Anarchism Rules!

Montlhéry, September 15

Day 52 of the March on Brussels. From Etampes, 29 km

'Minimalism'

Dear people,

This morning, instead of going walking early, we sat down in the tavern ‘le petit caporal’, to plot about actions in Paris. We were not the only ones. There are small groups within our march preparing actions and diversive manoeuvres of their own accord. Also the Mediterranean march and the indignados in Paris are busy cooking up their own plans.

Then when the time comes to coordinate things in the internal assembly, we lose hours deciding whether a journalist of a photographic magazine should be allowed or not to assist to the assembly. In the end, we don’t even get to talk about the important things.

But do not think that this is a ridiculous chaos, o no, it’s tactics. The only way for us to avoid that the police knows what we’re going to do is to make sure that we ourselves don’t have any idea of what’s going to happen.

So far for things in practice. These last few days I have been talking about the theoretical nature of our movement with comrade Roberto, from the Economy commission, which is now known as the commission ‘Autogestión’, to appease the anti-monetarians within the march.

Roberto is a former stock broker and bank employee. He started off as a choir boy in church. He knows the enemy, and he has a very analytical way of thinking which isn’t blurred by any kind of moral. I’m trying to convince him to be part of a secret Intelligence commission, with the objective to gather any type of information about the march.

This information is divided on various levels. One is the organisation of the march, another is a classification of its participants on the basis of their mentality, and another is a classification on the basis of their political ideas.

We made a scheme of the commissions. Route, Economy and Dinamisation are the primary ones. The Route decides where we’re going. Economy controls the secondary commissions of Logistics and Kitchen. Dinamisation is a kind of central committee which prepares the politics of the assembly. If you control these three commissions, you control the march.

But maybe the most important commission of all is Communications. Through Communications we create the public image of the march. We depend on public support. Without effective propaganda, there is no march.

As for the mentality, people can be divided into the ‘rigorosos’, or the people who want to shape order out of chaos, the ‘permisivos’, who try to keep the group together with comprehension and endless search for consensus. There are the parasites, who don’t really care as long as they don’t have to walk and receive a free meal. And finally, there are a few visionaries who don’t take themselves or the march too seriously. They watch on with amazement and joy how this incredible movement develops.

On a political level you can recognise the classical distinction between radical revolutionaries and practical reformists. The former want to change everything overnight, so that as from tomorrow we can all live together, happily ever after. The latter admit that things are a bit more complicated than that. But most people probably don’t have any clear political ideas at all. They know things are not right in society, but they wouldn’t really know where to start to make a change.

At midday we walk. It was a strange day today. A part of the distance I walked alone, and whenever I did, I got lost. This hardly ever happens. I arrived last, late in the evening. I missed the popular assembly on the village square, which was a shame, because I heard it had been very interesting.

There was a woman present who works in a psychiatric institution. She told that she had 23 patients in her department, ten of which had drinking problems. It seems that Sarkozy has passed a law which allows police to send people who are caught drunk on the street to a mental institution. One of the patients got caught the very first time he ever touched a bottle. After six months in the clinic he had become a true alcoholic.

The Road to the Bastille

Etampes, September 14

Day 51 of the March on Brussels. From Toury, 35 km

Dear people,

In the early days of the revolution I had great fun translating the solemn manifests of the French indignados which had assembled in Place de la Bastille, inspired by what was happening in Puerta del Sol. It was all real, and it was all a game. Together with the people who happened to be there in the Communcations tent at that same particular moment in history, and who spoke better French than me, I answered with resplendent comunicados full of historical and revolutionary winks. “Salut Paris! Ici Madrid! Avez-vouz pris la Place de la Bastille?“

They had, it turned out. But they were never able to hold it. The General Assembly in Puerta del Sol fell silent when the news broke that police were clearing the square with tear gas.

Now, almost four months later, I am camped at three days from Paris with the March on Brussels, and together with my general staff we are gathered around a map of the city and its surroundings. We’re going to plan the road to the Bastille.

The fact is that comrade Cowboy has left the Route commission. He gave up after people had repeatedly ignored his routes to go their own way. The vacuum was filled by comrade Polacco, comrade Vladimir from the Toulouse march, two reconassaince bikers freshly in from Spain, and me. I am the only one who speaks both French and Spanish.

