As if it were a huge online shopping logistics warehouse, but with piles and piles of seemingly official shirts with Messi's number 10 on the back, €1,000 sneakers with fake brand certificates, and shorts that cost more than €500 on the legal market. Everything was ready to be packaged and sent via legal courier companies to all those who had placed orders via WhatsApp. This is what the Civil Guard found in two stores in the Lleida district after changing their strategy against theft. blanket top in the so-called Kermel operation.

The Civil Guard, in collaboration with the Mossos d'Esquadra (Spanish police), the National Police, and the Local Police, launched a joint major operation against street vendors in Roses this Monday morning. A total of around 250 police officers participated in one of the largest operations carried out so far in the municipality.

Maria Rosa López is one of the most punctual customers at the Verges market. Before eight in the morning, she's already waiting for the doors of El Café de la Plaza to open so she can take a sandwich to one of the stallholders. "The trust between vendor and customer is one of the markets' strengths; here we all know each other, we greet each other, and we catch up," López acknowledges. Verges is an example of the continued existence of small-town markets, with five or six stalls where one day a week you can find fruit, vegetables, clothing, or shoes. These types of markets are threatened by a lack of generational relevance, counterfeit products, government regulations, and a lifestyle that prevents younger generations from going shopping in the morning.

The Senegalese citizens who sell counterfeit clothing between Salou and Cambrils are furious. "No, we don't want to talk," most of them respond with a look of contempt when a journalist asks for answers. This Tuesday, 300 police officers raided various premises in Salou, Reus, and Les Borges del Camp that were operating as warehouses for counterfeit clothing that is then sold on the street. The police, who consider them a "criminal organization," already anticipated that clashes could break out. And so they did. The young Africans confronted the officers and threw stones and sticks at them. The operation resulted in confiscated material, 19 street vendors arrested, three officers injured, and an entire population shocked by the violence of the young Africans.

Last week, the Top Manta union organized a race against racism, the first to be held in Barcelona. It was a huge success, and many people ran the five kilometers of this sporting event, which was intended to be, in reality, "a great popular mobilization against racism." It was a joy to see the people participating in the initiative, because it is gratifying to see that the fight against racism unites a considerable number of consciences, and, in this case, of legs. So nothing against it. On the contrary. In its favor. But I would like to reflect, if time allows, on this trend, which has been around for some time but which I feel is on the rise, of making different kinds of demands through races. Of running. Of race numbers. Of competitiveness. Of kilometers. Of the finish line.

It is not usual to see a professional footballer take a position without filters, Although Héctor Bellerín has already demonstrated on numerous occasions that he breaks the mold of the conventional elite athlete. Nor is it unusual to organize a race in which the least important thing is winning, but rather participating and, above all, making your voice heard. This is what the Top Manta union proposes, which is holding this Sunday, with the support of some seventy social organizations."the first anti-racist race"in Barcelona. "You have to be there," says Bellerín, current Betis footballer and former club player for Barça and Arsenal, in a promotional video. The starting gun is at 10:00 a.m. in Plaça de Sants.

They will care for the 160 people sleeping at El Prat Airport.The Generalitat (Generalitat) and the city councils of El Prat and Barcelona are providing money and social support. This is good news, but the phenomenon is exploding. Every night, Barcelona is a vast open-air dormitory. Tents are set up near the Ciutadella fence. On Wednesday, as we were coming down from the Montjuïc stadium, people were already preparing for the bed on the mountainside. In the Eixample, any entrance to a facade, a shop door, or a garage door, any space under a balcony, is often a dormitory protected by a fence taken from the street and marked "Barcelona City Hall." It's even the home where dozens of people spend the day stretched out on a sleeping bag or a mattress as filthy as a fox, passing the hours, perhaps hoping no one will take their place, especially if there's a fountain nearby or the sun hits them in winter. Some haven't left the same streets for years, and you often see them huddled together, still as a statue in the first corner they find, their eyes closed, as if they've lost all contact with the outside world, despite being surrounded by millions of people.

The Top Manta union organizes a race with a laudable and necessary cause. Aziz Faye, the spokesperson for the street vendors, explains: "It must be a historic and forceful mobilization against racism and hate speech." It will be, for sure. Needless to say, I am in favor of races against racism and hate, although I am against, I can't help it, stallholders who don't pay VAT.

Fighting against increasingly normalized racism. With this premise, the Top Manta union, along with some seventy social organizations, is promoting "the first anti-racist race" in Barcelona, ​​​​similar to those held in other European cities. The event will be on Sunday, June 1, and beyond the thousand runners authorized by the City Council, the organizers are confident that the race will be a massive mobilization in the face of a "sociopolitical context that closely resembles the period between the wars, when Nazism took advantage of the situation to rise to power," warned Aziz Faye, spokesperson, this Thursday. "The race must be a historic and forceful mobilization against racism and hate speech," he summarized.