The Orwellian Spanish Security Bill

I learned this week that the Spanish government have recently been taking lessons from George Orwell. The new Citizen Security Bill is a title worthy of the delicious irony heaped upon the various ministries in 1984, while the Spanish government is trying to use it to introduce new laws that brings the Spain of Franco (as described by Orwell) uncomfortably close.

The bill, if it passes in Parliament, legislates for massive fines (up to €600,000) for a plethora of “very serious crimes”, such as illegal protest (including the particularly Latin form of grass-roots protest, the ‘escrache’), or publishing photos and data of policemen online. One might argue that this graces the police with an element of immunity. After all, the public is rather stupid and might misconstrue advanced and modern police techniques for brutality, assault and all too often, murder. Other ‘serious crimes’ (meriting fines of up to €30,000) include insulting policemen and, um, dangerous, criminal activities such as botellones. Or, in English, drinking outside…

The way this new bill aims to protect the good citizens of Spain is by rendering them destitute if they protest for being, well, destitute. The Spanish have very sensibly given up their financial independence and left the hard work of managing the economy to the Germans (I’m being ironic).

The population doesn’t realise what a blessing it is to have the time to enjoy the golden sun, sea and sands of Andalusia. They don’t realise how wonderful it is that over 25% of the population is unemployed. In the words of Morrissey, “I was looking for a job, and then I found a job, and heaven knows I’m miserable now!”

Miserable Morissey may be but I hope we can agree the Spanish people probably have it worse. There is a sad truth to the mantra “the only thing worse than being exploited by capitalism is not being exploited by capitalism” and history has shown that top-down administration has proved remarkably ineffective in resolving social and political problems. The lame attempts by Bismarck and Alexander II are cases in point. Even ‘success’ stories such as Park Chung-hee of South Korea demonstrate just how problematic attempts at genuine reform are when ‘permitted’ from above. The utter rural-urban divide in South Korea was little mentioned during the visit of Park Chung-hee’s daughter to Imperial College recently.

Despite everything, significant hope remains for the Spanish people. Spain has a rich and long standing tradition of grass-roots and anarchist protest. Eric Hobsbawm’s essay on the ‘Expropriators’ is one of the most touching historical portraits I have read. The 2008 crisis prompted the re-emergence of widespread protests which have engendered this reaction. It indicates, at the very least, that the Spanish government must be feeling the heat. If it is overcome it could lead to genuine political change. So, in a perverse way, is this a positive sign?

It all depends on the results. It is only with hindsight that we can tell whether this will herald a new beginning or simply the beginning of the end. There is, to paraphrase Alain Badiou, no objective determination of an event. What is required is the further radicalisation and organisation of the protest movement. This means less focus on ethics and doing what is necessary and more focus on politics and doing what is right. This is not quite as paradoxical as it sounds: the difference is best exemplified by the opposition of Churchill during WWII and Che Guevara in Batista’s Cuba. At the risk of massively reducing the complexity of the situation, what will it be? A new Generalísimo or the Third Republic? I know which side I’m on.