Twilight of the Bricks

The stage

Madrid, May 19

Dear people,

The Belgian uprising against the Dutch started in a theatre in 1830. Three decades later, the Italians were roused by Verdi’s operas to throw off the yoke of the Austrians. Today, after an amazing performance, it was once again from a theatrical stage that people were invited to rise up.

It took months of preparation. The scenes, the costumes, the music, the songs. Over 150 people took part in the production. The premiere was tonight in the grand hall of Tabacalera Social Centre, a 15M operetta in one act, 45 minutes, accompanied by the Solfonica orchestra. ‘El Crepuscolo del Ladrillo‘, or: ‘The Twilight of the Bricks’.

I was lucky I got in with the press, because the line of people waiting outside went all around the block. There were two shows planned initially, but to satisfy the popular demand, a third show was performed late in the evening. It was a triumph. I couldn’t have hoped for a more stylish return to Madrid.

Basically, the operetta is a very concise history of Spain over the last few decades, culminating in economic crisis and revolt. The libretto was written by José Manuel Naredo, with clear foresight, over twenty years ago. It was adapted and performed in a scenery that represented Acampada Sol.

The Solfonica during the repetitions.

For me, who had the privilege to have been there in those days, it was a wonderful déja vu. Not just to see stage pieces painted with the clock tower of Puerta del Sol and the crowded square, but also the cardboard reproductions of the most symbolic slogans and banners. Most famously, the enormous image of Heinrich Himmler with Mickey Mouse ears and a euro logo on his forehead, which dominated the occupied square for weeks. Art was evanescent in the Acampada Sol, and to find it reproduced was a testimony to its value.

The Solfonica starts to play and the stage is filled with happy people. Definitely I’m not the only one with goosebumps. The scene is bucolic, full of love and peace. And backwardness, poverty, or so it seems. But the government officials have the answer. Speculation, privatisation, cement, cement, cement. With the benediction of the church, because frugality is sinful, and investment is good, be it in gold or cement or indulgences.

People flock to the cities, to the factories, the days of old come to an end, and nobody cares for as long as money keeps flowing. Then crisis strikes. People are depressed, the government doesn’t know what to do, so an expert is hired to come up with a solution. This includes a lot of lofty phrases, and comes down to new technologies, communication sciences, services, networks, etc. Eurocrats and economists start to implement the measures. Efficiency is the key. But when the economy collapses once more, the only solution is austerity, discipline, control.

At that point it’s the dream fairy who inspires people to wake up, to recuperate their freedom, their music, their happiness, their love for life. And to overthrow their government, to take the stage, all together, for the grand finale.

During the thunderous applause that followed, a banner was raised by the actors, with a simple message. ‘Rebellion’.

The performance of the Twilight of the Bricks was one night only. But you might be lucky. According to rumours the show will go on tour. If you don’t catch it, you can find the stream of the live broadcast here…

http://www.livestream.com/spanishrevolutionsol/video?clipId=pla_99ed1bc9-aa44-4684-8aa3-4b7d28f9e41a

BCN International

Barcelona, May 17

Dear people,

The differences are small, though many people proclaim the opposite. The differences between a place like Madrid and a place like Barcelona, I mean. Both are experiencing the same socio-economic problems, with the same causes, and as a consequence, the same type of resistance.

But otherwise you can’t fail to notice the contrast. The sea, mostly. The sea makes all the difference, also in people’s heads. Madrid is a young city in the centre of the highlands, built to be a capital, the seat of kings. Barcelona is an old city of sea-faring merchants, exposed to the winds and connected to the world, yet proud of its own language and identity.

In the middle ages, these two cultures used to be part of two kingdoms, Castile and Aragón. In a sense, this is what Catalan nationalists aspire to. After centuries of submission to the central government, they see independence as a way to reaffirm the equality between the highlands and the coasts. Many of them are also convinced that it could be a solution to the crisis, just like many people in Madrid think that the instauration of a third republic can be a solution.

With all due respect, it’s nonsense. Revolution is not a question of changing the flag. For this reason, Catalan independence is not an issue in the movement. But on a subliminal level the cultural differences persist within the 15M.

In Barcelona, many of the communications and assemblies are alternately in Spanish and Catalan, with a preference for the latter in written documents. Outside of that, there is a strong connection with Latin America and other countries in the romanic linguosphere like Italy and France. And also, everywhere else. The legendary International Commission of Acampada BCN is a central hub in the worldwide web of resistance movements.

