1 2 3 4 5 *PAQ: %tra:
yo siempre lo digo # yo voy a prisión por Emaús # eh-? yo como yo personalmente no tengo nada que #0_1 que decir ni que ofrecer # una vida muy sencilla # pero: como: como Emaús sí # porque #0_1 el ejemplo que da Emaús # de reciclaje # para ellas que son pobres # y que tienen tantos problemas económicos # y que tienen la mentalidad totalmente al revés de cómo: tenía que ser.
I always say it # I go to the prison because of Emmaus # huh-? I as myself have nothing to #0_1 say or offer # a very simple life # but as as Emmaus I do # because # 0_1 the example that Emmaus sets # of recycling # for them [feminine] who are poor # and who have so many financial problems # and whose their mind-set is totally opposite to wha:t it should be like.
In addition to the recovery of used goods, sustainable biological agriculture strongly emerged as an economic alternative that revalorised local food production and consumption, hence reducing environmental costs. This alter-globalist proposal had become central for spin-off and future projects among the younger and more recent companions. The main project, called “Emmaús al camp”, was a rural version of Emmaus with organic agriculture and furniture collection as the main economic means to “recycle” marginalised people. This was an initiative by two former companions, a couple formed by a Catalan itinerant companion, who spent over a year in Emmaus Barcelona, and a faith-based activist who learned about organic agriculture in Mexico and applied it to projects in Catalonia. Rita did not claim ownership over this project “que s’han inventat ells” [that they have invented] (fieldnotes, 18-01-2012), but the community provided advice and resources to the
activists. The bishopry of Solsona had allowed them to use a vacant rectory to start their project. They considered engaging in waste recovery work in a nearby capital to finance the project, too. In the future, Esther (a 27-year old companion) also hoped to start a small-scale residential project for migrants whose main funding source would be organic agriculture (interview, 01-03-2012).
4.3.5. Global crisis: Voluntary projects and socio-political activism against nation-state austerity
During my fieldwork, this decaying palm tree in the middle of the house courtyard became a metaphor for the crisis that Emmaus was experiencing. This tall tree was physically and metaphorically central for the extended community of companions, volunteers and friends. The palm tree had become a symbol of Emmaus for many, especially of the residential project for migrants called Oasi and it was actually the cover picture for my MA thesis about multilingualism in this project (Garrido, 2010). The palm tree’s decay coincided with intense socio-political activism with other associations to maintain public grants for migrant-support services, such as the residential project, that were threatened by austerity measures. The central tree’s degeneration and death coincided with the city hall’s unilateral decision to terminate the residential project run and partially funded by Emmaus in late 2011. To many members and especially Rita, the slow death of the palm tree was a symbol of the neoliberal crisis and austerity measures that had put an end to the residential project.
While I was helping Rita write the residential project’s 2011 report for the city hall, we kept looking out of the office window on the second floor above the courtyard. We discussed the symbolic coincidence of the deaths of the project and the palm tree in December 2011. We decided to take pictures to document this moment of decay, crisis and change from the rooftop, the office and the courtyard. The resulting photographic report was circulated among volunteers and companions one day after lunch. This was a way to give back to the community and engage with their agendas in ways that would contribute to my ethnographic understanding. Everybody appreciated the pictures and two volunteers asked me for copies. Laura, the volunteer psychologist, used to see the palm tree from her window some blocks away. She told me that there was an invisible thread from her home to the Emmaus community thanks to that view. In the new year, one of the longstanding volunteers called Mercè
Emmaus as a transnational imagined community
gave the community an oil painting of the live palm tree as a gift. Today, it hangs by the main entry gate to the house.
Figure 8. Decaying palm tree as a metaphor of crisis. Picture taken in collaboration with Rita at Emmaus Barcelona. January 2012.
“Crisis” is a Greek word for metamorphosis, which is coincidentally one of the chronotopes in the Emmaus founding story that members try to re-enact daily (see Chapter 3). At this socio-historical juncture, the Drapaires d’Emmaús as a collective had to redefine and transform their social action on the basis of the same Emmaus principles of community lifestyle, recycling activities and solidarity with those less fortunate. Emmaus as a life and work community would go on because they were financially independent from the public administrations. They were self-sufficient owing to their rag-picking work in the city and the only public grant that they received was exclusively for the now-extinct residential project. However, their vociferous socio-political activism that condemned the budget cuts in the migrant- support services in 2011 has, in my interpretation, marked the end of public tender contracts to collect used clothes, old furniture and selective waste on behalf of the
neoliberally-oriented city hall. It has, on the other hand, forged alliances with bottom- up movements against austerity. The future of Emmaus solidarity projects seems to move towards grassroots, voluntary and independent projects for the “new poor” in the Barcelona area.
