Barcelona: rally in support of arrested comrades on 27 February

Tuesday 20 april 2021, 9:00
Meeting point: in front of the Audiencia Provincial, Passeig de Lluís Companys 14-16, Barcelona

For more than 50 days 7 of the 8 comrades arrested last February 27th in the center of Barcelona have been imprisoned. They were arrested during one of the last demonstrations that began in the name of freedom of expression and that continued for 15 days assuming more and more the voice of the general dissent towards the situation we are living. An suffocating reality characterized by an institutional violence that does not stop increasing every day, that leaves the majority of the population without a future and that absolves and defends those who are really responsible: police, institutions, politicians and the royal family. It is a disturbing authoritarian drift that is taking place today throughout the world and that is concealed under a strictly formal subsistence of the democratic institutional framework that serves as an alibi for a despotic government.

Following the arrests, violent police searches took place in 2 squatted houses in Maresme, with the intention of demonstrating an alleged non-existent criminal organization. [Read More]

Barcelona: Sara released with charges. Freedom for 27F prisoners. Enough of police set-ups

Yesterday, monday March 22, at the last minute, we received the news of the release (with charges) of Sara, one of the eight imprisoned for the demonstration on 27 February in Barcelona. The appeal lodged by the defence would prove, by means of expert evidence, that it could not have been her who sprayed flammable liquid, as the police statement claimed.

Once again, this story, with its categorical assertions, reproduced by so many media outlets, is beginning to fade. Sara was arrested, charged and imprisoned as the perpetrator of the van fire without the right to the presumption of innocence. Just like the rest of the people arrested and today imprisoned.

Sara’s photo, her name and details appeared in the media, first in La Vanguardia, echoed by the Italian press. A few days before she was due to serve a month in prison, she was released with charges after her lawyer and an expert witness for the defence proved that it was impossible that she was the person accused by the police, the public prosecutor and the court. [Read More]

Berlin: Demo Freedom for all prisoners affected by repression in Barcelona

Monday 22 March 2021, 16:00
Meeting point: Delegació del Govern a Alemanya
Regierung von Katalonien – Vertretung in Deutschland, Friedrichstrasse, 185. 10117 Berlin

On February 27, 2021, 8 anarchist comrades* were arrested during the riots in Barcelona, as a result of the protests that have been going on since the arrest of Pablo Hasél. All of them are currently in pre-trial detention without bail. They are accused of criminal organization, attempted murder, unlawful demonstration, attack on authority, damage and public disorder. All this as a consequence of a fire being set at one of the vans of the riot police of the Guardia Urbana of Barcelona, a police organization that has a long history of torture and violence. The media, as a propaganda tool of the State, are justifying the repression against our comrades and infusing fear to stop self-organization and dismantle the protests.

After the Pandora and Piñata police set-ups, it is obvious that we are once again facing an operation to repress an ideological current contrary to capitalist interests. They are condemned because they are anarchists. In this type of set-up, the accusation of belonging to a criminal organization or terrorism is something that is being used to create an internal enemy and justify repression. This allows them to judicialize our lives through police harassment, raids, violation of our personal and political spaces, visits to penitentiary centers, etc. Through this they intend to wear us down psychologically and economically, and thus disarticulate our struggles. [Read More]

Berlin: statement about the 8 arrested anarchists in Barcelona

On February 27th, 2021, 8 anarchist comrades* from Italy, France and Spain were arrested during the riots in Barcelona stemming from the protests that have been taking place since the arrest of Pablo Hasél on February 16th. All are currently in pre-trial detention without bail in Brians I prison (Catalonia). The serving judge of the 17th Court of Barcelona charged them with belonging to a criminal organization, attempted murder, participation in an illegal demonstration, resistance to state authority, damage to property and disturbance of public order.
All this happened as a result of a vehicle being set on fire which belonged to the riot police of the Guardia Urbana of Barcelona, a police force that has a long history of torture and indiscriminate violence against migrants and homeless people (1) and which the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau (Barcelona en Comú) promised to disband during the 2015 municipal elections (2). However as we can see, they are still there.

