tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/15m-1653/articles15M – The Conversation2017-11-06T19:22:19Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/840572017-11-06T19:22:19Z2017-11-06T19:22:19ZIn the ‘fearless city’, Barcelona residents take charge<p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/democracy-futures">Democracy Futures</a> project, a <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/democracy-futures/">joint global initiative</a> between The Conversation and <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/">Sydney Democracy Network</a>. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century.</em></p>
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<p>Almost every global city has a similar dynamic – a battle between the finance capital that seeks to make money from the city and the needs of the residents who seek to make the city their home. </p>
<p>Rarely do we see residents successfully push back against the power of finance capital. But for those wanting to know how this can be done, look to Barcelona. </p>
<p>I conducted face-to-face research in Barcelona and this story features in the <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/episode-1-making-the-impossible-possible/id1202828001?i=1000393176140&mt=2">first episode</a> of my new podcast series, ChangeMakers.</p>
<p>The 2008 global financial crisis was devastating for Spain. It had experienced a housing bubble, and the financial crisis turned quickly into a housing crisis.</p>
<p>In Spain, your sense of self is closely connected to owning a home. Franco created opportunities for people to own a home as a strategy to avoid revolution. Since the transition, parties on both sides have encouraged home ownership.</p>
<p>When the housing crisis came, the “Spanish Dream” came unstuck. Rising unemployment left many families unable to pay their mortgages and facing eviction.</p>
<p>Previously, if you were unable to pay your mortgage you sold your house. Now no-one wanted to buy those houses. People soon discovered how strict the foreclosure rules were – a little-known law allowed banks to evict if an owner defaulted on one mortgage payment. By 2017, half-a-million people had been evicted from their homes.</p>
<p>Enter the PAH, <em>Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca</em> – “platform for people affected by mortgages”. In 2009 a small group of housing activists and progressive academics came together to contemplate what could be done. They set up an organisation to enable people to deal with this situation collectively.</p>
<p>The PAH ambitiously planned to disrupt this eviction crisis. But this wasn’t an easy task. About 50 people attended the first meeting in February 2009.</p>
<p>In the first year, according to co-founder Lucia Gonzalez, the group first needed to provide a space where people could grieve for what was happening to them – and to shift from thinking they were a failure for potentially losing their house to recognising it was a problem created by bigger social forces.</p>
<p>The PAH also realised they couldn’t fix people’s housing issues one by one. The problem was way too big. Instead, they needed to create spaces where people could teach each other how to solve their own problems. </p>
<p>They held Monday-night assemblies where people who were more experienced with housing issues helped those who were newly subject to evictions. Through working together, people came to realise the source of their problems was public policy. And to solve their own problem, and the broader policy problem, they had to work together.</p>
<h2>Discovering the power of the public</h2>
<p>Then <a href="https://theconversation.com/postcard-from-spain-where-now-for-the-quiet-revolution-43779">15M happened</a>. Frustrated by what was happening to Spanish society, the <em>Indignados</em> – literally “the angry ones” – protested in their millions across Spain. The movement occupied Barcelona’s Plaza de Cataluna on and off for weeks. </p>
<p>15M – named after the day it started, May 15, 2011 – was a decentralised movement. As professor Joan Subirats from the Autonomous University of Barcelona told me in July, “there is no address [for 15M], there is no phone number”. It was a mass mobilisation, organised primarily using digital tools. In many ways it was a dramatic contrast to the intensive face-to-face organising work of the PAH.</p>
<p>15M lived in the town squares, and soon the PAH took advantage of those spaces. As Gonzalez told me, 15M “was a perfect storm”. The changemakers were able to connect the PAH’s deep organising work with the 15M mobilisation to grow their housing movement. </p>
<p>Carlos Macias joined the PAH around this time – he was invited to help “stop an eviction” where dozens, sometimes hundreds, of people would stand in front of threatened premises, risking arrest. The movement had come a long way once people lost their sense of shame and fear. Everyday people were prepared to take part in high-risk non-violent civil disobedience, and every time they won (and they won many times) they became emboldened changemakers.</p>
<p>But the housing policies that were the source of the problem had to be changed. To do this, they petitioned the federal government run by the conservative Popular Party to create a law to restrict the ability of banks to evict people who defaulted. They needed 500,000 signatures; they got 1.5 million. And much of the energy for collecting those signatures came from the mobilisations in the square.</p>
<p>They took the petition to Madrid and at the hearings one PAH leader, Ada Colau, famously accused a representative of the banks of being a criminal. It symbolised the crisis and propelled the PAH to national attention. </p>
<p>Colau became a symbol of the people fighting finance capital. The PAH, a community organisation, became the opposition in Spain, not just an opposition party but an opposition to the entire political class.</p>
