[Nettime-bold] Barcelona: imaginative, festive, subversive...and successful

["ricardo dominguez" <rdom@thing.net>]

Subject: Barcelona: imaginative, festive, subversive...and successful

Originally published in Spanish by La Jornada
Translated by irlandesa

Masiosare
La Jornada
Sunday, March 24, 2002.

How Barcelona Defeated Violence

Jesu's Rami'rez Cuevas

Today Barcelona is the new reference point for the global movement.
Following the mobilization of more than 500,000 persons, it will be
difficult to discredit protests against economic policies in the world as
something which has to do with "radical and violent minorities."

The significance and dimension of what took place in the City of Marvels
must be assessed from the perspective of the last few years.  Seattle was
the surprise, the birth of the new movement, the break in the world
consensus in favor of globalization.  Governments did not know how to
react to the novel dissidence.  Afterwards came the protests in
Washington, Davos, Prague and Quebec.  New actions and new reactions were
tested at each summit.  After Gothenburg, last year, a new strategy was
launched which involved making the police cordon around the demonstrators
more effective, and the repression more open and brutal.  Genoa
represented the climax of this policy.  Even though the convocation was a
success, it also demonstrated that governments had decided to finish off
the globalphobes at the cost of violating democratic liberties.  The
assassination of Carlo Giuliani by the Italian police was a clear
message.

Added to this is the atmosphere which has been created following the
September 11 attacks, which has been used to stigmatize and criminalize
demonstrations, by comparing them with terrorism.  There was widespread
paralysis in many sectors.  In this context, Barcelona represents a
change which broke with the tenets of the previous marches.

Walking Out on the Prepared Script

The task was not easy.  In addition to media demonization and the Spanish
government's political harassment, there were the difficulties of
coordination and of understanding inside the movement.  The government
placed the entire city under a state of military siege, and the media
discouraged participation in the anti-summit campaign.

I~aki Garci'a, a member of the Solidarity with the Zapatista Rebellion
Collective, and one of the organizers of the "Against the Europe of
Capital and Against the War" events of March 15 and 16, explained to
Masiosare:  "We understood that there was a lot at stake in Barcelona,
and even more so after Genoa.  The climate was strained because of last
June's experience (the march against the World Bank that had been heavily
crushed).  It wasn't easy confronting the organization of the protests
against the European summit, and there was fear concerning the huge
police intervention that was being developed."

Some activists warned in assemblies that "the repressive machinery" could
make many of them try and hide instead of thinking about protesting.

"Despite everything," I~aki recounted, "there was agreement to promote
it."  The organizers were clear about one thing from the beginning:  "We
didn't want the terrain they were preparing for us, the direct
confrontation where we had to lose," she said.

"We began with many doubts, and things were advancing until we had lots
of initiatives.  It was a tremendous amount of work in very little time,
but there was a lot of enthusiasm.  The differences and tensions had been
quite strong, but the campaign was able to be put together with a radical
and innovative content."

The majority of the people and collectives who were participating wanted
to do something quite different from confronting the police and
destroying banks.  The main challenge was conquering fear and claiming
the street.  There were groups tied to the Okupa movement and the
Independent Catalans and Basques who were insisting on direct violent
action.  But a consensus won out in favor of actions that would nullify
the government's belligerent strategy.

"We agreed, all of us I think, to avoid blockades against the summit,
because they would have been suicidal," recalls I~aki.  Decentralized
mobilizations, fiestas, concerts, mass demonstrations and acts of civil
disobedience were promoted.

The CGT (anarchist union) called for carrying out "everything that occurs
to us and which demonstrates the diversity and vitality of the social
movements.  We called for walking out on the script, for using direct
action and civil disobedience as mechanisms for struggle that go beyond
violent confrontations with the police.  We have to regain the furiously
festive and subversive nature of our activity, breaking military
frameworks (summit-blockade-clash with police) the powers want to confine
us to."

They opted for decentralized actions, "as many as the people proposed,"
under the idea of convergence and mutual respect.  During one of the many
meetings, it was argued: "We are not afraid.  The entire police strategy
is based on creating a state of exception, where people stay inside their
houses, and an activist elite confronts 10,000 police.  Given this
reality, the movement should go back to using its creativity and
decentralization.  Achieving, through that, a more complete visualization
of the resistances, of their diversity, beyond the framework of a
medieval joust, which is what the police are proposing."

This is how the city's local struggles were involved.  Hundreds of
liberation associations, human rights, labor, women's, gay, ecologist,
Okupa, student and immigrant associations promoted more than 25
decentralized demonstrations and actions throughout the city.

They even invented forms of protest like "the first mass participation
action, a very media-friendly and entertaining choreography that
represented the symptoms of turbo-capitalist Europe, presented as the
first global-animal experiment in the world of demonstrations."

Theatrical works were presented in defense of democratic liberties and
civil rights.  Anti-repressive manuals were prepared.  A committee made
up of the organizers themselves were in charge of order at the
demonstration.  "It wasn't about laying siege to the summit, but about
breaking the siege of the city," it was said.

The events joined together an archipelago of causes. They rejected the
National Hydrological Plan, they were in support of women's or
immigrants' demands, they defended public education, the legalization of
marijuana or expressed solidarity with the Palestinian people.  There was
emphasis on promoting an economy that is in the hands of the people and
not corporations.

In a preliminary assessment, I~aki Garci'a noted:  "It demonstrated that
there was great discontent over the way preparations had been made for
the summit and for the accords that had been predicted it would produce.
It demonstrated that it was an open and inclusive convocation, which had
a very strongly critical sentiment that no one was going to be able to
profit from for their party or power interest."

After the mobilization, she added, we see the movement as being stronger.
"We think that Barcelona has given encouragement to everyone who is
fighting and resisting.  The world powers also know that Barcelona is a
city where they are not welcome, and the rest of the world also knows
that they have an encouraging precedent, that things can be done."

And she concluded:  "Above all else we have been able to demonstrate that
the struggle makes sense, and that we can wrest spaces away from the
powers and connect with common everyday people.  What seemed impossible
was achieved."  Another reality was made possible.

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