Municipalist
politics
in action

Thanks to all the people whowith their contribution havemade this book possible.

published by Fundació Sentit Comúthe work is provided under the termsof a creative commons attributionnoncommercial-sharealike 4.0 international public
license — cc BY-nc-sa 4.0
First edition: september 2022
Edited by Júlia Miralles-de-Imperialtranslation Subtil. | Ailish Holly and Maria Frieltext revision Subtil. | Dustin Langan and Maria Friel
Graphic design and layout Pilar Sola | pilarsola.com
isBn: 978-84-09-43226-4
printing and binding: cevagraf
impreso en España — Printed in Spain
45

Contents
Introduction

8

Building the municipalist movement

10

GettinG our hands dirty: stories of activists and electoral politics· Barcelona: municipalism in practice. Elena Tarifa· social movements and the rise of municipalism in Bologna:
a little introduction, a little context. Francesco Gentilini y Emily Clancy· Why local power? Maga Miranda

12
13
17
25

a journEY throuGh thE historY oF MunicipalisM· Municipalism has a history. let’s learn from it. Kate Shea Baird· Municipal socialism in the 1980s: the london experience. Owen Hatherley· chicago: Economic development under harold Washington (1983-1987).
Pierre Clavel· the municipalist tradition in modern spanish politics. Pamela Radcliff

28
29
33
39

orGanizinG in thE 2020s: challenGes and innovationsat international level· organizing in the 2020s: an introduction. Steve Hughes· organizing: challenges and innovations. Kate Shea Baird y Bea Martínez· towards a leaderful discipline. Gabe Tobias· reflections on this movement moment. Maurice Mitchell46

New challenges, new policy

43

47
49
55
61
64

takinG puBlic spacE Back· reconquering the city: a revolution in urban space. Anke Kleff y César Ochoa· superblock Barcelona. Alícia Puig
· the first superblock in Barcelona: roadmap for implementation. Patrick Kappert

66
67
69
71

the city as a home: the riGht to housinG· introduction. Guillem Pujol· tourism: a key factor for the right to housing in many towns. José Manuel Mejías· living and gaining rights in the European labyrinth. Ana Fernández

76
77
79
83

transForMinG hoW WE carE
· care tasks and community solidarity. Luisa Broto Bernués· Moving towards the city of care: the case of Barcelona. Gemma Tarafa Orpinell,
Carolina Recio Cáceres y Elia Gran

86
87
91

can we thrive without economic Growth?
· towards a new economic model: an introduction. Toni Ribas· no fear of economic degrowth. Gabriela Cabaña· More green energy, more local industry, more jobs. Eloi Badia,
Christo Casas y Quique Gornés

96
97
99
103

6

prison islands and thE MunicipalitiEs standinG up to FortrEss EuropE· lesbos. Lara Lussón· lampedusa, a frontier island in the heart of the Mediterranean.
Antonello Ravetto Antinori· Barcelona: the city that wants to be a refuge within Fortress Europe. Marc Serra

106
107
111

orGanizations and cities from a feminist perspective· the feminist movement: a lever for social change. Eva Abril· What are feminist policies? an approach from the feminist network.
Nieves Salobral Martín

118
119
121

citiEs takinG carE oF thE planEt· transforming the economic model from city councils.
Tània Corrons y Álvaro Porro· the climate challenge and social justice: cities take action! Eric Piolle

124
125

115

129

arE loBBiEs alMiGhtY?
· how do lobbies shape our cities? Beatriz Gomes Dias,
Isabel Pires, Vasco Barata and Ricardo Moreira· complaints, fake news and online harassment: defending the rightto the city against Barcelona’s big landowners. Janet Sanz

132
133

is a Municipalist policinG possiBlE?
· a municipalist response to public safety. Lucia Morale· campaigns for democratic and local accountability in london
in the 1980s. Nadine Finch

140
141
145

lEt’s stand up to thE Far riGht!
· confronting hate on social media. Javier Toret· the neurosis of the extreme right and the joy of bonding. María Eugenia R. Palop· some reflections for the fight against the extreme right. Gerardo Pisarello

148
149
151
155

transparent and fair municipalities: challenGinG
corruption and orGanizEd criME· Municipalities against corruption. Júlia Miralles de Imperial· are cities at higher risk of corruption? What are the mechanismsof corruption for cities? Eliška Drápalová· the city and corruption. Joan A. Llinares· money laundering, tax fraud and financial corruption in the eu:
what it is and how to fight it. Ernest Urtasun and Jesús Hernández

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161
163
169
173

Epilogue

178

Bios

186

7

IntroduCtIon

In 2017, the international municipal movement met inBarcelona with the aim of fostering global networks built
on solidarity and hope. This summit served as a catalyst
for municipalism and its expansion across all continents.
Over the course of the following years, regional gatheringsof Fearless Cities were held in Warsaw, New York, Brussels,
Valparaíso, Naples and Belgrade, demonstrating the organisational strength of the global movement for ordinary people’s right to cities and towns.
This book gathers some of the debates that took place inJuly 2021 during the second global edition of Fearless Cities,
which emerged with the ambition to tackle the most challenging and provocative issues that cities, towns and rural
areas are currently facing.
Who really calls the shots in our cities? What would aqueer municipalism look like? Is it possible to end violenceagainst people and the planet?
Municipalism is defined by its transformative will. That’s why
we don’t shy away from complex debates or difficult decisions.
For us, “Fearless” means being brave enough to reach out tothose who think differently, strong enough to be vulnerable and bold enough to get involved in the reality of a placeinstead of watching what’s happening from the sidelines.
In the first edition, we already defended that we possess
something capable of overcoming fear: something as simple and yet as difficult, as strong and yet as fragile, as hope.
Five years later, and within the context of ecological, social and economic crises, we are more convinced than everthat our only option is to speak plainly about our fears andthink together about how we can face them.
Let us reclaim the power of proximity, learn from each otherand keep growing our global network!

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BuildinG thE
Municipalist
movement

10

11

GettInG our hands
dIrty: storIes
of aCtIvIsts andeleCtoral polItICs

Barcelona:
MunicipalisM in practicE
Elena Tarifa“they want us lonely, but they will find us in common” was theslogan of the election campaign that in 2015 led our municipalist project to govern Barcelona city council. and the fact
is that, against all odds, for the first time the city had common
people at the head of the municipal institution, thanks to theunity of so many people and organisations that decided to takea step forward together.
Barcelona en comú did not come out of nowhere. it all began in june 2014
when a group of people from social movements in the city, such as the pah,a platform for people struggling with mortgages, neighbourhood activists,various cooperative and social movements and individuals came together toencourage the progressive political parties and movements of the time tojoin a municipalist project that would return the city to its residents for the
next municipal elections in May 2015.
in previous years we had taken to the streets and social media but, nevertheless, we found that change was blocked from above, by formal power. thetime had come to take back the institutions and put them at the service ofthe common good. We decided to take back the city for its residents throughBarcelona en comú, a public platform led by activists and ordinary people.
We decided to go local because it is a way to get close to the people, wherechanges are more palpable and closer and where residents’ diverse participation in the different political approaches for the city is possible. We also
wanted to commit to innovative policies that could change people’s daily
lives and in which they would play leading roles.
after seven years, and regardless of how long we are at the helm, Barcelona
city council will never be the same again. there is a watershed moment
when ordinary people joined the institutions, because innovative municipalist projects and policies have been implemented. For example, Barcelona haselected its first female mayor, ada colau, an anti-eviction activist and an ordinary person, not from the political class; a code of Ethics has been established that limits the salaries of our elected representatives and the number

1213

of mandates; and feminism has been put at the forefront of our policies, withthe creation of the first councillor’s office for feminism and lGBti affairs
in Barcelona city council, the gender mainstreaming unit under municipal
management and the pioneering lGtBi centre, while actions that improve
the lives of many women have been promoted, such as the free municipal
childcare service for the most vulnerable families.
other examples of daring policies have been the special tourist
accommodation plan (pEuat), an instrument to regulate and limit tourist flats, which has helped Barcelona city council to reverse the process ofpushing residents out of the city centre, and the commitment to a healthy,
greener, fairer and safer public space that encourages social relations and the
local economy, with super city Blocks, green hubs designed to reclaim partof the space currently occupied by private vehicles for citizens. the creationof the first municipal public and green energy company, Barcelona energia,
and the launch of a free municipal dental service for people with fewer resources are additional achievements.
But if there is one thing that has been particularly impacted, it has been thecloser relationship with residents, allowing them to participate in the main
decisions of the city through new forms of participation. in this regard, we
passed a new municipal regulation on participation that was rejected by
the high court of justice, as it allowed popular residents’ initiatives, suchas that presented to municipalise the city’s water supply, which is a great
threat to the company that currently supplies it and consequently was appealed in the courts.
We have also promoted what we call e-democracy through the use of the free
software platform decidim.barcelona, which has been shared with residents
and with other municipalities and institutions, and which has served bothto collectively construct our electoral programme and to prioritise the actions of the Municipal and district action plan by the city’s residents. it has
also been the instrument for voting on the hundreds of projects presented
by residents in the city’s first participatory Budgeting, where the €30 million
investment of the 2022 municipal budget has been directly decided by those
who participated in the different rounds of voting.
We haven’t forgotten where we come fromanother one of our 2015 campaign slogans was: “We will never forget where
we come from”. for us, the institution is a tool, not an end in itself. the movement we have built, that of the Comuns (“commons”), is now more important than ever to consolidate a more participatory form of government, to

14

support the political approaches taken by Barcelona city council, to be able
to influence the institution inside and out by taking care of our links withsocial movements and to build our own discourse outside of the institution.
one of the challenges from outside the municipal council is to manage expectations about what we can really do and what we want to do, because
we cannot do everything. another challenge is the relationship with social
movements; are we part of these movements? in any case, being inside theinstitution, we must not lose sight of the demands of the movements, something that is not easy but absolutely necessary, bearing in mind that sometimes they can be much more demanding with the policies that we proposeor that we can implement and that there are also emerging movements towhich we must pay heed.
in this sense, it helps that many of Barcelona en comú’s activists come fromneighbourhood associations and diverse social movements; this helps to keep
the channels of communication open. also, the fact that we have assembliesof the Comuns in almost all the neighbourhoods of Barcelona helps to maintain this dialogue with different local social and civil actors. in this sense,
we try to maintain real-time communication channels between the municipal councillors of Barcelona en comú and the organisation, through specificspaces and regular meetings, to try to combine day-to-day decisions withjoint reflection with the organisation on how to achieve long-term changes.
Furthermore, we have to deal with media that are against us, controlled by
the elite and the big economic groups, in addition to the countless legal actions and strategic lawsuits (lawfare) against our most radical policies, suchas that against the special tourist accommodation plan or those filed against
the mayor and some councillors by vulture funds for forcing them to offer
social rent to vulnerable families.
another challenge has undoubtedly been to govern in coalition with thesocialists’ party of catalonia (psc) and to reach broad agreements with theother groups on major city issues. thus, we are aware that working for a citymodel that puts people and sustainable living at the centre must be compatible with reaching agreements on issues that can get more majority support,
and that we must build on small victories to advance towards major changes
that need the majority support of the population.
Local changes, global effects
although working at the local level was our starting point, from the beginning, those of us who participated in Barcelona en comú were certain thatthe democratic rebellion in Barcelona would not just be a local phenomenon.

15

We wanted Barcelona to be the trigger for a citizens’ revolution in catalonia,
spain, Europe and beyond, working side by side with citizen platforms similar
to ours that won in other cities in spain and internationally, as well as with
progressive and citizen platforms with the aim of changing the current neoliberal political and economic regime from below.
thus emerged Fearless cities, an informal global movement of activists, organisations, councillors and mayors working to radicalise democracy, feminise politics and drive the transition to an economy that puts care for people
and planet at the centre.
the first fearless cities event was organized by Barcelona en comú in 2017
and was attended by more than 700 people representing more than 100 municipal organisations from all continents. the book documenting this firstfearless cities meeting has already been translated into five languages.
since then, local municipalist platforms have organised decentralised regional fearless cities events in Brussels, valparaiso, new york, warsaw,
Belgrade and naples, until this second edition of Fearless cities online in thesummer of 2021, showing that local changes achieve global effects. Whether
from the institution or from activism, we will continue to work in a network,
together, so that municipalism can be a real engine for change in people’s
lives anywhere in the world.

social movements andthE risE oF MunicipalisM
in BoloGna: a little
introduction, a littlEcontExt
Francesco Gentilini and Emily Clancy
the relationship between Bologna and the international left isbigger than someone would guess by simply wandering throughthe streets of this not-so-big city that lies 80 kilometers northof Florence, on the other side of the apennines. the story ofthis relationship could more or less be told through the tales of
two main characters.
first of all, it must be said that, throughout the “short twentieth century”,
Bologna has been the main stronghold of the largest communist party in theWestern world, the partito comunista d’italia (pci). For as long as the pci existed, it governed Bologna. not only that, but the party was an omnipresent
body in the city’s life: in the mid-1970s, approximately 35% of Bologna’s population was officially registered as a member of the pci. today, in the age of “liquid
parties” and post-modern politics, even trying to conceive a political organization that could gather such massive popular support is nigh on impossible.
the other leading character in the story is the universe of leftist movementsthat fought for the emancipation and recognition of “new” political subjectivities, whilst also pushing for more radical reforms between 1968 and 1978.
Make no mistake, this universe was wildly diverse and some of its components often collided with each other. nevertheless, all these movements often
openly challenged the local communist administration and just as often put
themselves in open opposition to the party. akin to what happened in manyother countries, the young, student-centered social movements were trying
to replace the old, grey values and ways of the communist party. as often was
the case, the party responded with a heavy hand when necessary, just likewhen in 1977 Bologna’s mayor renato zangheri and the pci’s secretary Enrico
Berlinguer praised the police and the army for clearing the student-occupied

16

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streets in the university neighborhood of clashes that, among other accidents, resulted in the death of 25-year-old student Francesco lorusso.

and betrayal for those who once believed in the glorious prophecies of thesocialist and communist parties.

this dual dynamic of conflict and dialogue is what has always fueled the dialectic around the italian left’s main points of debate, in Bologna just as in therest of the country. the party and the social Movements have always beennatural-born adversaries in a way, with vastly incompatible values of reference. and such a dynamic still goes on today.

nevertheless, as the party was slowly moving away from its tradition, thesocial Movements found new strength by refreshing and rebooting theirs.
With the arrival of the 1990s, new organizations arrived on the scene, newuprisings took place and new social spaces were occupied and began toself-manage themselves. student unions took to the streets again and theno-global movement began to shape new forms of civil disobedience andcreative political demonstration. the universe of italian movements kept on
gaining momentum until the G8 of 2001 in Genoa, when the state decided torepress their demands in blood once more. twenty-four years after lorusso’s
murder, carlo Giuliani was killed at point blank by a policeman during clashes
at piazza alimonda. his dead body, captured by news agency photographers,
became the symbol of the death of the movement’s struggle as a unified front.

Fast forwarding to a decade later, many things began to change. only two
years after the fall of the Berlin wall, the history of the italian left was once
again re-shaped in Bologna: with the explicit desertion of any direct reference
to the communist tradition, the pci suddenly became the pds (democratic
party of the left), leading to a schism that saw the birth of a number of communist parties that aimed to be the new voice of the italian radical left. thisturning point is what today many see as the beginning of an end: the end of
the old left who made social justice, worker’s rights and wealth redistribution their primary values.
nevertheless, it was surely a beginning too: from then on, the newly adopted social-democratic agenda of the newborn democratic party (“partito
democratico” is the name that the party has assumed since 2008, dropping– not casually – the world “left” from its name) began to make way for new,“post-modern” sets of values and views while getting rid of the old slogans
and dogmas. it’s through this relentless process that a sort of italian version of tony Blair’s “third way” came to see the light of day since the early
1990s, opening the party’s gates to the acceptance of some of the politicalright’s worst features (neoliberalism, the privatization of public services –from schools to health –, tougher repression towards migrants, to mention
just a few) while holding onto some of the most problematic legacies fromthe pci’s past (a deep annoyance at self-managed and occupied squats andsocial spaces – which they often had cleared thanks to police intervention –,a strongly industrially-centered view of economic development that did notalways take into account the consequences for the environment and climatechange). twenty-five years later, the process culminated in the democratic
party’s leadership being taken over by Matteo renzi (who has today left the
party to fund his own political organization, “italia viva”, the closest thing
to an italian version of spain’s “ciudadanos”). renzi’s leadership ratified andsanctioned the definitive desertion of any socialist heritage of the party(which, must be said, had been under constant erosion since 1991 and, therefore, was easy prey to renzi’s campaign), re-locating it within the politicalspace. such a tendency led the way for a nationwide sense of abandonment18

the following years, therefore, saw a new equilibrium: while the party quickly moved away from its roots, the Movements tried to bounce back from their“defeat”. neither were dead, but neither were what they used to be before.
these were also the years of Berlusconi’s “regime” and, most importantly,
cultural involution: through decisive and pervasive control of a large shareof the national media, the new leader of the italian center-right managed to
set the agenda for many of the topics that engaged the attention of public
opinion. the impact of those decades of cultural regression and political distortion of constitutional values is hitting harder than ever in today’s times. tomake matters worse, the decline of Berlusconi’s era came with the rise of agrotesque new political agenda, not unlike the one that many other European
countries experienced: the era of austerity. although it never apparently hit
as hard as in other states, like Greece and spain, the troika’s dogmas of political economics dealt a highly devastating blow to the already not-so-sounditalian welfare state.
in such conditions, the left and its diverse souls have struggled to find away to represent an alternative for the italian people: the party can’t help
but lose members and voters, while the Movements have been struggling totake back the scene and impose their agendas. in the meantime, the rightappears to steadily gain momentum as the years pass. and the more it gains
momentum, the more right-wing parties turn into radical organizations with
neo-fascist sympathies. after all, differently to every other south-European
country, italy has never witnessed a leftist answer to the everlasting politicalcrisis of recent decades. some victories have been celebrated, but the overall
political picture of the country’s last 30 years is quite grey. definitely neither
red, nor green.

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A civic coalition of citizens takes the stage
in such grim times for the country’s national political situation that was once
home of the largest communist party in the Western world, a new horizonof progressive political agency is emerging in the city. in 2016, a few months
before the municipal elections, a group of Bologna’s citizens decided to try tochange the situation of their local context. their personal stories were very
different, but they saw that as an opportunity for mutual enrichment rather
than as an obstacle. they thus decided to form a coalition of political subjectivities who found common ground in a set of values and practices. their“civicness” and political engagement were the weapons that they sought touse in order to influence their local administration: this is the reason why
they decided to call their organization “coalizione civica”.
refusing to identify their organization as “just another leftist party”, they
began to shape their identity by putting forward a horizontal, non-hierarchical approach: the electoral program and the statute of the association were
decided through a participatory process and, following the same approach,coalizione civica selected its candidates through open primaries (following
the example of podemos party’s “primarias ciudadanas”). that was the occasion for many citizens to take part in a real political laboratory of municipalism, whose goal was to gather the city’s best political and social practices,prioritizing the city’s needs over individual experience.
despite the blatant neglect of local media covering the electoral campaign,coalizione civica managed to gain 7% of the votes and to elect six representatives in local institutions: two members of the city council, as well as one
member in Bologna’s four out of six neighborhood councils. But, besides themere electoral result, there is one element worth mentioning to fully grasp
the result of coalizione’s first run for public office: those six people camefrom very different and diverse political experiences; leftist parties, citizen
movements for public schooling, social movements and occupied social spaces. all of these worlds came together to form the universe that coalizione
civica managed to create, building a bridge between different political visions and traditions with the goal of taking over (or better still, “taking back”)
the city.
following the 2016 elections, it was the time to build a solid and efficient – yetas horizontal as possible – internal structure. First of all, coalizione civica,
besides being a formal association of citizens, is what in italy is identified asa “lista civica” (the definition of a party list presented at a local election withno official connection to a national political party and that mostly campaigns
on local issues). in the history of the city, not a single “lista civica” had ever20

lasted longer than a single electoral appointment. our goal was to changethat by building a space of political agency beyond national political parties that could be sustained over time. a space of connection between social
struggles working from the bottom-up and the top-down institutional levels; a space that could be the common house of every citizen that wishes tocontribute to a dual-power struggle to reshape the city.
therefore, we drafted the organization’s statute and organized our action
into “territorial groups” (divided by neighborhood) and “thematic groups”.
Moreover, we decided that every leadership role of the organization mustbe filled by a gender-based diarchy. soon enough, other cities saw the birthof organizations that openly emulate coalizione civica’s structure and approach: the most famous and successful of those being our “sister” coalizione
civica padova, which was set up in 2017 and immediately managed to form
part of the local government after their first participation in padova’s municipal elections. the common model is that of a “political civicness”, which
may sound like an oxymoron but, on the contrary, represents a radically new
approach to leftist action: the intersection of different experiences, organizations and life stories is the fertilizer that allows every participant to keep
their own experience and language while still being able to communicate andcooperate with the others. We like to say that everyone is mutually refusing
to wear individual political “uniforms” to put on that of coalizione civica.
through all these years, while building alliances with hundreds of activists
from vastly diverse backgrounds, we managed to influence the city’s public
opinion on a number of issues (from the need to reduce inequalities to theright to housing; from workers’ rights to the fight for the environment; fromsustainable mobility to the struggle for public schooling, and so on). Besides
our everyday activities, our long-term goal is to construct a new, radical political hegemony in Bologna.
over their first five years in the city council, coalizione civica stood opposedto the democratic party’s administration of mayor virginio merola. our motto for the mandate was “to govern from the opposition” (#governaredallopposizione), meaning that our main goal was to try to find every possible way
to make the administration’s agenda steer as left as possible. it clearly was
not always easy, but our struggle has yielded some tangible results: among
others, one of our biggest wins was stopping the urban forest known as “pratidi caprara” from being cemented over. thanks to a strong alliance with agroup of citizen committees, we managed to protect a green lung with morethan 45 acres of trees and plants from the construction of malls, residentialbuildings and a private multi-level car park. What was the administration’s
official project for the area three years ago has today become unfathomable,

21and the whole city is now aware of this ecological struggle. and that, in our
opinion, is a good example of hegemony.
Besides focusing on local struggles, it has always been clear to coalizione
civica that a municipalist movement’s action must be intertwined with thenational and European context. We are proud members of the Fearless cities
network and we entertain good relationships with other organizations fromall over the continent, from Barcelona to Barletta, from amsterdam to naples,from turin to la coruña, and so on. nevertheless, we have always believedin the importance of granting internal pluralism, and in every member of ourorganization being free to adhere to any other political space or project provided it was not in direct competition with coalizione civica at the local level.
From governing from the opposition to governing fromthe government
the year 2021 has been the year in which coalizione civica has finally managed to become part of the city’s government: after months of negotiations
over who then came to be the democratic party’s candidate for mayor,
Matteo lepore, coalizione signed a public electoral agreement that engaged
the future mayor on seven key points for the upcoming mandate. this process was completely public and open to debate and contributions from mere
sympathizers and, of course, from members of the organization too. the coreof the signed agreement is the product of years of mutual political input ofcoalizione civica’s working groups and their ownership is collective. thatis how we managed to take the demands and contributions of many of thecity’s movements and put them directly on the administration’s agenda. it
took five years, but we made it happen. clearly, not all of our agenda has beentranslated into the electoral program, but the negotiating process, led by
our Emily clancy (now deputy mayor of Bologna), saw us obtain many of theresults we wished for. not only that, but in recent elections coalizione civica
increased its number of members elected in local institutions by four: whilein 2016 we could count on two representatives in the city council and four inthe neighborhood councils, today we rely on three of our members electedin the city council, twelve in the neighborhood councils and, as mentioned
before, the seat of deputy Mayor of Bologna.

“coalizione civica ecologista coraggiosa e solidale”. now we have to cement
these new relationships to further grow and expand our capacity to exert an
impact on the city. thanks to our work in the last six years, we managed tomove the political axis of the city’s administration (after at least a decade ofexcessive conservatism, to say the least) much more to the left.
just a year before the elections, many of us thought that forming a coalition
with the democratic party was an impossible task to achieve. now, we findourselves in this new venture and it is safe to say that the challenges and difficulties are exceeded by the satisfaction of being able to actively influence
the muncipality’s policies. We believe that it is from such a position of powerthat we can better serve the city. still, we do not want power at any cost:working within the contradictions without contradicting yourself is no easy
feat, but we reckon it is worth a try. only the next five years will tell us if wemade the right bet. in the meantime, what we are aspiring to in Bologna issomething that also speaks to the whole country: in times in which the left
has to face the most barbaric right parties since WWii and social democratic parties are often highly contaminated by the fumes of neoliberal values,
coalizione civica is trying to show that an alternative is possible, and thatthe old values of our communitarian and socialist heritage are still extremely
relevant. all they need is a little adaptation to our times. together, we believe,
we can still triumph.

now we are facing a new phase, filled with new challenges and perspectives.
Being a part of the city’s government, we had to adapt our approach to socialand political change. We are also undergoing a process of restructuring theorganization to better fit this phase. during the recent electoral campaign,
we opened our doors to meet new people, some of which also became candidates on our lists. that’s why, during the campaign, we called ourselves

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WhY local poWEr?
Maga Miranda
i am 30 years old, the same number of years that since thesocial revolt in october 2019 in chile have been seen as responsible for the inequality and abuse affecting our country today. “it’s not 30 pesos, it’s 30 years”, was one of the slogans thatmanaged to capture the discontent expressed in the different
types of protests that have shaken different corners of ourcountry since october, against the 30-peso rise in the santiago
underground fare. thirty years, marked by the governmentsof the concertación [coalition of centre-left political parties],
once opponents of the civilian-military dictatorship that ruled
the country for 17 years, after the coup d’État on 11 september
1973, which took over a chile determined to recover democracywith the plebiscite of october 1988. the promise was also tobring justice and compensation to the thousands of victims of
the state genocide perpetrated by augusto pinochet and theconspiratorial right.
the promise of the political parties of the concertación was that “happinessis coming”. however, despite the macroeconomic indicators, the per capita
income and our participation in the oEcd, happiness never came. on thecontrary, what came was inequality, the relaxation of employment laws andlabour market precariousness, a rise in living costs and the feeling that, despite everyone’s best efforts, the salary could not cover basic needs, such as
housing, health and education.
it was in education where the crisis erupted for the first time since the return to democracy, because although the groups of victims of human rights
violations were always demanding justice, truth, compensation and guarantees of non-recurrence, the truth is that they did not become massive
demands, as was the case with what was known as the “penguin revolution”
in 2006, a movement i took part in as a secondary school student. With thatrevolution, pinochet’s illegitimate constitution was challenged for the firsttime. it also challenged the failed policy of market-based municipalisation of
public education.

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From then on, secondary students became actors and political subjects in a
movement that only grew as the years passed, partly due to the continuous“belittlement” we were subjected to by the government authorities of the time.
it was also the “penguins” (secondary school students dressed in navy andwhite uniforms who were given this nickname by citizens) who jumped thefirst turnstile in the massive days of protest, avoiding the santiago underground, who started the revolt in october 2019 and who have led us to theverge of perhaps one of the most important democratic processes in recent
decades: writing a new Fundamental charter in a constitutional convention
composed 100% of members elected by universal vote, with gender parity
and seats reserved for indigenous peoples.
it is important to highlight that we are witnessing the birth of a new chile,
one that has woken up and expressed itself clearly against an exclusive economic, social and political model. this is an opportunity to build a new chile
together, one that gives a voice and space to those of us who have been systematically excluded from major decisions, which in turn, entail enormous
responsibility.
What we chose in May 2021 proved to be much more than a constituent member, a regional governor, a mayor or a councillor. What we chose was the opportunity to build the country in which we want to live in the years to come,to revert the antidemocratic cycle and emerge from the post-dictatorshipand to break away from pinochet’s legacy, both in terms of local governments
and the constitution.

of need, to the idea of contributing to the emergence of democracy fromlocal power, facilitating public participation through town councils. But also,
understanding that if the changes we wish are to take place, we need to participate on all fronts, perhaps in the small role of the town council, but also in
the writing of the new constitution and the presidential debate.
on 4 july 2021, the promulgation ceremony of the convention took place inan historic, unprecedented event, with gender parity and seats reserved forindigenous peoples. i am certain that this process will open up our democracy, changing the rules of the game so that those who have been marginalised
thus far become the ones to take the helm of our country. this was followedby the debate around the presidential elections in november of the same
year. the debate was about two matters: to safeguard the constituent process and for executive power to accompany the popular mandate of transformations proposed in the social outburst, with important reforms to thepension system, tax collection and the redistribution of power.
the opportunity we have today, with the government of Gabriel Boric, beyond the action of political parties, is the beginning of a real democracy,
which achieves these two objectives and does not forget that the wisdom of
our peoples has imposed on us a democratic standard that must be above thelegal minimum with which former politics used to play. We are witnessing thedeath of the old and the birth of the new, and how we go about this transition
could mark the way we do politics forever in our country.

i have a background in activism. When i was 15, i took active part in the
penguin revolution. then, during my university years, i was part of the largest mobilisation for higher education since the return of democracy in 2011,
when more than 1 million students came together on the streets. then camea revival of the feminist struggle, in a wave against violence, for sexual andreproductive rights and for equality in the feminist May of 2018. during thosesame years, i began my activism in the defence of neighbourhoods and cultural heritage in a community organisation that seeks to defend neighbourhood life against the advance of real estate speculation in one of the mostacute crises in the region where i today have the honour and commitment tolead a council, Estación central.
in this context, facing the decision to run for city council made more sensethan ever; to put myself at the service of a collective project seeking transformation, seeking to overcome the neoliberal model and participate in thedrafting of a new constitution brought a sense of urgency, but also a sense2627

a journey
throuGh the
hIstory ofmunICIpalIsm

MunicipalisM has ahistorY. lEt’s lEarn
FroM it.
Kate Shea Baird
over recent years, the global municipalist movement has taken
huge leaps forward. We’ve woven a diverse international network of activists, movements, councillors, mayors and parties
committed to building power from the bottom up. We’ve built
an increasingly cohesive shared municipalist identity (whether
under that name or not). We’ve shared stories, held workshops
and exchanged policies in order to learn from one another.
We’ve unearthed and incorporated municipalist theory, mostnotably from Murray Bookchin, giving us a lodestar toward
which we can aim our daily practice.
the first fearless cities summit and book both served to collate and record
many of these milestones. But municipalism wasn’t invented in 2017, or in2015. it has a long, rich history in many towns and cities around the world
and, i propose these experiences be one of our movements’ principal sourcesof knowledge and inspiration.
the reasons to value our history are worth recalling. First, while our movement is rapidly evolving and growing, contemporary experiences, especiallythose of municipalists in government, are still few and far between. looking
backwards is, if nothing else, a way of multiplying the library of practices
from which we can learn. second, historical experiences also hold added advantages with respect to contemporary ones. as prosaic as it may be, earlier
municipalist movements and governments in our own countries, if they are
relatively recent, may have faced legal and cultural contexts more similar
to our own than contemporary experiences on the other side of the world.
What is more, the activists, councillors and mayors involved in those experiences will certainly have more time and energy to share their experiences
than those who are ‘practising’ municipalism today; we all know that limited
time and energy are one of the main obstacles to municipalist collaboration.
Finally, and most importantly, historical examples have the advantage of theperspective that only time, analysis and considered reflection can give. it is in28

29

these cases that we can identify more clearly what worked, what didn’t, andassess the legacy of the municipalist project in the town or city concerned
years, or decades, later.