All these accusations are accompanied by a propaganda apparatus provided by the media, which, as a tool of the state, justifies the repression against our comrades* and sparks a climate of fear in order to crush the protests. [Read More]

Barcelona: Solidarity with the detainees of the 27F demonstration

Communiqué: The press targets… About the 8 people accused of burning a police van.

On 27 February, 8 of our comrades were arrested in the centre of Barcelona during a demonstration. This event is part of a series of mass mobilisations called in the name of freedom of expression but which have ended up increasingly taking on the voice of general dissent against the historical period we are living through. A suffocating reality characterised by unprecedented institutional violence, which leaves the majority of the population without a future and which absolves and defends the usual criminals: the police, politicians and the royal family.

Following their arrests, police searches took place in 2 houses in Maresme, with the intention of linking our comrades with alleged non-existent criminal organisations and with disproportionate accusations based on derisory evidence. There is no presumption of innocence, the written statement of the Mossos has been reproduced in all the media, which repeat it and assume it as their own. In turn, the court does what was already written: very serious charges and pre-trial detention without bail. We see no other sense in all this than to put an end to the wave of protests that has been growing exponentially throughout Catalonia for weeks. [Read More]

Barcelona: solidarity with the arrested anarchist comrades!

8 of our comrades have been remanded in custody for the night of the 3rd of March 2021! The judge on duty of the court #17 of Barcelona accuses them of public disorder, attempted homicide, organized criminal group, illegal demonstration; according to the press (i.e. the Mossos, Catalan police) they would be responsible for all the riots and vandalism that have taken place since February 16th, including the burning of the police van on the Rambla on Saturday, February 27th. Currently the comrades are in quarantine-isolation in the prison of Brians I, in Martorell.

The real problem is that they are anarchists and they have shown it with their participation in the demonstration in solidarity with Pablo Hasel on Saturday 27th, called by the CUP (Candidatura d’Unitat Popular, left-wing Catalan independence party), like thousands of other people. What they didn’t know or ignored was that some of their enemies had them in their sights because of events 4 years ago in Girona*. This is a threat to many of us who are anti-authoritarian and have never hidden it! [Read More]

Catalonia: eight arrested and squats raided

An anarchist group would be, according to the Mossos, the main responsible for the riots in Barcelona for the freedom of Pablo Hasel. Faced with the wide social response, especially among the youth, to the aberrant imprisonment of the rapper Pablo Hasel, the Catalan police already have those responsible, the scapegoats whom they intend to criminalize for social mockery and to hide, by the way, the brutal abuses committed by the riot police (a demonstrator loosing her eye, massive beating in Gràcia…).

Undoubtedly, they will continue to count on the overwhelming support of a political (central and regional governments), judicial and media apparatus that, as good servants of the economic powers, are interested in diverting attention from the real causes of the mobilizations, such as the growing authoritarianism and repression of the State (the scandalous imprisonment of Hasel is the umpteenth case), the rampant corruption, with the Bourbons at the head, or the social exclusion and lack of prospects in the face of an increasingly predatory capitalism. [Read More]

Barcelona: communique for the 8 arrested anarchist comrades of the Nabat squat in Mataró

Yesterday night (27th of february), around 9pm, 8 of our comrades were arrested, in Barcelona, after the last police charge in the demonstrations against the detention of Pablo Hasel, the curtailment of basic freedoms which all of us are suffering under, the repression and privation of our human rights.
We’re facing a strong authoritarian drift by the european governments which are taking the coronavirus as an excuse to repress and open the doors for a probable dictatorship.
The rage contained in this period of heavy restrictions explodes like so with 12 consecutive days of mobilizations and revolts. These are happenings which continually repeat throughout history, in this precise moment revolts are not only exploding in Europe but they are sprouting up in all the countries of the world, from Chile to China, with a lot of force.
In light of this repressive blow you’re going to have problems in all of squatted Maresme!
This communique is a call to participation, on part of the anarchist comrades of Nabat, in solidarity with everyone. [Read More]

Barcelona: Massana school occupation

The abandoned Massana School, has been occupied for a soup kitchen and emergency accommodation. The action has been vindicated by the Housing Union and the Raval Mutual Support Network. The occupation which was made public at the end of a protest procession that started at 8 pm on June 23rd in Plaza Salvador Seguí, was attended by about 250 people.

