Occupy: Spain’s struggle is our struggle too

Occupy Sydney activist Elena Ortega gave the speech below at an October 22 rally in Sydney’s Martin Place. Earlier this year, Ortega took part in Spain’s indignado movement, which has involved huge protests and occupations against corporate power across the country since May 15.

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People of Occupy. We are here to fight for a real democracy, which puts power in the hands of ordinary people and brings about real change.

And I would like to tell you about a movement that started in Spain on May 15 this year with that aim. It was one of the organisations that grew with this movement, Real Democracy Now, which called for a global day of action on October 15.

I’m aware that events here were more inspired by the Wall Street protests, but it is not my fault if much of the media themselves are puppets of this false democracy and they failed to cover the events in my country because hundreds of thousands in the streets in Spain is not news.

They will just have to go back and do their research.

While the Wall Street protests have been covered by the media in Australia and have inspired the Occupy events in Australia, this occupation kicked off in May: 53 cities, including my hometown of Zaragoza, saw occupations becoming established for months.

There were huge demonstrations, online petitions, general assemblies, community groups and organisations, which added strength to the movement. There were organisations which grew with the movement such as “Youth without a future”, “victims of mortgages”, Real Democracy Now” and “the Stop evictions group”.

Video: Occupy Sydney Day 02: Elena on Occupy Spain - occupysydneymedia.

The indignados (as they became known) defined itself as pluralistic, horizontal, non-hierarchical and non-ideological.

In July, the indignados planned a global day of action on October 15 under the banner “United for a Global Change”. There were 400 demonstrations planned in more than 40 countries.

Occupy Sydney was part of this global uprising. Last week Melbourne and Sydney were reported in the Spanish news, on Channel 6 and in several newspapers. Friends from the
Camps in Spain sent us messages of congratulations and encouragement, and reminded us that after six months they too need to see Sydney’s determination.

They had called for one day of action, they had not expected an occupation.

So what exactly triggered the protests over there? Earlier on in March there had already been massive protests against cuts to public services and against the austerity measures imposed on Spain by the guardians of the Euro.

They were also driven by unemployment figures of 20% (49% among the young), by corruption, and by the frustration about representative democracy.

Why? Because our so-called representatives had failed to represent us and to defend us in the face of the attacks by the financial institutions of Europe. It was clear then that what we needed was something else: not a representative democracy but a real participatory democracy.

So on May 15 a group of young men and women decided to set camp in the very centre of Madrid. This day gives its name to the 15 M, which is also called indignados after the book by Stephane Hessel: Rise Up! But it wasn’t only Hessel’s book, and the present conditions of Spain, that inspired the movement.

It was also the more recent uprisings in Tahrir Square, in Egypt, that inspired young Spaniards to “take their square”.

The indignados (or “indignants”) are fed up, tired, angry about having to pay for the financial crisis. It is a crisis of financial institutions. It is them who failed. We didn’t fail! Remember? It was Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs.

It was the banks. It was their mortgage products, their credit, their debt, their speculation that brought the United States and Europe to the state in which it is today. In Spain they copied this system: they created debt, they created false wealth. And then they taught Spaniards what false wealth actually means: it means poverty. They call it austerity.

When I was in Spain last year, 500 families were losing their homes every day. And in relation to that I would love to tell you a bit more about the Stop Evictions Group. They organise groups of about 200 people to turn up on the day of the eviction.

They have succeeded on many occasions, forcing the bank to renegotiate so that the families could stay in their homes. This might not have been the most publicised aspect of the Spanish revolution, but I think it is by far the most moving and powerful manifestation of it.

There were workgroups on environmental issues, feminism, migration, the financial system, how to better understand the economy, and politics! How to empower ourselves in order to bring about change. We too have seen this during this here in Sydney too in this amazing past week.

In Spain, the tent cities were the image of the movement and the vehicle for democracy. They allowed citizens to gather for hours and discuss the best solutions and alternatives to a government, which is undermined by the power of financial institutions.

The movement grew rapidly to engage the public, thanks in great part to social media. People’s placards displayed endless creativity and wit and testified to the individual voices and grievances of the movement, helping to create a feverish following on internet.