In Madrid it seems as though the movement is very much aimed at itself and the miniature galaxy of the city, the neighbourhoods, the villages, the surrounding towns of the central highland, and all the collectives that are active on the territory. Sure, Madrid is well embedded internationally, but deep down there’s an unspoken conviction that it’s the spider in the centre of the web. When people from the rest of the country and the hispanic world arrive in Madrid they are subconsciously treated as peripherical outsiders who come to learn from the capital’s revolutionary example.

It’s not quite a good example lately, as far as rumours go. Internal struggle and personal antipathy are widespread around Puerta del Sol. As in many other places. In Barcelona on the other hand, the core of the movement seems to be quite solid. I have witnessed people from many collectives linking up and working together in liberated spaces like the media centre. Communications, art, film & photography plus internal, local and international relations, it all flows together. Most of people here are veterans from the acampada or even before, with a lot of common sense and dedication to the struggle.

Before coming here I was wondering what the secret of the International Commission was, how come they have been able to keep functioning at a high level ever since the beginning. And this is simply it. Personal alchemy. A group of people who get along, and who manage to create surplus value. We would need more of that in Madrid.

Their news distribution in Twitter is one of the best. Yesterday’s headlines included a feminist escrache in many cities of Spain to protest against the governing party’s intention to counterreform abortion legislation by abolishing the liberalisation that was implemented by Zapatero’s government. In Madrid the feminists took it to the home of justice minister Gallardón. One man was brutally arrested by police, leaving blood stains on the street.

Today’s headline is a joyful one. One of Spain’s big bankers has gone to prison. Miguel Blesa, ex president of Caja Madrid and good friend of former prime minister Aznar, is accused of fraud for his decision to buy a Florida bank in the midst of the financial crisis, for two to three times the bank’s value, causing Caja Madrid to sink. The judge had set bail at two and a half million euros. Blesa refused to pay, and was taken into custody yesterday evening.

On this hopeful note, I leave Barcelona tonight. Tomorrow I will be back in the heart of the evil empire, my revolutionary home town of Madrid.

#EscracheFeminista in Madrid, culminating in bloody arrest

Counter Offensive

Demo in support of Can Piella. Passeig de Grácia, May 15.

Barcelona, May 15

Dear people,

The good news comes from Madrid. Last Sunday, the people filled the Puerta del Sol at the end of the demonstration, and the results of the Consulta Sanitaria were announced. In five days, more than a million signatures for high quality public health care were collected, only in the capital region of Madrid.

Evidently the social backbone of the movement is as strong as ever, but it doesn’t show on the streets any more, or only very rarely. In Catalonia police has launched a counteroffensive, and they chose the symbolic date of 15M to do it.

Yesterday morning, already, the recently occupied social centre ‘Las Barricadas’ was evicted. This morning police moved to foreclose the rural occupation of Can Piella, ‘symbol of self sufficiency’. In reaction, activists blocked a highway and raided the headquarters of the landlord to attach a banner to the building. “The law sows injustice.”

In the afternoon, a demonstration was organized in support of the indignant farm. A few dozen people attended. Despite heavy police presence, they were allowed to block the central Passeig de Grácia as they marched in the rain to Plaça Catalunya.

It makes one think, about the strategy of authorities with regard to 15M. In the beginning they tried to quell the movement by force. It backfired. The violent reaction of the first days only helped the movement to take off. Ever since, authorities have adopted a relatively peaceful stance. They prefered more subtle forms of repression, like identifying people and fining them. The next escalation was the eviction of the movement’s physical basis, the social centres. In Madrid this took place last autumn. In Barcelona this is ongoing.

The result is a squat war, where activists put into practice their much chanted slogan “One eviction, another occupation!”

It’s a war of detrition, which doesn’t favour the movement. Already, people are tired of occupying public space and of participating in demonstrations. They will tire of occupying buildings as well, if they can’t hold on to them.

Another fundamental part of the official strategy is the absolute refusal to make any concession whatsoever. It would be a sign of weakness. Like riot police, when they take one step back. It would be a victory that would encourage people to demand for more, to advance, to sweep them away.

We need a change in strategy as well. And this is happening. The movement is divided over thousands of small groups organising their own actions. The next step would be self organisation in schools and hospitals, a refusal by teachers and doctors to cooperate with any attempt at privatisation, creation of neighbourhood clinics, of self-organised kindergartens and education.

If we can create a strong basis of local solidarity, we can start to reoccupy space. Not just space for the usual squatters, but space for everyone. For living, for art and artisanry, for the exchange of knowledge, for barter, for local produce. And, of course, for fun.