<p>The PAH was unable to pass its legislation. The PAH then took a similar proposal to the Catalonian parliament. And there they succeeded. For a time evictions stopped, banks had to forgive the debts, finance capital was constrained. </p>
<p>And then the federal government appealed to the constitutional court and suspended the state law. They had lost again.</p>
<h2>Taking on politicians at their own game</h2>
<p>For some at the PAH, this became breaking point. For Colau and Gonzalez, they had tried every strategy they could imagine and it wasn’t enough. They began to think the unthinkable – should they create a political party?</p>
<p>These activists were the most unlikely politicians. They had openly talked about politicians as sell-outs or losers. For them politicians were either so centrist that they failed to represent the residents or so ideological that they failed to get elected. </p>
<p>Their frustration was that although, as Gonzalez said, “we had this big power in the street, the institutions were closed”. They debated among each other: could they build a party that was the political arm of the streets?</p>
<p>So they established a party. Barcelona en Comu was a coalition of five similar urban political parties in the city. Colau was the candidate for the mayor and a network of activists, several from the PAH, were candidates for the council. </p>
<p>The short story is they won. They won the most seats and Colau is now the mayor. It was a brutal battle, captured well in the film <a href="http://www.alcaldessa.com/en/">Alcaldessa</a>. </p>
<p>The team were seasoned organisers who used many of the strategies pioneered with the PAH. Yet the pressures of getting elected versus speaking your values, the pressure from the media, the patriarchal nature of the electoral machine in Barcelona and the all-consuming nature of party politics all featured in the battle.</p>
<h2>So what are the lessons from Barcelona?</h2>
<p>The legislative climate in Barcelona has undergone a radical shift. Banks and big companies like Airbnb have been fined, the process of evictions is slower and more consultative, and the city is building public housing. </p>
<p>There is a desire to locate the government with the experiences of the people. Colau conducts listening campaigns with residents, where she sits and hears residents’ concerns every other Friday. She <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/episode-1-making-the-impossible-possible/id1202828001?i=1000393176140&mt=2/">has said</a> to Gonzalez (who is now in the national parliament):</p>
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<p>If it wasn’t for this (these listening sessions) I would be lost.</p>
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<p>But others note that change isn’t happening fast enough. As Macias notes, Colau promised 80,000 new public homes when she came to power but there are just 3,000 as of October 2017.</p>
<p>He emphasises that political parties can’t be the answer. Without the deep face- to-face organising work of the PAH and the mobilising work of many Barcelona social movements, any party, including Barcelona en Comu, could become detached from the people.</p>
<p>Barcelona’s story is that radical urban politics are possible. Especially in a crisis, representative strategies like forming new political parties perhaps are a strategic choice for urban movements. Barcelona is one of many places around the world where this is happening. </p>
<p>At the <a href="http://fearlesscities.com/">Fearless Cities</a> conference in Barcelona in June 2017, hundreds of city councils and social movement activists came together to explore the connection between electoralism and activism.</p>
<p>But it is unwise to presume that an urban political party can work on its own. No politician is above the pressures in public life that constrain and minimise radical action, as Colau’s record of delivering public housing shows.</p>
<p>If residents are to take over the city, multiple sites of social change are needed. This includes new political forces and potentially new political parties. There is also a need for organisations that work deeply in communities, like the PAH, dealing with crisis and connecting new leaders to political action – what I would call “organising strategies”. </p>
<p>And there is also a need for mass mobilisation, as we saw with 15M, where people from across social sectors and causes come together to advance a people-centred vision for the city.</p>
<p>But, helpfully, Barcelona provides inspiration for new political strategies in Australia. With our housing bubble, our inflated prices, with people excluded from the housing market, we may one day experience a crash. The organising strategies used in Barcelona may then become frighteningly relevant. </p>
<p>Even without a doomsday analysis, it is interesting to contemplate that perhaps new political parties – urban parties dealing with the urban politics of housing, transport and jobs – could be an innovative way of dealing with our own political malaise.</p>
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<p><em>You can listen to the first Changemakers podcast <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/episode-1-making-the-impossible-possible/id1202828001?i=1000393176140&mt=2">here</a> and find other episodes <a href="https://www.podcastone.com.au/program?action=viewProgram&programID=8031">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84057/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Tattersall is the host of the ChangeMakers Podcast, which tells stories about people trying to change the world. She is also a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Sydney as part of the Organising the 21st Century City Project funded by the Halloran Trust. Previously she co-founded GetUp!, founded the Sydney Alliance and authored ‘Power in Coalition’.
