By Concha Mateos

The camp in the Puerta del Sol (Spanish for Gate of the Sun) will be taken down next Sunday June 12. On Wednesday June 7 after five hours debate the Assambly of Sol decided on the continuity of ‘acampadasol’ as it is known in the web. It took ten days make the decision hanging to expand the movement.

One more step forward—The chrysalis has turned into a butterflower. The butterflower will fly now. The local assemblies are yet working. The 15M goes on.

The energy will never disappear—it only gets transformed.

We are moving out of Puerta del Sol. We will leave The Puerta but will take the Sol with us. The 15M goes on.

One sign over the wall says: The sun can rise up whatever night.

The night: democratic deficits, collective efforts required to rescue banks but no collective profit, economic austerity measures imposed by the government dictated by financial capitalism, 4 millions unemployed, corruption politicians… We are not anti-system, system is anti-us.

The sun: an horizontal and open way of organizing, claiming and deciding. We have made an ethical revolution.

The makeshift urban camps that los indignadosthat were formed last May 15th at Puerta del Sol, the core of the Spanish capital, have spent four weeks denouncing democratic deficit, financial markets dictatorship and corrupt politicians.

The powerful tried in many way to discredit the movement. Police repression started the first day. Our response was that the acampada returned. The powerful tried legal pressure to no avail.  The electoral authority demanded that the camp should be dismantled two days before the election on May 23rd . Our response was that thousands of people in the squares all over the country raised a symbolic silent shout at midnight on the 21st inviting citizenry to reflect about the meaning of their vote. Our dreams don’t fit in their poll-boxes.

WE faced repression, and virtual reduction as corporate media focused on the possible unhealthy living conditions at the acampadas in the squares.

What a paradox: the social observer worried about the critics health instead of keeping an eye on the bleak political illness our society suffers.  Politicians were being sworn in as presidents and mayors while they are being under investigation for corruption.

They have tried to make us, the acampados, get out of their sight.

Now we will go. It is our decisión now. A decisión that has taken long hours and hard work.

One phase is over, another stage starts. The 15M movement goes on. We have learned important lessons.

Firstly, we are not slow going, we are far-reaching.

Secondly, we are not only strong, but weak as well, and because of the same reason: we are many people.

The same energy that has propelled the movement has made difficult the decision of leaving. Reaching a consensus that encompass the voices of all of us  requires much effort and sometimes is not possible. One voice can block a decision if we confuse general agreement with (complete) unanimity.

We are an inclusive movement and we defend a horizontal way of working that we will maintain. We take decisions by consensus. We work without leaders. Functions and tasks are performed every time by different people. All assemblies and commissions are open. This gives way to collective intelligence.We respect dissention.

We practice transparency.

Everything is wide open. And the forces that try to control us have infiltrated into the movement thanks to this aperture and transparency. But neither the police nor the electoral body, the government, or the media propaganda has been able to stop us.

The chrysalis of  SOL (sun) has now wings of its own to fly.We are spreading into the streets and the cities. Now the centre of the movement can be find everywhere. It will be SOL that will camp in the minds of thousands of people.

A new collective character has entered into orbit.

Work is over (at Puerta del Sol). The work starts now—everywhere.

By SOL. Hola SOL.

 

(Concha Mateos has a PhD in Social Communication and is on the faculty at a public University in Madrid. She has been actively involved with Project Censored since 2009 and La acampada in the square Puerta del Sol in Madrid, Spain)

June 9, 2011  
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