With The Outraged In Madrid

international | anti-capitalism | news report Monday June 27, 2011 00:53 by Diarmuid Breatnach - Personal Capacity

Huge numbers marched in Madrid on the 19th as part of the campaign of the 15 M Movement -- Diarmuid Breatnach was there.

The 15 M movement in Madrid is a broad one which at one moment raises general slogans of an apparently reformist kind and the next is calling for the capitalists to pay the costs of the crisis it created and for a general strike. It is energetic and coming up with different methods of internal democracy in the neighbourhood assemblies and central coordination and adapting traditional methods of protest. On the 19th streams of people marched from many different areas and met at the Neptuno monument, near the Spanish parliament.

Section of the huge crowd on the M5 Movement demonstration June 19th

The 15th May Movement began with a sit-in in Madrid’s Puerto del Sol square led by the small group Democracy Now! but has now grown huge and autonomous and spread across the Spanish state. Through its various assemblies in occupied town squares and in neighbourhoods, it called for a series of demonstrations across land. Under the title of The Workers’ Assemblies of Neighbourhoods and Villages of Madrid, the movement called for a huge demonstration for Sunday 19th June at the Congreso, the Spanish parliament building. The Government had banned a demonstration there although it was not in session, later permitting a march to the Neptuno traffic junction and roundabout, about two hundred kilometres from the building. Those two hundred kilometres marked a compromise between the fear of the government and its need to mark its authority on the one hand and the need of the 15th May movement, on the other, to maintain and extend the pressure while remaining peaceful in method.

The evening of Saturday 18th, I attended one of the neighbourhood assemblies meeting across Madrid, this one on the outskirts of the city. The meeting was addressed by one of a number of facilitators who explained the norms of the meeting. Those attending would receive reports and proposals from committees for resources, mobilisation, politics, economics .... Those in attendance would agree or disagree; in the case of the latter, they would be given an opportunity to explain their reasons, then those proposing would respond and, if disagreement remained, the proposal would go back to the relevant committee who would then attempt to incorporate the points of disagreement. The object was to reach consensus and not majority vote, since they were seeking to discuss things and make decisions in a new way.

Applause could be done in the normal way or signalled by holding arms aloft and waving hands in the air and this also served to indicate agreement. Disagreement would be indicated by arms raised with crossed wrists. People wishing to speak approached a facilitator who had his or her role marked on paper pinned to their chests. There were disagreements and questions but decisions were reached remarkably quickly with a minimum of cross-talking and without heckling.

Two people who volunteered as minute-takers were given paper and pen and the meeting began. Some discussion and a few proposals with regard to decision-making I found of particular interest. With regard to consensus, it was not acceptable, the attendance agreed, that individuals could disagree without presenting their reasons and, in the case of a developed objection, they should present it in written form of about one page so that the relevant committee could take it into account. Also, in the case of a decision being urgently needed, where the to-and-from committee to assembly would damage the required action by delay, the objecting section would need to be of 10% or over in order to stop the proposal going ahead. These proposals were agreed.

Another interesting item was on the struggle against evictions of those who could not pay their rent or mortgage arrears. A lawyer gave information on legal ways to delay the process by up to two years and a group address was set up which could be used by anyone aware of a coming eviction and which would send a notification to everyone in the group. The speaker reported that five evictions had been stopped recently in the area by many people attending and blocking those carrying out the eviction.

Most disagreement was shown around a proposal to move the venue from where we were to another but, being ignorant of the area, I was in no position to evaluate this discussion.

In neighbourhoods and villages around Madrid and other cities, similar groups are meeting, getting organised and seeking involvement, planning local resistance to being made to pay for the crisis, feeding into the state-wide network and receiving feedback.

After the meeting I participated in a banner-making session while others made placards.

The following day, we were on the march. We met around a local Metro station at 9.30am and, although there were only 150 protesters, the police were already there in large enough numbers: both municipal police and the really hard boys – the Policía Nacional, who stayed out of contact but clearly visible. The Policía Municipál leaders collected one of each leaflet version available. A brisk trade went on in T-shirts and badges with a logo of raised fists and marching feet and a slogan translating as “WE MARCH TOGETHER AGAINST THE CRISIS AND CAPITAL” – the badges were good earners at €1 each but soon ran out. At 10am, with a shouting of slogans, we set out – it was not too hot yet but looked like it would be a scorcher. Elsewhere on other outskirts of Madrid, another five small groups had also started out around the same time – each column would be picking up others along the way, meeting up eventually as the northern and southern Madrid groups, to march on together.

After about 20 minutes on the march we met another group, this one of about fifty. Much cheering, clapping and a new outburst of slogans as on we went. Nearly half an hour later, we collected another group, then another, and another; now a thousand strong, we marched on.