References

it should be clear that contemporary municipalists, who face myriad challenges, don’t have the luxury of reinventing the wheel. Yet, we can’t look tohistory for a ‘how-to’ guide, as such. the very nature of municipalism meansthat each specific experience is highly unique to its local context. what wecan, and should, look for are examples of how different experiences dealt
with the recurring dilemmas and themes of radical municipalism: the relationship between institutions, movements and citizens; if and how to participate in supramunicipal politics; the role of leadership and the limits ofrepresentation; the delicate balance between transparency and caring forand protecting our own; the pressures of powerful economic interests and,relatedly, how to communicate in the face of a hostile media. observing how
different strategies have played out in practice will give us tools with whichto navigate our own decision-making and, perhaps even more usefully, toeffectively manage the consequences of whatever decisions we do make.

http://glcstory.co.uk/

if our movement has thus far neglected its history, i have no doubt that this isbecause of a lack of knowledge, rather than of interest. this, of course, is no
accident. We remember thatcher and reagan, not just because of their historical relevance, but because vast economic, political and cultural resources
have been poured into preserving their legacy. Foundations and institutes intheir name, biographical books and documentaries, academic conferences
and seminars help today’s neoliberals to keep both their policy agenda, andthe community around it, alive. By contrast, there are just a handful of books
published about the experience of the radicals who governed major British
and american cities during the same period. these were either written by
activists and local councillors themselves, or by academics sympathetic tothem. We owe those who undertook this invaluable labour of documentationand testimony our recognition and thanks. they did so with an activist spirit,
so that we today might have access to the municipalist lessons of the past. it
will be up to us to ensure that we, in turn, fulfil our duty to record our own
experiences for the municipalists of the future.

https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/40488

30

London:› Glc story› Red Metropolis, owen hatherley› A Taste of Power, Maureen Mackintosh andhilary Wainwright› The London Left Takeover, anne sofer› Beyond Our Ken: Guide to the Battle forLondon, andrew Forrester› Councils in Conflict: The Rise and Fall of theMunicipal Left, stewart lansley, sue Goss,christian Wolmar
USA:› Activists in City Hall, pierre clavel› “progressive cities and neighborhood
planning” collection at cornell libraryhttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/40484

Spain:› The Village Against the World, dan hancox› Barcelona Rebelde, Guillem Martínez› The Spanish Anarchists, Murray Bookchin

31

Municipal socialisM in
thE 1980s: the london
ExpEriEncEOwen Hatherley
the Greater london council was founded during the 1960s,“swinging london”, and the first flashes of gentrification in inner boroughs such as camden, but otherwise an era of sharp
population decline in the metropolis. the ‘Glc’ was devised bya conservative government, but had some left-wing support
because it acknowledged that “london” as legally defined andlondon as it really existed were no longer the same place, withthe suburbs paying their share of tax for the inner city that they
commuted to and used. Yet much labour opinion was against
it, including that of isaac hayward, head of the london county
council (lcc) when it was abolished in 1964. this was largely because of an understandable fear that london, which had
been a one-party social democratic city-state since the 1930s,
could now be winnable by the conservatives, which is exactly
what happened. or rather, Greater london became a marginal,
a bellwether, shifting between the main parties at almost every
election until 1981. labour were on course for a landslide at thenext scheduled elections when the Glc was abolished by governmental fiat in 1986. this move, unprecedented in a democracy, left london as the only capital city in the world without anelected local government.
Yet when most people in london hear the initials ‘Glc’, they think – if they
think of anything at all – of the five years when it was controlled by the radical left, from 1981 to 1986, under the leadership of ken livingstone.
seen at the time by the tabloid press and the labour right as the lunatics –the “loony left” – taking over the asylum, it has been remembered by today’s
young socialists, mostly born in the 1980s and 1990s, as a period in which
their forbears constructed a new and viable socialism. the labour left often
prefers to root itself in older figures such as aneurin Bevan, but the continuity is obvious. at the top of the left-wing labour party that came so close to

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victory in 2017 but was then soundly defeated in december 2019 was jeremy
corbyn, a north london labour Mp elected in 1983, close to the Glc’s debates and sharing its ideas; diane abbott, who had been the Glc’s press officer; and of course John mcdonnell, the Glc’s second-in-command and its
finance minister. somewhat belatedly, given that in the early 1980s journalists like neal ascherson saw ken livingstone as a future labour leader, theGlc new left had taken over the leadership of the labour party, just as they
always planned to. it only took them thirty-four years.
livingstone himself, soon after seizing power in 1981, told Marxism Todaythat the new ruling group at the Glc was “the post-1968 generation in politics”. that is, it was gloriously, explicitly, anti-racist, anti-homophobic, anti-imperialist, anti-sexist; it was celebratory, creative and propagandistic. it
loved murals, pop music, bright colours and clothes; it scorned state nationalisation and funnelled money into co-ops and communes. it was also muchcloser to the extra-parliamentary left, and refused the traditional labour
distinction between the “legitimate” and “illegitimate” left. most of the major
london figures in the labour new left were non-aligned socialists with some
sympathy for marxism, such as Ken livingstone, John mcdonnell, valerieWise, robin Murray, Mike cooley, linda Bellos, hilary Wainwright, doreen
Massey and sheila rowbotham, but some had been members of trotskyistgroups – both ted knight, who took over the borough of lambeth, and Bernie
Grant, who did the same in haringey as the first Black leader of a london
council since john archer in the 1910s, had been members of the socialist
labour league, which was proscribed by labour in the 1950s.
But there is another way of seeing the Glc era – as being the start of thecreation of the multicultural capital of the “creative industries” that we know
now. livingstone, a much more compromised figure in his two terms as
london Mayor from 2000 to 2008, argued this to andy Beckett in the 2010s:“we didn’t want to see london continue to decline, (though) i don’t think we
saw it challenging new york in the way it eventually did”. that’s precisely
what happened, although not in the way he would have imagined in 1981.
there were several different facets to the new left project at the Glc, andit’s useful to divide them into an industrial programme and a propagandistic
programme. at the smallest level, the replanting of herbaceous borders after
the creation of bleak, blank lawns by the Glc parks department in the 1970s
was seen by livingstone as an example of local socialism in action, combining
care and commitment to public space, the enjoyment of civic life and the creation of skilled jobs, all in one simple policy. at the other end of the scale, theGlc’s large budget – always carefully balanced by Mcdonnell – was mostly
ploughed into the Greater london Enterprise Board (GlEB), an experiment in

34“people’s planning”. it was intended by livingstone, mcdonnell and its head,
Mike cooley, as way of creating “state monopolies based on workers’ control
and workers’ self-management, (to) move qualitatively away from the dreadful existing examples, totally unresponsive to consumers, which are responsible for the hostility to public enterprise that undoubtedly exists”. london
transport, under the Glc’s control, was also part of the experiment – given
for the first time in decades proper investment, and with ridership expanded
by a policy of cheap tickets known as “fares fair”, spitefully defeated in court
by the tory council in the outer borough of Bromley.
light industrial sites that had declined and closed were rejuvenated with
co-ops and small enterprises. this was combined with “people’s plans” produced for ex-heavy industrial areas. a detailed “people’s plan” was produced
for co-operative housing and industries on the gigantic royal docks site innewham (the last dock to close, in 1980), and the Glc bought up putative
sites for similar plans at coin street by the national theatre, Battlebridge
Basin near king’s cross, and courage’s brewery in north southwark. in eachcase, as GlEB activist-planners hilary Wainwright and Maureen Mackintosh
made clear, “these projects would not have existed were it not for a history of organised struggle on the part of local groups”. mike cooley, head of
the GleB, had been the prime mover of the “lucas plan” of 1976, that aimed
to turn lucas aerospace into a concern producing useful, non-lethal goods,
self-managed by a workers’ collective. in their posthumous account of the
GlEB, Mackintosh and Wainwright refused to claim victory in any of this –these were experiments, nothing more, and nothing was definitively achieved,
although thousands were employed by the GlEB in one way or another.
the GleB worked out of an office in the elephant and castle, rather than in
the palatial old lcc headquarters of county hall, so as to be “more accessible– no long corridors!” their critique of the old municipal socialism was broadbrush in the extreme – the authors of one GlEB report claimed that people’s
plans were “a response to the alleged fact that the majority of londoners
have been… just the victims of planning” – but their work still reads as a serious, constructive programme – something that is worth remembering given
how much the Glc’s policies were regarded, at the time, as “loony”. But tounderstand that reaction, you have to turn to their policies on race, genderand culture – always far more the focus of the relentless tabloid attacks ofthe time.
during the Brixton riots of 1981, caused by aggressive racist policing and by
far the largest-scale civil unrest in post-war london, the new chairman of
the Greater london council was seen, as The Times noted with horror, “onthe streets of Brixton at the height of the rioting”. he publicly, unashamedly35defended the rioters, and refused an invitation to the royal Wedding thentaking place elsewhere in the capital so he could be in Brixton on the “frontline”. pondering the apparently puzzling mass popularity in inner london of
the Glc’s policies of loud support for the anc, for irish unity, for Black power
and for gay rights – all of these absolutely monstered in the press, far moreso than Mcdonnell’s economics – livingstone suggested that “maybe all theracists have all gone off to live in finchley or croydon south”. this was not
moralistic, but political and practical, as he would tell New Left Review in 1983:‘i have always felt that the labour party’s almost exclusive concentration on
the employed white male working class was a weakness. My own view is you
can’t transform society solely on that basis. You need a coalition which includes skilled and unskilled workers, unemployed, women and Black people,
as well as the sexually oppressed minorities… that means we have to change.’
this sometimes set him at odds with other experiments in radical municipal
socialism then being carried out by local authorities that had their “rates” –the amount they could legally raise from local taxes – capped by the thatcher
government. noting the hostility of some in liverpool council to his support
for gay rights, he pointed out that london then housed a fair few hundred
scousers who had fled that city’s homophobia.

the change at county hall reached an exuberant high point. throughout theday, county hall swarmed with young punks, skinheads, rastafarians and ahost of other londoners. they camped on the grand staircase (in the past
reserved for vips only) and in the wood-panelled corridors of the principal
Floor. the council chamber was used for a rolling debate on the abolition of
the Glc, which at one point was also given over to speeches by anne scargill
and the Miners’ Wives. the atmosphere was quite extraordinary – no-one atcounty hall had seen anything like it before.
this was a performance of democracy and accessibility, a momentary vision of the city the london new left wanted to build; we will never know
if it could have been sustained, but Margaret thatcher was evidently terrified it might. livingstone governed a left-shifting capital in a country that
had turned sharply to the right. polls and local elections between 1983 and1986 showed the leftward shift in the capital was highly popular within it.
livingstone and the radical Glc intended london to be a microcosm of whatsocialist government would look like in Britain as a whole. the government
knew this, and crushed it.
This is an edited extract from Red Metropolis, published by Repeater Books in 2020.

Most famously, the Glc’s cultural revolution entailed a series of public
festivals, concerts and events. the foyers, terraces and cafes of the lcc’s
royal Festival hall were opened up to the public all day as a “front room
for london”, taking a cue from stockholm’s Kulturhuset. the Glc under the
new left broke totally with the cultural puritanism that had always lurked in
the london labour party. london’s first municipal socialists, the progressive
party of the 1890s, were committed to eliminating pubs, and had closed as
many music halls as they could manage. this became a mere memory in theearly 1980s, as the bohemian subcultures that had emerged in – and moved
to – the capital since the 1960s were given their own taste of power. thepeak was a july 1984 festival in county hall itself during the Miners’ strike,and it is impossible still not to feel a shiver up the spine on reading Maureen
Macintosh and hilary Wainwright’s description of it.
For those of us who had been working in county hall since the early days ofthe labour administration, one of the striking changes that had taken place
was in the kind of people who came to county hall and were encounteredstrolling round the corridors. Gradually, the visiting officials and dignitaries
of earlier times were replaced by a cross-section of londoners, ranging frompunks and rastas at one end to parties of Bangladeshi old-age pensioners
at the other – all of them uncowed by their august surroundings and treating the place as if it were their own. at the july 1984 festival, this aspect of36

37

chicaGo: economic
development underharold WashinGton(1983-1987)
Pierre Clavel“progressive” actually meant implementing policies that wereredistributive and participatory, and had the potential to spreadthroughout government. in chicago under the mayoralty ofharold Washington, the most important department bringing
this into effect was the department for Economic development(dEd), where commissioner robert Mier took a number of steps
toward industrial retention, which i shall list and then discuss:Complicated Chicago
Washington was a charismatic, talented mayor, with a strong program opposed on racial grounds to a white ethnic city council majority that had longtime allegiance to the established democratic party machine. Washington’s
program prioritized racial equity in service distribution, as well as a neighborhood-based approach to economic development focused on small andmedium-sized manufacturing firms.
Both aims flew in the face of national policy and local history. racial segregation in housing and other policies and services was ingrained. Manufacturing
in general was out of favor in private finance and national policy. in the faceof these obstacles, the Washington administration failed to make dramaticand visible improvements. the widespread consensus is that Washington andhis policies – while led by a charismatic mayor – were ultimately outmoded,
irrelevant to current issues.
Response to plant closingsthe industrial retention effort in chicago was, nevertheless, noteworthy. acommunity-based social movement and institutional support had built up
over a number of years and, through Mier, the dEd and the involvement of

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(clcr) along with a journal, the Midwest Labor Review. this smallish initiative kept some of the support for decentralized economic policy alive,
while labor more generally remained tied to the daley machine and its efforts to re-emerge after Washington’s death.

other departments, the city adapted to it. describing the industrial retention
initiative will prove enlightening.
• Mier had come to chicago in 1975 to teach city planning at the universityof illinois chicago (uic) and to provide outreach to community organizations as director of its center for urban Economic development. he threw
himself into the work of neighborhood organizations and made allianceswith their activist leaders, placing students with them as interns and, later,
working with them jointly on research and action projects. this sort of cooperation between academics and activists was unusual, but Mier’s successwith it was already getting notice prior to his move into city hall.

• once in place after Washington’s election, dEd and city hall established a setof policies that reinforced many of these varied decentralization interests:⟩ dEd created the local industrial retention initiative (liri) – roughly
half a dozen community development agencies that seemed the mostorganized and capable of those committed the “jobs not real estate”
orientation of policy.
⟩ Grassroots support for planned manufacturing districts, a project initiated by a young planner/organizer, donna ducharme, and the newcity YMca that eventually led to a commitment from Washington, waslargely pursued after his death.
⟩ the steel task Force resulted in a large-scale research effort that produced arguments in favor of a manufacturing presence in chicago.
⟩ Workforce development policy had a start under Washington, creditedwith a role in the eventual success of the city “getting it right” underdaley, much later.
⟩ in the wake of Washington’s death, opposition forces endeavored totake control of a less hopeful narrative. But when a concerted attack
appeared in the Chicago Tribune in august 1988, a number of foundation executives were determined to respond, the most noteworthy being the creation of the policy research action Group (praG) under the
auspices of the Mcarthur Foundation: praG was a consortium of four
local universities and 15 community-based organizations that provided
internships in support of the neighborhoods for several years into thedaley administration.1• the social movement was represented by neighborhood organizations thatorganized themselves into purpose-oriented themes, and sought fundingthat involved several local foundations. cando, the rehab network andcWEd were prominent examples that pursued community economic development (“ced”) themes and proved able to work with mier in city hall.
• an underlying theme for organizers nationwide was resistance to plantclosings. Manufacturing was under stress, and layoffs and closings started
to peak in the late 1970s. much attention was devoted in chicago to five
major steel mills in the city’s southeastern area that were all making layoffs
as Washington campaigned in 1983. another focus was on smaller factories,
some of which appeared possible cases for action such as worker and/or
community or city buy-outs. one focus of attention was dan swinney, who
had been working as a union steward, then organizer in the city’s Westside,
and who stood behind the publication of the Midwest Labor Review.
• Many who had been neighborhood activists took positions in city hall, andproved able to collaborate with the neighborhood network. Mier was oneof them. But there were significant obstacles. the new hires confronted
holdovers loyal to the machine inside city hall, while in the city there wasan elaborate, albeit defeated, structure they saw as the “growth coalition”
led by elites and machine allies in sectors such as real estate development,
which Washington had hoped to defy. kari Moe, a key Washington aide andally, had characterized working in city hall as “going to war with someone
else’s army”.
• But there was also support. local foundations bought into the neighborhood-based, small-manufacturing focus that Washington supported.
another base of support came from labor activists. a prominent example
was dan swinney, who had led shop-floor activism in the steelworkers’ union, and later established the center for labor and community research

40

Discussion
a shared intellectual capital emerged from these efforts that supported analternative city development policy capable of posing an alternative to the“growth coalition” and downtown-heavy approach associated with the daleymachine previous to 1983.
to an extent – and for some in a highly costly manner – chicago’s neighborhood
coalition was caught unawares by Washington’s sudden death in november
1987. Much of the intellectual capital was intact; many organizations and1

Nyden, Philip and Wim Wiewel, “Collaborative Research: Harnessing the Tensions between Researcher
and Practitioner” (1992) The American Sociologist 23, 4b (Winter) 43-55.

41

institutions were strong and coming into their own, learning how to workwith one another. however, much of their base was undeniably thrown intoa leadership vacuum and city hall was in an uncertain position: for eighteenmonths under the interim mayor Eugene sawyer there would be uncertainty as to a permanent successor mayor – with an election due in june 1989.
subsequently, richard M. daley, son of the long-time machine boss richard j.
daley (1955-1976), would continue to offer support to parts of the dEd strategy for several years (though Jarrett and ducharme were finally let go in 1995).
this denouement should tell us something about the nature of progressive
coalitions, particularly through the way the dwindling of the chicago effort
was interwoven with specific city hall and support system structures that
also waned (but sometimes, perhaps, rose). part of the story was city hall’s
growing capacity to “securitize” what had been periodic income, piecemeal
but predictable over a period of years. daley’s staff figured this out in the
1990s with moves like the sale of the “skyway”, a toll-generating freeway, andlater, the rights to city parking meter revenues. Most glaring to community
activists was the increasing use of “tax increment finance” (tif), whereby
redevelopment properties could be “sold” based on projected income overa period of years. these projects, as a whole, allowed daley to acquire city
income to “beautify” the city and thereby lay claim to tourism dollars, thus
facilitating a turn back to the embellishment of the loop area, away from theremnants of the Washington dEd emphasis on small factories and neighborhood prosperity.

thE Municipalist
tradition in ModErn
spanish politics
Pamela Radcliff
in the traditional narrative of political modernization inWestern Europe, the liberal and then democratic nation state
was consolidated as the normative site of citizenship, authority and claims-making. in this narrative, the population evolved
from an implicitly primitive local worldview towards integration into the modern nation, propelled by a process of state-led
structural integration. indeed, most of the hegemonic politicalmovements of the 19th and 20th centuries framed the state as theengine of progress, the architect of the nation and the defenderof citizens and their liberties. From this perspective, localism
and provincialism were obstacles to the forward march of history, quaint relics of pre-modern small-mindedness. critiquesof this top-down model have revealed a more complex ongoing
dynamic between local, provincial and national identities andinstitutions rather than a linear process of amalgamation andconsolidation. in particular, a wealth of scholarship on regionalist and provincialist movements has situated them squarely
inside the dynamic of political modernity and nation-building.
however, less attention has been paid to the quieter role municipalist movements played in this dynamic, as a consistent counter-weight to the dominant homogenizing and centralizing forces of modern spanish politics. Fromdifferent ideological positions and in distinct historical contexts, municipalist political movements over the last two centuries have defended an autonomous local political sphere as the core unit of self-governance, community
identity and citizen participation. While individual case studies of municipalist movements and platforms exist, the long-term arc of the phenomenon has
not been fully acknowledged.
i argue that the municipalist tradition has been an important thread of modern
spanish politics since the war of independence (1808-1814), and that it should
be fully incorporated into the historical narrative of modernity. Beginning in

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the war of independence, municipalist platforms, either implicit or explicit,
were a consistent and ongoing feature of the political landscape, from theprogressive party in the 1830s, to the Federal republicans in the 1860s, theanarchists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the citizen Movement of
the 1970s and the Municipalist platforms of the 21st century. Without minimizing different contexts and ideologies, for all of these movements themunicipality was the site where the community of ordinary citizens and themost proximate governing institutions intersected, providing the natural
foundation for self-government. through citizen participation around thedefense of community interests, municipalities would be the building blocks
that would in turn connect the local to the larger political unit. there is noquestion that all of these movements were relative “losers” in the long-term
political struggles over the location of authority and decision-making. But
the unresolved nature of the tension between local, regional and state-led
political projects means that the conflict keeps recurring, with municipalism
waxing and waning in relation to competing political currents. the upshot
has been an ongoing pattern of municipalist movements and, equally significant, a consolidating narrative of municipalism as an alternative politicalframework deeply rooted in spanish history.
so what are we to make of this tradition of municipalist movements over 200
years? across this period, municipalism has been a recurring language of political renewal and reconstruction in moments of crisis, articulating common
themes of decentralization, local autonomy and communitarian participation as core values from which to regenerate political life. the municipalist
thread waxed and waned in response to other political forces and vis-à-vis
the opportunities provided by liminal transition moments, from the 1830s
to 1868, 1931, 1936 or 1978. notably, they were almost always minority voicesin these times of transition, when the dominant political forces focused on
the transformation of state power, or to a lesser degree, regional power, butrarely local. not tied to a specific ideological perspective, municipalist ideas have emerged from across the political spectrum while sharing the conviction that keeping power, authority and decision-making close to citizens’
everyday lives is more likely to result in policies that benefit the community
as a whole. in contrast to the autonomous individualism of liberalism andliberal democracy, or the socialist working class, municipalists begin withthe geographic community of neighbors and residents as the core unit of thelarger polity. in contrast to localism, municipalism usually views local government as a building block or a channel, not an autarchic fortress.

1860s to the unregulated construction of the 1960s urban landscape. at thesame time that these movements have to be situated in their historical context, it is also striking how invested they often seemed to be in constructing
a narrative of continuity that legitimated the current project through historical precedent. From this perspective, the story of municipalism as a consistent thread has been told repeatedly, but almost always from the margins by
the movements themselves.
so why is it important to move this narrative from the margins to the centerof historical analysis and what are the questions for further investigation?
one compelling answer arises from the presentist goal of providing historicalcontext for the current revival of municipalist platforms, including the differences and similarities between this particular moment and previous contexts
that favored these ideas. in other words, how does the history of the municipalist tradition shape our understanding of what is happening today? More
broadly, acknowledging the municipalist thread as a constituent element ofpolitical struggles over the last two centuries further complicates our understanding of the trajectory of modern politics. the questions to pursue
from this perspective include the particular contexts in which municipalist
discourses have emerged and submerged, and how this process shaped andreflected the configuration of political forces since 1808. finally, how specificis this thread to modern spanish politics and if not, what are the points ofcomparison and contrast with other states? pushing us ever further awayfrom a linear evolutionary model in which the development of more complex
organisms signifies progress, inserting the municipalist thread reveals a dynamic tension about the locus of authority, decision-making and power thatremains unresolved today, yet more evidence that there is no “end of history”
in sight.

in addition to the common principles that make the case for continuity, it
is equally important to understand the specific issues that sparked recurring waves of municipalist enthusiasm, from the sale of common lands in the

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orGanIzInG In the
2020s: ChallenGes
and InnovatIons at
InternatIonal level

orGanizinG in
thE 2020s: anintroduction
Steve Hugues
i used to have a quote – at the time i did not know who it wasby – on a handwritten piece of paper taped to my wall: “largechange doesn’t come from clever quick fixes from smart tense
people, but from long conversations and silences among people
who know different things and need to learn different things.” (ilater learned these were the words of the writer anne herbert.)
our conversation on organizing and innovations at the international level,
which took place over the summer of 2021 at the Fearless cities conference,
was one of those long conversations. the distance between some of the organizing projects represented in this discussion ensures that intense periods ofmutual exchange and learning, such as this one, are often followed by long periods in which people are left to reflect, experiment, and innovate on their own.
in this section, we will hear from organizers working in different geographies
and with different constituencies. We hear the viewpoints of people pursuingcomplementary, if slightly different, strategies to achieve political change inthe united states. We hear about the work of building power in government
and in the neighborhoods of the municipalist struggle in Barcelona. and wehear about labor organizing from various countries around the world.
the question is, how does it all fit together? in this period of intersecting
and escalating global crises, where do these different organizers situate their
work? how do they see what they are doing as contributing to a larger alignment of forces that could achieve large-scale social transformation and effectively take on the power of globalized capital?
there are no easy answers here. and beware the person who tells you thatthe organizing we do is just one thing, unchanging, frozen in time. in fact, organizing is always evolving, and its practitioners are always translating what
they learn from others to the time, place and conditions of where they work.

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the people in the pages that follow are organizers who are in conversation
with one another – not just on this panel, or in this book; but over the years.
these organizers are concerned about the challenges of building leaderful
movements as well as the pitfalls of so-called “leaderless” activism. they areasking themselves how to both skill-up the movement so it has the technicalknow-how to win, while also cultivating the ideological grounding of members and leaders. they are pressing forward with an urgency that we have toactually win the power to govern, and then effect real change in people’s lives
when we are in government.
so indeed, these movements, and these organizers, have different things tolearn and different things to teach. and in the pregnant silence that follows
this latest exchange between them, they are getting ready to take action.

orGanizinG: challenGes
and innovations
Kate Shea Baird and Bea Martínez
some things in Barcelona en comú haven’t changed since weshared our experience of participation and organizing at thefirst fearless cities meeting (and book). our overarching political goals remain the same: to join forces to win the elections
and transform our city, and to do so in an open, democratic andempowering way. nevertheless, the context has evolved and,needless to say, we have gained new knowledge thanks to ourown experience and exchanges with other political organisations. in this chapter, we want to share some reflections fromthree different experiences: 1) the municipal election campaign
of 2019, thanks to which we managed to re-elect ada colau as
mayor of Barcelona; 2) Barcelona en comú’s organisational consolidation since it was founded in 2015, with an emphasis on
mechanisms of activist participation and empowerment, and 3)
the impact the pandemic has had on us as a municipalist organisation rooted in proximity and direct contact between people.
in the last quarter of 2017, we began to prepare for the elections of 26 May
2019. in 2015, they hadn’t “seen us coming”, so we had the advantage of being
an unknown and undervalued candidacy, but we knew that the very opposite
would be the case in 2019: we would be the opponent to beat for every political party. that’s why we were convinced of the need to continue to innovatein organizing and communication techniques, both to attract new activists
and to be able to throw our adversaries off balance. the incorporation ofdoor-to-door campaigning and the creation of a campaign choir (the cor
rebel de Barcelona) are two examples of this spirit of innovation.
Without a doubt, door-to-door canvassing was one of the pillars of the 2019
campaign and will be again in 2023. Why did we decide to take it up?
admittedly, we wouldn’t have done so if it weren’t for our international network. our allies from organisations in the usa persuaded us that it alignedwith our values and way of doing politics; they trained us and even knocked
on doors with us. initially, there was some scepticism over whether it would48

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be a technique that could be imported to Barcelona. We soon realised thatit could. the huge potential of door-to-door canvassing is the combinationof listening, getting close to and sharing moments with the community, withthe “science” of deciding which doors it’s best to knock on and the “art” ofknowing how to listen to glean the information we need.
after all, if we’re talking about democratic radicalism, what is more radical
than listening to and giving a voice to residents who have never been asked,
for instance, what they think of their neighbourhood? of all the organizing
techniques that we’ve put into practice both before and since, door-to-door
canvassing is by far the one that has allowed us to reach the least politicised people. that’s why our plan was to continue using it beyond the election campaign to reach our political goals; what we didn’t know was that wewould endure a two-year pandemic.
We started training Barcelona en comú activists in july 2018; a little too late,
in hindsight. First, we trained about twenty highly motivated people from different neighbourhoods and, little by little, others joined in. our first practice
canvas was in the sant antoni neighbourhood in september. there we discovered that our numbers, in terms of doors opened and conversations had,were better than those in other countries. we were also surprised to find thatpeople were much more receptive than we had anticipated and so the fear ofgoing door to door gradually evaporated. initially, the training was longer andmore intense and, as the number of people trained grew, we shortened thetraining time. to this end, it was key to ensure that new people could go out
canvassing with more experienced activists, which allowed us to increasingly
decentralise the activity. so, a few months later, we had small, self-organised
groups going door to door at different times and in different neighbourhoods.
We soon discovered that door-to-door canvassing was a gateway for the inclusion and empowerment of new activists. knocking on doors and listening
to community residents is not only a means to reach more diverse people,
but also to bring them into the organisation. of those who joined the organisation to knock on doors during the campaign, many now hold elected officewithin Barcelona en comú or have become district councillors.
one of the major lessons we’ve learned is how vital it is that the entire organisation believes in the importance of door-to-door canvassing and legitimises
its central role in the campaign if it is to live up to its full potential. the communication strategy must be focused on organizing new activists and thecampaign and communication team should take what activists are hearing
on the doors into account when fine-tuning and segmenting campaign messages . in short, for the organizing to work, the entire organisation has to becommitted to the undertaking.

50

the idea of the “cor rebel de Barcelona” was to create a choir that would
breathe life into the campaign events through songs that reflected the valuesof Barcelona en comú. We also wanted to put our political commitment toculture as a tool for social transformation into practice. the initiative wasinspired by a new York activist choir, the resistance revival chorus, and wewere fortunate that uri Mas, a long-time choir director, agreed to contribute his artistic leadership. he managed to set up the choir from scratch injust six months! among the campaign repertoire were classic songs such as“Bella ciao” and “Grândola, vila morena”, as well as contemporary hits suchas “somos” from the popular tv talent show, “operación triunfo”. although
they may seem like very different initiatives, the cor rebel choir has something in common with door-to-door canvassing: its capacity to broaden anddiversify political participation. it has allowed us to engage many people inthe campaign who otherwise wouldn’t have taken part, simply because they
enjoy singing and realised that they could be useful by lending their voice andenthusiasm to the campaign.
Organisational consolidation
at the first fearless cities gathering, Barcelona en comú activists explained
the principles of confluence; how the organisation came about; the development of the code of ethics and participation mechanisms, among otherexperiences. we think sharing some new reflections on these topics may
prove interesting.
our first reflection is that the dichotomy that is sometimes drawn between,on the one hand, electoral organizing (sometimes branded “electoralism”)
and, on the other, the promotion of participation and the deepening of democracy, is misguided. not only do these two goals not contradict one another, in our view they are complementary and mutually reinforcing. in our
experience, electoral campaigns represent a unique opportunity for new
people to join Barcelon en comú, make decisions and do politics together
and open the organization up to the citizenry. after all, it is during elections
that people pay most attention to local politics and can most clearly see thepotential impact of their own political participation. the potential consequences of the electoral results motivate people’s participation in the election campaign, since they see it as useful.
the challenge of continuing to expand and diversify participation is a widely
shared concern within Barcelona en comú, as it is in any organisation seeking to effect change. our learning in this area is ongoing, and many questions
remain unanswered, but we would like to share a few reflections here.

