Thousands of rebels from all over the world meet in Spain
REGULARS READERS of Workers
Soldarity will have read of the gathering in Chiapas, Mexico last
year hosted by the EZLN (Zapatistas) attended by 3,000 rebels from
all over the planet. A second gathering 'for Humanity and Against
Neoliberalism was held this August in the Spanish state. Here we
interview Irish Mexico Group activist and WSM member Andrew Flood,
who helped organise and attended this gathering.
First off can you explain the rather long winded title of these
meetings, what is neoliberalism?
Neoliberalism is essentially the latest form capitalism has taken,
what many people would call Thatcherism. It's not just . British
phenomenon though, and elsewhere' particularly in Latin America its
called neoliberalism. The liberalism referred to is economic
liberalism, the idea that there should be no restrictions on the
'right' of business to make a profit. To use an old example this is
similar to the laissez-faire policy of the British government at the
time of the Irish famine (1846-49) that saw the 'rights of landlords
to get their rent by exporting food as more important than keeping
people alive. This economic system obviously has no room for humanity
hence the gatherings identifying themselves as being opposite this by
being 'for Humanity'
So these gatherings consist of everyone who opposes
neoliberalism, isn't this too broad a set of people to have a
workable meeting!
It's a little bit more complex then this - because the Gatherings
were initiated by the Zapatistas the people they attracted were
overwhelmingly those who have rejected the methods of the
authoritarian left. That is, they have rejected the concept of the
'vanguard party' end the idea that a free society can be introduced
by that party seizing power. This is not to say that it is anarchist
dominated, anarchists are a small but visible minority at these
gatherings alongside Marxists who are attempting to come up with an
anti-authoritarian Marxism, trade union & community activists,
and even some radical religious people.
What these people have in common is a recognition of the need for
international co-operation between struggles. This has been expressed
as seeking "...a collective network of all our particular struggles
and resistance's An intercontinental network of resistance against
neoliberalism, an intercontinental network of resistance for
humanity", but one which "doesn't have a central head or decision
maker; it has no central command or hierarchies."
This still seems very broad, how can you hope to have an
international organisation with so many desperate groups?
The aim of the gatherings is not an international organisation as
such. On reading the references to "the network' what is being
referred to is a network that already exists. It exists because all
but the most sectarian groups already mobilise] against the
repression of other struggles.
The international campaign against the planned execution of Mumia
Abu-Jamal is one example, probably very few of the activists involved
agree with' politics of MOVE or even know much about them but this
doesn't stop them acting in solidarity with Mumia. But, as those
involved around this will know, the big initial problem was hearing
about the case and getting up-to-date information about it. The idea
of the Gatherings is not to construct yet another 'political
international' (the 5th, 6th or whatever; but rather to improve the
network of solidarity and communication between struggles.
Is this working, a lot of people said so many people only went
to last year's gathering because it was being staged by an armed
force in the jungle and so had a romantic revolutionary image?
There maybe some truth in this, but what's wrong with romance
anyway! Certainly in the organising of this gathering this was an
issue that concerned me, would anyone come without the Zapatistas
running the show. It was quickly clear that there was a core of
dedicated activists, the three European organising meetings attracted
over 100 people and reports kept coming back about how much work the
people in Spain were doing. However, I was promoting the gathering on
the internet, trying initially to get Organisational Committees
formed in English language countries. From this there did seem to be
a lack of people willing to find the time to do this sort of work, so
those who did volunteer had far more work then they could cope with.
Then two weeks before the gathering we found out only about 600
people had signed up, this would have represented a major disaster.
In the final week this rose until the day before the gathering it was
around the 2000 mark which was better but still well down on last
year. When I got to Spain however it was clear that a lot of people
were arriving without having bothered to pre-register.
While this was very irritating for the organisers as it made their
job much more difficult it did mean that in the end between 3,000 and
4,000 people attended. Better still, despite the problems of trying
to subsidise travel costs from the '3rd world', and all the problems
of the racist 'fortress Europe' immigration controls, there were
people from over 50 countries there including many African ones and
almost all of Latin America.
Both these figures were an improvement on 1996 so I think its safe
to say that there is a definite potential for this network to grow
without relying on any one movement or bunch of celebrities to
promote it.
Another criticism made of last years encounter was the presence
of number of high profile liberals like Daneille Mitterand (widow of
the former French President), who were given celebrity status. Was
this problem at this year's encounter?
Yeah, this caused a lot of conflict at last year's encounter. Some
of the French delegation wanted to mud bomb Mitterand, and Marcos (a
well known EZLN spokesperson) called a midnight meeting of the
delegation organisers in the jungle to try get the other delegations
to talk the French around.
This year though, the Europe groups had made the decision in
advance that there would be no special status except for whatever
delegates the Zapatistas sent over and as far as I saw, this decision
was stuck to. Indeed, I don think any 'celebrities' turned up
demanding special status, I think the were the one group at last
years encounter that was there primarily to have their photo taken
near Marcos.