When the map is unfolded, my eyes light up. I quickly note the various possibilities. The original idea is to enter Paris straight from the South and be at Bagneux, at eight kilometres from the center, on Friday evening. We are going to change all that. And we’re going to tell nobody about it until the last moment. It’s going to be a complete surprise. We’re going to Versailles.

Secrecy is of the utmost importance, and I repeat it. We’re going to camp in front of the castle, and we don’t want police to know about until we’re there. Everyone who joins in on the meeting agrees. Complete secrecy. The people from Etampes who are monitoring us from a distance seriously nod. The scene is filmed by two people from Canal +. “Not a word! We’re going to Versailles. It’s going to be fabulous.”

“Is it possible?” someone asks. “Sure it’s possible. We’re the March on Brussels. Look, we’ll take these roads, we cross the fields, we take the paths. We’ll be there before anyone knows what’s happening.”

“Right. You’re in front of the castle. Then what? The day after we are expected in the Universitary City at eleven in the morning. The distance from Versailles is over 25 kilometres. We should get up at five and be marching at six. If we arrive, people will be exhausted.”

It’s true. If we want we can do it. Versailles is a great symbolic photo opportunity, but little else. We have to be practical. In the southern banlieues of Paris we can do actions, hold assemblies, incite the workers. And apart from that, when I look around, I start to have doubts about the effective secrecy of the plan.

We return to the original plan. Bagneux in two days. Comrade Waldo will be waiting there with the local indignados. Then Saturday we march into the city to the rendez-vous point near the Gare d’Austerlitz. In the afternoon, we take the Bastille.

Where do we enter Paris? I look at the names of all the city gates. ‘Oh yes’, I think, and I place my finger down on the map. “Here. We will enter Paris through the Porte d’Italie“, I say, “for sentimental reasons.”

That’s it.  Nothing to be proposed to the assembly, because if we do, we’ll never make it to Paris. We will still be here discussing on the route in three days time.

I translate the general idea to comrade Vladimir in French. “If we don’t take Versailles” he says, “we should do something else, something symbolic.” And he comes up with a brilliant idea for a decoy. Something to disorientate the authorities. For obvious reasons I cannot reveal it now. It’s really secret, and it has to be communicated to our people in Paris as fast as possible. But we can’t use mobile phones or email. All our communications are at risk of being intercepted. The only way is to go there in person. Someone will have to jump on a horse and ride to Paris through the night, to bring the dispatch to our liaisons as quickly as possible.

“Who’s willing to do this?” I ask. No-one volunteers.”You can do it”, says someone.

I think about it for a second. I know that the horse won’t be a horse, and it would mean abbandoning the march. I can’t do it. At that moment, enter a messenger. Our people from Paris will be here tomorrow. There’s no need to warn them. We can talk it over in the group and continue as planned.

“Good”, I say, and the map is folded. I’m content. I love this game. “Tomorrow I want a detailed map of the center of the city.”

Love at first sight

 

Popular Assembly in Etampes

The Monastery of Poitiers

Poitiers, September 4

Day 41 of the March on Brussels. From La Ferrière-Airoux, 34 km.

Dear people,

There is no feasible alternative over the small roads this time, we march straight to Poitiers. I walk along with comrade Abdullah, the old man with the grooved face and the long white hair. He has nominated himself the ‘Analysis commission’.

“We are going to take Poitiers”, he says, “and this time we’re not going to turn back.”

I look at him from the side, and I begin to suspect that he is lying about his age.

The mayor's house of Smarves

At Poitiers, in the eigth century, the muslim advance was brought to a halt by a christian army under Charles, ‘the Hammer’. Abdullah sighs. “The Arab intellectuals were very disappointed that civilization hadn’t advanced any further.”

He speaks out of experience, I know it. So I ask, “civilization?”

He starts to speak about Moses as if they had been brothers in arms. “Moses, for the jews, signified freedom. Jesus brought the message of brotherly love, and Mohammed gave people a social structure. Take away the religion, and that is what is left, the social structure.”

Catholic priests preached the future kingdom of heaven, and that way they more or less justified the misery on earth. European society at the time was based on the exploitation of the farmers by noble warlords.

The muslim society was based on families and clans, Abdullah explains. Money was a means and not an end. Demanding interest on a loan was forbidden and the price of bread was fixed. It was a sacred obligation for every muslim to open his door and to feed people who were in need. Rich people were not only celebrated for their succes, but also judged on their gifts in charity. If they didn’t they were considered social outcasts, however rich they were.

