete consequences, then "theory" is just reduced to whatever you happen to think at the time, and the "adoption of class positions" can occur one day, and then a few days later be abandoned. So one can have the feeling that people are changing very quickly but if they don't then go on to attack and subvert precise material expressions of their "theory", such "theory" remains abstract.

By the way, I heard from a friend in Barcelona that after sunday some of the independent revolutionaries in the camp refused to keep participating and helping the occupation because of disagreement over fundamental principles. Does anyone know anything more about this?

An anarchist participant in that demo has posted in alasbarricadas

http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/?q=node/17747

100,000 people in the square. Half of them previously unpolitised. Just 3 or 4 greek flags. Before the demo there was the fear that the fascists could take profit of it. In the end there were less greek flags than during general strikes.

Speeches similar to Tahrir sq. Radicalised people asking for a general and indefinite strike. Anarchist were a part.

From athens indymedia via occupied london

Some thoughts by an anarchist who was at Syntagma square in Athens last night

Deleted post

That's what anarchist in Spain have done. I think we lost in Spain a great opportunity during the anti-globalisation movt. We, the anarchist, broke with the movement because it was full of leftists. I think that was a gesture of weakness and political immaturity.

This time, even the insurrectionist participate in the movement in some way or another. We don't expect to convince everyone, but, at least our message is listened more that any other time before. We participate in assemblies, commissions, debates, we spread messages, papers, flyers, zines, books, etc.
and people is willing to know about us.

I think we're in the right place at the right time for the first time in (my) history :)

--

To be honest with you, I've felt that if police ever attacked the camps or the assemblies, for a few days we'd had here an impredictable revolution. Petrograd Soviet before the "bloody sunday" was asking the Tzar to do things to help the working people. Soldiers shoot, and a revolution began. In Spain for a few days that happened.

Salvoechea

That's what anarchist in Spain have done. I think we lost in Spain a great opportunity during the anti-globalisation movt. We, the anarchist, broke with the movement because it was full of leftists. I think that was a gesture of weakness and political immaturity.

This time, even the insurrectionist participate in the movement in some way or another. We don't expect to convince everyone, but, at least our message is listened more that any other time before. We participate in assemblies, commissions, debates, we spread messages, papers, flyers, zines, books, etc.
and people is willing to know about us.

I think we're in the right place at the right time for the first time in (my) history :)

Amen, brother.

Wherever you go in the anglophone world to social centres or other place frequented by anarchists of all stripes, you usually find that in the toilet some bright spark or other has scrawled "Smash the Cistern!" and a big circle-@ on the toilet cistern. These "anti-cistern" anarchists though are more than a marginal feature - they symptomatically represent a deeper problem of, precisely, political immaturity that leads to sectarianism.

By sectarianism I mean behaviour that leads a small self-consciously defined minority, whatever role an indealised "working class" may play in their discourse, to separate themselves off from the rest of the class in practice and, whether admitted or not, to hold the majority of ordinary w/c people in contempt.

Within a European frame, Fascism, Stalinism and WW2 effectively killed off anarchism as a living movement within the working class. Since the re-emergence of very small, marginal political tendencies recognising themselves in the anarchist tradition in the 1960s the movement has grown and occasionally (e.g. Poll Tax) played a significant role in historical struggles. But on the whole, the movement remains separated from the class (like the entire so-called "left" for that matter) and exists in the form of sects. There is an element of South Sea Islanders cargo cult behaviour in the way that our organisations try to appropriate the ideas, the language and organisational forms of the movement that existed 2 - 3 generations ago in the Gold Standard era. But we have to recognise that if anarchism is to be truly reborn again, we need to transcend this half-life of history-cult existence and re-engage with the living "real movement that abolishes the present state of things".

In light of that orientation we have to recognise the presence of "nihilists" within our ranks. That is people that, whatever they may say, are not just rejecting capitalist society, but rejecting the majority of society - that is the mass of ordinary w/c people - as well. Anarchism is the movement for the self-emancipation of the working class - if you secretly loath the majority of the working class, then that leaves you nothing that you are really for - this is what I understand by nihilism. Life in capitalism is shite, and that can mean that family dynamics in current society can be shite as well. But we cannot allow the resulting nihilists - young people with unresolved mummy- and daddy-issues - to appropriate anarchism as a means of working out their hostility to society at large. They will fight harder to keep anarchism marginalised from the rest of society than all of our political enemies combined.

What is the situation? Masses of people are on the streets saying that the electoral system is shite, that capitalism is shite, that being disempowered is shite, that they want to make society serve their needs and desires directly, as by right. I mean, Jesus Christ, what more could you ask for? In this situation, any group that still hangs back, sneering with contempt, saying "If I wanted to go there, I wouldn't start from here", need to answer the question "where the hell would you start from then?".

That comment about the "A-political masses" did kind of make me sit up and wonder what the fuck these people think anarchism is. Generally I'm quite open to different flavours of anarchist (and maybe this might trigger a new debate, or maybe just bring up an old one) but the idea that any anarchist could think a huge group of people, taking a public square under the kind of "Fuck all politicians" banner isnt something worth getting down to and agitating in.

I mean for me one of the biggest problems, practically of anarchism is that people are not "a-political" enough. They are generally content within the boundries of "politics", so a moment when people go beyond "politics" is an amazing one.

I wonder if its a symptom of the kind of anarchism that exists in greece or if its a more individual thing. I remember during the Tahir sq threads there were essentially a lot of similar comments being made by people who might see it slightly differently now its in Spain, Greece and Italy.[

I wrote that knowing that our political enemies are really there. In squares we may found trotskists, stalinists, post-modern negrinists, democratic leftists, christians, hippies, crazy nuts, sects... Some camp sites look like a circus, which is a great problem also.

However, the assemblies are still (10 days before today) massive. Gathering thousands of people, trying to know what the hell do we have to offer or to say. And, of course, some of the people who speak and give nice speeches are anarchists. Not only that, but also in the neighbourhoods the assemblies are also massive, and also closer to the working class people living there, as that assemblies speak more their 'language' that the bigger assemblies in the town center.

I don't know if the movement [pro-democratic in its origin] will go somewhere. What I know is that it is quite probable that in the next months we may count on new good anarchist militants, who knew us (our practise and our discourse) in this movement. That is a point we missed during the years of the anti-globalisation movt. when we left the movt. in hands of political parties (it's the spanish case) that in the end killed the movt. This is the first time a mass movement is disputed by us.

State repression of Barcelona camp has begun:

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/05/480118.html

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Geg_6Xoy04s&feature=youtu.be

#acampadabcn: http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23acampadabcn

There is a concentration announced for 19h in placa catalunya in Barcelona, and at 21h in every neighbourhood of Barcelona,
they evicted the placa in LLeida too, (a capital of province in Catalonia too.)

In mainstream news it been explained that the Placa has been evicted for health reasons and because of the upcoming football match between manchester united and barcelona FC. The police say that they had to remove any object that could be used during possible disturbances after the celebration match, which normaly occur in the rambla next to the square.

The spokeperson from the government said that after the match, the "indigados" could go back to the square, since that wasn't an eviction. LOL

The mossos initially said they just wanted to remove the possible harmful objects, clean and that people could stay there with sleeping bags (though even this is no longer possible)
But actually to clean the place means to unmount and remove a infrastructure and lots of material that were constituting the activities of the camp. Like lots of computers, books, cooking equipment, cameras, etc... All of this was taken by the cleaning brigade under the protection of mossos.

According to media there was 400 people in the camp at the moment of eviction. Cleaning trucks with all the material were getting stoped by sittings until police charged violently, media reports 25 injured people.

Today in Barcelona the police has charged and destroyed the camp in Pl. Catalunya. A demostration has been called at the 19:00 hours. Not sure how is the situation right now. In Madrid, the Regional Government and a association of small businesses has demanded to the Central Government to do the same in 'Puerta del Sol'.

A mate of mine in Barcelona just sent this to me about the attempted eviction of Placa Catalunya:

I had a job interview out here today. (It went well and they said they would be in contact in July). On my way back to XXXX's flat, I came out of the metro station at Plaza Catalunya and saw endless rows of Riot vans. More than I've ever seen. I followed the madness and came to the main square. Riot police started charging a protest camp in the square. Straight away, swarms of people passing by started running into the square to join the protestors. Even old grannies were getting in on it! So of course, I ran straight in. Police started wacking people with thier batons, but the crowd manage to push VIOLENT police lines and force them out of the sqaure. A few minutes later, the cops charged in for their second attempt to remove us all. This time, they were more aggressive and started firing rubber bullets at us. Again, they got pushed back. After firing the bullets though, a lot of people had left the square. I was still there, but was shitting it about getting a rubber bullet in the arse. Anyway, they had another go, firing bullets, spraying teargas, but still got pushed out yet again. As they fucked off, everyone cheered of course. The best thing I saw though, was an elderly lady put her shopping bags down and clap as the pigs pissed off. It's been calmer since but everyone knows the police are coming back this evening. I met XXXX in the square (he just happened to be there too when I rang him) and he got talking to one of the protestors who had been camping there. She told us that the police had turned up at 6.30 am and taken all their stuff; laptops, cameras, books, petitions, EVEN THEIR FOOD AND WATER. It's absolutely fucking rowdy. The police are using the excuse of the Champions League final to attack the protestors. Basically, their saying that they need Plaza Catalunya (the main sqaure) to be clean for the cup final on saturday. On cup final night, which is tomorrow, it's gonna be off the chain. Everyone seems to be saying that both protestors and thousands of Barca fans are gonna deal with any riot police and that a massive riot is inevitable.

You got some pictures here:
http://acampadabcn.wordpress.com/

things like that happened this morning: http://twitpic.com/534ban
or that one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/acampadabcnfoto/5765019470/in/photostream/

This stupid movement from the local government has made the movt. stronger. People is very angry, even the pacifists. There were lots of media photographers all around taking pics, that's why police was even contentive. They did't charge as murderous as in the General Strike of 29S, but they revealed themselves before this movement of normal citizens.

All right, my review. I received a text messg. this morning at 7. Mossos (police) were begining to "clean" the square. There were fears that tomorrow night after the football match, hordes of drunk hooligans (some Barça supporters are well-known nazis) came to Plaça Catalunya to celebrate the possible victory. In the camp the assembly was last night discussing about this possibility, or even another one: that the police put infiltrators into the camp, to make up acts of violences that serve them as an excuse to wipe out the camp.

The point is that the camp is widely supported by the population of Barcelona. Politicians cannot act as they usually do against us (los "antisistema", los "okupas", anarchist and other radicals).

So, 300 anti-riot police where surrounding 450 campers who were awakened by the city cleaning service. Mossos catched the campers by surprise, and they quickly seized computers, forms with mails and signatures, the kitchen, etc. The cleaners began to put everything in vans and lorries to take it out the place. Half of the campers managed to break the circle, and went out calling & texting other people for help.

When I arrived there were about four big groups of 100 people each closing the ways out of the square, efectively blocking those lorries. Police vans were all around the area. In the news they were saying there were 200 anti-riot and another 100 from the local police.

At 10:30 police charged for first time trying to remove protesters sitting down the street. There were several injured. However, the lorries couldn't move much.

At 12 the police charged again, this time with more violence. Lots of more people were injured. Before the police there were even anarcho-insurrectionist who i know, using those non-violent fucking tactics.

However, everyone in the square was calling media. And media spoke alot about the events. Politicians were asked about that. .. and they gave confuse orders to policemen, who were trying no to be ridiculous. Surrunding the square there were thousands of people right now. At 13h. At that time police backed and abandoned the square, leaving people re-occupy the place. Students from the university blocked an important street.

Today there are another demo. And tomorrow there will be troubles with football supporters for sure.

I support Man' United ! :)

I recommend to read and translate if possible as soon as possible this article:

http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/?q=node/17755

It is based on the experience of anarchist in Madrid in this movement. In Madrid this thing is a little bit more "pro-democatic" than in Barcelona (even if we have thousands of hippies around)

Salvoechea

However, everyone in the square was calling media. And media spoke alot about the events. Politicians were asked about that. .. and they gave confuse orders to policemen, who were trying no to be ridiculous. Surrunding the square there were thousands of people right now. At 13h. At that time police backed and abandoned the square, leaving people re-occupy the place. Students from the university blocked an important street.

That's fantastic news, all my support. I'll be later on too down there to prevent the removal.

Salvoechea

In Barcelona the General Assembly was taken over by leftist politicians (troskits and so on)

http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/?q=node/17704

funny since they want a party.

i've noticed this too in the USA, the ISO is really latching themselves onto this story.

I agree with everyone who has stressed the huge importance of this movement, even if it obviously faces difficulties and dangers. The bit that follows is the concluding section of a statement by the ICC in Spain, which will be published in English soon:

The initial phase in the main squares was a real victory for the movement. It should be continued since it shows the masses the importance of the exploited resisting “living as we have done until now”. The indignation being expressed leads to the necessity of a moral regeneration, of a cultural change; the proposals that have been made - even though they may appear simple or strange, timid or confused - are the products of a desire to “live in a different way”.
But, at the same time, can the movement remain at this level without formulating more concrete aims?
It is difficult to answer: there are two responses that strive to express the two “wings” that we have talked about above, democratic and proletarian. The democratic wing has its roots in the class's lack of confidence in its own strength, in the weight of non-proletarian but non-exploiting social layers, in the impact of social decomposition , all of which strengthens the idea of the “just” and “equitable” state.
The other way, that of extending the assemblies to the workplaces, centres of education, unemployment offices, neighborhoods, of polarising around the struggle against the effects of unemployment and temporary work, against the countless attacks that we have suffered already and are yet to come, was embodied in a very combative element. In Barcelona, Telefonica and hospital workers, firemen, university students, mobilised against social cuts, and united with the assemblies and began to give them a different tonality; the central assembly in Barcelona appears to be the most distant from ideas about democratic regeneration. The Madrid central assembly has called for assemblies in the neighborhoods and districts. In Valencia there has been a link-up with a protest by bus workers and also with a demonstration by a neighborhood against education cuts. In Zaragoza the bus workers took part in the assemblies with great enthusiasm.
This second way does contain a real problem. It is clear that there is a danger that the “extension” of the movement could lead to its dispersal and imprison it in sectional and corporatist thinking. This is a real contradiction. On the one hand, the movement can only continue to go forward if it gains, or at least begins to awaken, the participation of the working class as such. However, such an extension could allow the unions to take over the direction of the movement and trap it in sectional thinking, restricting the neighborhoods to localist demands etc. Without denying this danger, we have to ask : wouldn’t the very fact of trying to do this, even if it fails, provide the bases for a collective struggle that could have great force in the future?
Whatever route this movement takes it will have made an indispensable contribution to the international struggle of the working class:
• It is a massive and general movement, drawing in all sectors of society.
• Its reference point is not a concerted attack as in France or England, but indignation with the situation we are living in. This makes it difficult to center itself on concrete demands and has made it more difficult for its proletarian character to emerge clearly . But at the same time, it expresses a clear awakening of the masses faced with social problems and opens the way to their politicisation.
• The assemblies are at the heart of the movement.
To understand what is happening we need to abandon old schemas. The Russian Revolution of 1905 clearly demonstrated a new means of mass action. This caused perplexity and even the rejection of this new method of struggle, ultimately leading to treason. Many union leaders and Social Democrats, important theoreticians such as Kautsky and Plekhanov among them, were unable to free themselves from the old schema about the methodical accumulation of strength through gradual union and parliamentary work .
Today we have to avoid a similar trap. These events are not happening according to a schema tied to the struggles of the 70s and 80s. It is certain that the proletariat has difficulty in acquiring a sense of identity and confidence. It is not shouting at the top of its voice. It is also certain that there are other non-exploiting layers who are mobilising along with it. The movement towards massive struggles, towards a revolutionary struggle, will not run on clearly defined rails and neatly and unequivocally place itself on a class terrain. The present dangers– a still weak, disorientated and confused proletariat in the midst of a vast social movement - could even result in the working class being completely lost, as happened in Argentina 2001.
The above does not detract one iota from the potential of what is happening:
• Today the great industrial concentrations have less weight and have faded into an immense national and international network, which makes the traditional struggles in the big factories difficult. In order to overcome this difficulty the proletariat needs to take massively to the street, accompanied by other social layers. All of which means that the class character of the struggle cannot be seen as clearly and straightforwardly as in the past; but this path can also be enriched by a huge effort towards developing consciousness, towards clarification.
• Confronted with the prevailing social decomposition which could destroy social ties and worsen moral barbarity, the orientation of the assemblies towards main squares where human life is reflected in a conscious albeit confused manner points towards a response which can weave social ties, affirm proletarian morality and solidarity, develop a real alternative to a society based on life or death competition.
• It is true that, on the back of a desperate situation of social decay, the proletariat is launching itself into a massive struggle accompanied by other non-exploiting social strata which do not necessarily share its revolutionary aims and tend to dilute them in a mass of confusion. This contains serious dangers but at the same time gives the advantage of creating a co-existence in the struggle, of being able to methodically approach problems together, of a better mutual comprehension, all of which will be vital faced with future revolutionary confrontations with the bourgeois state.

