Building Real Democracy Now in NYC. Talk at Bluestockings, June 3rd

Around 75 people gathered at Bluestockings bookstore (NYC, 172 Allen St) on Friday June 3^rd to participate in the talk “They Don’t Represent Us! The Movement for a Real Democracy in Spain.” This was the first in a series of informative events planned by the Democracia Real Ya – NYC group. These events aim to update the US audience interested in the development of the protests in Spain and, more importantly, to open different avenues of collaboration between the Democracia Real Ya – NYC group and NYC social movements and organizations.

                                                                                                                                  Pictures: William Bourassa Jr

Slideshow Talk at Bluestocking

The talk was presented by Lucas Shapiro (US/Spanish activist Families United for Racial & Economic Equality), who offered a timeline of the main recent events, and commented on different dimensions of the 15M movement that could be of interest for US activists. James D. Fernandez (Associate Professor in the NYU Spanish Department) explained the recent wave of mobilizations within a larger historical framework. Vicente Rubio (member of Democracia Real Ya – NYC) introduced the range of organizations supporting the protests, and offered further details on its main constituencies.

But far from being a conventional, top-down, event, with predefined roles of speakers and audience, the gathering reflected the horizontal character of the 15M movement itself. Thus, an intense and exciting atmosphere of discussion soon emerged, with many participants sharin  their views on the movement’s political and social character, as well as its aims. A broad sense of the need to link the meaning of the Spanish protests to a global context - and particularly to the economic and political situation in the US - was shared by many attendees.

This 120 minutes video includes most of the interventions:

                                                                         
                                                                                                                                Video: Jaime Puerta
Video streaming If you don´t see here this VIDEO Ustream DRYNYC

Democracia Real Ya – NYC considers this first event to be an important first step in a broader process of connection with NYC social movements.

Please contact us at takeoverthequarenyc@gmail.com to meet and discuss possibilities of organizing future events.