(Personal report from 1 of the Barcelona en Transició group, first posted here)
Wow, 2011, what a year!
But already it feels like 2012 is going to be MASSIVE!!!
Who would have thought how quick and how far things would move, it seems we already live in a totally different world from the one that was, this time 12 months ago, before everything started to get turned on its head. As a fella said:
«Did you ever wish you lived in one of those major moments in World history, well guess what, you are in one of those moments»
From the tragic and hopeless act of suicide in Tunisia, when Mohamed Bouazizi set himself alight, a spark flew. From Tunisia to Tahrir Square and all of North Africa we saw the dawn of the Arab Spring, from there across the 8 miles that splits Africa from Spain and we saw the 15M movement or the #SpanishRevolution kick off. There was huge hope that the DEMOCRACIA REAL YA movement would spark all over Europe, it didnt. But then things took the most unexpected jump, right into the the belly of the beast into the heart of the corrupt destructive unfair system that is destroying our world; all the bankers and cronies in Wall Street. From there the #OCCUPY movement was born, and with things more so in the English languge, an idea has spread like wildfire all around the squares and communities of many different peoples all over this precious little planet. The Network Age is truly kicking off. We are a connected global community, same dreams, same pains. For so long there was little or no hope. Some, the ecologists and activists that were earlier labeled the «anti-globalisation» movement, had told us all that the entire system was about to fail, due to infinite growth on a finite planet being impossible and that leading to PEAK EVERYTHING… No one listened. But then from 2008 and the start of the «economic crisis« (pity in english we only see the negative side of that important word; crisis) things began to change. Oil prices going up (again the transitionistas had been telling us all about this) which sparked food prices going up and unemployment spreading everywhere, here in Spain the unemployment rate is up to 23%. Difficult times, strange times, but great times to witness. Where can it all go, what do people want, how are trying to bring about that change?
In the following, you get a few ideas from the city of Barcelona, and beyond…
And to where? Bold adventures from Spain:
On the last night of the conference, they shared videos and offered their personal opinions and that led to a fine discussion with many of the people most involved in the world of transition. The discussion was recorded, here is a very critical audio piece, from that memorable and important night.
Transition and the #SpanishRevolution – Transition Conference 2011, Liverpool
Responses to the crisis:
– Homage to Plaza Catalunya: REAL DEMOCRACY NOW IRELAND event – Let’s plant some seeds :// GARDENING FOR CHANGE – #SpanishRevolution – Instaling Democracy 2.0 – Tahrir comes to SpainVisions and experiments for and from the city:
– A Transition Vision For Barcelona City – Greening Barcelona – Bold, Beautiful, Blooming Barcelona asks: What would it mean to win?A few related articles:
– Vids to remember 75 years ago: Spanish civil war + Revolution – looking for activist Barcelona – 2 Barcelona transicionistas participating in Transition Network conference @ Liverpool 2011 – Full round up of materials from the 2011 Transition Network conference – Reclaiming Power – Its all about what went on in Copenhagen during COP15How times are changing in the Network Age
How things have panned out after we were playing with ideas on what LIVESTREAMING might enable… now OCCUPY has channells all over the planet.
Heres our vid experiment from 2005: Streaming from the Gaff!
And memories from a long time ago: FUSPEY kicks off in dublin (October 17, 2003)
Network Age ideas from 2003:
so we are remembering again that life is strange.
along with this we have developed amazing communication systems that allow people to be anywhere in the world while being able to communicate with someone else anywhere in the world; phones, internet, webcast, chatrooms…..
so we have the stuff, but where are we talking and what are we talking about?
lovers of life and ideas traveled from everywhere to come to the ancient greek agora in athens, to be part of the dynamic and progressive open system that was the COMMUNICATION SPACE of yesteryear
we are aware that we are going through the next major shift in world history, we are part of the NETWORK AGE. the new agora is an attempt to further explore these ideas.
WOW… this is a truly truly important moment we are going through… It really feels like WE ARE WINNING, communication is playing a massive role in this, the spreading of ideas, face to face, in the streets, in the occupied squares, in workshops, on the net, on radio, on live streams, on tweets, on FB pages, emails… Only a few minutes ago I opened a mail from an eco activist list, with a post to a link, which had summary of COOL SHIT, number 2 on that list after the adbusters call to #OCCUPYWALLSTREET was link to GLOBALREVOLUTION.TV, which im watching the live stream from presently. Now an ANONYMOUS masked up activist is talking about the Global Day of revolution which will be happening in 13 days… next saturday; OCTOBER 15, maybe this will be the day they talk about in years to come, that simple, beautiful, peaceful day when it all changed.
