Repudiation of eviction in La Barceloneta
Neighbors are expelled in different ways to promote business profits.. Housing for all is an elementary right that capitalism ignores. Mobilized solidarity leads the way.
Eviction is antihuman
According to figures from 2023, In Barcelona there is an average of 3,5 daily evictions. They are not just cold statistics, It is inconceivable that families are left on the streets on a daily basis due to a lack of public policies for housing.. In Vulture City, where the rental price has risen more than 13% from one year to the next and real estate speculation is dominant, Successive governments have transformed the sad image of forcibly evicted families into a tourist postcard.
Mass tourism and business profits
And you may wonder what tourism has to do with evictions? A lot. Housing blocks are bought by investment funds, that “invite” the neighbors to leave to renovate the homes and rent them to tourism, with double price and profit. And to the neighbor who refuses to leave his home and lifelong neighborhood, So they throw him out by force, with special forces. Of course, the central problem is not tourists out for a walk, but the governments that, to promote business profits, They promote mass tourism and adapt the city to their interests. And it is worth remembering that this problem affects all of Spain.. Without going further into the past 20 April more than 100 Thousands of people mobilized in the capitals of the seven Canary Islands to denounce the exhaustion of the economic engine model of the islands, the claim for a moratorium, an ecotax and the regulation of home purchases by foreigners.
Pipote and Conchi expelled from La Barceloneta
That's what happened this Friday 17 May in La Barceloneta, the fishing district by tradition, where lifelong neighbors have been expelled for years. On this occasion they have evicted Pipote and Conchi, a couple of extra neighbors 70 years, who have more than 40 living on the same floor. They did it even after paying the full rent for the month of May.
Mega police operative
With a disproportionate police deployment commanded by the BRIMO, six police vans arrived Joan de Borbó 15 willing to proceed by expelling Pipote, Conchi in a wheelchair, to family members, neighbors and supportive young people who accompanied them concentrated at the door of the farm. It seems that the “socialists” of Mayor Jaume Collboni (PSC) human rights and having a roof over their heads don't matter to them.
Cheers for some, privileges for others
For the police neighbors, batons and street. For speculators and large investors of the Copa América, Red carpet, infrastructure and privileges to fly their imperialist flags. A city is its neighbors, not the souvenir businesses and international sporting events for which they “clean the city” under the title of Plan Endreça. Close access to streets, to the beaches, provide public spaces for private companies to profit, all this at the cost of the lives of those of us who live in Barcelona..
No to the Copa América
The America's Cup, the third largest sporting event in the world in terms of attendance, will take place in Barcelona 22 from August to 27 October 2024 and although they want to sell it as a mega event that will bring money and prosperity to the city, We neighbors know that it only brings with it million-dollar businesses for the usual ones., a few, and precariousness for the vast majority. The excessive increase in rental prices, the growth of housing intended for temporary rentals, along with the increase in supermarket shopping prices, These are just some of the consequences that those of us who live in Ciutat Vella have suffered for months now.. from now, the drought that plagues Catalonia, seems not to exist for those who are guests of the millionaires' yacht exploits.
Solidarity, mobilization and organization
What we need are not large urban projects that only promote tourism and expel neighbors, What we need are public policies on housing. So they stop kicking us out of our neighborhoods, so that what was experienced this morning in La Barceloneta is not just another postcard of tourism in Barcelona. Neighbors continue to show signs of solidarity that must be replicated, extend and strengthen. In capitalism, having decent housing will always be a right to conquer, That is why it is necessary to fight in the perspective of a socialist solution.