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Firstly, if we want to increase participation, we must constantly, actively andclearly call for and invite it. in our case, we stopped doing so for a while after the 2015 elections, perhaps because of a lack of organisational capacity
in a period during which we ran the city government for the first time, weformalised the organisational structure and held internal elections and set
up a political party in catalonia, among many other activities. the upshot
was that it was quite difficult to join Barcelona en comú as a new member
between 2015 and 2018. those who joined during that time did so at theirown initiative and had to discover where and how to participate without any
formal support. as of 2018, we corrected this shortfall and began to call on
people to join us through social media and street recruitment. the result
was impressive: between 20 and 30 people attended the welcome meetings
that we organised and we managed to organize a mass welcome event of
more than 100 people. although inviting people to participate won’t broaden
participation on its own, it’s essential to get the maximum number of willing
participants to get involved.
the second reflection is closely linked to the first: once the invitation to participate has been made, there must be a clear way in and an efficient andfriendly welcome and organizing circuit. For us, in practice this translates
into inviting whoever signs up to participate in Barcelona en comú to a welcome meeting where we explain how to participate and, even more importantly, we create a space where they can meet other activists and have funwith them. with these meetings, we aspire to reflect the three core principles of organizing: it must be easy, fun and build community. after the meeting, we follow up to put the participants in touch with the coordinators of
the groups where they want to participate and to provide any necessary additional support. our retention rate is still lower than we would like at eachstage of this circuit, so we’re constantly working on fine-tuning and improving it. For example, we’ve started to call those who have attended the welcome meetings to find out whether they are still participating in Barcelona
en comú and, if they’re not, to ask why. We’re also looking at ways of taking
advantage of the incipient community created in the meetings and giving
them continuity so that the people who meet there can support one anotherin their first political steps within the organisation.
But inviting people to participate and creating a follow-up circuit isn’t
enough. the ideal solution is to create a welcoming, participatory culture
throughout the organisation; in other words, every activist must understand that welcoming and supporting new people is a shared responsibility
in which everyone plays an important role. to promote this culture, after the2019 elections, we created a welcome network bringing together the activists
responsible for welcoming of all the organization’s assemblies and groups.

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We realised that if the welcoming of new activists is not the responsibility ofanyone in particular, it often ends up being a responsibility that no one takes
on. that’s why it’s important for each group to have someone responsible forwelcome and why we encourage these activists to share the practices thatwork for them with one another through peer learning.
a welcoming culture is important, not just for involving people in existing
activities, but also for launching new ones. this is because the most effective
way to empower people is to take everyone’s particular interests and abilities
into account. this is where the fuel that feeds and drives activism lies: inthe ability to get the best out of everyone, whether they’re someone who isa programmer, dancer or passionate about statutes. But for this to happen,
someone has to take an interest in getting to know each and every activist
and give them personalised support so that they get down to contributing in
the way that makes the most sense to them. and, again, this is everyone’s job.
lastly, we want to emphasize that we have invested resources into organizing, creating a new participation and organizing team on the Barcelona en
comú staff with two full-time positions. after all, a priority is only really apriority for an organisation if it is reflected in its budget.
Municipalism and the pandemic
Finally, we can’t end this chapter without discussing the impact of thecovid-19 pandemic on Barcelona en comú. First and foremost, we have lost
beloved activists, family members and friends without being able to hug
one another and cry together while we grieve. We have also had to deal, likeeveryone else, with the psychological impact of the pandemic; loneliness,anxiety, depression and even despair. the effects of this experience should
not be underestimated in an assembly-based political project that is rooted
in community, proximity, direct contact with the community and on doing
politics from a place of joy.
it was obviously impossible to carry out many of the political activities we hadplanned on assemblies, festivals, debates, information stands in the street,door-to-door canvassing and more. despite having come up with new andsafe formats such as mass bicycle rides and having made a strong commitment to digital infrastructure and phone banking campaigns, we have comeup against major limitations. We have barely been able to see each other, letalone communicate with all of the residents of Barcelona. We always said thatthe main strength of municipalism was doing politics face to face, looking
one another in the eyes. having not been able to do so for over two years, we
can confirm that it’s true.

53the lack of direct communication with neighbourhood residents, both as asource of information that allows us to put out feelers on the street and asa mechanism to debunk hoaxes and fake news, has had a noticeable impact.
in the absence of this capacity, the negative campaigns against us on social
media and the mainstream media have been able to do us more communicational damage than before.
pandemic fatigue and the difficulty in carrying out our political activities
have led to internal demobilisation too. one of our foremost challenges is tostop this phenomenon from bedding in. What will be harder to recover is the“time lost” in terms of creating new political leaders, a process that requires
one to experience politics first hand and gradually take on responsibilities. in“ordinary” times, many of the activists who joined in 2019 would now be taking on leadership roles in their assemblies, but the pandemic has frozen the“life cycle” of activism in time and has hampered the development of newer
activists. we’ll feel the effects of this “lost generation” of activists in the years
to come.
our individual and collective recovery from the pandemic confronts us withan unprecedented challenge. there are no magic solutions, but thanks to thecreativity and boldness of our activists in recent years, it’s a challenge that
we have more tools than ever to tackle. tools such as door-to-door canvassing and the cor rebel choir that are based on the pillars of municipalism:proximity, empathy and joint action. it is through these values that we will beable to regain the strength, joy and empowerment lost during these years oflockdown and social distancing.

toWards alEadErFul disciplinE
Gabe Tobias
one of the most impressive feats of strength on the planet
belongs to the shaggy ink cap mushroom, coprinus comatus.
the shaggy ink cap, to put it kindly, does not seem very impressive. it produces no psychotropic toxins or fabulous colors.
When picked, its limp tofu-grey body quickly disintegrates intoa blackened mush. But the shaggy ink cap has a secret power. Mushrooms reproduce by sending fruiting bodies above
ground – the parts we commonly see and eat. Most of the organism lies below ground, stretching over wide swaths of earth
in filament networks. when the shaggy ink cap decides to fruit,
it simply will not be stopped. By driving all the water across its
networked body to one point, it can break through thick layersof concrete and stone. in what is essentially reverse fracking,this unassuming fungus uses a vast web of stringy microscopic
threads to produce thousands of pounds of pressure, all to ensure that just one shaggy ink cap can rise to the surface.
among progressives, we often speak of building ‘leaderful’ movements –movements that are not focused around one individual but are instead built
around the resilience of a constant stream of formal leaders and leaders-tobe. Barbara ransby wrote about the foundational leaderful principles of civilrights icon Ella Baker:“Baker was not against leadership. She was opposed to hierarchical leadershipthat disempowered the masses and further privileged the already privileged…
She was calling for people to disinvest from the notion of the messianic, charismatic leader who promises political salvation in exchange for deference.”
the approach suggested by Baker (and ransby), and what so many progressive organizers have strived to build, is a truly leaderful movement. From theBlack lives Matter movement in the us to the umbrella revolution in hongkong or the student protests in chile, time and again this same mantle ofleaderful values is proudly claimed by progressive activists.

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and yet, time and again, we encounter the same paradox. no matter how egalitarian and democratic our stated values, the most powerful and long-lasting
movements grow around individual leaders. senator Bernie sanders literally
made his slogan “not me, us”, and yet how clear is it that the political resurgence of the us left since 2016 is directly tied to him and his presidential
campaigns, how rudderless that resurgence has seemed without the prospect of another sanders run in 2024. congresswoman alexandria ocasiocortez famously said, “For one of us to make it through, a hundred have totry”. But those other ninety-nine don’t have millions of devoted followers online. the first successful unionization of an amazon facility in the us earlier
this year was led by an incredible organizing committee of over one hundred
workers. But the bright lights of the media shone predominantly on one man,christian smalls, no matter how many times he tried to lift up their historic
win as a team effort.
there will always be individual leaders whose formal roles, compelling biographies, and personal charisma make them emblematic of – and fundamentally essential to – our movements. the power of an alexandria ocasiocortez or a christian smalls is largely in how unassuming they seemed justdays before their breakthroughs. if a bartender can defeat the next speakerof the house, if a packing-line supervisor can defeat the biggest corporationon the planet, then the powerful are never safe. those wins are necessary
fuel for movement building, and yet also lead inevitably to celebrity leadership. Which in turn tends to promote a steep hierarchy on the way to thatleader, creating gate-keepers and replications of privilege along the way.
so then is all this talk of leaderful movements just virtue signaling? is it evenpossible to sustain a movement without the gravitational pull of charismatic
leaders?
i propose that we think of ‘leaderful’ not as a set of aspirational values, nor
as a restriction on the fame any one leader should be permitted. We should
instead think of leaderful as a discipline – a set of practices, embedded inevery structure and activity of a movement. this discipline creates new leaders constantly, with the freedom to grow their own work while still existing
within the goals and values the movement has set out for itself. this discipline sustains organizational structures and inter-organizational networks
that breathe accountability. there are many approaches to building this discipline, but i’d like to describe one here in greater detail.
at Movement school, the organization i co-founded with ilona duverge in
2018, we have tried to hone the practices that build a leaderful discipline. one
important practice worth highlighting is our use of ‘freirean games’. named

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after famed Brazilian activist and educator paulo Freire, a freirean game isa simulated group exercise designed to foster both personal skill building
and a values-rich learning community. the simulation can be of any context
important to the movement, and the participants anyone who is currently or
might soon be facing the challenges of that context. think of a high-schoolmodel un program. over the past four years we have done freirean game
simulations of various electoral campaigns and issue organizing campaigns,
with dozens of participants from around the country in each. Every freirean game is co-designed with leading practitioners, who then serve as active mentors during and afterwards. technical trainings are built in, giving
participants skills that they then get a chance to practice. the design of thegame itself is critical. as Freire wrote:“No pedagogy which is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressedby treating them as unfortunates and by presenting for their emulation models from among the oppressors. The oppressed must be their own example inthe struggle for their redemption.”
Freirean games serve three key purposes, indicative of a leaderful discipline.
First, freirean games are a space for all to learn, improve and innovate. oneof the biggest barriers to creating new leaders is simply that most organizers
and activists are not given an opportunity to lead. a freirean game is a space
where all have the opportunity to take on the biggest challenges of the day,and to prove their potential to their comrades – and perhaps more importantly, to themselves. and, as Freire suggests, the design of the game ensuresthat a team of participants cannot be successful by replicating the statusquo of a broken political system, but instead succeeds by learning to lead thepeople power of movements.
second, freirean games build community and solidarity among practitioners.
honing the skills that make one successful cannot be a purely solitary pursuitin a leaderful movement. We have to see the value we provide as fundamentally linked to our comrades. Freirean games are focused around teams, bothfor accountability and support. the relationships built during an intensive
freirean game are more durable than those built during traditional trainings,
and more egalitarian than those formed in a traditional workplace.
and third, freirean games help break down gate-keeping and diversify ourspaces. By purposefully selecting participants who are often marginalized
from leadership roles – and by asking those who normally serve as gate-keepers to act as mentors – the practice of freirean games can help break down
barriers. Each cohort begins to see themselves as rightful leaders, despite –and indeed perhaps because of – how little they look like the elite-educated57white men we have been taught to expect in leadership roles. and in thementors, the participants have future employers and a support structure tohelp them succeed in the future.
in the midst of multiple overlapping global crises, our movements need a leaderful discipline. We must heed Ella Baker’s call to build power in every space
we exist, and around every person we meet. We must build a new generationof leaders, and then another after that, and then another. the first shaggy ink
cap mushroom that bursts improbably through a slab of concrete will always
look like a hero. they’ll be interviewed on cable news. they’ll go viral on social media. Good, says the leaderful movement – now who’s next.

References› ransby, Barbara. “Ella taught Me:
shattering the Myth of the leaderless
movement”, colorlines magazine
https://www.colorlines.com/articles/
ella-taught-me-shattering-myth-leaderless-movement› amosu, akwe. “how hong kong’s ‘leader-full’ movement attracted international
support”, the symposium on strength andsolidarity in human rights
https://strengthandsolidarity.org/blog/717/› Freire, paulo. The Pedagogy of the
Oppressed. new York: seabury press, 1968

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rEFlEctions on thismovement moment
Maurice Mitchelli came to the Working Families party (WFp) just after trump
had been elected. Before that, i had spent a number of years
catalyzing the Movement for Black lives, starting with the work
i did as part of the first wave of uprisings that took place after
the police murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.
From where i am sitting, it is clear that it is no accident that trump emerged
when he did in the united states, nor that we have recently witnessed thelargest social movement in american history. Globally, there have been a series of escalating crises, which are intersecting with one another. there isa great reckoning happening, and it is far from decided how any of this willplay out.
so i am situating the work we are doing in the us in this broader context. isee my task now as one of getting the wfp in fighting form to combat the riseof white, christian identity politics and to create a broad-based alignment ofmulti-racial working-class people who can lead this fight in america, election
cycle after election cycle.
at the same time, i welcome these opportunities to be in dialogue withfriends and comrades from around the world. despite our best efforts to beparochial in the us movement, we somehow still find ways to exchange andlearn on the international stage. and it is the ease with which this exchange
happens – both in formal and organic ways – that still gives me hope.
the political culture in the united states is very entrepreneurial. Every day,there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people who wake up, look in the mirror and say to themselves, “today is my day to shine”. they decide they are
the ones ready to run for office. they then hire some consultants, run a poll
to figure out what their message should be, and start fundraising.
From my perspective, this is completely backwards. For one, the people whowake up in the morning and tell themselves they were meant to hold office
are all too rarely from working-class communities, communities of color,60

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or communities that have been told in ways – implicit and explicit – thatamerica is not really for them. so one of the wfp’s organizing tasks is to flip
the script on this story. we need to find candidates who don’t fit that mold,
who don’t even see themselves as candidates. this is an essential organizing
task for our movement.

to me, this is an ideological orientation to the organizing i do. But ideology is
not something that we wield as a weapon to make ourselves feel smarter orseem more righteous. it is a tool that we use to ground our work of building
a movement with working-class people. it is a north star that we can follow
through the dark night, towards the freedom we need to win together.

Elections are a tactic, a means to an end. and the electoral moment is achance for us to engage in conversation with thousands, even millions, ofpeople. candidates play a critical role in helping voters make meaning of theworld around them. if these candidates have an organizational background,
if they are experienced organizers, if they feel a sense of accountability to
the communities from which they come, they can play an essential role inproviding strategic orientation to the broad majorities of voters we need toconstruct to win the election. But it is more than just winning one election.
these candidates are an essential ingredient in building a majoritarian counterforce to the rising strength of the organized right.
the political moment we are living in has had a profound effect on a lot of
people. in the united states, the pandemic created conditions where people
who never imagined it would happen to them found themselves standing infood-relief lines. millions of people turned on the tv and saw the reality thatmany communities in america experience on a daily basis: the police violently harassing and hunting down our people. it was also a time when many people in the united states started looking at elections differently. comfortablemiddle-class people started to become radicalized, and radicals started to
become electoralized. in short, this period has opened up new space for us
to organize. the conjuncture continues to shift, but i think as a movement– wherever we are in the world – we need to keep a keen eye on the next moments opening up for our rallying.
From my point of view, one of those moments is the ways in which ideas
about leadership are shifting – or need to shift – to suit this moment. partly
in response to past failures, and partly in response to a general legitimacy
crisis affecting all institutions operating under neoliberalism, we have seen
movement experiments in “leaderlessness,” or ultra-horizontal structures. i,
however, draw from the historic Black liberation struggle, as well as my own
experiences within the Movement for Black lives, when i say it is actually adialectical question: we need leaders and leaderfulness. We need to embrace
the contributions of many, and also understand that leadership is necessary.
and we need to understand that depending on the organizational form, leadership is going to look different. the kind of leadership needed in a social
movement is not the same as in a political party, or a union, for example. But
leadership is needed in all these spaces to further our collective struggle.

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nEW
challEnGEs,
nEW policY

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takInG publIC
spaCe baCk

rEconquErinG thEcity: a revolution
in urBan spacE
Anke Kleff and César Ochoa
after almost a century of designing our cities in a car-centred
way has driven us to larger, more polluted, more dangerous andless liveable urban areas, since the beginning of this decade, arevolution is finally transforming europe’s urban space.
since very few non-disruptive traffic calming efforts had been made in recent decades, the domination of the space by cars to get around and park inurban areas had become overwhelming. in Barcelona, cars occupied 60% of
the space, while actually only 20% of people’s transportation is by car.
nowadays, the combination of scientific evidence of the health threat posedby pollution, especially for children and older people, the climate emergency
and the covid pandemic has created the perfect context for an urgent urban revolution: taking back the public space from cars, reclaiming this public
good from the great space predator.
in what used to be called a cultural war against cars, different actors suchas politicians in government, the motor lobby and organized citizens havebeen defending conflicting interests. the future shape of our public space
and the speed of changes depend on the strength and courage shown by
each one. the urban revolution’s ‘weapons’ are simple but effective: creatingsuperblocks and connecting them, traffic calming in school environments,
opening streets up to pedestrians and cyclists, and regulating speed limits
in our city centres.
in this urban revolution, citizen participation is absolutely necessary. For example, when cities like Barcelona and paris are protecting schools’ environments by easing traffic in their direct surroundings, they use both structuraland tactical urbanism. in planning these transformations, the role of family
associations and the education community is essential: they demand, propose and co-produce the new configuration of the space.

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tactical urbanism, in whose logic we can include the first step in creating alarge proportion of the superblocks or the easing of traffic in many school
environments, is a powerful type of public space intervention with several
advantages. its cost ranges between 10% and 20% of the same transformation in classic structural urbanism, which gives it a much greater power totransform uses, it is faster and, perhaps the most important on democratic grounds, and it allows co-production by putting citizens at the core. theuse of elements such as paint, benches, tables and flowerpots allow different
configurations to be experimented with and evolve once the real use of citizenship is experienced.
superblocks are offering a model to extend traffic calming in a whole area inthe city. reducing the number and speed of vehicles creates a liveable neighbourhood where people can sit, talk and hear the other person without theneed to shout. reopening streets to communities and to our everyday life, tocome together to play and just build community, is highly political; it means
creating space and breathing new life into the heart of our neighbourhoods.
the transformation of urban space must always go hand in hand with thefight for affordable housing. in this regard, improvements must take place inall neighbourhoods, not just the city centre. in Barcelona, the homogeneous
distribution of improvements in the urban space throughout the entire city
is part of the strategic approach to urbanism. all areas of the city should become more liveable, not only the city centre.
in our cities, transformations are meeting resistance from lobbies, the conservative press, etc. We must join forces, and defend the reclaiming of public
space as an internationalist municipalist movement. superblockers across all
cities, unite!

supErBlock BarcElona
Alícia Puig
in Barcelona we are launching the superblock Barcelona project. this project aims to transform our city’s morphology, theway we get around and interact with our streets, and adapt
Barcelona to the 21st century.
Why are we launching this plan?
this plan responds to the need to make Barcelona, a very dense and polluted
city whose public space is very unequally distributed, more liveable.
Every day, 1.4 million cars cross the city and for most of the year, the air isabove 50 micrograms/m3 of no2, flouting the who air quality guideline of
not exceeding 40 micrograms/m3. sixty per cent of our public space is also
dedicated to cars.
therefore the city needs to rethink and reset its priorities: we need a plan thatcan democratize the public space and reduce pollution. and the superblock
project holds the formula to achieve these objectives.
What have we done thus far?
We call it superblock because the cerdà plan for the extension of Barcelona
in the mid-19th century was designed in blocks . during the last term of office (2015-2019), we rolled out the superblock strategy by area. we took nine
blocks and cut them off to traffic. we created a number of traffic-free islands, which helped to reclaim more public space.
in the neighbourhoods where the superblock project was executed in thelast term of office, some results can already be seen. the sant antoni neighbourhood, for instance, has seen a 25% drop in no2 and a 17% reduction in
the levels of pM10.

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What is our plan for the future?
in the current term of office, we wish to scale up this process: instead of focusing on a number of areas and making them car-free, we wanted to makeone out of three streets in the city green streets.
this shall change the morphology and how we understand the streets.
Because we are not only turning one out of three streets into green streetsfor pedestrians and vegetation. the other two out of three streets need toprioritize public transport and bike lanes. that is why we developed a more
efficient bus system, with an orthogonal network, and we are building a tramthat will connect the opposite ends of the city in 20 minutes. in terms of bikelanes, in six years, we have doubled the network, from 120 to 240 km and we
now are extending it an additional 30 km.
Barcelona is a very car-friendly city today, which is something we have tochange: we need to have a public transport-friendly city, where the most efficient way to get around is through sustainable mobility. as i said at theoutset, 1.4 million motorized vehicles per day are used in the city, 40% of
which are to get around within Barcelona. this could be drastically reduced
if getting around by motorized vehicles was not as easy as it is now.
in conclusion, climate change is changing everything so we need to change
our cities to adapt and mitigate its effects. We need to believe that there
is a city of the future that is possible, a city that will be liveable by 2050. agreen city, where everyone gets around by public transport or bike, a citythat could be energy self-sufficient… superblock Barcelona is the first step
towards this future.

thE First supErBlock in
Barcelona: roadmap for
iMplEMEntation
Patrick Kappert
september 2016 was the initial date for the superblock pilot
project in the neighbourhood of poblenou, Barcelona. it took
almost two years for this pilot project to be finalised and it took
five years and the covid pandemic to have the administration
go for a change of model and really start advocating for androlling out superblocks in Barcelona. now at the beginning of2022, “superblock” is becoming the watchword in conversations
abroad about what is making the difference here in Barcelona.
priority for pedestrians, the removal of traffic lights, the use of loops to easetraffic congestion without prohibiting access to cars that travel at 20 km/h.
the space freed up is used for picnic tables, children’s playgrounds or justempty space.
changes in general receive criticism. changes to protect nature, the environment or the health of cities’ inhabitants normally tend to be abstract andhard to grasp. the superblock is the same and different. it’s the same because
it received enormous criticism in the early days. it is different because, unlike most measures to mitigate climate change and improve air quality, it has
a surprising and very significant impact on cities and their public space: it
improves quality of life for their users and inhabitants.
in this article we will first discuss the improvements to quality of life notalways directly perceived from the perspective of the neighbourhood association “col·lectiu superilla poblenou”, @superillap9.
Finally, we would like to draw a number of conclusions over the logical next
step in continuing to transform cities towards liveable, sustainable and modern dynamic environments.

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The neighbourhood association “Col·lectiu Superilla
Poblenou”
superblock poblenou is not perfect. there are some conceptual issues over
how to mark drivers’ lanes, how to indicate pedestrian priority and one lanethat allows traffic and has traffic lights. But, from the get-go, a major campaign was run that almost got the pilot project shut down. national public
television reported fake news of traffic jams in surrounding streets and inaccessibility for services such as ambulances and fire engines. it was also
claimed that some spaces had no designated use and were unsightly. andthere were claims for the right to be able to just drive straight through thecity’s streets . and in some elections, politicians were terrified of letters andarticles opposed to the superblock being published in the main newspapers.
as community residents, we were astounded about how such a storm of hypeagainst the superblock was whipped up without contemplating reality, just to
satisfy media advertisers, namely, car brands. We really felt they were playing
with our health and our wellbeing.
We set up our association to defend the superblock pilot project and therefore advocate for the city of Barcelona’s proposal.
col·lectiu superilla poblenou is a unique neighbourhood organisation. usuallycommunities unite to contest something that cities wish to implement and tofight to stop its implementation.
We believed (and still do) that the manner in which the superblock is implemented can be greatly improved. We put forward improvements and ideas
about what to do with the space. But amidst all the media hype and considering that the political party rolling out the superblock pilot project wasa minority cabinet and the superblock was not foremost on their agenda ofproposals to defend in the face of enormous political pressure, we started
defending the superblock. We published pictures and posts in all the local
Facebook groups and twitter and engaged with anyone attacking the superblock with arguments unrelated to reality. a flurry of fake news surrounded
the superblock. We also had meetings with all the political parties in the district to remind them that their agenda supposedly aspired to achieve cleaner
air, that they voted in favour of the mobility plan that announced superblocks
and that politicians have a responsibility to foster health and liveable cities
for their residents.

superblock, unlike the city of Barcelona’s failure to even mention the word(for fear of losing elections over bad press), all the national and international
media came to talk to us and we appeared on local tv, in all sorts of press
and spoke to students and researchers, urban planners and architects fromall over the world. We got invited to discuss the matter in Mallorca, zaragoza,amsterdam and even reykjavik.
But, over time, more and more people started using the space, publishing
pictures of people enjoying and coming together in the public space and recounting their personal experiences. superblock poblenou survived only because we the residents showed the politicians what the reality actually was.
at the same time, we started getting to know each other, organising activities
and enjoying the benefits of the superblock, which we tried to document.
in fact, we identified a number of hidden benefits such as the quality of the
public space, noise reduction and community building.
Quality of the space
we all grew up in times where accessibility and smooth traffic flow for cars
were the main stumbling blocks when it came to thinking about urban planning. in times when individualism and the middle class were growing, theideal was to have a car of one’s own, a garden of one’s own and services likethe best (private) schools and shopping centres all concentrated on the outskirts of towns with convenient parking space.
urban planners were mostly people with that exact profile. But in cities like
Barcelona with a high density and a strong public transport system, only 25%of all journeys are made by car. nevertheless, 70% of public space is dedicated to driving lanes and parking facilities.
Giving priority to pedestrians and liberating the middle of intersections had
some strange side effects. people started talking in the middle of the public
space, not only close to the buildings. automatically this invites us to engage
in group conversations. two people talking on a narrow pavement seem tohave a private conversation. people talking at an intersection is an invitation
to join in. as a result, we started talking and getting to know one another!
another question that arises is why do we use the best part of that public
space, the middle, for cars on most occasions?

We also attended all the district council meetings to make our voice heard.
Furthermore, and since we published lots of photos and videos of the7273Noise reduction
as we were starting to talk, we identified another issue over time: if a car
was passing by, we stopped talking and waited for the car to pass before we
continued. most of Barcelona’s streets are characterized by the hum of traffic
and people are forced to shout to hear one another properly. noise reduction
really improved the quality of our conversations.
and all of a sudden we could make out the sounds of birds and insects.
Becoming aware that we are not the only specimen inhabiting the city was amajor discovery.
As a driver
car-owning residents got another surprise: it was nicer, less frustrating andequally fast to get around by car in the superblock. the removal of traffic
lights facilitates traffic flow with drivers slowing down to let pedestrians andcyclists pass. and all the stress related to traffic lights dissipates. no driving
while trying to go through an orange light or waiting over a minute for thelights to change. For a driver who lives inside the superblock, entry is almost
like coming home and relaxing.

we also have technology: in 2023 all new vehicles will be fitted with a mandatory speed limiter. we can drastically remove 70% of all traffic lights andgive priority to pedestrians again. almost 85% of all journeys within cities arewithin a 10 km range: easily done on foot or by (E)-bike, which is a pleasantand active form of mobility that many people do not use because of the safety issues posed by cars. Within the next ten years, let’s roll out a superblock
system that allows every resident to have their own superblock within two
streets and makes it possible for them to move across the city on foot or bybike solely through a system of connected superblocks. people are smarter
than politicians give them credit for, and they are fully capable of appreciating a better quality of life. We have to get rid of motorways within cities: they
are antiquated and against human life and well-being. We have to be bold andbrave and implement these measures and give them two years for people tobecome accustomed to.
What’s more, the superblock model does allow cars to get around everywhere but just as they were meant to be: a valuable tool at people’s service.

Social relations
our neighbourhood had no community before the superblock. thanks to thesuperblock, we have gotten to know each other, we have initiated activities
and we have struck up friendships. in covid times, we organized systems
to help each other out when up against practical problems and quarantines.
and now we grumble about “superblock tourism”: there are only a few superblocks in Barcelona and people come to ours to celebrate children’s parties,
to learn how to ride a bike or to roller-skate and, at the weekend, there are
the famous street drinking parties (‘botellones’), all because the superblock
is a nice place to be.
The future of cities
cars are very useful tools. But without realizing it, we destroyed the social
habitat for humans, that is, “the public space”, giving it up almost entirely totraffic. But we live in the 21st century and we must respond to climate change,plus we know that noise and especially air pollution are reducing our life expectancy. such pollution also bears a major impact on general health and thelearning capacity of young children.

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the CIty asa home: the rIGht
to housInG

introduction
Guillem Pujol
the relationship we establish with our habitual dwelling is so
special that it is unlike any other architectural structure or
inanimate object. our home protects us from the cold winterwind, from the torrential rains that fall in spring and from theintense rays of the summer sun. But home is more than just ashelter. We take loving care of our home; we decorate the wallswith memories of our past and we know that on them we canproject our future dreams. home is where we long to return after a long journey, the place that continues to cradle us as adults.
in modern constitutions, this intimate relationship we have with our home
has found a legal position which, on paper, should guarantee all citizens thepossibility of weaving this exceptional link. however, we have known that thisis not the case for a long time. the processes of industrialisation and urban
growth characteristic of modernity generated a series of related problems,such as overcrowding and unhealthy living conditions, which made it impossible for part of the population to get access to decent housing. But we also
know something else: what was framed by the politicians and “intellectuals”
of the time as “the housing problem” was, in reality, the housing problem of
the working and lower classes. and this continues today.
the great landowners of the past (nobles, aristocrats and part of the bourgeoisie) continue today to accumulate large amounts of housing in which
they do not live, perpetuating social inequalities that can be traced back centuries. Many studies have shown this accurately. it is true that state housing
construction policies grew during the second half of the 20th century, butthey did so unevenly, and failed to solve a problem that, unfortunately, persists in our societies today.
over the years, housing has mutated rapidly from a value in use to an exchange value, becoming the main mechanism of financial speculation that
led to the economic crisis of 2009. Moreover, the global housing business has
contributed to undermining its status as a privileged object, systematicallybreaking it up until it became what brokers call a “financial asset”.