The land was divided among big estates and small farms. A landless farmer could offer his work to a landowner and take care of a cow or a goat. The milk and the offspring would be shared equally. After years a farm boy could have his private herd and settle on a piece of land of his own.

Most notably, while Europe was in the darkest of the dark ages, the muslim society stimulated research and speculation. They read Aristoteles while the European nobles boasted about their ignorance as if it were a virtue.

A French village

 

Just outside of Poitiers we are welcomed by groups of local indignados. They point us the road through the forest which will lead us to the old city along the river.

I like the city from the start. It’s like a big big village. The houses have an air of real old, not just renovated old. The medieval streets invite you to lose yourself deep in the entrails of the city.

When we come out into the open we stand next to the Notre Dame du Marché, our Lady of the Market. There are small groups of locals observing our travelling tribe and waiting for the assembly. They are most hospitable. They come to offer shopping bags full of food and coffee to the kitchen.

Our Lady of the Market

 

As I prepare to look for internet to send my daily communication, comrade Roberto comes by to speak to me in a conspiratory tone. “Have you heard the story of the showers?”

No, I didn’t, so he explains. Everything was already settled. On a secret mission, comrade Roberto had gone ahead to Poitiers the other day, he had pretended to be a pilgrim and got access to the local monastery. Today, he has been shipping people there back and forth in groups of five, to take a shower. “It’s a risk,” he says. “Just be quiet, and follow me.”

So there we go, off to take the monastery of Poitiers under the cover of darkness…

Scenes from an assembly in Poitiers

 

 

 

Colour projection on the church

Alone on Empty Roads

La Ferrière-Airoux, September 3

Day 40 of the March on Brussels. From Lizant, 32 km.

I’m sitting against the bare wooden doors of a small church, where there’s some shelter against the rain. From here, I can see almost every house in the village. In one of the windows I notice someone peaking from behind the curtains. A door opens, an old man steps outside. From under his white eyebrows he glances grimly in my direction as he walks towards the church with a cane. Slowly, he reaches for his inside pocket, he tears out a big iron key. I step aside. The old man inserts the key and tries to give it a few turns. After that, he grunts, he turns around, and without looking at me he shuffles away. It was the local priest who wanted to make sure that the gate to the house of god was properly locked.

Dear people,

 Yesterday the light of day had brought reason to our little village, and nightfall had brought music. There was a good vibe going on. You could feel it when people started to join in on the jam session, battering on pans, jars, empty cans and drums.

The clouds had lifted as well, and there was no light on the camping field. When you lay down on the grass and you look up, you can see an amazing scenery in 11 dimensions. And you don’t need glasses for it. The stars. They are so bright out here in the countryside. And you can’t only see the stars, you can also see the thin and sparkling fog of the galaxy, spanning the firmament from one end to the other.

Organisational scheme of comrade Canario

Comrade Cansino on guard

We left Lizant with a good feeling today. Things have been sorted out in marathon assemblies on our day off, and sealed with embraces. Again we march as a group. Everyone but me. I walk alone.

My only reason was the route. The official route as published on the breakfast table every morning was over twenty-five kilometres straight over the main road. I took a photo of the map, and I decided to follow the small white byways through the country.

Horse

Sunflowers

Solar panels

Walking alone is an excellent occasion to think. So, I try to catch an image of our movement and the future possibilities, and I realise that what I’m doing is also a part of this revolution. I, as a private citizen, have the opportunity to make you – my faithful readers spread over the globe – a part of this adventure, day to day, in word an image, without depending on anybody else. This would not have been possible twenty years ago.

Thanks to the internet, our movement has an enormous potential on a communications level. And at the moment we are making only very limited use of it. The march started off without any proper organisation at all. The Audiovisuals Commission of Madrid sent one comrade along, but he didn’t even have a camera with him. At the moment, we have people filming, especially the French, but we have hardly any difusion in real time.

With minimum technical means and a few dedicated and capable people we could make television. We could bring a ten minute resume of the day every night at a fixed hour, with some quick cutting and editing. You could bring assemblies or actions live. You could emit thematical programs during the day, and loop the news during the night.

I say this because the marches on Brussels will not be the last of the popular marches. Already people are whispering about a possible march on Athens.

In only a few months, our movement has been maturing one initiative after another. There has hardly been an occasion to reflect on what has been achieved and what has to be done. I hope that after the demonstrations in Brussels, we will take some time to get organised. It would be an appropriate way to honour the slogan of the march. “We are going slow, because we’re going far.”

