"The activists in Barcelona Rock"
When you first visit Barcelona you could be forgiven for imagining the revolution to be just around the corner. Every building on every side street seems to be daubed with Anarchist or communist graffiti. The Spanish State may not at present be experiencing the intensive class struggle it has become used to but compared to the rest of the western world, it’s not doing too badly. For example, in February 2000 there was open warfare on the streets of Gijon between shipyard workers and riot cops. The anarcho-syndicalist union the CNT still has 50 000 to 100 000 members across the Spanish State. In March 2000 there was a large and festive radical feminist demonstration where they hung banners with slogans such as "good girls go to heaven, we just squat it instead". There’s a mass of alternative media including over 30 free radio stations most of which broadcast 24:7. The squatting movement is huge, in the coutryside there are many villages that are entirely squatted. In Barcelona alone there are almost 30 squatted social centres and hundreds of squatted buildings. In April 2000 a demonstration against property speculation brought 4000 onto the streets of Barcelona.
Last October the leftwing government tried to celebrate the traditional military parade in Barcelona instead of Madrid. It was suposed to be a very big parade with thousands of soldiers, planes and tanks all along the Diagonal avenue which crosses the city. Such a big campaign was organised that in the end they had to do it in Montjuïc (far from the center) with just 300 soldiers. The parade itself was shorter than the personalities box!
They also did a solidarity action with S26; over 5000 people turned up, their solidarity action was numerically half as strong as the Prague action itself.
It has to start sometime, it has to start somewhere. What better time than now? What better place than here?