Evicted families occupy a building in Seville and call on others to do so

Great stuff! Please let us know how the story develops

Awesome story - especially good in a country like Spain where so much housing stock is just lying empty after the crash.

awesome! solidarity.

for those who are interested in the furthre updates of this occupation you can go to their webblog at : http://corralautopia.blogspot.com.es/ the further international solidarity might be needed since the government has begun their harrasment by sending rumors about taking away their kids becuase of bad living conditions(without wather and electricity).
they also have a video channel at youtube : http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9tGF23zJwEbgdQL2CvVx4g

Nice one!

I wish that here around Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, the homeless would start to occupy the thousands of empty homes and buildings around the city. Equality must be wrenched from the ruling class. Good story.

Cheers for the updates!

From Paul Mason's blog. The video is worth watching as well.

Paul Mason

You can see how badly the crisis has hit people at the "Utopia" apartment block in Seville. It's a modern, newly-built, five-storey complex next to a busy road. The flats are small: perfect for young professionals with their taste for minimalist furniture. But the company that built the flats went bust and now the whole place has been squatted by families turfed out of their own homes due to repossession.

"We had weekly meetings for four months and we realised we were all in the same situation and finally we decided to do something about it. When we took over the building I was frightened, because I've seen things on TV where they drag people out. The banks need to adapt the mortgage system to avoid kicking people out of their homes."

Toni, aged 44, is one of a tight group of women - mainly cleaning workers - who've organised the occupation. They all have working age children who are unemployed. They resent the banks for kicking them out of their homes, and the politicians for bailing them out.

Around the edges of the project move people from a completely different demographic: the so-called "indignados" of the M15 movement - anti-globalist youth with trademark tattoos and piercings. The indignados made world headlines last year after massive occupation protests in the public squares of Spanish cities, in turn sparking the global Occupy movement.

When you see the Utopia flats, draped with banners announcing "no homes without people, no people without homes", you see what happens when official politics abandons people. Very ordinary, indeed anti-political people have begun to turn to Spain's radical youth for help. They in turn have found a purpose, here and elsewhere, outside mainstream politics, which they despise.

Also a land occupation by SOC-SAT:

Paul Mason

The regional unemployment rate is 30% and many farm labourers feel trapped by the current crisis, which, says Lola Alvarez, is just an intensification of a land crisis which is "always there".

Lola is a union organiser at Somonte, a farm abandoned as unworkable three years ago which has now been squatted by upwards of 50 people who are trying to revive it as an eco-farm. The directions to Somonte are "drive to a certain kilometre marker and look for the flags".

The flags, of course, display the face of Che Guevara. It's early, so the occupiers - who sleep nose to toe on the floor of two tiny farm buildings - are still stumbling into the ritual of black coffee and roll ups that attends all occupy protests. Some are farm labourers, some itinerant anarchists, some both.

"Before the crisis, because of low pay on the land, the majority of farm workers switched to the construction sector. Their jobs were taken by migrants, and also by mechanisation. Now construction has collapsed there's very little work on the land."

More on the Somonte occupation here:

Sunday March 4 at 11 am about 500 members of the Laborers Union City – Union Workers Andalusian Somonte have occupied the farm in the town of Palma del Río. This property owned by the Junta de Andalucía leaves tomorrow for auction. Privatize the land while the common people suffer extreme arrest 1,700 people in Palma del Rio and more than 4,000 people standing in the surrounding villages. They are selling more than 20000 hectares in Andalusia leaving about 8,000 still without offers. Before this attack the SOC-SAT will mobilize these days and on Thursday at 11 am will be a demonstration at the Ministry of Agriculture asking Sevilla to a standstill this sale of land and instead of going to bankers and landowners are farmed by cooperatives of agricultural laborers s unemployed.

From this occupation about 30 people from Posadas, Palma del Rio and other peoples have been on this farm in order to stay there and begin to work it. We think this is the only way to carry out our ideas accordingly as the land has to be self-managed by workers themselves to create the maximum number of jobs and helping to develop local and regional economy. The field has 359 Somonte you. rainfed and 41 hectares. irrigated. The share of irrigation could result in an early stage about 50 jobs through the cultivation of asparagus, onions and other vegetables. In the medium term it could generate more employment through the social culture of the whole land, agribusiness and marketing of products through the necessary investments.

