All municipalist initiatives are confronted with what Marx called the ‘state machinery’: an ensemble of apparatuses protecting the status quo of capitalist accumulation. It is difficult for municipalist movements to sustain their momentum of storming the city halls in the face of this reality. Looking at Barcelona En Comú (Barcelona in Common) and Zagreb Je NAŠ! (Zagreb Is Ours!), the article discusses what experiences municipalist actors gain when inspecting the state machinery close up. We identify the traces they leave on the materiality of the (local) state: organising participation as conflict, scandalising the serving of particularistic interests, and confronting sexist behaviour within the masculine apparatuses. Nevertheless, the examples illustrate the systemic inertia of the hegemonically programmed state apparatuses and the difficulties of breaking with neoliberal and masculinist policies.

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