Keith Harris (My Desiring Machines) has translated the full blog post on the urban perspectives for ‘Ahora Madrid’ (Madrid Now) I wrote some months ago. Eventually ‘Ahora Madrid’ —the local branch of Podemos in alliance with social movements and ecologist formations— won the election and is now leading our city hall. There are plenty of tensions ahead in a hugely indebted administration, but also enormous hope that things will finally change in Madrid.
While many of my remarks about building new popular hegemonies are likely to be postponed due to more pressing matters, it seems there is a clear political will to stop the insanity about urban development and management the city has suffered for decades.
Many thanks to Keith for the work with this!
Back in April I posted a translation of the first half of this excellent blog post by Álvaro Sevilla-Buitrago. I finally had time to complete the (rough) translation.
Urban counter-hegemonies for transforming Madrid
Álvaro Sevilla-Buitrago (March 8, 2015)
My translation of the original Spanish
Two weeks ago we participated in an event organized by the Right to the City Circle of Podemos that, under the rubric of Reboot Madrid, served as a space of debate to encourage ideas in alliance with Ganemos and Podemos, the formations that – currently and under the name ‘Ahora Madrid’ (Madrid Now) – converged in a joint bid of the popular front in the next elections to the City Council of Madrid. The discussion in the forum on urbanism (there were three more, on local democracy, urban economics, and rights and social inclusion) was animated, with an audience primarily made up of veteran professionals but…
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