"When are we going to stop complaining and act too?" they ask from dozens of anonymous accounts that use the name Blocus. This digital movement encourages young people from different Spanish cities to organize around calls that, in some cases, have led to acts of vandalism. The publications include images of looting and smashed shop windows and take as a reference the youth protests in France. After the riots recorded over the weekend in Barcelona, the label has become active again on social networks with new appointments for next October 31, coinciding with Halloween night. In Madrid, some profiles call on their followers to meet in the Plaza de España at six in the afternoon.
The call is disseminated through TikTok and WhatsApp and Telegram groups that are accessed through links and QR codes. For now, those responsible have not been publicly identified nor has a manifesto been disseminated that would allow Blocus to be attributed a defined organizational structure. There is also no single and coherent call: the messages published by different accounts disagree about the times and meeting points. While some posters place the Madrid event at 6:00 p.m. in the Plaza de España, others delay it an hour or indicate Puerta del Sol as the meeting place.
Messages addressed to potential participants also include instructions on clothing. Some publications encourage people to come dressed in black and with their faces covered, an aesthetic associated with the black block, a street mobilization tactic in which its members dress dark and hide their identity. The images spread on the networks show barricades, fires, confrontations and vandalized businesses, in a succession of videos and posters that combine calls for protest with visual references to the riots.
The origin of the label refers to France, where since September student mobilizations against the lack of resources and personnel in educational centers have spread. The blockades of institutes, which began on the outskirts of Paris, spread to other cities, including Marseille, and gave way in some places to episodes of violence, fires and looting. Some French protests have served as inspiration for the messages spread under the name Blocus, which convey to Spain a call presented as a mobilization in defense of public education.
The first major Spanish event took place last Saturday in Barcelona. What had been spread as a youth protest ended up leading to serious altercations in the city center, with looting, damage to establishments and fires. After the incidents, some of the accounts that promoted the call began to disappear, while new profiles and messaging groups spread calls to repeat the mobilization on October 31 in different locations, including Madrid.
A protest for education amidst images of looting
The content disseminated by Blocus accounts presents messages that are difficult to fit together. On the one hand, the publications demand improvements in public education and denounce that "the educational system is in decline", with "insufficient teachers", lack of resources and inadequate facilities. On the other hand, some of the videos that accompany the calls show smashed shop windows, looted shops and scenes of urban violence to the rhythm of French rap.
Educational demands are formulated in general terms: more resources, better facilities, sufficient teachers and quality education. The messages invite people to mobilize following the French example, but they are not accompanied by a political document or specific demands addressed to educational institutions.
The absence of identified managers makes it difficult to determine who manages the accounts, if there is a common address and what relationship the different profiles have with each other. Dissemination through social networks and private groups allows calls to be reproduced quickly, although discrepancies between publications also reflect a fragmented call.