So did actual Zapatistas go to the encounter, how come they
were allowed to leave Mexico in their Balaclavas?
Two delegates came from the EZLN, not from their army command but
from the civilian support communities. I believe they are people who
had lived in Guadelpe Tepac, the town that held the first Mexican
encounter and which the army took revenge on after the 1995 encounter
by burning down the structures built for this and occupying the town.
Last year in Chiapas we passed through this still abandoned town and
already the jungle has started to grow back over it.
I don't know how they got to Spain but a communiqué from
the EZLN saying they were sending delegates said they might be hiking
across the Bering straits (between Siberia and Alaska) or swimming
across the Atlantic! Symbolically their presence was very important,
both as an example of the human cost of the uprising and of another
breach in the wall the army has tried to erect around Chiapas to
isolate the EZLN. The only special status they received really was
the protection of the delegates attending the gathering and the
'privilege' of travelling continuously between the sites it was being
held to read the statements from the EZLN. As we were arriving in
Barcelona they made the simple gesture of going down every carriage
in our train to shake hands with those of us who were awake but there
were none of the d ouble handed firm grips of Irish politicians.
You referred to the train to Barcelona, what was the technical
side of organisation of the gathering like?
Although at the time it sometimes seemed chaotic, particularly at
the start in Madrid, in hindsight I think this was a remarkable
achievement on behalf of the Spanish organisers. Particularly when
you consider they were unpaid volunteers with very little
infrastructure and a real shoe-string budget. (1st world delegates
each gave 90 dollars towards the cost). From this they had to arrange
accommodation, food and transport around Spain for an unknown number
of people. Then there were also the almost constant fiestas,
demonstrations and all the problems with registration.
In Madrid we registered in a school, slept in one of three sports
halls or in tents on a football pitch and partied in a bullring. We
left Madrid for Barcelona in a specially chartered train (apparently
the organisers first struck a deal with the railway workers' trade
union and then went to management with this deal)where people met or
stayed in squats, schools and community centres before taking another
train right across and down Spain to Andalucia where we again slept
in schools and met as guests of the farm workers' trade union on an
occupied agricultural estate. And of course when some of us went to
Barcelona other people were heading off to other areas of the Spanish
state.
Barcelona and Andalucia are names that to anarchists are deeply
connected with the Spanish Revolution of 1936, was there a feeling of
a connection at the gathering?
This was something I certainly felt and that quite a lot of the
delegates commented on. At the march through Madrid at the start for
instance, one of the Spanish delegates told me that the guy holding
what appeared to be an off-colour Spanish flag was actually holding
the flag of the Spanish Republic of those years. Many people wondered
if the march itself was the most international one since the
International Brigades had marched out of the city in 1938. The
morning we got to Barcelona some of the Italian and Spanish delegates
had gone to the border post that the last people had fled across in
1939 to unfurl some of the banners of the encounter.
On a demonstration in defence of one of the squats in Barcelona we
sung 'A las Barricadas', one of the anarchist anthems from the
revolution, and later the Italians showed a video of footage and
interviews of those who had fought on the republican side, some with
the anarchists during the Civil War. Probably the most enduring
images I have of the encounter is of a local old man who, on seeing
us march through the streets of a tiny town in Andulacia, stood
outside e his house waving both arms above his head in joy. We'd
obviously triggered some memory for him of his youth when perhaps he
had been part of the collectivisation of the large estates in this
area or the hastily formed militia that left for the front to fight
the fascists.
Was there much of a visible anarchist presence at the
gathering?
The most visible were a contingent of 30 anarchists who had
travelled with a huge red and black banner from a small city in
Greece. This was the largest banner on the demonstration in Madrid
that marked the start of the gathering but unfortunately the only
local organisation to turn out in force for this demonstration was
the Spanish Communist Party, some of whom were carrying Fidel Castro
placards. There were anarchists there from all over Europe, east and
west, and a scattering from outside Europe, but they had come as
individuals or just in connection with various social centres. There
was a real lack of participants from the major anarchist
organisations.
I think the European anarchist organisations missed a golden
opportunity to reach wider international audience interested in
anarchism. I'm not sure why this is, I know some may have been
exhausted for the organisation of the European march against
unemployment but other groups involved in this march, particularly
Italian autonomists, had turned up in force.
The reasons why this happened are worth thinking about, I suspect
in part it may be due to an overemphasis on ideological purity on the
part of many of the organisations, a lack of emphasis on
internationalism on others (in terms of actually putting in effort
and not just hot air) and finally a tendency on the part of many of
the large organisations to confine their work to a narrow range of
similar organisations. Another factor I think is the difficulty the
anarchist movement is having in adjusting to the new situation after
the collapse of Leninism and expanding into the vacuum this has left.
More information on the
Gatherings
for Humanity and against neoliberalism
