For our friends.
For the ones who fight every day.
For those who are gone.
In this month of feminist revolt, of organized rage, of joy and of struggle, we, the neighbors of Madrid, make public the recovery of the building in Calle Alberto Bosch 4, as a new common and open space in the heart of Madrid. Now, in this week more than ever, we must remember the role that social centers have had, have and will have for the feminist movement, as a space for convergence, construction and self-organisation. The attack on social centers is undoubtedly a direct attack on feminism, which we are not prepared to tolerate.
In recent years we have witnessed a lamentable spectacle in which a few people share out the city, selling it to the highest bidder or handing it over to friends while others are thrown out of our neighbourhoods. Recently we learned that the building of La Ingobernable (Paseo del Prado 30) was once again being given, in the style of the PP, to a foundation directed by the former mayor Gallardón to build a museum instead of the so promised endowments for the neighborhood that the current mayor, Martínez-Almeida, was advocating during the electoral campaign. This story is very familiar to us because some years ago the also ex-mayor Botella already gave it, for 1 euro and at 75 years old, to a foundation friend of the PP.
Spaces that should serve to articulate strong communities are becoming non-places impossible to inhabit. The logic of the market demands that the city be stripped of everything that makes it alive and leave only the skeleton of that which can be profitable: a showcase that tries to imitate places full of life but without the inconvenience of people actually living in them. That is why it is the responsibility of all of us to respond to these attacks by recovering new social spaces from which to organize anger and defend joy.
Why do we think spaces like this are necessary? Social centers are key to counteract unbridled consumerism, the commodification of leisure and the unsustainable proposals of the system. They promote collective awareness of situations of injustice, open up spaces for learning and disseminating critical thinking, weave networks of solidarity, and make alternative ways of life visible. In short, these spaces constitute citizen platforms from which to understand, but above all to live the social struggles.
We claim the recovery of empty buildings for the common good as a legitimate practice. Legitimate in the name of the feminist movement, which will continue to defend us from the patriarchy and the neofascist drift of machismo present in the institutions. Legitimate in the name of the ecological movement that defends our planet every day against the ecological policies of capitalism. Legitimate in the name of the housing movement, which fights for the neighbors expelled from their neighborhoods by the predatory action of vulture funds and gentrification. It is legitimate in the name of the LGTBIQ+ collective, which fights daily to ensure that we never again have to hide our sexual and emotional diversity. Legitimate in the name of the anti-racist and anti-fascist movement, which will continue to fight alongside migrants and racialised people in the face of their criminalisation by institutions and the media. Legitimate in the name of a multitude of social movements that do not conform to the aggressions and discriminations normalized by the system.
From this moment, we call on all our friends and invite you to participate in the creation of the structure of this new social center. We were born with the desire to include all those people and groups that seek to transform the unjust model of the system and the city that we live in. In the face of authoritarian policies that seek to dismantle and criminalize networks of solidarity, cooperation and mutual support, we will remain united to create places of encounter and collective construction. We remain in the heart of Madrid.
For a life in common, we were, are and will be INGOBERNABLE.
La Ingobernable
https://squ.at/r/3ar6
https://ingobernable.net/
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 Ingobernable, pictures from El Salto Diario
