Barcelona: New Bank taken in La Floresta

Now there are 3 ex banks OCCUPIED around Barcelona. And on Friday a big crowd played cat and mouse with the baffled police, before successfully occupying another huge building as a ‘home for evicted mortgage defaulters’.

The latest Bank was taken in the La Floresta suburb. After a leafleting and graffiti march around local banks the local ‘Indignats’ cooked an enormous veggie Paella for up to 200 people. Finally they enacted a drama in the street which ended..SURPRISE in the occupation of an adjoining abandoned bank.(Still going strong). La Floresta is close to the new Occupied Castle Social Center (see post), begun just last week, so there’s plenty of local action, including a small consumers CoOp, an occupied community garden.. and more stuff.

http://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/ocupat-un-banc-occupan-otro-banco-banks-occupied-in-barcelona/

Madrid: Welcome to the Hotel Ocupa

Back in Madrid after a month in the USA, I find the indignados of the 15M movement have just taken a building nearby. The Hotel Madrid, at 10 calle Carretas is a long-abandoned former Best Western hotel. Now it is swarming with folks coming around to see what is up. The hotel is steps away from the Puerta del Sol, the center of Madrid and site of the original encampment of May 15th, 2011 that launched the Spanish movement which is the big sister of Occupy Wall Street.
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