Latest update and some interesting video links from London indymedia: https://london.indymedia.org/other_medias/9156

Here there are two videos that the Square Occupation of Barcelona's Plaça de Catalunya have chosen to show the world this morning's attempt of eviction of the square by the Catalan police foces.

In the early hours of the morning large numbers of police moved into the square with the excuse that they 'needed to open the space to the council's cleaning brigade'. People peacefully resisted the attempt, at which point police started to charge at the crowds, eventually using rubber bullets. Council cleaning brigades then moved in and started to dismantle the infrastructure of the already 12 day long protest, including the communications tent (taking away all the computers and kit), plus the different kitchens and sleeping areas.

After a few hours of clashes the crowds managed to re-take the square, setting up, once again, the infrastructure needed for the camp to continue, and by the early afternoon the camp was, once agin, full of life. As I type over 10,000 people have responded to the call to gather in the square from 7pm, whilst the camp in Madrid's Puerta del Sol has also grown in numbers tonight with large crowds of people shouting 'We are all Barcelona".

It is still unclear how the whole situation will develop later tonight and into the weekend, but it seems that the main excuse for the government to attack the camp is that Barcelona futbol team is playing the Champions leage final tomorrow night, and that they 'need' the square and the streets around it empty for the 'city's cellebration' should Barcelona win the final. There are now reports of two protestors having been badly injured by rubber bullets shot directly at them from a few meters distance, one of them with a punctured lung, the other with damage to the kidneys. The are both in hospital care tonight. Reports talk that over 100 people suffered injuries this morning, mainly from the batton charges.

In London the rally outside the Spanish embassy in Belgravia Square will continue throughout the weekend. As I type there are already several hundred people gathered in there

EDIT: Solidarity from Madison, Wisconsin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_jnOXhDF6c

Salvoechea

I recommend to read and translate if possible as soon as possible this article:

http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/?q=node/17755

It is based on the experience of anarchist in Madrid in this movement. In Madrid this thing is a little bit more "pro-democatic" than in Barcelona (even if we have thousands of hippies around)

This is a great essay.

I've translated the first two sections - I don't have time to translate any more right now.

Anarchists and the 15-M Movement: Reflections and Proposals

This text was written in Madrid, so many of the descriptions and reflections may not match the reality of other locations, especially given the heterogeneity of the 15-M Movement. Even so, we think that it could be useful as a point of departure for reflection for all the comrades involved in the assemblies, regardless of the site. The text was written and corrected hastily so that it would be ready before the convocation of village and neighborhood assemblies on May 28. Keep this in mind while reading it and excuse any mistakes that it may have.
Some Anarchists from Madrid

0. A word to begin ...

Let’s set the record straight. The signers of this text are anarchists, communists, anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist or whatever label you prefer. That is, we are for the abolition of wage labor and capital, the destruction of the state and its replacement by new forms of horizontal and fraternal life in common. We believe that the means to do this should be as consistent as possible with the ends they seek and therefore we are against participation in institutions, against political parties (parliamentary or not) and hierarchical organizations, and we are committed to a policy based on assemblyism, solidarity, mutual aid, direct action, etc. Because we are convinced that these are the most effective means to lead to the revolution. We say this to remove any suspicion, and to mark the lines that we are basing this contribution on. Now, just because we are for a social revolution to destroy capitalism, the state and which involves the abolition of social classes (along with so many other things) does not mean we think that this can happen in the short term, from sunset to sunrise. What we have raised here are ends, ie, situations that, hopefully, we will arrive at after a long journey and a considerable development of the revolutionary movement. To think otherwise is to be utopian, is an exercise in delusion and immediatist fantasy. A revolutionary approach must translate into short-term strategy in a series of proposals to address the reality that confronts us with situations that involve issues such as the abolition of wage labor, the establishment of libertarian communism, the social revolution ... issues which today, obviously, are not even remotely on the table. This intervention can not simply repeat monotonously the raging need for revolution and abolishing the state and capital. Being an anarchist does not mean to be a badge that chases everyone else, repeating over and over again how bad the state is and how good anarchy is. And yet, following the 15-M movement in recent days we have read online texts and commentaries close to immediatist delirium and, even worse, we have heard positions from comrades and friends that slide into the abyss of anarcho-badgism which, with all good intentions, are trapped in the maximalism of the great slogans of the long-term proposals, etc. We know what we’re talking, all the comrades writing this have been in these situations and, worse, have often contributed to their extension. Let us also be clear that this text is both critical and self-critical, and that it serves primarily to try to keep ourselves from falling in those traps. To wrap up, it should be noted that this text was written hastily, to the rhythm of events, with the aim of coming out before May 28, when the Popular Assemblies in different neighborhoods and towns Madrid have been called, so do not be surprised to note in some areas precipitation and urgency. We’ll stop there.

In summary, this text is intended as a reflection and a proposal to break the impasse in which we have been anchored for a long time, to get rid of burdens that drag and immobilize many of us. It is, in essence, a reflection to try to clarify for us how we can contribute to and participate in what is happening around us.

1. The 15-M movement: basic coordinates

And what is happening around us is obviously the movement called 15-M, which in the last week has emerged as a bull in the china shop of national politics. Whether we like it or not, and we want it or not, the 15-M movement has broken all expectations and has surprised everyone: police, politicians, journalists, organizers, ordinary people, citizenists, leftist and, of course, the anarchists. At first everyone was offsides and, since then, everything has been a series of more or less successful attempts to take positions on or within the 15-M. We will not even begin to analyze its causes or to review the various conspiracy theories or poisons that have emerged in its wake, these are not important for what we want to discuss. We will try to provide what we understand are the basic coordinates, or at least the most important ones, in which what we call the 15-M movement is moving, to see if an anti-capitalist or anarchist participation in it is possible (and if so how). Naturally, it will be a fragmentary, partial and incomplete description. We do not care, things are going too fast.

The first thing to say is that the 15-M movement is a real social movement and as such, is extremely heterogeneous and contradictory. It contains everything, and everything is in different doses. That is, anything we say here should not be taken as absolute defining characteristics, but rather as tendencies, nuances, etc. Expressions of a movement under construction within which there are struggles, tensions, and constant change.

That said, because of its social composition and the slogans that are most commonly heard in the meetings and working groups, as well as the opinions of people who are constantly publicizing it on the Internet (twitter), we could say that this movement is, most of all, a citizenist and openly democratic one. Or rather, it is these type of approaches to political and social reforms (electoral reform, real democracy, greater participation, criticism of mainstream political parties but not of the representative system or political parties in general ...) that, in general, gather around more people and raised hands.

However, this content is expressed in assemblies that reject any classical representation (for example, becoming another political party) and who deny any precooked political ideology, symbol or form (from parties to Republican flags, including the circle-As). There is a slogan that is making the rounds on twitter: "This is not about left or right, but rather up and down." The movement, for now, positions itself mostly on self-organization, direct action (not violent) and civil disobedience, though it does not use these magic words.

Non-violence is, in fact, one of the fundamental coordinates of 15-M, which, undoubtedly, is collectively assumed without discussion. We’ll get into that later.

All this does not detract from the fact that inside the movement you can clearly see a "power struggle" between different "factions", organized or not. Members of leftist political parties, members of social movements, anarchists, ordinary "outraged" people that come with their own world view, etc. all struggling in the inside at all levels, from the ideological or practical orientation of the movement, to control (and in many cases, manipulation) of assemblies, committees, etc. In many committees and groups we are seeing everything from accidental loss of records, personality politics, people who cling to the spokesmen, delegates who try to stop debate in general meetings, commissions jump over agreements, small groups who want to keep the refreshment stand, etc. Many, sure, are the result of inexperience and egos; others seem to be directly taken from the old handbooks for manipulating assemblies.

Around this struggle is also all the people who come there. People who come to participate, to listen, to be heard, to provide food or other materials, to see what happens, or just to take some pictures while acting like tourists in their own city. Under the tents of Sol one has the feeling of being in a bazaar in which nothing is bought or sold.

On the other hand, one of the great problems of the occupations is the difficulty of participating in them fully, not everyone can go to the center every day, not everyone can stay overnight, not everyone can participate regularly in commissions, etc. This can certainly help create informal leaders, cliques, weird and strange biases that the people, who are not assholes, are going to notice, will discuss, and will act accordingly. In fact, one possible consequence of who is taking the brunt of the occupation (and also who is more accustomed to go and propose activities) is the progressive ghettoization that has been the occupation has suffered during the weekend. Compared with the atmosphere of encounter and protest during the most intense days (especially on Friday, given the expectation of a ban on the Central Electoral Board) over the weekend the thing lost steam and one could notice that the atmosphere of protest had become much more playful, even though the committees, subcommittees and working groups continued to operate. At times, #acampadasol seems to be reproducing the worst and most banal of ghetto squats: concerts, drum circles, dining, performances, clowns, etc. at the expense of its original appearance, which contained markedly more of a character of protest, politics and "indignation" (as pro-democratic and limited it was). On twitter, which we should not forget played a large role in the rise of the 15-M movement and the Sol occupation, the discontent of many people who are not happy about this drift is beginning to creep in. A clear example of the discontent that took place the weekend was the discussion for or against alcohol, on Saturday one of the assemblies had to leave Sol because of the number of wasted people, and the subject of the drum circles, which on Sunday even forced the postponement of a meeting where no one could hear (although it must be said that the drum circles, like alcohol, had plenty of supporters).

It is obvious that the 15-M movement is not a revolution, it is not militant, and those who disagree based on the hashtag #spanishrevolution with which it initially spread should realize that this was a mix of marketing, humor, and hope. Nothing more.

The last point is that we wanted to make is, for us, perhaps the most important, along with the marked assemblyist and horizontal character (with all its defects, which are many): the tremendous change of attitude that we have seen around Sol all week. Let's recap. After the initial mass demonstration on May 15 and, especially, after the eviction of the first occupiers, people have taken Puerta del Sol en masse night after night in a way that none of us had ever seen. Protests against the war, although some were more massive, did not have, even remotely, the continuity, participation, attitude and environment we've seen this week in Sol. It is as if, suddenly, passivity and the habit of each person minding their own business had broken down around Km 0.

Going to Sol or its neighboring streets to distribute pamphlets is a pleasure, people come up to ask you for one, they take them with a smile, they ask questions, they thank you… The first days, if you formed a small group to discuss something, people would perk up their ears to participate, to listen. It has been normal to see the most varied sorts of people discussing in small groups. The working groups and the general assemblies are massive events of between 500, 600, and 2000 people (seated, standing, getting close to hear something), etc. And, apart from this, there is a permanent sensation of a good atmosphere, of “this is something special”. All of this reached its culmination on the night of Friday-Saturday, when people began the day of reflection. Listening to more than 20,000 people shouting “We are illegal” and taking pleasure like children in ignoring the law is truly breathtaking. However its clear that this intense atmosphere, of participation and of real politics began to decay beginning on this night. In part because of the adrenaline rush of Friday night, in part because of the decision to “not be political” on Saturday and Sunday, the weekend has had a much more festive tone, more like a circus than the previous days. Even so, we truly can’t remember anything like it.

Very interesting text. What exactly are "commissions"? Groups delegated to perform specific tasks? or what?

And, judging from the NY Times article, I assume that Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona has ben reoccupied, but this time with several thousand more people...?

Last day has been crazy in Barcelona. I did a summary before but it finished more or less at midday.

In the afternoon, the "indignation" grew in Barcelona as media was echoing the indiscriminate violence from the Police. The "cacerolada" was simple massive. In my neighborhood there were people banging tin and metallic things for an hour. The environment was surrealistic. There were people in every block, everyt corner, every street of the area. Amazing.

There were posters calling people to go to Plaza Catalunya in Metro, almost every train had two or three posters sticked in the windows. There were people giving improvised speeches inside the train wagons, informing people about what had happened in the morning. The reaction of the passengers was of full support, clapping and encouraging the activists for go on with the camps.

Later on, the square was cramped by more than 20,000 people. the record until now. Maybe more people were coming in and going all night.

There is a webpage asking for signatures to make Felip Puig, the boss of Mossos d'Esquadra, resign. By now there are more than 48,000 signatures and it's been just 24 hours from the police attack.

Solidarity demos in Zaragoza (1500 people), Valencia (5000), Valladolid (5000)... in Malaga there was going to be a military parade for the "day of the armed forces". As campers are in a square that the parade was going to cross, the Ministry of Defence has changed the route to avoid the camps.

And this morning I read this report from Athens assembly, that states the movement there is much more radical that in Spain. They're asking for "Direct Democracy"

http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/?q=node/17763

----

"Comisiones" mean committees or commissions. They are workgroups to decide an specific stuff and to present it to the General Assembly to be voted (and normally passed).

As for the text OliverTwisted is translating, there is a small mistake.

The signers of this text are anarchists, communists, anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist or whatever...

It should be:

The signers of this text are anarchists, anti-authoritarian communists, anti-capitalist or whatever

The people who wrote it are "autonomous".

but good job

More solidarity from Tahrir. What's that in the bottom corner of the right hand placard?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150192385832676&set=a.10150192384112676.307801.586357675&type=1&theater

el Mundo and El Pais are accusing the movement of being dominated or mqnipulated by the CNT, something which theythey'veve denied, of course, while still calling for the spread of disobedience.

Read in a Guardian "Comment is Free" post that people have been walking out of work to support the protesters. Salvoechea: do you know if this is true?
Heard that people aren't really talking about what to do if attacked again by the cops or by football fans, that most seem content to just party and shout slogans. Have there been practical initiatives, by minorities, that have been interesting and maybe clarified differences, particularly differences with those who don't seem to be taking it very seriously or other significant differences? I think a critique of the limitations of assemblies as talking shops (albeit illegally occupying a large central area and drawing all sorts of disparate people in who would not normally get involved in such things) could help towards advancing the movement if accompanied by initiatives going beyond the assembly concentrated purely in one square (eg by holding an asembly in El Corte Inglès). Of course, I'm not totally against "talking shops" (libcom is one, to a certain extent, but to the extent that it remains one without practical consequences, to that extent it is limited to this society's notion of freedom of speech ie "Critique all you want but don't be practically consequential with such critiques") but we obviously have to go beyond them....As we know, the movement in Egypt wasn't purely concentrated on Tahrir Square and would have not got as far as it did (and still does) if it had been.

OliverTwister

el Mundo and El Pais are accusing the movement of being dominated or mqnipulated by the CNT, something which theythey'veve denied, of course, while still calling for the spread of disobedience.

Is it on their web sites? I did not achieve to find anything respective.

Can you read Spanish?

En este contexto, hemos visto cómo ayer en El País se afirmaba que en Madrid se debatía “cómo desvincularse de una manifestación que la rama del metal del sindicato CNT ha convocado hoy a las 19.00 en Sol”, falsedad que hubiera sido tan sencillo de contrastar como entrar en la propia página web del sindicato, donde se hubieran dado cuenta de que el acto de la Confederación se había desconvocado hacía días al ver que la acampada continuaba (eso sin contar que el acto había sido legalizado, antes incluso, de la manifestación del 15-M). Y hoy nos desayunamos con EL MUNDO publicando que “el pasado miércoles 18, cuando el asentamiento en Sol ya había prosperado, fuentes policiales filtraron que la CNT estaba controlando la ocupación” y se quedan tan anchos, haciendo buena otra vez la afirmación de “no permitas que la realidad te estropee un buen titular” (en este caso, argumento).

http://www.cnt.es/noticias/cnt-contra-la-manipulacion-mediatica-del-15-m

Quick translation:

In this manner, we've seen stuff like this in yesterday's El País [national newspaper], which claimed that in Madrid [the acampada] was debating "how to disassociate itself from a demonstration called by the metal branch [metal workers? Or a cute metaphor?] CNT union had called for today 7pm in Puerta del Sol", a falsehood which could have been easily disproved by entering the union's webpage, where you would have realised that their demonstration had been called off days earlier after noting that the acampada continued to exist (not to mention that the march had been legally approved - before the 15 March demo, in fact).

And today we woke up to El Mundo [another national newspaper] publishing that "last Wednesday 18th, while the Sol camp was in full effect, police sources leaked that the CNT was in control of the occupation". Such is their audacity that they once again prove the old truism: "never allow reality to get in the way of a good headline".

Yeah the rama de metal is the metal workers!

alan on tyneside

The poster says, more or less

Tahrir and those camping (in the squares) are fearlessly changing the world

I suggest to separe threads from Greece, as I consider them to be more advanced and revolutionary than spanish mobilisations. I Spain we need months and months of continous struggles to be near than our greek mates.

Salvoechea - A separate thread on Greece would be a good idea.

Just now created it: Greek Thread: out of the labyrinth.

According to a post on athens indymedia, this morning at 7 in Granada "centro social ocupado indiskreta" was evicted violently by police with 11 arrests. The post says the squat was used for preparation and organizing the occupation of the square. Anyone with better info in spanish please post.

dinosavros

According to a post on athens indymedia, this morning at 7 in Granada "centro social ocupado indiskreta" was evicted violently by police with 11 arrests. The post says the squat was used for preparation and organizing the occupation of the square. Anyone with better info in spanish please post.

Here you can find a press release (of the C.S.O.?) in Spanish:

http://www.viewdocsonline.com/document/bhgs66

11 people have been detained and there are 3 wounded.

About their relation with the square it says (more or less):

The occupied social centre "La Indiskreta" has given a logistic, material and human support for the maintenance of the camp, while the authorities, through the cut of the water supply and other limitations, are complicating more and more its development.

Quick translation:

Monday 30th May, at 6:45 am the CSO La Indiskreta was violently evicted, by the fire brigade, the National Police and the riot police. They used rubber bullets and tear gas to enter by force.

Minutes after the start of the eviction, comrades from the Social Centre contacted the camp in Granada asking for urgent help, as the use of violence had overwhelmed them. A group of thirty people went to the site of the eviction to support the comrades peacefully and visibilise the use of violence. Within minutes there were eighty people protesting while a presumed undercover policeman took photos of them. Some of the police, who numbered about 35, attacted the demonstrators with truncheons.
At the moment there are 11 people arrested during the eviction and at least three people injured on the demonstration.

Quite a profound movement taking place whatever the dangers.
Unlike Tahrir the bourgeoisie are blacking news of this out - the only mainstream report I could see last night was on english-language Iranian TV news. While the Barcelona football match has coverage beyond the sports pages there's very little of this "example" on the pages of even the "serious" press.
Unlike Tahrir Square there seems to be an absence of national flags which is a positive sign.
The question of the social revolt of North Africa and the Middle East is posed here at a higher level showing that it can be part of the struggle against capitalism and can be complementary to proletarian struggle, strikes, etc. There's another thread on "strike-days lost", but one of the strengths of the movement in France last year was when workers demonstrated on the weekend, ie, not showing up as strikes days lost but nevertheless a positive movement of real, as opposed to union, solidarity in taking to the streets and joining with other workers, unemployed, immigrants, etc.
"Assemblyism", which I thought was used here and there in a perjorative way, is now a factor of the struggle, a positive way forward that, as Spain and Portugal shows us, can emerge from very small minorities.

I have posted an article about these events in the Library, as it is a bit long for the news section. It is an attempt to analyse the global significance of this movement, which I agree with Baboon will have very profound implications, as developments in Greece are already showing

http://libcom.org/library/solidarity-indignos-spain-future-belongs-working-class

Access denied by an angry penguin.

manuel castells

Published May 29, 2011
Translation of a piece by pre-eminent communications theorist Manuel Castells, originally published in La Vanguardia. I haven’t bothered to translate acampada because I think that it is likely to be one of those words that, in years to come, will get imported into English untranslated, like soviet. It is a useful corrective to certain cloth-eared assessments of the protests in Spain that would characterise them as some sort of impotent half-cry half-grunt toward heaven from the swinish multitude who just won’t accept the panglossian prescriptions of sighing neo-lib reality dwellers.

#Wikiacampadas

And all of a sudden the hollow singsong of the electioneering speech became unbearable. In the midst of an unceasing crisis, with 21% unemployment, 45% youth unemployment, cuts in living standards for many and fat profits for a few, impunity for the corrupt and privileges for a caste of untouchable politicians, the disgust became a network. A little before the municipal elections on the 22nd of May, nolesvotes.org [literally, don'tvoteforthem.org] had 700,000 unique users, 154 blogs and 641,000 results in Google. In that atmosphere of outrage were germinated the ideas for the manifesto of Democracia Real Ya, a collective created in Madrid, which ended by saying “An Ethical Revolution is necessary. We have put money above human beings and we must put it at our service. We are people, not products of the market. For all of the above, I am outraged. I believe I can change it. I believe I can help. I know that united we can do it. Come out with us. It’s your right”. And on the 15-M they came out, tens of thousands of them, in Madrid, Barcelona and many other cities. At the end, in Madrid a few spent the night in the Puerta del Sol, and the following day some more in Barcelona on the Plaza Catalunya. They talked, they dreamed and they tweeted their networks of friends. The next day they were hundreds. Then, thousands. When they were evicted from the Puerta del Sol, many thousands more came. So many, that when the Electoral and the Constitutional Boards declared it illegal to “call for a responsible vote” during the day of of reflection, the police could not impose it. The size of the acampada made it unviable. The acampadas proliferated in Spain and they extended through the world. On the 25th, after the elections received with total indifference in this emerging society, despite the fact that it signaled the total collapse of really inexisting socialism, there were 706 acampadas registered on the map of the globe. (www. thetechnoant. info/ campmap/).

They keep appearing as each locality adds its peaceful, festive and protesting demonstration to the networks weaved between cyberspace and urban space. Media attention helped to broadcast a phenomenon that everyone was in a rush to label, but that few politicians dared to condemn for the moment. It was not a case of the usual suspects. They come from all corners, conditions, ages and social groups. Look at the photos on Flickr (acampadabcn.org) to perceive the diversity. It soon became clear that there were no leaders. If anyone tried to be one, the acampada deauthorized it. Whilst they were grateful for the services done by Democracia Real Ya, the campers did not accept any logos. In Acampadabcn it was decided that each person represented herself. Everything is worked out through functional, theme-based, autonomous multiple commissions, co-ordinated by an intercommission whose members rotate. The decisions that affect everyone go through the assembly at the end of the day. Motions, organization and tactics are debated. They are intense debates, carried out with respect, creating a new dynamic of gestures to avoid noisy expressions (in the spring air fluttered the hands that wave yes or the sullenly crossed arms of the noes). Swearing was forbidden. Drinking was counselled against, drugs rejected, though the matter is under debate. Any hint of violence is controlled: in the first ten days there was only one incident. Non-violence is a basic principle assumed by all, tested when the authorities have grown tired of being overridden and have taken to dishing out beatings.
Once the elections had passed, the movement extended, concretized, and deepened. It extended through other cities and decentralized itself into neighbourhoods, sketching out mini-acampadas that could even reach as far as places of work. It concretized with each acampada deciding its own objectives, and its organisation and demands were decided. And it deepened through a growing concentration on the programmatic elaboration of objectives. On the 25th AcampadaSol released a document synthesising the motions approved by the assemblies since the 16th: elminiate the privileges of the political class; measures to tackle unemployment, including job sharing and the rejection of the rise in the retirement age as long as there is youth unemployment; right to housing, including the expropriation of unsold housing stock in order to place it on the market under a programme of protected rents; quality public services, including the elimination of wasteful administrative spending, the hire of health and education workers, cheap and eco-friendly public transport, control over banks, constituting a public banking system under the control of society, with those entities that go bankrupt returning to public funds the capital they have received; fiscal reform, raising taxes on the very wealthy and on banks, and controlling fiscal fraud and capital movements; civil liberties and participative democracy, starting with the abolition of the Ley Sinde, which restricts internet freedom; protect freedom of information and investigative journalism; modifying the electoral law to put an end to political discrimination, including the representation of the null and blank votes; judicial independence, internal democracy in the political parties; reduction in military spending.

I cite these objectives to emphasise how concrete and reasonable they are, even though the immediate utopia of a different life is also present in many minds. But what is transformative is the process more than the product. It is the elaboration in open commissions and the decision taken in assembly. It is a new politics for exiting the crisis towards a new way of life built collectively. A slow process because, as a poster reads in Barcelona, “we’re going slowly because we’re going far”. So those who minimize the wikiacampadas still do not understand how profound they are. They may leave the squares, to return to them periodically, but they will not leave the social networks and the minds of those who participate. They are no longer alone and they have lost their fear. Because they discovered new forms of organization, participation and mobilization that burst the traditional channels belonging to those whom a large section of society, and the majority of young people, distrust. Parties and institutions will have to learn to live with this emerging civil society. If not, they will hollow out from the inside while citizens move from wikiacampadas to that networked democracy yet to be discovered in a collective practice that finds its root in every person.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 fuspey
May 31, 2011 at 6:50 pm
VID: manuel castells speaking (in spanish) in barcelona at the acampadaBCN: http://www.vilaweb.tv/?video=6847

From: Sebastian Cobarrubias
Subject: UPDATE ON MOVEMENT IN SPAIN: the 'OUTRAGED'
To: "kolya abramsky"
Date: Tuesday, 31 May, 2011, 13:07 We're trygin to forward aorund info on the mobilising in SPain, we havne;t seen much of anything in ENglish. Here's a first rough try- forward around if you can.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD: WE'LL TRY AND FORWARD MORE INFO IN ENGLISH AS IT COMES OR AS WE TRANSLATE IT

about on SPAIN:
The Movement of the 'outraged'
or #spanishrevolution

It is really impressive what's going on in Spanish main plazas right now. Just two weeks ago there were these 'calls' to do marches on the 15th of May: "TOMA LA CALLE" (take the street) with no organizing signature. We saw the flyers a while back and sort of marked it off, it was totally unclear who or what was pushing for it but it sounded legit: mainly a critic of the political system and their management of the crisis. As the time got closer there was a lot of buzz (talk of a new generation of mobilizing beyond organizations, crisis of two party system, fed up with 40% youth unemployment, etc...). On the 15th we went to the march locally in Zaragoza- which was lively, and sizeable, mostly noteworthy because it seemed to 'come from nowhere' or from no one...Up to that point no big deal. We left for a work trip, and missed the first week- which apparently started with a plaza sit-in, eviction and then a massive country-wide (and beyond) response. We found out about it because it made the front page of the Herald Tribune and people were reading those news in Amsterdam.

Some of the keywords are: direct democracy and precarity, but the overarching term that has coined the name of the movement is "el movimiento de los indignad@s" (outraged) the term inspired in the 30-page book with a similar title by Stephane Hessel (Time for Outrage in English), just released in Spain and top-seller in France, is a call of attention to overcome indifference and engage in active response against the current state of things: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf1RGoHOJ_M

The call for 'real democracy' has made explicit connections with the revolts in the arab world and actually Tahrir plaza of El Cairo is taken as an inspiring reference for the movement.
Every city in Spain (all provincial capitals and some others) have tent cities set-up, and they've been going for two weeks now. Since we got back we've been going to ours in Zaragoza where the tents are being added to everyday. There are assemblies, workshops and actions daily, almost continuously- and this is repeating itself all over the country. There is an update calendar in-situ and on-line for every specific sit-in where you can check the activities for a week:
9am yoga
10am legal info
12am workshop on civil disobedience
2pm lunch
5pm kid's activities (including assemblies for children)
7pm protest action
8pm political assambly
11pm logistical meeting

Its mostly youth, mostly 'nationals' (as in the migrant presence is limited it seems thus far) but it is massive. It has to be kept in mind that the squatting of the plazas was ocurring during municipal and regional elections (May 22)- thus in and of itslef doing public acts like that is a form of civil disobedience (it is illegal to do 'political acts' the day before and election). While there are a lot of question marks as to what happens now after the elections, thus far, one week after and counting, its still going strong with actions diversifying. They have space for kids here in zgz, and they put together "asambleas infantiles" so we are enjoying that part too : )

On May 27 , the police tried to evict plaza Catalunya in Barcelona (eviction attempts also occurred in two other Catalan citites), the repression and the video-taped conversations among the police were so intense that the response in solidarity was country-wide: caceroladas in every plaza (inspired by the argentine political repertoire of banging pats and pots during dictatorships and economic crisis).

15 days after the first sit-in there has been a call to make a symbolic and generalized action calling attention to the involvement of banks in the crisis and the power of response by the population: withdrawing 150Euros from the ATMs

Our friend Liz together with others are translating texts into English:
http://www.edu-factory.org/wp/spanishrevolution/

Please spread the word!! Its very inspiring, people randomly walking by and intermignling with big assemblies in the street, kids messing around in protest play areas, people commenting and conversing in the street, the energy of a tense protest ebbing and waving, moving. We shouldn't over romanticize, there definitely things to point out, improve, etc. but its is impressive and very generalized.

MAP of the camps- including international solidarity camps:

http://www.ikimap.com/map/2CYF.

General website "take the plaza", including links to specific cities and reflections:

http://tomalaplaza.net

Camp in Zaragoza & a few of our pictures

http://www.acampadazgz.org/

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/3149011/1/acampada%20zgz?h=ccb06a

Fuspey? Is that who I think it is? :)

You might want to remove those e-mail addresses from your post above.

I must say watching the videos of the riot police running from an unarmed crowd made my week!

David in Atlanta

I must say watching the videos of the riot police running from an unarmed crowd made my week!

What was that?

David in Atlanta

I must say watching the videos of the riot police running from an unarmed crowd made my week!

Link? I need cheering up.

Last night I went to an assembly meeting in Edinburgh. This was the second of its kind. It was orgnaised by Spanish people in Edinburgh. There were 53 people present. There has been a demonstration already with over 100 people. Another one is on the cards. Apparently the Greeks in town have also planned a demonstration. News of the Assembly is filtering to other groups in Edinburgh and should probably be bigger for future ones. There are 7 or 8 working groups set up that feed back into the assembly. These working groups are doing things like communications, logistics, etc. The next assembly will discuss further the aims of the assembly. If students from recent university campaign,claimants struggles, anti-cuts groups, anarchists, passers-by etc. get involved it might be interesting.

This is a very interesting development already......Keep us posted.

The notion of the assembly is definitely spreading very rapidly. In Spain the issue is no longer do we need assemblies, but how do we prevent them from being recuperated by the 'democratic', reformist wing. There is the example of the 'peoples assembly' in Liverpool tomorrow, which has been called by the local Trades Council...but even in such cases, there can be positive encounters and discussions.

does exist an English translation of this... or could anybody who knows Spanish translate it?

Source: http://proletariosinternacionalistas.wordpress.com/

Las protestas del “15M” y las minorías revolucionarias

mayo 31, 2011 at 11:22 pm (Uncategorized)

EL 15 de mayo, tras diversas convocatorias, la puerta del sol de Madrid es tomada por unos pocos miles de manifestantes que se muestran hartos de seguir soportando el empeoramiento de sus condiciones de vida. La policía decide intervenir para echarlos, lo que provoca una reacción en todo el país con decenas y decenas de miles de proletarios saliendo a las calles. Las plazas de ayuntamiento de casi un centenar de ciudades son tomadas y pasarán a ser el centro de gravitación de las protestas.

Lo primero que tenemos que subrayar es que estamos ante una protesta masiva del proletariado que tras décadas sin expresarse como clase en esta región del mundo, vuelve a salir a ella para protestar contra sus condiciones de vida, expresándose colectivamente en estructuras -asambleas- FUERA DE PARTIDOS Y SINDICATOS. Por supuesto su hererogeneidad y contradicciones son tremendas, como no puede ser de otra forma por cómo ha irrumpido y por el mismo desarrollo del proletariado tras décadas de contrarrevolución, desestructuración y de sumisión democrática. Ante todo hay que tener en cuenta que es la primera aparición seria del proletariado al margen de partidos y sindicatos en estas tierras desde hace mucho, pero que mucho tiempo.

Hay que dejar claro también que entre los convocantes, entre las consignas, hay mucha fuerza de la socialdemocracia, hay mucho ciudadanismo, mucho reformismo, mucho pacifismo, mucho gestionismo en las plazas, “reivindicaciones” que no respondenden a las necesidades humanas. Sin embargo por primera vez en mucho tiempo hay algo fundamental: las protestas han roto la moribunda apatía y el individualismo, asustando a las fuerzas del capital por su fulgurante irrupción. Pese a que efectivamente las ideologías que dominan las protestas son democráticas, el impulso que hay detrás es claramente clasista. Los que han salido a la calle, han salido porque no aguantan más la soga del capital.

Pese a que estas protestas se inscriben en la oleada de luchas que recorre el mundo, pese a que estas protestas y los enfrentamientos en Magreb, en Oriente Medio, en Grecia… son expresiones de una misma lucha por imponer las necesidades humanas contra el látigo del capital, los niveles de enfrentamientos son obviamente diferentes y lo que se está jugando son diferentes aspectos de la lucha internacional. En en el norte de África los proletariso han llegado hasta tal punto que están obligados a dar el todo por el todo, a esbozar una tentativa insurreccional. En España el proletariado no ha llegado a ese punto y lo que se está planteando de forma inmediata en las protestas actuales es el retorno, tras décadas de contrarrevolución, del asociacionismo proletario masivo, de las estructuras para la lucha proletaria. Está en juego la ruptura con el aislamiento, la creación de estructuras de combate, la organización de la comunidad de lucha, pues nuestra clase está tratando de articular su fuerza e imponer sus necesidades fuera de los aparatos burgueses, busca concretar herramientas para defender sus condiciones de vida.

Las calles están abarrotadas, en las protestas se lee y se discuten sobre cómo luchar, la no-vida por y para el capital es rota para plantear colectivamente la lucha contra lo que nos convierte en esclavos. Los proletarios ven necesario luchar y tratan de EXPRESAR ORGANIZATIVAMENTE SU HARTAZGO Y SUS NECESIDADES. Pese a que la mayoría no se reconocen aun explicitamente como una clase que es explotada, sí que lo han asumido en las protestas de forma implicita rompiendo todas las categorías que nos impone el capital (parados, trabajadores, estudiantes, inmigrantes, jovenes, viejos… se ha unificado en las calles). El corse de espectador se ha roto y la tentativa de reconstrucción del sujeto de la revolución, aun de forma totalmente embrionaria y sin reconocerse como lo que es, ya está sobre la mesa.

Dicho esto, tenemos que insistir en que esta realidad irrumpe con una tremenda fuerza de las posiciones clásicas de la socialdemocracia que son un agujero para la neutralización de este proceso, para la canalización de las protestas al interior del Estado. Y bajo esas condiciones se ventilará en estos días próximos la cuestión fundamental: o consolidación del asociacionismo proletario o recuperación burguesa de las estructuras que se están creando. En todas las acampadas, en todos los nucleos en torno a los cuales se centralizan por el momento las protestas, se están dando ya elementos que van a marcar el devenir de los acontecimientos de forma inmediata. Está materializádose la puja (en la mayoría de los casos velada) entre dirección proletaria y dirección burguesa, entre transformación de esas estructuras en partes del Estado o su consolidación como estructuras de combate para las necesidades proletarias, puja oscurecida por las ideologías y la formulaciónes bajo las que éstas se materializan. Y hay sitios en los que, desgraciadamente, no nos va nada bien y la canalización nos gana terreno.

La actuación de las minorías revolucionarias es fundamental en todo este proceso. Es fundamental combatir las posiciones de nuestro enemigo e impulsar las posiciones proletarias, denunciar las posiciones que no buscan más que un lavado de cara para mantener todo intacto, y defender lo que va hacia la defensa de nuestras condiciones de vida, en definitiva tenemos que luchar contra el reformismo y por la ruptura proletaria, para impedir la recuperación burguesa de las asambleas y consolidarlas como estructuras de combate. Aquellos que se autodenominan revolucionarios y miran espectantes el trascurrir de los acontecimientos, o aquellos que descalifican las protestas por las debiles expresiones formales que se están levantando, o esos otros que participan de forma acrítica en ellas sin luchar contra las ideologías ni impulsar nuestros intereses, serán cualquier cosa menos revolucionarios, pues están participando, de una u otra forma, en todo el proceso de encuadramiento de la protesta, en el exterminio del potencial asociacionista que se está esbozando. Los primeros no son más que cadáveres vivos, espectadores de una realidad que solo tratan de observarla e interpretarla, pero que en absoluto buscan transformarla. Los segundos son cuerpos sin percepción de la realidad, pues lo único que perciben y comprenden es mediado por el idealismo y el Estado, de ahí que usando la codificación y el análisis burgués de la protesta, las reduzcan a lo que dicen algunas nefastas banderas de los que luchan, siendo incapaces de ver lo que todo esto oculta, siendo incapaces de comprender que “no es lo que dicen, sino lo que hacen”. Y los terceros son títeres sin vida que ni impulsan las protestas ni combaten sus debilidades, simplemente “estan allí” dejándose llevar por lo que haya, no solo viendo sin pestañear como la socialdemocracia encuadra la protesta, sino peor aun, sirviendo de mano de obra para realizar este encuadramiento.

Desde luego, lo que caracteriza a los revolucionarios es, en primer lugar, ser la expresión más decidida y combativa de las luchas que se desarrollan contra el capitalismo, independientemente de sus debilidades. Y en segundo lugar, ser un polo de agrupamiento para luchar contra todas las debilidades, ideologías y fuerzas de la burguesía. Por ello las minorías revolucionarias tenemos que estar en el seno de estas protestas, tenemos que combatir las debilidades que hay -¡que tenemos!-, tenemos que enfrentarnos a las ideologías y fuerzas del capital que buscan asimilar el movimiento, tenemos que impulsar la lucha por la imposición de las necesidades humanas contra la dictadura de la economía. Nuestro lugar está en asumir lo que somos: la fuerza que genera el proletariado en su seno como la más decidida y combativa.

Por eso impulsamos a todos lo compañeros, a todas las minorías revolucionarias a defender nuestros intereses de clase y a combatir el encuadramiento burgués en estas protestas. Llamamos también a fortificar y extender los contactos entre nosotros, a crear redes organizativas.

En las asambleas, comisiones y nucleos organizativos de las protestas podemos apreciar que los intereses proletarios y los burgueses están ya en pugna. Podemos apreciar rápidamente como la contraposición ya se manifiesta nítidamente, salvo que miremos las cosas con ojeras ideológicas.

Por un lado están representados los intereses burgueses. El capital se personifica principalmente mediante toda fuerza que busca encuadrar, conscientemente o no, la protesta y sus estructuras al interior del Estado. Podemos observar cómo hay sectores que buscan orientar todo hacia meros cambios de gestión en el parlamento. Tal y como unos compañeros comentan en un texto y muchos hemos percibido rápidamente, en cuanto se está un poco en las asambleas o comisiones y se está tratando de lo fundamental, del contenido clasista de la protesta, se ve como toda su oratoria va dirigida a intentar hacernos creer que el problema principal es reformar la ley electoral, reivindicar la separación de poderes… Buscan canalizar todo hacia el cambio en las formas de gestión capitalistas. “Nos hacen creer que, una vez solucionado el tema de representación de partidos, todos nuestros problemas se acabarán, porque así controlaremos nosotros a los políticos.” Lo que concierne a las condiciones de vida, a todos los aspectos cotidianos que destruyen nuestras vidas, están totalmente en segundo plano y se trata de borrarlos de las reivindicaciones mínimas a asumir. Peticiones, ruegos, cartas, modificaciones en las leyes… Algunos facciones burguesas tratan incluso de utilizar las protestas como plataforma electoral. Izquierda Unida y todos los partidillos minoritarios están moviendo sus hilos. Incluso el PSOE, tras su fracaso electoral, ha decido ponerse al frente de la recuperación por muy paradójico que sea él el partido gobernante (las asociaciones de vecinos, las cuales están en su mayor parte bajo su control, está siendo ya uno de sus caballos de troya, ¡incluso las delegaciones del gobierno tratan de meter sus tentáculos en algunos asambleas!).

Estas fuerzas y maniobras materializan la fuerza principal de nuestro enemigo que si se impone transformará toda la protesta y sus estructuras en un nuevo chute temporal para el capital (quedando todo en un movimiento ciudadanista haciendo peticiones legales al Estado, pidiendo un referendum, transformando todo en expresiones de partidos…). De momento todo esto se articula en torno a los tres puntos que quieren imponer: reforma de la ley electoral, transparencia política… Pese al despliegue que se hace desde todas las fuerzas del capital (prensa, televisión, políticos…) para que sea la principal, y a poder ser la única, articulación del movimiento, no han podido por el momento, al menos que sepamos, imponerlo en ninguna asamblea.

Por otro lado están los intereses proletarios. Lo personifican la mayoría de los que tomaron las calles y que están hartos del empeoramiento de sus condiciones de vida. Buscan, independientemente de cómo lo formulen, articular en fuerza organizada sus necesidades, que su hartazgo existente encuentre formas organizativas para luchar. Su preocupación se centra no en las formas de gestión capitalistas, sino en los aspectos concretos que les afectan, en sus condiciones de vida (ámbito laboral, ayudas sociales, sanidad, pensiones, vivienda…). Es la expresión que busca imponer los intereses humanos contra la economía, y trata de articular y concretar formas de imponer esos intereses al capital. Y lo trata de hacer sabiendo que para nada valen partidos y sindicatos pues no los considera para nada sus representantes, sino representantes de los intereses económicos, parte integrante e inseparable del problema. Es verdad que muchas formulaciones son muy pobres, pero detrás están las necesidades de una clase, el impulso por imponer los intereses humanos al capital, es decir la lucha que acabará tarde o temprano con todas las condiciones existentes. También es verdad que en algunos casos las formulaciones son algo más claras (impedir que desalojen de sus viviendas a los que no puden pagarlas; buscar mecanismos para que los parados dispongan alimentos y viviendas, entre los cuales han salido al tapete organizar expropiaciones a supermercados y ocupaciones de viviendas vacías; llevar las estructuras a los centros de trabajo, a los centros de educación…) Aquí está nuestra fuerza, la fuerza de nuestra clase, y si se impone asistiremos al regreso del asociacionismo proletario masivo tras tantos años de aislamiento e individualismo.

Esta lucha de contraposición de intereses y necesidades que se despliega en las asambleas y comisiones, y que aparece a veces entremezclada, refleja la lucha burguesía-proletariado, economía-humanidad, la lucha por transformar las organizaciones que se están desarrollando en organos burgueses para la reforma o en órganos proletarios de combate.

Nuestro sitio en todo esto está, en tanto que revolucionarios, en pelear con todas nuestras fuerzas y posibilidades por la recomposición de las estructuras de clase. Está en juego que empiece a cambiar la correlación de clases, que regrese con fuerza el asociacionismo proletario de antaño. Hoy podemos ver, pese a la fuerza de la socialdemocracia, que ya se vislumbra esa realidad. Hay materiales clasistas que antes solo estaban en locales militantes y que hoy están a disposición de decenas de miles de proletarios que los cojen CON CONFIANZA Y CERCANÍA, los discuten, los ves expresar su enfado gritando bonitas consignas. Hace unos días solo en pequeños círculos se discutía organizarse fuera y en contra de los sindicatos; hoy decenas de miles lo plantean, lo discuten y de momento ya se sitúan afuera de ellos. Hace unos días solo la militancia revolucionaria reivindicaba la lucha contra la paz social y la lucha de clases; hoy son decenas de miles los que ven necesario rebasar la legalidad y, pese al nefasto discurso pacifista que domina actualmente, discuten ya sobre el uso de la violencia. Hoy se está gestándose la expresión organizativa de todo el descontento que soltaban los proletarios desde hace años, pero que no se expresaba organizativamente quedando en indignación individual. Y está en juego también que esto influya en toda la correlación mundial de clases, no solo haciendo que la oleada de luchas que recorre el mundo llegue aquí, sino que las estructuras que se hoy tratan de concretarse emerjan con fuerza en esa oleada.

En poco días las protestas comenzarán a definirse: o canalización burguesa o ruptura proletaria. Nuestra tarea es luchar por que la segunda se abra paso contra la primera. Si así fuera hay que tener claro que esto nunca es definitivo y la tentativa de canalización siempre estará presente. Y si se impone el capital, si sufrimos otra derrota y todo es encuadrado por nuestro enemigo, tenemos que sacar fuerzas y directivas para próximas luchas, tenemos que consolidar las estructuras y lazos que hayamos creado entre compañeros, tenemos que transformar la derrota en fuerza actuante para próximos envites. Pues ante todo tenemos que ser conscientes de que esto no ha hecho más que empezar, que esto es solo un prolegómeno de lo que está por venir, tanto aquí como en todo el mundo.

¡ASUMAMOS LA LUCHA POR LA RUPTURA REVOLUCIONARIA!!

¡Nos vemos en las calles!

[email protected]

Pásaselo a un compañero, fotocopia, discute, critica, contacta…

i found as well this one, but it is probably not in English (or does anybody have its translation)?

Source: http://qsevayan.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/texto01/

QUE SE VAYAN TODOS
Publicado el mayo 19, 2011 por qsevayantodos

Somos muchos los que en estos días hemos confluido en las calles en las protestas. Todos nos hemos identificado en el rechazo a los partidos políticos, en el rechazo a los sindicatos, a los empresarios… Ante todo nos hemos dado cuenta de que hemos llegado al límite. Que estamos hartos de ser los parias de este mundo. Que no soportamos más que unos pocos se llenen los bolsillos y vivan como reyes, mientras que a otros nos aprieten las tuercas más allá de todo límite con tal de mantener la salud de la sacrosanta economía. Que sabemos que para cambiar esto tenemos que luchar nosotros mismos, al margen de partidos, sindicatos y demás representantes que quieren endosarnos.

Por encima de todo, esta realidad está expresando una cuestión fundamental que afecta en todo el mundo: la contraposición de necesidades e intereses entre la economía y la humanidad. Esto lo han entendido perfectamente nuestros hermanos rebeldes en el Norte de África, esto lo entendemos hoy aquí cuando la situación ya es insostenible para todos nosotros y salimos a luchar. Hemos aguantado lo inaguantable, hemos sufrido un empeoramiento en las condiciones de vida que no se producían desde hace décadas. Pero finalmente hemos dicho basta, y aquí estamos, expresando nuestro rechazo a todo este sistema infernal que transforma nuestra vida en mercancia.

Queremos, por cierto, expresar nuestro rechazo tajante a la etiqueta de ciudadano. Bajo esa etiqueta se aglutina a todo bicho viviente, desde el político al parado, desde el dirigente sindical al estudiante, desde el empresario más forrado hasta el obrero más miserable; se mezclan condiciones de vida totalmente antagónicas. Para nosotros no se trata de una lucha de ciudadanos. Es una lucha de clases entre explotados y explotadores, entre proletarios y burgueses como dicen algunos. Parados, trabajadores, estudiantes, jubilados, inmigrantes… formamos una clases social sobre la que recaen, en mayor o menos medida, todos los sacrificios. Políticos, banqueros, patronos… forman la otra clase de la sociedad, la que se beneficia, también en mayor o menor medida, de nuestras penurias. El que no quiera ver la realidad de esta sociedad de clases vive en el mundo de las maravillas.

Llegados hasta aquí, protestando en las plazas de numerosos ayuntamientos del país, es hora de reflexionar, es hora de concretar nuestras posiciones, de orientar bien nuestra práctica. La heterogeneidad es grande, sin duda. Hemos confluido compañeros que llevamos muchos años luchando contra este sistema, otros que hemos salido por primera vez a las calles, unos que tienen claro ir “a por el todo” (“lo queremos todo y ahora” rezaba una pancarta en la puerta del sol), otros hablan de reformar diversos aspectos, otros se encuentran desorientados, otros solo quieren manifestar su hartazgo…. Y también hay quien, esto hay que tenerlo bien presente, trata de pescar en rio revuelto, quien busca canalizar este descontento para neutralizar su fuerza aprovechando las indecisiones y debilidades que portamos.

Desde luego algo que hemos discutido entre diversos compañeros en las calles es que nuestra fuerza está en el rechazo, en el movimiento de negación de lo que nos impide vivir. Es lo que ha forjado nuestra unidad en las calles. Pensamos que hay que avanzar por ahí, profundizar y concretar mejor nuestro rechazo. Por eso, porque la fuerza la tenemos en esa negación, tenemos claro que no solucionaremos nuestros problemas exigiendo mejorar la democracia, tal y como en algunas consignas se ha escrito, ni siquiera reivindicando la mejor democracia que nos imaginemos. Nuestra fuerza está en el rechazo que estamos manifestando a la democracia real, la democracia “de carne y hueso” que sufrimos día a día y que no es otra cosa que la dictadura del dinero. No hay otra democracia. Es una trampa reivindicar esa democracia ideal y maravillosa que nos han contado desde pequeñitos.

De la misma manera no se trata de mejorar este aspecto o este otro, pues lo fundamental seguirá en pie: la dictadura de la economía. Se trata de transformar totalmente el mundo, de cambiarlo de arriba abajo. El capitalismo no se reforma, se destruye. No hay caminos intermedios. Hay que ir al fondo, hay que ir a la abolición del capitalismo.

Hemos ocupado la calle a unos días de la fiesta parlamentaria, esa fiesta donde se elige quién será la jeta que ejecutará las directrices del mercado. Bien, es un primer paso. Pero no podemos quedarnos ahí. Se trata de dar continuidad al movimiento, de crear y consolidar estructuras y organizaciones para la pelea, para la discusión entre compañeros, para afrontar la represión que ya nos ha golpeado en Madrid y en Granada. Hay que ser conscientes que sin la transformación social, sin revolución social, todo seguirá igual.

Llamamos a seguir mostrando todo nuestro rechazo al espectáculo del circo electoral en todas las formas que podamos. Llamamos a levantar en todos lados la consigna “¡Que se vayan todos!”. Pero llamamos tambien a que la lucha continue tras las elecciones del Domingo 22. A que vayamos mucho más allá de estos días. No podemos dejar morir los lazos que estamos construyendo.
Llamamos a la formación de estructuras para luchar, llamamos a que entremos en contacto, a que coordinemos el combate, a luchar en las asambleas que se están creando haciendo de ellas organos para la pelea, para la conspiración, para la discusión de la lucha, no para mítines ciudadanos. Llamamos a organizarnos en todo el país para luchar contra la tiranía de la mercancía.

A LA CALLE, ¡A LUCHAR!
LA DEMOCRACIA ES LA DICTADURA DEL CAPITAL
EL CAPITALISMO NO SE REFORMA, ¡SE DESTRUYE!

and last one from a pdf with title "Los anarquistas y el 15M: reflexiones y propuestas". I made the original PDF available here - http://www.uloz.to/9233255/06-los-anarquistas-y-el-15m-reflexiones-y-propuestas-pdf

Los anarquistas y el 15M: reflexiones y propuestas
Este texto está escrito en Madrid, por lo que muchas de las descripciones y reflexiones pueden no
ajustarse a la realidad de otras localidades, especialmente dada la heterogeneidad del movimiento
15M. Aun así, pensamos que puede resultar útil como punto de partida para la reflexión a todos los
compañerxs que se están implicando en las asambleas, independientemente del sitio. El texto ha sido
redactado y corregido precipitadamente para que estuviese disponible antes de la convocatoria de
asambleas de barrios y pueblos del 28 de mayo. Tenedlo en cuenta a la hora de leerlo y disculpad las
meteduras de pata que pueda tener.
Algunxs anarquistas madrileñxs
0. Unas palabras para empezar…
Dejemos las cosas claras. Lxs que firmamos este texto somos anarquistas, comunistas antiautoritarios,
anticapitalistas o la etiqueta que más os guste. Es decir, estamos por la abolición del trabajo asalariado
y el capital, la destrucción del estado y su sustitución por nuevas formas horizontales y fraternales de
vivir en común. Creemos que los medios para conseguirlo deben ser lo más coherentes posible con los
fines que buscan y, por tanto, estamos contra la participación en instituciones, contra los partidos
políticos (parlamentarios o no) y las organizaciones jerárquicas, y apostamos por una política basada en
el asamblearismo, la solidaridad, el apoyo mutuo, la acción directa, etc. Porque estamos convencidos
que estos medios son los más eficaces para llevarnos a la revolución. Si decimos esto es para eliminar
cualquier suspicacia y marcar las líneas sobre las que queremos que se mueva esta contribución. Ahora
bien, el que estemos por una revolución social que destruya el capitalismo, el estado y que suponga la
abolición de las clases sociales (y de tantas otras cosas), no significa que pensemos que esto puede
ocurrir a corto plazo, de la noche a la mañana. Lo que hemos planteado aquí son fines, es decir,
situaciones a las que, con suerte, llegaremos tras un largo recorrido y un desarrollo considerable del
movimiento revolucionario. Pensar lo contrario no es que sea utópico, es un ejercicio de delirio y
ensoñación inmediatista. Un planteamiento revolucionario debe plasmarse en una estrategia a corto
plazo, en una serie de propuestas para intervenir en la realidad que nos acerquen a situaciones en las
que estén en juego cuestiones como la abolición del trabajo asalariado, la instauración del comunismo
libertario, la revolución social... cuestiones que hoy en día, obviamente, no están, ni de lejos, sobre la
mesa. Esta intervención no puede limitarse a repetir machaconamente la rabiosa necesidad de
revolución y de abolir el estado y el capital. Ser anarquista no significa ser un chapas que persigue a los
demás repitiendo una y otra vez lo malo que es el estado y lo buena que es la anarquía. Y sin embargo,
a raíz del movimiento 15-M, en los últimos días hemos leído por internet textos y comentarios cercanos
al delirio inmediatista y, lo que es peor, hemos oído de compañerxs y amigxs posiciones que resbalan
hacia el abismo del anarco-chapismo, que, con toda su buena intención, se atrapan en el maximalismo
de las consignas grandiosas, de las propuestas a largo plazo, etc. Sabemos bien de lo que hablamos,
todxs nosotrxs hemos estado en dichas situaciones y, lo que es peor, hemos contribuido en muchas
ocasiones a su extensión. Dejemos claro también que este texto tiene tanto de crítica como de
autocrítica, y que nos sirve, ante todo, para tratar de no caer nosotrxs mismxs también en dichas
trampas. Para ir acabando, hay que tener en cuenta que este texto ha sido escrito deprisa y corriendo, al
ritmo que marcan los acontecimientos, con el objetivo de que saliese antes del día 28, cuando se han
convocado las Asambleas Populares en diferentes barrios y pueblos de Madrid, así que no os extrañe
que en algunos puntos se note la precipitación y la urgencia. No damos para más.
En resumen, este texto pretende ser una reflexión y una propuesta para romper con el impasse en el que
hemos estado anclados mucho tiempo, para deshacernos de lastres que muchxs arrastramos y nos
inmovilizan. Es, en el fondo, una reflexión para intentar aclararnos en qué manera podemos aportar y
participar en lo que ocurre a nuestro alrededor.
1. El Movimiento 15-M: coordenadas básicas
Y lo que ocurre a nuestro alrededor es, obviamente, el llamado movimiento 15-M, que en la última
semana ha irrumpido como un elefante en la cacharrería en la política nacional. Nos guste o no, y lo
queramos o no, el movimiento 15-M ha roto todas las expectativas y ha sorprendido a todo el mundo:
policía, políticos, periodistas, convocantes, gente corriente, ciudadanistas, izquierdistas y, por supuesto,
a los anarquistas. En primera instancia todo el mundo se quedó en fuera de juego y, a partir de ahí, todo
ha sido una serie de intentos más o menos afortunados de tomar posiciones frente a o dentro del 15-M.
No vamos a entrar a analizar sus causas o a repasar las diferentes teorías conspiranoicas o
intoxicaciones que han surgido a su estela; no es importante para lo que queremos decir. Vamos a tratar
de aportar lo que entendemos que son las coordenadas básicas en las que se mueve eso que llamamos
movimiento 15-M o, al menos, las más importantes para ver si es posible (y en ese caso cómo) una
participación anarquista o anticapitalista en él. Como es lógico, será una descripción fragmentaria,
parcial e incompleta. Nos da igual, las cosas van demasiado rápido.
Lo primero que hay que decir es que el movimiento 15-M es un movimiento social real y, como tal, es
tremendamente heterogéneo y contradictorio. Hay de todo y todo está en diferentes dosis. Es decir,
todo lo que digamos aquí no debe tomarse como características definitorias absolutas, sino más bien
como tendencias, matices, etc. Expresiones de un movimiento en construcción en cuyo seno hay
luchas, tensiones y un continuo cambio.
Dicho esto, por su composición social y por las consignas que más se oyen en las asambleas y grupos
de trabajo, así como por las opiniones de la gente que está continuamente publicitándolo en internet
(twitter) podría decirse que, principalmente, es un movimiento ciudadanista y abiertamente demócrata.
O mejor dicho, son este tipo de planteamientos de reforma política y social (reforma electoral,
democracia real, mayor participación, crítica de los partidos políticos mayoritarios pero no del sistema
representativo o los partidos en general…) los que, en general, aglutinan a más gente y manos alzadas a
su alrededor.
Sin embargo, este contenido se expresa bajo formas asamblearias, que rechazan toda representación
clásica (como por ejemplo, convertirse en otro partido político) y que reniegan de toda ideología,
símbolo o forma política precocinada (desde partidos a banderas republicanas, pasando por las A
circuladas). Hay una consigna que rula por twitter “Esto no va de izquierdas o derechas, sino de arriba
y abajo”. Que, por el momento, apuesta mayoritariamente por la auto-organización, por la acción
directa (no violenta) y la desobediencia civil, aunque no utilice estas palabras mágicas. La no-violencia
es, de hecho, otra de las coordenadas fundamentales del 15-M, algo que, sin duda, es asumido
colectivamente sin discusión. Entraremos en esto más adelante.
Todo esto no quita para que en su seno se pueda ver claramente una “lucha de poder” entre diferentes
“facciones”, organizadas o no. Miembros y militantes de partidos políticos de izquierdas, miembros de
los movimientos sociales, libertarios, gente normal y corriente “indignada” que va con su propia visión
del mundo, etc. todos pugnan en su interior a todos los niveles, desde la orientación ideológica o
práctica del movimiento, al control (y en muchos casos, manipulación) de las asambleas, comisiones,
etc. En muchas comisiones y grupos se está viendo de todo: pérdidas casuales de actas, personalismos,
gente que se aferra a las portavocías, delegados que se callan cosas en las asambleas generales,
comisiones que se saltan acuerdos, grupitos que quieren mantener el chiringuito, etc. Muchas, seguro,
fruto de la inexperiencia y los egos; otras, parecen directamente sacadas de los viejos manuales de
manipulación de asambleas.
Alrededor de esta lucha, está también toda la gente que se acerca por allí. Gente que se acerca a
participar, a escuchar, a ser escuchado, a aportar comida u otros materiales, a ver qué pasa, o
simplemente a echarse unas fotos en plan turista en su propia ciudad. Bajo las carpas de Sol uno tiene
la sensación de estar en un gran bazar en el que no se vende ni se compra nada.
Por otro lado, uno de los grandes problemas de las acampadas es la dificultad de participar en ella
plenamente: no todo el mundo puede ir al centro todos los días, ni todo el mundo puede quedarse a
dormir, ni todo el mundo puede participar habitualmente en las comisiones, etc. Esto sin duda puede
favorecer la creación de liderazgos informales, camarillas, cosas raras y sesgos extraños que la gente,
que gilipollas no es, lo va a notar, lo va a comentar y a actuar en consecuencia. De hecho, una posible
consecuencia de quién está llevando el mayor peso del campamento (y también de quién está más
habituado a ir y proponer actividades) es la progresiva guetización que ha sufrido la acampada el fin de
semana. Comparada con el ambiente de encuentro y de protesta de los días más intensos (especialmente
el viernes, dada la expectación por la prohibición de la Junta Electoral Central) el fin de semana la cosa
perdió fuelle y comenzó a notarse un ambiente más lúdico y menos de protesta, a pesar de que las
comisiones, subcomisiones y grupos de trabajo siguieron funcionando. A ratos, #acampadasol parece
estar reproduciendo lo peor y más banal de las okupas del gueto: talleres, conciertos, batucadas,
comedores, actuaciones, clowns, etc. a costa de sus aspectos iniciales, mucho más marcadamente de
protesta, política e “indignación” (por pro-demócrata y limitada que fuese). En twitter, que no
olvidemos que tiene gran culpa del ascenso del movimiento 15-M y del campamento de Sol, se está
filtrando ese descontento en mucha gente, que no ve con buenos ojos esta deriva. Un ejemplo claro de
ese descontento que tuvo lugar el fin de semana fue el tema botellón sí-botellón no, el sábado una de
las asambleas tuvo que irse de Sol por la cantidad de gente que estaba a su pedo, y el tema de las
batucadas, que el domingo obligaron incluso a aplazar a alguna asamblea que no oía con tanto ruido
(aunque hay que decir, que las batucadas tuvieron bastante seguimiento, igual que el botellón).
Es obvio que el movimiento 15-M no es una revolución, eso es de primero de militancia, y quien lo
critique en base al hashtag #spanishrevolution con el que se extendió inicialmente debería darse cuenta
de que era una mezcla de marketing, gracieta e ilusión. Sin más.
El último apunte que queríamos hacer es lo que, para nosotrxs, quizás sea lo más importante que hemos
visto junto con su marcado carácter asambleario y horizontal (con todos sus defectos, que son muchos):
el cambio brutal de actitud que hemos podido observar en los alrededores de Sol durante toda esta
semana. Recapitulemos. Tras la multitudinaria manifestación inicial del 15 de mayo y, especialmente,
tras el desalojo de los primeros acampados, la gente ha tomado masivamente noche tras noche la Puerta
del Sol de una manera que ninguno de nosotrxs habíamos visto nunca. Las movilizaciones contra la
guerra, aunque alguna fuera más masiva, no tuvieron, ni de lejos, la continuidad, participación, actitud
y ambiente que hemos visto esta semana en Sol. Es como si, de repente, la pasividad y el ir cada uno a
lo suyo se hubiesen roto alrededor del Km. 0. Repartir panfletos en Sol y sus calles aledañas es una
gozada, la gente te entra para pedirte que le des uno, los coge con una sonrisa, te pregunta, te da las
gracias… Los primeros días, si hacías un corrillo para hablar de algo, la gente arrimaba la oreja para
intervenir, para escuchar. Ha sido normal ver a la gente de lo más variopinta discutiendo en pequeños
grupetes. Los grupos de trabajo y las asambleas generales son acontecimientos masivos de entre 500,
600 y 2000 personas (sentadas, de pie, arrejuntándose para oír algo), etc. Y aparte de esto, esa
sensación permanente de buen ambiente, de “esto es algo especial”. Todo esto alcanzó su punto álgido
la noche del viernes al sábado, cuando empezó la jornada de reflexión. Escuchar a más de 20.000
personas gritar “Somos ilegales” y disfrutar como niños de saltarse la ley, la verdad, impresiona. Bien
es cierto que ese ambiente intenso, de participación y de política real empezó a decaer a partir de esa
noche. En parte por el subidón del viernes noche, en parte por la decisión de “no hacer política” durante
el sábado y el domingo, el fin de semana ha tenido un tono mucho más festivo, más “circense” que los
días anteriores. Aun así, nosotrxs no recordamos nada parecido, la verdad.
2. Lo que no está en juego. Una visión estratégica.
Dicho esto, ¿qué pintamos los anarquistas por allí? Para cualquier libertario con dos dedos de frente,
afortunadamente la gran mayoría, es evidente que es necesario estar allí, que ahí hay tema. Lo que
ninguno tenemos tan claro es qué podemos hacer, qué podemos aportar y qué podemos esperar del
movimiento 15-M. Y es lógico, dada la heterogeneidad y contradicciones que abarca. En esta sección
vamos a intentar expresar cómo y en qué sentido vemos nosotrxs que puede ser interesante participar y
aportar en dicho movimiento. Decimos visión estratégica porque es una visión general, que
intentaremos acotar más adelante con propuestas concretas y algunas consideraciones tácticas.
La mayor parte del proceso que se desarrolla actualmente en el movimiento del 15-M consiste en tratar
de encontrar las consignas y reivindicaciones políticas que van a definirlo. Ese proceso se está dando
tanto en los grupos de trabajo como en las propias comisiones. En los primeros está más el debate y la
pelea ideológica, en algunas de las segundas, en las que se concretan dichos debates, es donde se están
viendo las artimañas, tejemanejes, etc. No hay que ser muy listo para saber dónde está el lio:
comisiones como comunicación, interna, asamblea y política son donde uno se va a encontrar mayor
número de políticos por metro cuadrado. Mientras que en comisiones como infraestructura,
alimentación o respeto, las cuchilladas serán mucho menores. Ojo, que no estamos diciendo que en las
comisiones sólo se esté haciendo esto, pero algunas cosas que hemos visto o nos han contado tienen
tela.
Como hemos dicho anteriormente, las reivindicaciones con mayor eco en #acampadasol son las de
reforma política y, en menor medida, social, de gran contenido ciudadanista: reforma de la ley
electoral, una ley de responsabilidad política, mayor participación, ley de dación en pago de las
hipotecas, etc. Los miembros y militantes de partidos de izquierda (IU, IA, etc.) y movimiento sociales
están tratando de virar el barco más hacia la izquierda, para que asuma reivindicaciones clásicas de la
izquierda (desde la renta básica o la condonación de la deuda externa, a la nacionalización de la banca)
aunque en frente tienen a los que prefieren que el movimiento sea lo más neutral posible (por ejemplo,
http://twitpic.com/51lyqa) y se centre en un #consensodeminimos básico [1] . En nuestra opinión,
creemos que lo más probable es que el objetivo final de unos y otros sea que, o bien mediante algún
tipo de Iniciativa Legislativa Popular [2] o bien de la mano de algún partido político, seguramente IU,
se presente una propuesta al Congreso y se pida su aprobación mediante un referéndum. En este
sentido, unos y otros se juegan los contenidos de dicha propuesta y seguramente cómo se va a hacer,
pero en un momento dado pueden confluir en ciertos puntos básicos.
Obviamente, los anarquistas estamos convencidos de que si se lograran algunas de estas reformas, aun
cambiando algunos de los “defectos” del sistema que más sulfuran a la gente, no van a modificar para
nada lo esencial. El problema no es la corrupción política, sino la política como esfera separada de la
vida, el problema no es la falta de transparencia de los gobiernos, son los propios gobiernos, y el
problema no es la banca y los banqueros, sino la explotación capitalista: la grande, y la pequeña.
Dicho esto, creemos que los anarquistas ni estamos ni deberíamos estar en esa pelea, la de las
reivindicaciones grandilocuentes y la política de altos vuelos. No deberíamos entrar en ese juego,
aunque si queremos estar en las asambleas debemos asumir que tendremos que tragar y enfrentarnos a
ello. A nosotrxs no se nos ha perdido nada en ese tablero. El movimiento del 15-M no es un
movimiento anarquista o anticapitalista, así que las reivindicaciones anarquistas maximalistas están
fuera de lugar. No tiene sentido luchar por que las asambleas generales asuman cosas como la
autogestión generalizada, la abolición de las cárceles o incluso simplemente la huelga general
indefinida, porque es evidente que la gente que está ahí y la gente que lo sigue con expectación y
simpatía no está por eso. Suponiendo (y es mucho suponer) que por alguna extraña razón, o tejemaneje,
se consiguiese que la asamblea general o las asambleas de los barrios aceptasen y asumiesen como
propia alguna de estas consignas, lo más seguro es que el movimiento 15-M se desinflaría rápidamente,
perdiese buena parte de sus apoyos y simpatías, y se quedase en un extraño cóctel frentepopulista de
militantes izquierdistas, ciudadanistas, comunistas y anarquistas. Es decir, justo lo que siempre hemos
criticado y donde nunca hemos querido estar. En política existe un término que se llama “votar con los
pies”, significa que cuando no te gusta la gestión de un lugar, simplemente te vas a otro lado. Algo
parecido pasa en todas las asambleas, hay mucha gente que cuando algo no le gusta o no se siente
cómodo, se calla, agacha la cabeza y deja de pasarse, sin reflejar su descontento.
¿Por qué ocurre todo esto? Pues porque los movimientos reales suelen ser bastante complejos. Tienen
su composición, su idiosincrasia y sus desarrollos, y, sobre todo, porque no se puede pretender que la
gente se haga anarquista de la noche a la mañana. Ninguno de nosotrxs hemos llegado a serlo rápida e
indoloramente, sino a base de equívocos, ilusiones, incoherencias, desengaños, debates, frustraciones,
flipaduras y de darnos muchas veces de bruces contra el suelo (a veces en un sentido literal, con un
policía encima). Da igual que en estas ocasiones, las personas y las cosas cambien vertiginosamente.
Lo sentimos, pero creemos que, simplemente, no funcionará.
Tenemos que ser conscientes de la representatividad de las comisiones frente a las personas que
integran la movilización. Esto se vio claramente en la comisión de Política, que en el momento de
mayor auge pudo aglutinar unas 350 personas entre las dos subcomisiones (corto y largo plazo), está
claro que las asambleas son abiertas y todos y todas podrían participar en ellas pero lo cierto es que al
final se han convertido en dos subcomisiones que aparentemente se han separado por fases temporales,
pero que realmente marcan dos postulados muy diferentes, el “reformista” y el “revolucionario”, entre
los que están exigiendo y legitimando a las estructuras de poder con pequeñas (o grandes) reformas
legislativas, y los que quieren marcar una hoja de ruta de ruptura con el modelo impuesto por el
capitalismo.
Esto es un grave error ya que medidas “revolucionarias” o radicales, puede haberlas a corto plazo y a
largo, sólo hay que tener claro de contexto actual y los pasos que queremos dar. Por citar un ejemplo,
en la Comisión a Corto Plazo se plantean cambios en la Constitución española, y en la Comisión de
Largo Plazo consensos como huelga general. No creemos que un cambio en la Constitución (necesita
la aprobación de ¾ partes del Congreso de los Diputados) sea mucho más factible a corto plazo que
convocar una huelga general (que es más una herramienta de lucha que un fin en sí mismo), por mucho
que esto sea, a día de hoy, bastante complicado.
Creemos necesaria una reflexión sobre nuestra implicación en las comisiones, intentar que sean
eficientes y el desgaste y el derroche de energías esté bien canalizado. No sirve de nada que 200
personas con un ideario “similar” se junten y marquen un rumbo que no sea ni asumible por este
movimiento (a día de hoy) ni dejar que las exigencias a corto plazo sean simplemente un alegato a
fortalecer el estado del bienestar… En dicha reflexión deberíamos hacer una autocrítica y plantearnos
de forma inmediata propuestas a corto y largo plazo asumibles y que caminen o que nos hagan avanzar
pasitos hacia una revolución social de verdad, ya que si no terminaremos en la inanición propia de un
grupo de personas que están por encima del momento. Deberíamos mostrar cierta inteligencia y
sumarnos de forma real a la ilusión de cambio que se respira estos días por la puerta del Sol, a ver si
entre todos conseguimos que ese cambio vaya un poco más allá de cuatro arreglos en la fachada de la
democracia.
Entonces ¿qué otras opciones tenemos?
Seguro que muchos se habrán planteado, o incluso se habrán encontrado haciéndolo casi sin darse
cuenta, lo que podríamos llamar rebajar el discurso, es decir, edulcorar nuestras propuestas a ver si con
un poco de azúcar pasan mejor. Por ejemplo, jugando un interesado confusionismo semántico que
habla de “democracia directa” en vez de “anarquía”, tragar con todo lo que tengamos que tragar para
mantener la historia en el tiempo, etc., etc.
Otra opción es abandonar el chiringuito por reformista. Tal y como nosotrxs lo vemos esto es
simplemente absurdo. Básicamente porque ni actualmente ni a lo largo de la historia, los movimientos
revolucionarios brotan de la nada o surgen solos, sino que son los propios revolucionarios, y los
acontecimientos, los que con su esfuerzo y tesón a veces consiguen que los movimientos sociales dejen
de ser el coto de partidos, aprovechados, etc.
Aunque hablaremos de esto más adelante, dejemos claro que nuestra idea no es convertir el
movimiento 15-M en un “movimiento revolucionario” de masas, algo igual de peliculero que pensar
que la anarquía vendrá mañana si lo deseamos con suficiente fuerza. Tampoco estamos diciendo que
tengamos que estar por estar hasta el final. Tenemos bastante claro que, si no hacemos las cosas bien,
en algún momento habrá que irse o, también bastante probable, nos acabarán echando. Pero nos parece
obvio que ese momento no ha llegado aún, que todavía hay oportunidades de aportar y participar en
esta historia, sobre todo de cara a la convocatoria de asambleas populares en los barrios.
Sirva esto para dejar claro que no somos unos ilusos, a los que el 15-M les ha nublado la vista o que
han cerrado sus chiringuitos “por revolución” (más marketing), sino simplemente somos anarquistas
que hemos visto una oportunidad clara, la primera en muchos años, de participar en un movimiento real
de tamaño considerable.
3. Por una participación anarquista práctica y concreta.
En nuestra opinión, lo que está en juego en el movimiento 15-M es conseguir que sea un punto de
partida capaz de activar la lucha cotidiana por aspectos concretos y básicos, una lucha que se lleve a
cabo desde la horizontalidad, el asamblearismo, la acción directa, la participación directa, la
solidaridad, etc. que forman parte de las coordenadas básicas del movimiento 15-M. Que las asambleas
no sólo sean sitios desde los que pedir (¿A quién? ¿Cómo?) leyes, reformas y referéndums (¿Cuáles?),
sino que sean espacios en los que la gente debata sobre sus propios problemas, busque soluciones y
decida cómo llevarlas a cabo por ellxs mismxs. Que se conviertan en puntos de encuentro, de
comunicación y participación real. Pequeños (o grandes) núcleos solidarios de resistencia.
Está claro que una parte importante de este proceso es qué problemas y qué soluciones se van a tratar,
qué contenido, por así decirlo, van a expresarse en dichas asambleas. Ese podría ser la otra tarea que
podríamos marcarnos, intentar que los temas a tratar en las asambleas sean cuestiones de clase, de
género, etc. que profundice, desde la práctica, en la crítica del Estado, el capital y el trabajo asalariado.
Dicho de otra forma, nosotrxs proponemos una participación práctica y concreta desde una perspectiva
y unas formas de funcionar antiautoritarias, sobre cuestiones básicas de clase y otras opresiones igual
de importantes como el patriarcado, el racismo, etc.
Para complementar esta contribución práctica también debemos aportar nuestro punto de vista y
nuestro discurso, una vez más, sin caer en maximalismos del tipo “¡Revolución ya!” y cosas por el
estilo.
Tal y como nosotrxs lo vemos, intentar que la gente haga suyo nuestro discurso no es, no
debería ser, ir a machacar con las consignas y principios anarquistas de toda la vida.
Consignas que, en nuestra opinión, estarán fuera de lugar. No porque no tengan sentido o
no sean verdad, sino porque no están en la onda de lo que está pasando, están fuera de
contexto. Esto es como si tú estás hablando con un colega de fútbol y viene otro a
contarte nosequé historia de una película iraní, pues ni caso. ¿Significa esto que debemos
