Thoughts from Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain: 8.12.20

Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable.  

- Christopher Howse: 'A Pilgrim in Spain'*  

Covid in Spain

A song for anti-vaxxers 

Spain. Here's an irony . . . The first Spaniards to be vaccinated will be those who cross into Gibraltar for work. I guess Vox will be making a big fuss about that, perhaps demanding they continue to be unprotected, to protect its image of Spain.

Living La Vida Loca in Galicia/Spain

Talking about Vox, I noted a week or 2 ago that someone had written that there are actually parties to the right of these egregious folk. The article in Spanish is here and a tarted up Google version is below.

And this is about Vox supporters in action. 

It's heartwarming to read of a Spanish couple who, after suffering 14 miscarriages, finally had a child via IVF treatment they'd won in a competition. Some folk, though - especially pious Catholics - won't be so impressed by this 'playing at God'. I imagine there are quite a few of these in the ranks of Vox voters. And in Opus Dei, of course.

The ex king is regularising his tax affairs. Post facto, of course. By all accounts(!), he's lucky enough to have sufficient loose cash to fund the overdue payments and the fines. Unlike the poor chap fined €490,000 in 2014 under the infamous Modelo 720 law of 2012 for having €300,000 in Switzerland that he hadn't previously declared 

Life in Spain: Cooks, architects, janitors, mailmen, clerks, policemen, pediatricians, firefighters, librarians, music teachers, archaeologists ... What do you want to be when you grow up? 'A civil servant', all those who seek a stable job in the next decade should respond, whether they are unemployed, are ESO students who have not reached the age of majority or have been integrated in an increasingly unstable and stingy labor market for years. According to the Voz de Galicia, the next decade will be 'prodigious' as regards public employment. In other words, for jobs paid by taxpayers. Some of whom will have much less job security, income and benefits. Perhaps the percentage of Spaniards who aspire to be a funcionario will rise now to above 90%.

Here's Marìa's Riding the Wave: Days 23&24   

The UK & The EU

The show has been kept on the road even if the end destination is still highly uncertain. But deadlines loom for a deal by the end of the year. So, the pound continues to fall against the euro. Will it soar next week, or even late this week? No one knows. But we will shortly. 

 

Finally . . .

I'm advised that the passport foto acceptable to the computer had been rejected by a human. Because:-

1. Low contrast: Try taking a new photo where there is more contrast between you and the background.

2. Unnatural colours: The colours in your photo don’t look right.  

I've no idea what all this means but will have to persevere, perhaps by standing against a white wall. As for the camera's 'unnatural' colours, I wonder WTF I can do about that. The advice of the UK Passport Office is that I get someone to take my photo using a digital camera, smartphone or tablet. Which is exactly what I did. Hey ho, one of modern life's nitpicks.

One a lighter note  . . . Crackers are a tradition for British Christmas dinner. They invariably contain a small gift (usually plastic) and something akin to a joke. These are the 'best' of these for 2020, around a Covid theme, of course. Warning: You're unlikely to find these funny - or understandable - if you're not British.      

1. What is Dominic Cummings’ favourite Christmas song? Driving Home for Christmas.

2. Did you hear that production was down at Santa’s workshop? Many of his workers have had to Elf isolate!

3. Why didn’t Mary and Joseph make it to Bethlehem? All Virgin flights were cancelled.

4. Why are Santa’s reindeer allowed to travel on Christmas Eve? They have herd immunity.

5. Why did the pirates have to go into lockdown? Because the “Arrrr!” rate had risen.

6. Why is it best to think of 2020 like a panto? Because eventually, it’s behind you.

7. Why couldn’t Mary and Joseph join their work conference call? Because there was no Zoom at the inn.

8. Why can’t Boris Johnson make his Christmas cake until the last minute? He doesn’t know how many tiers it should have.

9. What do the Trumps do for Christmas dinner? They put on a super spread.

10. Which Christmas film was 30 years ahead of its time? Home Alone.

 

THE ARTICLE

Neo-fascist social movements: the extreme right beyond Vox: La Maréa

This article is part of the report of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation on the extreme right in Spain that will be published in early 2021. A work coordinated by the author of this article and that has several collaborations that identify and analyze all organizations and all strategies of the current Spanish extreme right.

"The importance of these groups lies in their ability to bring together a large part of the youth with political concerns and dissatisfied with conventional politics, little seduced by the posh image of Vox and disenchanted with the Cainite struggles and sectarianism on the part of the left "writes the author.

The emergence of Vox in recent years has shaken the Spanish political landscape and has placed it at the same level as other neighboring countries, which have already been living with their own ultras in the institutions for decades. But its institutional absence until now did not mean its nonexistence.

