Housing movement in the Spanish State
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FOR AN EUROPEAN HOUSING RIGHT MOVEMENT During the 2006, a citizen and self-organized movement raised in the Spanish State. The housing right movements born with the aim of giving visibility to a conflict and putting on the table of the public debate the untenable situation for accessing to the house suffered by most of the population in the Spanish State. This text looks to facilitate the diffusion of the Housing right movement in the Spanish State and invites to the action of other European citizens, in order to confront a common problema.
Housing Rights Movement in the Spanish State
The 14 of May of 2006 and from an anonymous call that circulated between mail networks around Internet, diverse thousands of people went out in several cities of the Spanish State. The protest initiated with public seatings in Madrid and Barcelona, since then, in several cities has formed a social movement that it wants to guaranty the housing right.
To the street seatings followed manifestations with increasing participation in the main cities of the Spanish State, Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao, Seville, Cáceres, Zaragoza and Murcia, were some of them. The first manifestation was the 2 of July under the slogan âthe house is a right not a privilegeâ; following the 30 of September a second demo with slogan âwe will not have a house in our fucking lifeâ; with a participation just in Barcelona of 15,000 people; and finally the 23 of December, under the slogan âwe cannot return to house per Christmas because we still don't have a houseâ, in which just in Madrid participated 20,000 people. With a festive but forceful tone, these expressions want to responsibleness the Estate, administrations and Estate Agents of the present vulnerability of the Housing right.
What does the Housing rights movement want?
In front of a problem that suffers most of the population, a simple and clear exigency: the effective fulfillment of article 47 of the Constitution.
The Article 47 of the Spanish Constitution affirms that all the citizens have the right to enjoy a house, that the powers public will make guaranty this right, tha will prevent the speculation and that the community will participate in the capital gains generated by the city-planning action. But far from this, the Housing rights movement denunciation that the public powers do not fulfill to guaranty this right, preventing the ascent of prices, the stopping of the rising prices bubble, which turn today in a nightmare the fact to obtain house, unimaginable situation only few years.
Who form the Housing right movement? And what does characterizes it?
The Housing right movements is conformed by âWho arrive and who do not arrive at thousand-euristâ, that is precarious and workers who receive less than 1000 euros for salary; they conform young people mainly, but also old people age that is a easy target for the Estate Agents mobbing (refering to the mistreat and harassment of the Estate Agents to the low rent houses; they conform squatters or families that dedicate a 50 or a 60% of its income in paying the rent or paying mortgaged for more than 30 years; also youth and parents who are forced to not become independent and to live together due to the inaccessibility of the house.
The Housing rights movement has given rise to a new social weave. Some is people whom its implication in other groups or organizations, this is, the social weave around the social movements but mainly the people participating are not organized in any group, and for whom the seating and the manifestations for the housing rights is his first expression of protest in the street. The Housing right movement is self-recognized as citizen movement and openly it rejects the implication and protagonistm of political parties, institutional unions or other structures.
It is articulated through assemblies that meet in squares of Spanish cities, and organize the work by commissions. Also, it is itself a movement that is organized online, makes an ample use of the new technologies; the information around the house is accessible in blogs and website (http://www.vdevivienda.net), chains of e-mails, videos in YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=vdeviviendabcn) and photos in Flirkr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/vdevivienda/). In addition, the Housing right movement has an ample social support and an ample covering in the mainstream.
An element characteristic of the Housing right movement is its ability to mobilize the knowledge around the house. In the assemblies every week the last news concerning results of studies are announced and the data of official organisms appear frequent in their communications.
The diversion and creativity of forms are another of the most visible characteristics of the movement. A part of seated and the manifestations, actions like the occupation of IKEA, the symbolic closing of the Estate Agents Fair of Barcelona (Meeting Point) or the diffusion of a video with hidden camera in the antimobbing office of the City council have been carried out.
Suspension of the European summit of the housing ministers in Barcelona
The 15 of October of 2006 the celebration of an European summit of the house was predicted, but finally was suspended arguing security reasons. But this movement is not violent. For the movement , the Statal Government and the local government of the Generalitat of Catalonia was conscious that the European summit would be a new occasion to the movement for making feeling its voice again. An uncomfortable voice, still more, at the doors of the elections to the Generalitat. For the movement, it was the lack of solutions to the problem of the house and the speculation the reasons that motivated the suspension of the summit meeting, and also, the movements protests that âIf there are no ministers, somebody will have to give the faceâ.
Visit and denounces of the representative of the UN on the situation of the house in the Spanish State
The movement invited to the United Nations special relater on housing issues, Miloon Kothari, to the citizen assemblies. After 12 days in the Spanish State, Kothari described the houing situation as as a ânational crisisâ. Kothari, that has visited urban nuclei of Madrid, Bilbao, San Sebastián, Almeria, the Ejido, Roquetas, Seville, Barcelona and Zaragoza, alerted on the problems of housing access of the population, including not only the poorest nuclei, but also the middle-class, although it showed a special preoccupation by the immigrants.
In this sense, Miloon Kothari considers that the Spanish Government is failing to fulfill its obligations, because in the Spanish Constitution as in diverse treaties on international human rights, it is specified the right from the citizens to access to a house. The representative of United Nations asked the Spanish Government âpolitical and economic willâ to execute reforms on the Spanish housing market and to end the âspeculation bubbleâ. He tied this speculation to the existing scandals of city-planning corruption in the country, assuring that the case that finishes coming to the light, (the case of Marbella) âis only the climax of the icebergâ of a whole series of illegal practices of changing the nature of the lands, from social or public one to pro-profit one. He bet by the promotion of the rent and praised some initiatives of the Government to restrain the speculation, concretely, a new Law of the land and the promotion of greater public houses, as much in regime of purchase as of rent. The conclusions from their visit to the Spanish State were used for the elaboration of a report that will be sent to the Council of Human rights of the UN.
Each time is more difficult for you to be able to have a place in which to live in adequate conditions? Organizate!
For material on the Housing right movement at the Spanish State visit: http://www.vdevivienda.net Contact: v (AT) vdevivienda.net
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