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Many social movements have risen up, and are still rising up, to demand decent housing. some of the movements have fought to regulate the price ofrents and to curb the excessive power of landlords. others struggle to ensurethat eviction is not a capricious arbitrary act. often, faced with the economic
inability to afford housing, it has been the self-organised community that has
put up walls and built roofs with its own hands. as long as there are houses
without people in places where there are people without homes, we will notlive in societies that aspire to call themselves just. Without a home, the world
is a truly inhospitable place.
the solution, however, cannot be to increasingly reduce the minimum living
space. projects that can be defined as substandard housing are often presented as supposed solutions to the housing problem: spaces so small, without
any access to the outside world, that they can turn the sweet seclusion of thehome into a traumatic confinement. the covid 19 pandemic made this clear.
today, cities all over the world are seeking to join forces to tackle a problem
that is as universal as the fight against climate change and feminism. fromvalparaiso to rio de Janeiro to Barcelona, on the other side of the atlantic,
cities are already home to more than half of the population, and this percentage is expected to increase in the not-too-distant future. cities have a moreaccurate and up-to-date view of what is happening within the limits of theiradministration than states do; it makes sense for them to have a more important role in drafting housing policies than they do at present. Moreover, if theobjective is to build real solutions that allow us to move towards a definitive
solution of the housing problem, they are destined to do so.

tourism: a Key factor
For thE riGht tohousinG in ManY toWns
José Manuel Mejías
can the proliferation of the tourist housing phenomenon affectthe right to housing in our cities? phrased in this way, the question seems obvious. of course it can. in fact, in our country,
tourist overcrowding in large cities has caused an uncontrolled
increase in the price of rents, a drastic reduction in the supplyof residential housing in certain areas, cohabitation problems
and the loss of identity of entire neighbourhoods.
in our case, we have taken the initiative to get ahead of the problem of the
touristification of our municipality, using the tools at our disposal. we area small municipal group (Ganemos jerez), with only one councillor in the
opposition, in a medium-sized andalusian city (jerez de la Frontera) where
tourism is strongly promoted as an economic monoculture. and although at
the moment there is no serious problem with tourist housing, we can see thewriting on the wall, as we have a very deteriorated historic centre (with someareas in ruins) and the option of it becoming a theme park has appeared.
We wanted to act ahead of time, in a preventive and rigorous manner, bypromoting a study financed with resources from the municipalist group itself, entitled: “Analysis of tourist housing in Jerez de la Frontera: current
situation and future prospects”, which was carried out by an independent
consultancy firm from our own city: “Agua y Territorio”. the study is available on our website: http://ganemosjerez.es/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/P07.21.-Inventario-VFTJerez-7-septiembre.pdf.

the research was developed through a quantitative analysis, using official
sources from the autonomous community and the Ministry (andalusian
tourism register, national statistics institute, etc.) as well as from companies and websites specialising in the tourist housing business. it has alsosystematised all the official documentary information available on urban
planning, economic development in the tourism sector and official housing
plans. Finally, several “Participatory Meetings” were held. these may have

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been the most interesting part of the study, one of which took place withprofessionals from the real estate and tourism sectors and specialised staff
from the local administration and another with members of different social
movements related to housing. these meetings helped to gauge and contextualise the available information, both quantitative and qualitative, which
was available to all participants.

Within the framework of these proposals and our defence of the right tohousing, we have promoted this study on tourist housing, which is also a
political action, with which we intend to:• unmask the current municipal government policy of construction and rehabilitation of the historic centre in jerez because the “housing policy andrevitalisation of the historic centre” is disguised as something it is not.

the main conclusions were:
1. at present jerez does not have a serious problem with tourist accommodation, but if action is not taken soon, one could appear. there has been an
explosive increase in the last five years, though there is still low tourist
density.
2. we do not have a current gentrification problem, as the centre is very depopulated and run-down, with some areas in ruins, but its progressive rehabilitation is focusing on the construction of tourist apartments and housing.
in the last decade, the age group that has reduced the most in the sparse
population of the city centre is the under 45s. the ageing of the populationand the lack of generational replacement is becoming evident.
3. totally unregulated “platform tourism” has a negative impact on the traditional hotel sector. We may also be facing a phenomenon of oversizing, a
new bubble effect in the real estate sector, as the supply of tourist accommodation is generally growing, but overnight stays are not growing at thesame rate.
4. if we do not act now with other housing policies that consider repopulation
as an integrating strategy, the centre of our city will be a large bar terrace,
where there will be no life, no traditional shops, no schools, no resident
families and no cohabitation. and all of this will end up totally dismantling
our traditional neighbourhoods, which will lose their identity and culture.
unfortunately, for now, it is not in our hands to implement public policies
that protect the right to decent and affordable housing, since we are not in
the municipal government, but we are, within our possibilities, advising andputting our political structure at the service of stopping evictions, promoting proposals for the comprehensive rehabilitation of neighbourhoods with
substandard housing, facilitating access to housing for young people andhousing alternatives for young foreigners previously under guardianship of
the state, providing the grant of use of land to housing cooperatives or thepurchase of second-hand housing for social renting.

80• reclaim the need to regulate this economic activity, tourist accommodation, so that it is transparent, so that it is adequately taxed and does notcompete unfairly with other establishments for overnight stays in our city,and so that it does not go against the right to life and housing of the residents of jerez.
• explain that what is sold as investments that are beneficial for Jerez, inreality are not an investment in the city, as they clash with the right andaccess to housing, drive out the few people who already live in the centre
and greatly limit access to housing for new generations. these investments
lead to an expansion of the tertiary sector in the city centre, extractive
investments of the values and conditions of the territory as mere economic
exploitation at the service of the tourism and real estate sector.
• denounce the lack of municipal will to confront this situation. jerez city
council has more than enough resources to have carried out a study ofthis nature or a much more exhaustive one years ago, but a small politicalgroup, with only one councillor, has had to come and do what should havebeen done before.
We strive for a sustainable model that puts people at the centre of its activity
and that guarantees the right to decent housing and that does not give riseto speculation, to “anything goes” or to wild actions that disrespect our environment. We want a friendly model in which houses for residents and theeconomic development of the tourist sector can coexist with hotels and hostels, and also (why not?) with tourist apartments and housing, under logicaland sensible regulation.

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livinG and GaininG
riGhts in thE EuropEan
laBYrinthAna Fernández
during the last two years of the pandemic, the defence of theright to housing, in the context of a major health and social crisis, has run into the usual brick walls, strongly propped up bythat faceless and tentacled entity that we call the market. lastdecember, we saw how the popular legislative initiative for a
law to Guarantee the right to dignified and adequate housing,presented by several social organisations to the spanish
parliament, was left without the possibility of being addressedand debated, by the deed and grace of those who claim to be therepresentatives of the people. when it comes to vetoing (andsilencing) civic initiatives on such a transcendental issue as thehuman right to housing, although supposedly of different political persuasions, the people’s party (pp), voX and the spanishsocialist Workers’ party (psoE) do not seem to present any differences. far better that they “sort it out” among themselves.
Meanwhile, just one day earlier, on 13 december, but with zero media coverage in our territory, another deadline of equal or greater importance for the
defence of this right came to an end, which could have an impact not only
on the voracity of the market, but also on the very capacity to confront it at
the local level. i am referring to the deadline for submitting comments on
the European regulation short-term rentals initiative. this faceless entity
knows very well how to operate quietly and twist the arms of key actors on
several fronts at once.
those of us like me who live in Barcelona know that a firm municipal political will has a limited but certain margin to halt expulsion and gentrification
processes linked to property speculation that directly affect the conditionsof access to decent housing. these processes go hand-in-hand with thecommercialisation of housing as a financial instrument for obtaining income
and the touristification of cities as new mines for an extractive economy.
tools such as the special tourist accommodation plan (pEuat) in Barcelona

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have shown that these processes can be dealt with at the local level, despite
limitations in terms of competences and resources. according to data from
Barcelona city council, between 2016 and 2020, this municipality had already recovered 1,982 of the apartments offered as tourist accommodation
for housing use.
if approved, European regulatory initiatives such as the one mentioned above
could jeopardise these types of local tools, yet they could also be of help ifthey are in line with defending the right to housing. less than a year ago, following the mobilisation of different networks such as the European citizens’
initiative “housing for all”, the european parliament adopted a historic
resolution on access to decent and affordable housing for all [2019/2187(ini)].
it made particular reference to the negative impact of tourist rents in relation
to residential rental prices and to processes of dispossession that make housing unaffordable for the local population, as well as the emptying of historiccity centres and the deterioration of liveability in general. to this end, theEuropean commission was asked to regulate short-term contracts. however,and in clear contradiction of the spirit of this resolution, the report issued
by the European commission (inception impact assessment), aimed at underpinning the new regulatory proposal, goes in the opposite direction. inother words, it proposes a regulation to incentivise short-term rentals with astrict market orientation, seeking to eliminate what it calls the “administrative burden” of each location, which generate “barriers to market access” (aeuphemism to refer to the control of licences and limitations at the local level).

and celebrate spaces of collective and inter-local construction, also generated thanks to the digital era. i am referring to the initiative driven by theEuropean coordination of the international alliance of inhabitants (iai),
which in record time convened organisations and references working onthese issues to inform, debate and propose an alternative to the current proposal for the regulation of short-term rentals put forward by the European
commission. With the participation of experts from different cities and overa hundred participants, the iai held a virtual meeting on 10 december that
resulted in the drafting of a joint commitment to regulate these rentals basedon human rights. this text has been submitted to the European commission
as part of the consultation period for local organisations and administrations, which ended on 13 december. Both the meeting and the proposal areavailable on the iai Facebook page.
still with the bitter taste of what happened with the spanish popular legislative initiative, it is difficult to maintain hope that the european institutions will listen to the clamour of organisations and citizens in the face of
the “persuasive” power of real estate market operators. But in this time of
Matrix resurrections, continuing to strengthen spaces of resistance, articulation and public encounters to democratise institutions, and coordinating
cross-border political advocacy in the defence of fundamental rights and basic needs, still seems essential to me.
This article was first published on 11 January 2022 in the column “Una ventana al mundo: la actualidad global con mira-in the era of artificial intelligence, digital platforms and the touristificationof cities, occurring alongside an increase in inequalities and a decline in thepurchasing power of the working class in the face of the profitability of capital, today’s regulatory proposals must take into account the strong transnational and translocal component that runs through these processes now
more than ever. citizen action must be articulated not only at the local level,
as with the Iniciativa Ley de Vivienda (“housing law initiative”) platform,
which we celebrate despite its apparent “defeat”, for showing the deficits andshortcomings of what we call ‘representative’ democracy, but also at otherlevels. With the same intelligence, civic action should therefore take advantage of the possibility of occupying and reclaiming spaces for advocacy at theregional level, in this case at the European level, because the potential impactof what is in play and decided upon in this sphere is enormous.

da local” (“A window on the world: global news with a local
perspective”) featured in La Futura Channel (lafuturachannel.net).

therefore, along these lines of defence of fundamental rights such as accessto decent housing, and perhaps also to continue feeding the spirit of rebellion
and non-conformism that must keep us standing firm and alert in the struggle, i want to take advantage of this window on the world to communicate

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transformInG
how we Care

carE tasks andcoMMunitY solidaritY
Luisa Broto Bernués
as feminism has taught us, when we talk about care tasks, weare talking about valuing our vulnerability and interdependence, our responsibility towards others and the need to place
the focus on the sustainability of life, a life worth living.
therefore, the major challenge for public policy is not only client satisfaction but above all client care, based on measures for community-basedcare management.
the conception of social policies has usually been based on what have traditionally been called the ethics of justice, a set of procedures and rules thathave been of key importance as an element to reduce arbitrariness and toguarantee equal access to social rights, services and benefits.
these are essentially universalist, egalitarian, rational, impartial, rights-centred and formalist ethics that focus not so much on outcomes as on procedures.
despite the importance of this approach from any model that seeks a social
rights perspective, its standardising, objectivist and sterile logic of needs andensuring they are met is very limited to address individuality and develop
emotional and strategic alliances with citizens.
it is here that the ethics of care takes on its full potential by placing the focus
on context, variations between specific situations, subjective experienceand emotional factors, care for the other, care for each other and care forthe environment.
it is a commitment to the social dimension of the human being and to theleading role of people in building their own situation, through personal andcollective empowerment, in the context of our networks of existence.
Because only through participation can we build a city where there is roomfor us all. Because being a citizen is much more than just living in the city; it8687

means claiming, recognising and exercising political and social rights thatenable us to become involved in the policies of our cities.
if cities and their neighbourhoods are the space where global dynamics aremost harshly manifested, it is also in cities and their neighbourhoods where
we can implement policies for change, which, through proximity, respond to
the real needs that we have rediscovered.
it is therefore increasingly necessary to implement public policies that movein this direction from the perspective of public-community management. We
would like to propose some ideas that we have been working on in zaragoza
in recent years, most of which have not been developed in practice and are,in essence, strongly interrelated and linked.
Care Islands (perhaps it would be better to call them Care Archipelagos, likea set of islands that form a whole) are interdisciplinary and public-community spaces for the care of the needs of elderly people and people in situations of dependence.

event but part of a complex situation that urgently needs a response. in thisway, the whole community is made co-responsible without this entailing anabandonment of functions by the public sector.
an important instrument for the management of these policies and as part ofthe care islands would be the promotion of care cooperatives, understood ascooperatives of users and workers which, with a lower level of bureaucratisation, entail a greater exchange of informal information, the construction ofcommunity networks and, in short, community self-management in meeting
its own needs.
placing care at the centre is an ethical imperative, a legal requirement and apolitical responsibility for the construction of the private and public world,which contributes to consolidating gender equity, equality, solidarity, social
fabric and support and social justice.

in addition to responding to the home support needs currently attended toby the home help service and the provision of other services and technicalaids, the aim is that these islands will become a space for community support in coordination with the medical services, local businesses, neighbours
and social entities, to weave networks of proximity, social and emotional
support for non-professional carers and to detect and respond to situationsof loneliness.
But this is not their only purpose. they would also be designed to meet families’ childcare needs by providing 24-hour childcare 365 days a year, basedon a wide range of community-based services to promote family work-lifebalance, adapted to the needs of the territories.
these mechanisms would include both work-life balance and home care systems for childcare, either individually or collectively, as well as spaces for
exceptional or emergency situations that provide a 24-hour response, 365
days a year.
the use of these mechanisms would be on an hourly basis at a reduced price,adapted to the real needs of work-life balance and affordable for families.
the need for care in this project is no longer a mere individual need to which
an equally individual response must be provided with a menu of services. it
must be considered as a collective need in a specific context, not an isolated88

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movinG towards thecity of care: the case of
BarcElona
Gemma Tarafa Orpinell, Carolina Recio
Cáceres and Elia Grancare work is essential to sustaining life. in the wake of the impact of the pandemic caused by covid-19, this statement has
become more apparent and meaningful. despite the shift inperception, care has still not managed to shake off its aura ofinvisibility. it is as if what sustains people’s lives didn’t exist,
as if it were a natural and inherent part of women’s lives andis therefore not worthy of social and monetary recognition. inthis respect, the provision and receipt of care has not yet become a citizen’s right. We have not had robust public policies
that consider the right to give and receive care to be one of the
keystones in building a social state.
the feminist movement and a substantial number of social science academics have advocated for care as a lynchpin in our lives. care work, which remains invisible, is what sustains us in our day-to-day lives; we need to feed
ourselves, to have access to basic hygiene and to live under optimal conditions of cleanliness and safety, emotional and physical well-being, and so on.
and to this must be added the fact that we live with people who at certain
stages of their life require more care due to their lack of personal autonomy,
especially at the beginning and at the end of life.
the covid-19 pandemic has revealed our vulnerability as individuals and as
a collective. production-related activity slowed down for a few months, but
we never stopped caregiving. an example is that many of those who were declared frontline workers during this period of exception were in fact working
in the realm of caregiving; from health care, which was obviously crucial toalleviating the pandemic, to caring for the elderly and people with disabilities
in nursing homes and at home, to caring for socially vulnerable groups. theseare jobs that, by their very nature, are strongly feminised. nor did home help
wane, which grew on account of the closure of schools and day centres. Withschools closed and fewer facilities open, families had to assume the cost of90

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24-hour care while teleworking. it was clear then that feminist activism was
not a rallying cry but a reality (sometimes very challenging for those who had
to take on the burden of caregiving).
the unprecedented situation we have experienced must be taken as an opportunity to bring care out of the grey area in which it finds itself and toreassert care as a keystone in building fairer societies by proposing a reformof the current systems and policies that affect care. We must update them,provide them with resources and think about them from the perspective of
the need to give and receive care throughout our lifetime. cities must be theplaces where we can think of new, innovative proposals that put care at theheart of policies.
cities are the spaces for everyday life in which we get around, interact, consume, work and care on a daily basis. the city is the ideal place to rethink thesystems of social organisation for care, moving towards more human, moreegalitarian and more community-based places, where the idea of interdependence guides public-community actions.
Barcelona, a caring city
Barcelona city council has been leading this shift in mindset for some years
now. We are a city that seeks to be recognised as a caring city, as a city forlife. it is for this reason that the feminist perspective runs through all policies to prioritise life. From urban planning policies, which are transforming
the city so that it is the people who are re-appropriating the public space, tosocial policies that put people’s needs first.
this view was encapsulated in the government’s measure for the
Democratisation of Care2 presented in 2017. several of the transformativeinterventions have been designed in line with this approach, with the aimof creating policies that generate new frameworks based on rights and thatremove care from the exclusively private (and highly unequal) domain.
First of all, some of the care services for dependent persons provided within
the framework of what is set forth by the state dependency law and theautonomous community law on social services were rethought. the aim
was to redefine and improve the services that Barcelona city council should
provide, seeking out points of improvement that we were able to identify using the city’s tools.

2

https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/tempsicures/sites/default/files/mg_para_la_democratizacion_de_los_cuidados.pdf

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the revision of the municipal home help service (sad) was a first step towards a new way of organising the service, designed to improve the quality ofcare for users and to improve workers’ conditions and recognition. this has
been complemented by other services that are already part of the Barcelona
model, such as housing with services for the elderly, which are proving to be
an excellent resource for promoting older people’s autonomy.
secondly, a commitment was made to social innovation as a hallmark of social policies. this has given rise to innovative proposals that seek to put carefirst: the Barcelona cuida care centre, the vila veïna community care initiative and the municipal childminding service. these constitute new responses
based on an analysis of the complexity that currently goes hand in hand withlife in the city:
the Barcelona Cuida3 care centre is a pioneering municipal centre that provides advice, guidance, support and information to care workers. its aim is
to become a meeting point for different services, programmes and resources
related to care. noteworthy among the programmes it offers are those related to guidance and support for both domestic workers and families who needto hire care workers, in an endeavour to offer tools so that this hiring is legal
and entitles the workers to rights. in 2021, this meant that the legal advice
teams assisted 1,308 people, of whom 874 were caregiving families and 348
domestic workers. this guidance service, among other outcomes, led to theregularisation in 2021 of 140 domestic workers’ contracts, who until then had
an informal contract. the centre also aims to be a space for the coordination of professionals and services and to host organisations that can provide
group services and mutual support related to care.
another step towards the caring city is the project initiated in 2021 known
as Vila Veïna4. this project aims to divide the city into area units of between
10,000 and 30,000 inhabitants and to organise and meet care needs basedon proximity. it is centred on the premise that a smaller area unit can facilitate this approach to care and foster communities that care for each otherthroughout the city. the project is inspired by the 15-minute city model andthe desire to create a “village” imaginary. the ultimate goal is to build care
communities based on proximity, fostering community ties and relations inorder to approach care from a collective dimension and not alone. Between
now and 2023, 16 vila veïna units will be rolled out throughout the city andfour of them have been up and running since last october. each vila veïna
offers a portfolio of services linked to guidance on the care process (provid3

https://www.barcelona.cat/ciutatcuidadora/en/barcelona-care-centre/centre

4

https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/vinclesbcn/en/noticia/vila-veina-the-new-community-careinitiative_1065580

93ing information on all the resources offered by the city), respite services forcarers (mutual support spaces and healthy walks) and projects aimed at earlychildhood care (family spaces and municipal childminding space). it also aims
to complement this with small-scale actions in public spaces so that neighbourhoods are also care spaces from an urban planning point of view.
Finally, another innovative service to be highlighted is the concilia service,a free after-school childminding service. the municipal project aims to facilitate the reconciliation of work, family and personal life through a service that responds to existing work-life balance needs, mainly for women, in
terms of childcare.
in short, Barcelona city council is determined to be a feminist and caring
city. this is not just a slogan. in Barcelona, the facts show that we are laying
the groundwork not only in terms of discourse but also in terms of tangible
transformations with a view to moving towards a city that cares.
care emerges both in the design of the urban model (superblocks urban initiative humanises the city and gives prominence to pedestrians and humanrelations) and in constant review and innovation in the field of social policies.
a fair and fearless city is a city that lends support and cares, which lays thefoundations for developing a decent and fulfilling life for all its residents. thisis the path chosen by Barcelona.

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Can we thrIve
wIthout eConomIC
Growth?

toWards a nEW
economic model: an
introduction
Toni Ribas
since neoliberalism became the predominant ideology, back inthe 1980s, the obsession with economic growth has heavily conditioned politics and business management all over the world.
thus, government regulations at all levels are focused on growth and making
it easier for companies and investors to make bigger profits, while ignoring
important considerations like social welfare, equality, work conditions, worklife balance and, above all, the preservation of the environment.
as a result, many workers’ rights, painfully acquired over decades of struggle,
have ceased to exist. overpopulation and automatization, among other causes, mean that there are fewer jobs available, and the perversion of the lawof supply and demand makes it extremely difficult for people to find decent
work no matter how high their level of education is.
the gap between the haves and the have nots is wider every day. Wealth is invery few hands, and those in real need of a job (i.e. a proper income to makea living) are forced to take whatever jobs the companies offer, often with deplorable conditions: long hours, a low salary and a defiant take-it-or-leave-it
stance on the part of their future employer.
the circular and caring economics of our grandparents have long been left
behind and have been replaced with a linear model of Extraction-productionconsumption-Waste. this model is depleting natural resources, wasting an
incredible amount of energy, and leaving millions of tons of waste that wecannot possibly manage.
the greenhouse gas emissions associated with this model are exponentiallyrising and no one can argue now that climate change is not human-induced.
the effects of climate change are making living conditions extremely difficult, especially in underdeveloped countries, leading to migration flows and9697

to potential competition for jobs, which leads to racism and totally unacceptable foreign policies.
developed countries, however, are not immune to climate change. crops andwildlife are deeply affected by the rise in temperatures and extreme weather, and so food production is reduced and prices climb, in accordance withcapitalist laws.
so, the promises associated with perpetual economic growth (jobs for everybody, good money for all, and general well-being) turn out to be a fantasy, actually taking us back a few decades in terms of social rights, average income
and public services.
But these are the concepts that are widely used to define development orprosperity, and as we clearly see that economic growth does not imply prosperity for most people, maybe we should look at other means to achieve thisgoal. prosperity is not only income, it is universal access to health, educationand housing; it is the preservation of the environment so we can all live in a
beautiful and healthy place; it is balancing our working lives with our family
lives; it is being able to improve our relationship with other people by building communities that can support and help each other. it is, in essence, giving
everyone a chance to live a happy life.
the challenge then is to switch to an economic system that takes all these elements into consideration, and serves all mankind to have a better life without destroying the natural resources that make human life possible.
the capitalist model of eternal growth, where Gdp is the king, where issues
like ‘externalities’ (direct and indirect damage to the environment or society
caused by the production system, which are not included in indicators likeGdp), the care economy, or social justice are not taken into consideration
fails to guarantee equality and well-being for all. are there alternatives tothis model?
in this chapter we will explore some of them, trying to shed some light on
the problem and confront the predominant orthodoxy in economic thought.
For decades now, universities and schools of economics all over the world
no longer question the capitalist system, thus teaching future economists
almost as one would teach a religion, including only the concepts and ideasthat uphold economic growth as the only possible way to thrive.
It is time for a different approach.

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no FEar oF
EconoMic dEGroWth
Gabriela Cabaña
increasingly robust evidence from degrowth and post-growtheconomic approaches is showing that decoupling economic
growth from resource use – what is called “green growth” oreven “dematerialisation” – is extremely unlikely, if not impossible. impossible at least in the scale, depth, speed, magnitude
and resilience we so urgently need. this is so clear that in ourcurrent policy scenarios, like those built by the ipcc reports,
we are still trusting in scaling up carbon capture and removal
technologies that do not yet exist to offset our emissions overshoot. this is a hugely irresponsible approach to the ecologicalbreakdown we are facing.
unlike what mainstream green growth approaches assert, renewable energy
technologies have limits – both on land use and material requirements likebalsa wood and rare earth minerals – and also rely heavily on fossil fuels
and their derivatives like plastic. the way they are often designed as massive
enterprises also relies on a logic of people’s displacement from their land.
therefore, we cannot simply expect renewable energies to conveniently
come to sustain our current energy use. this critical point is often brushed
away through wishful thinking about some miraculous technological breakthrough that is yet to come.
there is one historical fact we need to understand: the exploitation of fossil
fuels gave us an incredible source of very concentrated and apparently cheap
energy for a couple of centuries. i say “apparently” because it had – and continues to have – many negative consequences that have been intentionallyoverlooked so cheap energy can circulate globally in a smooth way. it would
be a mistake to put those same expectations and demands on renewable
technologies like wind and solar energies, not only because of the technical
impediments, but also because it would continue to reproduce the imperialistic and exploitative relations of our productivist civilization.
More than sitting down and waiting for policy makers to come up with a
new techno-fix – the last one among ecomodernists is go back to nuclear,99re-branded as “green” – a truly radical political thinking must challenge theideology of economic growth. Economic growth has so far been the unmovable wall we have been trying to adjust around, both from the left and theright. it is time to bring down that wall. the improvement of living conditions
and provision of social rights for everyone can be achieved with existing
wealth and resources (probably even with less), if we are willing to challenge
the power structures that keep that shared human patrimony firmly in thehands of a few. Growth ideology relies on waste and the forced creation of
scarcity. We can transform the political principles that guide our economies
to do the opposite: to create a shared, radical form of abundance. this is theinvitation of degrowth.
the emerging post-pandemic world (that we are still not sure when will comeabout) offers a possibility to re-think and challenge the foundations of ourcurrent economic system. or at least that could be expected, as we have seen
in its bare reality the inability of our societies to take care of all people when
faced with a direct danger to our health. this could have been a good time toremember that we have created what we call “the economy” not to produce
a certain amount of goods, but to keep each other comfortable, fed and safe.
pushing people under the bus to keep “the economy” afloat only makes sense
in a blindly reifying system like ours. different post-covid recovery funds
are sadly pointing in this direction. in chile, for instance, our plan repeats aknown formula: big investment projects in infrastructure and pushing people
back to employment. it has even been proposed to “speed up” the evaluationof environmental standards in large investment projects. all when existing
evidence is solid in that ecosystems and biodiversity degradation puts us at
risk of new pandemics and other still unsuspected consequences of destroying our planet.

not even close from being in a “safe space” – as framed by the doughnut model – and want to move there, you start asking: why is this so difficult? what
are the logics and suppositions that are guiding our economic decisions? Weneed to open the box of political economy, of global history, colonialism andecological destruction. there, degrowth can offer a very powerful explanatory paradigm.
there is already a rich garden of alternatives; other ways of living together
that challenge domination and centre on care. indigenous people in particular offer a wide range of civilizational projects, fascinating political arrangements that have managed to create other forms of communal decision-making and sustain their livelihoods in a non-destructive way. they have a lot toteach us on how to move to healthier ways of being, of relating to each otherand the rest of the living world. re-thinking ideas like “work” and “property”, for instance, are good starting points to widen these conversations. it
is not a coincidence that precisely these often marginalized and oppressedpeoples have been for a long time now denouncing the catastrophic consequences and crimes of our capitalist system and its obsession with expansion and never-ending growth. they also encourage us to have no fear of
economic degrowth.

it might be controversial, but we could build an army of green infrastructure and still be in a huge social and ecological crisis. if we focus on emissions only, at the expense of the care of the web of life, we will continue
repeating the mistakes and injustices that took us here in the first place. a
corporate-led energy transition will not be a just transition. the problem allthese grandiloquent plans share is that they diagnose the main problem tobe low economic activity (low growth, a contraction or recession, and fear of
future depression) so they aim at pumping growth back again. these epistemic principles blind us from looking at that paradigm from the outside andseeing that something of this logic is not working. Why have we designed our
economies to rely on growth for stability and providing well-being to people?
how can we transition from our growth obsession into degrowth? or rather:
into a pluriverse of alternatives that degrowing would make room for? thisoften appears as the most difficult question to answer. when you see we are

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MorE GrEEn EnErGY,
MorE local industrY,
MorE joBs
Eloi Badia, Christo Casas and Quique Gornés
the climate Emergency has upended everything we knew
about how the economy works. By way of example, we have notyet overcome the health crisis brought about by covid-19 and
we are already in the throes of a supply crisis, especially of fossil fuels, compounded by russia’s war in ukraine. if we do not
act in time and plan for transformation, when (or if) we emerge
from this crisis, we will be up against an even worse one.
there is no choice between strengthening the economy and tackling the climate emergency; this is a false dichotomy. Both struggles have to go hand in
hand: they will be fought together or not at all. the future of our society liesin the ecological transition and the future of the economy lies in decarbonisation. this is the only way we will achieve greater energy sovereignty, as we
will not be subject to international conflicts, fuel shortages and capital flows.
the projections made by the international Monetary Fund and the European
central Bank for spain and the rest of southern Europe are quite clear interms of the economic impacts of the climate emergency if we do not act
now: the economic downturn would exceed 6% while the investments needed to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis would be around 1% of Gdp.
We do not have the option of maintaining the former energy model based on
fossil fuels; we have to move towards a new model based on renewable energies where generation is decentralised and distributed equally throughout
the territory. the need to supply parts, the installation of new generating
equipment and the adaptation of distribution networks to the new reality
are an opportunity for industrial sectors that we cannot afford to miss. thecurrent cost of electricity may be the catalyst that instigated this change, but
it is much more than a material issue: the planet’s survival is at stake.

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apart from promoting the creation of new jobs, a just energy transition mustallow us to leave behind the extractivist, polluting and expensive model infavour of a new green, inexpensive and fair model that leaves no one behindand guarantees the right to energy. it must also guarantee a balance withthe surrounding territory: we, compact cities with a high population density, have a responsibility towards the more dispersedly populated areas thatmust be based on local generation with existing resources. Barcelona is thedensest metropolis in Europe, but we have no potential for wind or hydroelectric power. What we do have is thousands of square metres of roofs androoftops and twice as many sunny days as many European capitals, an opportunity we cannot afford to miss. photovoltaic power will be the key.
But, above all, our model must be based on efficiency and reduced energy
consumption, allowing us to take advantage of all residual energies that are
currently on the decline. suddenly, energy renovations of the current building stock will allow the construction sector to be restructured into what really contributes most to the common good. in Barcelona alone, 65% of dwellings (almost half a million) predate the first technical regulations on thermal
insulation. all the energy we save in the city will mean less pressure on therest of the territory and more skilled jobs.

of the covid-19 pandemic led to a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas
emissions: in 2020 alone, emissions dropped by 22% compared to 2019. But
we must be acutely aware that this reduction was not of a structural natureand that, once the pandemic is over, we cannot return to the previous figures. this shows the enormous effort that must be made to cut emissions andachieve the ambitious targets set while guaranteeing citizens’ well-being.
the ecological transition that all economic sectors will undergo will generate
thousands of jobs at all levels of training and education, more stable and lasting employment than that which depends on the umpteenth property bubble
or that associated with the tourist monoculture that we have endured in recent years.
We know that this transition cannot be made with the budgets of the authorities alone, whether local or European. and we will therefore need to reachagreements with production sectors across the board, also knowing that,
if we want a fair energy transition and an economy with democratic rules,
public leadership is crucial.

