A-Infos (en) Spaine, Regeneracion: Class Self-Organization in the Face of the Housing Crisis - By LIZA (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Maricarmen's cruel eviction was carried out right before our eyes, yet 
this shameful event could not be silenced-neither by police repression 
nor by attempts to control media coverage. We are committed to ensuring 
it is not silenced or diverted by the instrumental, electoral use that 
both the government and the institutional "progressive" camp seek to 
make of it.
Contents
1) Madrid is a particularly brutal example of this situation
2) What is our response? Solidarity, yes. Organization, above all.

Maricarmen, an 87-year-old resident of Madrid's Retiro neighborhood, has 
been evicted without any alternative housing solution. The dedication 
and solidarity shown by neighbors, the tenants' union, the housing 
movement, and various social and revolutionary groups could not halt the 
eviction driven by a vulture fund that had quintupled our neighbor's rent.

The judicial commission, backed by a police battering ram, unleashed 
brutal violence against protesters and achieved its goal: facilitating 
housing speculation.

Yet the housing problem is not limited to this dramatic case; nearly 70 
evictions take place across Spain every day. Meanwhile, fascist thugs 
and paramilitary-style eviction squads threaten our neighbors, while the 
media stokes campaigns of criminalization and fear. It all serves the 
interests of speculators.

The fact is that the housing problem is insoluble for the working class 
under a system that prioritizes capital accumulation for the few over 
the basic rights of the majority. In a capitalism in constant 
crisis-like the one we endure-the pursuit of profit is a fundamental 
necessity for them. Thus, they sink their claws into social life. States 
and administrative bodies-regardless of who is in power-cannot and will 
not reverse this dynamic: through laws, regulations, taxation, and 
housing policies, they enable housing to function as a commodity and a 
financial asset.

Progressive governments, too, will not solve the problem-despite their 
rhetoric and attempts to turn high-profile evictions into campaign 
events. Far from intending to challenge the housing business, all their 
legislative proposals are either insufficient or underfunded, ensuring 
they cannot be fulfilled even when they are progressive in nature. They 
even facilitate repression and aggression against the working class and 
its self-defense organizations through repressive laws, the systematic 
deployment of security forces, and the proposal of administrative or 
criminal sanctions against the militants and activists fighting this 
injustice.

We are not simply dealing with governments "that do not do enough": the 
system itself regulates in favor of those who profit from speculation. 
The bourgeois State and its administrators protect property and 
profitability while repressing those who challenge that order.

Madrid is a particularly brutal example of this situation.
Ayuso's arrogant and despotic style is part of this "national-liberal" 
project. The regional and municipal governments promote a city conceived 
as a showcase, a tourist destination, and a space for leisure and 
business for the wealthy-subordinating the city to these ends while 
driving the working class out of their homes and neighborhoods.

This dynamic of aggression by a crisis-ridden capitalism against the 
working class is not limited to housing or employment; it extends to all 
the gains of working-class struggle embodied in public services and 
resources, which are being degraded or privatized.

Nor are we dealing with a mere social accident or a policy that can 
simply be steered in a different direction. Only by making our lives 
increasingly precarious can they force us to sell our labor power and 
our time for less.

Capitalism in crisis seeks to pursue a dynamic of wealth concentration 
in a few hands by degrading the lives of the working classes and pitting 
them against one another, as we have seen in Ceuta. Ayuso's penthouse 
thus becomes a particularly potent symbol: while an 87-year-old woman is 
being evicted, those at the pinnacle of power live surrounded by 
privilege and shady dealings built upon the dispossession and 
exploitation of the working class.

What is our response? Solidarity, yes. But above all, organization.
We must be present at every eviction, every instance of police 
aggression, every labor dispute, and every struggle. We must put our 
bodies on the line, yet remain aware that protest only gains real 
strength when it transforms into working-class self-organization.

Our task cannot be reduced to seeking a rhetorical formula that garners 
the most votes and goodwill while avoiding the root of the problem and 
the only real solution. Any populist politics inevitably leads us into 
the dead end of settling for the "lesser evil."

We must break with the populist strategy and adopt a mass-based politics 
without losing our combative, radical edge in the process.

We must not be afraid to speak of capitalism, the bourgeoisie, and the 
working class. We cannot permanently substitute these terms with vague 
concepts like "the people," "neighbors," or abstract "speculators."

The fear of "scaring the middle classes" can end up preventing us from 
explaining the true nature of the conflict-and, consequently, from 
developing a strategy to confront it.

We need conflicts to solidify into permanent structures of working-class 
organization and self-defense capable of overcoming fragmentation: 
housing, labor, healthcare, education, transport, social rights, and 
equality are not separate struggles.

We need to connect these conflicts and build a collective political 
capacity within the working class to understand the system's global 
workings and confront it radically.

Purely defensive structures have their limits; capital will continue to 
advance. If our only strategy is to block the next attack, we remain 
perpetually reactive. We need organizations capable not only of defense 
but of challenging the entire system.

This requires avoiding the kind of populism and activism that steers us 
toward reformist policies and transforms movements into bureaucratic 
service-delivery apparatuses.

We fight for the consolidation of direct, combative forms of 
self-organization capable of creating political agents rather than mere 
users, dues-paying members, or voters. That is why we combat-from within 
our own spaces-the bureaucratic leaderships that prioritize their own 
interests over those of the working class.

Solidarity, yes. Protest, yes. But above all: self-organization and 
class struggle.

Liza, Anarchist Platform.

https://regeneracionlibertaria.org/2026/09/24/autoorganizacion-de-clase-ante-el-drama-de-la-vivienda/
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