abandonar el anarquismo y pasarnos a la democracia? Lógicamente no. ¿Debemos
escondernos? No. ¿Debemos exhibir al mundo que somos anarquistas? Para nosotrxs, no
tiene ningún sentido si eso no va más allá que “ser anarquista”. Llamarse a uno mismo
anarquista no significa nada en sí mismo, no dice nada: ni bueno, ni malo. En nuestra
opinión no se trata ni de escondernos ni de exhibirnos, sino de practicar el anarquismo en
un contexto determinado. Un ejemplo: de todos los lemas que algunxs de nosotrxs y
otrxs compañerxs cantamos uno de los primeros días en Sol sólo un par de consignas se
extendió mínimamente más allá de nuestro circulo: “el pueblo unido funciona sin
partidos” y “A, anti, anticapitalistas”, ¿Por qué? No porque los lemas fuesen gran cosa,
que no lo son, ni porque fuesen ingeniosos, que tampoco, creemos que fue porque, en
ese momento y en ese lugar, eran lemas que puede contactar al menos con parte de la
gente que estaba allí. Nos guste o no, la gente ahí no estaba contra la policía nacional, ni
quería tumbar al Estado… el trabajo es mucho más de fondo… Si nos limitamos a cantar
o a proponer en las asambleas consignas descontextualizadas, lo que hacemos es caer
en la propaganda pura y dura, en el peor sentido de la palabra, no en la participación.
Y es que en muchas ocasiones nos puede la inercia, seguramente como a todxs lxs
demás. En vez de pensar qué podemos y queremos decir acabamos yendo a lo fácil: al
“la lucha es el único camino”, al “de norte a sur, de este a oeste….”, “muerte al
estado….”, etc. Un discurso, en nuestra opinión, fuera de lugar y, por tanto, ineficaz. En
el Bloque Libertario de la mani del 15M pasó un poco lo mismo, tras una primera fase con
lemas (mejores o peores, más o menos útiles, eso es lo de menos) pero sobre el tema en
cuestión (democracia, capitalismo, crisis) se pasó a un remix del gueto (desde los presos
a Patricia Heras pasando por el policía asesina), resbalamos hacia la autorreferencialidad,
hacia el hacer piña… Por desgracia, por allí nadie sabía quién era Patricia Heras más que
nosotrxs cuatro, ¿qué sentido tenía gritar sin un panfleto que lo explicase?, sólo
desconcertamos a la gente, que nos mira como si viniésemos de otra película… Todo
tiene un momento y un lugar, y si no sabemos adaptar nuestro discurso al momento y al
lugar, nos irá mal. Adaptar el discurso no es rebajar el discurso, es adecuar el mensaje al
contexto y adecuar el código al receptor, es dar nuestra opinión sobre lo que la gente
está hablando, no sobre lo que nosotrxs creemos que debería estar hablando la gente….
Y dar esa opinión en su “idioma”, no en nuestro “dialecto”, lleno de tecnicismos y
modismos, cómodos para hablar entre nosotros, pero que generan barreras y confusiones
con quien no los maneja.
4. Algunos objetivos y posibles ejes de actuación
Esta propuesta de participar desde la práctica y desde lo concreto tiene varios objetivos. Obviamente,
mejorar nuestras condiciones de supervivencia dentro del capitalismo. Seguro que algunx lo tachará de
reformismo, para nosotrxs es simplemente necesidad. Otro objetivo es ser capaces de señalar y
desmontar, durante el proceso, todas las contradicciones y miserias del capitalismo, la democracia, los
sindicatos, etc. No mediante discursos elaborados y prefabricados, sino a través del debate y la
reflexión sobre lo que nos vayamos encontrando, algo mucho más complejo y trabajoso que
simplemente editar libros escritos en otro momento y en otro lugar. También busca crear y extender
una cultura de lucha entre la población, un sentimiento colectivo de que las cosas se consiguen
luchando junto a otros iguales, solucionando los problemas por los mismos afectados, desde la
solidaridad y el apoyo mutuo, sin delegar en profesionales de la mediación o la representación. Un
sentimiento de “hoy por ti, mañana por mí” que cale entre la población y que desplace al “cada uno a lo
suyo” y el “menos mal que no me ha tocado a mí” que arrasa en nuestra sociedad.
Por último, si algo nos ha quedado claro en esta última semana es que, si bien lxs anarquistas tenemos
mucho que aportar, tenemos también mucho, muchísimo que aprender, tanto de la gente que nos
encontremos en el camino como de las situaciones a las que tengamos que enfrentarnos. Participar en
las asambleas será la oportunidad perfecta de aclararnos nosotrxs mismos, nuestras posturas y la
manera en las que se las comunicamos a nuestros iguales. Esto es lo normal. La mejor manera de
darnos cuenta de nuestros fallos e incoherencias (que las tenemos y seguramente serán muchas) es
tratar de explicar y compartir nuestra postura con quien la desconoce.
Creemos sinceramente que esta puede ser una buena manera de salir de la trampa de una intervención
desde la ideología, que pretenda que se aprueben principios u objetivos a largo plazo específicamente
anarquistas, algo que, como hemos repetido unas cuantas veces ya, no es algo que esté o pueda estar en
el orden del día de aquí a mañana. Creemos también, que puede ser una manera de obviar y esquivar
las luchas de poder que se darán en las asambleas por las cuestiones de alto nivel (leyes, etc.) sin tener
que dejar por ello de participar en un movimiento que aún puede dar mucho juego. Meternos en una
guerra de desgaste para que no salgan dichas propuestas o enfrentarnos abierta y continuamente a todos
los izquierdistas, ciudadanistas y gente normal que sólo quiere un par de cambios no nos va a valer para
nada. Tenemos que ser conscientes en todo momento de dónde estamos y hasta dónde puede llegar. Si
no hacemos este ejercicio de análisis y de reflexión continuamente nos vamos a llevar un palo muy
serio y una frustración considerable.
Por supuesto, al participar en el movimiento 15M siempre vamos a correr el riesgo de acabar
haciéndole el curro y el trabajo sucio a la izquierda y al ciudadanismo. Nosotrxs creemos que a día de
hoy, dada nuestro escaso poder de convocatoria y apoyos, este riesgo siempre va a estar ahí, en
cualquier movilización real a la que nos sumemos (huelgas, conflictos antidesarrollistas, etc.). Es un
riesgo que no se puede prever, y seguramente sea algo que, hasta cierto punto, no se pueda evitar, lo
único que podemos hacer es permanecer atentxs, no dejar llevarnos por la emoción y tratar de valorar
en qué momento nuestra participación se está limitando a la de ser mano de obra de otrxs, en ese
momento será necesario abandonar el chiringuito.
Para acabar esta sección, vemos necesario concretar algunas líneas de actuación que se nos han
ocurrido como ejemplo de lo que tenemos en mente. Ni son las únicas, ni son las mejores, de hecho son
bastante vagas, sólo son algunos ejemplos que se nos han ocurrido o que hemos escuchado estos días
en las asambleas. Entre todos deberíamos completarlas, clarificarlas, criticarlas, etc…
 Vivienda: Autoorganizarse para resistir frente a los desahucios y el mobbing
inmobiliario. Proponer la okupación como alternativa temporal en los desahucios que no se
frenen. Presionar a los caseros que pasan o se aprovechan de sus inquilinos. Presionar
mediante la acción directa a las sucursales bancarias de las que dependen las hipotecas de
familias en problemas para que las renegocien o simplemente para visibilizar el conflicto.
Visibilizar el conflicto mediante banderas o similares en los balcones de las casas que estén
siendo presionadas.
Trabajo/Paro: Aprovechar el ejemplo asambleario de Sol para llevarlo a los curros,
debatir y hablar en las asambleas sobre los conflictos laborales, sobre nuestros problemas
como parados, proponer que las asambleas sean un punto de apoyo si tenemos algún
problema en el curro. Visitar y denunciar los trabajos en los que se produzcan accidentes
laborales…
 Migraciones: Tratar de implicar a los inmigrantes, que seguramente estén
subrepresentados en un primer momento, informar a la gente de lo que pasa en los CIEs,
informar y proponer mecanismos de actuación frente a las redadas contra inmigrantes,
autoorganizarse para ofrecer información legal, mediante asesorías, talleres, etc.
Salud-Sanidad: tratar de implicar a trabajadores y usuarios-sufridores de la sanidad
pública en la lucha contra su deterioro y la inaccesibilidad, evitar que nos enfrenten a unos
contra otros (“la culpa es de los trabajadores que curran poco” o “la culpa es de los viejitos
que van mucho”).
Género: hay que ver cómo contrarrestar la enorme oleada actual de anti-feminismo
que se masca a nivel social, y que se ha expresado varias veces en las acampadas. Podría ser
interesante tratar de incidir o debatir sobre la violencia machista…
Organización: Tratar de mejorar el funcionamiento asambleario. Luchar por una
horizontalidad real, no meramente formal, evitar la formación de camarillas de especialistas
o de representantes perpetuos, evitar convertirnos en una camarilla de especialistas o
representantes perpetuos.
Estos temas y propuestas son claramente limitados, fruto de la prisa y de nuestra propia inexperiencia
en este tipo de movidas. Hay que mejorarlas, afinarlas y compartirlas. Y sobre todo, hay que
construirlas en común con la gente que vaya a las asambleas, en un proceso que cambiará tanto las
propuestas como a los que las asumen y las ponen en práctica y que, seguramente, irá de menos a más.
No nos pensemos ahora que por ir con cuatro propuestas concretas en vez de con la cantinela ácrata de
siempre, la gente las va a aceptar por arte de magia. No, no estamos proponiendo conjuros, tenemos
que tener claro, que aun siendo capaces de iniciar este proceso, será un camino largo y difícil. Creemos
que con el tiempo, todos iremos aprendiendo y sacando más cosas en claro. De alguna forma, los
anarquistas tenemos que tomarnos las asambleas del 15-M como un laboratorio en el que experimentar,
proponer, equivocarnos, aprender y volver a empezar.
5. Asambleas de barrio: esperanzas y localismos
En buena parte este texto se ha escrito con la mente puesta en que llegue antes de las asambleas
populares en los barrios que se han convocado para el 28 de mayo, de ahí su urgencia, su precipitación
y buena parte de los errores que tendrá.
La extensión a los barrios es una extensión lógica porque la acampada en Sol es insostenible a largo
plazo y porque, por sus características, permite una participación mucho más limitada, como ya hemos
comentado.
Hablando con muchos compañerxs hemos visto que algunos tienen bastantes esperanzas en las
asambleas de barrio. La idea es “ya no hay nada que hacer en Sol, vamos a los Barrios”. No nos
engañemos, si el movimiento 15-M sigue su tirón los barrios van a ser Puertas de Sol en pequeñito, con
todas sus cosas buenas pero con todos sus defectos, incluidos los militantes de partidos que van de
pesca, los ciudadanistas, etc. En algunos barrios y pueblos del Sur de Madrid, de hecho la proporción
de militantes de partidos políticos puede incluso aumentar respecto a la que nos encontramos en Sol.
Puede que el terreno de juego sea más pequeño y menos abrumador, pero la heterogeneidad, los
problemas, contradicciones y conflictos van a ser los mismos o incluso mayores.
Nosotrxs creemos que lxs militantes izquierdistas, así como toda la gente corriente que está por las
cuatro reformas básicas, van a tratar de que las asambleas populares se conviertan en focos desde los
que promocionar las consignas y reivindicaciones por las que han peleado en Sol. Que se encarguen de
recoger firmas, y de hacer propaganda de las movilizaciones y de sumar apoyos en los barrios
(asociaciones vecinales, de comerciantes…) de cara a la estrategia que tengan a medio plazo para llevar
a cabo los cambios legales. Y poco más. Los ciudadanistas puede que intenten empujar un poco más
hacia problemas específicos de los barrios, estableciendo lazos con las asociaciones de vecinos que
puedan, potenciando sus locales, centros sociales y oficinas de derechos sociales allá donde los tengan,
etc.
Ya hemos comentado en el punto anterior que creemos que puede ser una manera interesante de
participar en dichas asambleas, no nos extenderemos. Sí que nos gustaría comentar que en cada barrio y
pueblo algunos temas y propuestas pueden tener más calado que otros (por ejemplo, en algunas zonas
las redadas contra inmigrantes son más frecuentes que en otras, en algunos sitios la sanidad está peor
que en otras, etc.) Habrá que ver qué es más necesario y más importante en cada caso concreto, aquí no
hay fórmulas mágicas.
6. Cuestiones tácticas
El texto se va alargando y queremos cerrarlo con algunas reflexiones -intentaremos ser breves- sobre
ciertos aspectos tácticos que hemos visto, y que seguiremos viendo, en los próximos días.
Violencia/No violencia: Como comentamos al describirlo, el rechazo a la violencia es un
punto básico sobre el que se asiente el movimiento del 15M. Los iniciadores (Democracia Real Ya)
se encargaron de expresarlo de la manera más asquerosa posible: desmarcándose de los incidentes
tras la mani y señalando a quien hiciese falta. Tampoco es que sea muy extraño, dado el bombardeo
mediático con este tema los últimos años. A través de la policía, medios como La Razón o Público
no dudaron en alertar sobre el peligro de los “400 antisistema” que trataban de controlar y/o
reventar el movimiento. Una semana después, nada de nada. Parece que la gran mayoría de los
anarquistas hemos asumido (con mayor o menor problema) que no pasa nada porque alguien se
declare no violento. La violencia o autodefensa es una cuestión que siempre va a estar ahí, pero que
es completamente secundaria. Si dejamos de considerarla algo que puede ser útil o no, beneficiosa
o perjudicial según las circunstancias y la transformamos en algo irrenunciable, o nos entra la
pataleta por que el 15-M cante las bondades de la violencia estaremos perdiendo el norte
completamente. Hoy toca no violencia, otro día tocará otra cosa.
 Asamblearismo: se escucha mucho la crítica de que las asambleas no son verdaderas
asambleas, que no hay una horizontalidad real, que hay algunos que tratan de manipularlas, etc.
Lógico, porque son asambleas de verdad, con gente normal, en medio de una pelea entre diferentes
sectores por “controlar” (conscientemente o no) la situación. La horizontalidad, la igualdad, la
eficacia de las asambleas, la comunicación de las asambleas, el que sean saludables, no es algo que
venga dado porque la gente se reúna en una plaza y hablen entre ellos. Ni de coña. Hay que pelearlo
frente a los manipuladores, políticos e intoxicadores; y hay que construirlo frente a los años de
desmovilización, de gregarismo y delegacionismo cotidiano. Si no tenemos esto claro, estamos en
manos de los que van para que las asambleas sean las correas de transmisión que se limiten a
aprobar o a aceptar sus propuestas cocinadas en casa.
Luchar contra monstruos: Participar en asambleas en las que hay gente que está dispuesta
a hacer lo que haga falta (manipular, mentir y, la mayoría de las veces, hacerse el tonto) para que
salga su historia es muy complicado y frustrante. Cualquiera que haya pasado por ese trago puede
decir que es una jodida mierda. Primero, por todo lo que te toca tragar, segundo porque no todo el
mundo suele verlo, con lo que si acusas a alguien acabas siendo tú el que levanta sospechas,
tercero, porque acabas confundiendo lo que son simples fallos o despistes con intentos descarados
de manipular (rozando la paranoia) y, por último, porque en cuanto no te das cuenta acabas
haciendo o viéndote obligado a hacer cosas parecidas a ellos. En estos días hemos oído cosas como
“copar las comisiones”, “tomar los puestos de poder en las asambleas”, “dispersarse por las
asambleas”, “hacer como que no nos conocemos” y otras lindezas, por parte de compañerxs de los
que no tenemos ningún tipo de duda o sospecha, y a los que por supuesto, no vamos a juzgar. Este
tipo de situaciones son así, la frustración, el cabreo con los manipuladores y el encontrarse contra la
espada y la pared te hacen decir y hacer cosas del estilo. Contra esto no hay más remedio que estar
atento constantemente, hacer autocrítica y saber criticar y encajar las críticas, sin acusaciones
histéricas o victimismos estúpidos. Y asumir que en algún momento que otro nos vamos a manchar
las manos, lo queramos o no. Pasa en las mejores familias.
 “No tengas miedo, sólo ve adelante y juega” Ch. Parker: Enlazando con lo anterior, hay
que ser conscientes de que participar en el movimiento 15-M es entrar en territorio desconocido
para la mayoría de nosotrxs. Asumamos que la vamos a cagar y mucho. Lxs anarquistas ni somos ni
queremos ser perfectxs, tenemos todo el derecho del mundo a equivocarnos. Negarse a actuar por
miedo a transformarse en un reformista, o peor aún, por miedo a que algún imbécil te tache de
reformista o de vanguardista es tan absurdo como renunciar a pensar por miedo a equivocarse.
Vanguardismo anarquista: Dos palabras que juntas podrían parecer una contradicción pero
que no lo son, ni mucho menos. Algunas corrientes marxistas se consideran y se jactan de ser
vanguardia o de pretender serlo, aun cuando nadie les haga ni caso. Lxs anarquistas rechazamos
convertirnos en vanguardia, lo que no quita para que, si nos despistamos, acabemos cayendo en el
vanguardismo. Si se trata de ir mucho más deprisa que el ritmo de los acontecimientos, se corre el
riesgo de irse desligando más y más de ellos hasta quedarse solo, lejos de la realidad y de lo que
está pasando. Aún más, eso ni siquiera te asegura estar “por delante” de lxs demás, puedes haber
cogido un camino equivocado. Lxs anarquistas no queremos decirle a la gente lo que tiene o no
tiene que hacer en base a un mejor conocimiento de algún libro sagrado o del santoral
revolucionario, pero eso no implica que en ocasiones acabemos creyéndonos mejores al resto y que
pensemos que deberían “seguir nuestro ejemplo”, especialmente cuando participamos en conflictos
de este tipo.
 Simbología y dialectos: Para que nuestra participación sea eficaz y podamos construir
colectivamente algo que merezca la pena es necesario que dejemos a un lado toda la simbología,
códigos propios, palabras fetiche y demás merchandasing propio de nuestro movimiento-gueto.
Igual que comentamos más arriba con el tema del discurso. Esto no significa rebajar el discurso o
engañar a la gente, significa abandonar las palabras mágicas y las ideas fuerza que solemos utilizar.
Conceptos como abstención activa, acción directa, apoyo mutuo, revolución, etc. no tienen por qué
ser entendidos a la primera por gente que no está familiarizada con su uso. No sirve de nada
enquistarse en ellos. Es más útil tratar de explicarlos en un lenguaje llano y sencillo, sin
intelectualismos ni tecnicismos anarquistas. Lo mismo valdría para la estética de la propaganda,
que suele ser tan uniforme como lejana para la mayoría de la gente. Un ejemplo claro es el
problema que hubo con las A circuladas en la acampada de Sol. Como no se permite ningún
símbolo político o banderas, mucha gente de la asamblea veía, con mayor o menor razón, que las A
circuladas tampoco tenían lugar ahí. Entendiendo que las A circuladas no son símbolos políticos
sino todo lo contrario algunxs anarquistas se lo tomaron bastante a mal. Otros, dando un ejemplo de
que la horizontalidad y el consenso muchas veces se respetan sólo cuando les interesa, siguieron
utilizándola en pancartas y pintadas. En cualquier caso, deberíamos reflexionar si todo esto no es
nuestra culpa, de no haber sabido hacer ver durante todos estos años que no somos lo mismo que
todos los demás, aunque, en nuestro favor, hay que decir que la decisión de dejar fuera también las
A circuladas parece que fue discutida. El tema aquí es que las A circuladas es lo de menos, lo
importante son los mensajes que queremos dar, y si tenemos que dejar de ponerlas, pues tampoco
pasa nada. Al fin y al cabo, como decía con razón un compañero el otro día, no tenemos nada que
vender (lo cual es cierto cuando en la práctica nos comportamos así, lo que no siempre es el caso).
Peor que el caso de las A circuladas, que por mucho que nos pueda doler, es hasta cierto punto
comprensible, es el caso del feminismo, que está encontrando cierta oposición tanto en las
acampadas como en twitter, con gestos bastante feos y comentarios fuera de lugar.
7. El fin, al fin.
Terminamos, ya, por fin, haciendo una última reflexión. El movimiento 15-M ha tenido un principio y
tendrá un final. Siendo realistas y teniendo en cuenta lo pocxs que somos lxs anarquistas y nuestra
inexperiencia es bastante improbable que nuestra participación en él sea el componente que determine
su desarrollo y su fin. Aun así, creemos que tenemos margen y capacidad para participar en él y
aportar, y que no se limite a un movimiento de reforma ciudadana, o al chiringo de cualquier
partiducho. Esta propuesta va en ese sentido, en el de intentar ir un poco más allá. No tenemos muchas
esperanzas en que el movimiento 15-M cambie radicalmente la naturaleza de la sociedad actual, no
podría ni aunque quisiera, y todo parece indicar que no quiere. Aunque consiga sus objetivos, todo se
traducirá en una reforma del sistema democrático o incluso en un reforzamiento temporal del estado del
bienestar. Aun así, esto no son excusas para quedarse en casa. Creemos que hay que estar allí y
participar, porque si lo hacemos medianamente bien, puede ser beneficioso para el anticapitalismo y el
anarquismo a medio y largo plazo.
En primer lugar, nosotrxs creemos que el sistema democrático y el capital son como son, y que todos
los partidos, en el fondo, son iguales. Si el movimiento 15-M prospera y consigue reformar el sistema
democrático, acabando con el “bipartidismo” y la “partitocracia”; con el tiempo, los partidos
minoritarios acabarán por quedar en evidencia, porque el sistema democrático y el capital son así.
En segundo lugar, hay una cosa positiva en todo esto, pase lo que pase. Hace un mes, el sentimiento
general era “que mierda es todo, pero qué podemos hacer. No se puede hacer nada, etc.” Hoy hay
bastante gente que cree que se puede cambiar la ley electoral, que es lícito saltarse lo que diga la Junta
Electoral cuando es injusto, etc. Por algún sitio se empieza. Si el movimiento 15-M continúa y se
consiguen cosas a través de movilizaciones y asambleas, y estas más o menos funcionan,
independientemente del resultado, es una baza a explotar. En este país no se ha ganado nada de nada
desde hace mucho tiempo: la entrada en la OTAN, nada, el PRESTIGE, nada, la Guerra de Irak, nada,
las luchas en la Universidad, nada… De hecho, el único cambio que mucha gente asumió como propio
fue cuando el PSOE gano al PP después del 11-M ¡y se hizo votando!, lo que encima reforzó las
ilusiones democráticas.
En tercer lugar, el movimiento 15M ha conseguido sacar a la calle a la gente a hablar colectiva y
públicamente de política, de algunos de los problemas sociales y políticos que les rodean. Esto era algo
que hacía mucho tiempo que no se veía. La mayoría de las conversaciones son en torno a cuestiones de
reformas, de cambios mínimos, pero, como decíamos antes, por algún sitio se empieza. De alguna
forma ha abierto una brecha en el “no te metas en política”, el “desencanto” y el “no se puede hacer
nada”, los tres regalitos que franquismo, transición y democracia nos habían dejado. Lo que no puede
ser es que cuando la gente se quede en casa, la critiquemos por que no sale a la calle y cuando sale a la
calle la critiquemos porque lo que pide no es la revolución social. Eso no tiene ningún sentido.
Si se consiguen algunas cosas mediante la lucha en la calle, creemos que cuando todo esto acabe,
quizás sea más fácil convencer a la gente de que una asamblea en el curro puede funcionar, de que salir
a la calle a protestar sirve para algo, que se puede ganar una huelga o echar abajo un plan urbanístico:
mediante la solidaridad, la acción directa, etc. Por supuesto, si lo que se consigue se hace
exclusivamente a través de maniobras políticas, votaciones, referéndums, etc. (algo bastante
improbable si no hay una presión considerable desde la calle) lo único que va a salir reforzado es el
sistema democrático. Ahí está la cuestión, y ahí debemos estar los anarquistas.
Veremos cómo acaba todo esto, pero el movimiento anarquista saldrá reforzado si sus prácticas, su
forma de afrontar la realidad y algunos de sus puntos de vista se extienden y echan raíces en el ideario
colectivo. El movimiento anarquista también será más fuerte si nuestra participación en el movimiento
del 15M se traduce, tras la crítica, la autocrítica y el análisis público, en nuevas experiencias colectivas.
Es poco probable que nuestros objetivos a largo plazo crezcan significativamente a nivel social gracias
al 15-M, independientemente de que podamos convencer a cierta gente en el proceso. Esta lucha va por
otros caminos, por el trabajo constante de abrir locales, de editar material, de análisis, de hacer
jornadas, charlas, etc. que en ningún caso deberíamos abandonar sólo por estar en el 15M.
[1] Durante la corrección del texto, la acampada de sol ha aprobado los cuatro puntos que conforman
el llamado #consensodeminimos. No vamos a valorarlo, ya que no creemos que cambie esencialmente
lo dicho en el texto, algo así nos esperábamos tarde o temprano.
[2] http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iniciativa_popular

