After spending several days in a castle in the south Spain, very near where the Moors landed back in the 8th century in the midst of discussions of transit across the border from Spain into Africa and back (note Brian Holmes’ trip acrooss the straits in a sailboat discussed with Geert lovink) we began our trip back to Novi sad with a brief stay in Barcelona. As you might notice in this article that was written by Branka from Kuda.org and ammended by LeE from NPR, Barcelona, being the largest major city in Spain with a similar border to Africa, provided some insight into the political history around many issues including immigration. Our hosts Isi and Rabia provided some particular insight into immigration issues in Barcelona and hopefully this article provides at least a slight overview of what little we were able to manage in the 2 days we had in Barcelona. Pictures are coming very soon…

Barcelona Observations

by Branka Ćurčić ( with editing and additional observations by LeE)

When a person types the word “anarchism” in “Wikipedia”- the online encyclopedia, what comes up as a first definition is: “the political philosophy advocating a libertarian society without hierarchy, based on mutual aid and voluntary cooperation. Historically, anarchism gained the most support and influence in Spain, especially in the seventy or so years before Francisco Franco’s victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939.” The key words here are “libertarian society”, “without hierarchy”, “voluntary cooperation” and “Spain” as the main historical reference. During a two-day visit to Barcelona, the influence of this specific history can be seen at every step in the many derivatives of anarchism that today exist in this city. This is again another specificity, since we somehow had great access to different people, grassroot organizations and collectives that could be seen as, more or less, a consequence of this rich history. Our guides were people we knew from before we arrived, and some were new people that we met during our journey to the “Fadaiat” conference that took place at the very south of Spain, in Tarifa.

The historical aspects of anarchism in Spain are very diverse, ranging from peasant anarchism and urban anarcho-syndicalism to connections with workers unions, terrorism and direct militant and civil confrontation against Franco’s fascism. In his book “Anarchismus und Konsens” (Anarchism and Consensus), Ralf Burnicki, the German philosopher and writer, talks about the values of “neo-anarchism”, which he believes developed after 1968. In anarcho-syndicalism and its non-violent forms, the aims of the revolution - freedom and equality – have to be reflected in the tools used for it’s accomplishment. In that sense, those tools can not be based on violence, because violence is not the aim of an anarchistic society. If we take note of this idea of non-violence while acknowledging terms such as consensus and democracy, we present a kind of justification for different, existing variations of anarchism and their connections with much wider global movements. Again, in “Wikipedia”, under the section “related subjects” to anarchism could be found: Anti-capitalism, Anti-globalization, Anti-statism, Industrial democracy, Indymedia, Participatory economics, Prison abolition, Libertarian municipalism, Workers’ self-management, Zapatistas, etc. Visiting Barcelona-based anarchistic organizations gave us a feeling of the concept of anarchism as a very legitimate and present social option. Not simply a theory or an idea.

Barcelona is well known as a squatter’s heaven. Over 30 squats are operating in a well coordinated network. We passed by one squat in the part of the city called Barcelonetta. On the building’s façade we saw a handwritten sign written in English saying “This is NOT an tourist attraction”, and graffiti in Spanish saying “Okupa tu tambien” (trans. “Your squat also”). We were told by our hosts that this building was formerly a police station, which people occupied after police moved away and left the building’s ownership unresolved.

In addition to residential squats there are also around 70 different social centers in the city, many of which are squats as well, which, according to our hosts, used a great many prefixes to describe their various social affiliations. Some of them are more anarcho-syndicalist oriented, some of them more anarcho-communist, or just communist, etc.. These places functioned as bars and meeting places where the politics was secondary to the sense of community and exchange. I don’t like to be very critical when contemporary anarchism is in question, but one funny situation happened while we were having a drink in one of these centers. It was a nice place with many leaflets, flyers, books and posters of very interesting content, and behind the bar were two old record players. Our friend, Jon Brumit, an experimental musician wanted to make a step towards engaging with the socio-political foundation of this place by making a spontaneous (and innovative) music performance using the record players, records that he found there, and some other, pocket devices that would allow him to manipulate the needles of the record players. After respectfully asking for permission to manipulate the record players, he was stopped by the bartender after just a few sounds. With the explanation that those old record players couldn’t take his experiment and might be damaged, social and technological experimentation was frustrated.