From the SOC-SAT we urgently appeal to the solidarity of Palma del Rio and the surrounding villages and all the comrades’ s the province of Cordoba and Andalusia to support this cause coming to join the fight and work in the estate of Somonte pressing the organs of power, spreading the word and supporting us materially food, seeds, plants, materials, money and see what is possible.

This action must be the beginning of the agrarian revolution in this time of unemployment, hardship and neoliberal scam we need so badly. Today any alternative to survive with dignity must go through the struggle for land, farming, food sovereignty and development that generates as has happened and see every day in Marinaleda and other towns of Andalusia.

We encourage tod @ s workers and parad Andalusia's fight for public or private land for collectivisation by the people.

IF THIS IS FIGHT, THE FUTURE IS OURS

ANDALUSIA LIVE FREE!

fingers malone

The houses they squatted have been empty and abandoned for years.

The people who squatted are young families who have been evicted recently after they couldn't pay their rent or mortgage after losing their jobs. Most of them were construction workers. There have been 6,000 evictions in the province of Seville in the last two years.

allowed to build homes but not live in them!

fingers malone

The protest seems to be organised by PAH, Platform of people affected by mortgages. I've heard of them but I don't know much about them, anyone know more?

Here's a report from El Pais in July last year about PAH Madrid meeting up with 15M to coordinate action (in Spanish):

http://elpais.com/diario/2011/07/05/madrid/1309865059_850215.html

Also a couple of reports in English:

http://elpais.com/diario/2011/06/28/sociedad/1309212001_850210.html

http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/04/25/inenglish/1335363631_285617.html

I've just come back from stopping an eviction in Pinos Puente, a small village outside Granada city. It was more fun than normal because there were lots of kids and the people whose house it was bought chips for everyone. Apart from that it followed the same pattern as others I've been to: a combination of people connected to 15M (some from the specific stop evictions group of 15m) and neighbours gathered in front of the house about an hour before the eviction was due to take place, singing and encouraging passers by to join in. I'd say we ended up with about 50 people today. The bank's lawyer or whoever came past and alerted the police. Representatives of the stop evictions group (one of whom is a cgt official and the other two are housing lawyers I think) spoke to the police and to the bank and the latter decided not to try and go through with the eviction. It is possible that they will attempt to fix another date for eviction but this is not something they can do overnight and it is likely that in the meantime something will be arranged between the bank and the family, with some involvement and advice from the group. So far, noone who has contacted the stop evictions group of Granada 15m has been successfully evicted.

Ok fingers, thanks. Apologies in advance for the ramble.
I don't know much about how the group itself works. It came out of 15M but I don't know if there is any continuity with previously existing groups, like PAH, although I think there probably is. Their public meetings are when I'm at work and much of their day to day stuff involves meetings, negotiations and legal stuff as opposed to mobilisations. They have about 60 ongoing cases and have called around 15 mobilisations to prevent evictions. I've been finding out about the mobilisations through facebook since February and I've been to 3 since then.
The first one I went to was the most "activisty" in terms of the people there - I recognised the majority of the faces from other things. There were about 40 or so people and it proved enough for the the officials from the bank to speak to the people I mention above who seem to have responsibility for mediating with the authorities - although they do so in the presence of the people who are going to be evicted - and call off the eviction. The person who was going to be evicted is now paying a kind of rent to the bank with an option to buy, half of what he pays goes into a deposit. Everyone seems happy enough with that outcome.
The second one I went to there were much fewer people from the group and we were quite nervous that we would be swatted aside by the police (who had a visible presence on this occasion with a couple of vans parked up nearby). So we started shouting to neighbours about what was happening and someone explained the situation through a megaphone and people started joining us. In the end there were more people from the area than activists. It was a particularly shocking case in which someone had only delayed very slightly in a payment and had advised the bank in advance but was nevertheless due to be evicted with his wife and three kids. In the end the same thing happened as before with the authorities acknowledging that it was impossible to carry out the eviction on that date. We then went, accompanied by neighbours, to the bank branch of the family to kick up a fuss until a meeting between the family and the bank with representation from the group was arranged. A couple of weeks later they received another eviction notice which met with the same response. As far as I know the case is ongoing. Here is a video and article from the local paper (now a right wing rag but which was briefly heavily influenced by the local CNT during the Second Republic):
http://www.ideal.es/granada/20120412/local/granada/impide-desahucio-zaidin-201204121231.html
The fact that the parents of this family are African immigrants gives an interesting extra dynamic to the struggle in my opinion; as you know black Africans are hugely marginalised economically and socially here.
Yesterday's action made it into El Mundo:
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/06/27/andalucia/1340780374.html
The chants and slogans at the demos are for the most part against evictions in general and calls for solidarity but also have a strong anti-banker element and the "it's not a crisis, it's a rip-off" one gets an airing. Yesterday there were also chants against usury.
I should stress that there isn't an obvious separation between locals and outsiders at these demonstrations, obviously some people are both activists and locals, and in general the atmosphere is one of friendly intermingling. It's not like only the activists chant, and the neighbours also start chants and make up new ones too.
There's an article in Spanish here on the first year of the Stop Evictions group in Granada:
http://www.tercerainformacion.es/spip.php?article37172

