Spain After the Indignados/15M Movement Óscar Pereira-Zazo • Steven L

Spain After the Indignados/15M Movement Óscar Pereira-Zazo • Steven L. Torres Editors Spain After the Indignados/15M Movement

The 99% Speaks Out Editors Óscar Pereira-Zazo Steven L. Torres Department of Modern Languages Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures & Literature University of Nebraska–Lincoln University of Nebraska Omaha Lincoln, NE, USA Omaha, NE, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-19434-5 ISBN 978-3-030-19435-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19435-2

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This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Preface

After 2007, when the Great Recession began, it was clear to the editors of this volume that it was imperative to recover and develop the practice of a reflexive and interdisciplinary cultural analysis and critique. We were aware that the humanities were becoming an ornamental component of the university system. Moreover, it was clear to us that the public relations poli- cies of universities were often engendering disciplinary bubbles within literary and cultural studies, bubbles that were fragmenting the analysis of human culture. Formal and informal conversations with other colleagues led us to col- laborate in the creation of a space for dialogue that finally became ALCESXXI. After a year of planning, we held our first gathering in Spain in 2011, during the same months when the 15M or Indignados Movement was taking place. Our goal was to transcend the academic field and its disciplinary ghettos, and to bring together a variety of cultural agents, such as artists, writers, filmmakers, editors, cultural distributors, activists and, in general, people concerned with the role of culture in social and political transformation. After several years and several conferences, we thought that the time had come to recapitulate our experiences in a book that would combine the voices of a representative sample of people who have been challenging the notion of culture as a closed sphere. This is the story of this book and, obviously, we want to thank all the contributors for their patience and dedication to this project, and for giv- ing us the chance to share their knowledge with an international readership.

v vi Preface

We would also like to thank every person that has been a part of ALCESXXI, especially those who have inspired others with their altruistic and solidary participation over the years, including Ellen Mayock, Susana Álvarez, Teresa Herrera, Ana Luengo, Nuria García Atienza, Jorge Gaupp, Berta del Río, Edurne Portela, Javier Torre, Constantino Bértolo, José Ovejero, Luis I. Prádanos, Roberto Robles-Valencia, Susan Larson, Óscar Clemente, Miguel Brieva, Ofelia Ferrán, Kata Beilin, Miguel Ángel Nieto, Jorge Marí, Txetxu Aguado, Annabel Martín, H. Rosi Song, David Vila, Vicente Rubio-Pueyo, Cecilia Barriga, Isabelle Touton, José García Rodríguez, Malcolm Compitello, Ana Rueda, Carmen Moreno-Nuño, Steven Marsh, Mónica Lizarte, David Delgado, Silvia Nanclares, Carolina León, Toni Serra, Laura and Javier Corcuera, Gema Pérez-Sánchez, Roberto Forns-Broggi, Jennifer Brady, Luis Martín-Cabrera, Santiago Morales, Jorge Riechmann, Samuel Amago, Paloma González, Antonio Gómez L. Quiñones, J. A. González-Sainz, Graziella Fantini, Esther Bendahan, Antonio Orejudo, Cristina Moreiras, Gonzalo Navajas, Teresa Vilarós, ZEMOS98, Ecologistas en Acción, Teatro del Barrio and so many others. A very special thanks to Palmar Álvarez-Blanco, not only for her impetus to build the ALCESXXI collective but also for being a wonderful friend. Our gratitude to Glenn Ramirez and Shaun Vigil at Palgrave for all their help with this volume. Special thanks to the University of Nebraska at Omaha for Steven Torres’ Faculty Development Fellowship, as well as to the wonderful members of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature and of the Office of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS) for their encouragement. Finally, we would like to thank our friends and family (José Luis Torres Ruiz, Linda Hood, Gwen McNeel). Above all, we owe a very special thank you to our spouses, Lola Lorenzo and Julie Torres, for their love, patience and support. Note on translations: Chap. 18 was translated by Miguel Magdaleno Santamaría; Chaps. 5 and 11 by Joseph Cox; and Chaps. 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16, 17 and 19 by Steven L. Torres and Óscar Pereira-Zazo.

