Anti-austerity movement in Spain
The anti-austerity movement in Spain, also referred to as the 15-M Movement (Spanish: Movimiento 15-M),[2] and the Indignados Movement,[3] was a series of protests, demonstrations, and occupations against austerity policies in Spain that began around the local and regional elections of 2011 and 2012.[4][3] Beginning on 15 May 2011, many of the subsequent demonstrations spread through various social networks such as Real Democracy NOW (Spanish: Democracia Real YA) and Youth Without a Future (Spanish: Juventud Sin Futuro).[5]
Spanish media related the movement to the 2008–14 Spanish financial crisis, the Arab Spring, as well as demonstrations in North Africa,[6] Iran,[7] Greece,[8] Portugal,[9] and Iceland.[10] The movement was also compared to Stéphane Hessel's political manifesto Time for Outrage!,[11] which was seen to empower Spanish youth who were not in education, employment, or training (NEET). Protestors rallied against high unemployment rates, welfare cuts, politicians, and the two-party system in Spain, as well as the political system, capitalism, banks, and public corruption.[12] Many called for basic rights, of home, work, culture, health, and education.[13] The movement transferred to Europe the model of the protest camp which had been formed in the Arab Spring, adapting it to a more countercultural framework.[14] This would later expand until influencing the creation of Occupy Wall Street.[15]
According to RTVE, the Spanish public broadcasting company, between 6.5 and 8 million Spaniards participated in these events.[16]
2012 events[edit]
May[edit]
In May, the protesters celebrated the first anniversary of the "Indignants" protest movement with thousands of people gathering in several Spanish cities at the same time. As part of a global day of action, similar protests occurred simultaneously in other cities including London, Lisbon, Frankfurt and Tel Aviv.[132][133] In Spain, at least 100,000 were estimated to have marched against the austerity measures.[134]
2014 events[edit]
On 31 January 2015, the protestors joined, in central Madrid, the Podemos political party, then an insurgent force within the movement.[142][4] Podemos' anti-corruption platform and its singularity in "threatening to bring an end to the [two-party] political system that has governed Spain since the death of general Francisco Franco in 1975" brought Podemos to the top of opinion polls in 2014 in anticipation of "a year packed with municipal, regional, and general elections".[142] The new party won 1.2 million votes and five seats in May's European elections.
In Spain, nearly 25% of people were unemployed and evictions had reached a rate of as high as 500 per day among a wide variety of other economic issues, leading to a number of generally peaceful protests seeking change in the way the government handles them.[143] In addition to forming the foundation of Podemos,[144] these protests have elicited multiple attempts by the government to silence them culminating in what many see as "something out of the generalissimo's handbook".[145] The measures the law takes to silence the voices of the Spanish people are devastating, including steep fines or jail time for disrespecting police officers (€600),[146] taking and sharing images of state security forces that might endanger them or their operations" (€30,000),[146] protesting in front of government buildings, protesting at a time or location not approved by the police (€600,000),[147] or even using a hashtag in a tweet publicizing an event that breaks the rules in any way.[148] Internet activity alone can result in up to five years behind bars.[149] The law also extends to even more restrictive and vague measures, such as "playing games or sports in public spaces that are not designed for such activity" (€1,000),[150] "projecting 'luminous devices' (e.g. lasers) in the vicinity of public transport in a way that 'might cause accidents'” (€600,000),[151] insulting the state or "participating in the disruption of citizens' security while using hoods, helmets, or any other article of clothing or object that covers the face, rendering identification difficult or impossible" (€30,000),[151] and "failure to cooperate with law enforcement during crime investigations or in the prevention of acts that might put citizens' security at risk" (€30,000).[151] Acts of terrorism under the act include clauses as loosely defined as "the commission of any serious crime against...liberty".[151]
According to Spain's interior minister, Jorge Fernández Diaz, "It's a law for the 21st Century. It provides better guarantees for people's security and more judicial security for people's rights".[152] What is allegedly an act against terrorism "to guarantee a freer and more peaceful coexistence for all Spaniards...eradicating violence",[150] ironically quite seriously threatens this ideal by making police and federal security personnel (who are often responsible for committing this type of violence) significantly less accountable, while expanding the role of private security forces "lacking both proper training and the proper level of public accountability" (assuming that normal police forces do indeed possess these qualities).[151] Another problem with this policy is that it is fundamentally anti-immigrant in nature, crippling the group targeted most severely by austerity measures even more by forcing everyone to present identity documents at internet cafés, prohibitively complicating undocumented migrants' communications outside the country.[151] The law also contains a provision validating and formalizing the process of expulsion for Moroccans who jump the border fence into Spain's African outposts of Ceuta and Melilla, which according to the International Federation for Human Rights "restrict[s] the right to seek asylum and violate[s] the principle of non-refoulement and the prohibition of collective expulsions" as well as "[exposing] migrants to a serious risk of torture and ill-treatment by denying them the possibility of filing a claim against law enforcement personnel in case of abuse".[145]
The anti-austerity movement in Spain was fundamentally rooted in resistance to Spain's unopposed right-wing government led by the People's Party. The Citizens Security Law (dubbed the "gag law") that had recently been passed, viewed by protestors as a restriction of civil liberties comparable to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, was designed to quell this opposition. In response, the Spanish people subverted these measures by protesting via holograms instead, avoiding arrest and setting an incredibly unique precedent across the world.
2015 events[edit]
March[edit]
The day before a closely watched Andalusian parliamentary election, 2015, thousands of people took part in a "march for dignity" in Madrid on Saturday 21 March 2015 to protest against austerity measures.[153]
April[edit]
These gatherings have been fundamental in shaping the narrative of Spanish politics both in the media and in policy over the last few years.[154] In response to this restriction, Spanish citizens launched a protest that questioned not only the People's Party but how the internet and digital media have changed the way the world changes. On 11 April 2015, Instead of marching in front of government buildings in person, they created recordings of themselves marching and projected them as holograms instead.[155] The project was largely crowdsourced, reaching out to individuals across the internet to add their face and voice to the mass, collapsing digital space to physical space in defiance. This type of subversion creates new modes of action that promise some higher degree of equality by enabling the creation of an entirely new type of space where individuals can freely enact the rights they are fighting for.