I was just wondering if any info about Enric Duran made its way from Catalunya to the Casa... Its all about one really funny action he commited, that consisted in robbing banks for more or less 500.000 euros and giving them to some self-managed collectives and founding anticapitalistic newspaper.
to read more:
http://www.17-s.info/en/i-have-robbed-492000-euros-whom-most-rob-us-orde...
or to listen to:
http://blip.tv/file/1280692/
Enjoy and reassure yourself about mankind :)
Comments
about Enric
Dear Robin,
thank you for sharing your point of view.
I took my time to think about what you said, and as you made me really curious, I talked to all locals I know.
All of them were enthusiastic about what Enric did and about the support group too.
Of course, I know just a small bunch of people. But the thing is that here Enric is kind legend or symbol. It is really great feeling to know about his action, seeing thousands of policemen every day, learning about your friends being evicted or others having trials for absurdities.
I don't think that the potential got stuck, they just do things they believe are the best to do, regardless if we agree with it or not. All of us, we have different approaches when about way life and ways to ameliorate human conditions on this earth, there is no one 'right' way. Important that each of us acts on behalf of his faith, if not, we end up in fake world. And luckily that we have different approaches.
The action he took was genius in a way that it harmed 'the system' using it's own internal tools. And it brings progress to local alternative scene not only with material support, but also by encouraging.
I don't know about your personal experience with Enric, and by the way I am really curious. Legends are rarely put under critic. But many people that committed big things were unbearable in private lives. Maybe that's because they do not discuss that they manage to accomplish it, as they don't drawn in the ocean of pros and cons?
Anyway, for me and friends and people around me, what Enric did is empowering. Despite it's not something I would do, nor what group does neither. But despite your opinion, I keep enjoying and reassuring myself about mankind. Sorry Robin :)
robin bank
Hey Lena, thanks for sharing this. Funny enough I know Enric personally and have worked together with him for almost two years, during my first years in Barcelona. The first time I heard about his 'robberies', back in October last year, was when I was back in the place where I used to work with him and many others. This is the story of "once I worked in an anarchistic collective in Barcelona, but 7 out of eight people left that place and only one remained (Enric)".
Given my experiences with Enric and its inability to work with others, I am actually very skeptic about this whole event. Although I do think it deserves admiration that someone sticks out his neck like this, the "Enjoy and reassure yourself about mankind :)" comment that you make - for me - therefore does not apply here at all. Having worked with Enric in this collective actually made me realise we are much further away from this social reality than we might think.
I also am skeptic about how the group behind http://www.17-s.info is doing things. I think they lack a lot of imagination, especially when you read their manifesto about "we can", on how to life without capitalism. It lacks a lot of imagination on how we can actually create circles of sharing and networks of production and consumption - while at the same time Catalunya has such a rich tradition in this field. Their campaign has a huge potential, but I think that somehow it got stuck too much in diminishing the current system, and lacks imagination on alternatives.
p.s., strikingly, 'robin' as a verb in Catalan is the subjentivo of Robar (stealing), as in 'they steal'.