Lincoln, NE Óscar Pereira-Zazo Omaha, NE Steven L. Torres Contents

1 Introduction: After the 15M 1 Óscar Pereira-Zazo and Steven L. Torres

Part I Political Crisis 19

2 15M and Indignant Democracy: Legitimation Problems Within Neoliberal Capitalism 21 Juan Carlos Monedero

3 “Populism” as the Task of Constructing a People for Change 65 Luis Alegre Zahonero

4 Podemos in Spain: Limits and Possibilities for Change 75 Santiago Alba Rico

Part II Economic Failure 89

5 The 15M and the Financialization of Spanish Society 91 Armando Fernández-Steinko

vii viii Contents

6 Basic Income: A Rational Proposal Guaranteeing the Material Existence of the Population 109 Daniel Raventós and Julie Wark

Part III Environmental Crossroads 125

7 Feminism and Environmentalism in Dialogue with the 15M and the New Political Cycle in Spain 127 Yayo Herrero

8 The Podemos Phenomenon and the Crisis of Civilization 139 Emilio Santiago Muíño

9 Toward a Postindustrial Left in Spain: Political Parties and Social Movements Facing the Collapse of Civilization 153 Manuel Casal-Lodeiro

Part IV Media Control 169

10 Media Control and Emancipation: The Public Sphere in Post-15M Spain 171 Sebastiaan Faber and Bécquer Seguín

11 Breaking the Walls of the Palace: The 15M Facing the Mass Media and the Culture Industry 189 César Rendueles and Jorge Sola

Part V Social Mobilization 201

12 From the Politicization of Life to the New Politics 203 Marina Garcés

13 Post-15M Grassroots Interventions in and for Public Space: Resurgence in Everyday Forms of Control and Resistance 219 Megan Saltzman Contents ix

14 PAH, the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages: A Transformative and Poliethical Mobilization 239 Jordi Mir Garcia

Part VI Culture in Transition 253

15 Culture a la contra: A Cultural Paradigm Toward Alternatives to the Civilizatory and Ecological Crisis 255 Palmar Álvarez-Blanco

16 Reasons to Celebrate 273 Alberto San Juan

17 Ending the Culture of Fear Once and for All: Notes on NegraBlanca and Other Forms of Post-15M Empowerment 279 Luis Moreno-Caballud and Helena de Llanos

18 Broken Authorities 291 Belén Gopegui

19 A Specter Is Haunting the Recent Spanish Novel 303 David Becerra-Mayor

20 Conclusion: Toward a New Cultural Politics for Spain 321 Óscar Pereira-Zazo and Steven L. Torres

Index 331 Notes on Contributors

Santiago Alba Rico is a writer and essayist. He studied philosophy at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. He was a screenwriter in the 1980s for the legendary television program La bola de cristal and has authored more than 20 books on politics, philosophy and literature, as well as three stories for children and a play. Since 1988 he has lived in the Arab world, having translated the Egyptian poet Naguib Surur and the Iraqi novelist Mohammed Jydair into Spanish. For years, he has taught literature at the Cervantes Institute. His latest books are Ser o no ser (un cuerpo) (2017), Todo el pasado por delante (2017) and Nadie está seguro con un libro en las manos (2018). He regularly collaborates with various news media (including Público, Cuarto Poder, CTXT and Atlántica XXII). Luis Alegre Zahonero is a Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Society at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, and author of books such as El orden de ‘El capital’ (2010), El lugar de los poetas (2017) and Elogio de la homosexualidad (2017). He was responsible for communication during the launch of the Podemos party; he was Coordinator of the Citizen Assembly of Vistalegre I and a presenter of the founding documents of the party (along with Pablo Iglesias, Íñigo Errejón, Carolina Bescansa and Juan Carlos Monedero). Later, he was General Secretary of the Community of Madrid and a member of the State Executive until his retirement from political life at the Vistalegre II congress.

xi xii Notes on Contributors

Palmar Álvarez-Blanco is Associate Professor of Spanish at Carleton College, USA. She is a co-founder and a leader of the international Association ALCESXXI. She is also a co-founder and member of the editorial board of Revista de ALCESXXI: Journal of Contemporary Spanish Literature and Film. Her activist research focuses on the transformation of cultural paradigms in the frame of capitalism and its crisis. In addition to publishing articles on contemporary Spanish culture, Palmar Álvarez has co-ordinated and co-edited two collective volumes: Contornos de la narrativa española actual (2000–2010): Un diálogo entre creadores y críticos (2011) and La imaginación Hipotecada: Aportaciones al debate sobre la precariedad del presente (2016). She is working on her next book and digital archive project titled “The Constellation of the Commons.” David Becerra-Mayor is a post-doctoral researcher at the Catholic University of Louven, Belgium. His books include La novela de la no- ideología (2013), La Guerra Civil como moda literaria (2015) and, as co-author, Qué hacemos con la literatura (Akal, 2013). Manuel Casal-Lodeiro is a cyber-activist, writer and speaker on the issues of culture, politics and sustainability, since the early 1990s. He is co-promoter of the Last Call manifesto and co-ordinates the Instituto Resiliencia and 15/15\15 magazine. Helena de Llanos is a filmmaker and researcher. Born in Madrid, for the past ten years she has lived in different cities: Rome, New York, Buenos Aires, Coimbra, Philadelphia, Murcia and now Madrid again. She holds a BA in Spanish Literature and completed a PhD in Hispanic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, USA, with a dissertation focused on contemporary audiovisual media. She has taught Cinema and Spanish Literature for the last eight years in universities in Europe and the United States, always combining theory with filmic practice, with special interest in noncommercial/experimental cinema. She started to make movies nine years ago and has continued ever since. Sebastiaan Faber is Professor of Hispanic Studies at Oberlin College, USA. He is author of Exile and Cultural Hegemony: Spanish Intellectuals in Mexico, 1939–1975 (2002), Anglo-American Hispanists and the Spanish Civil War: Hispanophilia, Commitment, and Discipline (2008) and Memory Battles of the Spanish Civil War: History, Fiction, Photography (2018), and co-editor of Contra el olvido. El exilio español en Estados Notes on Contributors xiii

