Meetings, Heat and Trains

On Saturday, the 15th May Movement (as the protests have become known), held local meetings in squares across the city. I went along to our local one at Plaza Puerta del Moros, where around 300 people were gathered, sitting and standing under the trees, sheltering from the midday heat. It is incredible how organised this movement is for a spontaneous thing. There was a PA system set up with mics and two sign language interpreters on hand. The mics are open to anyone and consensus decision making is used, which makes the process very slow but ultimately, I always find, more satisfying. I watched a discussion about whether to meet locally, how often, and where unfold at a crawling pace. The mood was quite light however, and people blocking decisions would stand aside if a large majority was in favour, and were rewarded with applause. Many of the speakers also made the crowd laugh and, although their purpose was serious, people weren't taking themselves to seriously, which I have often seen in similar meetings in the UK climate movement. It seems that the camp in Sol will stay for now, and the neighbourhood groups will meet weekly so it looks like this movement is here to stay.

 
I've had some interesting reactions when getting my students to do mini-presentations over the last week, from 'I'm going tonight' to 'They need to shut up and get jobs'. Mostly though, they seemed to sympathetic, largely agree with the aims of the camp and share their anger at the political system, but not necessarily agree with their tactics. The fact that there's a fair amount of cannabis being smoked in Sol came up a couple of times too (I'd noticed this when walking around as well). I told a couple of them that if they really wanted a three-party system, we could probably spare Nick Clegg for a while...

It's now getting really hot here, and you can see why people describe Madrid as being a place of extremes, either frozen or scorched. It's cloudier today but I realised the other day that it had consistently been hotter than the hottest summer's day you'd get in England for about a week. Most of the companies I work in have air-con but bussing round the city is becoming an increasingly clammy experience.

I've actually been feeling quite homesick over the last week or so. One of my friends summed it up well recently when they said "Sometimes you just get sick of feeling like a foreigner." It's very true, and I haven't been home since Christmas and that wasn't for very long. Really looking forward to being on home ground and seeing people over the summer. I cannot wait to kick back and shoot the breeze in a good old-fashioned pub. I've just booked my travel home, for the rapidly approaching end of June. I'm taking the train to avoid flying (for environmental reasons), for which I'm paying considerably more. £240 for an overnight from Madrid to Paris and Eurostar to London. Surely it could be made cheaper? It's also ridiculously difficult to actually buy a ticket, and I ended up having to have the tickets sent to my parents house in Sheffield and then sent out here for some bizarre reason. A subsidy to make it more attractive compared to flying would be nice, but at very least could they make it less of an effort to get yourself a ticket.

It will be an experience anyway... an 18 hour one.

Camp Stays For Election Day

There was no sign of the police moving to disperse the Sol protest camp last night, which was probably very wise on their part. There were a huge number of people camping out in the square, some sleeping, some sitting around chatting, the odd guitar here and there. They covered virtually the entire square, and the camp looks firmly entrenched. Someone had even been busy replanting the trampled flower beds around one of the fountains with a herb garden.

I don't think I've emphasised yet how out of the blue this protest has come. There had been some relatively small demonstrations that I'd seen, often union organised, and some posters and graffiti, but no real sign of any great anger at the crisis until now and it seems to have taken everyone by surprise. Furthermore, this isn't a usual kind of occurence in Spain and hasn't been seen since the transition to democracy. Where the movement goes from here after today's local elections, and how the political class reacts to it, will be very interesting. There are parallels with the 'Arab spring' protests, particularly Tahrir Square in Egypt, although obviously the stakes are different. However, both are demanding greater democratisation and representation and expressing anger at being marginalised. How Spain will change to reflect their demands, or if it can, will be fascinating to watch.

No Hay Pan Para Tanto Chorizo!

An even bigger turn out at Puerta del Sol tonight, with the surrounding streets filling with people too and the camp expanding to fit a bigger crèche and more sleeping space. People had also scaled the scaffolding on the building where the famous Tio Pepe sign used to be and unfurled more banners. When we arrived the TV crews were trying to make live broadcasts from a platform in the square. I say trying, because every time the reporter stood in front of the camera, a huge whistle and boo went up. It's not only the politicians this crowd are angry with it seems but the mainstream media. I even read that people were refusing to give interviews to Spanish TV.

Again, the atmosphere is just great. People stopping to read all the slogans posted in the camp, while others were furiously painting more. Among the chants of "Democracia! Real!", one of the most popular was "No hay pan para tanto chorizo!" - There isn't bread for so much chorizo! As well as the sausage, chorizo can also mean a kind of thief or scoundrel, so meaning not enough money for so many theives. Corruption in politics is another major issue in Spain, with some politicians likely to get re-elected tomorrow depsite being involved in scandals. There are homemade banners wherever you look, some personal, about not being able to get a job, some optimistic (`The future is now'), some not so ('No hay pan...'). Many also made a big deal about the fact that it was Sol where the protests were taking place, given it's symbolic status as the centre of Madrid, and the whole of Spain. There was also a samba band in full swing by the time I left and a party atmosphere, although with people still being urged not to drink.