Door

Car

Arrival of the march in La Ferrière-Airoux

Library

La Françafrique

Lizant, September 1

Day 38 of the March on Brussels. From Mansle, 27 km.

Dear people,

'Here it's possible to take a shower'

The Charrente is one of the poorest regions of France. And the locals who come to talk to us here offer us a lot of goodwill. They open their doors for people who need a shower, they bring food, they encourage us to go on. After the estranged and worried looks we experienced in the south, it seems as though our march is starting to make an impact.

In the end it’s logical that it be that way. We are peaceful people marching for a human cause, and the locals here appreciate that. This also goes for the police. We haven’t had any real problems with them since Bayonne. When we arrived in Angoulême, the police said that for them it wouldn’t a problem if we camped in the centre of the town. Later, a representative from the city council came to visit us and said it was out of the question. We camped anyway, and the police refused to do something about it.

Today we arrived in another enchanting French village. The mayor of the town received us with curiosity and a kind word. I start to love these places. Many of the old houses around the tiny church and the local bar are for sale, others are abbandoned family property of people who have long ago moved to the cities. Fortunately, there are always some inhabitants who resist. They are the soul of the country, heirs of the France that was.

The walk to Lizant was pleasant, even though interrupted by the rain more than once. We are joined by a comrade from Morocco. He talks to me about the French relations with Africa. I’ve heard these stories before, but it’s good to hear them confirmed from someone who knows what he’s talking about.

Arrival in Lizant

France maintains a very intimate relation with her former colonies in Africa. This relation is so intimate that the word ‘former’ is out of place. La Françafrique, composed by most of West and Central-Africa, is still as much a French colony now as it was half a century ago.

The French can make or break governments in Africa. They still have troops all over the continent to enforce the decisions made in Paris. French companies control energy resources, water and tourism, and they make a big profit from selling arms. They buy immense pieces of land which used to be planted with rice and other basic food products by small farmers, and they have them produce luxury products like exotic fruit or cacao for the European market. It’s exactly what the Dutch did in the East Indies. The farmers of Java were starving so that the bourgeoisie in Europe could drink coffee.

Africa is the richest continent on earth, but its inhabitants depend on the import of heavily subsidised grain from Europe or the US in order to survive. It’s a most vicious way to enslave a country, taking away its possibility to feed their own citizens.

Imperialism has changed shape many times over the centuries, but it is ever present in a society based on competition instead of cooperation. Profit is the driving force of it. In this great game, the principal goal of the national governments is to create the most favourable possible climate for their own businesses to make a profit. And the greater part of Africa is still considered a French domain in this.

At the Berlin Conference on Africa in 1884, the European powers divided up Africa amongst each other, and they never left. Only lately are they challenged by another power who is playing the big game, and gaining fast. China.

In a globalised world the revolution can only be global. And food autonomy at the smallest possible scale is a primary goal. Without it, there is no way that real democracy can work.

Entendez-vous dans les campagnes!

St. Vincent de Tyrosse, August 19.

Day 25 of the March on Brussels. From Bayonne, 28 km.

Procession through the streets of Bayonne

Dear people,

It was a good idea to take a day off. We should do that more often, especially in the cities. It gives us the opportunity to walk around a bit, get to know the place, and rest. Our problem is that we have a tight schedule. We have to be in Paris in less than a month and we still have almost all of France ahead of us.

On the other hand we could have done without a day off in Bayonne. Taking everything into account, it was a disappointment. There was a handful of indignados to welcome us, but nothing that resembled an organisation. In the afternoon of yesterday we held a demonstration, carrying around a tent through the streets and yelling slogans in Spanish and French. The tent was a great idea, it made it almost look like a religious procession. The people looked at us with a smile or with a worried frown. But only very few of them attended our assembly.

Mural found in Bayonne

Fortunately today was different. Like in Spain, the people’s interest in the movement is much bigger in the villages than in the cities, both in relative and in absolute terms. Even though for today we are camped next to the local sports center outside of the village, there are more natives than marchers present. They prepared us a warm welcome and have waited here for hours until the assembly was celebrated.

Putting up a canvas against the rain at the market in Bayonne

Of course our assemblies have to be bilingual now. It adds to the length of them and hence to the amount of subjects that can be treated, but it works pretty well. Some people who speak Spanish and French translate themselves. Others cede the microphone to a translator. The native German or English speakers gather around someone who speaks their language and whispers a simultaneous translation.

