The ongoing "war" against Barcelona's okupas and its social movement(s)

by dunk Thu Oct 18, 2007 16:08

Barris en lluite (neighbourhoods in struggle)

"Las BARRIcudas (Sphyraena spp.) are a species of fish from the family of esfiraenidos?, who attack their victim with great speed. Each group forms small bands. Abundant in all the areas affected by urbanistic projects, about all the prefifirary barrios. They are known also as the "tigers of the metropolis", much for their formidable size accredited with their hostility to the speculators."

11- exhibition and presentations
2pm- paella, food for all
4pm - debate about strategies and alliances of collective resistance

Next Saturday sees a gathering to discuss whats going on presently and what can be done to halt speculation here in Barcelona. The upcoming gathering is happening in Forat de la Vorgonya, which was a reclaimed space that was turned by the community into a park, by them, for them. After a long battle to keep control, it was taken and the squats nearby evicted. Many years resident of BCN, Iosaf, reported about that this time last year including the cities papers commemtary about a riot there "Today's edition of "La Vanguardia" the commercial newspaper read by most Barcelonans led with the headline "Urban war!" (The half a rood of rock" - how we value public space. - http://indymedia.ie/article/78839 ) The Forat is now a building site so we will wait and see how things go on Saturday.

Last December UN commisioner for housing, Miloon Kothari, came to Spain to criticise the Spanish state about its handling of its housing situation and how it is allowing for open speculation to up prices of living which in turn is making it harder and harder for the citizens of Barcelona to keep on living in their own neighbourhoods. The Spanish constitution has a clause in it to ensure this does not happen, but they choose to not pay heed to that, which led to the UN visit. At the time of the UN visit La Makabra were occupying the old factory in the industrial barrio of Barcelona, Poble Nou, called Can Ricart (House of Ricart). The occupation there lasted a week untill express early morning eviction drove them out. That, more or less, was the end of La Makabra apart from a few little circus shows in one of the other CSO's (centro social okupa) mentioned which has also been since evicted, L'Opera.

When the Euro arrived in Spain it seemed everything apart from working wage jumped up about 20%. Even before then youngsters had a very slim chance of not living with their folls untill a late age, this is part of the reason so many were willing to occupy derelict spaces and turn them into free collective living spaces as well as making the CSO's as learning, organising, community resourse spaces. As things are becoming increasingly difficult day by day, more and more "normal" people (ie, who never before took to the streets to protest are who considered themselves having very strong political opinions) are standing up and saying they have to do something about this housing crisis. V de Viviendas (the V is pronounced uuh-veeey ) is a housing movement which has grown from the squats and CSO's and various bits of movements that have for a long time focused on housing, the movement grew in BCN, they meet in the Magdelenes squat CSO, (friends of the miles de viviendas, or part of their network...) They have grown and the movement is now national, apart from being a really serious issue, what is also great about them is there use of smartness to make the movement grow. No doubt amongst them there are a few graphic designers or things along those lines as they use the yellow with black writing signs with catchy phrases "Well, I dont think so", "You'll never have a house in your fucking life". Their last demo was a world record attempt to shout out this last phrase in Sant Jaume, the square outside the government buildings...This event was complete with Samba bands, lots of yellow, a party pack with yellow balloons to blow up, a super hero theatre bit, more yellow and samba....... Makes a huge change from demos at home in Ireland.. its the sort of thing passers by stop and join in on, thinking its another of the cities festival parties.

Last February we did a radio show here in Barcelona, it was an attempt at a 3-way radio show between Barcelona, Dublin and Naoirobi, Kenya as part of the world social forum. It focused on the 1 issue topic of "housing", some of the V DE Viv crew spoke live from our mock studio, the non-squatted centro social space of La Quimera. They also listened to Mary Cummings from North Wall Womens Center, speaking about the housing situation in Sheriff Street and long esablished inner city communities where speculation is changing the situation drastically. When they heard Mary speak about her experience they went "that is exactly what is going on in Barcelona"... So what we are trying to do is to point out that it is not only Dublin, not only Barcelona, not only ................. We are all facing same situations which are direct result of markets, capitalism and speculation. But that we can step up how we communicate with each other, listen to each other, learn from each other, what strategies worked and why, what new ones are being tried... That was our idea for the WSF indymedia radio programme: to horizontalise the process, to make it an open system to allow for more connections to be made, we still feel there is a huge area here to be explored, tested and played with. We believe the consequences to the social movements will be well worth it.... we hope these experimentations and connections start to happen more.