We will also have to transform our consumption model to stop generating
tonnes of materials to be disposed of, convert waste into the necessary resources and close materials’ life cycle. in this regard, the European union
has undertaken a geo-strategic commitment to gaining autonomy from other regions in the supply of raw materials by developing a circular economy
capable of generating large numbers of jobs.
in closing, one last major challenge will be decarbonising mobility in all its
facets. Firstly, we must promote rail transport over short-haul air travel androad freight transport. this will require us to update infrastructure thatneeds to be adapted to meet these commitments. secondly, we must increase
and strengthen public transport infrastructure in the metropolitan area sothat private mobility is reduced as much as possible. thirdly, we must electrify the remaining private mobility, both for passenger and freight transport
and, preferably, as shared vehicles. this brings us closer to understanding
mobility, including private mobility, as a service and not as property. We havethe right to get around ourselves and to move things, which does not mean
the right to own a vehicle.
however, we cannot tackle this new mobility without also considering a
new spatial planning model and other factors that are here to stay, such as
teleworking. the halt in activity in the city of Barcelona during the months

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prIson Islands andthe munICIpalItIes
standInG up to
fortress europe

lEsBosLara Lussón
the media spotlight was on lesbos in 2015. the war in syria had
been going on for four years, but we were not aware of the magnitude of that conflict until we began to see on our televisions
how hundreds of thousands of people were arriving on that andother Greek islands in toy dinghies and with those orange life
jackets that have marked history forever. those life jackets that
protect dignified bodies while stripping europe of any trace ofdignity. those life jackets that cover the shame of the wet anddirty clothes of the displaced people while exposing the great
shame that is the fortress of Europe.
lesbos became one of the “cage islands” referred to in this chapter, concentrating more than 30,000 asylum seekers at a time in the three active refugee
camps. today, all that remains is the camp known as Moria 2, a prison for
innocent women, men, girls and boys, the result of a fire of its predecessor,
which was nothing more than another example of the weariness and desperation of those human beings who are being stripped of all identity and whoare promised, because they are entitled to it, a life that never comes.
overcrowding can never be the solution. nor can a lack of solidarity. the way
our systems are designed, as well as the reception system in Europe, makes
it completely impossible for us to make this whole problem of “cage islands”
disappear without the empathy of other municipalities and regions on a small
scale and without state and European solidarity and support on a larger scale.
Europe knows that if it does not provide legal channels to seek asylum inthe countries of origin, people will be forced to arrive at their destination to
ask for asylum. no matter how many metres the walls they plan to build areraised, this will continue to happen. it is such an obvious fact that denying it
and continuing to force them to risk their lives and pay one mafia after another cannot be explained if it is not for the lucrative security business.
But what about those municipalities that are assumed to be hotspots becauseof their location? Why is the responsibility of dealing with the emergency
and subsequent consolidation of the situation given to places that are notprepared for it? it has been widely demonstrated that a more equitable distribution of displaced persons, as well as the investment of resources, would

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not only alleviate tensions, but would also favour compliance with simple
rules such as that each person is entitled to four metres of individual space
while their administrative situation is being resolved, or the right to be within three kilometres of basic services.
in case there are any doubts, no, this does not happen very often. it certainly
did not happen in Moria. similarly, the directives of the European asylum
support office (easo) are not met, which set the duration of the process at
six months from the time of arrival in the territory and the asylum application until the case is resolved. the average duration in spain and Greece is
two years.
not to mention the lack of gender training of most of the people in chargeof security in the camps, who are not capable of detecting cases of genderviolence; the lack of training in children’s issues, which could have perhaps
prevented the suicides of three minors in Moria in 2021; the lack of training
in lGtBi rights that could help to detect and prevent dozens of attacks…. no,refugee camps should never exist; but if they do, it is mandatory that they are
structured with a gender perspective and with the staff in charge trained in
all these areas.
all of the above creates a climate of initial empathy in these caged territories,
which is then followed by weariness and final tensions. the cycle is repeatedover and over again and always responds to the same stages.
when there is a tragedy or emergency situation such as a mass influx of people fleeing famine or war, the local population tends to become involved andempathise. let’s be honest, no one likes to look drama in the eye and do nothing. it is often very admirable how civil society organises itself. however, a
few months later, when the situation starts to become embedded and themigrant population begins to feel desperate, the first altercations resulting
from this loss of hope tend to appear. rumours begin to spread that thesepeople are violent, and it is precisely at this point that the far right enters
the scene.
through the repetition of the message of fear, it succeeds in spreading its
hate speech. the act of one person is enough to condemn tens of thousands.
it is impossible to be surprised because it always happens in the same way. it
is at this point that the empathy and human rights approach that had initiallypermeated the local population begins to disappear. this loss of solidarity
combines with the desperation of those who see how their papers never arrive and who cannot continue their journeys unless they pay the mafias again

108

and risk their lives between borders and barbed wire. not to mention deportations and the fear of them.
thus, the more the life of migrants in camps is perpetuated, the more thefeeling of hindrance and rejection grows. Because just as nobody likes tosee an emergency and do nothing out of a basic question of morality, nobody likes to live with this drama on their doorstep every day for six or sevenyears, while observing, moreover, that the European union does not provide
solutions or watching nGos arrive laden with blankets, clothes, medicines
and school supplies donated in other European countries instead of investing
the money that it costs them to transport these second-hand items by sea inlocal businesses.
to give some examples of this rejection, establishments in lesbos began toban entry to applicants for international protection and patients could arrive
at a hospital emergency room with their head split open or about to give birthand have to wait until every last Greek person had been treated.
this is the perfect breeding ground for the worst situations. tensions continue to rise and the first attacks on migrants take place. in Greece, marches
have been organised all around the country with the sole slogan of “hunting
migrants”. following these events, migrants protest because they feel attacked, not to mention the continuous violation of rights that they have been
suffering for months or years.
and these protests bring back the discourse of violence, hatred, fear andstigmatisation. and this in turn gives rise to new local protests. Which inturn lead to new protests by migrants… and so on in an endless loop thatnever ends while the European union sends money to turkey, Morocco andlibya and washes its hands without offering any kind of alternative for asylum seekers or for the municipalities that have to cope with this migratory
pressure on their own.
cities like Barcelona, lampedusa and la laguna (and even lesbos in the earlyyears) that stand up to these situations and try to dignify them deserve allrespect and admiration, but i end this text with anger. anger at having torefer to them as “fearless cities”. fear of what? of defending human rights?
should we be proud of those places that comply with their legal duty? should
we applaud as extraordinary what is supposed to be basic in Europe, where it
has not only been demonstrated that there is room for everyone, but also that
we need immigration? the answer is no.

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Barcelona

LesboslaMpEdusa, a FrontiErisland in thE hEart oF
thE MEditErranEan
Antonello Ravetto Antinori
i have been working as a journalist for the past 25 years, andone of the fundamental rules governing my profession is to lookat the facts objectively. however, when you are in lampedusa
and you see that coffins have just been brought to the cemetery,and you realize that those coffins contain the bodies of those
who lost their lives just hours earlier, a few hundred metresaway from the coast, you feel anger, dismay and sorrow. andthen it is hard, even as a journalist, not to be tempted to “takethe right side”, to take the side of respect for human rights, totake the side of those who think that saving those endangeredat sea is a duty that comes before any law, before any government provision. it is tough because the italian Minister of theinterior signed a measure in 2019 called the “security decree”.
this decree actually imposed sanctions on those who rescue
migrants at sea in territorial waters, sanctions aimed mainly at
nGo operations.
in the aftermath of that decree, the Mayor of lampedusa and linosa, totòMartello (with whom i began working in 2018 as his spokesperson), posted a
photo on his facebook page sporting a t-shirt that read #iosonopescatore (“iam a fisherman” in english). he posted that photo to underline a concept: forthe community of lampedusa, a small island of just 22 square kilometres in
the heart of the Mediterranean – closer to the coasts of africa than to thoseof italy – the ‘law of the sea’ applies first and foremost. fisherman’s rules also
apply, according to which a person in danger of drowning must be rescued,
regardless of nationality, skin colour or whether they are in territorial or international waters.

Lampedusa
110

lampedusa is a border territory, a first point of arrival for most of the migrantboats that intend to reach italy and Europe from the north african coast. But
lampedusa is above all an island ‘far from everything’, where the simplest
things often become hard and ‘impossible’ things become commonplace.

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landings on lampedusa have been occurring practically non-stop for morethan 30 years, a time frame that has seen real emergencies. one such example is the arrival, during the “arab spring” in 2011, of some 30,000 people
fleeing from the african coast on the island, which has a resident populationof approximately 6,000, in barely more than a week. days during which thepeople of lampedusa actively participated in the welcome by providing food,clothing and material support to migrants, including toys for children travelling with their parents.
Barring exceptional situations, the reception machine has been organized
and structured over the years to the point that you can be on the island today
and not even notice that a landing is underway. in this sense, lampedusa often experiences two parallel realities: the migrants who arrive in their boats
and enter the port, where they are immediately received and rescued; and, afew hundred metres away, italian and foreign tourists swarming the golden
beaches, who come to the island for its extraordinary natural beauty andcrystal-clear sea, and to watch the turtles, dolphins and even whales thatpass by the island during certain months of the year: after all, these are ‘migrations’ too.
there is a reception centre on the island which, on paper, can accommodate
just over 250 people, but in fact can receive more than 1,000 in some casesin the event of a large number of landings or slow transfer procedures (especially when bad weather and sea conditions prevent ships from docking
to transfer migrants to other facilities, usually in sicily). after the migrants
disembark on the island or are rescued at sea, medical-screening procedures begin on the quay at Molo Favaloro. once the migrants are moved to
the reception centre, each migrant is identified and then, after a few days,
transferred. in this sense, lampedusa is a frontier territory engaged in ‘first
reception’. until the outbreak of the covid-19 emergency, migrants were notobliged to remain in the reception centre during their stay on the island:
they were allowed to leave and were often found walking along its streets.
But once the pandemic spread, the rules changed due to health requirements
and now migrants are expected to stay inside the centre until they are transferred to other facilities outside lampedusa or on ‘quarantine ships’ that arenormally stationed off the island.
the Municipality of lampedusa has no direct competence in reception procedures or in the management of the reception centre: everything is managed by the Ministry of the interior and the public security Forces, in agreement with the health institutions. totò Martello, however, has never taken hisrole as mayor lightly as regards these issues. on the contrary, he has always
constantly monitored every situation related to migratory flows, pointing

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out any flaws in the reception machine and making proposals to the local
authorities, the national government and the European union. he has done
this by bringing political and institutional issues to the fore in an endeavour
to ensure security, the protection of human rights and the satisfaction of thelocal community’s needs (with the aim of reconciling lampedusa’s humanitarian commitment with its commitment to tourism).
For example, the italian Government’s dispatch of ‘quarantine ships’ during the covid-19 emergency was arranged precisely following requests
from Mayor Martello, who called for this measure since the reception centre would not allow guests to stay for the time necessary to comply with
the quarantine protocol at the time. Moreover, as mentioned above, Mayor
Martello’s commitment was aimed at supporting the local community, sincelampedusa’s population has often had to bear the burden of humanitarian
reception alone, even at the cost of considerable sacrifice. to sum up thisconcept, we can say that support for humanitarian reception in a border territory must go hand in hand with support for the local community.
it is mainly thanks to the generosity of the local community that lampedusa
has become an internationally recognized ‘symbol of welcome’ over theyears. it is the experience of lampedusa, together with that of 18 other border territories in 14 european countries, that was the “driving force” behindthe “snapshots from the Borders” project, which also brought together 17
other partners from civil society associations. the project, funded by theEuropean union, began in 2017 and concluded at the end of 2021. its leadbody was precisely the Municipality of lampedusa and linosa. through thisproject, major initiatives were carried out, both to strengthen the voice ofborder territories – creating a network to make their needs and experiences
known to national governments and Brussels – and, through the executionof activities, to raise public awareness on issues related to migration flows,
the correct narration of events and the fight against fake news, respect forhuman rights and the protection of collective memory.
since 2020, the Municipality of lampedusa and linosa – at the initiative ofMayor totò Martello – has also joined uclG. Bringing together more than
1,000 members from over 120 un countries, it the largest international association of cities and local governments. after lampedusa joined uclG, a
process was begun that will lead, following extensive dialogue and exchange
among hundreds of governments, local authorities and international associations, to the birth of the “lampedusa charter”. this charter is a sort of “manifesto” that collects guiding principles related to the different and complex
aspects related to migration flows and human mobility, and more generally
to the need to protect the personal rights of every human being.

113all this experience on the phenomenon of migratory flows, all these years at
the front line of humanitarian reception by the community of a small islandof fishermen in the middle of the mediterranean, must however be channelled into an action aimed at offering proposals to the various local, national
and international institutions. it is for this reason that Mayor totò Martello
has launched a process called “lampedusa, island of peace” which intends topermanently launch initiatives for international dialogue, cooperation, training, artistic and cultural events. a process capable of involving institutions,
the world of schools and universities, associations and national and international organisations, to ensure that the mediterranean can finally be a “seaof peace”.
References
nyden, philip and Wim Wiewel, “collaborative research: harnessing thetensions between researcher and practitioner” (1992) The American
Sociologist 23, 4b (Winter) 43-55.

Barcelona: the city that
Wants to BE a rEFuGE
Within FortrEss EuropE
Marc Serra
anyone who has migrated knows that cities and municipalities
play a key role in reception processes. in fact, this is the view ofa recent European commission Eurobarometer survey, according to which 90% of Europeans believe that local and regional
authorities play a “very or rather important” role in the inclusion of immigrants, a percentage that rises to 94% in the caseof spain.
What a large part of the population is unaware of is that local administrationsin spain do not have any competences in the area of immigration and asylum.
despite being the closest and most accessible level of government to the migrant population, municipalities do not have the tools to regulate migratory
flows, nor to grant residence and work permits so that they can carry out
their migration plans.
local authorities are faced with the difficult task of managing the most immediate reception needs (accommodation, subsistence, healthcare, education and professional training, language learning, etc.) with resources thatare monopolised by states and that are all too often in short supply. of thetens of millions of euros of European funds that the spanish state receives
for receiving and integrating immigrants, much of it ends up being spent onborder control and expulsion policies.
the city of Barcelona has witnessed the arrival of foreigners grow progressively over the last 20 years. Whereas in the year 2000 there were about 46,000
people of foreign origin registered as residents in the city (3.5% of Barcelona’s
population) in 2020, this figure had already increased to 360,000, or 21% of
the total number of residents, and rose to 29% if we count all residents born
outside of the state. however, this figure still has some way to go to reach the
37% seen in cities such as new York and london, or 62% in Brussels.

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When Barcelona en comú came to the city government in 2015, resources forreception services were doubled. in doing so, the municipal government not
only strengthened the services of legal assistance, professional integrationand support for migrants, but was also able to set up a municipal programme
for receiving refugee families, which has already become a benchmark in
Europe. nevertheless, despite the fact that the foreign population has increased in recent years, contributions from the state and the government of
catalonia have remained frozen.

By law, 500,000 signatures are needed to process a popular legislative initiative in the congress of deputies. this is the objective set by the campaign Regularización Ya (“regularisation now”), which proposes that residence permits be granted to all undocumented immigrants residing in spain.
according to a recent study by the porcausa Foundation, documentation
would raise the average tax contributions of each documented person bymore than €3,500 per year, in addition to the boost to aggregate consumption, and thus to economic activity and job creation overall.

But that’s not all. in addition to this lack of resources for reception are administrative irregularities, which have become the main obstacle faced by
the immigrant population in their attempts to pursue their life ambitions
autonomously within our country. Without papers, they have no possibility to work legally or to access social security benefits such as the state’s
minimum vital income or the government of catalonia’s Guaranteed income
for citizens, and something as fundamental as renting an apartment (or rather a room) becomes an odyssey.

the popular legislative initiative Regularización Ya comes at a time when
labour shortages in some sectors such as transportation, agriculture, hospitality and construction are so evident that the spanish confederation ofBusiness organisations (cEoE) is demanding legislative reform. For the time
being, the state government has just made a surprise announcement on immigration reform. Yet, whether this turns out to be the umpteenth reformthat cynically uses immigrants as cheap labour or real change that puts an
end to second-class citizenship in our cities remains to be seen and will depend on social mobilisation and its capacity for advocacy.

within fortress europe, the “borders” do not disappear when one manages to enter the European union. Borders continue to exist in racist raids,
in detention centres and in a law on Foreigners that can entail the sameconsequences as external borders: cutting short the migration plan and thepossibility of being a subject of rights in Europe by means of a return to theplace of origin through forced expulsion or condemnation to precariousness.
against this backdrop, authorities such as Barcelona city council haveclaimed to be cities of refuge, guaranteeing universal access to all municipal
services, so that there are no first- and second-class citizens, at least at the
local level. Facilitating the registration of inhabitants as a gateway to education, social and public health care has made it possible to send out a powerful
message of solidarity and inclusion in the midst of a European union thatflirts with the politics of fear and the intolerance of the far right.
it is estimated that around 500,000 people are living undocumented in spain.
in Barcelona, around 80% of the people assisted through reception services
do not have residence and work permits. in light of this, the municipal government has driven pioneering programmes to document immigrants which,by way of public employment offers, have enabled the documentation of afew hundred people. this is a considerable figure, but it is clearly insufficientto address a problem that can only be solved by a structural change in thelegislation on foreigners.

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orGanIzatIonsand CItIes froma femInIst
perspeCtIve

the feminist movement:a lever for social
chanGEEva Abrilin recent years, we have seen the feminist movement grow andproudly take to the streets and squares of many cities aroundthe world. thousands of people demanded the right to visualise
their own existences, realities and experiences, which turned
out to be, to a large extent, collective. the feminist movement
was by no means a novelty, even if some liked to call it a fad.
Yet, what was new was the strength shown in these gatherings.
as was to be expected when the system detects a strong trend, the social-political movement that is feminism began to become a danger that must be,at the very least, neutralised. to start with, conservative parties have tried
to appropriate the term, the market begins to monetise the trend with, forexample, t-shirts with feminist phrases, slogans and references to feminist
historical figures. women from the highest echelons of society have jumped
on the bandwagon and called themselves feminists, albeit, as they themselvesindicate, with nuances.
on the other hand, far-right parties and far-right parties that brand themselves conservative set out on a crusade that they no longer hide or disguise.
Feminists are the enemy to be vanquished because, among other things, weendanger the basic structure of society: the family. this imaginary family
that preserves the essences of the Eurocentric, white, ableist, christian, heterosexual civilisation…
the feminist movement has always been diverse, without a unified voice, andwith highly disparate tendencies that have caused tension in certain debates.
nuances and discrepancies are inherent to the movement itself, even if at thecurrent time there are different symptoms that may put us on standby.
the normalisation of hate speech is dangerous in itself, yet what is evenmore dangerous is this normalisation permeating the whole of society andspreading like wildfire. when the most basic social consensuses of respect

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and coexistence are broken, we find replicas of these behaviours in places
as disparate as high schools, residents’ associations, political organisations
and, of course, within feminism. perhaps it is something we need to rethink
as a community.
this chapter discusses feminist municipal politics. in this vein, the following
questions are raised: is feminism still a valid driver of change to transformsociety? can society be transformed if we consider women as the only valid
subject of feminism? can we ignore issues such as origin, social class, skincolour, sex and gender dissidence in order to address this transformative
challenge? another important question is whether only women can makefeminist policies. or whether, in the end, it is all just about identity.
how, then, do we root feminism in everyday reality? What can municipalism
do to implement transformative feminist policies? if the municipality is thelevel of government closest to the people, a city government whose main
objective is to put people’s lives at the heart of policymaking will be a municipalist government that creates feminist policies.
let us take a practical example. residents in one neighbourhood have noticed that there are some spots that are unsafe at night. in collaboration withthe city council, they manage to change the design, eliminate blind spots
and better illuminate these areas. this action improves the lives of women,of course, but is also good for the whole community. there are also men who
are afraid of walking at night. so carrying out such an action is clearly of
benefit to the community as a whole.
another example could be if we rethink cities in a bid to prevent so muchtraffic, such as by increasing the frequency of public transport, lowering levels of pollution, pacifying streets, etc. the benefits will be felt by the wholeof society but, above all, it will impact those who use public transport, whowalk around the city and who take their children to school, regardless of
their gender, sex, etc.
in conclusion, i would like to respond to the questions proposed above.
Feminism will always be valid as a lever for social change; what we need torethink are the strategies to achieve it. according to my understanding of
feminism, it cannot be transformative if we only involve women, especially ifthey are from white and middle-class backgrounds. looking at society in abinary way shuts out the majority of those who compose it.

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What arE FEMinist
policiEs? an approach
FroM thE FEMinist
nEtWork
Nieves Salobral Martín
Before providing a rough definition of feminist policies, it isworth highlighting their scope within municipalist initiatives,
or initiatives for change. these citizens’ platforms spurred thedesign of a set of feminist proposals in order to imbue their ethical ideology, to transform the relations and structure of theseorganisations with new strategies and, of course, to incorporate specific and cross-cutting objectives and actions in thedesign of their political programmes.
during the period of the government for change, between 2015-2019, many ofthese programmatic proposals were the subject of exchange and reflection
between feminist leaders from a network that reached many municipalities
and cities in the state. and despite this magnificent collective work, not all ofthem will be implemented in their municipalities, nor will they be sufficiently
well received by their organisations. this has been highlighted in research
conducted by members of the network, which gathers the testimony of morethan 50 activists on different aspects of their work in these organisations andin these governments, in which those policies qualified with the municipalist“stamp” were also distinguished.
this research process has culminated not only in the strengthening of the
network, called akafem, but also in its participants’ approval of its fundamental meaning in the current local political framework. they understand,on the one hand, that it is essential for feminism to be the main essence ofthe programmes, structures and strategies of municipalist initiatives; but,on the other hand, they agree that their main purpose is to transform thepolitical and economic relations of municipalities and cities in order to foster
gender equality and the free expression of diversity within the limits of what
is ecologically and humanly sustainable.

121this feminist approach to municipalist policies is aimed at guaranteeing theright to relationships free of sexist violence, reinforcing policies aimed at
the prevention and care of intimate partner and ex-partner violence and recovering the perspective of agency of the assisted women. it is also clearlycommitted to making sexual violence visible, preventing and addressing it
through the following proposals:• joining forces with the feminist movement, promoting purple points inneighbourhoods in order to raise awareness at popular festivals.
• Establishing prevention protocols in collaboration with nightlife socialorganisations.
• opening spaces of care and support for women who have suffered sexual
violence.
• designing new models of police and urban security in relation to sexual
violence.
other more specific meeting, care, information and counselling mechanismsthat were promoted or created include:• permanent centres for women and groups to meet; equality centres; othercentres aimed at covering the information and mutual support needs ofdomestic workers; and other centres for information, advice and healthcare, managed by lGtBi organisations.
however, the essential focus of the network is to transform the economy to
put the vulnerability of life at the centre through different actions:• promoting the proposals of the feminist economy of life support and making care work visible, designing policies that have an impact on the social
redistribution of care work and demanding the ratification of convention
189 on domestic Workers.
• implementing city-wide plans and strategies to address the needs of interdependence, co-responsibility and reconciliation and shaping ecologicallysustainable urban spaces to be dedicated to fostering links and care-giving
tasks, whether by transforming school environments, activating cultural
programming with the community or formulating community health promotion programmes.

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along the same lines of adherence to the proposals of the feminist economy,
measures have been organised aimed at:• researching the structural conditions and economic inequality that have
led to a context of feminisation of poverty, in order to design measures
aimed at transforming economic structures to promote decent employment for women and other discriminated social groups.
finally, in order to establish a sufficient, solid political and legal framework
for the implementation of such specific and cross-cutting measures, municipalities or cities propose tools such as:• Gender equality ordinances, plans and strategies, which allow either longterm planning and prioritisation or even legal stability of the measures.
likewise, they also propose the drafting of equality plans aimed at the municipality itself as an employing institution.
in its policies, the network also incorporates a strategic reflection on thecomplexity of the subject of feminism today. it takes into account the social hierarchy between different social groups, established by the patriarchyin complicity with capitalism, and the unequal impact of its different axesof oppression or discrimination on each of them. this requires an intersectional drafting of measures, taking into account the interaction between the
categories of gender, class, racialisation, migratory origin, ability/disability
and age.
in order to implement all these policies, this network of municipal initiatives
for change has always considered the need not only for feminist advocacy inorganisations, but also for the maintenance of fluid communication channels
with the movement. public policies or the distribution of budgets lose meaning without this anchoring of reflection and feedback from the institution
through spaces shared with the movement, where, in addition, synergies canbe established to spread the feminist struggle to all corners of the cities.
in short, feminist municipalist policies or policies of change assemble strategies in several ways: the transformation of economic relations with life support at the centre of public policy, the guarantee of rights for a broad andcomplex subject of feminism, feminist advocacy in political organisations
and, above all, a reflexive link with the movement in order to implement public policies in a meaningful way.

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CItIes takInG
Care of theplanettransForMinG thE
EconoMic ModEl FroM
citY councils
Tània Corrons and Álvaro Porroin 2019, in the face of the rapid and unprecedented deterioration of nature (i.e. of the conditions that make life on the planet
possible, including our own), the un called for “a fundamental,
system-wide reorganisation across technological, economic
and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values”. thencoronavirus came, and it became even more urgent to address
this reorganisation, because we experienced the weaknessesof the world-system and citizens began to demand much more
involvement from public institutions in addressing the crisis.
this un demand - which arrives late - has already come a longway, with many public policies implemented (exemplified in thisarticle in the cities of Grenoble and Barcelona), increasingly
strong social movements intensifying their pressure on institutions and some global action plans.
one of these action plans is the Green new deal (Gnd), which puts forward
a set of policy proposals to achieve this urgent reorganisation of the entire
socio-economic system by integrating economic, green and social justiceunder one umbrella. Environmental and social policies are often presented
as if they were incompatible, as if a choice had to be made between one or theother. But this dichotomy is a smokescreen that takes the focus off the real
problem: our economy is designed to move huge amounts of money, which
fuel production and consumption, regardless of where the money goes, what
it is used for, how it is distributed and what impact this distribution has on
the environment or individuals. the global financial and economic systemtends to prioritise the interests of the rich 1%, resulting in high levels of social and climatic inequality across the globe.
thus, to address the climate emergency, we must also address the socialand economic injustice that affects the most vulnerable majorities. the Gnd
is an effort in this direction, a first step, which is beginning to be partially implemented in some places, both in north america and in Europe, with

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approaches to build solutions to the crisis to which this unsustainable andhighly unequal dynamic is leading us. in this struggle, local power has animportant role to play because the economy must be brought back to theterritory: to develop sovereignty and self-sufficiency, to mutualise risk and toensure that we work together to provide housing, education, healthcare andeverything else that is fundamental to the wellbeing of the social majorities.
an example of what can be achieved through local power can be found in thecities of Grande-synthe, paris and Grenoble, which, alongside four environmental organisations, joined forces to file an appeal against the french government’s “climate inaction”. following this, in november 2020 the highest
administrative court gave the French government three months to demonstrate that behind its abundant environmental rhetoric there is also a real
effort to fight climate change and that it will be able to meet its commitments
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
despite assuming the limitations of local power, given that economic inequality is structured in nation-states, city councils can play a fundamental
role. the capacity to create new imaginaries is an essential first step to bringabout social change. second is the capacity to experiment and innovate in
the implementation of public policies, from community experiments to bottom-up approaches. third is the capacity to strengthen transformative economic fabrics: the social and supportive economy; social clauses in public
procurement and contracting, taking advantage of the high-demand capacity of city councils; and urban planning in cities and how this promotes thecontext in which lives and the economy develop. an example of this is “thespain of swimming pools”, which has fostered an individualistic living model,
with state-subsidized private schools, and ends up generating a very individualistic model of social relations as well. fourth and finally is the capacity
to weave direct alliances with civil society. By developing these capacities,
cities can play a fundamental role in persuading states to take new paths
towards greater environmental, economic and social justice.

redistributive economic policies that put social equity and sustainability on
the same level.
today, large corporations and wealthy individuals are able to move theirmoney out of the state to avoid paying the corresponding taxes, resulting
in high levels of social injustice, while the most vulnerable people are increasingly turning to far-right political options in the hope that someone will
defend their interests. in the face of this drift, progressive forces must bringrealistic and hopeful approaches to rebuilding the economy and its priorities. to do this, and at the risk of talking about very big problems and verysmall solutions such as municipal solutions, we must continue to promote
projects in our communities that enable us to imagine a different future inwhich we share prosperity and protect the planet. the local government of
Grenoble, for example, is changing the rules of the game with social water
pricing that is directly linked to the national social system and does not allow more than 3% of household income to be spent on water bills. this has adirect impact on citizens’ pockets and reduces inequalities. Meanwhile, thelocal government of Barcelona has created a municipal electricity company
with 100% renewable energy and social pricing and has developed a modelof housing construction through cooperatives that generates a new model ofurban planning on public land that cannot be privatised.
in addition to continuing to inspire change from the local level, we must alsojoin forces with other cities to be stronger, fight in the courts when the rules
are breached and work side by side, from civil society, with the progressive
political parties that push for these changes from the institutions. althoughthese changes may seem small and insufficient, we cannot leave the institutions, where change can happen, in the hands of forces that prioritise protecting the privileges of the 1% over taking care of their citizens and theplanet. May the great global challenges not prevent cities from doing what
they can, creatively and courageously!

plans such as the Gnd can also play an important role in structuring newimaginaries and applying practical changes in economic policies. For this tohappen, the administrations that implement them must be supported, as has
been done in Barcelona, by: 1) an increase in public spending oriented towards certain fields that foster the green transformation of the city, such asurban planning, waste management, mobility and the construction of public
housing, which can drive transformation of the economy and employment;
and 2) tax reform and financial regulation, such as trying to introduce clausesthat make it difficult for companies that have money in tax havens to bid in
public tenders. it is essential to push in both directions in order to talk about

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thE cliMatE challEnGE
and social Justice: cities
takE action!
Eric Piolle
Our economic model must change radicallyour present economic system has Gdp growth as its sole objective. But its environmental and human cost is immense andjeopardizes our very existence. the situation has become critical for forests, oceans and biodiversity, as well as for us, theplanet’s inhabitants. We are facing extreme weather events thatwill become more and more frequent. the consequences of climate change are already clearly visible to us in Grenoble, in theheart of the alps: temperatures are rising, snow cover in winteris receding, glaciers are disappearing, sections of mountains
are collapsing…
reinsurer swiss re has estimated that a warming of 3.4°c will lead to an 18%
drop in global Gdp in the next thirty years. While the health crisis has already
hit the economy hard, climate change will exert an even greater impact.
Faced with these observations, we run the risk of becoming despondent anddiscouraged and paralyzed by fear. instead, i believe that we must act quickly
and ambitiously. our societies tend to polarize between “realists” and “utopians”, between “radicals” and “pragmatists”. for me, the challenge is to be allof the above at the same time. i define myself as both radical and pragmatic,
as an agent of change. i fervently believe that we must concentrate our efforts on how to live better, focusing on relationships rather than goods, fighting against social inequalities and the exploitation of populations, and taking
care of our environment to also ensure the future of humanity.
it is in this spirit that we shall host the International Forum for Well-Being
in Grenoble for the second time from june 29 to july 1 2022. We want to“count what matters” and to change the compass to measure what makes
sense. We can do so by using indicators of well-being such as social connectedness, conviviality, freedom to get around, health, quality of public service,mutual aid… it’s time to change repositories.

