Spanish Revolution - The Giant Squid - Rome, January 18

Spanish Revolution

The Giant Squid

In #globalrevolution, Agora Roma on 18 January 2012 at 21:01

 

Rome, January 18

Dear people,

The Agora Roma officially ended yesterday. There haven’t been any spectacular actions or events in the final two days. Many people have already left, either for home or for other revolutionary fronts.

In the end the experience has been okay. The Vatican action was undoubtedly the main highlight. It came out well, it got the attention of all major Italian newspapers besides from the Washington Post, and the reports on it were pretty objective. Better than we could hope for, given the fact that the church is always a very sensitive subject in Italy.

I had been preparing something spectacular as a conclusion. The idea was to occupy the Forum, in the middle of night. This because our movement claims the public space and the Roman Forum was the public space par excellence in antiquity. Only since a few years you have to pay to enter. The plan was ready in detail. I had identified the weak spot where we could cross. First we would have taken the Palatine, the hill of the emperors, we would have planted a flag on top, saying ’Free Palatine’, and then we would have descended to the Forum to camp.

The plan was very romantic, but it was finally voted down, because of the possible negative repercussions on the movement and ourselves and the bad precedent it could set. Touching ancient Rome is almost as sensitive as touching the church.

Instead, we prepared an action against Goldman Sachs, which we executed this evening. One of us dressed up in a tent, symbolising a giant squid. Other comrades were attached to his tentacles wearing masks of Mario Monti, Mario Draghi, Papademos and Obama. We had prepared a flyer with information on how the former three all have a past in GS and how the bank of banks was the major contributor to Obama’s campaign.

It went on to explain how Goldman Sachs helped the Greeks to trick their budget, how it gets countries ‘hooked’ to loans they can’t pay back, how it acts as a financial hitman and how it finally places its pawns directly in the nerve centres of power. Not to speak about the speculation with food prices.

And so the squid went for a tourist trip through the centre of Rome, from Piazza Barberini to Termini. One of the slogans was a quote by John Adams, the second president of the United States. ‘There are two ways to conquer a nation. Through war, or through debt.’

Now we’re back at the camp. It’s the last evening here in the square. Tomorrow we move to a location in Rome as yet unknown. The march will probably depart next saturday, January 21.

Pantheon