Sol protest camp mobilizes against fascism it never names

The Sol camp: antifascism with iPhones and a far-right date on 3-O

On Saturday 3 October Madrid has two clashing appointments. At Puerta del Sol, a rally presents itself as a response to fascism, and the slogan "Madrid will be the grave of fascism" spreads across social media along with praise for the young people filling the square. Another rally is set for 20:00 at 21 Alcalá street, with a meeting point at 19:30 at the Banco de España metro exit. The unsettling detail: nobody specifies which fascism the first event is fighting.

Against which fascism is the Sol camp protesting?

Against none that the messages circulated actually identify. The calls name no law, no party, no concrete measure: they speak of a generic enemy, fascism, and of youth as the front line. In parallel, statements unconnected to the camp reinforce the frame. Journalist Àngels Barceló says she would love to report that Spain has managed to stop fascism, in remarks picked up by elDiario.es. Actor Óscar Jaenada claims he lives in the Basque Country because there he found a rejection of fascism he saw nowhere else. And a Madrid youth organization places working-class youth on the front line against those who, it argues, want to do the dirty work of the bourgeoisie and rentiers by attacking the camp.

The rally that did have a time, an address and a housing slogan

Here lies the awkward detail. The event presented as the counter to the camp is no rumor: Democracia Nacional and Núcleo Nacional (Spanish far-right groups) publish calls with a place and time; the first demands defending Spain and the second, decent housing for Spaniards. The paradox explains itself. The housing slogan, absent from the antifascist discourse collected here, serves as the banner of the opposing rally. One side takes to the streets against a fascism with no surname; the other turns housing into its placard.

The comeback: iPhones and a karate movie

Much of the response dismisses the protesters as kids playing at revolution with a phone in hand, bound to end up back at their parents' home. One message reaches for nostalgia and compares the scene with small-town cinema afternoons: when the karate movie ended, the kids would head out into the street throwing kicks and punches. The irony is funny and also has its limits, because the most repeated jibe is that these young people have never seen a fascist, not even in a photograph. Elsewhere the exchange drifts off course: a conspiratorial reference to supposed hidden powers appears, without a shred of evidence, and the rest of the debate ignores it.

The scenario nobody dares to settle

The argument heats up when imagining a clash. Some claim that if real fascist squads ever reached Sol there would be a major tragedy; the opposing bet is that there would be none at all, because the protesters would flee in a stampede. And in between, the suspicion that the fascism being invoked no longer exists, and that anyone claiming to be such would get a scare the moment they stepped into the street.

Both rallies were fixed, with time and address, for the same Saturday. As of the date of this discussion there is no record of any outcome after 20:00. That is where the analysis stalls: an unnamed enemy on one side, a housing placard on the other, and no proof of who planned to show up.