Anniversary Parade

Barcelona, May 12. “Yes We Can.”

Barcelona, May 13

Dear people,

The 12M demonstration in Barcelona was colourful, animated, and fun. It was also quite meaningless. We didn’t take the streets to demand change or to bring it about. We took the streets to celebrate the second anniversary of the movement, or – in Disney terms – to ‘remember the magic’.

There was music, costumes, theatre. Most notably, there was Barcelona’s own team of aluminium foil superheroes: the ‘Reflectantes‘. At every bank franchise, they took on their nemesis, the 1% with their cardboard top hats and their cigars, brandishing their allmighty euros. As in every self respecting fairytale, the Reflectantes managed to defeat the evil bankers, leaving the franchises with two stickers on their windows in sign of victory. ‘Let it be known that this bank cheats, scams and throws people out onto the streets.’ And: ‘Yes we can’.

The ‘Reflectantes’ and the bankers.

At the back, we had the ‘Euro Nazi’s’ closing the parade, straight from a Leni Riefenstahl documentary, with their red and black standards and their shoulder belts proudly showing the Euro logo instead of the swastika. In between, all types of collectives marched by. The Mortgage platform, the Granny brigade of the ‘Iaioflautas‘, some anarchists and communists etc.

For activists from the UK who happened to be present, the demonstration was ‘massive’. For those of us who are used to demo’s in Spain, it was ‘okay’ at best. Maybe fifteen thousand people, if we are very generous with the numbers. Roughly a tenth of the attendance of last year.

Nevertheless, the demonstration attracted the attention of hordes of anthropologists from three continents. It was funny to study them as they studied humanity in revolt. If I were an academic myself, I would probably write my master thesis about the behaviour of the ‘homo anthropologicus’ in the field.

Upon arrival at the Arc de Triomf, people dispersed, except for a small group that went on to squat a building in the neighbourhood. As from today it is known as the Occupied Social Center ‘Las Barricadas’.

At night, reflecting on the day gone by, the demonstrations seem to be turning into an occasion for us to meet and connect. In the summer of 2011 there were demonstrations much bigger than this one every single day. Back then we had the feeling that real change was within reach if only we could keep up the pressure. Now it’s different. Change will not come from mobilizations in the streets. Instead of overthrowing the system from the outside, we may have more success if we infiltrate it from a thousand different sides.

The Euro Nazi’s

Activists’ Fair

Barcelona, May 12

Dear people,

Airports are all the same, but the air is different is everywhere. Arriving here in Barcelona after two months in eastern Europe, the air felt like home.

I entered Plaça Catalunya at nightfall. In one corner of the square I found a small foetus of occupation, an info point made out of a couple of boxes, with a dozen people around it. Some of them I knew, from the marches, from the International Commission of the Acampada Barcelona. They were here to celebrate the time of year – May has come around once again, the revolution continues.

There had been a press conference about the initiatives of the Global May, there had been four simultaneous actions throughout the city, against evictions, against the banks, against gentrification of the city centre, etc.

Occupations of buildings are gaining momentum here. The police can’t keep up with evicting them. I was housed in a five star squat in the centre of the city. The owner had only just finished to refurbish them as luxury apartments for tourists when he got in trouble with authorities over illegal practices. So the place was shut down by the city council and subsequently squatted. Now it’s an operational centre of the International Commission.

One tent was erected on the square at the evening of the 10th, and yesterday the small core of the occupation had significantly grown. Prefab stands were placed around the perimeter, each one dedicated to a single issue. Debt audit, public health care, basic income, constituent assemblies, and the kitchen. All of them with their own sleak logo’s and styles. More than an occupation, it looked like an activists’ fair. And in a certain sense it was. The original spontaneous nature of the movement has given way to a myriad of interconnected initiatives. Cardboard is slowly being phased out.

During the day a handful of workshops were organized on the above mentioned subjects. Most were in Catalan, which is close enough to Spanish to understand. The attendance never exceeded a few dozen people. In the evening a general assembly was celebrated, and here too I noticed subtle changes since the early days of the revolution. For one, the circle was replaced by a hemicircle which divided the speakers from their public. For two, the typical gesture of waving hands was replaced by the traditional applause. For three, public participation was minimal. Representatives of the working groups explained their proposals, and people listened. The language was a mix of Catalan and Spanish. The attendance was nowhere near what it used to be. Maybe a few hundred people.

As always the most interesting encounters took place outside of the official appointments. Late at night we gather in small groups to discuss the philosophy of revolution, the nature of the state, we reminisced about two years ago, the big bang of 15M.

