Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

This is What Democracy Looks Like! : The Fight For The Can Vies Social Centre

Fwd: Freedom News | 22.07.2014 17:51 | Free Spaces | Indymedia | Social Struggles | Liverpool | World

n May Barcelona was shook by four days of rioting and protest against the eviction of an established social centre, Can Vies.

Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza looks at the history of the building, and interviews the organisers currently fighting its eviction.

Self organised social centre (Centre social autogestionat) Can Vies has been a space for radical politics and community organising for 17 years. It’s been a place where different generations of activists can meet and learn from each other, where hundreds of people have learnt to be a part of a community, participating in the assembly with consensus decision making and collective responsibility.



In May Barcelona was shook by four days of rioting and protest against the eviction of an established social centre, Can Vies.

Juana Belén Gutiérrez de Mendoza looks at the history of the building, and interviews the organisers currently fighting its eviction.

Self organised social centre (Centre social autogestionat) Can Vies has been a space for radical politics and community organising for 17 years. It’s been a place where different generations of activists can meet and learn from each other, where hundreds of people have learnt to be a part of a community, participating in the assembly with consensus decision making and collective responsibility.

The CSA is also part of the Sants Neighbourhood Assembly (ABS) which coordinates political and social movements in the area, and several campaigns: against gentrification, migrant solidarity, worker’s struggles, and against state repression. Just having a look at their website you’ll find events from an alternative Pride to radical history, with the spirit of community organising always at its heart. Built in 1879, it was initially a storage space used during the construction of Barcelona’s underground tube system. When the Spanish Civil War broke out it was taken over by the CNT railway workers, who took it into common ownership. It continued to be a railway workers building during the Franco era and housed one of Franco’s class collaborationist ‘vertical unions’. In 1984, Metropolitan Transport for Barcelona (TMB) handed the building over to the CNT.

TMB and the council have been threatening the centre with eviction since 2006 in order to replace it with yuppie flats. The CNT, unsurprisingly, supports the squatters. On the 19th of March 2014 a local court (equivalent to Magistrates Court in the UK) ordered the eviction of Can Vies to take place between the 1st and 30th of April. An online call for solidarity was launched by the CSA against the eviction of the social centre. Several days of action were also called demanding the cancellation of the eviction order. On the 27th of March over a hundred local people from all walks of life went to the Sants-Montjuïc District Office to lodge their appeal against the eviction.

In April and May there were several actions at the nearest tube stations, and on the 20th of May twenty people in yellow t-shirts occupied the District Office. The district regent and the mayor promised to relocate the social centre (in most likelihood away from the area within which it currently resides) but the Can Vies made clear that they aren’t moving anywhere. The Catalan regional police (Mossos d’Esquadra) decided to go in by force on the 26th of May 2014 to evict the residents. The demolition itself triggered four nights of riots in Barcelona, with solidarity demos being called in almost all major cities. The destruction was only partial and in June the works began to rebuild the social centre. Crowd funded donations have so far amounted to a massive 20, 000€, but the appeal is still asking for another 50, 000€ to complete renovation work.

You can donate here:  http://www.verkami.com/projects/9257-can-vies-viu-br-refemcanvies-br-estenem-l-autogestio

More information including an interview with Can Vies Press:  http://freedompress.org.uk/news/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like-the-fight-for-the-canvies-social-centre/

Freedom News -  http://freedompress.org.uk/news/

Fwd: Freedom News
- Homepage: http://freedompress.org.uk/news/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech