After the massive housing demonstration in Barcelona last month, with over 170,000 participants, the Tenants' Union has delivered on its promise of direct action.
On Wednesday, the union announced the launch of the long-threatened rent strike. "The revolution of the keys has begun," said Enric Aragonès, spokesperson for the union.
The first rent strikes are already underway. In Salou, a coastal town in southern Catalonia, 23 families living in two social housing blocks managed by La Caixa bank have begun withholding payments.
Since Monday, 62% of tenants in these blocks have refused to pay the last two months of rent.
Meanwhile, in Sentmenat, a town near Barcelona, renters from another housing block are set to join the strike starting March 1.
These actions mark the "first steps of the rent strike." Aragonès justified the move by citing "abusive clauses" in social housing contracts.
Law professor at Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University, Jordi Bonshoms, believes “all the ingredients” for a rent strike to take off are in place in Barcelona right now, due to widespread difficulty in finding housing and affordable housing.
He believes that such an action could be useful as a “political exercise” to bring attention to the topic, rather than as a "general strike" in which the entire population could join.
“In the beginning, it would be in an apartment block against a specific owner, against an investment fund that is increasing the rent, or putting in abusive clauses, or harassing the tenants,” he posits.
Bonshoms believes that this idea could be "the most effective first step" of neighborhood cooperation. "If the tenants say enough and consider doing something, this can be a rent strike," he adds.
Assuming that the property owner decides to file a lawsuit for non-payment, Bonshoms assures that the tenants "could defend themselves," despite the fact that the rent strike is not currently a recognized right.
"If there is a sustained grievance over time, a rent strike has ways, under specific conditions, to defend itself," he argues.
Meanwhile, Maridalia Rodríguez, an expert in real estate law and professor at Pompeu Fabra University, points out that stopping paying rent as a protest measure "is not a right."
Instead, she views such an idea as a mass call to breach contracts, which may ultimately lead to eviction.
To learn more about the housing crisis in Catalonia, the demands of the Tenants' Union, and the legal debate over a rent strike, listen to this episode of our podcast Filling the Sink.
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The Sindicat de Llogateres announces that two communities of subsidized housing developments will stop paying because of "abuses" by their manager
This is explained by the Sindicat de Llogateres
which on Wednesday announced the start of the first “rent strike” in Catalonia
This is the protest that several tenants of subsidized housing developments managed by InmoCaixa in Salou and Sentmenat have started
the affected neighbors have voted in assemblies and have decided to stop paying monthly payments in response to what they consider abuses by the management company
We tell you the details of the two cases of “rent strike” that are underway
representing 70% of the residents of a subsidized housing estate
have already stopped paying rent for the last two months
The objective is to recover what they consider an unfair overcharge derived from the collection of the Real Estate Tax (IBI) by InmoCaixa
The Sindicat de Llogateres reminds that the IBI charge on subsidized housing has been declared illegal by the Supreme Court
which would support the families’ action
The families have announced that until the company does not return the amounts collected
Two subsidized housing developments in Sentmenat
a municipality in Vallés Occidental near Sabadell
have also announced that they will join the rent strike as of March 2025
The neighbors are demanding the extension of expired contracts
the withdrawal of judicial eviction processes
and the elimination of abusive clauses and overpricing in order to recover the original rental conditions
the protest comes after years of what the neighbors describe as “real estate harassment” by the management company
with high prices and lack of maintenance in the properties
The unpaid rent money will be deposited in a joint account and will not be transferred to the owner
From the Sindicat they explain that these housing developments managed by private developers are part of the Govern’s housing plan to tackle the housing crisis
these do not address the problems faced by many social housing tenants
Earlier this month the Sindicat de Llogateres approved “moving towards a rent strike”
taking concrete actions to make this possible
they say they will seek to expand on the Salou and Sentmenat cases to create a precedent that could inspire more communities in conflict situations with their landlords
Now the Sindicat de Llogateres has launched the “Brigades Llogateres”
action groups that seek to promote the idea of the rent strike in blocks where they are suffering abuses by the owners of the apartments
Outrage over a “feudal” tax levied by nobles on Spanish property owners has been rekindled after sales of homes were halted by the deaths of a marquess and his sister
Homeowners trying to sell properties in the northeast Catalonia region have been surprised to find they owe thousands of euros to aristocratic landowners
The tax varies from 2 per cent on the price of sale
no estimate has been made to establish the percentage of the population affected
Most of the taxed properties belonged to the former domains
Registered in England No. 894646. Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, SE1 9GF.
A hundred years after his birth, we have to look not only at Coderch’s works, but at the cultural milieu surrounding them. José Antonio Coderch de Sentmenat (1913-1984) was part of Grup R but left it relatively soon, and became a member of Team X. This shows to what degree he was the most internationally recognized Catalan architect in the 1950s.
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First published: October 17, 2023 01:20 PM
A joint operation between Catalonia's Mossos d'Esquadra police and Spain's National Police dismantled the Spanish branch of an international white supremacist organization on Tuesday.
Neo-Nazi group Combat 18 is outlawed in Germany and designated a terrorist organization in Canada.
Police carried out 14 searches in various Catalan municipalities, as well as in Madrid, Lugo, Malaga and Toledo. They arrested 16 people, 13 men and 3 women.
Combat 18 is considered the armed branch of the far-right extremist organization Blood and Honour, which has a presence in several countries and aims to achieve its political goals via a clandestine armed struggle.
The organization spreads hate for racist, antisemitic and ideological reasons, a Mossos d'Esquadra statement explained.
They aim to establish a Neo-Nazi regime, destabilize the normal functioning of political, social and economic institutions, and seriously disrupt public order in their pursuit of white supremacist control.
Under the direction of Manresa District Court No. 3, agents carried out 14 searches: ten in Catalonia and four elsewhere in Spain.
Of the 16 arrests, 11 were made in Catalan municipalities: two in Barcelona, two in Lloret de Mar, two in Prat de Llobregat, two in Mollerussa, two in Sentmenat and one in Sant Boi de Llobregat.
Two arrests were made in Malaga (Andalusia), one in Lugo (Galicia), one in Arganda del Rey (Madrid) and one in Ventas de San Julián (Toledo).
The suspects had connections to other members of Combat 18 in Europe and South America.
The group's activities in Spain included holding multiple organizational meetings, recruitment of militants, producing merchandise to finance the group, attempts to source firearms, and planning attacks against people and property.
Police also accuse them of far-right proselytizing in the form of racist, antisemitic, LGBTQ-phobic, and xenophobic hate speech, online, offline, and in instant messaging groups.
The investigation remains open and further arrests are not being ruled out. Those detained are expected to appear in court in the coming days.
Recordando a Coderch is an approximation to the figure of the Catalan architect José Antonio Coderch de Sentmenat (Barcelona
1984) from interviews with people who knew him or worked with him like Rafael Moneo
Archive Art
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