El País: Squatting the land to rise up against unemployment

A woman in her mid-forties, with dark eyes and skin tanned by the wind and sun, wakes up from the siesta she has been enjoying on a mattress lying on the ground. Suddenly, she sees the man mounted on a horse trampling on the vegetables she has been tending so carefully for the last two months. He begins to shout at the 30 or so day laborers, who along with her have been staging a sit in at the Somontes farm in Palma de Río, in Córdoba province.

"What on earth are you doing on that horse?" shouts the woman, who has emerged as a leader among the men.

Lola Álvarez has spent her life working in the fields, and has fought long and hard for the rights of farm hands since the days of the Andalusian Workers' Syndicate (SAT), but says she has never been through such a difficult time as this. She hasn't worked for months: the orange harvest was ruined by late frost, and there was no other work available. So, she and her fellow day laborers have decided to occupy the 400 hectares of Somontes owned by the regional government of Andalusia in Palma del Río.

They have taken up the slogan ¡La tierra para el que la trabaja!, a call to arms dating back to the days before the Civil War, and which translates as "The land for those who work it." These day laborers have taken their inspiration from the village of Marinaleda, in the neighboring province of Seville, where the mayor of 33 years' standing, Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, decided back in the late 1970s to occupy unused land and work it. More than three decades later, the community is one of the few in the area with full employment. Gordillo has backed Lola Álvarez and her colleagues, as has the ombudsman of Andalusia, José Chamizo, who has visited Palma del Río in support of their initiative.

They decided to occupy the land at Somontes on March 4, the day that it was due to be auctioned. This was the third time since June 21, 2011 that the regional government of Andalusia had tried selling the land, at a starting price of 1.5 million euros. There were no bidders at that price, and fearing that the land would be sold privately, the SAT decided to occupy it.

"It will be easier for the government to sell it now, because they can negotiate the price," says Álvarez. If the government does manage to sell Somontes, it won't be the first time that it has been in private hands.

This strip of land which has been used to grow oats, barley, beans, and sunflowers was the property of the Marquis of Montesión until 1991, when it was bought by the now-defunct Andalusian Institute for Agrarian Reform following laws passed in the mid-1980s aimed at increasing agricultural output and with it employment. The land was used for non-irrigated crops, which meant that over the course of three months, three laborers could manage the land.

With funding cut by the central government, the regional government of Andalusia has decided to sell the land. Hoping to raise some 75 million euros from 15,000 hectares, it has so far only managed to to generate 10.6 million euros.

The day laborers at Somontes have taken their case to court, where they hope to demonstrate that they are putting the land to good use by irrigating it. "At least we making something of the soil, because this land has just been lying here for the last few years without being worked," says Javier Ballestero Osuna, one of the men occupying Somontes.

"I never went to school. All I know how to do is work the land, so tell me what I'm supposed to do if I can't find work."

The day starts at 7am. Lola and her husband are staying in farm buildings, as is another family that was made homeless last year. Over a cup of coffee, they plan out each day in the kitchen. For the last week they have been fixing the irrigation system ahead of planting peppers. So far they have grown water melon, cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce. They say that this is just the start, and they say that they soon hope to start selling their produce.

The regional government evicted the laborers on April 19. But the next day they were back to occupy Somontes for a second time. Since then they have stood firm. In June some were called to testify in the local court, accused of disobeying a public order. They gave testimony, and then returned to the farm.

