1. The history of cooperativism in Barceloneta: the SXX building belongs to the neighbourhood!
2. Girona vs. MAT (Very high voltage line): creative resistance
3. A new social and cultural project: la Base opens its doors
1. THE HISTORY OF COOPERATIVISM IN BARCELONETA: THE SXX BUILDING BELONGS TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD!
Cooperativism during the first decades of the 20th century and until Franco’s dictatorship was a very important movement in Barcelona. As the city became very industrialized, poverty and exploitation grew among the working class. Cooperatives were a self-organised way to improve their quality of life. Barceloneta was one of the neighbourhoods where the cooperativism became most important as the “rearguard” that ensured every worker could cover minimum necessities foodwise, specially during periods of strikes and subsequent repression. The republican period was the Golden Age of cooperativism, then everything was destroyed during the dictationship and the efforts made during the transition to democracy never managed to recover its strength.
On December 29th, a fire started in a building in Barceloneta. It was Segle XX (XX century) ,the abandoned building of an old cooperative. Segle XX started working on 1901, and it was mainly a consumers’ cooperative which later was also used as a social activities space, a tavern and a bakery, growing into a strong community of 400 members and its own “money”. The building belonged to the cooperative associates till the 80s. After some years of decline, in the 90s there was a dissolution assembly in which some new members claimed they would pay the cooperative’s debts and use the building for social purposes, for the neighbours. This never happened and the minutes of this last assembley were lost. Instead, the building was used for commercial purposes during years -below the original banner, you can still see the name of a car repairs service located there for a while – and finally sold in 2012 to a real state company, Filodomus, for 6 times the price they had paid for it. Filodomus claimed to have a plan for social use. However, the building is planned to become a sports center and a youth hostel, more related to the gentrification plans for the area.
This building has been constantly claimed by the neighbours for social use, as a space of self-management and cooperation. It is an effort to get back all the cooperativism network that existed at the beginning of the 20th Century. The fire came at the “right moment”, as the neighbours had announced they were going to occupy it on January 11th in order to push the city hall.
Therefore, on Jaunary 11th the neighbour association L’Òstia and several other groups organized a tour through Barceloneta to explain the cooperativist history of the neighbourhood. It started in the former cooperative La Fraternitat, nowadays a public library, and ended by the Segle XX. Posters were plastered on the building’s walls reminding Barceloneta’s history and with a “wall of thoughts” where neighboyrs wrote down their plans for the building. A manifesto was read, vindicating transparency on the acquisition process, and the comittment of the city hall to purchase the building at a fair price and hand it over to the neighbours. Another priority was to set up a serious investigation to clarify what had caused the fire.
A few days later, Mercè Homs, in charge of Ciutat Vella district, announced the City Hall would recover the building and dedicate it to cover the needs and demands of the neighbours. In Barcelona several other spaces have been retaken during these years to rebuild the cooperative network that existed before: Can Batlló , Germanetes (See NL#33, 2 ) and Ateneu Flor de maig (See NL#53, 1 ) are some of them. Segle XX might finally be the next one.
LINKS
- La Barceloneta Rebel (The rebel Barceloneta) website [CAT]
- Route poster
- Mapping of Barceloneta’s cooperative history
- Photogallery by @fotomovimiento
- Barceloneta, cooperativa i rebel [CAT]
- Historical info, photos and documents (column) of the original Cooperativa Obrera y Popular el Siglo XX
- Streaming of the route by @okokitsme
2. GIRONA vs MAT (Very high voltage line): CREATIVE RESISTANCE
A very high voltage line is to be set up across the Girona territory (MAT line). The State is expropiating vast amounts of land in order to construct power towers. Many people are against this project, as some of these lines cross and split farms and agricultural lands and it would have a great environmental impact on forests and other natural reserves.
Several groups of people from different towns around the line project are organising the resistance in different ways:
- Direct action: Trying to prevent the beginning of the works in places where the towers have to be built. Demonstrations and marches all around the area are taking place. Also, country houses around the line have been occupied to facilitate the resistance.