For me, being 1 of the many many indignados of my town, Barcelona, in the occupied square Placa Catalunya, with many thousands more, sitting there and watching the screen, watching live as we all waved and roared hello or hola to our sisters and brothers in the occupied Syntagma square outside the Parliament in Athens, Greece, and them roaring and waving back… That will be a memory i will always cherish, its simple, we could have been doing it for years, but we havent, BUT, now we are using it… from P2P to S2S, from Peer to Peer (Initial streaming experiments, person to person, or device to device) to Square to Square… These are our WMD’s… We all know the lies sprung to rape and rob Iraq, but come and get us now «We have WMD’s… Weapons of Mass D.I.F.F.U.S.I.O.N….
WE ARE WINNING…
GLOBALREVOLUTION.TV
Global Revolution brings you live stream video coverage from independent journalists on the ground at nonviolent protests around the world. The team includes members of Mobile Broadcast News, Glassbead Collective, Twin Cities Indymedia and the alt.media ninjas that brought you Terrorizing Dissent and Democracy 101 documentaries. Currently broadcasting from #OccupyWallStreet protests in NYC that began on Saturday, Sept 17, 2011.
P2P to S2S, from Peer to Peer to Square to Square: Barcelona connects with Athens
Suchran Mohamed, RIP.
«Mohamed suffered a lot. He worked hard. But when he set fire to himself, it wasn’t about his scales being confiscated. It was about his dignity.» Mannoubia Bouazizi
https://twitter.com/#!/wagingnv/status/156703291810648064
http://paper.li/wagenonviolence/1290372223 > this article on: Waging Nonviolence and Friends
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Manuel Castells; Papa of the «Network Age»
A must read article about the idea of «Network Age» and the 15M movement is from Manuel Castells:
The disgust becomes a network.
http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/97/manuel-castells.html
Manuel Castells’ three volume, The Information Age, attempts an encompassing theory of the network society and the “informational guerrilla movements” who resist it. The above essay was translated by Hugh Green and originally appeared in La Vanguardia.
Manuel Castells @ l’#acampadaBCN
vids: http://www.vilaweb.cat/noticia/3891748/20110527/manuel-castells-porucs-mon-uniu-vos-xarxa.html
Transtioning from OIL DEPENDANCE to local RESILIENCE, through peaceful REVOLUTIONARY
(Earlier post, Oct 05, 2011, about transition, in regard to the growing occupy movement.
Feature Post: The American Revolution is underway, #occupywallstreet takes it to the belly of the beast)
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/100645#comment284367
Thanks for that T, I had not heard about Mike Ruppert before but am in agreement of much of what he has stated. I am well aware of the PEAK OIL situation, I helped set up the Transition group in Barcelona (transitioning form oil dependance to local resilience) and here in Barcelona, where I live and have been participating with the #SPANISHREVOLUTION im glad to say that much of the transition / permaculture / degrowth / peak oil ideas have entered the discourse and affirmative action is happening at many different levels. Im sure your aware of Transition groups, it did originally come from Kinsale permaculture course, are you aware of the movement, are you involved, if so where, how is it going, what is your take on the movement.
Last July, 2 of us traveled from Barcelona to the Transition Network conference in Liverpool, while there we communicated to the people about what had gone on, in transition terms, during the still ongoing 15M «Spanish Revolution», there was a huge and very supportive response from people there, people from all over the world; japan, brazil, US, europe, Australia… So hopefully the idees are spreading further. It seems, from afar, that the US transition movement is really taking off, im not sure how many «transitioners» are part of the OCCUPY communities and groups, i hope and expect quite a few, I posted on their facebook page about the goings on but have not heard any responses, yet.
See end of this post for the vids and from that time, but more so, listen to the audio after we showed short vids in an impromptu session one night, gathered there were rob hopkins, ben brongwin, peter lipman (who displayed an excellent knowledge of the revolutionary and pre civil war republican times in barcelona, which included huge participation, local currencies, local food distribution, real democracy) pete north (liverpool based geographer, author of LOCAL MONEY) and many others, it was a very passionate discussion and hopefully it served as an important step in the transition story.