Another mechanism which is growing here (again, oddly enough, with strong black and yellow graphics) is the Soles No Podem (we cant do it ourselves) movement, which grew from the Zapatistas in Oaxaca and Chiapas and whose objective is to "take politics back to the streets"... a date is picked, community is informed what space a gathering is on, day happens, people sit around and chat, things grow from there. Will be back with more about that soon.

Have to run, BCN'eta calls...

Audio to listen to:

2 hour GLN radio show (global listening nodes): HOUSING
http://netjuke.r23.cc/search.php?do=list.tracks&col=al_...rt=al

V de Vivienda
http://netjuke.r23.cc/musiq/candela/global_nodes_housin...a.ogg

Mary Cummings from North Wall Womens Center, Sheriff STreet
http://netjuke.r23.cc/musiq/candela/global_nodes_housin...s.ogg

Related links:

the radio show:
Indymedia radio support for WSF 2007 from Kenya (IMC-ORG feature)
http://www.indymedia.org/es/2007/01/878667.shtml

IMC-Barcelonas section on speculation
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/?category=especulacio

http://www.vdevivienda.net/ - V de Vivienda
http://bcn.vdevivienda.net/ - V de Vivienda Barcelona

http://www.solesnopodem.org/

recent soles no podem meeting in Gracia, Barcelona
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/302532/...x.php

Barrris en lliute: neighbourhoods in struggle (barcelona)

NO TINDRAS UNA CASA EN LA PUTA VIDA: youll never have a gaf in your fucking life (black and yellow...)

V de Viviendas: world record attempt....demos with a difference in BCN

SOLES NO PODEM, we cant do it ourselves... Oaxaca > BCN > Dublin ?

by dunk Fri Oct 19, 2007 17:30

Translation of report from IMC-bcn...
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/321435
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Desallotjament il.legal i càrrega policial al Bon Pastor
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/321486/...x.php

On 17 October at 8h15, mossos beginning to evict ruinamalia. At no time was taught the warrant and acted outside within 15 days of the sentence ( "first fortnight of October").

While the baricadas were burst from the street (see here http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/321171/...x.php), a climbing like crag was formed at the side of the patio yard. Two hung themselves and a few swings were installed at the balcony on the third floor. Two more chained themselves to some drums on the second floor balcony, others tryied to explain the security measures to the mossos as they arrived.

After three hours they obtained and removed the people hanging and it took another hour or more to get the ones with the rock chained.

At this time, the mossos loaded the support group and put them outside. Saw two people, identified them and released them at once, there was vari @ s @ s rubber by porasos.

At this time, mossos loaded the support group outside. They saw two people, identified them and released them at once,several people were injured by porasos. (possibly slang term about cops)

At night, two hundred people gathered for the cercavila (a city wander type protest). Many grafitis were painted on walls, posters were wall pasted explaining the facts and flyers handed out with the below text. (text seen in first post : The occupied social centre Ruinamalia does not surrender, translated from pink poster)

In front of Ruinamalia, the collective anger opened the doors. But it was seen that the building had been destroyed from within. Segurity was giving us a good scare but the cercavila continued through the raval until MACBA (Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona)

ruinamalia (at) squat.net

Ruinamalia does not surrender, photos and commentry of this weeks illegal eviction

by goalpost mover Mon Nov 19, 2007 14:02

Joder tio,

After a long wait, doing all the little things that needed to be done, finally the spark we have been waiting for happened. This weekend was the informal opening of the new CSOA in the old fishermans area that is Barceloneta (little Barcelona). An old building that saw a fire happen near a year ago, (not sure what happened but in BCN you need to be a bit suspicious about the legality of proccess's used in shaping space). So some months back this building was occupied and on saturday many people from Barcelona and beyond, even a few wandering Paddys, came together to breathe new life into the ground floor and basement of this fine space. It really was something precious, everyone who was there was really really blown away by how amazing the space is, how much potential there is.... the new spark, like a phoenix awakining from the ashes...We will see what happens.

Some of the old Miles de Viviendas live in another space further down the street and theres rumours of another space full with a load of South Americans nearby too... so it seems that what was there previous as a space for local organisation and action has been shattered into many smaller, more diverse, more decentralised spaces to use in the next chapter of Barcelonetas struggle for survival. The miles neighbours saw their own illegal activity there last week, with their building being attacked, their front door being pulled of the hinges and mobbers sent in to their house to physically confront or attack those living in their new space, it appears that they were blocked at the stairs untill support came and so too did the mossos, thats now in legal land with denunciations from one side against the other...remember CSOA pallars llacuna..."some" mobbers dont think twice about clocking a girl or 2 across the head with iron bars...so it gets nasty at times....

