Lo absoluto de la democracia (The Absolute of Democracy) is the first book by the philosopher and activist Raúl Sánchez Cedillo. It is being published simultaneously in Spanish and German thanks to an experimental partnership with the transversal texts publishing house. Foreworded by Toni Negri, the book is a compilation of research on the emergence, transformation and mutation of the occupation of public squares over the last ten years following the rise of the 15M movement.

On 15 May 2011, hundreds of thousands of people began to occupy the main squares in major cities throughout Spain, developing new forms of sociality and new ways of doing politics. Raúl Sánchez Cedillo examines these struggles, charting their appearance and their fractures, their transformations into municipalist movements and political parties. His thinking goes beyond the situation in Spain and draws connections with experiences of Italian autonomism and French post-structuralism, as well as with particular political phenomena across Europe. At the heart of this book lies Spinoza’s Political Treatise, the Dutch philosopher’s unfinished project to understand democracy as an absolute form of government; in the words of the social machines of 15M: ‘Real Democracy NOW!’

Raúl Sánchez Cedillo was born and lives in Madrid. He has always combined studying and activism, beginning with the movement of the military service refuseniks in the 1990s, squatted social centres and the alter-globalisation movement, and reinvented himself with 15M. Together with others, he founded the Universidad Nómada in 2001 and since 2011 has participated in the fundaciondeloscomunes.net.