The Spanish field workers union the SAT has gone en masse to two supermarkets to take food by direct action.
Unemployed fieldworkers and other members of the union went to two supermarkets, one in Ecija (Sevilla) and one in Arcos de la Frontera (Cadiz) and loaded up trolleys with basic necessities.
They said that the people were being expropriated and they planned to “expropriate the expropriators”.
In Arcos the police blocked the doors of the supermarket and prevented them from leaving, but in Ecija, due to other demonstrators creating a diversion, they managed to leave with twenty trolleys of food.
The foodstuffs, including milk, sugar, chickpeas, pasta and rice, have been given to charities to distribute, who say they are unable to cope with all the requests for help they receive.
Unemployment in the Sierra de Cadiz is now 40%. The union say that Mercadona, one of the supermarkets concerned, has a huge number of complaints against them for bullying and persecution of workers.
Comments
Strangely (at least for me)
Strangely (at least for me) first heard this here
Let 's hope this spreads
Video: (btw am I the only
Video:
[youtube]KqNWJPGgFI[/youtube]
(btw am I the only person who can never see embedded videos in comments?)
[youtube]*rKqNWJPGgFI&*[/yout
[youtube]*rKqNWJPGgFI&*[/youtube]
caiman, do the video like this, without the asterisks
Jason Cortez wrote: Strangely
Jason Cortez
Yeah I saw that on facebook too, but they've got loads of the facts wrong, so I thought I should do a better write up.
fingers malone
fingers malone
Yes I know but they never load for me, I have to quote the post then copy the URL into Youtube...
They've announced that they
They've announced that they are going to issue arrest warrents for some of the people involved in the Seville one.
This is fantastic, should the
This is fantastic, should the faces be pixellated? Sure they're all over cctv anyway but still...
I did think about that, but
I did think about that, but they were doing the action very publicly, also I took the photo from a Spanish newspaper, so the Spanish police aren't going to get any photos of anybody from libcom that they don't have already.....
El País report here
El País report here
I don't like that report at
I don't like that report at all. It makes out to be all about Gordillo when it is not, and says that no NGOs have reported lack of food- how can they know that? I'm sure the SAT have better contacts in the region than they do. What, did the newspaper speak to every church, soup run and homeless shelter in the whole of the Sierra de Cadiz, and everybody said they were doing fine thanks? Anyway it is clearly just a lie. I left about 15 months ago, and there were already reports of people fighting over the leftover food in the dustbins.
Great stuff, thanks for the
Great stuff, thanks for the report! Please let us know how it develops
BTW I have seen this being
BTW I have seen this being shared by relatively apolitical friends of mine on Facebook
Oh nice one. There are posts
Oh nice one.
There are posts going up on facebook calling for a boycott of Mercadona until they drop the charges, also this nice picture
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/293102_400684659981537_13014974_n.jpg
It says "I also pushed the trolley"
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRKeE2qpa0VSaiwTuroB3_q6knGXis6ipuKHf_RM51dczU0BQS6
autoreduction !
autoreduction !
is this the same story as the
is this the same story as the one i've read today in the major newspaper that it is organized by a prominent MP? a Spanish comrade also told me that this guy is a mayor of the city and was a leader of SAT (still is?...). and that SAT is a radical communist union (not in the libertarian meaning of the word). could someone clarify?
This is awesome. Thanks for
This is awesome. Thanks for the write-up Malone.
@MT Quote: The mayor of the
@MT
Robin Hood mayor promises more supermarket food raids: Renegade leftist also leads squatter takeover of military base
And there's this article as well:
Rogue mayors stand firm in Seville after arrest of union members for store raids
oh, thanks a lot!!
oh, thanks a lot!!
MT wrote: and that SAT is a
MT
Some background on SAT on this thread
Gordillo is getting a lot of
Gordillo is getting a lot of the press attention but that's the media in my opinion, they want to focus it that way. Gordillo himself also likes to be the centre of attention but there were two hundred workers on that action. He isn't the mayor of "the city" if you mean Sevilla, he's the mayor of Marinaleda, a small village built on occupied land. That news report quoted above wants to make it all about Gordillo and not about the workers because it's "a scandal" and because they want celebrities not working class colective action.
To say the SAT are a radical communist union is fair enough I think.
Perhaps I'm being unfair, but
Perhaps I'm being unfair, but I think the original libcom article is misleading in that by not mentioning Gordillo or how these actions were brought about, it gives the impression that this was an autonomous, self-organised affair. What do you think? x
Thanks Jim. Look, I'm not in
Thanks Jim.
