A complete turnaround

At university, I went on many CND rallies.  Later, I joined protests against the nuclear facility at Sellafield, previously known as Windscale.  Later still, I was at Greenham common.  My last year in England was largely taken up organising a local Reclaim the Night movement and event.  I attended anti-Iraq war demonstrations both in Spain and in London (not simultaneously, you understand).  To name some of the better known movements I used to be involved in.

For years while I was teaching English here in Spain, I was astounded and disheartened by my Spanish (university) students’ passive attitude to politics and politicians.  Yes, they considered all politicians corrupt and all political parties irrelevant, but they felt that all protest was utterly pointless.  They themselves would say that their only interest was surviving within an imperfect system.  And by surviving, they invariably meant: get a job, buy a home, get married and have children, in that order.

I am delighted to see that they appear to have had a change of heart*.  This past week, young Spanish people have been protesting.  What started in Madrid has now spread to most of Spain and beyond.  They are fed up of this (from South of Watford, my primary source of Spanish news), and are demanding this.

And where was I, once such an active member of what was frequently described in the English press as “rent-a-mob”?

I am less delighted to see how things have turned around.  Last night, when demonstrations were being held all over the country, I was at home watching a DVD, totally absorbed in my own little world.   I realise that I, now, concentrate on surviving within an imperfect system.  Thus I missed the cacerolada (an appropriately noisy form of protest for Spain) held at my local town.

Whilst I am not proud of my present passivity, I am, at the same time, glad that young Spanish people are finally shaming me with their more dedicated involvement.  Tommorow I will vote in the local elections: I wish these young people more luck with effecting democratic change than my vote or activism have ever had.

*Possibly because it is no longer possible for them to survive within an imperfect system, thanks to the economic crisis.  Also, I am rather simplifying here – political activism among younger people has been steadily growing in Spain since the inception of the anti-Iraq war and anti-globalisation movements here.