There has always been an extreme right in Spain after Franco's death, but until relatively recently, most were well-off in the PP. The one that didn't, was trying to occupy that orphan space. With little success and always immersed in struggles for leadership. Only the Plataforma per Catalunya (PxC) of Josep Anglada and very sporadically Spain2000, first in the Valencian Country and later in the Henares corridor, achieved several councillors.

Vox arises from the right wing of the PP and from the neocon revolt that began in Spain against the Zapatero government. A right that little by little was becoming independent from the catch all party that had been the PP until then, which knew how to unite the center right and the extreme right for almost 40 years. They accused the PP of being too lukewarm, of what Vox today calls a 'cowardly right', and the creation of a new party began to be forged that, without renouncing the neoliberal program, would put the focus on the cultural battle and demand of an uncomplexed right, something that, to a great extent, other ultra-rightist formations had already been doing without practically any success.

The struggles to lead the Spanish extreme right have prevented in recent years that there was a single formation capable of snatching the right sector from the PP. Small, very caudillo formations, whose leaders continue to lead more than 20 years later, have seen helpless how a neoliberal formation like Vox snatched their hopes of becoming the Spanish Le Pen.

To date, only Spain2000 maintains several councilors in the Henares corridor, while its traditional fiefdom in Valencia is gradually extinguished. The other formations that dispute this niche, mainly National Democracy and the National Alliance, have never managed to get out of the neo-Nazi environments in which they were born.

However, there is another extreme right to which very little attention is being paid and which could play an important role in the political and social reconfiguration that Spain is experiencing in recent years. They are the neo-fascist social movements that already existed before Vox, which have not just been directly linked to any specific party, but which have managed to weave an increasingly coordinated and more active network.

The cultural battle: the field sown by Vox

An essential part of the cultural battle that the extreme right has posed for decades is the competition with the left in social causes. Something old already if we pay attention to the workerist patina that both Nazism and Fascism took advantage of to destroy the left with the support of the corresponding oligarchies.

Today, after having studied the left a lot and very well, a part of the extreme right has known how to make the most of the strategies of its enemies to snatch the banner of social causes from a part of the left. The Italian neo-fascists of Casa Pound were pioneers, occupying abandoned buildings to shelter Italian families without resources. This model, which was the inspiration for Hogar Social Madrid, managed in a few years to have a presence in practically all of Italy, offering a space of confluence for all neo-fascist militants and sympathizers who were offered a large number of recreational activities and political training.

The Casa Pound model arrived in Spain before Hogar Social, with organizations such as Proyecto Impulso in Castelló, or Casal Tramuntana in Barcelona, ​​both of which have been extinct for years. However, it was Hogar Social that captured all the media attention and served as an inspiration and a unifier for much of the neo-fascist youth activism, which was often in tow of internal disputes between organizations, ultra soccer factions and leaders they disputed the leadership of the sector.

In the heat of Hogar Social Madrid, other similar social movements emerged that went more unnoticed since they were not in the capital. Projects such as Iberia Cruor in Jaén, Málaga 1487 or Acción Social, in Asturias and Cádiz, have been working for several years in their respective cities collecting food for Spanish families without resources, carrying out campaigns on social issues and capturing much of the youth activism that, in many times, it does not find its place in the absence or inability of left-wing organizations.

All these organizations have been building a common platform for some time that could soon present itself as an alternative to the neoliberal ultra-right that Vox represents. The constant media attention that Abascal's party receives and the insertion of its themes and its frameworks constantly in political debates, have managed to normalize a series of speeches that until recently were not common.

This success of the cultural battle of the extreme right benefits both Vox and the neo-fascist movements, although they deny the former as another piece of the system at the service of the elites. Also for his explicit support for Israel, which Vox shares with the majority and the most successful global extreme right, from Trump and Bolsonaro to the German AfD, something that neo-Nazis still resist.

The union of neo-fascist social movements

Making a Nation is the common project of all these neo-fascist social movements that little by little is beginning to make itself known in various cities in Spain and that has already announced its intention to become a political party. It was presented in July 2020, at its Summer University, in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), in which approximately 50 people participated. Under the slogan "community, sovereignty, future" they staged the union of different neo-fascist organizations from different parts of the State, such as Iberia Cruor, Acción Social Cádiz, El Galeón, Málaga 1478. Former members of other existing parties such as Vox or Spain2000 also participated.

In its orbit or participating in one of its acts *, we find Mario Martos, from Iberia Cruor; Cristian Ruiz, from El Galeón de Elda; Florentino Acebal, from Acción Social Asturias; María Gámez, former spokesperson for Respect in Jaén; the economist Guillermo Rocafort, who at the end of July participated in a talk organized by Haga Nación in the, as reported by this organization on her Twitter account, Rocafort “once again informed us about the danger of vulture funds, SICAVs and other forms of. capitalist plunder ”. After the publication of this article, Rocafort wrote to this medium to clarify that it does not belong to Haga Nación and demand a formal rectification **.

Davy Rodríguez, a resident of France and a member of the French National Front until 2018, when he was expelled after being convicted of a verbal assault of a racist nature also stands out. *** 

Rodríguez had previously participated in events of other far-right groups in the Spanish state, such as in a talk by España2000 in Alcalá de Henares in 2019 in which he was a speaker. Or Rafael Ripoll, member of Spain2000, former president of the formation and councilor for this party in Alcalá de Henares.

Precisely the involvement of Ripoll and part of Spain2000 of the Corredor del Henares in this project, aroused criticism from the members of this party in Valencia, who publicly reproached in their social networks for not having been invited to participate in the creation of Haga Nación. Even the historic leader and founder of Spain2000, José Luis Roberto, would step forward at the end of August 2020 by announcing that he would run again for the presidency of the party, which he managed to ratify last October at his last congress.

Mario Martos, president of Iberia Cruor since 2008 and secretary of Haga Nación Jaén, in an interview on September 19 for the digital medium Adaraga, would explain the reasons for the creation of Haga Nación: “Social-patriotic organizations have reached the ceiling. We have peaked and we have been unable to influence society in a significant way, except for some honorable exception, and in the same way, we have also failed to reap the fruits of the normalization of part of our discourse. So this has led us to reflection and from that debate, Haga Nación is born ”.

Martos defines Haga Nación as “a political movement that is born from the fusion of different groups and associations and that have a common interest in building a union arm, a student arm, a social arm and an electoral arm, in a modern, different and adapted way. in our time. For this reason, our priority objective is to build a serious organization and structure at the national level that is capable of penetrating society in all its areas in a real way ”.

The NGO Españoles En Acción, which a few years ago created España2000 in the Corredor del Henares to collect and distribute food, has spread to the rest of the cities where Haga Nación has a presence. All the groups that make up Haga Nación have left their own brand in the background to claim the name of the common project.

Another organization so far outside of Haga Nación is Frontal Bastion. This youth organization in Madrid has taken the lead from Hogar Social, and has captured the attention of some media after the incidents that took place in the Madrid neighborhood of San Blas weeks ago. After spreading the hoax of the involvement of a migrant minor in an alleged rape, dozens of neo-Nazis managed to make the news in various media presented as "neighbors" protesting against the insecurity in the neighborhood. A few days later, La Marea denied the hoax that led to the protest, which was also motivated by the brawl between two of its members with several young migrants the night before and which ended with a neo-Nazi in the hospital.

In other cities, similar social movements continue to proliferate, some collaborating with each other, such as Valentia Forum in València, the Empel Cultural Association in Catalonia, or the veteran Social and National Center of Salamanca, with more than 10 years of activity. All these organizations, as well as those that make up Haga Nación, have a location in their respective cities that serves as a meeting point for supporters and where they carry out numerous activities.

The importance of these groups, beyond their low social impact, is their ability to bring together a large part of the youth with political concerns dissatisfied with conventional politics and little seduced by the posh image of Vox. Also disenchanted with left-wing organizations, many times mired in Cainite struggles and sectarian attitudes that drive them away, they end up finding a fit in this far-right beyond Vox. In recent weeks, they are becoming known in several cities for their activism in support of local commerce and their presence in protests against the Government and its restrictions due to the state of alarm.

The success of this type of social movements outside of Vox and the traditional far-right parties can be compared with the strength of similar organizations in Europe and the US, such as the aforementioned Casa Pound in Italy, the French Identity Generation or the media. American Proud Boys, whom Trump considered good boys and asked them to stand aside and wait when they faced anti-racist protesters this summer in various cities.

The work of these organizations is centered at the municipal level, with social campaigns that alternate with others of a nationalist, xenophobic or Islamophobic nature, supported by the framework that Vox has managed to normalize in institutions and in the media. We are facing an old far-right spectrum that can make the success of Vox profitable very well if it knows how to play its cards, even if it seems that there is competition. But the one who should be most concerned is the left, because if it gives its full attention to Abascal's party, gets confused by measuring its leftism with the rest of the organizations and neglects the street, it will give a good chunk to neofascism.

* A terrible book, by the way. Don't be tempted to buy it, unless you're a very religious Protestant.