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Widespread Protests Challenge Spain's Political and Economic Status Quo

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Posted June 8, 2011

Interview with Michael Albert, co-founder of Z Magazine , conducted by Scott Harris

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The economic crisis gripping Europe and government austerity measures have triggered angry demonstrations in major cities across the continent, including Athens, Paris and London. More recently, young activists in Spain poured into the streets, and taking inspiration from the popular revolts in the Middle East and North Africa, have occupied Madrid’s Puerta del Sol Square. There, Spaniards from all walks of life have gathered in unexpectedly large numbers to protest an economic and political system they say has given them no hope for the future. Activists in the Square, who call themselves “Indignados,” or the outraged, have organized themselves into a small city run by democratic councils. Police attempts to forcibly remove the demonstrators only swelled their numbers.

The protest which began on a small scale prior to local and regional elections on May 22, have spread across Spain to Barcelona and 50 other cities and towns, and are now in their fourth week. Many of the activists camped out in Puerta del Sol Square speak out on behalf of immigrants and against world hunger. But the major motivation for participation is the estimated 45 percent unemployment rate plaguing Spaniards under the age of 30. Even those lucky enough to have a job are frustrated by being stuck in temporary, poorly paid jobs that forces many to live with their parents.

Anger at Spain’s two major political parties, the center left Socialists and the right-wing People’s Party has fueled demands for constitutional change to permit a political opening for new electoral movements. Other demands include increased taxes on the rich; a higher minimum wage; and more control over big banks and financial institutions. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Michael Albert, co-founder of Z Magazine and author who examines the current wave of sustained protests in Spain, challenging the nation’s economic and political status quo.

MICHAEL ALBERT: If you think about it, what's a "crisis"? A crisis is a disruption of the economy that affects the rich and the powerful. If tens of millions of people a year die of starvation, that's not a crisis. People are unemployed; that's not a crisis. It's only a crisis when it threatens profit. Then the media calls it a crisis. And then, the powers that be try to solve the crisis and they try to do it in a way that betters their own lives. Well, if the public buys that, then what you have is a situation where the public goes along with instructions from the top that says, basically: "Look, you have to shoulder the burden. You have to get less income. You have to lose your job. You have to lose public services."

And that's what happens. And the net result is that eventually the economy is righted and the great mass of people is weaker than they were before. So what's happening in Spain, and in Greece, say, or it may be even be larger? What's happening in these countries is the public has decided, or at least a significant portion of the public has decided: "Hold on a second. The solution to this problem shouldn't be that the great bulk of us, the working people and young people and poor people are worse of. It should be that we're better off. It should be that we not only get back to a situation in which the economy is functioning, and we not only get back to a situation in which the causes of these problems are no longer operative, but we should get back to a situation in which some justice has been attained. Maybe not as much as some of us would like, but more than we have now. And that, we're better off. And so, people take to the streets and they start to make demands and what they're demanding is that we go forward in a way that isn't geared to profit -- the profitmakers. It's geared instead to benefit those who have been on the bottom all along. And that's really what's happening.

And then what happens -- you see it in Spain, you see it in Greece, you saw it before in Argentina some years ago -- what happens is, the public starts to get aroused. It might be a small event that kicks it off, say in North Africa, a particular event might kick it off; a long-standing bit of organizing might kick it off; in Egypt, that was the case. It could be that some students become aroused and then the response kicks it off. Whatever happens, people begin to get it in their head that: "Wait a second, we can actually impact the situation." And that's the crucial leap that has to happen. People have to move from cynicism and despair and the belief that "nothing is really possible, and therefore I should just try and come through this surviving" to a belief that we can get together and do something productive here and make a situation that is beneficial for everybody instead of just for the rich.

BETWEEN THE LINES: I just want to gauge your optimism. You've been at this quite a while, reimagining new political and economic structures. Your book, "PARECON: Life After Capitalism [participatory economics]" is something you've talked about, written about and done a lot of work on. Do you see similar signs of people looking for alternatives, trying to re-imagine a future where we could actually put together a blueprint where there will be some alternatives that are workable or pragmatic?

MICHAEL ALBERT: Yes, even if I didn't, I'd still be optimistic, because history is long. And if we keep working and we keep functioning. "You lose, you lose, you lose, you win." You only have to win real liberty, the real participation once. So my answer's I'd still be.

But actually, in answer to your question, yes, at the moment I see tremendous potential. I think if Joe Hill, an American organizer, came back tomorrow, he would look around and he would say, "My gosh, this country is like, an organizer's dream. Everybody understands that the basic institutions are corrupt and rotten and serve only narrow interests. Everybody gets that. Nobody even denies it. All of popular culture is full of novels and movies which show it. And he would say, "in that context, with people's anger, and with people's pain, it would be easy to organize people." But he'd be wrong, because that obstacle of hopelessness and cynicism is a hard one to overcome. But over the past few years and at an escalating rate, I think it is beginning to be chipped away, and it is beginning to dissipate, and people are beginning to think positively rather than just bemoan their pain. And I don't think it takes long. Once you sort of turn a corner, and once people's mindsets starts to shift, the speed with which it's possible for a new attitude to overtake large sectors of the population and lead to activity, will be quite striking.

Michael Albert is author of “Parecon: Life After Capitalism.” Find more about Michael Albert's work at www.zcommunications.org/.

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