Marche des indignés de Madrid vers Bruxelles - Agora Bruxelles jour 3

spaanserevolutie

Spanish Revolution

Out in the Open

In Agora Brussels on 11 October 2011 at 23:03

October 11

Agora Brussels Day 3

Dear people,

It’s natural for the people of the Meseta March, the hard core, to stick together. But it’s a bit strange to see us like this, occupying a disembowled classroom, sitting on a carpet under neon lights on the third floor of a monstrous building.

We used to camp every night. We used to eat and cook out in the open. We were used to the cold and the wind. Now what has become of us? some are wondering. We aren’t even holding assemblies, or partecipating in them any more. “When the assemblies will be assemblies again I will go.”

For the moment, they are not even a vague shadow. Apart from the fact that they are not effective, and that hence participation has gone down about 75 percent, it is the very structure of the aula magna that impedes us to hold an assembly as it should be.

We are watching each other’s shoulders, not each other’s faces. We are looking down at people, the moderators, which are on a podium, divided from the rest of us. We are communicating with them, and not among ourselves. A true assembly based on horizontality can only be held if we all sit in a circle.

We realise that. We try to hold the assemblies outside whenever we can, and if not the assembly will move to the cafeteria, where we can arrange our space in such a way that we can see each other’s faces.

Today's program

Many new people are arriving, and I have a positive feeling about it. I hear a lot of music. The marches have given the initial impulse, and now the project is gaining critical mass. It will go by itself from here on.

I don’t really know what is being organised as far as the debates on very important subjects go. And I’ve heard of only a few people who do. The official program is not the main issue any more. It’s the creation of a free space.

The hard core marchers of the Meseta, myself included, we look on, a bit distrustingly. We see people that are happy to sit down on a chair in front of a table. We see them very much occupied with themselves, and not with the world around us. We consider them desktop revolutionaries, as opposed to ourselves of course.

"Don't eat!"

Today a group of marchers decided to go to the center of Brussels to put up our info point. We wanted to go to Grand Place. They didn’t let us. By order of the burgomaster of Brussels, the police sealed of Grand Place with the order to prevent indignant citizens to enter.

As a result we put up our info point on the Agora Square next to the Grand Place, right under the trees. We were not many, we were mainly marchers, but we felt happy to be on the square. Police didn’t interfere with us. We were able to hold our first assembly in the center of Brussels in peace.

Assembly on Agora Square Brussels

Most numerous assemblies start out impressive, but lose people along the way. Yesterday’s assembly wasn’t spectacular, but it was one of those exceptions were the attendance picks up for a while before it starts to decline. It was okay. At the end I walk back to the university through the streets and over the boulevards of Brussels. I like this city. We have more breathing space here. Belgium might not be in the front line of the revolution yet, but it’s the center of Europe, and that makes a good place to organise a continental movement.

 

"It's allowed to eat, drink and smoke. It's forbidden to forbid"