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The latest IPCC report reminds us of a fundamental truth: the climate
challenge also entails the challenge of the equitable sharing of power andresources.

it is a dynamic being put in place across the board. it also includes local
stakeholders, companies, universities, the research community and public
partners to advance further in this direction.

the greater the inequalities, the more vulnerable we are. the concentrationand privatization of resources in the hands of a few threatens the adaptation of one and all. the states generating the most greenhouse gas emissions
must imperatively raise their ambitions. Moreover, global solidarity must be
strengthened to support the countries most exposed to the consequences ofclimate change.

there are multiple levers, it’s up to us to use them… and to come up withnew ones.

Cities have a major role to play in the pursuit of climate, social and economic justice.
states are lagging behind today. however, citizen and political movements
are pushing to pursue a new path. cities in particular can experiment withnew ways of doing things. they can engage in major transitions to reduce
their environmental footprint, to build a more inclusive economy and to offerdifferent trade relationships.
certainly, the most common position remains that of the dogma of growth,competitiveness and a trade war. But we can commit to other things, especially short circuits, reusing, green jobs that cannot be relocated, the socialand solidarity economy… this is what makes sense, and this is what we are
advocating for in Grenoble.

Grenoble is the European Green Capital for 2022: it is a golden opportunity
to further accelerate our transition projects.
Grenoble was named European Green capital by the European commission.
For us, this is an outstanding recognition of the innovations we are developing in environmental and social terms. it also marks an opportunity togive impetus to an even broader dynamic across our entire territory and ourpartner cities to boost transitions further.
We have 12 months, 12 themes and 54 challenges to accelerate sustainabletransformations related to water, biodiversity, waste, organic and local foodthat are accessible to one and all… the momentum is picking up, and i invite
all cities that wish to join us to exchange and compare ideas and projects andto share initiatives that work here or elsewhere.
together, we can put people and the planet back at the heart of our way of
thinking, deciding and taking action.

Our local experience of the Green New Deal
Grenoble boasts a long history of innovation in the social, technological anddemocratic realms, among others. the city marks the birthplace of France’s
first mutualist movement, the provision of mutual aid and assistance between workers in the glove-making enterprise. it is here that original formsof citizen participation were born, and we are still coming up with new onesby placing citizens at the heart of decision-making, from participatory budgeting to construction sites open to the public, including a petition and citizen
voting system.
We are also committed to focusing on indicators of well-being. We are also
making strides towards integrating the environment and gender equality dimensions in our public procurement.

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are lobbIes
almIGhty?

hoW do loBBiEs
shapE our citiEs?
Beatriz Gomes Dias, Professor and Lisbon City
Councillor for Bloco de Esquerda
Isabel Pires, Member of Lisbon Municipal
Assembly for Bloco de Esquerda
Vasco Barata, Lawyer and member of Lisbon
Municipal Assembly for Bloco de Esquerda
Ricardo Moreira, Engineer, member of Bloco deEsquerda, Lisbon
More and more people want to participate in the making of thecities they live in. people want to be a part of the everyday decisions about traffic, public transport, bicycle lanes, housing, air
pollution, public space, and so on. people are no longer satisfied
with voting every four years, and they want to be involved intheir cities’ strategic decisions.
But sometimes people feel that their voice is not heard by the municipality.
sometimes it feels like there are other forces pushing a hidden agenda andthat decisions are being made behind closed doors.
lisbon has two examples of such forces, namely, car and airbnb lobbies.
over the past six months, lisbon has been governed by a right-wing mayor.
Mr. Moedas promised more parking spaces, less parking tolls and less bikelanes. since he is a former European commissioner, he also promised independent studies to support the shift from the policy to reduce car dependency that had been in place over the last number of years.
unfortunately, the independent studies did not materialise and he used acommunication agency article to demonize a proposal by the opposition to
reduce the speed limit in the city. the president of the acp – automobile
club of portugal – is a member of the city council in the mayor’s party andhas threatened an injunction if some policies to reduce car dependency passin city council. lisbon’s car lobby is alive and kicking.

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the other example is the airbnb business. lisbon is experiencing a housingcrisis; it is now the third most expensive city in the world to live in and housing prices are rising three times faster than wages. one of the problems isthe number of airbnb businesses, especially in the old part of the city, where
airbnb flats occupy more than 50% of the apartments.
But when the left majority suspended new airbnb permits and proposed
re-evaluating the regulation, Mr. Moedas posted on twitter that retracting
private entrepreneurship was a huge mistake. the airbnb association immediately reacted, claiming that stricter regulation would cost them and thecity millions in losses. recently, the supreme court ruled that a house is forresidential purposes and that an airbnb is a business. the lobby therefore initiated a campaign to change the law and tackle the court’s decision. lisbon’s
airbnb lobby is alive and kicking.
the right to the city and the people’s right to participate in the constructionof their city are not compatible with corporate lobbies that directly influence power.

coMplaints, FakE
nEWs and onlinE
harassment: defendinG
thE riGht to thE citY
aGainst BarcElona’s BiG
landoWnErs
Janet Sanz
as i write these words, an obscure entity called the association
for transparency and democratic Quality filed a complaint
against the mayor of Barcelona for awarding subsidies to social groups. ada colau will have to testify as a defendant before
the judge, despite the fact that the public prosecutor’s officehas already investigated these subsidies and found no signs of
any criminal irregularities. she will do so with all this implies
media-wise, now and when she goes to testify: a torrent of fakenews, biased headlines that seek to cast suspicion on the integrity of the mayor, the government and the party, so that it
seems that we are all equal. and yet, we are not.
all this will happen while this association for transparency continues, paradoxically, to operate in the shadows: the first journalistic investigations revealed that its headquarters is an unidentified office in which there is a law
firm, where they refuse to give the name of the association’s chair or spokesperson, although they do recognise that “we have been after Ms colau for along time”. investigations also point to a relationship between the associationand the establishment of agbar, the company that manages Barcelona’s water,which revealed that it is mainly devoted to persecuting spanish municipalities
such as valladolid that are engaged in water remunicipalisation processes.
in Barcelona, the attacks on the agbar Group began in 2016, when thehigh court of justice of catalonia ruled that the award of the water management contract had not complied with public procurement criteria. thecompany launched an offensive in the courts with the aim of stopping water

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remunicipalisation from being part of Barcelona city council’s plans: they
appealed the ruling before the supreme court, filing complaints against
the subsidies awarded to entities that advocated municipalisation as well
as against the regulation on public participation that allowed water-related
consultations to be made.
i am explaining the facts at some length because when we talk about lobbies,
we often run the risk of exoticising how this type of process works and giving
it a certain film-like glamour, as if they were groups of powerful capitalists
plotting in secret. But the reality is that they are neither exceptional nor dramatic scenarios, but a mud machine that works nonstop and in broad daylight: the courts are used to wearing down civil servants, bringing the proceedings to the court’s attention and criminally prosecuting those of us who
try to change things from within the institutions. the lobbies’ complaints not
only serve to bring down projects, but also to delay and block them, sowing
suspicion in public opinion that the city council is carrying out “indictable”
policies along the way. this strategy is bolstered by the action of allied media
of disinformation, in many instances subsidised by these very companies,
which proliferate their lies on social media through armies of bots.
just a year ago, i was the one who had to testify before the judge. in my case,it was a complaint against the london private company sl, the new ownersof the casa Buenos aires in vallvidrera, after a new proposal involving the
public prevented it from being turned into a luxury hotel and agreed to acquire the property to protect the building and turn it into a public facility forthe elderly. the whole process had been public and transparent, approved bya government committee and by an absolute majority in a plenary session in
Barcelona city council: few things generate as much consensus in the city as
the protection of heritage.
But while we await the judge’s verdict, the strategy of filing a complaint
against the owners already served its purpose: fake news began to be published (which was only set right when the damage had already been done),equating my indictment and that of the building’s technicians with cases ofspeculation and urban corruption, demanding my resignation and also trying
to call me into question on a personal level, digging through my social media
history. this is a “class” strategy that seeks to scare and sideline those of us
from further down the ladder away from the institutions, because we must
face criminal proceedings without the privileges and resources of these lobbies. it is also used to demobilise citizens, sowing distrust in politics and in
the parties’ capacity to change things.

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casa Buenos aires concerned a single hotel, a single property. But in 2017 weapproved the pEuat, a special urban development plan for tourist accommodation to ban the construction of more hotels in the city centre and to put
an end to the granting of new tourist flat licences throughout the city. it wasnecessary, given the fact that Barcelona was on the verge of tourist collapse:
a city of 1.5 million inhabitants had gone from 7.8 million tourists in 2014 to
11.9 million in 2019. the hotel construction boom resembled the real estateboom that had led to the crash of 2008, and the regulation of tourist accommodation was essential to ensure that Barcelona could be a city with tourists
but not for tourists.
thus, faced with an unprecedented measure to ensure residents’ right to thecity, the hotel lobby organised and decided to wage war in the courts, mobilising public opinion to present the regulation of tourism as an illegal measure that could trigger an economic apocalypse. this is the constant pattern
we have witnessed in the relationship with the lobbies: what they cannot win
politically, they try to win in the courts, obstructing any attempt to defend
the commons and public interest against private property.
the court tried to overturn the pEuat on the grounds that there was no
economic appraisal of the plan, but Barcelona city council developed suchan appraisal, thus saving this much-needed regulation. it has been a longand difficult process, but we have finally been able to update and approvea new pEuat, shielding it from legal attacks by lobbies and broadening it tomeet new challenges, such as the rampant growth of tourist rooms due toplatforms like airbnb: there are currently some 7,700 room listings on digitalplatforms, but without this regulation they could amount to almost 700,000.
however, we are not only up against the interests of the hotel lobby. like
Barcelona, there are many other cities that must govern the activity of multinationals such as airbnb and Blackstone. these business giants have theresources, the means and sufficient time to block local governments in the
courts and collect complaints against public representatives who endeavour to defend the right to the city, housing or water. it is a david against
Goliath scenario that must be reversed with initiatives such as the one in2019 that led us to mobilise alongside paris, vienna and Brussels to demandthat the European commission amend the current legislation that leaves
cities with no power against global economic actors. also along this line,
the creation of political networks such as Fearless cities establish common
spaces of resistance.

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it is equally imperative to reflect collectively on the methods employed bythese lobbies, as we do in this book, to come up with joint strategies against
corporate offensives that stretch far beyond legal prosecution. only then,through collaboration between cities and institutions, will we be able to put
an end to the impunity surrounding these methods of anti-democratic lobbying and ensure the defence of the public interest and the common good as
opposed to the profits and property of a few.

€
$
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Is a munICIpalIst
polICInG possIble?

a Municipalist rEsponsE
to puBlic saFEtY
Lucía Morale
Even if we aspire to and work towards a world without violence,
without crime, it is not our reality, and never has been in thehistory of humanity. so we must work on building security, but
we must also know that security is not a permanent state thatcan be achieved; it is not a harbour to dock at. on the contrary,
it is an ongoing process, ever open and changing just like society. this is important for managing expectations, objectives andpromises related to security policies.
it may seem obvious, but we need to think about security policy as we do any
other policy field. and that means going through all the steps that involve
drawing up a public policy: performing a diagnosis, designing an action, implementing and evaluating it. and this, which at first glance seems like aneasy path, is not always so easy in security policy.
security issues are very much in the press and in the media. they are issues
that are connected to primitive aspects of the human condition – such as
survival and fear – and are very close to ideas of transgression, injustice andpunishment, so it is very easy to use them to manipulate and stir up effervescence. moreover, it is much easier “to sell” a quick and instant prescription of“vigilance, imprisonment and no tolerance for bad people” than a discourse of“long-term solutions, understanding and analyzing the problems and working
together to reach a solution”. however, traditional prescriptions have provenineffective in solving the problems of violence and, in general, only shift themelsewhere or exacerbate them. therefore, if we believe in a municipalist policy, we must try and there are some elements that could help us.
Firstly, security must be governed, as is done in any other area of public policy.
security is not a matter that can be left to the police to decide on their own.
security and protection policies need political definition and coordination. ofcourse, when we say “politics” we mean public policy and not party politics.
the police are a security actor and have a role to play, but it is not their role todefine public policy. likewise, defining the tasks of the police and redefining

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police organization is part of public security policy. it is, therefore, necessary
to take responsibility for managing the police, defining their scope of action,and establishing criteria for their intervention.
We must also put aside the prejudiced views that claim that the left is against
the police. the left prioritizes public service to the citizenry, where the police fit into that definition will depend on the circumstances and the particular police force. so, it is wrong to say that to seek a better public service is tobe anti-police.
secondly, in a municipalist model, we must develop integrated intervention
strategies to respond to the problems of violence in the short and in the longterm. the police could be a short-term action, but we must necessarily work
to solve the origin of the structural and cultural violence if we want to solve
the problem in the long term, and for that, we need other actors.
so, the police are or should be, an actor within an ecosystem, in which we
have, or should have, other actors, thinking about and taking action on public security.
Moreover, we need to analyze what problem we have to solve and assess
whether the police are the right agent to intervene in this field.
again, it is easy to send out patrols but the question is, does the problem weface need police? and if it does, to what extent and doing what? it is very
important not to turn a non-police problem into a police problem, otherwise,
we will be even further away from the solution.
We need to think about problems from a broader perspective and plan/design actions in the short, medium and long term. this also calls for using data
beyond police statistics and integrating all services that may play a role inthe solution – such as social services, health, housing, etc. – into the debate.
With this goal in mind, we need to have and to evaluate other services. theapproach cannot be expanded if we have 1,000 police officers, but only tensocial workers and one mediator. We then have to evaluate the services that
we want to intervene in so that they have the capacity to respond adequately
to the problems we face.
thirdly, broadening the agents that contribute to and take part in the public
policy process is imperative. traditionally, security policy was aimed at protecting the state and the dominant social class, which is why security policy
has been carried out by the conservative and power spheres of society.

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We must incorporate sectors that until now have seen limited participation,such as women, migrants, minorities, etc., and establish priorities, actions
and evaluations with them. there is a need to focus on the real needs ofneighbourhoods and to work with them.
Fourthly, there is an urgent need to incorporate a gender and human rights
perspective in public security policy. But, not only in terms of policing, which
is obviously important but also in the whole process of devising and implementing a policy. do the data we use have this perspective? do the objectives
we create have this perspective? do we measure the impact of our policy on
different people? Whose problems and what kind of problems are we considering when we talk about public security?
We need human rights values to be present not only in political discourse but
also in the design of policies and in the guidelines given to the police.
if we think for example of public order management, we have often seen howpolitical authorities ask for control of a situation “at any price” or are indifferent to the impacts of the measures applied by the police. this does not help
to prevent abuses. here in Barcelona, we saw it very clearly in the events of
1 october 2017 surrounding the catalan referendum. it shows two opposing
models of intervention in the face of the same conflict, but it is not the only
example in this regard.
the design of police protocols and training must be realistic and practicable
and, if possible, involve external actors.
But even with clear objectives and good protocols and training, there arelimits to these mechanisms. training will not work magic, it can help improve
performance and establish a framework for action, but there must also be agood system of accountability in the event of abuse.
a system of accountability should be implemented, not only internally but
also externally and with social participation. today’s technologies, mobile
phones and networks help to achieve this, but there is still no homogeneous
vision in society of this need for control.
and we keep hearing right-wing parties say that if we control police action
then we are “tying their hands” and that “we will have to abide by the consequences” or that “crime will increase” and “we must let the police do their job”.
this is not acceptable; no public service can be exercised without democratic control, much less one that can seriously affect people’s integrity and143

fundamental rights. incorporating the idea that accountability is not a matter of ideology, but of confirming the democratic system is essential.
in conclusion, we must accept that conflict, violence and insecurity are realities that always exist and must be managed. We must listen to what the
problems are and question the old formulae because it is clear that they havenot been effective, and this is partly because they have always been designedby and for a powerful minority. in this sense, we must be vigilant of the factthat security issues will be a tool for the right to consolidate an opposition
based on prejudices about the left model.

caMpaiGns For
dEMocratic and local
accountaBilitY inlondon in thE 1980s
Nadine Finchin this framework, in order to address the problems more effectively, the only
way forward is to build alternatives with the citizenry, to broaden participation, including the participation of professionals from other fields besides thepolice. and to establish security system governance that includes accountability in every realm of the security system and the protection of rights at thecore of public policy.

in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a very active debate raged inlondon and a few other English cities over the need to reformthe manner in which a number of communities were being policed. Margaret thatcher and a distinctly right-wing government were in power and they increasingly viewed the black andirish communities, trade unionists and political activists as “theenemy within” a country being developed to serve business andruling class interests.
archives contain many documents produced in the 1980s by the Greaterlondon council’s police committee support unit and its successor, thepolice Monitoring and research Group at the london strategic policy unit.5
But these documents represent the outcome of the analysis and campaignsof a much wider range of individuals and groups.
By the time a radical labour party administration came to power, led by
ken livingstone, in Greater london in May 1981, police monitoring groups
had already been started in a number of local london boroughs. this led toborough councils, such as islington, setting up their own police monitoring
committees, after the borough elections in 1982. the development was also
reflected at a national level and labour’s programme for the general electionin 1983, which it did not win, stated:“Our aim is to ensure that we have a truly accountable police force, committed
to the maintenance of law and order on the basis of a real respect for the individual liberty of all sections of the community.
We will also ensure that individual police officers are answerable for their actions”.
5

Funded between 1986 and 1988 by the Labour London boroughs of Camden, Ealing, Greenwich,Hackney, Haringey, Islington, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark.

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at this time, the national labour and many local parties were heavily influenced by radical trade unionists, academics who had entered universities atthe end of the 1960s and, most importantly, local community groups who
were standing up to what were often racist and violent forms of policing.
there had been popular uprisings within the predominantly black communities in Brixton in london, toxteth in liverpool, handsworth in Birmingham
and chapeltown in leeds. the newham Monitoring project had been set up
to monitor racist attacks and the lack of police response following the murder of akhtar ali Baig in 1980 and similar groups resisting police misconduct
were formed in southall in london, Bradford in Yorkshire and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the British army and the royal ulster constabulary were using
ever more violent paramilitary policing techniques, perfected in earlier colonial confrontations, to police the people of northern ireland and particularly
the nationalist community, also seen as an “enemy within”. at the same time,
the sky-rocketing rates of unemployment and poverty were bringing local
people and trade unionists onto the streets to protest and they then acquired
first-hand experience of the policing previously experienced by the black,irish and traveller and gypsy communities.
the Glc and lspu police monitoring units not only documented these
events but also developed their own proposals for democratic and accountable police forces, which would meet the needs of the entire community andnot merely the elite. they opposed the public order act and argued that the
freedom to assemble, demonstrate, march and act in solidarity was essential
in a liberal democracy. they campaigned against the militarisation of the police force, both in northern ireland and elsewhere in the united kingdom, as
exemplified by the manner in which the 1984-1985 miners strike was policed.
this was underpinned by the belief that the police had to be accountable tothe communities that they policed, not merely by being employed by politicians elected every five years or so, but by opening up the police’s day-today operations to local scrutiny within the community. there was an understanding, based on academic research, that it was the most vulnerable
members of the community, namely, women, the elderly and those subject
to racist attack, that were in most in need of protection by the police fromorganized criminals and right-wing extremists. therefore, they should havea say in how the community should be policed.
Both the Glc and lspu police monitoring units employed academic researchers and lawyers and were well funded. as a consequence, they published widely on subjects ranging from the policing of the black and irish

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communities to the need for police accountability.6 they noted the numberof miscarriages of justice that had occurred because the police tended to“round up the usual suspects” and then use violence to extract a confession
and argued that policing must be evidence-based and that this would be assisted by gaining the respect of the different communities and working with,and not against, them.
the units also brought together a wide range of local people in workshops
and conferences that led to a far greater understanding of the social conditions and repression that underpinned some confrontations with the authorities. Events, such as the miners’ strike, were also being played out on national television and revealed to many, who had had little previous contact withthe police, the fact that officers were being permitted to act with impunity.
the positive municipal experiences in london did not outlive the 1980s andthe long thatcher years and were also abandoned by an increasingly rightwing national labour party. But the ideas lived on in the monitoring projects that survived and in groups, such as the institute of race relations andstatewatch. they also resurfaced in the work of some police and crime commissioners and some multi-agency safeguarding hubs, in which the police
work as part of a team with social and health services and other agencies.
the belief in the community’s right to scrutinise police and state behaviour
has also led to on-going campaigns for police accountability and to a raft ofrecent revelations about the illegality of police behaviour, whether it was innorthern ireland, the tragedy that unfolded at hillsborough stadium or thesexual abuse perpetrated by undercover police officers, masquerading as political activists.7 it is hoped that such campaigns will also be established andwill succeed as we enter a further period in which the conservative government is rendering protest unlawful and reducing the powers of judges andlawyers to hold the elected government to account.

6

For example, Police Accountability and a New Strategic Authority for London, Police Monitoring and7

Undercover Policing Inquiry presently being conducted by Sir John Mitting.

Research Group, Briefing Paper No. 2.

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let’s stand up
to the far rIGht!

conFrontinG hatEon social MEdia
Javier Toret
Between 2011 and 2013, social media such as twitter, Facebook
and Youtube were used by hundreds of millions of people
around the world to mobilise in the streets to protest against
the lack of democracy and for greater social justice in the faceof economic and media powers. this technopolitical use of social media was decisive for large online movements to break out
and decisively take over the public space. the arab spring was
the spark, then 15M and occupy. in 2012, we saw the Mexican
yosoy132 and in 2013, occupy Gezi in turkey. in this whole cycle of interconnected revolts, activities on social media werecombined with the seizure of squares and streets. large-scale
self-organisation processes were generated, giving a great
boost to the forces of social transformation. it was the technopolitics of the 99%.
all this organizing activity was followed by a counter-insurgency of power:
the technopolitics of the 1%. in 2013, the big data consultancy firm cambridge
analytica (ca) was founded by conservative billionaire robert Mercer andfar-right communication strategist steve Bannon. the company was dedicated to data mining and analysis and focused on providing tools and analyses
geared towards political communication strategies for political campaigns.
the first time the technology developed by ca was used on a massive scale
was in the Brexit campaign in the uk in 2016. the outcome and impact of ca’s
work was key to millions of people wanting to leave the European union. it
mobilised both those who were convinced as well as the disillusioned doubters, providing them with information at the right frequencies (according toeach individual’s personality and interests) to change their behaviour. themix of personality profiling, data matching and dynamic digital advertising
managed to decisively affect the minds of millions of people in support of
Brexit. a few months later, Bannon was the director of trump’s campaign
in the us elections and ca designed a fraudulent data capture strategy thatobtained more than 50 million data of people from the us with the aim ofhaving an impact through personality analysis of advertising driven by artificial intelligence.

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ca was said to have a profile of every american eligible to vote. in this campaign, fake news played a major role in very tough smear campaigns. trump
himself started a war against the media, accusing all the critical press of
spreading fake news (popularising the term), while at the same time runninga campaign based on attacks with blatant lies. the bigger the lie, the more attention he got and the more the media focused on him, paradoxically turning
the media attention to his advantage. trump won his first campaign inaugurating and consolidating a style of politics based on polarisation, aggressive
confrontation against political rivals and campaigning based on fake news.

thE nEurosis oF thE
ExtrEME riGht and thE
joY oF BondinG
Maria Eugenia R. Palopin 2018 in Brazil, six months before the elections, Bannon visited Flavio
Bolsonaro, son, right-hand man and digital strategist of the Brazilian presidential candidate jair Bolsonaro. With a manual similar to that developed bytrump, the campaign became, as seen so far, elections where hybrid warfare
practices and massive disinformation techniques were most brutally carriedout. in these elections, Whatsapp became the strategy for spreading fakenews on a massive scale.
We could say that until 2022, the techne or technopolitics of the 1%, the proliferation of hate, “digital violence” and the harassment of women, lGBti,
activists and the left on social media is constant. violence and hate that operate as a destroyer of social conversation, as a culture of intimidation andas a fear of expressing oneself freely in the digital public space, has become
widespread and normalised on digital social media.
the challenges for the transformative forces of the world lie in knowing how
to defuse the noise, protect themselves from intimidation and recover communicative initiative under forms of innovation that can lead to new forms ofself-organisation and social communication that can spur on the digital andmedia fabric of the 1%, like in the 2011-2013 phase of interconnected revolts.

Iin these times, the extreme right has effectively channelled theanger and resentment of those who considered themselves losers and also the fear of those who had something to lose. We
have to channel those emotions towards a radically opposite
response.
we have to fight fear with joy. Building joyful communities that nurture thegood “among” us, which are fuelled by our individual peripheries. we mustbuild hope and trust in the future.
IIthe same awareness of vulnerability and dependence that has given riseto the extreme right can find a well-knit fabric to break down its borders in relational philosophy. an imaginary of the common that places
values on the revolution of care and affinity, which is set in motion withthe same human material, but calling upon a completely different semantics of experience.
relational philosophy is not based on self-sufficiency lost for circumstantial
reasons, but rather on vulnerability and dependence as a structural condition of what it means to be human. and it doesn’t blame the poor or foreigners for systemic instability or a shortage of resources, but the unbridledgreed of the rich and speculators. For this reason, instead of supporting theprocesses of dispossession, privatisation and a nouveau-riche mentality, as
the extreme right does, relatively explicitly, it is built from a politics of thecommon; a politics for sustaining life, mindful of the need for common goods
and relational practices that encourage their shared management.

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We undoubtedly have good reasons to be afraid, not of the poor, but of poverty, not of foreigners, but of exile, not of migrants, but of precariousness
and bleakness; it is the wealthy few and not the numerous needy that wehave good reason to fear. so our refuge cannot be that abstract and fanciful
national class-conscious community, that is hierarchical, exclusive and expulsive, but our day-to-day experiences of interaction, our emotional relationships or the bonds that we recognise as valuable and we wish to nurture.
III
there are always reasons to be afraid. Whoever you are, whether you haveabundance or scarcity, the fear of losing everything can always be justand reasonable. the problem is that when we construct a world from fear,
self-fulfilling prophecies usually occur. we expect to be hurt and we defend
ourselves pre-emptively; and if others act on the same premise, it is easy
to go from pre-emptive defence to pre-emptive war, self-defence and fullscale war.
Fear is not conducive to optimal solutions but, at best, to suboptimal solutions. the prisoner’s dilemma is a clear example. Each player wants the otherto cooperate, yet is tempted to defect. Greed, distrust and fear prevent the
subject from acting in their own interest and inevitably alienates them fromthe others. What is disturbing about the prisoner’s dilemma is the way inwhich the common good loses ground to individualism. the lack of trust inothers shatters any form of collective action in advance.
When we give up the ethics of generosity and stop cooperating, interactions
and encounters cease, and we develop paranoid personalities that only create sad passions. terrified and unable to recognise ourselves as parts of awhole, we become worn down, and this vicious circle suppresses our desires,
our freedom and our ability to be happy.
IV
We are freer to the extent that we see ourselves as the result of relational
synergies in a permanent state of (re)generation, the product of a continuous
process of reflection, evaluation and dialogue with others. autonomy is, bydefinition, relational because it is indivisible from interdependence; because,
as taylor often underlines, mutual recognition occurs in our experience ofus, understood as a dialogical experience of identity. and those relationships
are not only the ones we enter into throughout our lives, but the ones wehave with subjects we do not identify by name: standardised relationships
and unchosen ties that we have inherited and with which we have to contend

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day after day. Years ago, in Postures of the Mind: Essays on Mind and Morals,a. Baier declared: “[…] persons essentially are second persons” […], “persons
who exist with, before, and after, other persons”, “persons are essentiallysuccessors, heirs to other persons who formed and cared for them” […]. “myfirst concept of myself is as the referent of ‘you’, spoken by someone whom iwill address as ‘you’”.
so fear robs us of freedom and autonomy because it isolates us and pulls us
apart. What’s more, this isolation is an endless source of sadness.
Vsadness, as deleuze says, following spinoza, does not make us smarter but
more ignorant, clumsier and more submissive. that is why the powerful want
us to be sad and that is why joy is the resistance of the poor.
joy is the antidote to fear and endows us with potential and agency. When we
appeal to joy, we do not stop being victims, but we do stop being dependent
on our victimisers.
the extreme right, however, with its constant appeals to fear, does not let us
escape from the victim-victimiser dichotomy because it only offers a securitarian and punitivist way out. the punitivist response, however understandable it may be, individualises a structural issue and ends up weakening theemphasis on social coercion to which we are all subjected. in other words,
when all that is sought is to criminalise and punish a specific aggressor, thereference stops being class or “we”, and simply becomes “i”, the victim. if thelaw protects us only through the use of sanctions, it divides us, depoliticises
us and leaves us unprotected as a group.
Moreover, a legislative project detached from a redistributive political-economic programme, from a broader social agenda on the subject of violence,and focused solely on criminal justice, has a very limited scope, confirms thestatus quo and fuels the system’s utilitarian dynamics. it is largely sterile:these dynamics may lead to spectacular punishments for aggressors singled
out by the media, individualised far-reaching reprisals to deter third parties,
but they are useless once we get rid of a few bad apples.
in short, the police state and militarism that the extreme right mobilises in
the face of the emergencies it triggers and/or magnifies, re-victimises us,
isolates us and leaves us unprotected, sad and subdued.

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VI
laughter is the sharpest sword, claimed Miguel hernández. in the face of theneurosis of the extreme right, let us defend joy, pen by pen.

soME rEFlEctions For
thE FiGht aGainst thE
ExtrEME riGht
Gerardo Pisarello
i would like to approach my reading on the current rise of theextreme right from a personal viewpoint. i am originally latin
american. i arrived in Barcelona in 2001, after living in Madridfor some time. since then, i have combined university teachingwith social activism. suddenly, in 2014, i became the city’s deputy mayor.
My roots could not have foreseen such an outcome. in fact, if not for a longprocess of protest that challenged traditional politics, opening up new
democratising processes, this would have been impossible, both within andwithout these institutions. in addition to the anti-war movement and 2003
movement for an alternative Europe, this extensive cycle should most notably include the strikes and public marches surrounding the eruption of the
15-M movement in city squares in 2011.
today, i am a member of congress in Madrid, but the context has changed
significantly. on the one hand, movements such as the feminist, lGtBi+ andenvironmental movements have gained fresh momentum. Yet at the sametime, we are witnessing a counter-wave that has one of its fullest expressions
in the rise of a new right wing with neo-fascist overtones. this new rightwing, which may take shape in one or more parties, continues to defend theneoliberal model, and does so with increasingly violent means and goals. it
resorts to hate speech and fake news that stigmatises the same groups thatgained prominence during the wave of democratisation: migrants, racialised
groups, women’s movements, feminists, trade unions and so on.
in reality, this extreme right requires violence against any alternative that
could lead us out of this crisis with a minimum of social and environmental
justice, any alternative aimed at redistributing and recognising those whohave been stigmatised or violated for reasons of class, gender or ethnicity.

