Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

“Who Sows Misery Collects Rage:” Cultivating Insurrection In Crisis Barcelona, Justin Ak Helepololei

Justin AK Helepololei

Barcelona as cosmopolitan, business hub and tourist destination can seem the antithesis of popular, anticapitalist struggle. And yet a walk through the city reveals a diffusion of efforts to resurrect Barcelona's insurrectionary past. Forms of embodied contestation are increasingly common features of the urban landscape: loud marches defend squatted social centers as displaced families take back bank-owned apartments. Protesters armed with pots and pans occupy schools and hospitals, draping building facades with banners explaining this endless economic downturn “no és crisi, és capitalisme!” While the spectacular encampments of Spain's 15M movement have been long evicted from public plazas, indignados continue …