The group that previously squatted Ca la Trava and Ka la Kastanya denounces that the police operation that tried to evict the social center on Carrer d’Asturies was carried out without a court order.
At 7 a.m. on Wednesday, the Mossos d’Esquadra, made up of riot vans, occupied the Gràcia district of Barcelona. The objective was to evict Ca l’Espina, a squatted social center located at number 12 Asturias Street. “The police vans went from Fontana to Lesseps,” explains the group that occupied the building in January 2020. “There has been a totally disproportionate militarization of the neighborhood,” they add.
The apartment block in the centre of the city is made up of four floors of housing and a room on the ground floor. When the members of the project learned that the police wanted to break into Ca l’Espina, they blocked the access that goes from the premises to the houses in which about fifteen people live today.
In the end, the Mossos d’Esquadra were only able to enter the premises. It was then that Òscar and Joan Fradera, both parents and owners of the estate and the real estate company Bojous S.L., appeared with an architect and a team of workers. According to reports from Ca l’Espina, the real estate agency intends to carry out work that includes the installation of an elevator. “We were able to empty the premises thanks to the mediation of the team of workers, but for the moment, the space is guarded by two security guards; that is to say, we practically live together,” they explain from the squatted building.
During the operation, about thirty people demonstrated in the street against the eviction and a dozen were checked by the police.
The problem with this case is that the action of the police could be outside the law. The people who make up the Ca l’Espina project denounce that the Mossos d’Esquadra showed up at their home without a court order and note irregularities in the entire judicial process that was carried out against the squatted social center. “Once the occupation was carried out, we received a criminal complaint that the judge rejected and dealt with in the civil courts,” they say. “Later, the police, in three random days, filed three criminal complaints,” they add. In the case of this Wednesday’s police operation, the person denounced was in any case not warned and that is why Ca l’Espina speaks of a “totally opaque” judicial and police operation. “We don’t know if this procedure is legal, just like the others or if it is done behind our backs,” say the members of Ca l’Espina.
They are also surprised that, although at first Joan Fradera wanted to talk to them under the pretext of finding a negotiated solution to the conflict, he immediately filed a criminal complaint against Ca l’Espina. “We believe that it was only a money laundering operation on his part,” they say.
A struggle that has come a long way
The project of occupation of the collective that is now in Ca l’Espina is not new. It all started in December 2016 when, under the name Ca La Trava, a property located in Travessera de Gràcia was occupied. The eviction of this space took place, also with a significant police deployment, in October 2018 and a month later, in November of the same year, a new building renamed Ka la Kastanya in Torrent de les Flors was occupied. The latter property was evicted in September 2019. At the same time, in February 2019, after the building was demolished by the Ca La Trava property despite protests from the neighborhood, the collective squatted on the plot and created a community garden.
“Our goal is to make visible a situation that is more than obvious in the neighborhood: the eviction of neighbors because of gentrification that threatens their rights,” they say from Ca l’Espina. According to the group, there has been an increase in prices both in housing and shops, making it impossible to ensure the well-being of people who have always lived in the neighborhood or those who do not have high livelihoods, thus destroying the community fabric of Gràcia.
In addition to squatting as a practice to combat real estate speculation, Ca l’Espina – and the other houses in the project – functioned as an activity space for residents. “We have had few opportunities to start the project because of COVID, but so far we have done a self-managed bike workshop, an open-air cinema and some days we have set up stalls in the street,” they explain.
Evictions during the pandemic
“Since the end of the lockdown, many evictions have been carried out,” they point out from Ca l’Espina, which recalls that a police operation was also recently carried out against the CSO Mayday in the centre of Barcelona. For the collective, the institutions are taking advantage of the situation of perplexity to launch a campaign against housing alternatives in a city where residents are finding it increasingly difficult to live.
At the same time, they consider that this type of action at a time when leaving someone on the street poses a risk to health and can generate great suffering, is totally unacceptable. “While the state was calling for citizen solidarity and the responsibility to stay at home, they evicted us,” they say. It is for all these reasons that from Ca l’Espina they say that they will continue to resist in the street of Asturias.
Ca l’Espina
Carrer d’Asturies 12, Gràcia, Barcelona
calespina [at] riseup [dot] net
https://radar.squat.net/en/calespina
Directory of squats in the Iberian Peninsula:
Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XC/squated/squat
Basque Country: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XE/squated/squat
Spanish State: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/ES/squated/squat
Directory of groups (social centers, collectives, squats) in the Iberian Peninsula:
Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XC
Basque Country: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XE
Spanish State: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/ES
Events in the Iberian Peninsula:
Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/XC
Basque Country: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/XE
Spanish State: : https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/ES