</span></em></p>We rarely see residents of a city successfully push back in defence of their needs against the power of finance capital, which seeks to make money from the city. But Barcelona shows it can be done.Amanda Tattersall, Post Doctoral Fellow, School of Geoscience & Host, ChangeMakers, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/437792015-06-26T07:44:56Z2015-06-26T07:44:56ZPostcard from Spain: where now for the ‘quiet revolution’?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86205/original/image-20150624-786-1nklq2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hands up in the 15M movement in Madrid. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/anarey/5741745166/in/photostream/">Ana Rey/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/democracy-futures">Democracy Futures</a> series, a <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/shortcodes/images-videos/articles-democracy-futures/">joint global initiative</a> with the <a href="http://sydneydemocracynetwork.org/">Sydney Democracy Network</a>. The project aims to stimulate fresh thinking about the many challenges facing democracies in the 21st century.</em></p>
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<p>It’s the second day at work for Castellón’s <a href="http://translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&sl=ca&u=https://castelloenmoviment.org/&prev=search">four new “15M” councillors</a>. Not much is working in the corner of an unremarkable office in Castellón’s Town Hall. An IT technician comes and goes, promising Wi-Fi will arrive soon – “manana”. The mood is upbeat, however, with much smiling and shrugging in that “no-one really cares” gesture the Spanish excel at. </p>
<p>Context explains everything. These councillors aren’t too bothered whether they can work or not. They have chosen to be in opposition and, when quizzed, they confirm that they see their roles as temporary. </p>
<p>They see themselves not as representatives, even less “politicians”, with clear responsibilities that have to be taken seriously. Rather, they are flag bearers or <a href="https://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745681955">“post-representatives”</a> for the quiet revolution they hope will overwhelm <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31852713">“la Casta”</a>. These are the corrupt elites who have presided over the bankrupting of Spain, mass unemployment and the erosion of living standards for young and old.</p>
<p>The general feeling that “something has to be done” drove more than six million Spaniards to occupy squares in virtually every town and city across the country on May 15, 2011 – a date imprinted in the collective imaginary as “15M”.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86206/original/image-20150624-801-cudiel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86206/original/image-20150624-801-cudiel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86206/original/image-20150624-801-cudiel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86206/original/image-20150624-801-cudiel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86206/original/image-20150624-801-cudiel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86206/original/image-20150624-801-cudiel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86206/original/image-20150624-801-cudiel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Puerta del Sol square in Madrid became a focal point and symbol of the 15M protests in 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.http://fotograccion.org/</span></span>
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<h2>Castellón and the others</h2>
<p>Where does Spain’s quiet revolution go from here? One path suggested itself last year via the creation of <a href="https://theconversation.com/meet-podemos-the-party-revolutionising-spanish-politics-33802">Podemos</a>, a “pop-up” party created by academics in Madrid and designed to give an electoral voice to the disenfranchised. </p>
<p>Led by savvy <a href="http://newleftreview.org/II/93/pablo-iglesias-spain-on-edge">Laclau-istas</a> Pablo Iglesias and Íñigo Errejón, Podemos succeeded in providing an immediate focus for political energies, and still appears to many as the most likely source of a breakthrough for those who identify with the 15M movement. </p>
<p>However, Podemos decided, curiously, not to contest the recent municipal elections. That necessitated the creation of a raft of ad hoc political parties, collectives and initiatives among those wishing to maintain momentum. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86208/original/image-20150624-786-nbs2xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86208/original/image-20150624-786-nbs2xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86208/original/image-20150624-786-nbs2xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86208/original/image-20150624-786-nbs2xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86208/original/image-20150624-786-nbs2xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86208/original/image-20150624-786-nbs2xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86208/original/image-20150624-786-nbs2xo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Pablo Iglesias and Inigo Errejon of Podemos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">La Veu del País Valencià/flickr</span></span>
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<p>In Castellón, a small city north of Valencia, local activists took the matter into their own hands, calling for an assembly and the creation of a new group, <a href="http://translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&sl=ca&u=https://castelloenmoviment.org/&prev=search">Castelló en Moviment</a> (CEM), to fight the elections. The local Podemos group dissolved itself and joined in. With no resources of its own to call upon, CEM used crowd-funding to raise a few thousand euros, which it spent on advertising its existence on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CastelloEnMoviment">Facebook</a> and other platforms. </p>