The 15-M nationwide grassroots protest movement has also thrown its weight behind the day laborers of Somontes. Although the 15-M is largely based in Spain's cities, working at neighborhood level, it is increasingly finding that rural communities are more receptive to its share-and-share-alike philosophy. Lola traveled to Madrid last month to take part in a number of popular assemblies, meetings where everybody gets a chance to speak. Now the group at Somontes has decided to call its own assembly meeting for next weekend, and more land-squatting actions are likely to follow.

In Somontes, Lola and her colleagues are still unsure how things will turn out, but all agree on the principle that as long as there is land unworked, and people without work, the only thing to do is occupy the land and work it.

Pictures sorted.

Long before the Occupy movement, there was the movimiento okupa. In Spain, the word okupa (from the verb ocupar) refers both to an occupied space — building or land — and to a person who occupies. Above all, what’s known as an okupa con k suggests an explicit political project. These days, the typical okupa takes the form of a self-organizing social center, a Centro Social Okupado Autogestionado (CSOA). So when squatters occupy abandoned buildings or apartments and use them as housing, such a space is generally considered not an okupa con k but an ocupa con c. Some occupiers aren’t completely comfortable with this distinction, but it is suggestive about the two faces of occupation in the age of austerity—constituting a political force and providing for people’s basic needs.

The okupa as political project emerged in Spain after the death of Franco in 1975 and exploded in the punk scene and the countercultural movida of the 1980s. While the gravitational center of the okupa movement in Spain has long been the north—especially Barcelona and Euskadi (the Basque Country), followed by Madrid—recently the southernmost region of Andalusia has entered the spotlight.

Last month, hundreds of members of a fieldworkers’ union called the Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores (SAT) organized a march through the Andalusian countryside. At one stop, they took over the uncultivated, vacant estate of the Duke of Segorbe, some 60 miles east of Sevilla. It was a symbolic occupation, and after a dip in the pool out behind the palace the workers continued their march the next day, but other land occupations in the region have in fact been transformed into working farms, providing jobs and food for an increasingly precarious population.

In a similar vein, the previous week a couple hundred SAT marchers entered two supermarkets, filled up their shopping carts with basic food supplies like milk, beans, and pasta, and walked out without paying. The expropriated goods were then delivered to food banks, soup kitchens—and an occupied apartment building in Sevilla called the Corrala de Vecinas “La Utopía”...

Continue reading at
http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/the-other-occupy-movement/

Suicide in Granada:

El País: Man facing eviction hangs himself

Attempted suicide in Valencia:

lasprovincias.es: Un hombre se lanza al vacío cuando iba a ser desahuciado

Bit macabre but makes the point. from here:
https://www.facebook.com/iceautogestion

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the Basque Spanish city of Barakaldo to condemn the suicide of an evictee as well as to protest against further foreclosures.

Fifty-three-year-old Amaia Egaña jumped four floors to her death as bailiffs prepared to kick her out after she failed to stay current on her mortgage payments. She is the second person in less than three weeks to commit suicide in the face of an impending eviction...

http://rt.com/news/spain-woman-suicide-eviction-378/

Spanish banks are suspending evictions for the next two years for the most vulnerable people.

An estimated 350,000 families have been evicted from their homes since Spain's property market crashed in 2008.

It comes three days after Amaia Egana, who was 53, died after jumping from her fourth floor apartment in northern Spain, just before she was due to be evicted.

Her death has inflamed public anger at banks, accused of being heartless...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20299384

El País: Banks to halt evictions in “extreme” cases

In a letter to the secretary of state for the economy, Fernando Jiménez Latorre, the Spanish Banking Association (AEB) said its members were willing to halt evictions over the next two years “in cases of extreme need for humanitarian reasons.”

The Spanish Confederation of Savings Banks (CECA) also said it would suspend evictions of “particularly vulnerable” families from their homes.

The AEB did not define what it understood by “extreme need.” It also rejected Socialist demands for the stay on evictions to be made retroactive...

So maybe this concession doesn't amount to much.

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Another reaction to a 'financial problem' with Caixabank last week:

[youtube]zYp15ENlMlU[/youtube]

Corrala Utopia evicted today:
http://www.alasbarricadas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=57589