In these changing socio-political conditions, the group has to rethink their solidarity projects and partnerships. This transformation is unfolding as I write and I can only provide an account based on what I have gathered by means of my continued participation in volunteer assemblies and events at Emmaus Barcelona. The community seeks ways to reformulate responses for the homeless drawing on their own budget and workforce, including companions and volunteers. In Alberto’s view, the solidarity initiatives at Emmaus will have to be based on professional volunteer services. This corresponds to the existing model of the Emmaus “therapeutic space”, staffed in 2012 by two professional psychologists (up to three and a new homeopath in 2014), who volunteer assistance to the broader Emmaus community and external people without resources for free or at a low price.
The crisis has also changed the faces of poverty. Consequently, Emmaus adapts their solidarity to the changing times and collaborates with old religious orders as well as new social movements. The Emmaus community has continued their work with transnational migrants after the end of the residential project. They have continued their relationship with a group of former participants who are unemployed and homeless. Since 2009, they have financed accommodation in social flats for around ten men and some of them, such as Jasseh (see section 6.3.1.2), volunteer at Emmaus and get the same salary as companions. This is a smaller-scale project with a board of volunteers who oversee the project and jointly make decisions. In late 2012, the community started a small residential project for five people who have become unemployed and homeless due to the crisis. The community cannot employ and house more companions due to the reduced workload and perhaps also the different motivations among the unemployed men. A dwindling religious congregation in this city has allowed them to use their premises for this new project, which is entirely staffed by companions and some longstanding volunteers. Some residents volunteer with the companions and have meals with them, too. In July 2013, I learned that the “therapeutic space”, now encompassing three volunteer psychologists, will offer assistance to evicted families that form part of the local Plataforma d’Afectats per la Hipoteca (PAH) that emerged out of the indignad@s movement.
Emmaus as a transnational imagined community
Their escalating socio-political activism in 2011 afforded discursive clasps and collaborations with new social movements against the neoliberal model. The community model in Emmaus Barcelona emerges as an alternative life and work option for alter-globalists in the 15-M movement, in which the younger companions (especially Massin and Esther) have actively participated. In our interview, assemblies and informal discussions, Alberto envisaged a future of intense socio- political activism since the now independent NGOs will fulfil their critical function of “chinchar”, that is to “pester” the administrations. In Laura’s words, what characterised Emmaus is that “són una pedra a la sabata sempre ho han sigut, són la mosca cojonera, els que toquen els nassos i precisament com que no tenen subvencions ho poden fer” [they are a pebble in one’s shoe, they always have been, they’re a pain the ass, they get in your face and precisely because they have no public grants they can do it] (interview, 06-03-2012).
Emmaus Barcelona sympathises with the 15-M/indignad@s movement and some younger companions, namely Massin and Esther, participated in the occupation of the local main square in May 2011. The indignad@s spring flourished thanks to the pre-existing social movements for communal solidarity whose main communication methods are offline: manifestos, pamphlets, assemblies, etc. (Castells, 2012, p.59). This emergent “post-materialist” culture brings together the post-68 generation, like the early Emmaus companions, and the dissatisfied post-Francoist generations (Pastor Verdú, 2007, p.45). In fact, the indignad@s movement is a “movement of multiple, rich discourses” (see Serrano, 2011) which has strong alter-globalist intertextuality with “new” Occupy movements and “old” social movements such as Emmaus. They all criticise capitalism, as “this is not a crisis, it is the system” (Castells, 2012, p. 123) and put forward alternative proposals, mainly direct democracy with leaderless committees and assemblies to reach consensus and also alternative economic culture (or “alternatives post-capitalistes” [post-capitalist alternatives] as I read in Plaça Catalunya, 21-05-2011), based on ethical banking, cooperativism and reciprocal solidarity.
Emmaus Barcelona embodies many of the social, economic and political proposals of the 15-M camps and assemblies of indignad@s. In the post-industrial city, the indignad@s assembly appropriated the decade-old Emmaus demand to create a public shelter for the homeless in this city. The local administration still did not react. According to Castells (2012, p. 146), the indignad@s showed a deep
appreciation for older generations who denounce the neoliberal system, such as the late Stéphane Hessel, author of “Indignez-vous!” (where their name comes from), and Arcadi Oliveres, a Catalan Liberationist activist in his 60s. The local camp invited the latter to a mass assembly. When I asked Alberto about the future of Emmaus in this crisis, he connected their Emmaus model to the indignad@s’ alternative proposals.
Excerpt 34. Emmaus community as an alternative social model in time of crisis. Interview