Author Archives: Patri

On August 8, 1974, 51 years ago today, the President of the United States of America, Richard Nixon, announced in a televised address from the Oval Office his resignation from office, preempting the impeachment process. He was the first president in that country’s history to take that step, and the reason was the scandal known as Watergate—the famous case of political espionage that brought to the fore the workings of what was supposed to be a democracy and shook the … Read more

While numerous countries and regions sit today in Hiroshima’s Peace Park to attend the commemorative ceremony of the 81st anniversary of the atomic bomb blast, nuclear-armed states continue to modernize their arsenals. The record attendance, exceeding last year’s 120 delegations, stands in stark contrast to the paralysis of international disarmament. The “hibakusha”, survivors whose ranks dwindle each year, attend a ceremony where pacifist symbolism clashes with the reality of an international system that invests billions in the lucrative business of … Read more

Sabotage is understood as the deliberate destruction of material goods or the intentional reduction of work performance with the purpose of harming a company, an economic system, or a power structure. The origin of the word, which is related to a strike of railway workers in France in the year 1910, who blocked the train tracks, already points to its link with labor struggle. It was also used by the Luddites, textile workers from Nottingham, in campaigns against the machinery … Read more

In 2020, against a backdrop of health crisis and growing social inequality, the independent studio “Pixel Pushers Union 512” released Tonight We Riot. This video game, described by its creators as «an unapologetically socialist game», offers a revolutionary fantasy in which the working class organises to overthrow the capitalist system. The work, presented as a side‑scrolling “beat ’em up” with pixel art aesthetics, emerged as a response to the saturation of conservative narratives in the gaming industry. Its arrival on … Read more

Without a doubt, the European law known as Chat Control that is being imposed in the EU represents a very serious violation of the right to privacy, among other things. It is above all dangerous because of what it implies, the intentions behind it, and because it sets a legal precedent that goes against the very liberal democracy that the European institutions profess, turning the EU into an authoritarian democracy; with Chat Control, voting would cease to be anonymous and … Read more

When a society does not want to see the wound, the best thing is to film the pus. Mathieu Kassovitz, at only 27 years old, did that in 1995: he took a black-and-white camera and went into the heart of the Parisian “banlieues” to give viewers an uncomfortable image, that of a France that did not recognise itself in its own outskirts. The film was not born from an aesthetic whim, but from the outrage over the death of Makomé … Read more

The struggle for decent housing has been a constant feature of Spain’s recent history. From the earliest protests against evictions to the current demonstrations against property speculation, neighbourhood and citizens’ movements have marked key milestones in the fight for this fundamental right. One of the largest mobilisations took place in 1931, when the CNT called a rent strike in Barcelona in response to the mass evictions caused by the 1929 crisis. Around 100,000 families joined the strike for eight months, … Read more

El futuro sobre plano (2004), by the Madrid-based punk rock band Biznaga, is an expression of rage in the face of the severe housing crisis in the Spanish State and a call for social mobilisation. The lyrics reflect the current housing situation in the country: financial speculation by vulture funds, lack of social housing, gentrification, mass tourism, evictions… but they also call for the contestation of the city and for reclaiming the right to inhabit it with dignity. The music … Read more

On 25 April 1974, the Carnation Revolution, led by the Armed Forces Movement (MFA), brought an end to Portugal’s Estado Novo, the longest-running dictatorship in Western Europe. In a non-violent uprising, the population took to the streets to support the military, placing red carnations in the barrels of their rifles. José Afonso’s song “Grândola, Vila Morena” was broadcast on the radio to serve as a signal to the groups that simultaneously seized the various seats of power, and it became … Read more

The Strategy of the Snail (1993) is a Colombian film directed by Sergio Cabrera and written by Humberto Dorado. It is considered by many critics to be the finest film in Colombian cinema, and has won awards at festivals such as the Berlin International Film Festival and the Biarritz Latin American Film Festival. Based on a story by Ramón Jimeno, the film tells the story of a community of residents in a building known as La Casa Uribe who face … Read more