My own view, is that we are at a very special moment. Transition was in its own kind of ghetto, in england its been seen as very white, middle class, nice, non confrontational, almost an extended cookery and sewing class. This view, I think is firstly unfair as it is more mixed than that, but i feel it needed to enter that type of world at first for general acceptance and now it, the movement, is growing and going off into exceptional territory… On the other side, the «activist world» has also been in its own ghetto, now something has erupted and that has alllowed for the breaking of ghetto walls and true mixing… I think the 15M discourse is stronger and deeper becuase its had transition / degrowth and ecological critique entered into the discourse more, ie, really pointing out what are the core problems (infinite growth impossible on limited planet, peak oil will give us a right kick in the bolix very soon…) but also that the transition movement is all the better for people, whether or not with transition hats on, have been participating in the revolution on the streets of barcelona; sleeping in the square, involved with commissions, setting up a community garden in placa catalunya (to further highlight oil – food – crash and collapse story) thereby pushing the limits of what exactly transition is. Our own transition group, as well as many other groups here in Catlunya does focus on economic situation, we have alt currency and no money networks (xarxa – the network) there are much intercambios (free no money exchanges) and a growing culture of sharing or alternatives to money (watch the great doc about all that at Homage to Catalonia II ). Local currencies is a big part of the transition movement, have you seen the «Brixton Pound». And in case you doubt the diversity of the transition movement, we now have the first favala (shanty town) of Sao Paolo, Brazil in Transition, as well as a whole host more initiaves all around that wonderful country.
I think there is a further need to deepen the critique, as Mike Ruppert outlines, has he been down himself? A lot of these occupied spaces are many many things, I know as I spent much time in Pl Cat, they can be chaotic, amazing, draining… But its an initial first step, an opening, a crack, that permits people to come together and the discourse to deepen, BUT, thats not all, the important thing is to take those ideas, turn them into achievable goals, and do the work to realize the collective dreams… its ongoing, its always in motion, its definately achievable and it can and should feel like the most amazing adventure to be participating on…
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Lastly, what ill say is that, while I agree with Mike Ruppert to a point, perhaps he’s one who is in what we call «mad max syndrome», see the accmompanying graph which is from the transition world. What the transition community see is that we can creatively and intelligently design our way out of the mess. We now live with huge dependance on oil, whereas in the past it wasnt so, so we can start to lower that dependance and build up our resilience at local community level. In my own district, last thursday we had our first open space for a community participative energy lowering group, the Sant Marti PEP ( http://tinyurl.com/5sbfvb2 ) This is a way of getting to an end point somewhat similar to the MAD MAX view, but just by a different softer route, again see graph, that of EARTH STEWARDSHIP through «creative descent». Kinsale was the first place to really explore this idea, there in 2004 they created the first EDAP (energy descent action plan).
Id also like to point out that a massive event happened in December 2009 and the COP15, when, it seems that the «world leaders» finally said we have a global ecological problem. The whole talks were a failure, but there were many thousands of people on the streets, in centres, over the net, working together to come up with a peoples document of a route we have to take to live in a sustainable, responsible and socially just way… that reasulted in the KLIMAFORUM DECLARTION, see below for links and demands.
So getting back to the US and the #OCCUPYWALLSTREET protests, which seems to be growing and growing, my take is the following: I believe we passed the PEAK OIL moment in late 2008 and that sparked the so-called «financial crisis», here in barcelona on the streets it is seen as a massive con, a hoax… Anyway, point is, that with that something has given, people are loosing their jobs (here in spain 20% unemployment, and nearly 50% for the youth… ) and not being able to pay their mortgage, they start asking questions «why me, why this» and from that common ground has been reached by many many different groups and they have taken the fight to the heart of the problem… it will be a slow and long journey, with some big and quick moments, but we are on the road… from north africa (raising food prices due to energy costs sparked the tunisian man to burn himself…) to spain (energy fights on the border have already led to truckers stabbing each other to death..) to europe (Greece again right now is in clouds of tear gas as the people resist) and now to the US… I believe we will indeed change things around, radically, that belief that its possible is from where i get my drive (as opposed to «fighting the good fight», a point micheal albert talks about very well), first point is connecting, asking questions, getting to know people and community, next part is the action, and thats well underway, i think its but a matter of time till we get there.
With that I salute all those sleeping out in NYC, Boston, Chicago…. and all those ready to take to the streets in Washington tommorow… This is not a «us» and «them» situation… it is a global situation, global problems (caused by todays crazy position global capitalism has been allowed to reach) being met by global solutions, yes its a revolution, but its a peaceful and inclussive revolution… I really believe that in say 60 years people will indeed look back at the year 2011 and say «Wow, what a time to have been alive».
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