One recurring point that the French participants in our assemblies have made so far is the necessity of practical proposals. They say that people in France are very willing to take to the streets – something which they have repeatedly shown over the years – as long as they have a clear and simple goal. As if to say: they are capable of paralysing the country for days to demand a two percent wage increase, but they won’t get off the couch to demand a better world for their children.

I don’t really think this is true. France suffers from many of the same problems as the rest of the world. Gradual reduction of civil liberties, commercialisation of public goods, increased government control, corruption and nepotism, racism and social exclusion, etc. Many people are not happy with this. It’s not the society they want to live in, but for the moment I think they are not yet convinced that the 15M movement has the right cards to present an alternative.

Many times before the French people have decided to shake up the system and make revolution. They will do so again. For now we are sowing the seed of something great, in the countryside. And once the organisation of our movement is strong enough, which I admit will still take a lot of time, then also the French will rise up once more.

Appeal by the French resistance in Bayonne

The Other Side of the Mirror

Donostia, August 15.

Day 21 of the March on Brussels. From Tolosa, 25 km.

Tolosa. Brushing teeth in the morning.

Dear people,

I’ve been waiting for this for days. And I could smell it, finally, long before we arrived in Donostia/San Sebastián.

The ocean.

Today’s leg was a lot longer than it was. Once again we formed group with Jesus Christ and Marianne. Comrade Leonardo joined us as well, to look for the road less travelled by. We don’t find it, we get lost in the orchards up in the hills.

 

When we descend back into the valley, we know there’s one sure way to reach the sea. Follow the river. And so we walk, without stopping, through village after village, along the stream and a small railroad track going down to the coast.

"The struggle is the way"

Detail of a mural

Logo of a social center

Church in red. Found on a bridge.

Slowly things start to change. The first thing is the light. It has a specific kind of brightness up ahead. The next thing is a faint odour of salt. And if that weren’t enough, it’s the playful hot wind slapping you in the face. We still have to walk quite a bit, but there can be no doubt, we’re nearing the sea.

The road out of the hills, and into town

In the outskirts of San Sebastián we’re welcomed by comrades from the Acampada Donostia who will accompany us into town. Loudly we burst onto the magnificent boulevard, where the city embraces a natural bay, with a Christ statue up above. The gate to the ocean is guarded by a small island. Behind it, a desert of water.

Entering San Sebastián

While the people on the beach curiously look up to see us parading by, I wonder. About the sea, and the coast as a thin border between two different worlds. The towns on the seaside have a double face. We, landlubbers coming down from the hills, only see one of them. The other one is reserved for the sailors.

"Perroflautas" on the boulevard

Among many things the Basque country is famous for its navigators. Especially in the old days. Nearby Donostia lies the small fishermen’s village where captain Sebastián Elcano was born. He commanded the first expedition that circumnavigated the globe. In the history books this feat is attributed to Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan. But Magellan never made it home. He was killed fighting the natives of the islands that were later to be called the Philippines.

Elcano took over the command and terminated the trip. It was a tremendous adventure. As a result of implacable weather, mutiny, hunger, warfare and sickness only 19 of the initial 265 sailors reached Spain in september 1522, on board only one of the five ships that had departed from Seville, more than three years before.

I look at the sea and I wonder what it would be like to experience the world as a sailor, and to see these cities from the other side of the mirror.

Scene from an Assembly at the beach

The Path of the Righteous

Beasain, August 13.

Day 19 of the March on Brussels. From Oñati, 33 km.

Morning walk

Dear people,

We left the river valley today to take a swirling road through the hills. Most people, almost everybody, kept to the asphalt, to avoid getting lost. Only four of us decided to take an old path through the woods, which was almost completely consumed by nature. Comrade Marianne from Syntagma Square, comrade Carmela from Galicia, comrade Jesus Christ and me.

I wonder if the path will lead us to our destination. I have my doubts, but Marianne reassures me. “Just follow Jesus. He knows the way.”

"Jesus knows the way."

And so, as Jesus steps away on his sandals through the thorn bushes, we follow along. It turned out it wasn’t the shortest route. We started off first, and we were bound to be the last. But my goodness, it was well worth it. So that is my advice, people. Don’t go with the herd, don’t take the easy road in life. You will see things you have never even dreamed of.

