by Carlos. May 20th, 2011
Cartoon by El Roto
I don’t use Twitter and this is probably the only time I’ll mention it here, but: FRIENDS AROUND THE GLOBE WHO USE TWITTER. PLEASE SUPPORT #SPANISHREVOLUTION #ACAMPADASOL #ACAMPADABCN #ACAMPADAVALENCIA #ACAMPADAGRANADA #ACAMPADABILBAO #ACAMPADASEVILLA AND SO ON AND ON. <——That link will show you what’s happening at all camps, those in the Spanish State as well as the international camps which are growing rapidly and gathering strength in their own communities.
I can only speak to my own experience at acampadabcn. The only official voice of acampadabcn is the nightly general assembly. Anything I know about acampadasol is from what I’ve seen on the internet and reliable word-of-mouth. You can view their manifesto here and watch what they’re doing here. Pablo Simón provides thoughtful Spanish-language reflection. And oh, by the way, AnOps is on board. So it is on.
I just witnessed a five thousand person general assembly, with rapidly acquired knowledge of protocol and the appropriate gestures of agreement, moving on and so on. During the day today, there were even volunteers providing sign language interpreters at individual debates and assemblies and committees (such consideration for the handicapped is all too frequently absent at all levels of organizational information dissemination and decision-making). We have started our confrontation with a government and a political system that is openly corrupt, populated as it is by representatives who line their pockets with public money even as they attack us, the public (their bosses), with so-called ‘austerity measures’ aimed especially at those social institutions most intrinsically linked to our basic human rights (education, health, and justice). We have begun this confrontation by taking the moral high-ground, which we currently have a strong monopoly on, and claiming all public spaces, which are rightfully ours. We have done this peacefully. Madrid has announced that they are taking on the Electoral Law as a starting point through which to redefine the entire structure of our democracy. You are mistaken if you believe this will last only until the spectacle of the municipal elections is over. As you can see at any time of the day in our plazas, we are far beyond that point. Even their attempts to forbid protest are not enough to stop us, as we know (and the government has demonstrated) that legality and justice are not synonymous.
General Assembly, Day 4 (Photo taken by Juanfra Alvarez. Click image for Flickr.)
Folks in the U.S. may have read about this in NYT or WashingtonPost or CNN or whatever. You may have heard about this guy named Camps being like Berlusconi. He is, but the point is that a lot of people here are, and they are a very specific portion of the population (politicians, bankers and actual aristocrats with their thumbs in so many pies most folks wouldn’t even know what to call their “jobs”). And that NYT article is sugarcoating the situation to say the least (I mean they’re basically quoting from El Pais articles, the centrist-looking version of what is basically our only news group). For instance, they report that we are mostly young people, which is wrong and misleading. In truth, our demographics depend on what time of the day you come at (my reference to demographics is not bullshit. I am a critical demographer). Here is an example from Okupemlesones, our occupied digital cable channel.
And anyway, why wouldn’t you expect to see young people when youth unemployment (in a place where people in their thirties are still often considered youth) is at 43%? We noticed we had some time on our hands, so we decided to take it in our hands and wake our elders up (they had fallen asleep while watching TV). And we are waking them up every night at 9 with popular caceroladas (banging on pots, pans and whatever else we bring), because 9 PM on a weekday is very, very early in this part of the world.
Thursday night, I saw Filastine accompany a crowd of thousands of people from right at the very center of Plaza Catalunya armed with only a bass drum and our thousands and thousands of pots, pans, tupperware, water bottles, keys and voices, with shouts of NINGU, NINGU, NINGU ENS REPRESENTA (NONE OF THEM REPRESENT US) and NO HAY PAN PA TANTO CHORIZO (THERE’S NOT ENOUGH BREAD FOR ALL THIS CHORIZO<—this is the term we reserve for the sketchiest of characters). Here is some video that includes his arrival at the center after minute 6:00. I can tell you that it does not capture the energy. As holds true for all of the 15-M movement, you must go to the plaza yourself to know:
So please, we ask that you RT or spread the word as best you can. Help us online so we can be in the street. Some suggestions: Bombard sympathetic people who have tons of Twitter cache (Lady Gaga is as good a start as any) with requests that they support the #spanishrevolution. 4chan. Camp out with others at your local Spanish embassy. 4chan. Link to this post, or some other post on the #spanishrevolution that you are more sympathetic to, or anything else you may read about the 15-M movement or the individual camps, in Facebook. 4chan. Flood your local Indymedia center with information on the movement. 4chan. Or start your own camp in your own city.
Y por supuesto, si estáis por aquí, VENID A LA ACAMPADA QUE MÁS CERCA TIENES. #NOTENEMOSMIEDO.
Mudd Up! 
