Picture by José Javier Martín Espartosa 'EXPANDING the CITIZENSIP' UNDER GOBIERNOS DEL CAMBIO? THE CASE OF THE MIGRANT STREET VENDORS' UNION AND AHORA MADRID BY PAOLA LEENHOUTS GONZÁLEZ-ESPEJO ERASMUS MUNDUS MASTER COURSE IN URBAN STUDIES [4CITIES] SEPTEMBER, 2019 SUPERVISOR:PROF. MARGARITA BARAÑANO CID SECOND READER: PROF. BAS VAN HEUR Abstract During these last few decades, globalization, its scalar re-configurations and transnational migration have profoundly challenged the notion of citizenship, putting into question its meaning and its conceptualization beyond legal and territorial dimensions. Around the world, several “illegal” migrants and allies have mobilized to demand a right to citizenship. Some of these movements have been extensively covered such as the 1990s French Sans Papier movement or the early 2000s Spanish mobilizations (Barbero, 2012; Varela Huerta, 2013) while other fights remain untheorized. Moreover, the articles tend to focus on the migrant movement’s internal functioning, completely omitting an in-depth analysis of the political contexts which condition their genesis and activity. This MA thesis attempts to fill in this empirical gap by examining the Spanish case of the Sindicato de Manteros y Lateros (Madrid) formed by “irregular” sub-Saharan transnational migrants and allies which collectively demand the provision of papeles and the depenalization of street vending in urban centers. In light of the analogous rise to power of the so-called progressive “gobiernos del cambio” in Madrid and other Spanish cities, which have placed municipalism and the figure of the citizen at the center of their policies and discourse, it becomes particularly interesting to analyze the actors and actions in which both “gobiernos del cambio” and unions debated on the potential shifting boundaries of liberal democratic citizenship, against a context of raising nationalism and xenophobia across Europe. Keywords: Street Vending, Manteros, Migrants, Sin Papeles, Citizenship, Gobiernos del Cambio, Madrid, Spain ​ Abstrakt In den letzten Jahrzehnten haben die Globalisierung, ihre skalaren Neukonfigurationen und die transnationale Migration den Begriff der Staatsbürgerschaft zutiefst in Frage gestellt und ihre Bedeutung und ihre Konzeptualisierung jenseits rechtlicher und territorialer Dimensionen in Frage gestellt. Weltweit haben sich mehrere "illegale" Migranten und Verbündete mobilisiert, um ein Recht auf Staatsbürgerschaft zu fordern. Einige dieser Bewegungen wurden ausführlich behandelt, wie die französische Sans-Papier-Bewegung der 90er Jahre oder die spanischen Mobilisierungen Anfang der 2000er Jahre (Barbero, 2012; Varela Huerta, 2013), während andere Kämpfe noch nicht theoretisiert sind. Darüber hinaus konzentrieren sich die Artikel eher auf das interne Funktionieren der Migrantenbewegung und lassen eine eingehende Analyse der politischen Kontexte, die ihre Entstehung und Aktivität bestimmen, völlig außer Acht. Diese Masterarbeit versucht, diese empirische Lücke zu schließen, indem sie den spanischen Fall des Sindicato de Manteros y Lateros (Madrid) untersucht, der von "irregulären" transnationalen Migranten und Verbündeten südlich der Sahara gebildet wurde, die gemeinsam die Bereitstellung von Papeln und die Depenalisierung des Street Vending in städtischen Zentren fordern. Angesichts des analogen Machtzuwachses der so genannten progressiven "Gobiernos del cambio" in Madrid und anderen spanischen Städten, die den Kommunalismus und die Figur des Bürgers in den Mittelpunkt ihrer Politik und ihres Diskurses gestellt haben, wird es besonders interessant, die Akteure und Aktionen zu analysieren, in denen sowohl "Gobiernos del cambio" als auch Gewerkschaften über die möglichen sich verschiebenden Grenzen der liberal-demokratischen Staatsbürgerschaft diskutierten, vor dem Hintergrund, Nationalismus und Fremdenfeindlichkeit in ganz Europa zu erhöhen. Schlüsselwörter: Straßenverkauf, Manteros, Migranten, Sin Papeles, Staatsbürgerschaft, Gobiernos del Cambio, Madrid, ​ Spanien. 2 Table of contents Preface 5 Acknowledgements 6 Introduction 8 Approaching the Object and Subject(s) 8 (Politically) Contextualizing the Subject(s) 9 Research Questions 12 Objectives, Aims & Disclaimers 12 Methodology 14 Case study 14 Research Methods 15 Interviews 15 Legal documents & Policy analysis 17 Media Analysis 18 Demographic Data 19 Participant Observation 19 Reflection on Research Process and Challenges 20 Literature Review 22 Chapter 1 – Globalization and Migration: The Whole World on the Move? 22 Chapter 2 – Dissecting Citizenship: from Liberal Democratic to Insurgence and Acts 27 Chapter 3 – Towards a Social Movement Of ‘Insurgent Citizens’? 