Unidos (2009) and Transatlantic Studies: Latin America, Iberia, and Africa (forthcoming). Since 2010, he has co-edited The Volunteer, a quar- terly published by the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. He writes about literature and politics in the US and Spanish media, including The Nation, Public Books, La Marea and CTXT: Revista Contexto. Armando Fernández-Steinko is Professor of Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. He is editor of Delincuencia, finanzas y globalización (2013) and the author, among other books, of Izquierda y republicanismo (2010), Las pistas falsas del crimen organizado: finanzas paralelas y orden internacional (2008) and Democracia en la empresa (2000). Marina Garcés is a Spanish philosopher and essayist. She is Professor of Philosophy at the Open University of Catalonia, Spain, and part of a collective project of critical and experimental thinking called Espai en Blanc (White Space). She has published several essays on contemporary politics and critical thought, including Un mundo común (2013), Filosofía inacabada (2015), Fora de classe. Textos de filosofia de guerrilla (2016), Nova il·lustració radical (2018) and Ciutat Princesa (2018). Belén Gopegui is a writer, essayist and screenwriter. Her last novels are Quédate este día y esta noche conmigo (2017), El comité de la noche (2014) and Acceso no autorizado (2011). Some of her essays have been collected in Rompiendo algo (2014). Her first novel La escala de los mapas (1993) was awarded the Premio Tigre Juan and the Premio Iberoamericano de Primeras Novelas “Santiago del Nuevo Extremo,” and El comité de la noche was awarded the Premio Otra Mirada. Yayo Herrero is an ecofeminist and ecosocialist activist, engineer and anthropologist. She teaches at the National Distance Education University (UNED) in Spain, and is also the director of the FUHEM founda- tion. Her latest book is La gran encrucijada. Sobre la crisis ecosocial y el cambio de ciclo histórico (2016). She is co-author of Las personas primero (2013) and Cambiar las gafas para ver el mundo (2011). Jordi Mir Garcia holds a PhD in Humanities and is a professor in the Faculty of Humanities of the Pompeu Fabra University, Spain, and in the Department of Political Science and Sociology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. His research and teaching focus mainly on moral and political philosophy, and the action and thinking of social xiv Notes on Contributors movements. He is a member of the Center for Studies on Social Movements (UPF) and of the Observatory of the University System. He is author of Movimientos sociales construyendo democracia. 5 años de 15M, and is co- author and editor of Revoluciones en femenino and Gramsci y la sociedad intercultural. With Salvador López Arnal, he has edited different works by Francisco Fernández Buey: Para la tercera cultura. Ensayos sobre Ciencias y Humanidades, Sobre federalismo, autodeterminación y republicanismo, Sobre Manuel Sacristán and Marx a contracorriente. Juan Carlos Monedero holds a PhD in Political Science and is Professor of Political Science at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. He directs the Department of Global Civil Society at the Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales. He won the 2018 Social Sciences Prize of the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) and was a keynote speaker at the United Nations in New York and Geneva. He was a partici- pant in the 15M Movement and is co-founder of the Podemos political party in Spain. Among his recent works are La transición contada a nuestros padres (2016), Nuevos Disfraces del Leviatán (2018) and La izquierda que asaltó el algoritmo (2018). He has the blog Comiendo tierra and presents the program “En la frontera” on Público TV. Luis Moreno-Caballud studied philosophy and literature in Spain and in the USA. He lives in New York City and teaches in Philadelphia. He has researched and written about cultural changes brought by capitalist “mod- ernization” and neoliberalism to Spain, and about non-hierarchical mutual aid experiments around the 2011 wave of global revolts. He also writes fiction and participates in political groups that try to interrupt the identification of reality with capitalism. Óscar Pereira-Zazo is Professor of Spanish Literature and Culture at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, USA. He is author of El Análisis de la Comunicación en Español (2015) and De cómo el Libro de buen amor llegó a serlo (2006), and co-editor of two critical editions of The Book of the Archpriest of Hita. He is an honorary member of the Board of Directors of ALCESXXI. Daniel Raventós is Professor of Economics at the University of Barcelona, Spain. He is the president of Red Renta Básica and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and for Citizens’ Action (ATTAC) and the Drafting Committee of Sin Permiso. His books include Renta Básica Incondicional. Una propuesta de financiación racional y justa (2017), Renta básica contra Notes on Contributors xv la incertidumbre and ¿Qué es la Renta Básica? Preguntas (y respuestas) más frecuentes (2012), and, in collaboration with Julie Wark, Against Charity (2018). César Rendueles is Professor of Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. His books include Sociophobia. Political Change in the Digital Utopia (2017), En bruto: Una reivindicación del materialismo histórico (2016) and Capitalismo canalla. Una historia personal del capitalismo a través de la literatura (2015). He has also published anthologies of the works of Marx, Benjamin, Gramsci and Karl Polanyi. Megan Saltzman studies the relationships between globalizing urban space, everyday life and political potential. Her forthcoming book, Cultural Politics and Everyday Agency in the Public Spaces of Neoliberal Barcelona, exposes how small agency operates in mundane practices (loi- tering, sitting, playing and rummaging). She demonstrates how these practices carried out in public spaces not only challenge the city’s image but also carve out autonomy for subjects in an increasingly regulated milieu. Megan has written on contemporary urban themes such as nostal- gia, the itineraries of undocumented immigrants and alternative uses of urban furniture. Since 2012, she teaches Spanish language and culture at West Chester University, USA. Alberto San Juan is a Spanish film, stage and television actor, who has also written and directed several plays, including Autorretrato de un joven capitalista español (2013), El Rey (2015), Masacre, una historia del capitalismo español (2017) and Mundo Obrero (2018). He is a founding member of the Teatro del Barrio and the Universidad del Barrio in Madrid. In 2015, he was elected as a member of the Podemos Citizen Council in the Community of Madrid. In 2018, San Juan and Valentín Álvarez co- directed a film adaptation of El Rey. Emilio Santiago Muíño is a researcher at the Transdisciplinary Research Group on Socioecological Transitions at the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. He is an ecosocial activist and founder of the Transition Institute Rompe el Círculo. He is working as Environmental Director of the Town Council of Móstoles (Madrid, Spain), designing and promot- ing the Móstoles Transita 2030 strategic plan. Bécquer Seguín is an Assistant Professor in the Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures at Johns Hopkins University, USA. He was previously an Andrew W. Mellon and John E. Sawyer xvi Notes on Contributors