Convincing the lost souls to come back

Euskadi, to me, seems to be the land of great stories. These hills, these woods, these little villages covered by the fog, these towns suspended between modern times and timelessnes can serve as the background for every type of tale or fairytale.

I myself grew up in a country completely devoid of every type of nationalism, fortunately, but I can understand that the people of Euskadi are strongly attached to their native land. I would be too.

Once we’ve crossed the hills and reached the rest of the group I walk along with a Basque comrade from the village of Oñati, a real working class hero. He will accompany us for today’s long leg to Beasain. Yesterday he gave a touching speech to our assembly. He asked for us to understand the deep desire of the Basque people to be able to decide about their own fate.

Back on the road again. Photo: Marianne

Now that we have all the time to talk, I ask him to explain to me a bit about the current political situation. In synthesis, this is what he told me.

Under Franco the repression of the Basque culture was complete. The local language, which is said to be the oldest of Europe, was banned. It still hurts. At the same time the Basque country has a very strong left wing tradition. ETA is an expression of this. They want an independent socialist state. In recent years the Spanish government has granted far reaching autonomy to the region and stimulated the use of Euskara. But this is seen by many as a ‘privilege’ that was granted to appease the people, and to link the local elites to the central government in Madrid. The Spanish state never explicitly gave the people the right to self determination.

For years ETA has fought a guerilla war against the regime. Their goals are shared by many Basques, though their means are not. In the eighties the government fought back in a dirty war, using paramilitary militias. Many people were killed. Many ETA members were caught and imprisoned, but hardly any of the paramilitary fighters were brought to justice.

In recent years ETA, and the political parties linked to the her, have recognised that the violent struggle is not in the interest of the Basque people. But in the meantime the Spanish state has intensified its offensive. They have adopted a law with which any political party that doesn’t explicitly adhere to certain democratic principles can be outlawed. On the base of this they have arbitrarely prevented left wing parties from participating in the elections.

One of the charismatic ETA leaders, comandante Arnaldo Otegi, has been imprisoned repeatedly, lately for ‘glorifying terrorism’, because he refused to condemn the armed struggle [for corrections see Mayu's response below]. From a legal point of view, this is very dangerous. The man has served his term in prison for what he has done (attack on the garrison of San Sebastián, kidnapping, armed robbery). Now he is being imprisoned, not even for what he said, but for what he didn’t say.

Other ETA prisoners are said to have been tortured by the Spanish police, even people who didn’t have anything to do with the armed struggle. Many prisoners serve their term far away from home, to prevent them from having contact with their families and comrades. The final goal of the government, they say, is not the ‘war against terrorism’, but the eradication of any left wing independence movement, by linking them all to ETA.

For all these reasons the rage against the Spanish government is as strong as ever in the Basque country. The people want to be recognised as a sovereign nation. They want to be able to pronounce themselves on independence and build their own future without intervention from anyone else. They will continue to pursue this goal, with peaceful means if necessary.

Jesus dividing the bread in front of the supermarket

The Basque country is rich. It is blessed with a favourable climate. The highland of Castilla is poor and dry. It’s typical. People are used to think that it’s the rich countries who have colonised the poor countries. But in practice it’s the other way around. It’s always the poor countries who set out to conquer the others. England is a poor country, Holland is a poor country. Their harsh northern climate doesn’t allow for much variety. That’s why they set out to conquer the richest territories of the world. Africa and all the Indies, East and West.

Passing the factories of Mondragón

Now, I am neither a historian, nor an anthropologist, but I think this is a recurring event in history, going back to the dawn of civilization.

There was a time when tribes of men began settling down to dedicate themselves to agriculture. At the same time, most tribes were still hunters and gathers. I think it’s likely that the hunters imposed themselves on the farmers by force and instituted something called government.

This way they formed a parasiting elite which has perpetuated itself through time, be it aristocratically, or militarily, or ‘democratically’. The governing class has always self justified itself by saying that without them there would be chaos.

The last few miles

Arrival at Zamárraga

This is not true. People can self govern themselves very well. They have probably done so for most of the time that man kind has inhabited the earth. And the idea of revolution - not just the 15M revolution or the French revolution or the American revolution – but the idea of Revolution as such, is the awareness of the fact that outside government is not indispensable.

The real Revolution will be complete once we, the farmers, will knock on the door of our improductive ‘representatives’, saying: “Hey, it’s time for you to get a real job. Here’s a hoe. Start working the soil. If you have any ideas about how to run our society, you can present them at the assembly.”