30 Results & Analysis 33 Act 1 - An Initial Approximation to Top Manta: The production of the Object of Politics 33 Global Space/Local Place: Migration in Madrid 33 The Multi-scalar Legal Production of “Illegality” 36 Media Representations of Manteros 40 Manteros are… 40 GoC and governance 41 The voices from the margins: the Unions and the Left 42 Interim conclusion of Act 1 42 Act 2 - The Construction of a Political Subject: The Migrant Street Vendors’ Union 43 Immunizing against the “un-memory” of the top manta struggle 43 Mapping Actors 46 The Narratives and the Scales 48 Act 3 - A (partial) Reconstruction of the “Chronology of the Conflict” 51 Discussion and Conclusion 54 References 56 3 4 Preface It was Spring in Vienna when we were asked to come up with a topic for our MA thesis. I struggled to make a choice among all of my interests: gender and the city, graffiti, migration, public spaces, squatters… My polyamourous relationship with urban topics proved to be impractical for once and making a choice seemed to be the biggest challenge so far. I still remember the day this changed: March 15, 2018. My Twitter, Instagram and Facebook feed were saturated with images of people rioting in one of the most multicultural neighborhoods of my dear hometown, Madrid. I quickly searched to find the igniting spark of these riots by reading the news and exhausting my feed, and all I could find was a collection of incoherent versions of the death of Mame Mbaye Ndiaye, a Senegalese “illegal” street vendor. Assisted by several municipal police agents, he lost his life from a cardiac arrest in Calle del Oso causing a proliferation of contradictory versions of the ​ ​ accountability of his death: neighbors of Lavapiés, the Senegalese community, municipal police, the major, the security councillor, opposition parties, the media... Many of these voices contradicted each other and the silence of Ahora Madrid’s City Hall, seen as a synonym of democratic renewal, equal rights ​ ​ and transparency for the majority of Madrileñas who voted in 2015, became after that day a source of ​ ​ disappointment to many. This disappointment was also voiced by a street vendor (self-proclaimed) union, which I came to know after these tragic events had taken place and whose activity I started to closely follow since then. Chasing a hunch, I undusted an embryonic project I came up with, prior to my 4Cities enrollment. Originally, I had conceived a photographic project of migrants’ various “informal” ways of earning a living in Madrid, but I quickly discarded it because A) I am not a good photographer and B) I was paralyzed by all the possible problems that the tensions between (in)visibility and (il)legality can bring about. Ruminating on this last point, I came to realize that the street vendor union, was actually catalyzing this tension in a radical way: “illegal” and “invisible” people making themselves “visible” to become “legal”. I needed to explore this further, to hear these stories myself, to understand what and how these tensions were being (re-)articulated. In Cità Futtura (1917), Gramsci wrote: “I hate the indifferent. I believe [...] that "living means being partisan". There cannot be only men1, strangers to the city. Those who really live cannot but be citizens, and take sides. Indifference is abulia, it is parasitism, it is cowardice, it is not life. So I hate the indifferent.” Thus, as a citizen who lives to understand cities, I was confronted with the choice of ​ remaining indifferent to Mbaye’s death and the demands of the union, or embarking upon this exploration of the struggle for citizenship of others, and in the way maybe discover what it means to myself too. And so, I chose to take sides and I decided I had found my topic, or rather the topic had found me. 1 Specially not only men, Antonio! 5 6 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my mother for being my vital source of inspiration and support. Without her, my attendance to this programme would have remained a fantasy. I would also like to thank all of my 4Cities colleagues (and in particular my two rocks, Serafina and Ignasi): for these two years of laughter, long walks, massive potlucks, library days, beers and tears. It was a very special experience to meet each and every one of you! A very special thanks to my thesis supervisor Professor Margarita Barañano, for transmitting me confidence, helping me out to reach institutional actors for interviews, encouraging me to delve deeper into theory and to remain curious. Lastly, I wanted to send a message of appreciation to every participant who has dedicated time and shared their views with me, without you my study would be deaf to a complex reality. This work is dedicated to all the manteros I met. Thank you for trusting me with ​ your life stories. Your stories of dreams, hope, struggle and hardship, survival