Madrid´s Foro Social Trasatlántico takes the streets!

friday, may 17, the transatlantic social forum moved outwards from its giant tent and into the streets of madrid...

fittingly, the first street action of this gathering that declares itself "against the neoCOLONialism of the EU and USA in Latin America" began in the shadow of the quasi-religious monument to cristobal colon [columbus] in the mammoth jardin del descubrimiento.

before a backdrop of banners, street theatre performers enacted their summary of the summit--an auction of the countries of latin america, each pulled kicking and yelling before suit-wearing representatives of spanish multinationals. nations and supportive spectators alike had to face the rat-a-tat-tat of soldiers' plastic macine guns. with the auction completed, resistance continued: the nations lined up from colombia to mexico to argentina began chanting "el pueblo unido jamás será vencido" and nicaragua grabbed a soldier's gun, touching off an insurrection.

the group of 30 or so marched off to the supreme court to present 3,700 petitions in support of the prosecution of the genocidaires of guatemala including the notorious efraim rios montt, currently ruling in impunity over the nation's senate. but we were held back a block away by municipal police, who offered a pair of representatives the chance to go through. demanding one rep for every hundred thousand killed, more than a half dozen went off, while the rest of, armed only with posters waited, surrounded by police.

...

last nights entertainment in the Plaza Mayor was a cultural festival of the eastern european applicant countries to the eu; as in the street theatre, there were countries for sale, advertising their ecomies and tourist industries, but almost pathetically without any whiff of resistance. official madrid was celebrating the transformation of the continents' cultures into a marketplace. perhaps in an overly eager view of its own power, spain is billing itself as " the key to europe."

...

two plazas east, reclaim the streets was starting in the rain. a series of performances awakened the soaked crowd: drummers, bush and aznar in a human-pulled cart (driven by una militar with a whip), jugglers, and energy surged through the dancers, flag wavers (of the CNT) and spectators.

then the large-scale fun began: a giant earth balloon was traded over our heads, smashing into traffic signals and rolling over utility vans. and the samba band: 30-40 (or more) red overalls-wearing percussionists who kept us alive and dancing. the circular engine propelling us down the road like some 19th-tuned-21st-century engine of musical steam.

but first, the Earth pointed the way... the clouds parted, our still rained-on heads were bathed in sunlight, and a rainbow framed the path of our hour-and-a-half march/crawl down atocha.

and the end, a festival of thousands in the plaza of the centro nacional de arte. here in spain, the feel of the rave pulsates unplugged, fired by samba bands and lit by twirling fire.

today, we confront the cumbre EU-LA!