Anytime througout the march that we passed groups of onlookers, whether on the streets or in their windows or balconies, whether they were clapping or not, the marchers shouted: “No nos miren – únate!” (“Don’t look at us – join us!). There were no flags – not of any colour or of any party. The banners were broad in message and nearly all carried the 15 M trademark, the exception being one small banner calling for revolution and carried by a man and a woman without any apparent following. Some of the slogans at this stage were broadly democratic in content, such as “Que no, que no – que no nos representan!” (They don’t represent us!) and a snatch of a song with the theme that “they call it democracy but it is not!” (“Lo llaman democracia y no lo es!”). Another popular chant was “Eso, eso, eso – nos vamos al Congreso!” (“We’re heading for the Parliament!”). “Esta crisis no la pagamos!” (We are not going to pay for this crisis!”) was another popular slogan, followed by a rythmic clapping of hands.

Some of the slogans however were politically harder: “PSOE y PP la misma mierda es!” (“The PSOE (labour) and PP (conservatives) are the same shit!”); “En contra del paro – lucha obrera!” (“Against unemployment – workers’ struggle!”) and “ Viva la lucha de la clase obrera!” (“Long live the struggle of the working class!”). At times also: “Anti, anti, anti-capitalista!” “The Bourbons to the sharks!” (“Los Borbones a los tiburones!”) was an anti-Spanish monarchy cry heard from time to time and which could earn those who voiced it a fine – or worse!

The old Chilean popular slogan of “El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!” (“The people united will never be defeated”) at the beginning of the march had become “Los barrios unidos ….” etc. (“The neighbourhoods united ....”). I shouted these slogans with the rest, despite my lack of confidence in the message. The Chilean Army coup and repression of 1973, instigated by the CIA, had shown that the people united could indeed be defeated – if, while unarmed, they faced an army. I would normally have countered this slogan with: “El pueblo armado jamás será ‘plastado!” (“The people armed will never be squashed!”).

For the 15 May Movement at this point, one of their strengths is in their numbers and in their unity. It may not be the time to talk about armed revolution, when so many are coming to political activism for the first time, when they have rejected not only the political establishment parties but are also suspicious of the socialist revolutionary organisations. And also when undercover police officers have moved among them and appear to have instigated violent action which their uniformed colleagues have then used as an excuse to attack protesters (according to sources this happened in Barcelona and to a lesser extent in Madrid).

Some of the media have also tried to draw a link between “terrorism” and the 15 M movement, citing that two of the signatorees applying for permission for the demonstration were also candidates for Iniciativa Internacionalista, the broad electoral platform that stood (mostly in the Spanish state) in the European Parliamentary elections and which was supported by, among others, the Basque pro-Independence Left. The National Court ban on the platform had been overturned by the Constitutional Court, so it was legal – but this is Spain and, to much of the media, anything connected with Basque self-determination is ‘terrorist’. Hence, when the march eventually reached the Neptuno roundabout, the marchers held up their hands and waggled their fingers, chanting: “Las armas que tenemos, son estas!” (“These are our only arms!”).

Earlier, as we were joined by other large contingents, becoming at first thousands and then tens of thousands, the harder left slogans seemed to disappear (or not to be widely repeated) and we returned again to the themes of lack of representation by the political establishment, the lack of real democracy, that we are marching towards Parliament, etc. But the theme of workers’ struggle did surface again and again, along with the defeat of the anti-worker labour legislation reforms, and was taken up by many. The crowd also chanted about the absence of the Comisiones Obreras and UGT, the main Spanish trade unions.

Then, for the first time, I saw a solitary flag – the flag of the Spanish Republic which was overthrown by Franco. It was not possible at that point, from within the march, to estimate the numbers. One could have stepped aside and counted as it went by, but people were marching not only in the broad street across four lanes but were also choking the pavements to both sides. And even if one could count all those, by the time the end of the march passed, forcing a way through to catch up with the front again would have been very difficul. “Manaña direis que fuimos cinco o seis!” stated some of the placards (“Tomorrow you will say that we were five or six”). The people have learned the role of the capitalist mass media through their experience. When TV cameras approached to interview someone, the cry went up: “Telivisión = manipulación!” The cry was also repeated whenever we passed TV external broadcasting units.

The two specific demands of the demonstration were for a general strike and a referendum on October 19th – against the labour legislation reforms and in general against working people being made to pay for the crisis, as well as to test whether the people agree with the measures being taken by their government. There was much criticism of the importance given to saving the Euro and of saving the banks. When marchers passed by an office of the Comisiones Obreras or the UGT, the call that “They don’t represent us!” went up again, this time directed at the main trade unions rather than at the political establishment. Next morning, on Madrid TV’s news discussion programme, the able young spokesperson of Democracy Now!, while making it clear he is not speaking on behalf of the 15 M Movement, points out that the reforms to Spain’s labour legislation “were agreed by four people in a room”. This was a complaint also of the pro-sovereignty Basque, Catalan and Gallician trade unions recently, when they sent their delegates to demonstrate in Madrid some months ago, in protest against the Government and against Comisiones Obreras and the UGT.