The crowds in Spain made their demands through multiple kinds of action: protests, marches, pots and pans demos, flashmobs, stopping evictions, online petitions, marches by bicycle, walks for democracy (the last one from Madrid to Brussels was a 1500 kilometre march), as well as the internationally recognised camps for democracy.

Many public figures and famous intellectuals, musicians, journalists, either became involved in the movement or issued public statements in its support.

The movement was immediately accused of being young and not pluralistic, of not being inclusive of the working class or migrants, of being led by a bunch of disaffected youths, of having vague demands, of having not defined its purpose clearly. Sound familiar?

I would say that if we consider the one million Spaniards that took the square last weekend, it is quite clear that these criticisms have no foundation. Seventy percent of the Spanish people support the movement and 90% identify with it.

Last week I heard similar accusations being made about Wall St and about Occupy Sydney. Specific demands? Well, within days the general assembly in Madrid had issued a declaration of principles and a list of eight demands which included the elimination of certain privileges of the political establishment, a true separation of powers, measures against unemployment, promotion of the right to housing, development of quality public service, control of financial entities, fiscal reform and the establishment of mechanisms for citizen’s participation.

And to this end it created specific workgroups to discuss their implementation. A real democracy!

Six months on:

• The movement has stopped evictions, and in the south of Spain it recently managed to stop a deportation of an Algerian migrant.
• It has put the electoral reform debate right on the agenda.
• It has effected change in banks and in congress.
• It has resulted in a return to politics, not to ideology or to main party politics but to political knowledge and debate.
• And it has enabled the people to reconquer urban space, previously dedicated only to consumption … and now used as a platform for community, debate, expression and democracy. This is also what we have seen in this past week of Occupy Sydney in Martin Place.

On June 19, the Spain’s workers’ associations, backed by the indignados, called for another big protest against the pact of the euro. I caught a train at seven in the morning to make it to the protest called by the indignados, which started at 10am from each suburb in Madrid. It did not start in the centre, it started in the periphery, and this is very important.

It was a 37 degree day. Each march from each suburb must have been about 1000 or 2000 people. When we came to a big crossing we merged and started walking towards the centre and whenever we came across another big crossing we’d be joined by even more thousands.

It was such a spirited march. One could see people from all backgrounds and ages. It was reported as the biggest demonstration since the war in Iraq, which was a demonstration of half a million people. When we got to the centre we all went to different assemblies and workgroups that lasted well into the night.

Stephane Hessel warned this much in the book Rise Up! Or Be Indignant!, which gave its name to the movement: it is not just enough to be angry. It is not enough to rise up. It is about comes afterwards, the commitment.

Different as the Spanish and the Australian contexts are, we must stop to think about what unites us in a common fight.

In both countries we have a system dominated by two major parties. These parties have different ideologies but they are frighteningly similar when it comes to their policies: their economic policies are very similar, but the similarities don’t end with economics.

In Australia, this includes their lack of action on climate change, which has led them to fumble over market mechanisms such as the emissions trading scheme and the carbon tax, instead of direct investment in renewables.

It also includes their shameful race to the bottom when it comes to asylum seekers, their agreement to suspend the racial discrimination act in order to carry out the Northern Territory intervention, and their favoring of private education. (I’m a TAFE teacher and I have seen my entire section being privatised within the last two years, student demand drop and teachers losing jobs).

I am still waiting for Gillard’s “education revolution”. And what about their lack of spine to face up to the barons of fossil fuel.

Let’s not forget that what started as a demonstration of anger and frustration at the banks in Spain and Wall Street soon became a movement for social justice.

And it is my hope than once people can establish the links between corporate greed, inequality and injustice, the movement here will also have a broader vision. That Australians too will embrace this as a global movement. We are not just here to pose a challenge to Macquarie Bank and corporate scumbugs in Martin Place.

We are here for a world in which natural resources and the environment, human potential and social justice will become the priorities. We are here to bring back values of solidarity, values of real wealth into politics and into society.

They want globalisation, we will give them a global revolution.