One of the many the initiatives born from the movement, at least here in Barcelona is a political party – the X Party – which aims follow the institutional way to implement the principles of horizontality and direct democracy. The die-hard anarchist core does not agree. But we are not a dogmatic movement. Founding a political party can be useful as another front of struggle.

Evening falls again. In the midst of renewed philosophical debates, the news comes around that FC Barcelona has won the Spanish League. The air fills with tension. We can hear a rumble in the distance. Fireworks is set off. Chanting crowds are moving in.

“Don’t worry,” I hear one of us say. “Plaça Catalunya is territory of the indignados,” and he tells the story of two years ago, when the acampada was cleared by police to prepare for the football celebrations. Thousands and thousands of people descended on Plaça Catalunya during the day to retake the square and rebuild the camp, which they did, exactly the same as before, in a couple of hours. That evening, when the fans of Barcelona came to celebrate their victory in Plaça Catalunya, the square was turned into a fortress. Human walls were erected on all entrances to prevent the football fans from ravishing the camp. The defence was coordinated from the centre, an auxiliary unit of indignados moved from one gate to another, to provide backup where it was most needed.

They held the square.

So this year, even though we are only few, Plaça Catalunya is off limits for the Barcelona fans. And this time it’s police themselves who make sure that the crowds will not reach the square. Instead, they march all around with their chants and their fireworks. All in all, it was a very modest party. I have seen cities go up in flames at the end of the football season, not even because of a championship, but merely because of a promotion.

Today is the big day. In the afternoon, four or five different columns will converge on Plaça Catalunya. From there, at six, we march. And this time, we have specific demands.

Not a euro more to bail out banks. High quality public health care and education. A just redistribution of labour and income. A right to a dignified home. Basic income. Civil liberties.

Debriefing

Statue in Sofia

Sofia, May 9

Dear people,

I have terminated my spring campaign in the Balkans.

Looking back on these two months I can discern three primary objectives. One was secret, accomplished, you will hear from it in due time. Two was to visit my brother Memed in Istanbul. Which I did, with great joy&respect. And three was… well, to do a ‘revolutionary temperature check’ in eastern Europe.

I did that too, more or less. Of course I don’t pretend to know these countries, not even a bit, but it’s pretty obvious that nothing is going to change for the better here in the foreseeable future.

Why? Because there is too much ‘oldthink’ in these places. In the countries that haven’t experienced communism – Turkey and Greece – the self-proclaimed revolutionaries still define themselves through this heavily outdated philosophy. They would be adorable if they weren’t, a. utterly ridiculous, and b. an obstacle to any social change rather than a facilitator of it.

In countries that do have experienced communism – Hungary, Bulgaria and to a lesser extent Serbia – everyone is well aware that a system that forces people to be mediocre doesn’t work. Anything that smells like left wing or socialism or that has the word ‘common’ in it, is heavily suspect. Life is bad in these places, but it has been even worse. So people shrug their shoulders, bow their heads, and try to get by. At the very least, capitalism doesn’t force them to be mediocre, it merely stimulates them to be that way.

Instead of 19th century political philosophies about workers and factories we need new ways of thinking, tailored to the information age. We have the web, which allows us to ‘cut out the middle man’, both in politics and in the economy. We can rule ourselves, we can decide ourselves what we consume and what we produce, we can rationalise the distribution of our goods and our space. Without authority, without coercion.

If anywhere, Spain will be a laboratory for this kind of ‘newthink’, call it anarchism if you like.

It’s fascinating, the popular indignation and the shape it is taking. There are many sides to it. One is about words, another is about taking conscience. In a society dominated by advertising, words don’t mean shit. It’s all about eye-catching images and pure nonsense. Not very different from the iconography and the slogans of the former communist block.

What we are doing is, we are going beyond the bullshit. For two years running we let words flow free in countless assemblies. This has changed the discourse. All public grievances are out in the open. Now we are trying to restore meaning to those words that define our political constitution. One is ‘popular sovereignty’.

If we the people are sovereign, we must be conscient of it, and we must exercise that sovereignty, or someone else will do it for us. To exercise it, we must decide what we want. During the Acampada in Sol it was impossible for people to agree on a few issues – the ‘consenso de minimos‘ – but these have taken shape themselves. A few basic things to start with, that a great majority of the population will agree on. Free health care, free education, public water, all of high quality. And a stop to foreclosures. If this is not possible in the current economic system, then the economic system must change, and with it the political structures that uphold it.