The samba band highlighted by camera flashes

The best moment however, was while the crowd jeered the TV crews, the message to be quiet spread through the square, and for around a minute everyone was silent while shaking their hands in the air, the only noise the rustling of thousands of fingers. Then a whistle sounded and a great cheer went up over the whole square, a really incredible show of organisation and unity. I can't see the police even try and move the crowd tonight, and the police chief has said that they won't try to solve one problem by creating another, but I'm going to go back later and check what's happening. The only police presence this evening were 4 riot vans pressed right up against the Town Hall.

 

Meanwhile, although the crowds were spilling into the surrounding streets and  neighbouring squares, down the road in Plaza Mayor it was business as usual, with tourists eating expensive dinners and maybe a few more street performers than usual because they'd been pushed out of Sol. You wouldn't have known anything was even happening.

Protest In Sol II

Just got back from Sol again, the camp is still very busy and full of people with a massive public meetings going on with many speakers mostly young but of all ages. There's a friendly and fun atmosphere and still no police entering the camp itself. However, there's at least one newspaper headline saying that the authorities are unable to enforce the law. The day before an election, that's a dangerous thing, but they probably won't want to look like they are preventing free speech either which makes the situation interestingly poised, so we'll see how it plays out. It's difficult to see how they would even go about trying to move people though, the camp is very entrenched and if there are as many people tonight as on the previous few, it'll be near impossible.

It's all very organised, with a PA system announcing (to cheers) that paella would be available from the shop in 15 minutes and reminding people to drink water because it's such a hot day. It feels like a kind of political souk under the tarpaulin in the centre of the square, with people wandering through, lounging on camp beds, signing petitions and seeing whats happening. I wish my Spanish were better so I could understand what was being said in all the speeches being made, but I can more or less get the drift. A sign that seemed to some up the mood of the camp read "No estamos contra el sistema, el sistema esta contra nosotros" - We are not against the system, the system is against us. There are plenty of other signs along the lines of "Revolucion no es botellon!" - Revolution is not street drinking! - trying to discourage it turning from something serious into a street party at night. I'll be going back later to see what happens tonight.

Protests In Sol

On Thursday night and yesterday, I went to have a look, and join in, the huge protest in Puerta del Sol, dead in the centre of Madrid outside the town hall. It started last Sunday after a march protesting against youth unemployment (45%) and the financial crisis in general, ended in the impromptu occupation of Sol, one of Madrid's main landmarks. It was then reported that the police had evicted the campers in the early hours of Tuesday morning, but by the time I went down on Thursday evening, the square was overflowing with people, chanting, pumping fists in the air, climbing scaffolding and unfurling banners over the giant advertising hoarding on the north side.

After dark, the atmosphere was incredible - all smiles and people chatting. No violence or aggression and a barely visible police presence since the protest had been allowed to go ahead after Tuesday. Cheers went up every time a new banner, with some pro-democracy slogan was thrown out over the massive shampoo advert. The aims of the protest are very vague, but 'organisers' insist that it is independent of any political party or union movement (according to English news), and it seems to be a general outpouring of anger over the crisis and the political response to it, in particular the austerity measures proposed by both main political parties. Many are frustrated with the lack of choice offered by the two main parties under the current voting system, and one of the most numerous posters I saw featured pictures of Zapatero and Rajoy, the opposition leader, with an equals sign between them.

Over the last couple of weeks, the electioneering of the two parties has heated up, with posters for the candidates for mayor and president of the commuity (which controls a large proportion of welfare spending) everywhere you look. The election is tomorrow, and the electoral commission has ruled that the protest cannot continue on election day as all campaigning is banned

Although Thursday night seemed chaotic and revelous, when I went back yesterday afternoon, the (considerably less crowded) camp, under huge blue tarpaulins stretched between lamposts, was engaged in big public meetings, workshops, committees and building and banner making parties. There was also a couple of shops, a kitchen and portaloos, apparently donated by a sympathetic building company. The camp is also completely covered in posters and signs with demands and slogans written on, as is the Gaudi-style entrance to Sol metro station (that someone has been round renaming 'Plaza del SOLucion').

Most of the meetings seemed to be using some form of collective desicion making, with people doing the 'jazz hands' for "I agree", familiar to anyone who's used it before. The lack of police presence, given it's one of Madrid's main landmarks, was incredible. They seem to have been given orders to stand well off, presumably for politicians fear of a backlash in the election if they are seen to crack down too hard. The atmosphere reminded me a lot of Climate Camp in the UK, but with the strange sight of bemused tourists walking through the middle of it all.

The camps demands, although still pointedly non-specific or party orientated, seem to have crystallised a little through the public meetings, with greater democratization and representation being one of the key demands on the central poster pasted onto the metro entrance. Funny that that's exactly what we in Britain just voted against in the referendum on AV. The protests have now spread to other cities around Spain and it's being dubbed (unironically) 'the Spanish revolution' by the protesters. It certainly looks like the camp is there to stay, but there may be a confrontation in the offing with the police later today or tonight as they have been ordered to clear it before polling day tomorrow.

Sorry if this seems to be written a little breathlessly, I'm typing it quickly so I can go back up and see what's happening now! Expect an update later. You can see other news stories on it here and here.