——

Besides the people from the collective “Hackitectura” that were our hosts in
Tarifa, Isi and Rabia from the pirate radio station “Contrabanda” were our
main guides through Barcelona’s grassroots movements. From the moment when we met in their apartment, my friends from the California based nomadic
“Neighborhood Public Radio”, Jon and LeE, made an amazing connection with
those two relating to their work. As new “radio people”, we were following this energy exchange very carefully. A visit to “Contrabanda” radio, gave us a greater understanding of the world of international alternative broadcasting. The station is uniquely based in a building overlooking one of the most beautiful squares in Barcelona and also one of the most expensive (Placa Reial). Our host Isi pointed out the window of the station to the line of tourists waiting to be seated at one of Barcelona’s top rated restraunts. What keeps this pirate radio station in this unlikely neighborhood is the old contract with the landlords and as a result, extremely low rent for a huge apartment.

I like very much the short info about this radio station that I found through a brief internet search:

http://www.spunk.org/texts/comms/sp000994.html“Contrabanda is a self-managed radio station. We work by assembly; the means are collective. The people who make the programmes pay to sustain the collective and all those who make programmes have a voice and a vote on the assembly. As I said earlier, Contrabanda is legally speaking a Cultural Association and amongst other initiatives we have recently set up a Counterinformation Agency. Our philosophy could be defined as the cultural melting pot.” Besides stressing values that just have been mentioned, people in Contrabanda are also giving a broader picture of their activities: “the free stations, apart from demanding freedom of speech, something which we could say to a degree we have achieved, also demand the freedom to transmit, which entails of course prizing a few crumbs from the exclusive control of the airwaves by the State. We want a slice, a simple slice so that what the powers that be call freedom of expression can become a real possibility… At Contrabanda there are libertarians but there are also others who we might say are vaguely Marxist or people who defend ideas of Catalan independence, ecology or feminism.”

Isi, who works at radio Contrabanda, told us that this station is one of three independent, free radio stations in Barcelona. The other two are “Radio Bronka” and “Radio Pica”. What makes this story particularly interesting is the fight of many people against the legislation back in December 1988, which allowed authorities to eliminate all then-existing free stations and pirate stations. All free radio stations were closed causing many people to react organizing themselves for regaining a free radio spectrum. After organizing massive petitions, negotiations with the Generalitat (Catalan local govt.) began and the parliamentary group Esquerra Republicana offered their support. Their actions succeeded and “the authorities identified three frequencies which would be made available to and could be used by the free stations.” That is how those three radio stations got their frequencies. One could deny that this is a complete solution complete freedom - but this result also stresses the importance and effectiveness of something else: solidarity, collaborative action, consensus and negotiation with legal bodies, as legitimate ways of fighting for important goals. I would dare to say that this could be seen as one of the more successful manifestations of contemporary anarchism in Barcelona. Still, despite this success, there was a threat of the government allocating the frequencies occupied by Contrabanda and other groups to commercial interests during our time in Barcelona, and a quick visit to the Barcelona indymedia site can exhibit the current government attacks on historic squats.

During our visit to radio Contrabanda, we also found out that Isi and Rabia work a lot with immigrants in Barcelona on their program Radio Xarnego, often giving them space to talk publicly about their issues. The music for their program is primarily recordings or live performances by immigrant street musicians. Rabia and Isi said that there is an amazing musical richness on the streets of Barcelona, where immigrants from very different parts of the world are performing their own music. It was particularly interesting to hear of how they would interview these immigrant street musicians about their music, providing a seamless integration of artistic and political discussion through conversation about the life they lead while discussing and playing the music they produce. At the close of our visit to Contrabanda radio we met up with Rabia after she had waited for us to join her at the square. Working for immigrant’s assistance, she is in constant connection with people that need different kinds of immigration help. When we met her she had just been chatting with a guy from Nigeria that she had just met, offering him her help in trying to resolve his immigration status in Spain. She clearly understood the struggles he was encountering as he tried to stay in Spain. She too was an illegal immigrant who was fighting vigilantly not only for her own right to stay in Spain but for the right of so many others who are routinely exploited by immigration laws that are designed to force particular groups into undesirable and exploitive work circumstances.

