Por una política de la escucha: entrevista a Jordi Carmona sobre Hannah Arendt y el 15M

socialmente útil y multi-aplicable:

eldiario.es/interferencias/15M-Hannah_Arendt-escucha_6_772782718.html

[. . . ] "la escucha tiene que ver con cierta decisión casi inicial del 15M de no buscar representantes y apostar por la igualdad. Desde esa decisión se presupone que todo el mundo tiene algo que aportar o que decir. Y no son malas condiciones para escucharse. Si hay alguien que encarna la autoridad, pues se escucha a esa figura y punto, si es que se escucha a alguien. Pero si estás en un movimiento más plural, en el que la autoridad no es claro dónde está, entonces la palabra de cualquiera cobra valor. Lo que importa no es que el otro diga la verdad, lo más justo o que esté en la vía revolucionaria verdadera. Lo que importa es escuchar porque eso favorece la emancipación política del otro. Favorece una palabra inesperada del otro, una palabra que puede hacer que recoloques tus esquemas sobre lo que son las cosas. 

Amador: Recuerdo que a veces alguien que hablaba en asamblea se ponía nervioso y los que estaban escuchando agitaban las manos para alentar con ese gesto a que esa persona continuara. Y es que esa persona que titubeaba estaba intentando encontrar sus propias palabras. Pero recuerdo también cómo los brazos se levantaban en aspas como muestra de rechazo cuando se notaba mucho que alguien se traía un discurso ya cocinado de casa, sin escucha de lo que pasaba en la plaza.

Jordi: En las asambleas había una preocupación enorme porque cualquiera hablase, especialmente las personas que podían tener menos carisma o facilidad de palabra. Es la idea de “inclusividad” tan importante en el 15M. Cuando escucho al otro, estoy incluyéndolo. Y más aún cuando es una persona que tal vez nunca participó en ese tipo de procesos, que no tiene mucha seguridad para hablar en público, etc. Esta especie de interés a priori sobre lo que va a decir el otro es una de las grandes fuerzas de los movimientos como los que tuvieron lugar en las plazas de todo el mundo." [. . . ]

inspiring couple hours with Ada Colau

an exciting day yesterday at Barcelona en Comú's one year anniversary event at Estació Nord's park --   

(instant notes)   "Mes transparent, mes colaboratiu, mes humild... Recuperar les institucions per a la gent... Traballar per a una ciutat refugi... La influencia europea de Barcelona... Tenim molt camini... Hem sentit que tenim força social...Fer mes pera que la ciutadá sea protagonisme...tothom nosaltres tenim molta responsabilitat..." Afterwards, Q+A sessions. Questions/complaints related to: prostitution, airbnb pisos turísticos, fines for having posted something in public, cafe chairs taking over sidewalks...). Afterwards, 2-3 hours of big paella in the parque for which Colau sat with others and her 5 y/o old son. Not so many people present, maybe ~200, no security (!!!!, imagine if this were in the US), very low-key, some media was there, including independent film directors Cecilia Barriga (making documentary about female politicians) and Pau Faus (just released documentary on Ada Colau). 

overall, Colau was extremely accessible, humble, energetic, "horizontal", and empathetic in words and actions. (A small-scale political model for the US.) I commend Colau for, among many other things, showing her vulnerable feelings (she was genuinely nervous, happy, friendly). Though usually excluded, these too are part of our politics. (I wanted to tell her about her influence in the US, but I imagined she was exhausted with such a long event and so many people coming up to hug/kiss/speak to her. So I just made eye contact and said, "¡gracias, Ada!" And she responded, "¡nos vemos!"  ; )

