Barcelona is a Left-wing Bastion

By Henry Srebrnik, [Summerside, PEI] Journal Pioneer

 

Nations and nationalism provide individuals with a sense of who they are and where they belong. While nations are not the only form of community to serve people in this manner, they remain privileged due to their relationship with the nation-state, the dominant form of political organization.

The Spanish nation, almost since its earliest existence has been involved in perpetual conflicts between various nationalisms, both between different ideological versions of Spanish nationalism and between Spanish majority nationalism and various minority nationalisms.

At different times in history, conflicts have occurred, as communities in contention have provided Spaniards with different senses of belonging.

Both use emotions and feelings to secure support and assert or claim sovereignty for the political community in question. This is particularly the case with the radical forms of nationalism of the Basques and Catalans.

I will be visiting Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, in May. A city noted for its left-wing politics, its insurgent mood is rooted in a centuries-long history.

In the nineteenth century, it saw the rise of strong socialist and anarchist movements. Barcelona has deep-seated republican values and was a bastion of resistance to Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939.

As war broke out, Barcelona became a centre of opposition to fascism. The various trade unions and political parties organized militias, built on democratic organizing principles, electing officers from their ranks who held no special privileges nor received higher pay.

In keeping with this tradition, Barcelona today is the heart of a new global political phenomenon known as municipalism.

Municipalist programs tend to be focused on the specific needs of a city’s residents and specific programs that address them. In Barcelona, much of the program is focused on regulating tourist industries in order to improve the lot of local residents, but also to restore some of the city’s particular character that has attracted tourism in the first place.

Launched in June 2014, Barcelona en Comu, the “platform,” as its participants call it, entered into discussions with local political parties to explore the possibility of creating a joint electoral list at the 2015 Barcelona elections. This proved a success, and it won the municipal election a year later.

Ada Colau, who became the city’s mayor, was one of the founding members of the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages in 2009 and acted as the organization’s spokesperson until 2014.

It was set up in Barcelona in 2009 in response to the rise in evictions caused by unpaid mortgage loans and the collapse of the Spanish property market in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

She rose to national prominence after calling a representative of the Spanish Banking Association a “criminal” while representing the PAH at a parliamentary hearing on the housing crisis in February 2013.

Another prominent voice in Barcelona en Comu, Marta Cruells, a feminist political scientist, was a professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona before she went to work at City Hall.

The municipal elections of 2015 were without a doubt the most important local contest since the first municipal elections following the restoration of democracy after the death of Franco.

Many citizens perceived Barcelona as having been adrift, and for them a brand-new team might not have experience but it would at least not be linked to the traditional elite.

With its slogan “It’s time to win back Barcelona,” Barcelona en Comu actively involved thousands of residents. Large meetings in different neighbourhoods helped it produce a remarkably detailed electoral programme, drawing on the normally ignored knowledge and technical expertise of “ordinary people.”

The mayor Colau even took to the airways challenging the national government “not to look the other way -- to be tough on the powerful.”

All but one of the councillors who formed the first government of Barcelona en Comu were social activists in one field or another, such as housing, who generated expectations of change.

Colau’s administration has pushed experiments in community management of space and resources, such as handing over public buildings to local communities.

The city’s next municipal contest is scheduled for May 26. All 41 seats in the City Council will be up for election. Mayor Colau will soon find out whether Barcelona en Comu will be rewarded for its policies.