<p>Regularly attracting up to 100 locals, the assembly became the focus for political activism locally and fought the election using an imaginative digital strategy as well as assemblies to engage the town – successfully it seems. CEM won four seats, and the solicitation of the local socialist party to form a governing alliance.</p>
<p>CEM refused the overture, claiming they were too inexperienced to wield power. They prefer to remain aloof from the grubby business of governing the municipality, drawing attention instead to the myriad injustices that animate its constituency: high local unemployment, clientelism, croneyism, corruption, mayoral excess. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86220/original/image-20150624-780-s61vuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86220/original/image-20150624-780-s61vuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86220/original/image-20150624-780-s61vuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86220/original/image-20150624-780-s61vuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86220/original/image-20150624-780-s61vuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86220/original/image-20150624-780-s61vuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86220/original/image-20150624-780-s61vuk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Ada Colau with PAH supporters in Barcelona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrea Ciambra/flickr</span></span>
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<p>Similar efforts elsewhere paid even greater dividends, most noticeably in Madrid and Barcelona where ad hoc collectives led to the victory of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/12/madrid-manuela-carmena-deal-socialists-mayor">Manuela Carmena</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/07/barcelona-mayor-ada-colau-feminised-democracy">Ada Colau</a>, the popular spokesperson for the campaign against mortgage evictions, or simply “PAH”. Podemos had never quite established “hegemony” in Catalonia, so the creation of Guanyem Barcelona (later renamed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona_en_Com%C3%BA">Barcelona en Comú</a>) around the figure of Colau seemed logical. </p>
<p>But in Madrid, where Podemos was founded in 2014, the creation of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahora_Madrid">“Ahora Madrid”</a> initiative resonates significantly as far as the internal politics of 15M is concerned. </p>
<p>Any sense that Carmena would be a spokesperson for Podemos was quickly dispelled. So too, however, was the sense that she would be directly accountable to the street assemblies, barios and collectives who campaigned for her. She will be her own mayor with her own team, with her own programme. Such is the logic of post-15M “non-vertical” leadership. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86229/original/image-20150624-31507-ejav4t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86229/original/image-20150624-31507-ejav4t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86229/original/image-20150624-31507-ejav4t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86229/original/image-20150624-31507-ejav4t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86229/original/image-20150624-31507-ejav4t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86229/original/image-20150624-31507-ejav4t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86229/original/image-20150624-31507-ejav4t.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ahora Madrid.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Simon Tormey</span></span>
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<h2>Representing the unrepresentable</h2>
<p>Waiting in the wings is Podemos itself. It has certainly managed to protect its own “brand” by remaining beyond the recent electoral process, but at what cost? Today, they seem like spectators rather than actors in the unfolding drama of 15M’s encroachment on municipal power. </p>
<p>One effect of the municipal elections has after all been a return of many of the most savvy activists back to the streets, the assemblies and the more horizontal initiatives like Castelló en Moviment. With Podemos’ own activists getting involved in these more recent initiatives, its popularity and status as the leading element of the 15M platform may be on the wane. Support for Podemos across the country has declined, from 24% to around 15% in recent opinion polls. </p>
<p>Does Podemos have a strategy to counter this decline? The signs are hardly encouraging. </p>
<p>As even its own activists are ready to admit, Podemos is a “vertical” initiative representing the unrepresentable 15M “project”. Herein lies the paradox of contemporary Spanish politics. The more activists use electoral means to leverage the sentiments unleashed in 15M, the more they become enmeshed in the messy bureaucratic business of “politics” as this is enacted in liberal democracies.</p>
<p>One can hardly blame the Podemos’ leadership for trying to think tactically about where to take their party; but the very demand to build structure, instil some order and discipline and develop “the brand” rails against the anarchistic and horizontal energies that lie beneath. </p>
<p>Nor can one blame the activists of initiatives such as Barcelona en Comú and Castelló en Moviment for trying to remain true to that energy – but can they do so without disappointing the base who faithfully turn up for assemblies and direct deliberation? Carmena has read the runes and decided to distance herself from the base in the hope of demonstrating to the ordinary voter that 15M-istas are capable of responsible and mature governance in Madrid. </p>