Arrival at Beasain

Cooperative Corporation

Oñati, August 12.

Day 18 of the March on Brussels. From Leintz Gatzaga, 24 km.

Dear people,

Last night, behind the massive wooden doors of the only tavern in Leintz, we miraculously found a shred of internet, so our Communication team immediately occupied the long tables and filled them with cups of coffee and laptops.

Sporadic information is beginning to arrive, saying we are not alone. There are marches to Brussels under way from various places. Last monday a dozen people left Barcelona. There is said to be a march under way from Valencia as well. They call it ‘the Mediterranean Column’, for it will follow the coast up to Marseilles before turning inland to take the route Napoléon going north. There are also rumours about marches from England and from Italy. Even in Germany they say a march is being planned. I imagine the French High Command is already in a state of alert.

The road out of Leintz

The news from Barcelona is not encouraging. Their march doesn’t have support vehicles, and that makes the walk, the camping, and the food preparation a lot harder. One of our comrades has a car, and together with a veteran from the Northern Column, he doesn’t hesitate. While most people are preparing to go to sleep, they say a quick goodbye, and they are off into the night. To the Barcelona column. “Over there we’re needed more than here.”

The march today was protected by the clouds. We continue our walk down from the highlands, passing in between the hills of Euskadi along a river valley. It’s the natural transit route to the coast, so this is where the roads pass. Along them, all types of industry have sprouted. From mining to manufacturing to transportation. It’s not an enchanting sight, but later I hear there’s an interesting story behind all this industrial activity.

Entering Arrasate/Mondragón

The center of gravity of this zone is the town of Arrasate/Mondragón. It’s the home of the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation. All the factories and all other means of production we’ve encountered here are in the hands of the workers. The Mondragón Corporation is active in retail, banking and industrial production of everything from car parts to bikes, to office furniture and elevators. It even has its own university. All decisions regarding the fate of the corporation and the remuneration of its members are taken democratically. Each of the workers/owners has one vote, be it the manager, or the blue collar at the assembly line.

Crossing the market. The sign says 'Defend Mother Earth'

The Mondragón Corporation is highly competitive internationally. They do business all over the globe and they make a steady profit, maybe because money is treated as a means and not as an end. It goes to show that we could maintain all the consumerist culture we want, and still be a society based on human values.

Scenes from a mid morning break

Marching separately, today we’re almost ninety people including the support crew. There’s a middle aged woman from Peru walking the march with her Spanish husband. She fills me in on another interesting side of Basque and Spanish history.

After the discovery of America, Seville replaced Bilbao as Spain’s most important harbour. Many of the Conquistadores were Basques. They exchanged the hills of Euskadi for the mountains of the Andes, where they played their part in violently subdueing the native civilizations. Ironically, they behaved exactly like the Castillian warlords did when they conquered the Iberian peninsula from the Moors. Many Basques went on to form the white upper class of Chile and Peru. They founded immense estates and they exploited local farmers for the greater glory of god and the king of Spain, but mostly for themselves.

We arrive in Oñati. This is the very heart of the Basque country. Here the signs and texts, which used to be bilingual, are almost exclusively in Basque, even on the ambulances and fire trucks. A recurring symbol, exposed from many balconies – and from town halls – is a banner with a map of Euskadi, and the demand for the ETA prisoners to sit out their sentence in their native land.

Entering Oñati

The 15M movement has not rooted in these villages. People see it as something that comes from Spain, so they distrust it. What we do is we enter the towns singing slogans in Basque. Also the announcements of our evening assembly are presented in the local language. We invite people to speak Euskara and have it translated in our meetings, but we try to explain that the 15M is not about nationalism of any kind. It’s about the citizens, about normal people getting together to talk about their local problems in order to find a solution that suits them all.

'Proposals'

Goodbye to Castilla

Madrid, August 8.

Dear people,

In the coming weeks and months the 15M movement will be confronted by the two forces which – in different forms and shapes – have dominated Europe since the middle ages. The Church, and the Empire.

The first one was and still is represented by the bishop of Rome. The second one, in this case, is represented by Brussels, capital of the European Union. The pope will visit Madrid in mid August for the so-called ‘World Youth Day’, and Brussels is the goal of the popular march that has departed from Madrid on July 26.

In my burning desire to cover and keep covering the unfolding history of this revolutionary movement I have opted to join the march.