Spain is moving. Over a million people have signed for public water as a human right. And this week, from May 5 to 10, signatures for public health care are being collected all throughout the capital region of Madrid in preparation for a popular bill.

Another popular bill that was presented by the Platform against Mortgage Foreclosures, backed up by 1.5 million signatures, was mutilated by the governing Popular Party before they had it voted last month by their own majority. There is hardly a trace of the original demands of the Platform in the bill, like the extinction of debt with the return of the keys to the house.

So, for as long as the government keeps ignoring the will of the people, the struggle will continue in the streets, under the windows of the the ruling class, inside parliament, and inside the banks. Today it was Bankia’s turn, the nationalized bank that keeps foreclosing on its owners, the citizens. At this moment, all over Spain, people are flocking to Bankia franchises to shut them down in every legal way, by closing and opening accounts, by requesting every possible information, by depositing heaps of loose coins etc. etc. Many of the bank’s franchises closed on forehand.

That’s today. I haven’t even talked about the simultaneous demonstrations for public education in all the big cities. And there is much more. This thing is ongoing. As from tomorrow evening - inshallah­ – I will be back in Barcelona to continue my direct coverage of the Spanish Revolution.

Stay tuned.

Barcelona, “Bankia’s turn”. To the franchise with a guillotine. Photo via @15mBcn_int

The Next Level

Dear people,

Though I am lost in the backwaters of Europe, I keep following the events in Spain wherever I can. There is no way I can report on all things happening, because it’s simply too much. Sufficeth to say that evictions are being prevented every day, and demonstrations are being held at least every week. Recently there was a big demo in Madrid against the scandal-ridden monarchy, in favour of a third republic.

I hope to return to Spain soon, but before I do, I will inform you about how the movement is attempting to take the struggle to the next level.

Out of the primordial indignant chaos of the 15-M, various issue-centered waves have evolved, each adopting its own colour. The most prominent are the Green Wave (public education), the White Wave (public health care) and the Blue Wave (public water). There are many more waves concentrating on minor issues, and then there is the PAH, Plataforma Afectados por la Hipoteca, which coordinates the struggle against foreclosures and has a very strong presence all over Spain. Finally, there are the hundreds of popular assemblies in cities, villages and neighbourhoods that were born out of the occupations in 2011.

These local and thematic groups have united into a movement called Marea Ciudadana, or “Citizens’ Wave”. They have been pressurizing government with frequent marches on parliament, but since a couple of months they have also adopted a more confrontational tactic called ‘escrache’. Escraches, instead of targeting faceless institutions, are actions that target specific people (or parties) directly and personally.

You are a politician who has been taking bribes? Right, we won’t lament ourselves outside parliament, but we’ll come to your house. We’ll make noise under your windows, we will let all your neighbours know that you are scum. It’s a tactic that was first used in Argentina in the early 2000s to denounce politicians that had been responsible for atrocities committed by the military regime. It has been used in Uruguay, Peru and other Latin American countries, and since this spring it has been adopted by the PAH to denounce those politicians who represent the interests of the banks rather than those of the citizens.

In a certain sense, escrache is the enactment of a famous meme that was adopted by the movement in the early days of the revolution: ‘If you don’t let us dream, we won’t let you sleep.’

The great leap forward of the movement is supposed to happen this spring. From June 23 to June 30 the “United Citizens’ Waves” intend to exercise popular sovereignty through plebiscite. The premise is the following. According to the Spanish Constitution “National sovereignty is vested in the Spanish people, from whom all State powers emanate” (Article 1), and “Citizens have the right to participate in public affairs directly or through representatives freely elected in periodic elections by universal suffrage.” (Article 23).

Over the last 35 years people have tried to participate through representatives, but in the end it didn’t work out to their advantage. So now has come the time for citizens to participate in public affairs directly. They will drum up enough support to block privatizations, to end foreclosures by law, to reform the banking sector and to bring corrupt politicians to justice.

How this will work out in practice remains to be seen. But it’s going to be damn interesting to observe.

Of course, the skeptics will say that it can never work, direct democracy on this kind of scale. But you cannot know that until you try. And Spain is not the only place where direct democracy is being experimented. Another example is Italy.

Over the last few weeks, Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement has been under heavy attack from the establishment and the press for his failure to cooperate with the gerontocracy that has been ruling Italy – in various disguises – since the age of dinosaurs. They want him to support a government of the so-called Democratic Party, but since he continues to refuse, they blame him for the current political stalemate.