This occupation is not the only one that has existed in the old Massana School. In the spring of 2018, a group of immigrants had occupied to denounce the job insecurity experienced by the group and to demand solutions from the administrations.

The groups denounce the state of a building “abandoned for years by the institutions” and declared that it will become the “base of operations of the popular movement of the Raval”.

“We warn the institutions that we intend to stay, and that for every step they take against us, we will take three,” they said in a statement read minutes after the occupation was made public. The intention of the occupation is to provide a place in the Mutual Support Network, the Housing Union and the Popular Food Network.

Excerpted from Iberia: Hundreds of Mutual Aid networks as Covid Collapses Capitalism

Barcelona: Despegando Squatting Manual

Here you have a brief manual about squatting in Barcelona, constructed from personal experiences, legal resources and texts from the Squatting Office. The purpose of L’Oficina per l’Okupació (OfiOK) is tackling legal and technical problems regarding squatting abandoned places, keeping in mind the political significance of the action as well as the social aspects. we have chosen to make a practical manual as a quick reference and for mass distribution.

If you have any question visit the OfiOK or send an email to oficinaokupacio [at] sindominio [dot] net, look out for other manuals or consult other squatters. Good luck and happy squatting!

Version1 pdf
L’Oficina per l’Okupació

Spanish state: What is behind the campaign against squatting?

Panic wave. The looming economic crisis has begun to negatively affect the real estate market: rental prices are falling, rents are falling.

Breakfast with alarming news: squatting is still going on, the insecurity of everyone (as we are all owners) is at its highest. Radio advertisement of a security company: “Burglary and squatting alarm equipment”. Report in a program of maximum audience to the heroes of the companies kicking out squatters: five bodybuilders already in their forties explain their work; the legality of it seems doubtful. Statements by a politician: “One of these days you go on vacation and when you return, because they consider the house to be empty, they give it to their squatters’ friends – in reference to a well-known ‘leftist’ party”. The emergency campaign for the problem of squatting is continuous, insistent, and crushing. The fear, converted into a wave of panic, reaches a good part of the population. Rumors of home invasions have acquired the rank of “I know the case of a friend of a friend who had his house occupied, and blah, blah, blah”.

But what are we talking about when we say ‘squatting’? Obviously, of entering to live in a property of which one lacks all legitimate rights (understand, sanctioned by the property). [Read More]

Barcelona: About the Cinètika, on free and self-managed spaces

Our solidarity, mutual support and recognition of the humble, consistent, lively and generous daily work that the Cinètika does from an anti-capitalist, feminist, libertarian and inclusive position, open to all the neighbors and all the struggles of the neighborhood and the city. A work of resistance and construction of alternatives from direct action and self-organization. Also from critical culture, constant debate. There is no better discourse than the practice and it is already a few years of having recovered from money, from the market a space, occupying it, making it public without it being institutional. This shows that it is possible to do things in order without authority, that it can work without subsidies. A space for creation, to experiment freely.

There are more and more of them, and they can be seen in experiences such as the Cinètika. They encourage us to know that they exist, that we can use them, that we can support ourselves by creating networks of people and places where we can organize ourselves. It is not by chance that in Barcelona and in so many others, so much money wasted from institutions, so much bureaucracy and entertainment professionals, is born and is maintained in the face of cultural and political mediocrity. Experiences of free thought, of counter-culture, of free communities. Essays on the world we want to build. [Read More]