First of all, we want to thank all the people who have shown their support and solidarity, especially the collectives, spaces and individuals of the neighborhood. Thanks to the support, we have managed to resist more than 24 hours at the door and hold a demonstration and a parade that hopefully has made it clear that we are still here and will continue to fight.
It has been at least a year since the beginning of threats and coercion by the new owner and his watch dogs (private security companies). There were threats to get an eviction squad after refusing to accept their money (15.000 euros) to leave the building. Seeing that they couldn’t bend us, they started the legal way to evict us. The sentence for the usurpation trial was not favorable to them, and they were still in a situation of appeal.
Today, the space is no longer in our hands but we can raise our heads proud to think that it has been after 1 year of struggle and having spent in this course more than those initial 15,000 euros that offered us. Only the police and private security companies have been able to seize our space by acting jointly. The latter are the ones who forced their way into the Gatonera in the early hours of 27 June, forcing the lock and changing the bowler; with the complicity of the police who escorted them, even up to their food orders. Six comrades were arrested while trying to defend the space. One more example of the State-Capital binomial.
With this we do not seek to victimize ourselves, nor to vindicate legality, just to expose the facts and make it clear that without the State and its dogs these companies are nothing.
Ours is one more case of a systematic campaign of harassment of squatters that has intensified in recent years. The attack on squatting is the attack on practices and the ideas behind them.
These will not be our last words.
Death to the State, long live Anarchy.
Never surrender, nor give up.
Stay tuned.
CSOA La Gatonera
csolagatonera [at] riseup [dot] net
https://squ.at/r/18hc
https://csolagatonera.wordpress.com/
Some squats in Madrid: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/city/madrid/squated/squat
Groups (social centres, collectives, squats) in Madrid: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/city/madrid
Events in Madrid: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/city/Madrid
Directory of squats in the Iberian Peninsula:
Spanish State: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/ES/squated/squat
Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XC/squated/squat
Basque Country: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XE/squated/squat
Directory of groups (social centers, collectives, squats) in the Iberian Peninsula:
Spanish State: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/ES
Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XC
Basque Country: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XE
Events in the Iberian Peninsula:
Spanish State: : https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/ES
Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/XC
Basque Country: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/XE
Original statement in Spanish published by la Gatonera