Look, I'm not in Seville now, I'm in London. The reports I read (from the SAT and other mainsteam press sources) just talked about the action. I based what I wrote on them. The first thing I saw making a big fuss about Gordillo was when Mark posted that link to El Pais so I wasn't hiding anything from you. I don't know how the action was organised, as I said I'm not there, but I don't think the fact that the news article focuses on him tells you much more than that the newspapers are like that. The right wing press always make a big thing whenever Gordillo is in some action like "oh, it's disgusting, look at IU, supposed to be a respectable party, and look at their representative in this picket line blah blah blah" and the not so right wing media focus on him for a human interest story "the renegade mayor" or because they know who he is.
As Jim says Gordillo was outside, shouting on a megaphone. I don't think every action where he turns up, shouts through a megaphone, and then speaks to the press, means he is leading the action or has organised it. The SAT do direct action all the time, I've done direct action with them and Gordillo wasn't leading me.
The SAT is a big union, it has 20,000 members, they do direct action all the time, and they have their leaders and their media stars but to be honest there is a pretty crap culture of the "big man" in all the organised class struggle I saw in Andalucia and they were no worse for that than anyone else.
Not much to add here but from
Not much to add here but from what little I know I'd agree with fingers about SAT and also that the El País English report was pretty poor - their reporting in Spanish is better, though not necessarily to be relied on.
Yeah I got the feeling that
Yeah I got the feeling that the English report was making an exotic story about the renegade mayor, which they wouldn't publish in a Spanish edition because everyone in southern Spain would be "Gordillo is a rebel, yeah and?"
For clarification, I don't
For clarification, I don't think the SAT policy on having elected mayors in some villages is a good thing, nor the culture of having the same blokes speaking on the megaphone at every event for years and years, what I'm trying to say is
1. That El Pais report is crap, don't bother with it, read some reports from the local press if you want some normal reporting, or read what people are saying on facebook or on the SAT website
2. It is very problematic that a lot of struggles will look for support from IU politicians to help them, a housing struggle I was in spent months trying to get Gordillo to have a meeting with them in Parliament (which he did) and La Corrala de Vecinas La Utopia went to a session in parliament (there's a video of it on that thread) which they all walked out of in disgust, and I think it's Gordillo who has put forward the motion for them to have the water and electricity reconnected. A different politician in IU was then the person in charge of evicting the old people in a different housing struggle that we were supporting. So of course yes I don't want politicians from IU involved in our struggles (I am an anarchist after all) however I think it's very misleading to say that because Gordillo is there at the action then the action is all about him and that he organised it, just because El Pais says so, in an edition only aimed at tourists.
3. In my experience of class struggle, it involves a whole load of shit. How much and what exact kind of shit you are prepared to put up with to be involved depends on your assessment of the situation really.
Wojtek, look, if you think
Wojtek, look, if you think it's misleading, then I'm sorry, but how do you think the reports should be written then? I mean, I knew Gordillo was there (because I can see him in the video, but if I post up a video where you can see he's there, I don't think I'm doing a very good job of misleading you) but I didn't think anything of it, he does usually go on SAT protests, as far as I know he's been a member of the union since the 70s. I didn't report that he was there because I'm not his free publicity team and I'm not very interested in reporting where he goes and what he does.
The whole thing about him organising the protest, that is in that El Pais report, which I hadn't seen till Mark posted it, but I don't think it's very accurate anyway for reasons explained above.
Usually when I put stuff up from Spain, I use more or less these rules:
If there's a direct account from someone who is there, translate it as directly as I can, and try and make it very accurate
If it's a newspaper story, just pick out interesting facts, they can pay their own translators, I'm not a free translation service for the bourgeois press
I don't usually put much background or analysis I just report the action. If you think I'm not reporting accurately then say how you want it done differently.
Getting back to the actual
Getting back to the actual point, my flatmate just said that they have arrested five people for "robo con coaccion" something like "robbery with menaces" or "robbery with force" we are trying to get local news on the internet but we can't do it.
3 arrests mentioned here:
3 arrests mentioned here: http://ecijaweb.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2600:un-tercer-sindicalista-del-sat-detenido-por-su-implicacion-en-el-asalto-del-mercadona-de-ecija-&catid=39:ecija&Itemid=296
Not to be harsh but it seems tragically inevitable. Deliberate martyrdom or intense naivete?
Dunno, maybe it's a bit
Dunno, maybe it's a bit ploughshares, they did mass shoplifting with union flags and no face coverings to make a point rather than so much to get the stuff, I'm not sure what to think really.
