15M: FROM THE SPANISH REVOLUTION (WITH LOVE)

Dear friends who do not live in Spain:

I hope you have read, or watched some videos, on what is happening since last Sunday in my country.
From inside this "Spanish Revolution" I rejoice at the big amount of people that came together to shout their demands, in an extremely pacific way, fed up with how the system (the whole system) works.
Some media here called us, from the very first moment, anti-system. It is through manifestos, through facebook comments, through e-mails and face to face explanations that we try to call ourselves "alter-systems",
and correct some of the ideas they are trying to relate this social movement with: many of our politicians and much of our press say we don't have any new ideas, that these are not practical nor feasible, that we don't believe in politics or in democracy, that this movement will die just after the regional elections this Sunday.

I invite you to get closer to our movement because, although many of our demands do deal with some specifics of Spanish politics,
most of them make sense in any of the countries surrounding us -this is, in a global world, all of them-, and our message is meaningful from Portugal to China, from Germany to Peru (just random examples, really).
As a matter of fact, our assembly received support today from a league of young Egyptians, and what's happening in Spain is understood by us as not so separated from the recent Arab revolts.
We looked amazed at them, and wondered why we weren't to do as them, do we really live in the best of worlds?

We saw ourselves, our demonstrations, first in The Washington Post. It took 2 days to the Spanish press to react and start informing about what was happening in our streets, in many plazas (squares), and most of the information usually included opinions on how weak or empty of content our message was. Lately, they are showing a great interest, unable to hide it anymore, so that not even Strauss-Kahn's affair has provoked so many words (on the posters, on the plazas, you can read "Strauss-Kahn's in prison, we are in the streets!"). But we still need to say in every assembly (in every street meeting, where we, literally thousands of us, share our ideas and vote on them) that we do believe in politics, but not in our politicians, that is not that we don't believe in democracy, but that we want to improve it, making our politicians responsible for their acts, making them having to ask the people on important matters (through referendums), and deciding because of our will, not following any bankers' (and the markets!) plans.

In the same way that our press tried to hide the reality of the situation, the international press is covering the news from a somewhat biased point of view, if they're not openly withholding information (i find that the German press is being particularly low-key about the subject). In the same way Tunsia's revolts jumped to other countries within the region, Spain's revolution can easily jump to the rest of the state-of-the-art, first world "democracies".

So i think both things come together: reading international press, I have found that they all say that only young spaniards are protesting mainly in Madrid because of unemployment, never forgetting to highlight the fact that Spain's unemployment rate is the highest within Europe, as a way to let you all know that this a "Spanish problem".

It is a lie. Or rather, various lies. In all protests, assemblies, and sit-ins, there are a wide array of ages, and everybody is welcome. Demonstrations and campsites are happening all across the country in hundreds of cities and towns. At the demonstrations this past Sunday (and in the plazas), messages regarding unemployment were the least present, messages demanded above all "una Democracia Real Ya", "A Real Democracy Now", and a lot of messages implied how to achieve just that: jobs and better conditions for people, stronger social structures and supports should come from that, from a real and renewed democracy. we demand a change of the system that makes it impossible for a our so-called leaders to make promises they don't keep at the expense of the people; all this while they rob us in front of our faces, giving money to banks, while cutting money destined for our pensions, social welfare, public schools, etc. Unemployment and corruption are 2 strong issues, but only 2 among many (for example, in today's manifesto, several demands were made: immediate closure of all arms factories, nuclear plants and of all Foreign Internment Centers in Spain -holding cells for illegal immigrants who find themselves in a legal limbo)

This is the main website of the movement, http://madrid.tomalaplaza.net/ and here you can find all the information about it, including manifestos ( http://madrid.tomalaplaza.net/category/manifiesto/page/2/ and http://madrid.tomalaplaza.net/category/manifiesto/ ) and the real demands we are making. the assemblies have decided to post this information in a wide variety of languages including English and Esperanto. Some photos and press articles linked below as well.

In Italy they've already started the Democrazia Reale Ora movement, and started taking the streets, and in many European and world cities, Spaniards are demonstrating, GO JOIN THEM!

Please follow the thing on facebook and twiter, circulate this email and the links, and get really informed (also remember that Berlusconi has shares in El País, which is associated with Le Monde, Die Spiegel, The Guardian, and the New York Times).

Photos:
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/05/a-defiant-spanish-revolution/100070/
http://www.facebook.com/italianrevolution
http://www.facebook.com/SpanishRevolution
http://forozona.com/anonymous/4955-15-de-mayo-toma-calle-democracia-real-ya.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lWYhFmUMo0
http://www.publico.es/espana/377486/carteles-consensuados-de-los-indignados-en-sol/slideshow#7



Press Articles:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/tens-of-thousands-march-in-spain-to-protest-against-austerity-measures-banks-politicians/2011/05/15/AF13OH4G_story.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/spainish-demonstrations-continue-around-country-for-fourth-day/2011/05/19/AFbBUC7G_blog.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13466977
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2011/05/2011520235739526434.html
http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2011/05/20/espagne-la-contestation-prend-de-l-ampleur-malgre-l-interdiction-de-manifester_1525269_3214.html



Love, Besos, and Thank You
Emilio Martí and Anthony Nuckols