Anyway, Saturday night and people started arriving in dribs and drabs, some of the graffiti artists responsible for the fine artwork on the walls of the old CSOA L'Opera came and started some fine work on the walls, candles led people down to the Bodegita (the little cellar) where 2 amazing spaces greeted people... hours later, thumping tunes were going on, as later were softer fiddle, guitar, singing, drums....along with the few nukes from the local bodega (@€1 a litre of wine....10 pints of fine wine cheaper than a pint of stout at home...sort of puts things in one sort of perspective).

Coincidentally on the same night as the official opening, the neighbours had planned their own action...Moving the goalposts. About a year ago the BCN zapatistas group organised a football tournament as an action against the urban plan. There used be an old square with football posts beside the old market, the heart of the neighbourhood, in the new plan the market got a modern face lift and the gritty football space was taken away, no alternative was given, kids are now expected to pay to play ball. Most of the community were against this move, as we all know when you take kids football space away.... Anyway last july, just before the construction was about to begin, the local community and the BCN zapatista commmunity moved into the square with football posts of their own and played ball, as well as trying to fight the urban plan, as well as pushing the plan from the community. (many similarities with Dublins docking boat working communities, now that the city values spaces that for a long time they let go..... whats the land @ Sheriff Street worth now, @ 15 million €€ an acre.?...what about all the "community spaces", they were promised by DDDA....hhhhhmmmm, architects and planners and city councils and token listening to the communities they are supposed to serve....Rene Sherer has some strong views on what this leads to...)

Anyway the other night, Saturday at 11pm we were asked to give the neighbours a hand, we had to move the goalposts again. They had been stored in an abandoned church up the way. Brazilians, Peruvians, Galicians, Irish, Israeli, Spanish, Catalan all pitched in, the construction sites fence was pulled open and in went the goalposts, there was talk of a quick game, Brazil vs' the rest of the world, but we only managed a quick messy game with a plastic cup. in the end it was GGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL for Galicia. The funny thing for us Irish lads, is the use of the phrase "moving the goalposts", in reference to completely changing the way the game is played, as previous this is exactly the discussion we were having in the new CSO earlier: in terms of political action and "changing the world", anyway more on that later. There is no similar phrase in Spain and most fluent english speakers were not familiar with it, not sure whats its origins are, irish, english... no doubt its comes from somewhere were it was usual for "jumpers as goalposts"

The party went on till the wee hours, many ideas sparked, many plans hatched and are growing....yesterday evening many revolt vids were screened, as well as old imc-ie stuff and other goodies. Along with 2 episodes of father ted, song for europe (shave a bullock) and speed 3, absolute classics, Baraka was also screened and documentaries about bcneta. the grafiti dudes did a super job and the gaf got a name... Can Ardiu (burned gaf, or burning gaf....or something along those lines). So we will see how things progress, hope to have a few pix later.

We are still interested in hearing further how things are going in Dublin with the new social centre and the wider community(s) of Dublin, as much change is happening there, as here, some good, some bad, who is being listened to, what use to community struggles have of radical spaces and those that use them, how effective can social centres be their community, is there things to be critical of of social centres (punks hanging out and never leaving their bubble or ghetto....) can process's be improved, is there really good examples to learn from, is there means to improve our collective struggle by communicating more with each other, can we improve our use of tek tools to enable this dialogue (streaming, radio, tv, documentary swapping....) Could go on, but prefer to just throw out these ideas in the hope that they prompt this dialogue....

I suppose these posts of whats going on in Barcelona are part response to still unanswered questions to seomra spraoi collective and wider users and supporters of social centres that were posed on the previous imc-ie feature on the opening of the new centre

dublin social centre and connecting with the wider community in the markets area
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/84294#comment207526

and regarding some views of what happens when communities are not listened to:

"Last year, in the French Clichy-sous-Bois, we saw riots triggered by a criminal modern architecture." was the part of the passage from the "Zeus of hositaltity" by René Schérer, which Belgian architect Lucien Kroll choose to use for the poster for the Moments D'architecture workshop he was invited to give at last years architecture bienale by Patrick Bouchain in the french pavillion, METAVILLA

this comes from a wider discussion which we are trying to get going with some of architectural community of europe: architecture and dissent
http://easa.antville.org/stories/1633653/

by Dunk Thu Dec 13, 2007 21:52 kanardia at hotmail dot es CSOA Kan Ardia : 45 St Miquel, BCNeta

new social centre up and running, will keep ye posted. Full building was occupied untill eviction 2 weeks ago of first floor apartment. people from following countries/ places been there helping build things: catalan, galicia, spanish, portugese, french, angola, brazil, chile, peru, venezuala, italy, irish, US, british, israel, german,

french classes + karate classes up and running now.

tomorow: kafeta y fiesta afrobeat / dubstep (food and party)

kan ardia,
45 St Miquel (@ pl. BCNeta)

imc-bcn links:
Kan Ardia, nuevo CSOA en BCNeta + kafeta/ fiesta mañana
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/328110/...x.php

CSOA Kan Ardia : kafeta y fiesta afrobeat / dubstep : Viernes 14 / deciembre 2007
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/calendari/displayevent/1...x.php

Kan Ardia (the burning gaf) new CSOA in BCNeta

by 1 of de los otros - 1of CSOA Kan Ardia Wed Jan 02, 2008 16:31 kanardia at hotmail dot es CSOA Kan Ardia, 45 C/St Miquel, Barceloneta, Barcelona

Below is a 15 minute interview with one of the members of the CSOA Kan Ardia collective who also lives upstairs in the squatted living space.

file type : WAV
OGG and MP3 versions soon available
more interviews in spanish soon available
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2008/01/02/kan_ardia_att...k.wav

Last saturday night CSOA Kan Ardia was celebrating 6 months of occupation of number 45 carrer sant miguel, in the heart of the barcelonetta neighbourhood of barcelona. the party was also a birthday party for one of the collectives members. For over a month the space has been active as a CSO and it has been growing from strength to strength with workshops of language exchange, martial arts training, and space for parties. at about 1am a neighbour complained of noise and later 2 undercover police came with about 6 guardia urbana. Without showing any papers that allowed them entry to the building the forced their way in and proceeded to go up the stairs, they were confronted by one of the CSO collective and prevented from going further up the stairs, this person asked for papers, was shown none and then struck by the plainclothes police officer, the collective member remained calm, did not use violence and repeated that the police had no right to be entering, the cop asked his mate for his heavy torch and with this he struck the collective member a few times about the head, more people came to this situation and soon the police were outside the building..........

they said there had been a complaint from the neighbours and demanded the party finish and empty, people left.....

Later, about 7am there were still people in the building, sitting around. a couple went to the door to leave and on exiting and without any warning or words being spoken were attacked directly in the face by pepper spray or mace, shouts went out and a commotion ensued at the door. the cops tried to enter the building, again without showing papers, and managed to get their hands in the door which was being pushed closed from the inside, these hands sprayed repeatedly into the faces and bodies of those on the other side, all people still within tried to get to the roof for air, many were in hysterics, crying, vomiting and in a state of panic and shock. the door was eventually shut by those inside and all went to the roof. from the roof terrace people said that there a van or 2 of riot police ready to enter the building with batons and more vans on a further street. the police taunted and laughed at those suffering on the terrace.

all solidarity with those standing up to this illegal police action are welcome
help spread word about whats going on in barcelona

support, solidarity and thanks

CSOA Kan Ardia
45 C/St Miquel
Barceloneta
Barcelona
Catalunya (Spain)

this audio can be directly found on IMC-indybay
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/05/30/18422905.ph...69664

Kan Ardia : communication flyer to the barri

Kan Ardia trad session

moving the goalposts, Kan Ardia and her neighbours and friends

by kan ardia Fri Jan 04, 2008 13:35 kanardia at hotmail dot es

above audio in
MP3 (13.6 MB)
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2008/01/04/kan_ardia_att...3.mp3
OGG ( 2.8 MB)
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2008/01/04/kan_ardia_att...g.ogg

+
ataque ilegal por la polícia

sabado 29, diciembre 2007
En la noche del sabado nos encontrabamos celebrando un mes de apertura de un nuevo centro social en el corazón de la Barceloneta, Kan Ardía. Al final de la fiesta, cuando la gente estaba saliendo de la casa, fuimos atacados con gas lacrimógeno por sorpresa por la policia urbana!

read more at link

CSOA Kan Ardia

by 1 of - CSOA kan ardia Tue Jan 15, 2008 16:33

Ataque ilegal por la polìcia en BCNeta, @ CSOA Kan Ardia
http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/330304/...x.php