The platform Ens Costa la Vida, the Tenants' Union (Sindicat de Llogateres), and the Trade Union Table of Catalonia –a coordination space that brings together various alternative unions such as the CGT– have announced that the main demonstration for the 24-hour strike for housing and wages on November 11th will take place at Jardinets de Gràcia, in Barcelona, at 5:30 PM. As union sources explain, before the announcement, the proposal had not been previously conveyed to the major unions, although, according to them, CCOO has already decided to call for a demonstration at the same location, and everything suggests that the UGT will decide the same.

The second episode of the podcast Tocar sostre revolves around how we should understand housing: is it a basic necessity, an investment asset, or a social right? Participants include urban anthropologist Manuel Delgado, economist Josep Oliver, and economist and president of the Hàbitat3 Foundation, Carme Trilla. Moderated by journalist Carla Turró.

What makes the housing problem most intractable is that every effort is made to dissociate it from its main cause, which is none other than immigration.

A sea of thousands of green t-shirts approaches the Puerta del Sol this Wednesday at noon. "Public education for everyone and by everyone," it reads in white printed letters. They are the teachers of non-university public schools in the Community of Madrid, who are starting an indefinite general strike. They advance walking along one of the streets that leads to the kilometer zero of the Spanish capital. Upon arriving, they surround the nearly 2,000 tents that have remained installed in the square for almost twenty days: the first one was placed on the night of September 26th.

While current events are marked by the housing crisis, an auction platform has brought a historic three-story building in the old town of Valls to the market with a starting price of 1 euro. For less than what a loaf of bread or a latte costs, Escrapalia is offering a 368-square-meter property with a garage and attic in the capital of the Alt Camp region. However, to live in it, a comprehensive renovation is required.

We are entering an election pre-campaign and economic nonsense is skyrocketing. Today I want to talk to you about the general state budget and the destination of our taxes. By the way, these are budgets that have been extended for five years. To begin with, it must be clarified that the items managed by the autonomous communities are not included.

The first episode of the podcast Tocar sostre deals with the issue of housing rentals. Participants include businesswoman Joana Amat, notary and member of the Board of Directors of the Cercle d'Economia Camino Quiroga and writer Llucia Ramis. Moderated by journalist Antoni Bassas.

The housing crisis has acquired a dimension that goes beyond the social and economic sphere, to the point that it has precipitated the early calling of elections. This situation highlights the magnitude of a problem that increasingly conditions the present and future of the country. For too long we have addressed housing mainly as a social issue, which it is, and of great importance. But today it has also become a problem for our companies and their competitiveness, since the difficulty in accessing affordable housing conditions where we can live, but also where we can work, what professional opportunities we can accept, and what capacity companies have to attract and retain talent.

Pedro Sánchez, in an interview with Eldiario.es, has asked the “lefts” to his left to “please” reach an agreement, and has also said that it is "time for Parliament to look more like the street and not like those who live in penthouses". He wanted to land a little jab at Isabel Díaz Ayuso and her apartment, bought not with “vulture funds” but perhaps with “vulture ends”, but he did not do it well. The lefts will never reach an agreement, because if they reach an agreement it means they have become centrist. Being on the left is, above all, being more left-wing than the others and living to point out those others who are not as left-wing as you. It is like being pro-independence. You cannot reach an agreement, because if you reach an agreement you are no longer pro-independence, you are a federalist, and you live to point out those who are a little less pro-independencethan you.

I believe that, right now, the great obstacle in the struggle for housing is cultural, and the paradox is that the problem is precisely the culture that has formed around what it implies to be the owner of a house. Because, as all the readers who try to understand the problem every week and commit to a solution must already know by now, we will not succeed with economists alone. I remember perfectly the squabbles following the 2008 crisis, and that was nothing compared to the mud we are seeing in the housing debate, in which experts of one stripe and the other throw at each other data and theories so opposed and incompatible, and with such bitterness, that the very meaning of the word expert is emptied of content and one feels on an exhausting rollercoaster and changes certainties and opinions after each reading.