On top of all this, a new president of the republic has to be elected by parliament. Usually this doesn’t happen in parliament, but in the corridors. The major parties try to find a compromise on some colourless ex-politician that will not cause them trouble in the seven years to come.

The Five Star Movement refuses to take part in these shady practices. They think the citizens ought to have a say in the election of their head of state and so they organized primaries online, open to all the members of the movement. They could propose any Italian citizen of more than fifty years of age (as the constitution requires). The winner, elected over two rounds, will be the official candidate that M5S members will propose and vote. Yesterday, the results came in. No politician, no Nobel prize winner, but an investigative journalist will be the people’s candidate for the presidency: Milena Gabanelli.

You have to know that journalism in Italy is of an embarrasingly low standard. I was reminded by that lately, when I returned to read Italian newspapers. Generally, Italian journalists seem to think that news reporting consists of quoting politicians. For example, something is going on, say a demonstration, then your average journalist won’t give you an account of what happened and why, but he or she will stuff the microphone in the face of some second-rate politicians from the left to the right and publish their sound bites. The facts don’t matter. All you get is talking heads, always the same, ad nauseam. If not, you have your intellectualoid balloons, who preach about the dire state of the nation in such hollow terms that they cannot possibly be accused of having a real opinion on the matter. In any case, a true journalist is very hard to find in Italy.

Milena Gabanelli is an exception. For fifteen years she has been digging deeply into all the dirt related to corruption, speculation, squander, inefficiency, bribery and all-out organized crime. Now, the usual tactic of the establishment to silence journalists who actually do their job in Italy, is to denounce them for diffamation. They hardly ever win, but it serves to scare the great majority into becoming faithful mercenaries of the system. Not so Milena Gabanelli. She is a courageous woman, with a profound knowledge of all of Italy’s problems. For this, justly, the members of the Five Star Movement have nominated her to become the country’s head of state.

We are entering an age in which direct participation of all the people in public affairs is becoming possible. We don’t need representatives any more. Let the skeptics say that it can’t be done, that’s it’s going to be a mess. We will try anyway. The mess can hardly be worse than the one that our so-called representatives have caused.

Eastern Bloc Blues

Bulgarian protests, February 2013. Photo via Wikipedia

Sofia, April 14

Dear people,

I was wondering, when I arrived here, ‘what is Bulgaria famous for?’ I couldn’t think of anything except for their umbrellas. And not even that. It’s not like they make umbrellas here, it’s just that one of the few times that the country received any attention in the international press was when dissident writer Georgi Markov was killed by the Bulgarian secret service in London in 1978. We saw a mediocre documentary on the subject in a Sofia art house the other day. Markov was one of Bulgaria’s most talented post-ww2 playwrites. He gained a good measure of success in his home country in the 50s and 60s. But any true artist is by definition a free thinker, so he was bound to come into conflict with the communist leadership. His plays became ever more critical of the regime. They got cancelled, and finally Markov defected to the west. During the 1970s he worked for the BBC and for Radio Free Europe, writing scripts for the Bulgarian branch of the station. His transmissions were entitled ‘In Absentia Reports’, and they took on the dictatorship in the most devastating way, through ridicule. Totalitarian regimes can stand criticism on some occasions, but they cannot stand to be made fun of. Sarcasm exposes them for what they really are. For this reason, they say, the Bulgarian leadership decided to eliminate Markov. They were most probably aided by the KGB, which supplied the slow working poison. While Markov was waiting for the bus on a London bridge, he suddenly felt a sharp sting, he looked around and saw someone picking up an umbrella, then hurrying to jump into a cab. That same evening he was hospitalized with high fever. Within a few days he died.

When communism collapsed over a decade later, all over the Eastern bloc the same thing happened. Communist party apparatchiks restyled themselves as democrats and looted national wealth in what was maybe one of the greatest robberies of all time. What used to be the Party, nominally working for the people, turned into a mafia of oligarchs with a fetish for money that dwarfed even the most greedy Wall Street bankers. For the people, it meant they lost the security of a job and the minimum sustenance needed to survive, and they acquired freedom. Freedom to speak their minds, freedom to emigrate overseas in search of fortune, freedom to starve on the streets.

The history of the shock transition still has to be written, because it is ongoing. But it’s clear that some countries have had less difficulties to adapt to mindless consumerism than others. Bulgaria has had a particularly hard time. Living standards are low, corruption is rampant, millions have left the country. Those who remain have little hope in themselves and their future. And yet, two months ago the people took to the streets and forced the government to resign. The reason was a sudden rise in electricity prices. In recent years, the electrical grid has been completely sold off to foreign companies. As local monopolies, they can demand any price they want, and so they do. The average income here is around 400 euros per month. A police officer told me that half of his income was absorbed by the electricity bill. That was last year. Then came a sudden ulterior increase in prices. In some places they doubled. No wonder that many riot police officers laid down their shields in solidarity when the people rose up.