Maybe this is a silly question but has anyone been able to trace objectively where this movement came from? Who has been its' main actors? Who or what groups started the Facebook pages? I am not trying to bring up conspiracy theories, but a lot of it mirrors as I said earlier the "From Dictatorshop to Democracy" stuff that has been used in Egypt, and other places. The choice for non-violence is obviously political, and someone made that call somewhere. BUT I don't read espanol well enough to scan Facebook pages for hours to find out. I know they were inspired by the Portugal stuff too. But yeah who's idea was it to build for this and put out such a specific ideology/strategy?

Edit: NM I went back and saw that this was basically started by ATTAC. okay. hmm.

chomsky is my home boy

David in Atlanta

I must say watching the videos of the riot police running from an unarmed crowd made my week!

Link? I need cheering up.

[youtube]sux7oX3cgrY[/youtube]

[youtube]D_QsnWfctRQ[/youtube]

[youtube]L5aj7fMJc08[/youtube]

sabotage

Edit: NM I went back and saw that this was basically started by ATTAC. okay. hmm.

Yes...so what? The thing is not who started it. It will be impòrtant only if this ideology (and ideologists) control the monopoly of its expression and practice, if others, more precise, more comitted, libertarian communists, are unable to clear the ground enough to show the weaknesses of those politicians.

This blog, From the Plazas is a great resource with translations of discussion papers

AmeliefromMontmartre I'll translate it as soon as possible. If in the meantime somebody else translates it let me know, so I don't bother

So what now?

All right. As far as I know some camps are disbanding. Some are deciding to disband this week... but some actions are approved:

Last saturday there was a gathering of camps and assemblies in Madrid. It was decided to go forward a big demos in 19th june and to make the most noise as possible the 11th (the take of possession of newly elected town councils). In Madrid and its surroundings there are about 115 popular assemblies, which is a fucking lot.

In Barcelona there was another paralel gathering trying to organise the movement in Catalunya. As for today there are 54 popular assemblies in that territory (7 million people). As camps disband assemblies survive (that's the idea). Another agreement is to camp in front of the catalan Parliament (if possible; I don't think so, but people is quite innocent/encouraged in assemblies) the night of 14th to 15th. On that morning (15th) the catalan parliament will pass the new cuts act. It is supposed to be contested by columns of protesters coming from the neighbourhoods.

There is a dicotomy in the movement, in catalonia. For one side there is Plaza Catalunya camp, which is seen as the stronghold and as a popular symbol. For the other there are the neigh. assemblies.

Problems:
-activists are moving to neighb, assemblies and sectorial assemblies (economy, unemployed, immigrants, women, students, etc)
-so Plaza Catalunya is increasingly controlled by a weird mixture between hippies, and a new elite who has appeared in the Camp.
-with the days the situation is deteriorating both -aestethically (some people think they are in a music festival)- and politically. Many people want to stay, but they don't go to stay there. And the people who stay are already having problems with anti-social types of people .

===
in barris (neighbourhoods) the problems are another ones. People is not very politisiced, except for the ones in political groups. However they "want to do things". This activisim is worryingly being stopped by our "assamblearian beaurocracy" (comissions and subcomissions trying to find an agreement with so many different peoples). Also anarchist and autonomous, we're not so many in barris, and some parties have their stronghold in some. It is a problem to confront their views and to outnumber them. By the way the movement is new, unexperienced and it-s seen as a new blew for the neighbourhood movement (dead in 1982, with the first "socialist" government).

The point is, what to do?
a)to turn Plaza Catalunya into a coordination of neighbourhoods and sectorial assemblies
b)to leave Plaza Catalunya as it is, a wide, metropolitan "agora" open to everybody (but increasingly in hands of strange and potencially dangerous people.)

The last text posted by Amelie has been translated:

http://libcom.org/news/spain-anarchists-may-15-movement-reflections-proposals-02062011

Salvoechea in what way is the elite in Catalunya strange, could you explain a bit more?

From what I read in Athens some participants in assemblies have also posted criticisms of the assemblies for being subtly controlled by moderators and small groups.

Salvoechea

So what now?

All right. As far as I know some camps are disbanding. Some are deciding to disband this week... but some actions are approved:

Last saturday there was a gathering of camps and assemblies in Madrid. It was decided to go forward a big demos in 19th june and to make the most noise as possible the 11th (the take of possession of newly elected town councils). In Madrid and its surroundings there are about 115 popular assemblies, which is a fucking lot.

In Barcelona there was another paralel gathering trying to organise the movement in Catalunya. As for today there are 54 popular assemblies in that territory (7 million people). As camps disband assemblies survive (that's the idea). Another agreement is to camp in front of the catalan Parliament (if possible; I don't think so, but people is quite innocent/encouraged in assemblies) the night of 14th to 15th. On that morning (15th) the catalan parliament will pass the new cuts act. It is supposed to be contested by columns of protesters coming from the neighbourhoods.

There is a dicotomy in the movement, in catalonia. For one side there is Plaza Catalunya camp, which is seen as the stronghold and as a popular symbol. For the other there are the neigh. assemblies.

Problems:
-activists are moving to neighb, assemblies and sectorial assemblies (economy, unemployed, immigrants, women, students, etc)
-so Plaza Catalunya is increasingly controlled by a weird mixture between hippies, and a new elite who has appeared in the Camp.
-with the days the situation is deteriorating both -aestethically (some people think they are in a music festival)- and politically. Many people want to stay, but they don't go to stay there. And the people who stay are already having problems with anti-social types of people .

===
in barris (neighbourhoods) the problems are another ones. People is not very politisiced, except for the ones in political groups. However they "want to do things". This activisim is worryingly being stopped by our "assamblearian beaurocracy" (comissions and subcomissions trying to find an agreement with so many different peoples). Also anarchist and autonomous, we're not so many in barris, and some parties have their stronghold in some. It is a problem to confront their views and to outnumber them. By the way the movement is new, unexperienced and it-s seen as a new blew for the neighbourhood movement (dead in 1982, with the first "socialist" government).

The point is, what to do?
a)to turn Plaza Catalunya into a coordination of neighbourhoods and sectorial assemblies
b)to leave Plaza Catalunya as it is, a wide, metropolitan "agora" open to everybody (but increasingly in hands of strange and potencially dangerous people.)

I agree totally with your summary Sal, here the situation (as far as i could attend the meetings, been sick the whole past week) is very simmilar. The occupation couldn't be like tahrir square's for obvious reasons: people here still think they got much to lose, lack of organization, political naivity, etc...Still i think they only thing left to do is to spread the assembly to the "barris" and try to deal with the growing bureacracy and opportunism. The 19th june demo is a good idea and can keep the movement alive. Anyway i think is better to lower our expectations: this is gonna be a years fight and is vital to reconstruct class conciousness and abolish illusions. The euro pact is gonna force many people to the streets in the years ahead so reality's gonna put their iron law and challenge passivity and conformism.

Those people are a mixture between leftist political groups (ie, trotskitsts, autonomous postmodern "toni-negrinists", and actvisist) and newcommers from the internet political platforms like Democracia Real Ya and so on.

In some other places people comes from Izquierda Unida, Izquierda Anticapitalista, Equo, etc. I even heard that in Valencia the assembly is controled by right-wing groups promoting things like Zeigeist conspira-shit. It-s hard to tell if this is true.

OliverTwister

The last text posted by Amelie has been translated:

http://libcom.org/news/spain-anarchists-may-15-movement-reflections-proposals-02062011

Thanks for the warning

AmeliefromMontmartre

i found as well this one, but it is probably not in English (or does anybody have its translation)?

Source: http://qsevayan.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/texto01/

Ok, I've finished this one and I'll get around to the first one when I can. It's two pages long, library or do I just post it?

Salvoechea - your comments are really interesting, and there's a very tiny echo of some aspects of them here in Montpellier, where the assembly is far far less consequential than in Spain; implicitly you seem to want some kind of advice, though it's difficult to really say much when you're not directly involved - however, I think a well-distributed, well-publicised updated (with the most recent pertinent facts and analysis) version of the text critical of the movement could make a contribution to advancing things, particularly if it's accompanied by an appropriate action....

More critical articles about the camps in spanish:

about Madrid:
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/423681/index.php
http://madrid.indymedia.org/node/17609
http://madrid.indymedia.org/node/17574
http://estrecho.indymedia.org/sevilla/noticia/acampadasol-comision-feminismo-denuncia-agresiones-sexuales-sol

Barcelona:
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/423561/index.php

Sevilla:
http://estrecho.indymedia.org/sevilla/noticia/adios-paciencia-critica-constructiva-acampadasevilla

Valencia:
http://www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/nos-fueron-llegando-senales-asamblea-valencia-vanguardia-elegidos

All of them are a very illustrating and interesting critic about TAZ, and how open assemblies tend to end up controlled by political/sectarian groups.

Soviets in 1917 were controlled by Trotsky and his fellowcomrades the same as here in Spain, in many camp-sites there is a group who controls the assemblies (a different kind of people in each city)

In my opinion, this movement should go to the barrios and finish the central square occupations as it is right now. It should be better to have a coordination of neighbourhood & town assemblies instead of a huge popular assembly of 5000 people.

do people think that there is a possibility of assemblies being constructed in workplaces? (in Spain or Greece)