New Orleans From a distance, Spain seems like just another big European country with a history and language of its own, but still one that fits as a piece in the rest of the puzzle. On the ground in Barcelona and Bilbao, the whole notion of autonomous regions seems almost a marvel that it all holds together somehow. We found this contradiction from our first meetings to our final outings with the Organizers’ Forum this year.
Catalan was the last holdout after the War of Succession, as we saw earlier, and subsequent attempts at independence are part of its legacy. An early “revolutionary” walking tour over several hours was great at showing us the radical touchstones of Barcelona history from early newspapers to feminist meetings, and of course the Spanish Civil War was prominent dealing with the Franco dictatorship, the fascists, the royals, and more. Great victories for the first eight-hour day evaporated under such a combined assault. A rent strike of 140,000 won, but couldn’t hold on once under attack. It was hard not to think that Barcelona might be the world’s best at mobilizations, but much farther down the line at organization.
Moving to Bilbao, we spent a productive morning visiting a Basque cultural center in the center of town. There was a line of people signing up for Basque language classes. We all got a sheet to practice common expressions. On the 6th floor, we visited their community radio station that broadcasted largely in Basque. At the same time, our generous and hospitable guides were clear that overall, the southern Basque Country in Spain was only about 3 million people, roughly the population of Arkansas, and only about 30% of that, or 1 million people, actually spoke Basque.
Where language would seem to provide glue in a country, the official Spanish language is joined by others in ways that are hardly recognizable. Basque is arguably one of the oldest languages in the world with difficult to locate antecedents or impacts on others. The Socialists are the ruling party, but as we learned in many contexts, when it comes to the autonomous regions, they are often in coalition with regional parties, some of which are language-based with a history of advancing independence initiatives. At the same time, as we learned from Mondragon, the capital in Madrid still is the source of constant lobbying and federal support within the regions. The organizations and social movements we visited were stridently nonpartisan to the degree of almost claiming to be apolitical, but as much as such stances were firm policy, we were left to wonder whether that was also smart politics, given the permanent divisions in the country, and what it took to get things done, when at home in Bilbao or Barcelona, while still needing to deal with Madrid?
Spain is a great and fascinating country!