Participation and Peace Education

Abstract

As in any poll, a few weeks before the 2011 Spanish local elections the competing parties got their campaigns under way. In the city of L’Hospitalet1, the campaign started under the shadow of the fear (for one part of the electorate) that Plataforma por Cataluña (PxC)2 would gain ground on their previous performance. Just as with the other parties, PxC used various means to get its message across to as many voters as possible. In the city, vans carrying very young men and women (some only just of voting age) in orange t-shirts could be seen stopping in busy areas to preach the party’s racist, xenophobic propaganda. Apart from these young people, it’s also well known that many of those wearing the orange t-shirts are unemployed, or workers in extremely precarious jobs, that have been roped into the campaign by the party. And aside from these age differences, they all have one thing in common: they are native-born residents of the Spanish state whose political rhetoric focuses on linking immigration with the economic and social crisis.