Seminar Fellow at Cornell University, USA. His research focuses on cultural responses to economic crises in modern Iberia, from the nineteenth century to the present. He is working on a book on literary intellectuals and the Spanish economic crisis. He is editing two forthcoming volumes, Political Romanticism in the Americas and The Legacies of the Spanish Crisis. In addition to his scholarly work in different journals, he has written for The Nation, Slate, Dissent and other publications, and has provided television and radio commentary for WNYC, CNBC and other stations. Jorge Sola is a Professor of Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. He has written several articles in both English and Spanish devoted to Podemos, populism and the political dimensions of labor markets. He is co-author with César Rendueles of “Podemos, the upheaval of Spanish politics and the challenge of populism” and “Strategic Crossroads: The Situation of the Left in Spain.” Steven L. Torres is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Nebraska Omaha, USA. He is a co-founder of ALCESXXI and editor and co-founder of Revista de ALCESXXI: Journal of Contemporary Spanish Literature and Film. Much of his research focuses on metacultural dis- course and on the complex historical relation between culture and politics. He is author of Discurso metacultural en España: Miguel de Unamuno (2008) and a contributor to volumes such as La imagi- nación hipotecada (2016) and Fuera de la Ley: Asedios al fenómeno quinqui en la Transición española (2015). Julie Wark is a translator, long-term human rights author/activist and a member of the Editorial Board of Sin Permiso. She has also worked with Basic Income Earth Network. She is author of The Human Rights Manifesto (2013), and co-authored with Daniel Raventós Against Charity (2018). List of Figures

Fig. 13.1 Image from There is No Right Way to Meditate. Copyright © 2015 by Yumi Sakugawa and published by F+W Media, Inc. Reproduced with permission of the publisher 221 Fig. 13.2 June 14, 2014. #femPlaça in Plaça de Salvador Seguí. Megan Saltzman 228 Fig. 13.3 July 16, 2017. #femPlaça in Plaça Santa Maria. Megan Saltzman 229

xvii List of Tables

Table 6.1 IRPF, 2010 Data 112 Table 6.2 Savings on benefits (millions of €) 114 Table 6.3 Population not identified in IRPF data 115 Table 6.4 Population identified in IRPF data 115 Table 6.5 Ex ante and ex post quota by decile 118

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