One of the demands is that supermarkets don't throw away the food at the end of the day, that they give it to the red cross before it goes out of date. There is a bit of a scandal as the supermarkets have just started putting padlock on the dustbins to stop people skipping and people are angry about it.
They took some of the food to
They took some of the food to the women squatting in La Corrala, that's nice.
fingers, thanks for your
fingers, thanks for your further posts. When I first saw the El Pais reports and their description (what I understand now to be their inflation) of Gordillo's influence I felt cheated tbh when comparing it to your article, but I do now think I was unfair on you. I'm not used to trade unions being so militant, so when I read words like 'direct action' and 'en masse' I conflated it with self-activity, soz.
direct action is an integral
direct action is an integral part of the "traditional" union movement, but i know what you mean. there's a lot of people who don't know what to think when the bad bad unions go into direct actions. which just says a lot about not knowing how traditional unions work. or the other thing they do is uncritical support. that said, i don't know if any of this is your case (and to be honest, I don't care)
links in Spanish: CNT
links in Spanish:
CNT Andalucía statement in support of the SAT action
CGT Andalucía have also given their support
For anyone who reads Spanish
For anyone who reads Spanish there's some more background on SAT in this article by CNT member Beltrán Roca Martínez:
Cuestión de modelos. Sindicalismo de Estado y sindicalismo combativo en la Andalucía contemporánea (pdf)
Here's a video of the food
[youtube]WPPibyP595w[/youtube]
Here's a video of the food being taken to La Corrala.
Gordillo gets a write-up in
Gordillo gets a write-up in the Guardian
Also focusing on the role of
Also focusing on the role of Gordillo...
Roarmag: Spanish workers expropriate food from supermarkets
An article about the role of
An article about the role of the SAT, the left, and the mass-media
Apologize for not having translated the article into english yet
Espectáculo del SAT y apoyo de la izquierda: la clase dominante en España, enfrentada a la crisis y al creciente descontento, trata de darle una capa de pintura a su desgastado aparato político y sindical
La crisis capitalista, en su paso por España, está haciendo que las contradicciones y antagonismos sociales que recorren la sociedad capitalista se muestren de una forma mucho más descarnada y clara, y que el Estado capitalista, tras su fachada democrática, aparezca de forma cada vez más evidente como lo que es: la máquina encargada de mantener las relaciones sociales y de producción capitalista que requiere la burguesía para su dominio sobre la población en general y sobre la clase proletaria en particular.
La situación se acerca a lo insostenible: aumento brutal de la pobreza y el hambre, paro masivo, miles de desahucios, aumento de la precariedad y la explotación, drásticas reducciones salariales, recortes o eliminación de servicios básicos (sanidad, educación, lucha contra incendios, etc).
En este contexto, la función principal de la mal llamada “clase política”, que no es otra que mentir, sembrar ilusiones y dar legitimidad “democrática” a la dominación capitalista, obviamente sufre un gran desgaste, por lo que es importante para la clase burguesa el preparar piezas de recambio, tanto en lo referente a los partidos e individuos que directamente asumen la función de gestión y aplicación de las medidas que el capital manda, como en los encargados de contener y canalizar el malestar social.
Y algo similar sucede con los sindicatos. Ante la gravedad de la situación, el capital y su Estado debe contar en la reserva con aparatos sindicales capaces de controlar y canalizar hacia puntos muertos las luchas y protestas cuando los “oficiales” CC.OO. , UGT u otros se muestren incapaces.
El caso es que el pasado 7 de agosto el SAT (Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores), previa llamada a los medios, organizó “asaltos” simbólicos a varios supermercados en la región andaluza “para denunciar la situación de miseria de muchas familias en Andalucía”. Los medios burgueses han situado estas acciones en portada durante varias días con dos objetivos, aparentemente contradictorios pero perfectamente complementarios: primero, el intento de criminalizar y asociar toda lucha y movilización con violencia hacia personas y trabajadores, utilizando de forma hipócrita y cínica las lágrimas de una cajera nerviosa a raíz de un pequeño rifi-rafe durante la acción, y así sembrar dudas en aquellos proletarios que sientan el impulso de lanzarse a la lucha en el futuro; y segundo, darle una inestimable publicidad al SAT, de paso a Izquierda Unida, y de forma general a toda la izquierda del capital.