The foreign press didn’t make serious mention of it – contrary to other famous occasions – but the situation is so desperate that five people have died by setting themselves on fire. The people demand the renationalisation of the electrical companies, an end to austerity measures, a serious fight against corruption and a general overhaul of the political system. But by resigning, prime minister Borisov (an ex-bodyguard of Bulgaria’s communist dictator Todor Zhivkov) has broken the momentum of the protest. There will be elections soon, but the Bulgarians’ faith in democracy is close to naught.

There are also people – natives – who say that the Bulgarians have only themselves blame. It’s an idea that may be extended to every other oppressed people, the Greeks, the Spanish, the Portuguese. If you want change, it’s not enough to participate in a demonstration, to topple a government, or even to make revolution. Real change requires dedication, effort, strength, endurance. Every day, every week, every year. It requires self esteem, the conviction that you – as an individual and as a people – are actually capable of making a difference, and willing to do so, however long it takes, against all odds, even against all better judgment. Most people don’t have this strength. So they give up, they get screwed over, they lament themselves and they start to blame others.

In Bulgaria there doesn’t seem to be much hope at the moment. But in Spain, two years after the start of the Spanish Revolution, popular resistance is as strong as ever. There are demonstrations every week, and the coming spring the Spanish people will take their struggle to the next level. They will exercise the sovereignty that the constitution has vested in them, and they will exercise it directly. It’s going to be exciting. It’s going to be fun.

¿Dónde están? No se ven…

“They leave us without future” photo via @jozusu

Dear people,

Protests keep rocking Spain. This time it was the unions. They demanded a change in economic policy, in Spain and in Europe.

The event was largely ignored by the indignant networks, and when it wasn’t it was just to show that “our demonstration was bigger than yours.”

This is the reason. Many people in Spain, especially the indignados, don’t like the big unions. I suppose it’s for the same reason why unions are disliked in many other countries. They tend to sell out for self interest. They tend to lack commitment to real change.

Last Sunday’s protest was organised by UGT and Comisiones Obreras. In 15M demonstrations it’s customary for people to chant about these two particular unions, in resentment. “Where are they? We can’t see them…”

Well here they were, in sixty Spanish cities. They brought tens of thousands of people to the street in Madrid alone. I wonder how many of the hardcore indignados were present.

That’s it from Holland for now. I’m leaving soon. See you all out in the streets this spring.

Review of a Revolutionary Week

Demonstration against austerity in Portugal. Photo via @OCongres

Dear people,

It has been quite a week. As the revolution goes, three things in particular were worthy of note.

First, the death of Stéphane Hessel.

Hessel was a former diplomat, member of the resistance in France during WW2 and one of the drafters of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1948.

Two years ago, at 93 years of age, Hessel became an idol with the youth when he wrote a pamphlet called Indignez-Vous!, translated into English as ‘Time for Outrage!’

The pamphlet sold over two million copies in France alone. The Spanish translation was a major inspiration for the movement of the indignados.

As a member of the National Resistance Council, Hessel recalls the ideals that the Council adopted on 15 March 1944, and on which it wanted post-war society to be founded. These included “a comprehensive plan for Social Security, to ensure livelihoods for all citizens”, “a pension that allows old workers to finish their life in dignity”, “the return to the nation of the major means of production, common sources of energy, wealth of the subsoil, insurance companies and large banks”, “the establishment of genuine economic and social democracy which evicts large feudal economic and financial interests from the direction of our economy.” And, not in the least, a society where the press is free from corporate or foreign influences.

Over sixty years later, Hessel concludes that our society is not the one that was envisioned by the members of the National Resistance Council. Despite decades of booming economic growth, ours has turned into a society of suspicions against immigrants and expulsions, one that challenges pensions and social security, and where the media are in the hands of a few powerful people. Ours, in short, is not a society of which we, as human beings, can be proud.

Hessel denounced indifference as the worst of all attitudes, and he called for “a true and peaceful insurrection against the media that only offer our youth a horizon of mass consumption, of disdain for the weakest, of generalised amnesia, and of all-out competition of everyone against everyone else.”

He made an appeal to all youngsters. “To the men and women who will make the 21st century, we say, with affection: to create is to resist, to resist is to create.”