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Meanwhile, we observe that there is a certain bewilderment as to how to
confront this extreme right. sometimes people appeal to fear, to the seriousness of its advance. it is true that it is important not to trivialise the issue,
not to think that this extreme right is just another political option. We must
be clear that these people are willing to use forms of mafia violence to attaintheir goals: beating up ltGBi+ people and migrants, using thugs to evict vulnerable families, raiding trade unions and engaging in outright persecution
and harassment of political opponents on social and digital media. We cannot
minimise or lose sight of this. We have seen them support coups, as in Bolivia.
We have seen them shoot at the black population, as in the us or on Europe’s
southern border. we have seen them targeting and persecuting the lGtBi+
population, as in Brazil or hungary.
none of this is minor. however, appealing to fear, or even to a simple anti-fascist discourse, can also be a problem because many of the causes that
produce the growth of the extreme right have to do with the inability of theleft, of progressive alternatives, to enact social, fiscal or economic policies
that truly confront the rising inequality. the extreme right works upon thismalaise with huge media and propagandistic capacities, redirecting people
towards attitudes of hatred and contempt for the most vulnerable, towards
policies of confrontation among the poor, between those who are recent andthe latest to arrive.
and this is not all. to defend its programme, the extreme right has never hesitated to play the card of rebellion and mockery, above all, directed against
what it defines as “politically correct thinking”. in this sense, we have seenhuge creativity (and stacks of money) expended by far-right youtubers, withultra-modern videos on tiktok, with songs and dances.
in other words, the far right has made an effort not to be reduced to a sepia-coloured image of old men stuck in the past. they have managed to diversify their offensives, when needed adding what might be described bytheir own people as a festive touch to the discourse. For example, during
the pandemic, they tried to re-signify and give centrality to the concept of
freedom by presenting it as the right to do whatever one pleases, to develop
one’s own aspirations to the maximum, even if this could have harmful consequences on the health or free development of others, starting with those
who are in a more vulnerable situation.
this idea of freedom undoubtedly operates as a kind of whim of those whohave the most resources. at times, this has enabled the far right to rant
against health controls; at others, against any kind of property or market regulation. rent and price controls, progressive tax policies and the reduction of156

greenhouse gas emissions are all presented as “sad” limitations to the individual’s “joyful” ability to do as they please.
the danger of this “aspirational” conception of freedom is that it connectswith a certain individualism rooted in certain everyday practices and in social media itself after decades of neoliberalism. Exclusive promotion of theself, of one’s own image, becomes functional to the neoliberal need to dissolve community and cooperative links, especially in the world of work. Butthat is not all. removing one’s mask or having a beer outdoors in the midstof a pandemic, travelling and ceaselessly consuming with no concern for theconsequences amongst remote indigenous peasant populations are also presented as the ultimate expression of freedom, when in reality, they camouflage privileges with a clear bias of class, and more often than not, one ofgender or ethnicity.
there is no single, sure-fire recipe for resolving all this. what we do know isthat some responses do not work. on the one hand, we have what us politicalphilosopher nancy Fraser calls neoliberal progressivism: the idea that it isenough to defend certain issues of recognition (diversity of gender, ethnicity or sexual choice) while overshadowing redistributive or class issues. inother words, defending an anti-racist, feminist, lGtBi+ discourse that does
not question the economic and class-based roots that generate the extreme
right. or, to put it another way, a discourse on diversity that refrains fromtalking about political economy and the need to counteract accumulationand concentration of financial, rentier and real-estate property.
that said, it is equally true that the answer should not be a kind of left-wing
populism that simply pits those at the bottom against those at the top as
the sole confrontation, losing sight of the role played by certain fundamental
questions of recognition.
all of this cannot merely be resolved doctrinally. the extreme right does nothave that problem because the extreme right tries to reduce everything to asingle issue. it feels more comfortable with uniformity: one idea of nation, one
idea of family or one idea of affective relations – all exclusive. compared to this,
we must insist on what Boaventura de sousa santos has been proposing forsome time: find a project for change that can defend equality when differences
create hierarchies and defend diversity when equality creates uniformity.
thus today, we have many elements on which to build a progressive, leftwing alternative, committed to recognising, redistributing and deepening
democratic participation in different spheres of life. this is where we need todefend the specific areas where this can best bear fruit. municipalism is one157

of the most important because it is the democratic laboratory par excellence.
it is the best place to deal with the fears, anxieties and social insecurity on
which the ultra-right is building its project. a robust municipalism, capableof developing its own close relationships and institutions, is fundamental for
considering how to democratise states so as to avoid their most bureaucratising, mercantilising elements.
alongside municipalism, obviously, there is internationalism. there is a needfor a solidarity-based internationalism, which furthermore takes into account the issues of class, ethnicity and gender that shape international relations. this is of particular concern to those of us who live in Europe. at times
we tend to brush alternatives coming from the south under the carpet, when
it is on the periphery that some of the harshest yet meanwhile most interesting experiences of resistance to the extreme right are occurring.
Being internationalists in addition to municipalists is especially importantbecause the radicalised right is itself structured internationally. in spain, we
have here all the deployment around what vox calls the iberosphere. that
is, a zone of political, economic and cultural influence conceived from a
neo-colonial mindset with one clear project: to promote alliances, lawfare
operations, even coups d’états if necessary, to prevent other alternatives withemancipatory content from gaining ground.
i like Fearless precisely because it is a promise of being together in a very
diverse way. it is an opportunity to surprise ourselves by making connections
between the local and the international, and by pooling the opportunities
and limits posed by state mediation. during the pandemic, we discovered thepotential of building these links virtually, over the internet. But we also notedthat the bonds that move people to act require a physical, bodily presence.
it is in these encounters that we have to test the kind of “affective” reaction with which we confront the extreme right. at times, this means seriously denouncing what is happening so as not to trivialise it, even recallingthe historical background of what the extreme right is presenting as “new”– fascism, classic dictatorships and so on. But the truth is that this use of‘serious’ denunciation should not let us forget our joy either. no resistance,
no sustained mobilisation, is possible without this festive dimension, without this connection to joyful passions that counteract and even ridicule thenecro-passions that the ultra-right are mobilising.

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transparent
and faIr
munICIpalItIes:
ChallenGInG
CorruptIon andorGanIzed CrIme

MunicipalitiEs
aGainst corruption
Júlia Miralles de Imperial
corruption is a problem that affects every country and therefore every city in the world. it is a common misconception tothink that developed and democratic countries are exempt orless affected by the problem, but it has been shown that insufficient integrity of governance is a widespread public problem.
spain is an obvious example that more advanced economies
also have much room for improvement in the quality of governance but, for example, sweden is a less obvious case and, in
contrast, major cases of corruption have been uncovered there
too, especially in cities.
Moreover, corruption is a problem that is particularly found at the local level,a fact that has been observed in very different countries such as spain, italy,
the united states and, as we have already mentioned, sweden. the reasons
why municipal governments are where most corrupt behaviour takes place
and, above all, how to combat this situation, is one of the main questions that
we will address in this chapter.
But why is fighting corruption fundamental? corruption has been shown togenerate an inefficient allocation of resources, to undermine free competition, to drive some actors out of the market and to create a climate of legal
uncertainty that discourages business activity. however, in order to justify
anti-corruption policies, the effects on the economy are clearly an insufficient reason, as corruption equally or more seriously harms our social andpolitical system.
corruption has a negative impact on the very foundations of our democracy,
as it weakens the functioning of institutions and renders them unresponsive
to the objectives established through democratic participation.
in turn, it reduces people’s trust in the political system and generates disengagement. this produces a vicious circle that weakens the democratic system,as people who perceive high levels of corruption stop trusting institutions,which in turn makes them less likely to demand proper institutional integrity.

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Furthermore, corruption has relevant impacts on social equality. in a corrupt
government or administration, public resources are not allocated according to the principles of promoting equity or equality before the law; instead,individuals or actors who can use their influence, who can pay bribes, and
who are willing to do so, control the final decisions about who benefits frompublic policies.
corruption is also linked to other scourges of our democracies, which turnthem into more unequal systems and reduce governments’ capacity to promote public policies to improve citizens’ lives. these scourges are tax havens,tax evasion, money laundering and even organised crime.
a brief summary to explain that there are many, many reasons to continue
fighting against corruption and that these go far beyond economic reasons, which are what most sectors claim. fighting corruption is fighting
for our democracy.
therefore, we should not see corruption as an element that only makes liberals uncomfortable because of its negative effects on economic growth, butrather, egalitarian institutions that work for the wellbeing of all their citizens must undoubtedly have among their main objectives the constructionof honest and quality governments.
in this chapter, three experts who have worked on governance integrity policies in academia and institutions explain the characteristics of the current
situation, especially in towns and cities at the global level, and ways to combat it both at the local level and in European institutions.

arE citiEs at hiGhEr risk
oF corruption? WhatarE thE MEchanisMs oF
corruption For citiEs?
Eliška Drápalová
since the corruption perception index was publicized in 1995,
even ordinary citizens are aware that corruption varies hugely across world regions and countries. Most people are able toname the best ranking countries and guess those at the bottom.
Yet, most people are unaware of large disparities between cities
and regions within the same country that might be wider thandifferences across continents. By way of example, some italian
cities and regions are renowned for mafia infiltration and corruption, while others have successfully eradicated corruption.
the same is true of other cities across the globe.
this local variation is essential to understanding how corruption spreads
because consequences of corruption materialize, especially in cities. publicmoney pocketed by politicians is lost to local budgets – missing infrastructure, inadequate education or health care. instead, the money goes to overpriced and disproportionate stadiums, empty airports – other monumentsof corruption that have no public value but to create deficits. corruption
influences entrepreneurship and local economic development and work opportunities. corrupt governments discriminate more against women andminorities and are associated with high levels of informality and violence.
as a result, citizens migrate from poorly-governed cities to better-governed
ones, thus further deepening the disparities within the territory (drapalova,
2021). the research shows that the difference between well-governed cities thriving economically and those where corruption is prevalent has been
growing over the last decade. Growing territorial disparities created by corruption have contributed to a wide array of problems today such as the riseof populism (agerberg, 2017).
local governments are at a higher risk of corruption, even in countries
with low levels of corruption. For example, swedish municipalities are more

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vulnerable to mismanagement than national government agencies. thishigher risk is due to the combination of higher opportunities and fewer protections against corruption unique to the local level. democratization incentral and Eastern Europe (cEE), latin america and elsewhere empowered
many local governments. in recent decades, local governments (cities, towns
and villages) have (re)gained more autonomy, political power, more responsibilities, and in some cases, more revenue and more personnel. however,greater resources (own taxes) and competencies (procurement) also bringmore opportunities for mismanagement and corruption.
the higher vulnerability is accounted for by a combination of local political and institutional factors such as the concentration of (scarce) resources,
proximity between actors, and the greater discretion of local bureaucrats
who deal with implementation. local governments often play a prominentrole in procuring and delivering services to citizens. local civil servants
handle registration and licensing and provide core services, healthcare andeducation, and in some cases, may hold cross-cutting responsibilities for
economic development or poverty alleviation. at the same time, public procurement and service provision are becoming increasingly complex. With
the implementation of new public management (npM) and privatization,
there has been a proliferation of semi-autonomous agencies that deal withland planning, transportation and other profitable policy areas. this growing complexity makes procurement and public goods provision more challenging to control and protect from mismanagement. a second factor that
increases the vulnerability of local government is the greater discretion ofpoliticians and local bureaucrats handling implementation and regulationand licenses. local politicians relate to particular places for their electoral support, where they contact their followers, creating a breeding groundfor vote-buying, clientelism and patronage practices. at the local level, connections between politicians and businesses or influential people are close.
they live in the same place, went to school together, meet in the same bar,or may even be relatives.
at the same time, cities (especially smaller ones) have fewer protections
against corruption. towns have a lower probability of being audited by thecentral government and a lower capacity for local administration to scrutinize their operations and control politicians effectively. With the exceptionof capital and large cities, the media scrutiny is weaker, as well as the activityof watchdog organizations and nGos. Filipe campante and quoc-anh do(2014) show that us cities situated further from the capital have less media
scrutiny and higher corruption. smaller cities in particular do not have anti-corruption institutions and have lower administrative capacity (obsolete164

it technologies, lack of specialized and prepared staff) that would effectively
control corruption from within.
running the risk of gross simplification, we can say that the corrupt mechanisms
operating at local level exploit these specific opportunities and weaknesses.
• Exploiting (scarce) resources. actors willing to engage in corruption takeadvantage of the complexity of public procurement and the scarcity of
public resources. it is worth noting that the problem is not excessive resources but their scarcity combined with the discretionary and personaluse of them. scarcity creates opportunities for corruption, long queues
for hospital treatment, and insufficient, limited city budgets pushes themto use the land to finance the city’s budget, resulting in land speculation,
corruption and real estate abuse. Major discretionary funds in the mayor’s
hands can be used to finance supporters, as well as discretionary legislative and executive powers.
• Exploiting politicians’ and civil servants’ discretion. local political representatives wielded considerable power in distributing financial gains within the municipality but faced little pressure to account for their actions(Mungiu-pippidi & johnston, 2017). Furthermore, civil servants at local level
have greater discretion when issuing permits, licenses and subsidies. Many
researchers argue that insufficient control mechanisms of the activities of
local representatives from 1997 to 2007 can adequately explain the intensity and spread of local corruption in spain (quesada et al., 2013).
• corrupt networks frequently exploit limited control mechanisms fromthe central and internal audit institutions. corruption schemes operate
unobserved due to the lack of social pressure and scrutiny from watchdog
organizations and nGos. a lack of transparency transforms information
into privileged capital for powerholders and their associates. lack of information (transparency) on the local budget and spending programs makes it
easier for funds earmarked for schools, hospitals or natural disaster relief
to be spent on less socially beneficial purposes such as oversized stadiums,
airports and bridges to nowhere (della porta & vannucci, 1999; reinikka &svensson, 2005).
• Exploiting the politicization of civil servants. rebecca Weitz-shapiro researched clientelism in argentinian cities and found politicized civil servants supported the mayor acting as broker distributing subsidies and goods
to loyal citizens (Weitz-shapiro, 2014). similar roles of civil servants as corruption brokers were observed in the romanian, Bulgarian and hungarian
countryside (Mares et al., 2016, 2017). politicized civil servants are unlikely165to effectively control public spending or procurement and blow the whistle
when aware of irregularities.
• Exploiting vertical territorial (political and economic) dependence.
Whether the country is centralized or federalized, local governments are
frequently part of vertical corruption networks and schemes organized at
the central level. these vertical networks use cities as cashing subsidiary
offices that collect bribes, favours or award contracts to connected firms
or loyal collaborators.

References› agerberg, M. (2017). Failed expectations: quality of government and support for populist parties in Europe. European
Journal of Political Research, 56(3), 578-600.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12203› campante, F. r., & do, q.-a. (2014). isolated capital cities,
accountability, and corruption: Evidence from us states.
American Economic Review, 104(8), 2456-2481.
https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.8.2456

consequently, the efforts to limit corruption or maintain good government
are a system-changing effort that includes everybody and should be directed
towards restricting discretionary powers of politicians, reducing the complexity of regulation, increasing the independence and professionalism ofadministration, empowering and including the local press and citizens in
broad coalitions (Mungiu-pippidi, 2013). this sounds hard to accomplish, but
the existence of virtuous cities, sort of islands of good government, even in
institutionally unstable environments in highly corrupt countries, shows thatcities can successfully fight corruption. cities change faster and have uniquestrengths such as social capital and citizens’ cooperation to drive change.

› della porta, d., & vannucci, a. (1999). Corrupt exchanges:
Actors, resources, and mechanisms of political corruption.
transaction publishers.
› drapalova, E. (2021). down-to-earth. What we can learn
from studying corruption at the local level. in Oxford
Handbook of Quality of Government. oxford university
press.
› Mares, i., Muntean, a., & petrova, t. (2016). Economic
intimidation in contemporary Elections: Evidence fromromania and Bulgaria. Government and Opposition, 1-32.
https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2016.39› Mares, i., Muntean, a., & petrova, t. (2017). pressure,favours, and vote-buying: experimental evidence fromromania and Bulgaria. Europe-Asia Studies, 69(6), 940-960.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2017.1364351› Mungiu-pippidi, a., & johnston, M. (2017). Transitions
to Good Governance Creating Virtuous Circles of Anticorruption. Elgar.
› Mungiu-pippidi, a. (2013). controlling corruption bycollective action. Journal of Democracy, 24(1), 101-115.
› Quesada, m. G., Jiménez-sánchez, f., & villoria, m. (2013).
Building local integrity systems in southern Europe: thecase of urban local corruption in spain. International
Review of Administrative Sciences, 79(4), 618-637.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852313501125› reinikka, r., & svensson, j. (2005). Fighting Corruption to
Improve Schooling: Evidence from a Newspaper Campaign
in Uganda. 3(2–3), 259-267.
› Weitz-shapiro, r. (2014). Curbing Clientelism in Argentina.
cambridge university press.

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thE citY andcorruption
Joan A. Llinares
corruption undermines the rule of law and impedes its normal
functioning by threatening the constitutional principles thatinspire it, particularly the submission of all public authorities
to the legal order, the equality of all before the law and the obligation of the public administration to objectively serve thegeneral interest.
in a recent conference as part of the training activities of the valencian antifraud agency (avaf), a professor of history of philosophy at the complutense
university of madrid, José luís villacañas, stated that corruption robs us ofmoney and dignity in equal parts, and its systemic entrenchment paves theway for tyranny.
the late professor José vidal-Beneyto always maintained that the fightagainst corruption is the greatest challenge of our democracy and called fora general movement of reprobation against corrupt practices, with public
participation.
also in a lecture given in valencia on the occasion of international anticorruption day, spain’s first anti-corruption prosecutor, carlos Jiménez
villarejo, maintained that the phenomenon of corruption in democratic
states has structural causes that are connected with the organisation of thestate and its public authorities, and the structure of public powers. among
other reasons, this is due to the inadequacy of controls that renounce theirfunctions, either through passivity or more or less covert complicity withthose in power.
we could continue with quotes from victoria camps, manuel villoria or adela
cortina on public ethics and integrity, who all agree that the fundamental
axis of any political system is the exemplarity of those governing it. there is
no use in demanding ethical behaviour from citizens if those at the highest
levels of power do not set an example: integrity is built from the top down.

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the framework for public integrity is a legal system that is constructed on thebasis of the goal of those in power to fight corruption. there is a need for legal
standards followed by exemplary and strongly-enforced behaviour. Without
rules and a culture of compliance, it is impossible to put an end to the inertiathat comes from centuries of abuse and misuse of power, as well as the appropriation of the public realm for the benefit of private interests. with rules, but
without a culture of compliance, we open the door to social cynicism.

council’s office against fraud and corruption, to develop programmes andsystems to help in the prevention, detection, correction and prosecution of
fraud and corruption in connection with anti-fraud agencies, wherever they
exist. these bodies must have the necessary means and sufficient resources
to carry out their control tasks, guarantee their independence from the restof the municipal bodies and ensure their accountability to the highest representative bodies of municipal democracy.

the municipal administration is the closest level of government to the people
and good governance of the city provides a good path to follow to fight oneof the scourges that does the most damage to democracy and the economy. corruption siphons off public resources in order to hand them over tomafias embedded within our administrations and governments. according
to the oEcd, between 10% and 30% of major construction projects are lost
due to ineffective control and mismanagement. city and urban planning aresynonymous with an ecosystem in which the general public has been marginalised in favour of large stakeholders that have taken decisions outside of
democratic structures while thinking only of their own benefit. predatory
and speculative urban planning has been built on the capture of municipal
institutions, which have often succumbed to the immense power of the alliances between developers, banks and speculators, even when they have tried
to resist.

only a firm conviction among the people’s political representatives that municipal democracy is intimately linked to the fight against fraud and corruption will lead to more efficient cities that are aligned with the general interestand the common good.

Further, many of the services that a city must guarantee its residents have,over time, lost their nature as municipal services, becoming private concessions with opaque management and thus an attractive target for large companies whose capacity for influence and power is often greater than that of
the municipal administrations themselves. this imbalance has resulted in thecapture of the public realm by corporations that are accountable to no one,and that extract income from people through fees and prices with little or no
public oversight.
Fighting corruption in our cities involves establishing a framework of integrity and corruption prevention measures that are articulated from the top
down: from the firm intention of government teams to fight corruption, tothe establishment of systems of transparency in contracting and management in general, codes of ethics and conduct for all, elected officials and civil
servants with ethics committees including a broad capacity for action, structured risk mapping to strengthen weak spots, complaint and alert channels
that allow for the participation the general population and government employees in detecting irregularities, protection systems for whistleblowers
and, above all, an office such as the one set up by Barcelona city council
in 2016, the office for transparency and Good practices, or madrid city

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MonEY laundErinG,
tax Fraud and Financial
corruption in the eu:
What it is and hoW to
FiGht itErnest Urtasun and Jesús Hernández
scandals related to cases of financial corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in the Eu are, unfortunately, recurrent.
in the last eight years, the luxleaks, panama papers, offshore
leaks, Bahama papers, pandora papers, openlux, cumEx caseand the most recent suisse secrets are proof of this. thesescandals have been accompanied by regulatory reactions ofvarying degrees of importance. in turn, they have defined thereforms required to move forward in a political agenda that
achieves true tax and economic justice.
to begin, we must highlight the role of investigative journalism and of whistle-blowers who have reported the scandals. they have been instrumental
in exposing the real problem and at the same time generating the necessary
public and political attention to develop European standards in this matterin recent years. that is why they always deserve recognition for their workwhen this issue is discussed, bearing in mind that some of them, such as
Falciani, deltour and halet, have been subjected to judicial persecution andin the most extreme cases, such as those of daphne caruana Galizia and ján
kuciak, have paid with their own lives.
when trying to define a european dimension of the problems of money laundering, tax fraud and other crimes related to financial corruption, two different levels can be highlighted. the first refers to the problems of funds
managed directly by the Eu. the second (and much more complex) dimension is related to a global economy and to actors taking advantage of a fully
integrated European single market, but with fragmented tax administrations
and without the necessary tools to ensure compliance with the principle thattaxes are paid where the economic activity is actually carried out.

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regarding the rules for controlling the money managed by the Eu, theeuropean anti-fraud office (olaf) and the european court of auditors are
relatively efficient and modern organisations that have reduced irregularities
and misuse of European funds.

whose transposition of the anti-money laundering rules that were createdprecisely in the wake of luxleaks has been very poor. another example is
Malta, which was in principle subject to this legislation but was neverthelessidentified by the financial action task force as a high-risk jurisdiction.

But an achilles’ heel remains: the common agricultural policy. a 20218 analysis of the application of cap funds in Bulgaria, the czech republic, hungary,slovakia and romania shows opacity and corruption in its management. inrecent years, European union funds for agricultural subsidies in these countries has tended to end up in the hands of local oligarchs linked to ruling elites
or large agricultural conglomerates and macro-farms instead of helping small
and middle-sized farmers. there are documented cases that include conflictsof interests, nepotism and cases of blatant corruption and fraud.

We must also refer to the disappointing exercise of the Eu list of tax havens.
it began as an ambitious and far-reaching exercise, which achieved significant changes in a number of tax havens. Yet in recent years, the process has
become increasingly politicised. the list now includes panama, which in 2018
was incomprehensibly removed from the list only to be put back on it in 2020.
But it does not include jurisdictions such as the British virgin islands, home
to two-thirds of the companies exposed in the pandora papers investigation.
neither the oEcd nor the Eu has ever dared to single out the united states,
despite the fact that, by failing to meet the tax information exchange criterion, the us should be on the Eu’s list of tax havens. the us does not adhere
to the oEcd’s crs because it applies its own standard called Facta, but
under this regime there is no full reciprocity or sharing of information on
the final beneficiary of non-us assets. in addition, the tax regimes of nevada,delaware, south dakota and alaska are very aggressive in the taxation ofcapital gains taxes.

the new challenge for the Eu in terms of clean and transparent management is the payment of European pandemic recovery funds, the recovery
and resilience Facility. For the moment, the commission is seeking a balance
between a strict and prescriptive monitoring of investments and a spending
flexibility for states that allows them to accelerate expenditure and absorb
funds, contributing to a quicker recovery.
in this context, it is worth highlighting the rule of law mechanism, whichcame into force on 1 January. for the first time we have a mechanism thatlinks the payment of Eu funds to compliance with the rule of law. however,
the mechanism is not as effective as had been claimed when it was approvedat the end of 2020, after fierce resistance from several member states.
the second level where in-depth intervention is needed to ensure tax andeconomic justice is the mismatch between the competences and capacities
of Member states at the tax level and the reality of an increasingly integrated
internal market. the most obvious case is the mechanism of aggressive tax
planning, whereby large multinationals take advantage of a more integrated
eu internal market to pay less tax. they reflect state limitations and the needfor more european integration in the fight against tax fraud and, above all,the need for more political will.
over the last few years, improvements have been made at the global andEuropean level to anti-money laundering standards and the oEcd’s standard
for the automatic exchange of information (common reporting standard).
however, many Eu Member states do not adequately implement Eu anti-money laundering directives and the commission is pursuing several infringement cases for non-transposition. a clear example is luxembourg,8

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the list does not include any Eu countries either, despite the fact that according to oxfam9, cyprus, ireland, luxembourg, Malta and the netherlands
show typical tax haven economic indicators such as high levels of Foreign
direct investment, intellectual property payments, interest and dividends.
luxembourg is a paradigmatic case of a tax haven in the heart of the Eu: 90%of the companies there are foreign; 50,000 front companies manage up to six
trillion euros, without 20% of them having had any activity in recent years;
and 80% of investment funds do not say who their final beneficiary is.
Most international tax evasion schemes could be avoided by implementing aminimum corporate tax rate. at present, there is some global political will tomove towards a global minimum corporate tax rate to fight evasion, following the global agreement reached at the G20 in rome in october 2021. theEu Minimum Effective corporate tax rates directive transposes one of thepillars of the oEcd global agreement and provides for a minimum effective
tax rate of 15% for multinationals. however, it could not be adopted due to thedissenting vote of only one country: hungary.
this setback to tax justice demonstrates once again that the unanimity
rule in tax matters in the Eu is a fundamental problem. as a state competence, tax decisions should be taken unanimously, but in today’s context of
9

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ever-increasing economic integration, it makes no sense at all. this is why
we have been urging the commission for years to make new proposals under article 116 tFEu, the only mechanism that actually makes it possible tobypass the unanimity deadlock, by establishing a qualified majority instead,to avoid vetoes by individual Member states. We cannot accept that one
country’s opposition should hijack an overall proposal aimed at increasing
tax justice in Europe - in this case it was hungary, as in others it was irelandor luxembourg.
intermediaries such as lawyers, consultancy firms, portfolio managers andreal estate agents have actively helped to launder money, avoid tax and hide
wealth. the luxleaks case showed that pwc was at the centre of the tax
evasion machine in the Eu, just as the pandora papers showed a similar rolefor Mckensey in the us. Given the role played by these intermediaries inall the scandals uncovered, our anti-money laundering framework must also
address their activity, especially in the context of actions against the wealthof the russian oligarchy mostly hidden in the Eu. there is one clear conclusion here, which is that we need a register of Eu assets, including real estate,works of art or planes and yachts, with information on the final beneficiaries.
in summary, the diagnosis and roadmap are clear: strengthen transparency
and anti-money laundering rules; adopt the minimum rates directive; thoroughly reform the Eu blacklist; create an Eu asset register; and improve
enforcement of anti-money laundering legislation with infringement procedures against non-compliant states. What is really needed now is the political will to carry out these reforms. Because without tax justice, there can be
no economic justice or social equality.

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MunicipalisM andthE FEMinisationof politics: the
GloBal hopE
Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona
Manuela D’Ávila, writer, journalist
and professor of Public Policy
Irací Hassler, mayor of Santiago
de Chilein july 2021, and now when writing this book, we all meetagain to foster an international municipalist process that ismore vital than ever. this movement is certainly not perfectand the major structural changes that need to be encouraged in this time of multiple global crises will take years, andeven decades, but the path is created by walking. in this sense, Fearless cities 2021, with more than 1,200 participantsfrom 50 countries, showed that the municipalist network is
consolidating and growing.
in these years, municipalism has demonstrated its capacity for real transformation, transferring demands from social movements to governments and institutions. Barcelona
today has for years been the spanish city with the greatest
social investment. We have increased social investment by
50%, doubling economic aid for inclusion and promoting social innovation programmes such as options for the homelessthrough primer hogar (“first home”) and the project vínculos
contra la soledad (“links against loneliness”). we havestrengthened formerly weakened public services with newmental health services. these include konsulta’m to provide
psychological support through a preventive approach and amunicipal dental service. we have also created vila veïna tofacilitate access to public care resources and services.

We have created a new institutional framework that did notexist, promoting deliberative policies through decidim. andwe have taken decisive measures against tax fraud through which we have recovered 150 million euros from large
companies. in the area of housing, we have built more than
2,100 social units and are promoting public/community developments. By using recycled shipping containers, we havecreated aprops, or fast-track public housing. Meanwhile,in the face of strong opposition from lobbyists, we have regulated tourist flats and closed down 7,500 illegal tourist
apartments. to combat tourist overcrowding, we have also
demanded limits on the growth of infrastructure, such as the
airport, and are proposing to reduce the maximum numberof cruise ships arriving in the city to three per day. We arealso building a new green Barcelona for the people throughthe superilla (“superblock”) plan to reclaim one million square metres of public space for residents.
and we can only do all this together. the case of housing has
shown the importance of networking with other cities, enabling us to keep a steady hand on the large digital platforms.
together we have been able to do many things for those who
voted for us, things that had not been done before (things
that they told us were impossible), yet that today are starting
to become a reality.
in chile, we are at a historic moment that has enabled us tocreate real changes. We are at a constituent moment. We
have seen profound transformations occurring precisely ina country where the neoliberal model has been implemented
to the letter, where all of our social rights have been commodified. this moment of change arises from the feminist movement, the social movement, the student movement and theenvironmental movement, giving us the chance to become
empowered, to say “enough!” of this exclusionary, unequalmodel. We need to create real change. But we have not doneit alone. We are following the example of many other womenand other movements around the world and in latin america.
today, we hope this means a transformation towards a new
chile, fairer, more secure, a green chile, a better chile.
Good living is a word that has been central to our country.
living well is what we are currently looking for in chile and

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in our neighbourhood and capital, where we have a tremendous wealth: our communities, their history, their heritage,
their urban parks.
in this year of management we have proposed new ways of
doing politics, with new perspectives for community security, the creation of the first intersectional institution inchile, such as our subdirectorate for Gender Equality, sexual
diversity and inclusion. We have also promoted co-management processes to improve our neighbourhoods, from a sustainable perspective, where the construction of a waste management plan has been fundamental. in addition, we haveconcentrated efforts on the planning of our neighbourhoodcare system “stgo cares for you”, which will have the firstcare Building in chile, that will become our largest investment, and whose central objective is to put the life of ourneighbours in the centre.

today, our poorest communities are highly mobilised andhave a political visibility they never had before, largely thanks
to the internet. this is a generation that has never lived without technology, without the power of political mobilisation that their smartphones give them. these new empowered generations have gone to university under the lula anddilma governments, whereas previously we had only 1% ofyoung people at university. today, half the students in public
universities are from peripheral communities, or young andblack. this is a fundamental basis for change in social movements. nowadays it is impossible to imagine a movement forsocial and political transformation that does not inhabit both
spaces, the streets and social media, concurrently.

