Miguel Caetano on the self-organized precarity movement in Portugal
Miguel Afonso Caetano sent this to our mailing list this morning:
“Greeting, dear all from Portugal. I know haven’t participated in any way in this list yet but the fact is that generally there is not much happening in a true P2P-sense around here for me to contribute anything of relevance to the list. Until yesterday. I thought that my fellow citizens were generally extremely apathetic, individualistic and subservient. But yesterday this changed with the occurence of a mass demonstration against precariousness and unemployment that gathered almost 300,000 people in Lisbon’s biggest avenue. Read the Washington Post and Reuters’ reports here:
* www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/12/AR2011031202958.html
* www.hindustantimes.com/Massive-rallies-in-Portugal-as-more-austerity-planned/Article1-672787.aspx
Spanish newspapers El País and El Mundo also mentioned the rally:
* www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2011/03/12/internacional/1299954717.html
Some photos and videos:
* www.flickr.com/photos/bloco_de_esquerda/sets/72157626125803349/show/
* www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7PpsTOqYLA
It was fabulous, it was huge! Never in my 35-years of existence in this country ever had I seen something so spontaneous, non-hierarchical, bottom-up and leaderless as this demonstration. Traditionally, all major “civic” events in Portugal have been organized by political parties, unions or the Church with promotional aid by the mainstream media.
Not this one. It all emerged from Facebook, in an almost bottom-up fashion. Some left-wing parties have naturally tried to co-opt the movement, associating themselves with the protesters, providing propaganda, etc. But all-in-all it was a unique moment. I sincerely hope this can be the start of something really big, inclusive and participative 
Civil society around here is still very incipient. Since April 25 of 1974, The State has gorged all the economy’s resources and now that it is buried in debts, the biggest opposition party wants to privatize everything and sell all the assets that weren’t already sold to the huge corporations who have profited from privileged ties with the current ruling government by way of public-private partnerships to fund the construction of numerous highways, bridges or high-speed trains. With the enormous consolidation of the economy that has been going on, no wonder people have no jobs or have to live in perpetual precariousness! And still, there are some critics who dismiss the complains of the protesters, accusing them of lack of self-esteem, spirit of entrepreneurship or even of having chosen a wrong educational path.
Sure, there was some recycling of the icons and ideologies of the April Revolution, specifically its communist and marxist roots: “comrades” here and there, lots of complains and no consistent alternatives to present for the future of the society. People still have a very naïve perspective of the State’s role. But to sum up: I think this is the right moment to spread the P2P ethos here in Portugal. Leaderless movements like this one are inherently open and syncretic. Thus, they can be partially appropriated by organized institutional agents; however they cannot be totally co-opted by them. Otherwise, they become closed. I estimate that there will be even more massive demonstrations before people realize they will need to organize between themselves in practical terms in their daily lives and not to expect everything from the government. “
