Cultures of Anyone

The Spanish ‘Indignado’ Movement and its Contexts

Luis Moreno-Caballud

University of Pennsylvania

Spanish crisis• 6 million unemployed

• 3 million officially in poverty

• Around 200 evictions everyday

• Cuts to public health and education

• Political corruption scandals

“Zombie institutions”

“BECAUSE CAPITALISM NEVER DIES” – image uploaded by an anonymous user of El País

Three major cultural mechanisms

1. The imposition of a reality, or of what plays the role of reality, by the everyday stories of the mainstream media

2. The management of reality by experts who are supposedly the only ones qualified to deal with it

3. The consumption of reality as a set of possible objects of satisfaction for individuals

1.- The imposition of reality by mass media

Atocha station bombings and press coverage – Madrid, 2004

Self-convoked citizens in demonstrations in Madridand Barcelona, March 2004

Minister González-Sinde

Wkileaks cable #27536 - February 23, 2005

“The dinner of fear”, articleby Amador Fernández-SavaterIn 2011 (revisited in 2012)

Responses and reactionsto “The dinner of fear”, In 2011

“Do not vote them” InternetCampaign, 2011

“Real Democracy Now!” demonstrationIn Madrid, May 15th 2011

2.- The management of reality by experts

Authors and artists of the board of directors of SGAE, association for the defense and management of intellectual property

The so-called “Troika” of expert institutionsmanaging the economic and politic situation of indebted European countries

Representations of the decentralized architecture of the Internet an its precursor, Arpanet

Kitchen, day care, map, and media center of occupied squares in Spain, 2011

Post-M15 production and sharingof economic knowledge and politicalaction against corrupt “experts”

Conceptual map of Acampadasol(Madrid’s occupied square)

Thinking working group of Acampadasol,Madrid 2011

The meta-narrative of Spanish modernity

The assumption that progress and political transformation in Spain can only happen when enlightened minorities guide the uncultivated masses, helping them escape the influence of the traditional right-wing forces

3.- The consumption of reality by individuals

A map of Spanish alternative“social currencies”

“White Tide” in defense of public health “Green Tide” in defense of public education

Demonstration and building occupied by the Plataforma de Afectadospor laHipoteca (PAH)

Web page of the Plataformade Afectadospor la Hipoteca.Showing the evictions stoppedduring October 2013

Two final open questions

• 1- Can these processes transform themselves into stable institutions?

• 2- Are the existing institutions going to allow it?