Es bien conocida la férrea censura y blackout imperante en los medios “democráticos”: lo que no interesa a sus dueños es ocultado, o si es imposible por su amplitud, convenientemente tergiversado y manipulado. Desde luego las acciones simbólicas podrían haber sido, como tantas otras veces en casos similares, ocultadas o minimizadas por los medios; si no lo fueron es por las razones arriba señaladas. Y como decíamos, la publicidad al SAT y a IU ha sido enorme, con presencia de miembros del sindicato en múltiples platós televisivos (con la vedette y diputado andaluz por IU Sánchez Gordillo a la cabeza) soltando libremente todo su discurso, junto con sectores de IU que han tenido la oportunidad de mostrar su apoyo a la acción, con el respetable parlamentario Gaspar Llamazares como elemento mediático destacado, y así ponerse por un momento el disfraz de “combativos”.
Pero la cuestión fundamental que subyace de estos “eventos mediáticos” va más allá del SAT, o de tal o cual sigla o personaje; la clase dominante busca a corto y medio plazo el alimentar 3 elementos fundamentales para dificultar la reaparición histórica de la lucha de clase del proletariado a nivel masivo y mantener su poder: alimentar ilusiones sobre el parlamentarismo y las farsas electorales; fomentar la idea de que el sindicalismo (en sus distintas versiones, “oficial” o “de base”) sería una herramienta eficaz de protesta y lucha para los explotados; y espolvorear todo el arsenal de confusión con posiciones políticas y reivindicaciones reaccionarias y ajenas a la lucha proletaria.
La burguesía ha tratado de transmitir que, pese a todo, el parlamento representaría al pueblo, y que hay parlamentarios que sí se preocupan de “los ciudadanos” (su distinguida señoría Llamazares ha aprovechado bien la ocasión para hacerse la foto y se ha erigido en defensor de los pobres). En definitiva, que existiría alguna esperanza de lucha transformadora en el seno de ese cascarón vacío y podrido, lleno de cotorras mentirosas a sueldo del capital, sin otro fin que legitimar la dominación capitalista y alimentar ilusiones “democráticas” y electorales de cambio, que es el parlamento burgués.
De la misma forma, la clase dominante ha pretendido dar oxígeno al sindicalismo, y más concretamente al sindicalismo “de base” o “alternativo” (cuyas diferencias con el sindicalismo “oficial” serían más de forma que de fondo, siendo en general los “alternativos” meros apéndices críticos de los “oficiales”, como pudimos comprobar una vez más en la última “huelga general” del 29-M). ¿Los métodos de estos sindicatos “alternativos”?: acciones simbólicas para llamar la atención de los medios, marchas a pié, aislar y centrar los conflictos en una empresa o zona geográfica, acciones espectaculares (ocupaciones, bloqueos de carreteras, etc), movilizaciones a toque de corneta de los sindicatos grandes, suplicar en la puerta del político de turno, etc. Lejos de lo mínimo que la clase proletaria requiere hoy día: espacios de encuentro, solidaridad, reflexión y debate donde romper el aislamiento; la extensión de los conflictos y las protestas más allá de la empresa o área geográfica particular; el uso de las movilizaciones desmovilizadoras de los sindicatos “oficiales” para contactar y debatir con compañeros y no para ser una mera comparsa chillona.
A la vez, dándole publicidad al SAT, lo que la burguesía ha pretendido es difundir lo máximo posible el arsenal de confusionismo y posiciones reaccionarias que este sindicato comparte con la mayoría de la izquierda y extrema izquierda [1] (y con gran parte del aparato político e ideológico burgués). Este sindicato tiene sus propias peculiaridades ideológicas (entre las más reaccionarias estarían su extravagante nacionalismo andaluz, que identifica la solución a todos los problemas “de Andalucía” -así, en general- con su independencia de España; la caduca y estéril reivindicación de “reforma agraria” para el problema del paro jornalero en Andalucía, como si fuera un problema separado del conjunto del proletariado; o sus reivindicaciones especialmente humillantes y más propias de Cáritas como la de que los supermercados entreguen comida a punto de caducar a la gente necesitada...) pero, como decimos, estas son algunas posiciones de la izquierda en general que es necesario denunciar:
- La utilización del aparato político burgués (la “clase política”) como taparrabo del sistema al que culpar de la crisis (“malas políticas”, casos de corrupción, los sueldos y privilegios de los políticos, etc), y así no señalar al sistema capitalista como un todo, y al aparato político y su corrupción como expresión de este. Mientras la indignación se dirija y limite a los políticos la burguesía puede estar tranquila.
- La utilización de los bancos y el sector financiero también como chivos expiatorios “culpables de la crisis” como si estos no fueran organismos estrechamente ligados al Estado capitalista y al sistema como un todo, y como si el hundimiento del sector financiero no fuera otra cosa que la expresión del derrumbe de una parte de la economía capitalista. Vuelta a la vieja cantinela antiglobalización, hoy retomada por los restos del 15M y la izquierda de que “el poder financiero se está cargando la democracia” (¡!).
