Top Manta organizes the first anti-racist race in Barcelona

BarcelonaFighting 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.

The union had long sought an activity to raise awareness and demand anti-racism, and they have finally decided on an athletic race as a "symbol" of what "running" means for street vendors and for people of color or in an irregular administrative situation. "We are street vendors and we run from the police simply to survive as street vendors," Faye said at the race presentation, "but we've been running for much longer. We've been running in our own lands, plundered by the global north, trying to survive on the borders." The race of obstacles, the activist continues, extends to Catalonia with problems obtaining residency, renting an apartment, racist police identification, and the lack of places for the Catalan language.

Three registration modalities

On a strictly sporting level, the race consists of a five-kilometer circular route through the streets of Sants, starting and finishing in front of the Cotxeres de Sants. Activist Marema Babou explained that there are three registration options: a basic one for 20 euros and a 22-euro one with the chip included; a 40-euro one that includes a T-shirt or a number zero. All proceeds will go toward improving the living conditions of street vendors and contributing to regularization. This is the philosophy with which the union was founded 10 years ago. The official race T-shirt is also full of symbolism, displaying the slogan "water!", with which street vendors and residents warn of the arrival of the police. "It's a cry for protection," they say.

According to the organizers, Barcelona City Council has put "obstacles" in the way of the Street Vendors' Union being able to hold a race, and, in this sense, has criticized that only the call has been criticized; the important thing is not the athletic results, but to demonstrate the social mobilization against racism.