On May 15, 2011, a series of demonstrations took place all over Spain -being the largest at Sol Square in Madrid- days before regional and municipal elections of May 22, 2011. What was the reason? The social cuts and public aid to Banks caused great discredited of the public institutions and politicians. For this reason, more than 20 thousand protesters arrived in “Plaza de Sol” and they camped there that night. 15M movement was born with the intention of being there until election day. On 20 may, the Assembly decided by consensus some proposals and objectives of the movement. While, the international press spoke about what was happening in Spain and 15M began to appear on the international press. On June 12, the Assembly decided to leave the square voluntarily, after 28 days occuoying it.
But the must important fact was that different concentrations in several cities in Spain were possible thanks to the communication technologies and social networks. Soon they were organized via internet and it was possible even to continue demonstrations through streaming video. But, What were the main supports of the movement?
Firstly, Facebook was one of the main agents of communication for the movement with more than 180000 followers. There were also pages of citizen platforms, and lots of pages created as support for the movement –like”Youth without future”, with almost 30,000 friends-.
Secondly, on Twitter the number of “zombie” followers was around 30,000 in accounts as “democraciarealya”, where there was information of protests, links to news about these acts and their authorizations, slogans or the ideology of the movement. What’s interesting here is that according to a research, more than 250 zombies twitted daily “real democracy now!”
Thirdly, the movement had support on the web pages “Real democracy now!” and “Take the square”. On one side, “Real democracy now!” with the slogan “Take on the street 15.05.11” explained who they were and publish their proposals. They also had a forum with sections for mobilization proposals, calendar of events, etc. Moreover, it included links to other channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and blogs from local groups. On the other side, “Takes the square” had posted a list of cities which have been held and links to the Facebook page, of “Spanish Revolution”.
To sum up, each “alone” like, each “alone” comment, each “alone” content shared, each page created by a “lonely” person seems to say: we “together” must destroy this system. We are anti-system because the system is anti-citizens. THEY and their system are against ME. We should EAT THEM to SURVIVE.
Itziar P.S.
Why I Heart My Media 