The busy and anarchist social center L’Horta celebrates its tenth anniversary with a show of strength and the ever-latent threat of the Integrated Action Program (PAI) of Benimaclet
May 9, 2022 by Marc Campos on La_Directa translation thefreeonline
In the neighborhood of Benimaclet, in the north of the city of Valencia, caressing the edge of the orchard despite the presence of the Ronda Nord – the metropolitan road structure that surrounds this side of the city – grows every day a historic farmhouse of high ethnological and architectural value dating from the late eighteenth century.
At the end of Carrer Diógenes López Mecho, next to Plaça de les Tretze Roses – named after the Feminist Assembly of Benimaclet – we find, always with open arms and doors, the Center Social Okupat i Anarquista (CSOA). Horta.
The estate, known since its inception as the Tello Farmhouse, dedicated to the cultivation and sale of flowers (Flores Amanda, formed by a farmhouse, courtyards and nursery on the Camí del Farinós 16–, was included in 1989 –in of the General Plan of Urban Planning (PGOU) – in an urban program that, until 1999, would be developed through expropriation and, from then until now, through a process – legitimized under the “general interest” by the municipal administration – which grants the disposition and urban exploitation of the lands to a construction company, under the name of Integrated Action Program (PAI) of Benimaclet-Est.
The Alqueria Tello was abandoned by companies and institutions, beginning a process of degradation, aggravated from 2003. In 2005 there was a first occupation
The farmhouse, which has two buildings, took on the dual function of housing project and Occupied Anarchist Social Center (CSOA). In this first stage – from 2005 to 2007 – conflicts arose between a family that lived there and the youth of the CSOA, to which was added the harassment of police and thugs paid by the ex-owner – thus assuming the end of the project of ‘occupation, both social and housing.
At the end of March 2012, during the general strike, around thirty people again occupied the estate with a clearly political aim, giving birth to what is now known as the Anarchist Occupied Social Center (CSOA) l’Horta.
Thus began the process of restoring, recovering, and cleaning the space; the buildings were rehabilitated and the land re-plowed.
‘Mafalda’ performance during the musical night of the birthday | Jaume Ferrando
According to Irene, a member of the CSOA l’Horta Political Assembly, ”. But – as they recall – the permanent alert was not the only feeling that was lived in those first months, also the illusion, for a space so full of opportunities.
“We received support from other occupied spaces, such as the now defunct CSO El Nido and CSO Proyecto Mayhem,” says Irene. And he added: “We are certainly the heirs of other spaces, of other struggles.”
Since then, the CSOA l’Horta has forged numerous links with other political spaces and projects, especially in the neighborhood where it grows, Benimaclet, such as the Feminist Assembly, the Social Center Bar (CSB) Terra or the Cuidem Benimaclet neighborhood assembly. .
At the same time he has participated in city-wide projects such as Juntes sin por, Valencia is not for sale or EntreBarris, and always with an internationalist look – in colleagues from other parts of the world, as has been evident with the visit of International Brigades over the years, such as in 2021 with the visit of the Zapatistas of La Gira Per La Vida – members of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) and the National Indigenous Congress (CNI).
Thus, for 10 years, “it has become a physical space where to carry out the different struggles –such as the struggle for housing and for the territory–, to orient a social transformation, a new world, for self-management, the occupation and transfeminism ”.
“The CSOA l’Horta has not stopped expanding beyond the green fence of the old Alqueria Tello, and weaving a revolutionary social network strengthened with dynamics based on solidarity, mutual support and, ultimately, of anarchy, ” they say.
The best strategy is to “have us”
During the first months of activity, many self-managed orchards sprang up around the farmhouse, which currently form a total of 84 plots in an area of 8,000 square meters. This is how one of the first groups in the space exploded like a new flower: Hortets. (mini gardens)
Along with Hortets, and with the passage of spring, the groups and projects multiplied. Today we find, in addition to Hortets, the Assembly of Solidarity in Mexico, the Defined Management Group, the Liberated Musical Space, the Casita de la Huerta, Muai Tai, the Anarchist Library of l’Horta, the Horta Political Assembly, Legerin Azadi, Arada, GRAMA, Teatre Mariner, the Feminist Assembly of Benimaclet and the Valencia Employment Office.
“The CSOA l’Horta is everyone’s home, if there are anyone’s homes.” This is how Adrià, a member of the CSOA l’Horta, sums it up in several of its assemblies. Who doesn’t hesitate to point out that “the best strategy is to have us.”
As we are told by the legal team, L’Horta is in constant legal danger. “It is a time of post-offensive by the SAREB, through a fund manager and toxic assets for various companies: NOW ASSET MANAGEMENT SL”, explains one of the lawyers. (note: SAREB is a state funded bank set up to manage toxic assets of other banks after the 2008 crisis.)
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