We seek to contribute from local governments to the generation of change in the constituent moment that we are living.
we know that in many cases we are the first encounter between people and institutions, so it is essential to generateconcrete actions that can change the daily lives of everyone,that allow transformations to improve our day to day andthat sometime give rise to a good living.

Barcelona, santiago and these movements in Brazil are examples of hope in a context of global crisis. We are experiencing
a time of crisis which we must turn into an opportunity forradical transformation, because the old structures have become obsolete and threaten all life on the planet. as we leavebehind the pandemic, in a scenario of war and humanitariancrises, we do not need a simple recovery. We need a transformation to attain cities that are just, feminist and sustainable
for all of us. We cannot make this change easily. it means addressing major global challenges that also translate to a local
context. this requires imagination and loads of innovation:
together our ideas are better than each of ours individually.
We must strengthen politics with people. that is where ourpower lies. that is where our strength lies. When you haveno media power, you do not have the power of the oligarchyor the judiciary. Your only power is the power of the people.
throughout history, power is shown to be unstoppable whenpeople organise and pursue the goals of transformation andsocial justice in a united front.

in Brazil, there is a very young social movement for generating new ideas, where women and black people play leadingroles. the regeneration of the left in Brazil must not only place our women at the centre but especially our black womenand men. if we want a country where social justice exists,
it has to be by confronting the racism that structures economic inequality. these new left-wing social movements areon the streets, where workers — uberised workers, workers
without rights — live with economic insecurity.

we have recently faced some very difficult times. yet ourstrength has always been that people have organised together and done incredible things that no one could have imagined. For example, in Barcelona, a network was organised to
manufacture masks using 3d printers. We provided resources from Barcelona city council while other small companies provided transport and materials. together, we manufactured thousands of masks and protective equipment for
health professionals.

in addition, we have proposed a new approach to educationin our 44 educational establishments from an open to dialogue, non-sexist and communal point of view. We are also
the capital city of education in chile, with a significant number of emblematic schools and high schools for our country,
which today seek to respond to historical demands for thestrengthening of public education.

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this is the resilient community that maintains its ties despite the difficulties.
We are capable of things that states could never do because the strength ofmunicipalism is this idea of sharing common space, extending our homes
to merge with the public space that is the city, a city that allows us to meet
and work together to change reality. it is precisely this policy of proximity toeveryday life that encourages us to face challenges with people’s well-beingin mind.
it is municipalities that have the least resources and least competencies. We
have no legislative powers to change the rules of the game, but we have thevery great strength of community cooperation. cities are spaces for new
ideas, for creativity and innovation, for inventing things that did not exist
before, new solutions and new ways of responding to old problems. We live
in a time of great threats such as climate change and the extreme right, of apatriarchal capitalist system that is dying yet continues to cause suffering forso many people. But, like all moments of crisis, this is also a time of opportunity for profound transformation.
We must give space to these community, cooperative, feminist and green
experiences, offer them space and strengthen them with all the tools at our
disposal to promote these concrete examples of transformation which, little
by little, are demonstrating that there are other ways of doing things andsolving problems, from a position of proximity, on a daily basis.
in today’s world of crisis and change, we see how there are movements that
cut through everything at a global level. they brim with hope. Feminism isone. Municipalism is another. amongst us all, starting from municipalism andfeminism, we can foster countless experiences of rebirth, a new feminist humanism. Municipalities must be that common space that is open to all these transformations, to this innovation and to a full-throated defence of life.
They want us lonely, but they will find us in common.

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Bios

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› Eva Abril Chaigne
Eva abril was born in the south of Madrid, but she has beena poble sec resident for five years. though she is a photographer, she has been working as a secondary teacher
for 16 years. luckily it is a profession that she loves. lGtBi
activism is one of her great passions, along with politics. inrecent years she has been fortunate to be able to combine
them, being an activist within the lGtBi feminist movement,
where she has learnt a great deal. as a member of Barcelona
en comú’s Executive leadership, she undertakes to do
everything possible to help the transformation and revolution that is occurring in Barcelona.

› Gabriela Cabaña
Gabriela cabaña is an anthropologist and phd researcher at
the london school of Economics and political science, currently studying energy policy and planning in chile from an
ethnographic perspective. she is a member of the centro deanálisis socioambiental (casa), an organization researching and building critical perspectives for social-ecologicaltransformation in chile, the observatory Energía y Equidad,
and president of the red chilena de ingreso Básico (chilean
network of Basic income). she is interested in the intersections between degrowth, basic income, energy and the morality of work.

› Eloi Badia Casas
a graduate in industrial Engineering (upc), Eloi Badia has
been a councillor on Barcelona city council since 2015. since2019, he has been the climate Emergency and Ecologicaltransition area director. he is in charge of promoting
Barcelona’s climate Emergency declaration, a document
containing more than 350 of the city’s commitments to combat climate change. he has also promoted implementationof the low Emission zone (the largest in southern Europe,
covering some 95 km2) to combat pollution, Barcelona’s mostimportant health problem. his other goals include working
towards the city’s energy transition, increasing waste recycling, public water management and improving the city’s
greening and biodiversity.

› Christo Casas
a graduate in Journalism (uv) and political science (uaB),
christo casas has been a consultant in Barcelona city
council’s climate Emergency area since 2022. he has participated in various municipal platforms and projects for citizen participation, climate emergency, health, civil rights anddiversity. he has also coordinated communications for theBarcelona Youth council, collaborating regularly with various media from a class-based, human-rights viewpoint.

› Luisa Broto Bernués
luisa Broto Bernués (huesca, 1965) is a social worker withexperience in adult education, family education and support
for people with hiv. since 1998, she has been working at
zaragoza city council’s community social services.
a member of the plataforma de profesionales de los servicios
sociales (“social services professional platform”) and theespacio de derechos sociales (“social rights space”), she isalso an lGtBi activist and has been an elected staff delegate.
after serving as deputy Mayor and councillor for social
rights on zaragoza city council between 2015 and 2019, she
is currently a councillor for zaragoza en común on zaragozacity council.

188› Emily Marion Clancy
Born in Bologna in 1991, italian-canadian Emily Marion clancy
is the vice-mayor and deputy mayor in charge of housing,climate assemblies and climate office, night policies, equal
opportunities and anti-discrimination policies of the cityof Bologna. in 2021, after her first election in 2016, she was
re-elected city councillor, obtaining the most votes out of all
the candidates running in the city election with the municipalist platform coalizione civica.
she holds a degree in law from the university of Bologna, acertificate of legal studies from King’s college, london, anda degree in public administration from the spisa school ofpost-Graduate studies at the university of Bologna.
› Pierre Clavel
pierre clavel is a retired professor at cornell university inithaca, new york. he writes on the “politics” of planning.
he sees planners representing all people, and finds those
who oppose planners exasperating, especially the claims

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that the market or pluralism is always better. he founded “progressive cities” that challenged this thinking, andwrote on the topic, convinced that writing about “progressive planners” is one of the best things an academic can do.
his main publications include The Progressive City (1986)
and Activists in City Hall (2010). other papers can be foundat www.progressivecities.org, and cornell library’s digital collection on the subject of progressive cities and neighborhood
planning, www.ecommons.cornell.edu.
› Ada Colauada colau Ballano is the first female mayor of the city ofBarcelona. committed to the values of the city and close to
the needs of the people, she has changed the priorities of theagenda during her terms of office, incorporating community
policies (such as the neighbourhood plan and housing policies, for example) and facing global threats like the climate
emergency or feminism at the same time.
› Tània Corrons Mellado
tània corrons Mellado (Manresa, 1978) is an economist
specialised in human rights and international cooperation.
her work over the last 20 years has focused on managing
various companies and organisations. since january 2020,
she has been a member of Barcelona en comú’s Executive
leadership, where she is in charge of logistics, finances andhuman resources, as well as its spokesperson.
› Manuela D’Ávila
Manuela is a journalist, with a master’s degree in public policy and a doctoral student in public policy at the universidad
Federal do rio Grande do sul. she was the youngest councillor in porto alegre, the most voted federal deputy in Brazil,
and the most voted state deputy in 2014. she ran for thevice-presidency of the country in 2018. he founded the E
se fosse você institute, aimed at combating disinformationand networks of hate. she published three books: Revolução
Laura, Por que lutamos? Um livro sobre amor e liberdade and
E Se Fosse Você? Sobrevivendo às redes de ódio e fake news.
she is also editor and co-author of the books Coletâneas
Semper foi sobre nós: relatos da violência política de gênero
no Brasil and Rede de Mentira e ódio: e se o alvo fosse você?

190› Dr. Eliška Drápalová
dr. Eliška drápalová has been a research fellow in the
research Group “politics of digitalization” at the Berlinsocial science center (WzB) since january 2022. prior tothat, she was involved as a guest researcher. she obtained
her phd in political Economy from the European university
institute in Florence, italy. she was a postdoctoral fellow
in the organizations, Management and leadership cluster
at the hertie school in Berlin as well as the university ofGothenburg, sweden. Eliška is a comparative political scientist and administration scholar interested in the quality of
government and regulation in cities, smart cities and the effect of technology on public administration. she co-directs adFG-funded project on regulating platform companies in Eu
cities and regions together with prof. kai Wegrich from thehertie school (Berlin).
› Ana Fernández Borsot
a graduate in law from the university of Barcelona, ana
Fernández has obtained the certificate of aptitude for the
profession of lawyer (capa) from the cour d’appel de douai(France). she is a member of the observatorio del derecho
a la ciudad (“city rights observatory”) in Buenos aires. sheparticipates in various spaces that advocate for access to decent housing. she currently lives in Barcelona and is an active
member of the international alliance of inhabitants.
› Nadine Finchnadine Finch is an honorary senior policy Fellow in theschool for policy studies at the university of Bristol. she isalso an associate at child circle, a centre of expertise andpublic interest action on child protection and European
measures. she was previously a human rights barrister, who
specialised in children’s rights, migration, child trafficking
and international family law, and subsequently a judge in theupper tribunal of the immigration and asylum chamber. she
is a trustee for statewatch and worked on race and policing
issues between 1984 and 1987 at the Greater london council
and the london strategic policy unit.

191› Francesco Gentilini
Born in Bologna, italy, in 1992, Francesco Gentilini has been amember of the neighbourhood council of santo stefano (oneof Bologna’s six neighbourhoods) since october 2021, when he
was elected with the municipalist platform coalizione civica.
he holds a Bachelor’s degree in political science from theuniversity of Bologna, a Master’s degree in Economic
analysis from the solvay Brussels school of Economics andManagement and is currently a phd candidate in sociologyof labour at the university of Florence with a thesis on
Workers’ Buyouts (WBo).
› Quique Gornés Cardona
a technical engineer in public Works (upc), quique Gornés
has been a consultant in Barcelona city council’s climate
Emergency area since 2019. he has been involved in several
projects promoting the human right to water and public water management at the EsF. he was the technical director of
the water and sewerage service in arenys de Munt from theservice’s remunicipalisation in 2012 until 2017. he also participated in preparing the integrated Water cycle strategicplan for the Barcelona Metropolitan area in the Barcelona
regional municipal agency from 2017 to 2019.
› Elia Gran Lostau
a communications director at Barcelona city council’s
department of health, ageing and care, Elia Gran has a degree in journalism and a passion for independent investigative reporting. in the us, she wrote for print and radio media
while working as a correspondent for catalan and spanish
publications. she has been a digital content creator and networker for new York’s The Indypendent, as well as a broadcaster on the weekly WBai news show. a co-creator of the
Mínimo platform, a municipalist observatory, she closely follows movements for urban rights and the struggle for decent
housing, along with local and feminist movements.
› Irací Hassler Jacob
irací hassler jacob, Mayoress for the commune of santiago.
her political trajectory starts under the wing of the student
and social movements, where she performed as university
senator and General secretary for the student Federation of192

the university of chile. in that position, she situated herself
in the debate regarding the right to education, and progressively, also made herself an active part of the feminist movement, defending sexual and reproductive rights, and currently spearheading municipal politics with a focus on rights
regarding gender equality.
her current role as a Mayoress, is part of a political construct that throughout time has gone hand in hand with
political and social organizations. thus, she performed ascounsel in the previous period. that is how, within the sociopolitical climate brought by the social movements of 2019,the constitutional Mayoralty is born as a collective project,building a political and programmatic approach that has situated at the front and center the quality of life of all those
who live in santiago.
currently, and having reached a year of management, the city
council have drawn political objectives towards city rights,
community security, strengthening public education, gendermainstreaming and a new model for waste management.
› Owen Hatherleyowen hatherley was born in southampton, England in 1981.
he received a phd from Birkbeck college in 2011 for a thesis published in 2016 as The Chaplin Machine (pluto press).
he writes regularly on architecture, culture and politics forArchitectural Review, The Guardian and The London Review
of Books, among others. he has published the following books:
Militant Modernism (zero, 2009), A Guide to the New Ruins ofGreat Britain (verso, 2010), Uncommon – An Essay on Pulp
(zero, 2011), Across the Plaza (strelka, 2012), A New Kind of
Bleak (verso 2012), Landscapes of Communism (penguin,2015), The Ministry of Nostalgia (verso, 2016), Trans-Europe
Express (penguin, 2018), The Adventures of Owen Hatherley in
the Post-Soviet Space (repeater, 2018), Soviet Metro Stations(with christopher herwig, Fuel, 2019), Red Metropolis(repeater, 2020), a collection of essays, Clean Living Under
Difficult Circumstances (verso 2021), Modern Buildings in
Britain: A Gazetteer (penguin, 2022), and Artificial Islands(repeater, 2022). he is also the editor of The Alternative
Guide to the London Boroughs (open house, 2020).

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he has edited and introduced an updated edition of iannairn’s Nairn’s Towns (notting hill Editions, 2013), written
texts for the exhibition Brutalust: Celebrating Southampton’s
Post-War Architecture at the k6 Gallery, and introduced
William Morris’ How I Became A Socialist (verso, 2020).
Between 2006 and 2010 he wrote the blog “sit down Man,
you’re a Bloody tragedy”. he is a commissioning editor at
Jacobin and the culture editor of Tribune.
› Jesús Hernández
he is a political scientist and holds a Master’s degree intaxation. he is specialised in parliamentary assistance on
topics such as taxation, Economic and Financial affairs.
currently providing advice on topics related to the European
parliament’s committee on Economic and Monetary affairs
to MEp Ernest urtasun. he worked as an advisor to the pluralleft in the spanish parliament.
› Steve Hughes
steve hughes has over 20 years’ experience organizing in
the us and Europe. he lives in prague and works on several trans-European and transatlantic organizing initiatives.
tracing his roots to the us labor movement, he transitioned
to political organizing for the Working Families party (WFp)
in 2010. in 2014, he moved to Europe, but he continues tosupport organizing at the WFp. he has taken a leadershiprole in developing the European community organizing
network and he works closely with the Grassroots power
project. in all these roles he serves as a link between the us
and European organizing sectors.
› Patrick Kappert
patrick kappert (1971, deventer, the netherlands) is a knowledge engineer. Following his studies in cognitive science,
he did a Master’s in Environmental public Management. in
2002, he migrated from the netherlands to spain and started
living in Barcelona’s poblenou neighbourhood with his partner and later two children. he still cycles, but he also works
as a computer scientist at qubiq and is on the board of the
col·lectiu superilla poblenou and a number of organic foodorganisations in Barcelona’s sant Marti district. living at thesuperblock changed his perspective on urban public space
and its purpose.

194› Anke Kleff
anke kleff is a psychologist with a Master’s degree inorganisational development. she collaborates with private and public organisations in implementing processes ofchange, such as creating more participatory cultures andnew forms of leadership and feminising the world of scientific research.
she is a member of the Barcelona en comú coordinating
Body as a “common representative”. as co-coordinator of theBarcelona en comú care Group, she helps raise awareness of
the importance of emotional bonds and empathy as tools forpolitical transformation.
› Joan A. Llinares Gómez
joan a. llinares Gómez (alzira, 1953) is a graduate in law(unEd) and a civil servant in the Fhn corps. the current
director of the agency for the prevention and Fight against
fraud and corruption of the valencian community (avaf), he
was resources manager at Barcelona city council, promoting and leading its transparency and Good practices office.
previously, as director of the palau de la Música catalana, hedetected and denounced the cdc’s illegal financing scheme(3%). as an arts manager, he has been administrator of thenational art museum of catalonia (mnac) and the valencian
institute of modern art (ivam).
› Lara Lussón
lara lussón (Madrid, 1988) is a journalist and social worker.
in 2017, she moved to lesbos, Greece, where she worked asteam coordinator for a Maritime rescue nGo. she has also
worked on the border between serbia and hungary and on
the Moroccan border with ceuta, in both emergency andhumanitarian contexts. she regularly travels to northernargentina, where she has collaborated on projects for preventing violence against women. in spain, she is part of the
refugees Welcome social care team, participating in conferences and debates on migration issues.
› Beatriz Martínez Alonso
Born in a coruña, Beatriz Martínez alonso is an activist andresident of the Guinardó neighbourhood. a graduate in law
and political science, she has a master’s degree in conflict

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Management and resolution. a district councillor between
2017 and 2019, she currently forms part of Barcelona en
comú’s Executive leadership, where she oversees care andthe participation and organizing area as a territorial delegate.
› José Manuel Mejías Vegaa social psychologist and public employee for 35 years, josémanuel mejías vega has worked professionally in the fields ofcitizen participation, socio-cultural energisation, social education and community development, especially in the areaof training. a neighbourhood activist and pacifist, he has
worked with children and young people in various groups andbeen part of social, trade union and political initiatives. heparticipated in 15M and was a member of attac. since 2014,
he has helped to create Ganemos jerez, a municipalist groupin jerez city council. he is a member of the coordinationcommission, responsible for contacting and maintaining
regular relations with other municipalist networks in spain.
› Júlia Miralles de Imperial Pujol
a graduate in political science and law from the autonomous
university of Barcelona (uaB), júlia Miralles de imperial
teaches public policy at the same university while pursuing her phd on anti-corruption policies. she participates inBarcelona en comú and catalunya en comú in the fields of
economics and international affairs, especially in projects
related to tax justice and European policy. she is an executive member of both organisations.
› Maga Miranda Díaz
Maga Miranda is a 31-year-old art historian and arts manager. a feminist and heritage activist, she has been a memberof las rejas neighbourhood heritage committee in santiago(chile) for five years, which seeks to defend neighbourhood
life against encroaching real estate developers. For three
years, she has been an activist in the revolución democrática
(democratic revolution) party in the Estación central area
and in the Frente Feminista (Feminist Front).
she is the president of the Metropolitan region Executive
Board for the 2021–2023 period. in the last national elections, she was elected councillor for the Estación central
commune for the 2021–2024 period.

196› Maurice Mitchell
Maurice Mitchell is a nationally recognized political strategist and visionary leader in the Movement for Black lives.
raised by caribbean working-class parents in new York,he began organizing as a teenager and never stopped. afterworking for several grassroots advocacy organizations in his
home state, Maurice directed the nY state civic Engagement
table. in the wake of the police murder of Michael Brown,
he relocated to Ferguson and helped build the Movement
for Black lives. he went on to co-found and lead Blackbird,a movement anchor organization. in 2018, Maurice took thehelm of Working Families party as its national director.
› Lucía Moralelucía Morale is a lawyer specialising in public security policies. she works on the relationship between police and citizens and on incorporating a gender and rights perspective
into security policies.
Between argentina and Barcelona she has worked in humanrights organisations such as h.i.J@.s, cels and iridia. she
has likewise worked in argentina’s Ministry of security andBarcelona city council’s security department. she is involved in various international projects and is co-founderof the international network for security innovation (risE).
a member of Barcelona en comú, she was a member ofthe party’s coordinating Body and is currently head of theBarcelona city council cabinet in the area of social rights,
Global justice, Feminisms and lGtBi.
› César Ochoa Díez
césar ochoa díez holds a degree in Mathematics from theuniversity of Barcelona and teaches at a public secondary
school, where he participates in projects for pacifying theschool environment and creating an energetic community. hehas held various positions in the Barcelona en comú organisation, from neighbourhood and district coordinator to being
on the Executive. he is currently a catalunya en comú councillor and an active member of the urbanism and Mobility
axis. he has contributed to drafting the programme in thisarea and has written several press articles, in addition to giving lectures on sustainable mobility and tactical urbanism.

197› Eric Piolle
an engineer and graduate in civil engineering of the Grenoble
institut national polytechnique (formerly inpG), Eric piolle
got involved in public life in 2009 after a career spent as asenior executive in the industry. he started as a regional
councillor for the French Green party (Europe Ecologie lesverts) in the rhône-alpes area from 2010 to 2014. he waselected Mayor of Grenoble in 2014, and was re-elected in2020. Grenoble is a pioneering city in France in terms of local
democracy, the development of soft mobility (pedestrianization, cycling and public transport), local and organic food,its commitment to fighting against poverty and its ambitious
policy to fight against air pollution. thanks to its commitment, the city of Grenoble and its partners earned the titleof European Green capital 2022.
› Gerardo Pisarello
Gerardo pisarello (tucumán, argentina, 1970) is a spanishargentine politician and lawyer, with a phd in law whoteaches constitutional law at the university of Barcelona.
Barcelona city councillor for the Barcelona en comú municipal group between 2015 and 2019, during this period
he served as first deputy mayor. member elected for theBarcelona constituency in the congress of deputies in the
13th and 14th legislatures, for both of which he was elected a
Mesa del congreso (Board of congress) member.
› Álvaro Porro González
alvaro porro González (Madrid, 1978) is an economist, activist and expert in various fields, including sustainable consumption, social and solidarity economics, community andcollaborative economies, food sovereignty, social market,
green taxation and participatory processes. he is currently
a commissioner for social Economy, local development andFood policy at Barcelona city council. he was the director of
the Barcelona World capital of sustainable Food 2021 project, aimed at developing projects and policies to promotesustainable food in the city.
› Alícia Puig
alícia puig (Barcelona, 1995) is a graduate in the humanities
with a Master’s degree in Economic history. her academic
research focused on housing and economic development.

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she worked at the unEsco chair in Education andtechnology at the open university of catalonia until 2018,
when she joined the Barcelona city council, first on the ciutat
vella and eixample team and currently in the urban ecology
area, where she deals with urban transformation issues.
› Guillem Pujol Borràs
Guillem pujol is a political scientist, philosopher and journalist. he is the co-author of CARTHA – On Making Heimat(Ed. park Books) and currently directs Cataluña Plural, a
key newspaper on the media published by the Fundación
periodismo plural: El Diario de la Educación, El Diario de la
Sanidad, El Diario del Trabajo and RevistaXQ.
› Pamela Radcliff
pamela radcliff has been a professor in the department ofhistory at the university of california, san diego since 1990.
she received her Ba from scripps college (1979) and her phd
from columbia university (1990). she is the author of several
books and numerous articles on popular mobilization, gender
and women’s politics and civil society in 20th century spain. she
has published three single-authored books: From Mobilization
to Civil War: The Politics of Polarization in the Spanish City of
Gijón (cambridge university press, 1996), Making Democratic
Citizens in Spain: Civil Society and the Popular Origins of
the Transition, 1960-1978 (palgrave, 2011) and the History ofModern Spain, 1808-Present (Wiley Blackwell, 2017; spanish
edition with ariel, 2018). she is currently researching the history of municipalist discourse in spanish political culture.
› Antonello Ravetto Antinori
a 48-year-old journalist resident in palermo, the city where
he was born, antonello ravetto antinori has been a spokesperson for the Mayor of lampedusa and linosa totò Martellosince 2018. From 1998 to 2000, he worked for the daily newspaper Il Mediterraneo and for the radio and television station TRM. From 2000 to 2001, he worked for the newspaper L’Ora. since 2001 he has been working for the sicilian
regional parliament, covering political and parliamentary
news. he has been working with the ansa news agency since2004. From 2018 to 2021, he worked on the European project“snapshots from the Borders”, working on issues related tomigration flows and border territories.

199› Carolina Recio Cáceres
carol recio (Barcelona, 1980) works at Barcelona city council’s
department for health, ageing and care, where she has promoted innovative plans such as the Mental health plan and
the Municipal dental service. she holds a phd in sociology(uaB) and has been an associate lecturer (uaB) and a researcher and consultant on public policy. she specialises inthe sociology of gender and work. she was a district councillor for nou Barris and was previously linked to the district’s
associative fabric. she is a mother and Barcelona resident.
› Toni Ribas
toni ribas is an environmental activist specialised in climatechange, energy, pollution and waste. he is an advocate for degrowth as a tool for reducing inequalities and ending degrading living conditions. he has participated in the Movement
for climate Justice, platform for air Quality and 350.org. asa member of Barcelona en comú, he participated in creating
Barcelona Energia (Barcelona’s public electricity company),
representing the organisation at events such as the Growthin transition conference (vienna), can cities change theWorld? (stockholm), systems change – Ecological challenges(oslo) and the cities of change project.
› María Eugenia Rodríguez Palopa lawyer, teacher, researcher, essayist and feature writer, as
well as a feminist activist, environmentalist and human rights
specialist, María Eugenia rodríguez palop is a professor ofphilosophy of law at the uc3m.
she is currently an MEp. she holds the vice chair of thecommittee on Women’s rights and Gender Equality (FEMM)
and is a member of the committee on agriculture and ruraldevelopment (aGri), the delegation to the Eu–Mexico joint
parliamentary committee, the delegation to the Eu–chile
joint parliamentary committee and the delegation to theEuro–latin american parliamentary assembly.
she has published several books, including recently
Revolución feminista y políticas de lo común frente a la extrema derecha (“Feminist revolution and common policies
against the far right”, icaria-clacso, 2019).

200› Nieves Salobral Martín
nieves salobral Martín holds a phd in philosophy. she is a
specialist in gender and feminism and has been a feminist
activist for several decades. she is also a member of akafem,
a feminist–municipalist network aimed at influencing local
institutional policies so that they ensure that support for alife worth living is a central concern.
› Janet Sanz Cid
janet sanz is the deputy Mayor of the department of
Ecology, urban planning and Mobility, where she has promoted the special urban plan for tourist accommodationand the Barcelona superilla (“super city Block”) plan.
Born in tamarit de llitera (1984), she is a resident of poble
sec and holds degrees in law and political science andadministration (upF). Most of her activism in associations
has been dedicated to the youth movement, defence ofhuman rights such as water and energy and the feminist
movement. she is a member of Ecologistas en acción, sosracisme and the ccoo trade union.
› Marc Serra Solé
Marc serra solé (1986) is a lawyer and sociologist. as acouncillor for citizenship rights and participation, he
has worked closely on promoting the new office for nondiscrimination and has been one of the driving forces behind
Barcelona’s active residency registration policies.
serra has been a refugee expert at Barcelona city council
and has collaborated with various human rights organisations in the city. he co-directed the documentary Tarajal:
Dismantling Impunity at the Southern Border.
› Kate Shea Baird
Kate shea Baird works in the field of international relations
for local governments and has written about municipalism
for publications including eldiario.es, NacióDigital, Roar
Magazine, Red Pepper and La Futura, among others. Between
2017 and 2021 she was a member of the Barcelona en comúExecutive and, in this capacity, worked on the organization’s
2019 Barcelona election campaign. kate continues to participate in Barcelona En comú as an activist in the poblenou
neighbourhood assembly.

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› Gemma Tarafa Orpinell
councillor for health, aging and care of the Barcelona city
council, she promoted the first municipal mental healthplan in the spanish state or the municipal dentist. Born inBarcelona (1971), she holds a phd in Molecular Biology fromthe universitat de Barcelona and did a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale university. she was public health researcher
at the universitat pompeu Fabra, as deputy director of thehealth inequalities research Group (GrEds-EMconEt) and
she was also researcher at the catalan institute of oncology.
he has been an activist for more than 15 years in the movement for the abolition of external debt and for public anduniversal health. Mother of a son and a daughter.
› Elena Tarifa Herrero
tarifa herrero (Barcelona, 1973) is a journalist specialisingin corporate communications and pr. she is likewise an
expert on information with a gender perspective, with experience managing public policies for equality. a feminist
and the mother of two daughters, she is pro-European anda social and trade union activist. since 2015, she has actively participated in Barcelona en comú’s municipalist project, where she is involved in various activist spaces. theseinclude the international commission, since its creation,of which she is co-coordinator, and also the catalunya en
comú international sectorial, where she sits on its national
council. since 2016, she has been a councillor for Barcelona’s
horta-Guinardó district, developing innovative local policies
from a local perspective to contribute to global changes.
› Gabe Tobias
Gabe tobias is the co-founder of the Movement school. hespent a decade working around the world with oxfam andother nGos on urban development and education programs.
after returning to the us, he worked with justice democrats
to help elect jamaal Bowman, cori Bush and alexandria
ocasio-cortez, as well as starting the Movement school to
train the next generation of organizers. in 2021, he ran the
our city project to help elect local progressive champions in
new York city, where he is based.

202› Javier Toret Medina
javier toret is a psychologist, researcher, social activist
and expert in digital strategy, political communication andtechnopolitics. he was a promoting member of democracia
real Ya, the group that launched the demonstrations of
the Indignados movement in 2011. author of the book:
Tecnopolítica y 15M: la potencia de las multitudes conectadas (“technopolitics and 15M: the power of the connected
multitudes”), with a foreword by manuel castells. he has extensive experience in training, team building and grassroots
digital empowerment in different countries in the global
south, including Brazil, Mexico, india and south africa.
he is one of the initiators of Barcelona en comú’s municipalist project, which led to the activist ada colau’s election as
mayor in 2015. he worked on the digital strategy of her electoral campaigns. in addition to working as a technology consultant for thoughtworks, he has been an advisor on communication and digital strategy for the Ministry of universitiesof the spanish government under Minister Manuel castells.
he is now the promoter of a new communication channel forsocial transformation: la Futura channel (lafuturachannel.net).
› Ernest Urtasun
Ernest urtasun (Barcelona, 1982) is a Member of the European
parliament for En comú podem, vice-president of the Greens/
EFa political Group, coordinator of the parliamentarycommittee on Economic and Monetary affairs, memberof the subcommittee on tax Matters (Fisc) and substitutemember of the Foreign affairs committee. he holds a Ba in
Economics, diploma in international relations and completed the spanish diplomatic corps college. since 1998, he has
been politically active locally and internationally with Young
Green left (Jev), the fyeG federation of young european
Greens and the EGp-European Green party.

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