Everything began on September 23, when Maricarmen, an 87-year-old woman with a 50% disability, was evicted from the house where she had been living for 70 years. This eviction inflamed the streets and encouraged the acceleration of housing measures in the Council of Ministers. In parallel, the Tenants' Union already made it clear that their struggle was in the streets.
They camped at Puerta del Sol and reached (as far as they were allowed) the Congress to follow the debate on the ratification of the decree-laws. They did not go ahead. That propelled the continuation of the protest, but it also represented a tremendous shift in the political landscape: just three days later, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced that there will be general elections in Spain on November 29.
But the news will not change the roadmap established in Sol (and in many other squares in Spain). They no longer expect anything from politics, which is why their declared and determined purpose is to organize a general strike for housing.
“Lackeys of rentism”
After the electoral advance was confirmed, one of the spokespeople for the Union, Alicia del Río, stated that “popular power has opened a new cycle, a cycle in which the right to housing we know will be conquered from the streets, from the union organizations, from popular power.”
Regarding the elections, she pointed out that the Cortes “were kidnapped by rentism. Now an electoral campaign begins that will be profoundly marked by housing, it will be the central issue. That is why we must ask the gentlemen deputies: are they going to introduce measures regarding housing, the ones that the people are demanding, the ones that the street is demanding, which we remember, the majority of all voters, from all parties, are demanding strong measures against rentism? Are they going to introduce the measures that the people demand or will they continue to be lackeys of rentism?”.
General strike
However, what del Río has made clear is that they are not going to wait for any electoral calendar. The horizon is marked, she emphasized, “and it is the construction of a general strike for the right to housing. A general strike that is the only way to ensure that there will be a response to what the people are asking for, whoever governs. That is why, starting this very afternoon, we have activities in the neighborhoods to begin building this general strike.”
The spokesperson has added that “this wave of indignation is unstoppable, and we are not going to stop. We call on all social sectors that are mobilized in the struggles for healthcare, pensions, education, and wages. Because we are not going to take any step back and we are going to advance in a program of rights that guarantees that housing is a right and not a means of profit for a few.”