By Left Horizons correspondents
Millions of Spanish workers and youth took part in a general strike yesterday – the first in the country for fourteen years. Workers took to the streets, only two weeks before a crucial general election, to protest against Spain’s ongoing housing crisis, which has not been addressed by the current government and is even less likely to be resolved if the right wing Vox-PP alliance wins. Mass demonstrations were held in all of the major cities and the strike was particularly well supported in coastal cities where the housing crisis is most severe.
This huge mass movement follows the scandal and subsequent protests over the eviction of an elderly woman from the flat she had occupied in Madrid for years – purely in order for her landlord to hike the rents. (see report here).
Although the overwhelming majority of participants in the strikes and demonstrations were peaceful, in Madrid riot police provoked anger by using foam bullets, tear gas and pepper spray in an attempt to disperse protesters around the central Plaza de España. Similar provocations took place in Barcelona. One of the junior parties in the current government called on the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to resign over the heavy-handed police response.
Today’s Guardian reports, that Spain has a deficit of around three quarters of a million homes and this is going to grow to a million in just over a year, according to the Central Bank in Madrid. “With fewer people able to afford a home, renting has increased sharply, putting pressure on that market. The average rental price of €1,176 ($1,315) is equivalent to about 98.7% of a young person’s average monthly salary in Spain, according to the Youth Council of Spain”.
The Guardian also quotes a 36-year-old worker, who supported the strike. He is still unable to move out of his parents’ home because of the cost of rent and its relationship to his wage. “Rents just keep going up, house prices just keep going up, and it’s simply impossible.”
Our correspondent in Seville reported that “Typically, the UGT and CCOO [trade union federations] suspended this evening’s march in Seville due to the rain… but it did not stop tens of thousands from turning up”. (video above).
The housing crisis is clearly not an issue that is going away any time soon and whatever the outcome of the general election on November 29, workers and youth will not be intimidated into staying silent. Answers are needed.
We hope to get further reports directly from Spain in the coming days
[Video from PorelSocialismo. Feature photograph is from a general strike in Spain some years ago. From Wikimedia Commons here]