Spanish and Catalan reactionarism rejected last week the emergency decrees on housing that could alleviate, if not resolve, the residential emergency situation that a significant part of the population is suffering. There was a social outcry for it to be addressed. Junts has adopted the narrative of large property holders and real estate speculators, as well as that of small and medium-sized rentiers who have contributed to straining, and in what way, this market. With their position, they have not defended the interests of their voters nor of those who are owners of their own homes, but rather those of speculators with tourist apartments and large flat holders. They present it as a mere technical issue, but the subject is radically political. Either we defend particular interests or general ones, that is indisputable. When someone questioned the existence of class struggle, the great financier Warren Buffett said: “There is class struggle, and the one winning is mine”. Buffett is a speculator who was sensible enough to say that he does not understand why a tax rate below that of his secretary is applied to him. There are those who are in politics to defend lobbies, vulture funds and extractive minorities. It does not hide it that they wrap themselves in flags or falsely technical speeches. Experts claim that the agreement to validate one of the decrees was done, and that it was Puigdemont and his unpleasant representative in Madrid who backed out.

Now that thousands of French teenagers have taken to the streets to protest, the (quite comfortable) temptation has arisen to discuss the most spectacular images of the demonstrations and to hastily interpret who these young people are and what their protest means. We have seen it these days. The mobilizations are explained through the banlieues, immigration, the far-left or, directly, the racaille (which means scum, riffraff, but not only that, because it is a word with a specific political history in France, which returns periodically, when certain young people stop occupying the place that others have assigned to them).

One of the reasons that have led the Spanish government to call early elections on November 29 has been the 'no' to the housing decrees from Junts, the PP, and Vox. Political parties have different positions on the housing crisis, and also different electorates. They have different percentages of tenants and homeowners among their voters, for example, and this can condition their point of view on the housing crisis.

At the gates of elections that will revolve around housing, the Spanish government is boasting about the construction of subsidized housing (HPO) during the first half of the year and speaks of "accelerated growth". The administrations as a whole – central, regional, and local – have begun to build 70% more apartments than in the same period last year. However, in absolute numbers, these are 13,942 homes, 20% compared to the 67,500 that have been promoted for the free market.

The actor Bruno Bergonzini, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when he was only 25 years old, has made an appeal on social media to find an adapted apartment that would allow him to live with his illness. As he shared in a post on Instagram, he has been granted aid under the dependency law and currently lives in a residence, but in order not to lose this aid, he needs to find a "minimally adapted" home in the province of Barcelona within the next two months. Bergonzini is known for his roles in productions such as Laberint d'ombres, Al salir de clase and El mar.

Housing has become the major topic of public debate over the last two weeks. While Ceuta and the migration crisis marked the three summer months, the situation in the autonomous city has now taken a back seat to talk about the housing emergency. An issue that has even led the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, to call for elections to demand more support for the progressive majority. In this context, the Center for Sociological Studies, the government body led by José Félix Tezanos, has published a monothematic survey on housing conducted in June, which reinforces the Spanish government's position on this matter.

A social outburst, two emergency decrees, a snap election in Spain, and a general strike. The magnitude of the consequences of the Maricarmen case explains the shock over the death this Wednesday of the 87-year-old woman, who had become, following her eviction in Madrid, a symbol of the fight for the right to housing. Social movements have been mourning the passing of Maricarmen Abascal since last night and, as expected, her death has fully entered into the pre-campaign for the November 29 elections. Political messages of condolence have turned into crossed attacks between the parties, and the left has erupted against the PP, which has vetoed minutes of silence in memory of the woman in the Senate and in the Assembly and City Council of Madrid.

Dear young people and not-so-young people who are camping in the squares or who sympathize with those camping there to demand a right that is being denied to you, the right to have a roof over your heads: I would like to tell you something that you may know, but perhaps not, because the world moves very fast, one news story covers up another, and many of you do not read newspapers. My daughter is 18 years old and, like many of you, she will vote for the first time. Like many of you, she will not inherit any apartment (I would have liked for her to inherit one) but she will have a little more luck than others: she will inherit a half-paid mortgage with a reasonable price. She was born in 2007, which I have often explained (I am rambling willingly and consciously) was the year of the Golden Pig: at the Chinese restaurants where I used to go with my pregnant belly, they told me it was a year “of great luck”.

November 11th. This is the date agreed upon by the unions to call a general strike for the right to housing, wages, and the cost of living throughout the State, the first since 2012 –if one does not take into account the 2025 strike for Palestine, which was called by minority unions–. In Catalonia, it will be the second in the same period of time, after the one called in October 2017 against the police repression of October 1st.

The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030 has opened disciplinary proceedings against a real estate portal operating throughout the State, without disclosing which one it is, for "possible unfair commercial practices against consumers and users". According to a note from this Wednesday, the General Directorate of Consumer Affairs initiated this investigation after receiving a complaint from the Federation of Consumers and Users CECU.