Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2011. This opinion piece was written the day after the 15 May 2011 protests in Spain, before the 15M movement grew into weeks of camps and assemblies. Its assessment that it will be an archive image reflects that first day.
We could call it a success, given the astonishing turnout in 50 Spanish provinces. To be completely honest, I didn’t expect such crowds, since the organizers had picked San Isidro (Madrid’s patron saint’s day) and the start of the First Communion season.
I can vouch for the media’s censorship, or their attempt to present it as a failed protest. From what I’ve been told, the protests were peaceful, yet the media gave more weight to an isolated incident that ended in a serious clash with the police (there are clowns everywhere, and they take advantage of situations like this to cause trouble).
That said, whether my words sting or not, there are certain points we should be asking ourselves in the wake of 15M.
Update:
The system has indeed treated citizens as merchandise; it has acted as a shepherd, herding us like a flock of sheep wherever it pleased. With this protest, we have confirmed that a large majority of us are still sheep who won’t lift a finger unless the shepherds tell us to.
The protest has come two years too late. As I said in another article, you protest when there is still something to save; if you do it once something is already broken, it’s simply a complaint about water under the bridge.
We all praise the freedom of expression the internet gives us and how we can mobilize the masses through social media, but… the truth is that it doesn’t really work that way. If this protest hadn’t been boosted by certain prominent figures in the media, those people with 200,000 or 100,000 followers, it would have been a complete failure.
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People tried to organize this same protest in January 2009 and nobody lifted a finger, because the voices calling for it belonged to ordinary people with little standing in the online world.
That’s why, when I saw a banner with the message “We are not merchandise,” I sadly and honestly thought: we are merchandise, and puppets at the same time, because if one group isn’t moving us, we have to wait for others to pull our strings.
Two years ago we could have made a lot of noise and changed something. Now the image of the protest will look beautiful, but it will be an archive image. Even so, my sincere congratulations to the protesters.
Featured image: OsvaldoGago, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