The Democracy Now! spokesperson on TV also answers the frequent challenge that the elected politicans are the ones with the mandate to make decisions. “Majority parliamentarianism is not real democracy,” he asserts. Answering the challenge that more people voted for the governing party, he states that “when people vote for political parties they don’t necessarily vote for the decisions that are later taken by the successful party in Government. These decisions were made by a government that received the votes of less than 30% of the population,” he maintains, adding that “the people should have an input and a veto on such major decisions, for example by referendum.” He is asked about forthcoming elections and the participation of the movement: “Speaking for Democracy Now, we are about a new kind of democracy – more about the streets than in Parliament. The political parties should listen to what the people are saying.”

We reached the Neptune roundabout at nearly 2pm, having been on the march for four hours and met the columns from the south of the city. The midsummer heatwave had arrived a little early in the month and the sun, in a cloudless sky, was very hot. Some people moved among the crowd spraying a welcome water mist.

There was hardly a professionaly-produced placard in sight but the variety of slogans and of the materials on which they were displayed was amazing. Cardboard box cut-outs, umbrellas, plastic sheets, pieces of cloth, sheets of foam rubber, paper in many sizes and of course T-shirts. Some had used their own skin on which to write the message. The slogans were printed at home off PCs,, painted in plain black on white background or in colours, done with felt-tip markers or even with biro. There were paper hats for protection against the sun which also carried slogans.

Some of the messages were clever, some amusing, others pithy and some long. “I am so outraged I don’t know whom to insult first!” said one in Spanish, while another: “Liberté, Egalité, Indígnate!” (“Liberty, Equality, become Outraged!”). “We seem few to you because you are at such a distance” said another placard in Spanish, while yet another drew on that old saying about how the great only appear so because we are on our knees. One slogan in English appeared a number of times, a play on the Monty Python sketch about the Spanish Inquisition: “Nobody expects the Spanish revolution”. “Mi crisis, su botín!” said another placard (“My crisis, their bonanza!”) while yet another offered an “Esclavo economico para alquilar” (“Economic slave for hire”). “Pueblo manso = pueblo esclavo” (“a tame people is a slave people”) was written on another placard. Dealing with the accusations of demonstrator violence, one placard entreated: “No ser violento – no pegais porras policiales con vuestros cabezas!” (“Don’t be violent – don’t attack police truncheons with your heads!”); “Violencia es cobrar solo €600” (“Violence is getting only €600”) [presumably per month] stated another.

There at Neptune there was a long pause with sightseers and protesters being constantly moved back off the road by stewards, in order to allow a clear view of the leading banners. Two of these stewards were stripped to the waist, had punk haircuts and were painted on their faces and bodies. Drums were beating, whistles blowing and slogans were being shouted, which the crowds on the sidelines took up. I sat down to the side and in the shade and began talking to a middle-aged man with a dog. He had never expected to see such demonstrations in his lifetime and is entirely on the side of the demonstrators. One of the points he was especially angry about is how in the Spanish state, when people are evicted from their homes for the inability to pay the rent or the mortgage, they are put on the street without anywhere at all to go.

The sun was beating down and it was with relief that the march then surged forward again, some of them to line up in front of the police barriers and others to fill the streets around the roundabout. An orchestra of a hundred was preparing to play under the shade of the trees. It was all taking too long for me and, wilting under the sun, I headed off, walking in the shade whenever possible, to the Metro stop near the Retiro park. Many others were heading off too. Just before that, a contingent appeared bearing red flags displaying the hammer and sickle symbol of unity between urban and rural workers. The 15 M movement had asked those attending not to bring flags of party or ideology but these clearly disagreed.

The following day, the Spanish newspapers are saying that “hundreds of thousands” marched in 60 cities “in all Spain”. Some of those cities, like Bilbao and Barcelona, would not agree that they are “in Spain” at all. Unusually, one newspaper is claiming 40,000 for Madrid and 75,000 for Barcelona (in past weeks, Catalans have complained that the numbers in Barcelona have been downplayed by the media while those in Madrid have been represented as higher). This makes me think that on this occasion, maybe the reverse is true – that the numbers in Madrid were indeed higher than in Barcelona. In any case, the figure of 40,000 for Madrid was ridiculously low and, if multiplied by 10 would be closer to the true figure. That in turn would bring the total turnout on May 19th across the Spanish state to well over half a million.

From the TV news I learn that groups of protesters which the M 15 Movement is calling “columnas” are setting off from cities across the Spanish state and marching towards Madrid. They will participate in the local popular assemblies of the cities through which they pass and will reach Madrid in time for the next big event. The movement is finding ways to keep the pressure up. It seems that they are being true to one of their slogans which hundreds of thousands shouted on the streets: “Deste el Sur hasta el Norte, del Oeste hasta el Este, vamos a seguir, cueste lo que cueste!” (“From the South to the North, from the West to the East, we will continue, cost what it may!”).

Ends.
http://www.demotiximages.com/news/730260/demonstration-...ement
http://maestroviejo.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/19j-manife...elas/
http://maestroviejo.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/19j-manife...elas/
http://www.democraciarealya.es/
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