Film Length: 19:44
As a result of the ‘crisis’ of the financial system a series of so-called ‘austerity policies’ are being imposed across Europe. Syndicate Films are interested in how everyday life, popular cultures and local memories of resistance are transformed into strategies of solidarity and tools of protest. They use video as a method of documentation, interaction and analysis around a variety of resistances against Europe-wide restructuring of society.
The crisis of the capitalist financial system affects people across social classes and across the geography of Europe in similar ways: making a living is becoming more difficult in times of rising unemployment, ruthless neo-liberal flexibilisation of work and dismantling of the welfare state. This also affects housing, mobility, education, healthcare, old age pensions and so forth. Across the board, people experience an increasing precarisation of their everyday lives, which goes hand in hand with feelings of existential insecurity, anxiety and fear.
Spain is amongst the European countries most strongly affected by the austerity policies following the crisis of the global financial markets and the European debt crisis. During the last few years, Spain has seen a series of sectoral strikes, mainly in education and health care. On March 29, 2012, the country saw the second general strike within two years, this time directed against a massive labour market reform destroying job security and doing away with workers rights such as collective bargaining.
People of different generations, with different experiences and political backgrounds converged in protest against the government’s labour reform. During, before and after the strike, we asked people in the Catalan city of Barcelona how the crisis affects them and how they are dealing with it on a personal and a political level. In this video, students, workers, and unemployed who are also artists, activists and demonstrators are talking about fear, insecurity and anxiety in everyday life. However, they also explain how they are developing new models of organizing and protesting. The video includes examples for militant protest, artistic and creative tools for resistance, anti-authoritarian / libertarian networking and micropolitical organizing. This 20 minute long film is part of a militant investigation into tools of resistance against the politics of austerity across Europe.
This films was published under a Creative Commons (non-commercial, share alike) license, and will also be included on the upcoming issue of the Reel News DVD.
