The brutal eviction of the 87-year old disabled woman, María del Carmen Abascal, known as “Maricarmen”, who had been living in her Madrid flat for 71 years, sparked fury across Spain. She was carried out of her home on a stretcher by riot police after her housing block had been tear gassed.
The state machine violently backed Urbagestion, the investment fund that increased her rent by over 400%. On Maricarmen’s limited pension this was simply not affordable. But the huge popular response has shocked the politicians and capitalists who have retreated as the mass movement spreads.
There had been repeated attempts to proceed with eviction which were thwarted by the housing movement. After legal battles, the Supreme Court ruled in March to end her lease because in their view, she was not sufficiently disabled to require support.
On Wednesday 23 September the eviction was carried out. Over 500 supportive neighbours organised by the tenant’s union camped out to peacefully stop police entering the building. The police arrived at 6.00am with 15 vans, a helicopter and dozens of police to violently disperse the crowd.
Outrage
Maricarmen was caried out and taken to hospital. Images of the eviction sparked outrage and there were protests in cities nationwide. Up to 300,000 people marched through Madrid last Saturday and there are protest encampments in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square, and similar movements in other cities. In some ways these encampments echo the 15-M movement; the huge wave of anti-austerity protests and public square occupations in 2011 following the impact of the global financial crisis of 2008.
The huge response has terrified the ruling class and won significant but limited reforms and Urbagestion, the landlord, now says Maricarmen can move back under her old rent. Reforms include protections against eviction until 2030, curbs on investment funds buying residential property until 2028, automatic lease extensions until 2028, more strict control of short-term rentals and support for first time buyers.
The mass movement has achieved reforms that the ‘progressive’ PSOE government has failed to deliver during more than eight years in government. But they don’t go as far as the ‘Maricarmen decree’ drawn up by the Madrid Tenants Union which calls for a ban on ‘Vulture funds’ – speculative investment funds – buying housing, a law against evicting vulnerable individuals without offering alternative housing, a further curb on price rises, a freeze on rents and automatic renewal of leases. Tenants’ union representatives have demanded its full implementation and discussions in the encampments have moved on to more fundamental change. There are calls to expropriate the vulture funds and Sumar, the smaller party in the governing coalition has called for Maricarmen’s building to be expropriated.
In capitalist economies housing is a commodity, tradable for profit. In the wake of the global financial crisis government policies around the world gave this an added twist. The banks were rescued and quantitative easing drove rising house prices by transforming the housing market into a primary outlet for what has been called a “global wall of money” seeking safe investment. Liberalised financial systems facilitated vast amounts of capital moving around the world in search of profit and house prices were increasingly decoupled from wages and workers’ ability to pay.
In the absence of mass workers parties, the neoliberal policies driving this process were not seriously opposed by any mass party. Financialisaton has gone through various phases since then, but the essential features of high housing costs, badly managed rental property and insecurity persist. Taking over the corporate landlords and empty homes – expropriating them – along with nationalisation of the banks are essential measures for a sustainable plan for genuinely affordable and secure housing.
Trade union members have been active in the movement and unions including the largest ones (CCOO and UGT) have given official backing. They said they were holding off calling a general strike awaiting the result of voting on the housing reforms in congress. But the unions should be pressing to go beyond the temporary measures from the government rather than waiting on a parliamentary vote.
Attempts to put through emergency housing reforms collapsed this week after Congress rejected both government decrees. The first decree, which sought to extend protections for vulnerable tenants and cap rent increases, fell by 178 votes to 172. The second, which proposed automatic renewal of rental contracts unless landlords compensated tenants, was defeated 184 to 166. The government needed support from Junts to pass the measures, but the party withdrew backing at the last moment, arguing the reforms would shrink rental supply and push prices higher. Opposition parties PP and Vox also voted against both texts, leaving the minority coalition without a path to approval.
The defeat dealt a significant blow to Pedro Sánchez’s government, intensifying calls from the opposition for early elections. Meanwhile, protests sparked by Abascal’s eviction continue across Spain, with housing groups organising demonstrations in dozens of cities and demanding stronger protections against speculative investment and rising rents.
Linking the enormous potential power of organised workers linked to the protesters in Puerta del Sol and other squares would lead to an unstoppable movement. It will be crucial to hammer out a programme for real change through democratic debate.
The underlying capitalist malaise and the popular response are strikingly similar in other European countries. In Berlin, the left party recently achieved a quarter of the popular vote and emerged as the biggest party on a programme of expropriating the corporate landlords. They will come under huge pressure to water down their programme from potential coalition partners and will need to turn to mass mobilisation.
European housing crisis
In Britain, Burnham has attempted to relaunch the Labour government as representing a break from forty years of neoliberalism. But the reality is laying the groundwork for a housing revolt. Before becoming prime minister, he argued for 100% of government housing grants to go for council homes and he supported rent control. Months into government, rent control has been ruled out and grants go to less than 4% to council housing. The rest of the grant goes to a mix of private providers, including a Blackstone landlord. Blackstone is the world’s largest asset manager; funding them is a long way from expropriating corporate landlords!
The current housing issues in Britain have striking similarities to Spain and Germany. Tenants on the St James estate in London have been threatened by their private landlord with eviction and face unaffordable 40% rent rises. The tenants are organising but so far, neither the Labour government nor the Green / LibDem coalition council have responded to calls for the estate to be taken over by the council. The examples of Spain and Germany will give added confidence to tenants facing eviction in Britain.
In Britain there has been a growth of tenant organisations and eviction resistance. One of the tenant organisations, SHAC, has launched a discussion on building a national tenants’ union rooted in the trade unions. The TUC has adopted a policy of supporting rent control and mass council house building, and opposing the threatened above inflation rent increases in the social housing sector. If the unions really fight on this, or even if initially just Unite the union that moved this policy took it up, it would gain a huge echo. It could change the housing debate by putting working class policies on the agenda.
Across Europe struggles are developing against the capitalist housing crisis. Through struggles such as this and the debates around strategy and programme they produce the potential to lead to new mass parties worthy of the working class.
In Spain, one tenants’ union statement this week states that a “historic window of opportunity has opened to reverse decades of the commodification of housing. That is why we need to step up the pressure.” Another states, “This is just getting started.”