Occupy Barcelona..

I had a plan on how to describe the Barcelona O15 day of action, but Hilary Wainwright did a better job than I could here:

http://www.redpepper.org.uk/resistance-takes-root-in-barcelona/

From my North American perspective, what I saw was a massive, spirited march that left promptly at 5 pm, the scheduled meeting time. During the day, one saw many bank machines spray painted and stickered promoting the demonstration. There were posters throughout the downtown core – but no central website coordinating the actions. The crowd was so massive it was difficult to get a sense of the whole thing – but like other ‘Occupy’ or indignados actions it had a large proportion of young people, and mainly handmade signs.  Many of the signs called to end the cuts by Parliament – or talked about solidarity with those arrested during the occupation of Catalunya Square last June. There were plenty of anarchist signs and flags, evidence of communist formations, immigrant rights groups, and student organizations. Many signs used the term ‘indignados’ and referenced October 15^th, the day of action that had emerged from Spain, but there was no reference to Occupy Wall Street.

There were people who had taken it upon themselves to bring festive aspects to the demo - including the fellow with the long clown balloons that people then waved in the air or tried to twist into flowers and the like. There was a mobile sound system, various drummers and marching bands, and a band who set up their instruments (including the drum kit) in the middle of the street so that the crowd flowed around it. In one area were a crew of people with a shopping cart, loaded with spray paint. As we would pass banks, a group of people wearing masks would rush to the bank, and spraypaint and sticker its windows. On a regular basis, loud explosions would be heard – apparently firecrackers. But many of the banks ended up with paint explosions across their windows – so there were paint bombs of some sort. No one seemed in the slightest bit unnerved by the pyrotechnics – except a friend of mine who had recently returned from Palestine.

When we ended the massive march at the Arc de Triomphe, the crowd divided  into three sections – one group headed off to occupy a hospital, one to occupy a set of apartments for housing and one to occupy the university. Hilary Wainwright reports that each site would host an assembly to discuss next steps. However, my Spanish being weak, and the remaining crowd so big – they disappeared before we noticed. The Spanish papers reported on the protest, saying that over 300,000 participated. However, the size of Barcelona was overshadowed by Madrid’s 500,000. 

What struck me, as it did Wainwright is that in Spain this is a movement that has found its legs. It’s been going for five months and while it is global, it started nationally, and remains focused on the local, regional and national economy and politics, but within an analysis of global capitalism.  When the occupiers left Placa Catalunya this summer, they continue to meet in regular popular assemblies across the city. These assemblies are the future of the movement as they organize both mutual aid and they build solidarity, even as they are developing concrete demands that will influence November’s Spanish election. I don’t expect that the movement will become deeply distracted by electoral politics however, given that the current President is from the Spanish Socialist Workers Party. The demands are broader and deeper are for a different kind of economy and a different kind of politics, ones that any party would find difficult to enact.