- Legal action: Right now there is a litigation at the Superior Court of Justice in Spain against the decision which declares the MAT is a public interest issue, the project being assigned to the company Red Eléctrica. If they manage to change this public interest status, expropriations will have to stop.
- Citizens’ enquiry which asks the population if they agree with the construction of MAT. It ended on January 26th, and voting was possible online. The results will soon be released, but a large opposition to the MAT project is expected.
On January 8th, the day that the works for tower 66 had to start, Can Planelles -a house located less than 50 m from the tower- was surrounded by the police to prevent the inhabitants from going into the fields trying to stop the works. But something unexpected happened: An activist, who had been sleeping for a few days in a caravan beside the place where a tower had to be placed, constructed a tunnel from the caravan to his car, which was buried 3 m below floor level where works were supposed to start (see sketch ). He crawled into the car and chained his arm to a concrete tube. It took nearly the whole day for the firemen to get him out, preventing the works from beginning. Many people gathered around the place to give support and to stop the machinery which was trying to work even though it was dangerous for the buried activist. News spread on the social networks and people all over Spain where following the process and cheering for this activist. Police got involved and several activists were injured.
4 days later, more than 700 hundred attended a march aginst the MAT , which started in Santa Coloma de Farners and led to a natural area affected by the plan which includes a castle and an old church. Meanwhile, there was still police presence in Can Planelles to protect the works on tower number 66.
Police pressed charges against activists, and two people have been arrested recently for the tower 66 action. Some of the detainees refused to make any statement to the police. Support is showed in concentrations and demonstrations, no longer being considered a local struggle yet the struggle continues.
LINKS:
- No a la Mat Girona blog [CAT]
- Citizen enquiry [CAT]
Articles
- An Activist buries himself in a car protesting against MAT [ES]
- The itinerary of the MAT forces land expropiation [ES]
- March against the MAT in Santa Coloma de Farners [CAT]
Videos & Pics
- Call for support and resistence against MAT [CAT]
- Resistance on January, 8th
- Video to call to the citizens enquiry [CAT]
- Information about the MAT [CAT]
- Police charge in the fields
- Pictures and Videos gallery by @noalamatgirona
- Set of pictures January, 8th
Social Networks
- Facebook page
- Twitter Account: @noalamatgirona HT: #NoalaMat, #AturemLaMAT, #Fellines
3. A NEW SOCIAL AND CULTURAL PROJECT: LA BASE OPENS ITS DOORS
A new cultural and social project is born in the Poble Sec neighborhood of Barcelona. It’s called La Base (The Basis) and its aim is to build a community and reinforce the current mutual support network among neighbours. It already hosts 6 main projects : a Gathering Place , a Spontaneus Library set up by donated books, an I.T. Club as a learning place, a Centre of Audiovisual Documentation and Research , a Consumption Cooperative , a Trades Cooperative and a Popular Kitchen. The Trades Cooperative, besides sharing knowledge and experience in manual work, will offer services in plumbing, electricity, carpentry and other odd jobs for fair prices and using ecologically-oriented materials.
It took several months of community work to fix up and refurbish the space, with social activists and other cooperativists learning new manual tasks from the Trades Cooperative group. Finally, La Base opened its doors with a two-day inauguration programme on 25th and 26th of January. Neighbours were looking forward to getting to see this new space in Poble Sec and crowded La base during the inaugural activities -parade, meals, debates, documentaries, concerts, children space, games and a cabaret.
The calendar is already full of activities, projects are starting and the atmosphere of the gathering area is very welcoming and comfortable, where conversations flow easily as social activists from all sorts of collectives are numerous among La Base‘s members and visitors. The basis to a new society and a self-managed neighbourhood has finally arrived.
Barcelona 15m website click here
LINKS
- Inauguration Video
- La Base website [CAT]
- Streamings by @okokitsme:
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