nature and our current economic/education/culture crisis

yesterday I found two original talks on the relationship between nature and our current economic/education/culture crisis.
1) last night was "nit de museus", "night of museums", where approximately all 60 of barcelona's museums were free and open till 1 in the morning (!!). loooong lines all over the city. i feel awkward in museums, but my housemate wanted to see the catalan modernism museum, so i went along with him. inside the museum the motif of nature/organicity was prominent in the paintings, posters, sculptures, and furniture pieces created BY and FOR the affluent 19th century burguesía catalana. (below, a photo of a snail handle on a closet that i identified with.)
2) more accessible and less visual, our colleague iñaki prádanos has been sharing ideas on today´s society/culture/economy in relation to ecology. i read his recent research piece “Degrowth and Ecological Economics” and contains some useful ideas and practical PROPOSALS (that students, politicians, voters, educators, big business people could use) to improve the quality and health of our communities at a time when our current economic/political system can no longer IGNORE the ecological/economic catastrophes that it is rapidly creating (as if the planet’s resources were infinite). our leaders' depletion of our natural resources is closely related to you and me, if not at the core of the problems we study (unemployment, poverty, immigration, mental well-being, education, history, sexism, crime, healthy food, discrimination...etc.).
“The economic system is nothing but a subsystem embedded in, and dependent on, the system of the biosphere. […] An economic system based on constant economic growth, global massive urban development, and an ever faster production and consumption of commodities is undesirable, destructive, unendurable, and unrealistic.” (p.147)

articles post-elections in Spain

A positive side to globalization.
How often does a political party announce a victory speech in two languages, one being for a universal public?
-- Communication that is knowledgeable of our global ties and unifies us in the struggle against social exclusion.
Video clip:

Spanish election: Podemos says results mean new political futu...
"Democracy has to reach the economy, so that human rights, as well as dignity, are not violated... history is ours, and it's the people who make it."Pablo Iglesias, the leader of Spain's left wing Podemos party reacts to achieving a fifth of the vote in the country's elections - and denying the ruling party a majority.
Posted by Channel 4 News on Monday, December 21, 2015

If you're interested in what happened in the Spanish elections yesterday, here is a good summary in English: http://inthesetimes.com/…/spain-2015-election-results-podem…
and the fine details of what happens next without a clear majority: http://elpais.com/…/…/12/21/inenglish/1450684257_190223.html

Similarly, browsing around for an article to use in class about (my hero) Ada Colau, I found her website--humble, activistic, and (again, unprecedented in Spanish politicas) in three languages: adacolau.cat/en/bio-completa . 

La investidura de Ada Colau - vídeo

Pro-inclusion humans were given political power today.
La investidura/swearing in of Ada Colau Ballano, as Barcelona of mayor, in la Plaça de Sant Jaume, alongside a swarm of human beings, many of them volunteers who have been working selflessly to try to improve social and political problems for the most vulnerable human situations in Barcelona.
To Colau's request, unlike previous investidura ceremonies in Barcelona, there were no barriers, red carpets, or expensive suits separating the people from their politicians.
I couldn't stay long (it lasted 3 hours and my back was killing me), but the keywords in Colau's speech were "CIUDAD"/city and "DEMOCRACIA PARTICIPATIVA"/citizen-based democracy.
Many other grassroots-based mayors and city councilors were sworn in across Spain today, an unprecedented number of women and minorities (race/nationality/religion/sexual orientation).
Hoping to see positive, more-inclusive changes soon.

investidura13junio2015 from MeSalt on Vimeo.

6 Lessons for the U.S. from Spain’s Democratic Revolution

Really useful article for those teaching about Spain, political science, or social movements:

http://inthesetimes.com/article/18001/6-lessons-for-the-u.s.-from-spains-democratic-revolution

short intro to the innovative politics currently stirring in Spain "Fighting the New Fascism"

For those teaching or interested in contemporary culture of Spain, here is a useful, short intro in English to the innovative political practices that are emerging. I like that it includes the historical and international connections with Latin America and Europe. These could be carried over to the US as well.