<p>By contrast CEM – like many other regional initiatives – are determined to be accountable to their assemblies. They argue that that this is the true or proper form of interaction with the unrepresentable – 15M activists themselves. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86221/original/image-20150624-801-yvath0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/86221/original/image-20150624-801-yvath0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86221/original/image-20150624-801-yvath0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86221/original/image-20150624-801-yvath0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86221/original/image-20150624-801-yvath0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86221/original/image-20150624-801-yvath0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/86221/original/image-20150624-801-yvath0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Activist candidates from the Castelló en Moviment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">La Veu del País Valencià/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Spain’s ‘democracy to come’</h2>
<p>At stake in this fascinating collage or “shape-shifting” is not only the political legacy of 15M but the nature and form of Spain’s “democracy to come”. It is not at all clear at the time of writing whether Podemos has the wherewithal to channel the extraordinary energies unleashed by 15M for its own electoral purposes. </p>
<p>Some speculate that they will all come together in time to pose a real alternative not only to the mainstream parties, [PP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People’s_Party_(Spain) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Socialist_Workers'_Party">PSOE</a>, but also the rightist 15M doppelganger, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/13/ciudadanos-podemos-of-right-political-force-spain-albert-rivera">Ciudadanos</a>, a new party led by Albert Rivera. </p>
<p>The evidence, however, suggests another possibility. Having developed a taste for assembly-driven political initiatives, activists will prise Podemos itself apart to create a kind of hybrid “Ahora Podemos en Comú”-type platform, which might include endorsement by Iglesias and Errejón, but also Carmena, Colau and the very many horizontals who rediscovered their political mojo and sense of purpose in the May elections. </p>
<p>Beyond the elections lies the question of what kind of governance 15M offers. It’s early days in the town halls, but the possible outlines are not far from hand: a stress on “ethical governance” underpinned by a commitment to reducing the distance between representatives and represented through abolishing the very many privileges hitherto enjoyed by the Spanish political class. </p>
<p>Greater transparency in financial and legislative terms. Greater commitment to engaging ordinary citizens via a variety of means: assemblies, referendums, virtual and digitally enabled deliberation. Greater focus on environmental sustainability, on ensuring that women play leading roles, and on providing citizens with access to housing and basic foodstuffs. </p>
<p>It seems that these are the core concerns of the 15M-istas who have taken many of Spain’s town halls in this quiet revolution. But before getting down to business they need to find a computer that works.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Acknowledgment: with sincere thanks to Ramón Feenstra and to the very many activists of the various initiatives and parties mentioned above in Castellon, Madrid and Seville who agreed to be interviewed. Muchas Gracias.</em></p>
<p><em>Read Simon Tormey’s previous article in this series about European movements and the end of “representative” politics <a href="https://theconversation.com/european-movements-could-mark-the-end-of-representative-politics-42369">here</a>.
His new book, The End of Representative Politics, is available from <a href="https://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745681955">Polity</a> and <a href="http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0745681964,subjectCd-PO17.html">Wiley</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43779/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Tormey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Candidates from Spain’s ‘15M’ movement – born of mass protests in 2011 – have responded in various ways to the dilemma that being elected creates for those wishing to overturn the ‘old politics’.Simon Tormey, Professor of Political Theory and Head of the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/34952011-10-15T03:05:16Z2011-10-15T03:05:16Z15-M back on Spain’s streets as protest goes global<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/4423/original/15-M.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">15-M started in Spain, but it has sparked protests around the globe.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Jesus Diges</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This weekend Spain will see the return of its “revolution”. Those involved in the <a href="http://theconversation.com/how-spanish-outrage-could-transform-europe-1651">15-M movement</a> will once again take to the streets en masse to demand urgent reforms. Under the motto <a href="http://15october.net/">“united for a global change,”</a> the latest series of demonstrations will this time have a global dimension, with events taking place in 45 countries. </p>
<p>The movement has been organised through social media with the slogan “It’s time for us to unite. It’s time for them to listen. People of the world, rise up!”. Protestors will put pressure on the political representatives in each country to direct us towards a democracy that isn’t undermined by financial power.</p>
<h2>Roots of protest</h2>
<p><a href="http://movimiento15m.org/">15-M</a> is a non-partisan, movement which attracts people from all social classes. It grew from a wave of non-violent protests which started on May 15th this year, and its campaign for reform of the political system has swept throughout Spain. It doesn’t want to overthrow the system – merely reform it. </p>
<p>It was inspired by <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7744355.stm">protests in Iceland</a>, took hold in Spain, then spread to other countries throughout the world. We now see the power that motivated demonstrators can mobilise via social media with the <a href="http://theconversation.com/occupywallstreet-ill-be-there-but-on-twitter-3436">#OccupyWallStreet</a> protests. 15-M is a movement which has stimulated protest well beyond its borders.</p>
<h2>Spanish issues</h2>
<p>The Spanish public has had enough. People are fed up with the high unemployment rates (over 20%), corruption in politics, and cuts to public spending. Politicians have been cited as Spaniards’ third biggest concern for two years (even over <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12152928">ETA’s terrorism</a>).</p>
<p>The political structure is marked by a two-party system dominated by <a href="http://www.rubalcaba.es/">PSOE</a> and <a href="http://www.pp.es/">PP</a>. This is perpetrated by an electoral system that drowns any real option that small parties may have.</p>
<h2>Citizens power</h2>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4y3X2VFruLM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The 15-M movement has spread from Spain to more than 40 countries throughout the world. YouTube/united15October.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Social media have now revolutionised the public’s ability to protest. </p>
<p>Citizens are now expressing their political discontent, demanding <a href="http://www.democraciarealya.es/documento-transversal/">the transformation of democracy</a>. They are marching in the streets, taking part in saucepan-banging demonstrations, halting evictions, online petitions, cycling protests, and putting one foot in front of the other in the popular “long walks for democracy” (the latest one saw people <a href="http://www.france24.com/en/20110727-spains-indignant-protesters-start-long-march-brussels">marching 1500km</a> from Madrid to Brussels).</p>
<p>And of course there are the <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/201152264452749575.html">campsites for democracy</a>. Madrid’s Puerta del Sol <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/08/spain-protesters-dismantle-puerta-sol">was the epicentre</a> of these protests, inspiring copycat tent cities in over 50 city squares around the country.</p>
<h2>Confidence in change</h2>
<p>These people are displaying not only their indignation with what is happening around them, but also their conviction that things can be changed by citizens power. </p>
<p>Their agenda incorporates everything from establishing monitoring mechanisms in the banking and financial systems, finding ways to improve civic participation in politics, fiscal reform to raise tax rates on big fortunes and a reform of the electoral law that guarantees the principle of equal voting. </p>
<p>After five months of practice, this weekend’s demonstrations will throw up some novelties. It’s the first time protests are being organised simultaneously in 45 countries that share central issues like the weakening of democratic systems by the markets. </p>
<h2>General election</h2>
<p>Coming just a month before the general <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-26/zapatero-calls-early-election-as-polls-give-spain-s-opposition-record-lead.html">elections on the 20th November</a>, politicians will be all too aware of the outrage.</p>
<p>Many of the movement’s demands haven’t been seriously debated by political representatives who claim that it is impossible to incorporate complex measures that may involve a change in the “immovable” Spanish Constitution. </p>
<p>But neither of the main parties hesitated to <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/aug/26/spain-constitutional-cap-deficit">change the very same Constitution</a> in August, when they sped through legislation to limit public deficit in order to calm the markets, the European Central Bank and the <a href="http://theconversation.com/spains-indignant-protests-may-hurt-politically-but-wont-threaten-eu-unity-1417">European Union’s Franco-German core</a>. </p>
<p>The 15-M movement must now show it will not give up, and that it is prepared to face down dismissals from mainstream politicians, such as <a href="http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2011/09/26/actualidad/1317066995_627976.html">Esperanza Aguirre</a>’s (PP) and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1iQ-EV6JXo">Duran i Lleida’s (CiU)</a>, who brand it “anti-system”. </p>
<p>15-M will be back on the streets this weekend to show that democracy can’t be left in the hands of a few political and financial elites who try to limit citizens’ understanding of politics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/3495/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ramón Feenstra has taken part in 15-M demonstrations</span></em></p>This weekend Spain will see the return of its “revolution”. Those involved in the 15-M movement will once again take to the streets en masse to demand urgent reforms. Under the motto “united for a global…Ramón A. Feenstra, Assistant Professor of Moral Philosophy, Universitat Jaume ILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.