A big banging of pots for housing at all city councils: the next move of the Tenants' Union

Barcelona"It is key that thousands of people demand tomorrow, Thursday, in front of all the town halls in the country, that the Congress of Deputies validates the two decrees". This is the message from the Tenants' Union to call on citizens to put pressure so that on Friday political parties give the green light to the two decrees that the Spanish government has approved in the council of ministers and which include a battery of measures to limit speculative buying and suspend evictions.

Looking ahead to Thursday, the union has made a call for pot-banging protests to be organized at 8 p.m. in front of all the state's town halls to demand the approval of the two housing decrees. "Let no party dare to betray with a vote against the social outcry expressed these days on the streets", they warn in a statement.

On the other hand, and regardless of whether the decrees are approved or not, the union has also called for a demonstration on Saturday at 7 pm at Plaça Pius XXII in l'Hospitalet de Llobregat. They assert that "an emergency regulation, like these decrees, will not be able to reverse decades of policies that have turned housing into a business" and call for mobilization this weekend to take advantage of "a historic window of opportunity to change housing policies once and for all." The mobilization will also include two columns that will leave from Barcelona and Sabadell to end at the demonstration in l'Hospitalet.

A hundred campers in Plaça Catalunya

The call for these two new mobilizations comes after a hundred people spent the night in an encampment at Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona to demand the right to housing. The movement has been a reflection of the encampment that has occupied the Puerta del Sol in Madrid since Saturday and which many are already calling a new 15-M. Tonight there were about fifty tents set up, and it is expected that more people will join throughout the day today.

The encampment was organized through social media, and the organizers explain that they are "a group of people from different housing unions, assemblies, and individuals with a common concern" who have united "in the face of the difficulties imposed on us in accessing housing." For their part, the Tenants' Union (Sindicat de Llogateres) states that they did not lead the proposal to camp, but that they consider "all initiatives to be welcome." They explain that this afternoon they will meet with the people camping to "explore how to collaborate moving forward."

Occupation of a municipal institute

Also this Wednesday, the Housing Union Confederation of Catalonia (COSHAC) occupied the headquarters of the Municipal Institute of Housing and Rehabilitation of Barcelona (IMHAB) coinciding with the presentation of a new union section linked to the municipal body. According to the entity, as a result of the action, they managed to stop an eviction of an IMHAB property scheduled for October 7 in Nou Barris and open a path for negotiation with the municipal administration.