A couple passages dense with ideas:

"What do you do when representative democracy has ceased to be representative, but when its institutions are still there, controlling the banks, the political parties, the media, international relations, the world of money, the universities? What we learned from Latin America is that there is only one way to break through the gridlock of dysfunctional institutions: appealing directly to the people. We needed tools that would allow Spaniards to organize their discontent and turn it into political energy."

"The neoliberal model has been so successful because it has convinced us that there is no alternative. And it has been able to do so because we have delegated politics to the politicians."

"The neoliberal model has worked very hard to wipe out history and turn it into a kind of decaffeinated theme park. It has prevented us from connecting with the historical anger and frustration that anticipated our current anger and frustration."

 https://www.academia.edu/8197845/_Fighting_the_New_Fascism_Juan_Carlos_Monedero_on_PODEMOS_Spains_New_Political_Force._

"they’re never too old for a revolution"

Seniors in Spain ("yayoflautas") take action against budget cuts.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/nov/8/in-spain-theyre-never-too-old-for-a-revolution-sen/

Carta por la democracia

con ilustraciones de Miguel Brieva: http://blogs.traficantes.net/wp-content/blogs.dir/9/files/2014/03/Carta_por_la_Democracia_1pag.pdf

Cultures of Anyone (and everyone)

Luis Moreno Caballud's insightful recap on Spain's current economic crisis and political resistance (15M, virtual communities...).  In English.

http://culturasdecualquiera.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/cultures-of-anyone-the-spanish-indignado-movement-and-its-contexts/

universal separation

Re-reading old notes on Henri Lefebvre I came across a passage that seemed so multi-applicable, not just to space, but all objects of analysis across time. Here are a couple lines of it:

"A comparable approach is called for today, an approach which would analyse not things in space, but space itself, with a view to uncovering the social relationship embedded in it. The dominant tendency fragments space and cuts it up into pieces. It enumerates the things, the various objects, that space contains. [. . . ]" (page 90, The Production of Space, 1974)

Someone could say this is naive or obvious because the ideas on social division have been re-worked and re-published over the last 4 decades, but we only have to look around, look at our institutions, the organization of our neighborhoods, our personal work environments, and local ways of political representation to see that the divided conditions Lefebvre assume are overwhelmingly present today, and so his proposal to disclose them is still urgent and worthwhile.

This continuity also evokes the unoriginal and generalized question as to why we have not come very far (this could be measured at least in terms of humans killed per yer) after decades of progressive discourse. I think a main cause lies in the fact that our centers of knowledge and education are still too spatially, geographically and socially isolated, "cut up into pieces." An epitome could be the typical American college campus, separated from the rest of society and the diversity of the nearest city by approximately 30 miles of flat cement and thousands of dollars in tuition fees. In spite of the internet and freer access to information, the reworking and republishing of ideas on social division have ocurred predominantly within these isolated campuses.

The opposite of separation/division would be the lack of any at all, which would be like spatial relativity and chaos. But he's not calling for chaos. I can't prove it right now, but I imagine he's calling for a more public recognition and more democratic dealing with division.

I'll end this post on a related tangent. Lefebvre's passage links me to another spatial and multi-applicable passage I came across the other day in Fernando Arrabal's Carta al General Franco, which was written three years before The Production of Space and reflects on the violence and hatred of the Franco regime:

"España no era sino un cárcel compuesta de pequeñas cárceles que se precipitaban hacia el infierno." (42) ["Spain was a prison composed of little prisons, which precipitated towards hell."]

(I'd be grateful if you could leave feedback because I am currently isolated!)

SB1070

For all the humans, kids included, who are being hurt by Arizona´s new law SB1070.

Here for more info.
Here for a petition against the measures.
Here for the arrest of Dora the Explorer.

legal discrimination in the US against binational couples

Dear US residence friends,

Perhaps you can sign the petition, and maybe one day many humans won´t have to choose between their partner or home country: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5036/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=42

More info: http://immigrationequalityactionfund.org/

Thanks.