- La utilización de sus acciones dirigidas a “llamar la atención del gobierno” y evitar la “helenización de España”, y a que este “haga políticas a favor del pueblo”. Por supuesto sus acciones no van dirigidas al conjunto de explotados, a que el proletariado gane en fuerza, autoorganización, unidad, solidaridad y capacidad política para el combate contra la burguesía.
- Denuncia de que “Bruselas” y “Merkel” estarían acabando con “nuestra soberanía”, discurso que exime a la clase capitalista española (y andaluza) y a su sistema de toda culpa en los ataques a las condiciones de vida. Como se vé, el reaccionario y antiproletario nacionalismo andaluz (que reivindica para crear empleo, entre otras cosas, que no se lleven la industria a Cataluña...) es perfectamente compatible con el reaccionario y antiproletario nacionalismo español (que se esfuerza en señalar a “Alemania” y “Bruselas” como los ladrones de “nuestra soberanía”...).
- Soluciones mágicas para la crisis: que el BCE preste dinero barato (¡cuando precisamente el crédito excesivo para crear una demanda ficticia que diera salida a las mercancías ha sido la causa inmediata de la crisis!), que se hagan inversiones productivas, que se genere empleo, etc... Por lo visto aquí no hay lucha de clases, no hay antagonismos sociales, la burguesía y su Estado no mirarían por su propio beneficio sino por “el bien del pueblo”, no hay contradicciones en el sistema que lo llevan a crisis y convulsiones cada vez más profundas, sólo “buenas o malas políticas” en las que habría que acertar por el “bien del país”... ¿y la crisis?, sería mentira, “una estafa”.
La gravedad de la situación, los múltiples y sofisticados métodos y aparatos de confusión y canalización que posee la clase dominante y su Estado, la descomposición social y la atomización creciente, hacen absolutamente indispensable un mínimo de claridad política para luchar contra el capitalismo. No puede haber práctica revolucionaria sin teoría revolucionaria, sin conocer el terreno que pisamos, la portería que defendemos y en la que nos toca marcar, a nuestros enemigos y a nuestros falsos amigos.
Los compañeros que honestamente tratan de luchar contra este sistema bajo la influencia de la izquierda y la extrema izquierda del capital tienen que hacer un esfuerzo y reflexionar acerca de la actividad y discurso de esas organizaciones e ideologías, cuyo fin (más allá de los honestos y combativos militantes que pudiera haber en sus filas) en la sociedad burguesa es el de contener, canalizar y debilitar la capacidad, teórica y práctica, del proletariado para luchar contra el capitalismo.
Draba 16/08/2012
[1] Para ver un pequeño listado de colectivos e individuos de la izquierda que han dado su apoyo al SAT: http://www.kaosenlared.net/component/k2/item/27597-artistas-intelectuales-movimientos-sociales-sindicatos-y-partidos-se-solidarizan-con-el-sat.html
http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2
http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2012/09/05/catalunya/1346842661_039435.html
Here's another one, in Catalonia, two unemployed women took a trolley full of food from a supermarket, supported by Plataforma Afectados por la Hipoteca. (Platform for those affected by mortgages, do a lot of anti eviction stuff.) Food distributed amongst families with no income. She's in court now. Article is in Spanish but if you scroll down there is a short video of the action which is easy to understand.
Paul Mason slips coverage of
Paul Mason slips coverage of Gordillo and SAT into his latest Newsnight report on the Spain/Eurozone crisis: on iplayer, starts at 14:10
Also, from his blog: Mario and Mariano versus the man with the beard
Anyone have more (accurate?)
Anyone have more (accurate?) information on this?
http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/10/31/inenglish/1351711668_656856.html
Not really. There's an
Not really. There's an alasbarricadas thread complaining about the TV coverage but I'm not sure what actually happened.
Edit: There's another alasbarricadas thread here which I'd missed and a google translation fwiw. It looks like this has brought a lot of bad publicity and embarrassment for the CGT and CNT. There may be legal problems as well but I'm not sure about this. I'm still not that clear about what happened but it appears that the CGT/CNT demo was joined by more sub-cultural anarchists who took it in a direction that wasn't originally intended, with some fairly stupid and counter-productive actions. These actions probably wouldn't have been such a big issue in themselves if they hadn't ended up being linked to the CGT and CNT. Apologies if any of this is inaccurate - any clarification would be welcome.
Andalusian union in new
Andalusian union in new supermarket protest raid: Protestors complete back-to-school shopping for impoverished families