In 2011, his call to rise up took the world by storm. The spirit of resistance lives on.

Thank you, Stéphane Hessel. May you rest in peace.

Photo Wikipedia

Number two, last Saturday March 2 was another day of massive protests in Portugal. In thirty cities there were demonstrations against austerity. Over a million people took the streets, which is more than ten percent of the population. Imagine thirty million people demanding the resignation of President Obama on the same day. That’s about the scale of the protest.

The demos come a week after equally massive demonstrations of the ‘Citizen’s Tide’ in Spain. It looks like it’s going to be a hot spring on the peninsula.

Third, and most entertaining, is the elections in Italy. Without kidding, I’ve been rolling over the floor laughing. It’s a farce, but it’s all dead serious.

Immortal Berlusconi made yet another come-back. He had been declared politically dead by many commentators who don’t understand a thing about Italy. He might not have won parliament, but he did win the senate, which could give him enough political leverage to keep his ass out of prison.

But the real winner of the election is comedian Beppe Grillo, leader of the Five Star Movement, a party-political version of the indignados.

In the foreign press, Grillo has been called a populist and has been compared to any other populist in Europe. This is not just bad journalism, it is intentionally misleading.

Beppe Grillo and the movement he inspires is one of a kind, at least for the moment. I remember the very beginnings of his political campaigning. It started in theaters, it went online through his daily blog, then he came to the squares to decry political corruption, in favour of participatory democracy. Grillo exposed politicians of all parties in a way that nobody ever dared to do from a pulpit. He had been banned from television, he had been ignored by the press, but thanks to the Internet his movement reached millions of Italians who are fed up with business as usual.

In 2009 he supported civil lists in local elections. His party won the mayorship of Parma and other towns. In 2012 he made a breakthrough in the Sicilian local election. Now, in the run-up to the general elections, he drew a hundred thousand people to his show in Milan, eight hundred thousand in Rome. He inspired people like only a black preacher with a gospel choir can do. The man is a phenomenon. Last week, his movement became the single biggest party in Italy.

It’s hilarious. A few years ago, when I left the Beautiful Country, Grillo was a troublemaker that politicians loved to ignore. Now they are begging him to support the formation of a government.

With enormous satisfaction, Grillo told them to fuck off. All his opponents have been in politics since the age of the dinosaurs, they have to go, and before they do, they have to account for all the income they received over the years. They created this mess, the citizens themselves will have to clean up. Grillo’s party will only support bills that reflect the movement’s principles. They will not support any government. The representatives of the M5S have been chosen through preliminary elections on the movement’s website. They are tied to a code of behaviour which obliges them to respect the electoral program they were voted to enact. They have renounced to more than half of their income, and they will refuse to use or accept the customary title of ‘honorable’. Instead, echoing the French Revolution, they will address all representatives as ‘citizen’.

On the day the M5S entered in the Italian parliament, they opened the doors to the public, saying ‘this is your house’.

The first demands of the movement have to do with the clean-up of Italian politics. Two mandates should be the maximum, parties should not receive public subsidies, and no condemned criminal should have the right to be elected.

The left wing party, if it is to form a government, will have to be supported either by Berlusconi or by Grillo. They know that Berlusconi will eat them alive, so they grudgingly prefer the other clown.

It’s going to be very risky for the new M5S representatives. The Italian parliament is the most dangerous place in the country. The crime rate at Montecitorio is much higher than the crime rate in the most lurid outskirts of Naples. The new parliamentarians and senators will be thrown into a pit full of snakes. These creepy lifeforms have been lurching in the shadows of power for ages, they know exactly how much one is worth, they know who is selling, and they know who is buying. Ethics are not an issue in Italian politics, and the worst thing that can happen is that the M5S movement is torn apart by the existing parties and massacred by the press.

With Beppe Grillo and his movement gaining notoriety, some commentators have tried to understand what is going on, some others are dismissing this movement all together. They say that Grillo is dangerous. They accuse his internet strategist Gianroberto Casaleggio of having a secret agenda. The writers collective Wu Ming published a shameless declaration in which they accuse Grillo of being ‘one of them’ politicians as usual, without presenting any credible basis at all for their accusations.

Instead of giving in to this crazy need to always have an opinion, on whatever subject, I urge people to shut up, and watch. Beppe Grillo’s movement is a first attempt to bring direct e-democracy to a real parliament. His newly elected representatives are in a position to make or break a government. Let’s enjoy this, let’s see what’s going to happen, and learn from it.

Grillo riding the wave.