‘Vamos Lentos Porque Vamos Lejos’ Towards a dialogical understanding of Spain’s 15Ms by Pablo Ouziel M.A., University of Victoria, 2009 B.A., University of Sheffield, 1998 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Political Science © Pablo Ouziel, 2015 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photography or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee ‘Vamos Lentos Porque Vamos Lejos’ Towards a dialogical understanding of Spain’s 15Ms by Pablo Ouziel M.A., University of Victoria, 2009 B.A., University of Sheffield, 1998 Supervisory Committee Dr. James Tully, Department of Political Science, University of Victoria Co-Supervisor Dr. Matt James, Department of Political Science, University of Victoria Co-Supervisor Dr. Michelle Bonner, Department of Political Science, University of Victoria Departmental Member Dr. Francisco Colom González, Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) Outside Member iii Abstract Supervisory Committee Dr. James Tully, Department of Political Science Co-Supervisor Dr. Matt James, Department of Political Science Co-Supervisor Dr. Michelle Bonner, Department of Political Science Departmental Member Dr. Francisco Colom González, Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) Outside Member Four years ago, on May 15th 2011, we witnessed in the Spanish State ‘something’ that was quickly and popularly referred to as 15M or the Indignados. Since that day, 15M has had a tremendous impact on the way a large part of the Spanish population understands itself and its response-abilities and rights. In addition, 15M has affected the way in which a large part of the Spanish population understands its environment and those living-beings with whom said environment is co-created and co-inhabited. In this essay I immerse myself in an on-going non-disciplinary, multi- traditional multilogue with individuals being 15M. What I witness, feels and looks like a complex; mutating and dialogic; collective and cooperative; agonistic and transformative 'climate' that many refer to as el clima 15M (15m climate). Allowing different 15M wisdoms to frame the research, I envision this essay as an attempt at gaining a dialogical understanding of what it is that we might be speaking of when referring to 15M. Through this exploration, I seek to place my work within the sketched parameters of what James Tully refers to as public philosophy. The essay engages with individuals being 15M and with the vast literature in Spain around 15M and party-movement Podemos by academics and participants, and the European literature around populism, horizontality and Podemos grounded in iv Antonio Gramsci. It also draws on reciprocal elucidation literature in theory and in participatory, community-based social science. Moreover, the essay enters into dialogue with a whole body of literature on instrumental versus constitutive means- ends views of political change going back to Mahatma Gandhi and forward to Aldous Huxley, Richard Gregg, Hannah Arendt, Robert Young, Gene Sharp and Cesar Chavez. By giving ‘perspicuous representation’ or thick description of 15M by means of reciprocal elucidation, I am able to make a unique contribution to the theoretical literature on reciprocal elucidation and public philosophy. I am also able to disclose the field of 15M (the phenomenon) in a way that shows it to be different from the way 15M appears in other theoretical frames. Finally, the use of this method of reciprocal elucidation makes a unique contribution to community-based and engaged forms of social scientific research. v Table of Contents Supervisory committee……………………………………………………………......ii Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….iii Table of contents………………………………………………………………………v List of acronyms……………………………………………………………………...vii Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………….ix Illustration of the route………………………………………………………………..xi Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..1 - Overview………………………………………………………………………….1 - Approach to the question of what is the phenomenon that calls itself 15M……...4 - Chapters one to four………………………………………………….6 - Chapters five and six…………………………………………………7 - The interviewing process ………………………………………………………..11 - This essay and the larger project………………………………………………...15 - Methodology and the place of the author in this essay………………………….18 - An introduction to the complex being 15M……………………………………..27 Chapter One 15Ms South of Madrid’s Puerta del Sol……………………………………………...38 - Contextualizing chapters one and two of this essay…………………………….38 - Andalucía ………………………………………………………………………..43 - Valencia…………………………………………………………………………84 Chapter Two 15Ms from Madrid’s Puerta del Sol to the North…………………………………….92 - Madrid…………………………………………………………………………....92 - Galicia…………………………………………………………………………..101 - Asturias…………………………………………………………………………118 - Cataluña………………………………………………………………………...131 - Closing remarks chapters one and two…………………………………………143 Chapter Three Different traditions co-being, co-interpreting and co-creating in the 15M climate...154 - Some clarifications about this chapter…………………………………………154 - 15M and 19th century traditions and events……………………………………160 - 15M and early 20th century (pre-civil war) traditions and events……………...163 - 15M and 20th century Spanish Civil War traditions and events………………..169 - 15M and late Francoism and Spanish Transition to democracy traditions and events……………………………………………………………………...173 - 15M and 1980s traditions and events…………………………………………..179 - 15M and 1990s traditions and events…………………………………………..183 - 15M and early 21st century traditions and events……………………....……...188 - Closing remarks………………………………………………………………..195 vi Chapter Four 15M imagined futures………………………………………………………………197 - Opening remarks………………………………………………………………..197 - 1. Failed State…………………………………………………………………...202 - 2. Where we go from here……………………………………………………....206 - 3. Constituent and destituent processes………………………………………...208 - 4. Moving towards constitutent assemblies…………………………………….210 - 5. Nonviolence and violence moving forward………………………………….213 - 6. Work outside of official institutionality……………………………………...215 - 7. Work within official institutionality…………………………………………218 - 8. Work from outside and within official institutionality………………………220 - Closing remarks………………………………………………………………...222 Chapter Five A mistrustful confluence heading towards a reconstitution of the Spanish State…..227 - Opening remarks……………………………………………………………….227 - Different approaches to understanding the Podemos-15M relationship……….231 - Institutional political representation and civic-civil agonisms………………...237 - The rise of Podemos…………………………………………………………...240 - Podemos: A war of position and the rise of the condottiere…………………..256 - Closing Remarks………………………………………………………………264 Chapter Six The Paradox of a ‘democracy-to-come’…………………………………………….268 - Opening remarks……………………………………………………………….268 - The paradox of a ‘democracy-to-come’………………………………………..272 - Two hypotheses drawn from this case study…………………………………..278 1. Goya Hypothesis…………………………………………………278 2. Ever-so-slowly every step must embody the ends hypothesis…...287 - Closing Remarks……………………………………………………………….293 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………….303 Appendix…………………………………………………………………………..318 vii List of Acronyms AGE - Alternativa Galega de Esquerda (Galician Leftist Alternative) APD - Asociación por la Paz y el Desarme (Association for Peace and Disarmament) ARECA - Asociación de Represaliados por el Desahucio de Caulina (Association of those Repressed at Caulina’s Eviction) ATTAC - Asociación por una Tasación sobre las Transacciones Financieras Especulativas para la Ayuda a los Ciudadanos (Association for a Tax on Speculative Financial Transactions in order to Help the Citizenry) BBVA - Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria Bank) BNG - Bloque Nacionalista Gallego (Galician Nationalist Block) BOE - Boletin Oficial del Estado (Official State Bulletin) CAPs Centros de Atención Primaria (Primary Care Centres) CAPH - Célula Armada de Putas Histéricas (Armed Cell of Hysterical Bitches) CCOO - Comisiones Obreras (Workers Commissions) CEOP - Coordinadora Estatal de Organizaciones Pacifistas (State-wide Coordinator of Pacifist Organizations) CESICAT - Centre de Seguretat de la Informació de Catalunya (Catalan Information Security Centre) CGPJ - Consejo General del Poder Judicial (General Council of the Judiciary) CIE - Centro de Internamiento de Extranjeros (Foreigners Internment Centre) CIS - Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (Centre for Sociological Research) CIU - Convergència i Unió (Convergence and Union) CNT - Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Confederation of Work) COAP - Comando Okupa Armado de Paciencia (Squatter Commando Armed with Patience) CSE - Coordinadora Syndical Estudiantil (Student Unions Coordinator) CSI - Central Sindical de Izquierdas (Central of Leftist Trade Unions) CSOs - Centros sociales Okupados (Occupied Social Centres) CUPs - Candidaturas d’Unitat Popular (Popular Unity Candidatures) CUT - Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (Central Union of Workers). DRY - Democracia Real Ya (Real Democracy Now) ERC - Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Catalan Republican Left) ETA - ETA Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Freedom) EU - European Union FSORE - La Federación de Sociedades de Resistencia de la Región Española