Yesterday evening a General Assembly was celebrated in Puerta del Sol. For me, even though I’m not someone who regularly assists assemblies or working group meetings, being there and witnessing it all was a way to say goodbye. It was a good assembly. The attendance was high, in the thousands probably, and thanks to the working group Dinamización de Asambleas, the procedures have improved a lot since the early days.

Scenes from the General Assembly in Sol, Aug 7.

Every assembly has its own orden del día, which is either decided by the Coordination Commision or established at the end of the previous assembly. Each point is introduced by a member of the commission that is working on the subject. After that the moderator opens a limited number of speaker turns (6 or 12) and a time frame (usually about half an hour). The famous clock of Puerta del Sol signs the time. At the end a proposal is voted if there is room for consensus. If not, it will go back to working group, which will try to incorporate the various propositions and present it to the next assembly.

The assembly starts with a denouncement of the police violence against demonstrators last thursday and the unconstitutional occupation of Sol for three days. The assembly demands the resignation of the responsible delegate of the government.

The two main topics of today are the attitude of the movement with regard to the upcoming national elections on November 20 and to the visit of the pope.

A clear 'No!' to the formation of a political party

A proposal to form an ‘assemblary’ political party is voted down by an overwhelming majority. “It would mean playing their game, obeying their rules. That’s not what this movement is about. Let them have their elections. We couldn’t care less. We should go on building our own alternative.” Waving hands all over the square. We go our own way, we will make new rules to replace to old ones and create a game in which everyone can take part.

An interesting alternative is proposed: create a 15M Blank Vote Party. Our Legal commission is asked to look into this. It would mean that blank votes would actually count as blank votes, and that the resulting seats should remain empty. I like it. As a first step towards real democracy it would make parliament much more representative.

As for the visit of Joseph Ratzinger, most people stress the fact that our opposition is not against the pope as head of the church, but against the tens of millions of euros of public money spent on the event in a time of economic hardships. This is unacceptable in a state that is secular by constitution.

The upcoming ‘World Youth Day’ is an enormous propaganda event for which young people, with heavy subsidies, are flown into Madrid from all over the world. The event is sponsored by big companies like Telefónica, Coca Cola, the department store Corte Inglés and more, mostly because their sponsorship is tax deductible. It means that not just the visit is paid for with public money, but also the marketing circus surrounding the event. This is the reason why the 15M movement is firmly against it.

We don’t want to alienate the catholics from our movement, but there are some people in the assembly that implicitly accuse the majority of hypocrisy. “We are not against the pope you say? Well mind you, the pope represents a criminal organisation that has caused suffering, repression and mass murder for centuries here in Spain. If we are against the politicians and the banks, then my goodness, we should be against the church as well!”

The speaker is from the Commission of Macro Politics, which is generally regarded as the most radical wing of the movement. He is right, there’s no denying it. The catholic church in Spain has always been a violent reactionary force, from the Reconquista and the Inquisition onwards, passing by the Peninsular War, the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. The clerus here is still heavily conservative and homophobic, apart from being economically subsidised and exempt from taxation. But we have to remember that there exist many local catholic movements here which oppose the clerical hierarchy and take their inspiration directly from the teachings of Jesus. “Love thy neighbour. Don’t do unto someone else etc.” That is what counts in their eyes, the rest is bull shit. We don’t have to forget that the early christians were revolutionary indignados just like us.

Personally I think our movement shouldn’t take the church head on. We are a constructive movement, and as such I think we should give our support to these organisations of grass roots christian brotherhood, as long as they respect the fact that many of us do not share their believes.

At the stroke of midnight the assembly ends. We walk around Puerta del Sol, two days after it was liberated. I love this place. It changed my life. And that of many other people as well. And it will keep changing lives in the years to come.

Tomorrow I will join the march on Brussels. Through the hills of the Basque Country and all through mighty France we will march to the capital of the Empire. We will penetrate deep into the most isolated inlands, where noble Gaulic tribes still resist the legions of Caesar. I do not know if in these places I will have regular access to the internet or electricity, but whatever happens I will try to inform you to the best of my abilities. “Jim”, my good friend and brother in arms will stay behind to report from Madrid. We formed a great team on the Northern Column and here in Madrid, climbing scaffoldings during the occupation of Sol. I’m confident we will continue to do a great job in documenting the Spanish Revolution.

Yours faithfully,

Oscar