Abstract
This article asks whether the Indignados social movement can be seen as a counterpublic that is capable of fostering genuine forms of cosmopolitan citizenship. It is argued that via the artful use of the possibilities of digital media (for example, social networking Websites, live video, blogs), the Indignados social movement goes on to devise new forms of public discourse and organized protest, as well as shared ways of thinking and acting that are capable of fuelling cosmopolitan solidarity. It is suggested that the movement serves as a springboard to analyse how new forms of public communication can foster both a shared sense of European solidarity and cosmopolitan publics. Looking at examples of protest camps in various European settings and their public communication, the article puts forward the claim that the movement’s self-definition as leaderless, global, inclusive and non-hierarchical owes much to its performative dimension. This latter dimension is visible, for instance, in the theatricality of the protest camps, ludic forms of protest (for example, the carnivalesque use of the V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes’ mask), and forms of public debate and decision making that are underpinned by embodied practices (for example, silent gestures) as much as by the procedural legitimacy of rational–critical discourse. In targeting the political and financial elites (including those associated to the EU), the performance of protest offers new insights on what it means to be a European citizen against the backdrop of the EU debt crisis, the emergence of unelected governments in Italy and Greece, and the so-called ‘dictatorship of the markets’. We will see that this transnational movement goes on to engender radical modes of citizen participation that while locally rooted are also powerfully shaped and informed by the creative appropriation and reinvention of a shared repertoire of European symbols, meanings and values.
Highlights
On the 15th of May 2011 the platforms Democracia Real Ya (Real Democracy ) and Jovenes sin Futuro (Young People with No Future) organized a demonstration in Madrid’s square Puerta Del Sol that attracted unexpectedly large numbers of protestors through a call for action that went viral on Twitter
Inspired by the Arab uprisings and the struggle for democracy that dramatically unfolded in Tahrir square, the movement went on to spark a wave of occupations throughout Europe and the Occupy sit-in protests in the U.S As occupations of squares rapidly spread across Spain and other EU countries what becomes clear - against the backdrop of the EU debt crisis and unprecedented mass unemployment in many EU countries - is that underlying the indignados struggle for people’s social and economic rights (Sanchez, 2012) is a crisis of legitimacy of representative democracy
It noteworthy that while EU affairs and issues feature prominently in public debates and protest events, in their self-definition the indignados do not present themselves as a European social movement, but rather as a movement of global citizens. This is visible, for instance, in the English-speaking page of the Facebook page of the Spanish grassroots platform, Democracia Real Ya (Real Democracy ): ‘We understand this revolution is made up of global citizens facing global issues, one of our goals is to create a net of volunteers and activists from around Europe to fight for our common goal’
Summary
On the 15th of May 2011 the platforms Democracia Real Ya (Real Democracy ) and Jovenes sin Futuro (Young People with No Future) organized a demonstration in Madrid’s square Puerta Del Sol that attracted unexpectedly large numbers of protestors (around 20.000 people) through a call for action that went viral on Twitter.
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