sticks and stones and pots and pans
national |
miscellaneous |
news report 
Wednesday April 02, 2003 22:45
by ipsiphi iosaf - espai alliberat contre la guerre
ipsiphi at diplomats dot com
barcelona.
Cacerola. a form of protest and civil disobedience.
On the night of December 1st 1971, housewives marked the first day of Fidel Castro's twenty five day visit to Allende's Chile by banging their pots and pans.
The Cacerola has since been part of South American protest culture.
On the 11th of September 1974 the housewives of Santiago saw General Pinoochet with CIA support topple the democratically elected governemnt of Allende.
They had no opportunity to perform "la Cacerola" till the return of "democracy" to their country many many years later.
The return of "democracy" was assisted by the CIA.
When the people of Argentina saw their banks fail as a result of the imposed regulations of the World Bank and IMF and the failed policy of Dollari$ation (which was supported by the CIA), the masses returned again to "La Cacerola".
Barcelona has now for eight days performed "la Cacerola" it is a sign of kinship with the South American peoples many of whom have fled their cotinent in search of a better life.
groups such as "Yo Mango Tango" actively encourage "La Cacerola" by walking the streets with their pots and pans.
Barcelona's nightly "Noise" is heard throughout the city from 22h00-22h15.
Other cities have experienced a few nights of noise, this a form of non-offensive protest, it is quite moving to walk through a high density city and ˛know˛ that in most homes the most essential utensils that is the kitchen ware is being used to express the popualar mandate.
London is not practising La Cacerola, Italy and Madrid are.
I do not know if Irish cities are,
but is very easy to do.
We today spoke about many facets of our campaigns here in BCN that are not being replicated in other cities.
It was suggested that perhaps the lower density of living space in Northern European cities such as Dublin discourages "La Cacerola".
Perhaps.
But it is very good therapy.
Find some kitchenware, find a spoon, and bang them.
South America has given us most of the answers we pretend to seek. I wrote long long ago before the first mass demonstrations against this war that Venezueala is key.
And it still is.
Tomorrow I shall tell you about other protest techniques that we have anaylised here and feel may work well elsewhere.
meanwhile, enjoy stretching acoustic pollution.
enjoy breaching the silence of massed TV watching.
When the WAR that is their WAR enters your home, invades your livingroom, remember the real WAR that is the quotidien search for food, future, shelter.
Connect these things in your mind and make some noise. I assure you that the ˛real news˛ shall not be missed.
Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4are you the guy organising the spanish embassy protest cos no-one was there yesterday?
NYC is using the “Puke and Heave” method
See: http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=40120
and elsewhere......................
by ipsiphi - espai alliberat Thu, Apr 3 2003, 12:49pm
Yesterday the Mayor of Barcelona the Socialist Mr Jean Clos met with representatives of the platform
"aturem la guerre". ( "stop war".)
He has confirmed the support of the municipal authorities for the campaign against the War.
The flags of the city, Catalonia and Spain will continue to be flown at half mast from the "Ajuntament" building.
However he has asked that the blockades and sitdown protests mostly attended by students and young people be co-ordinated in some way so as to avoid the disruption of Barcelona's normal working life.
Since the beginning of the War, there have been three occupational protest camps.
Everyday tens of thousands of students and workers from different faculties and unions have engaged in protest marches which have generally converged on the city centre.
Barcelona loses approx €8,000,000 a day to such disruption.
Thus the pacifists with their poorly co-ordinated "dis-organised" protests have wiped close to a hundred million € off the city's profit.
In exchange for less disruptive protests, Clos has agreed to allocate a "pacifist" dimension to the Forum 2004 which is the largest urban regeneration project in Europe.
It has long been a source of contention for groups interested not only in pacifism but also housing issues that the Forum2004 seeks to sell housing at €2,500 a square metre.
The Catalan Republican party ERC which operates a four party electoral alliance in Catalonia [with the two Green parties and one Socialist marxist block] has accordingly started a campiagn to register one million signaturies for a demand for social housing not only in the Forum2004 area but in Barcelona as a whole.
Last night "la Cacerola" lasted in central BCN from 22h00 to 03h00. Barcelona is known to be the third most noisy city in Europe. The Socialist mayor has been accused of allowing himself to be manipulated by the radical left parties by both centre right ruling party of Catalonia and the reconstructed fascist nationalist party PP (the party of Aznar), itself a marginal party in BCN.
The offices of the PP throughout the Peninsula have been consistently attacked since the declaration of War, and more than fifty of these offices are thought to be non-functional.
A spokesperson for the PP has spoken at length on TV about the consistent attack on freedom of speech and democractic participation of the PP from the "radical left". The final phase of illegalisation of HB the Basque seperatist party is before the national courts, this policy the brainchild of Aznar's PP will seek to ban HB from reforming under another name and contesting future elections.
The 50 offices of the HB were closed by State order just short of the 25 year anniversary of the passing of the "democratic party laws" which saw Spain become a quasi-federal democracy in the 1970s.
mna na cogadh.
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