Later, thanks to Jaume from “Hackitectura”, we visited a space called “Riereta”. It is a semi-public space where programmers, hackers and musicians are gathering. They work extensively with open source production of software and creative content, particularly evident in their open source broadcast vehicle r23.cc. The front page of their web site inspirationally states, “Riereta.net, a human trusted network that owes very much to the model of free software communities, both for the software used, and for the internal organisation, based on spontaneity, curiosity and cooperation.” There, Rabia showed us a very interesting book titled, “It’s All Lies - leaflets, underground press and posters: the fusion of resistance and creativity in Israel”. While many of us browsed through this creative an political imagery, Jaume also explained some of the concepts behind r23.cc (“a permanent and continuous emission system, enabling participants to send audio and video streams through internet and locate and visualize the current state of the streaming system in real-time. An open system made with Free Software by people who invest knowledge and efforts in order to create non-controlled and non-corporate ways of living”) The space and mission of Riereta gives one the impression of a very informal space, where anyone can join with his/her computer, installing free software, freely exchange files and maybe even get some flea bites

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A Serbian woman living in Barcelona named Vahida, who is a sometimes collaborator in a group sometimes named rotorrr ( ithink she would be cnsidered a founder of the group too), was our main link to the organization called “Hangar”. Vahida was invited to make a presentation of the Serbian media and art scene in the gallery at “Hangar”. Since she contacted kuda to be a part of this exhibition, we used the opportunity to visit the place. “Hangar” is the space of the independent artistic association of Barcelona. It is based in an industrial part of Barcelona in the grounds of a factory place. Its neighborhood is very interesting with lots of small factories with interesting facades where all the graffiti is painted in black. Vahida explained that this was a consequence of workers’ protests against the landlord of the place who wanted to sell the land where the factories are based to big corporations. After a decision not to sell it, the landlord decided to repaint all the grafiti that workers made during the protest in bold black to memorialize it.

“Hangar” is a nice place that provides artists with working space, editing resources and exhibition space. Vahida told us that they are at the moment probably changing their working strategy. The last director of the place tried to make this resource more than just a service to artists by presenting thematic
exhibitions and supporting different kinds of conceptually and socially based projects. Now, the director has been replaced with a big board that will probably insist on returning “Hangar” exclusively to its artists’ service roll.

I mention Vahida almost at the end of this essay but that doesn’t mean that she is any less important. Vahida and her partner Dionis were our “real” hosts in Barcelona, kindly giving us one big part of their big, beautiful apartment. Both of them are artists - Dionis is more in video and movie production and Vahida is using different formats for her work. In a “private” projection evening in their flat, Dionis screened one of his movies about his Belgrade experience, and Vahida showed us a video taken by a neighbor of her grandmother demonstrating alternate uses of a bag emblazoned with a USA logo that had previously contained relief supplies delivered by the U.S. directly after it delivered it’s infamous explosives.

This informative and entertaining video was followed by a presentation of Vahida’s work on mapping. One of these pieces is called “Systema Naturae” where she mapped a part of Barcelona called Poblenou, which is the place where many urban and construction mutations are happening. She has mapped independent centres, and cultural and sports organizations presenting them as
floral, organic forms and positioned them in relation to big commercial corporations that are flooding this area. Likewise Vahida presented the “Barcelona: Olympic Sculpture Guide” that she and some friends (calling themselves rotorrr) developed in 2002 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the presence of the Olympic games in Barcelona by developing a series of athletic “events” using sculptures that were commissioned for the Olympic games that still exist throughout the city. What is very interesting here, and what can also be seen in the work of Isi, Rabia and people from Hackitectura and Riereta as well as in the graffiti from labor actions and squats and just for political decoration that we found all over the town, is a sincere dedication to locality and to the local community of Barcelona. These people and projects might be said to be the true descendants and legacy of Barcelona’s anarchist history of “advocating a libertarian society without hierarchy, based on mutual aid and voluntary cooperation”.

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