SPAIN—The Barceloneta is one of the emblematic neighborhoods of Barcelona, famous for the fishermen who live there. Many of the workers from this neighborhood have been practically thrown out of their homes. Some could not pay their mortgage and were evicted. Others simply lived in shacks, called “the shanties.”
Tourism, in full swing, favored the idea of turning a neighborhood of fishermen into the Miami of Europe.
With the building of the Maritime Walk during the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, workers were exiled. The old “Somorrostro” (as the beach area and shacks were known traditionally) was destroyed. All of these families (more than fifteen thousand people) were thrown out to make room for tourism and to raise the prices for rentals and properties for businesses and foreigners.
The sharp struggles by some neighborhood movements couldn’t do anything to stop this attack. That is why the need to lead the masses to fight for communism is inevitable.
During the last ten years the system has managed to divide the neighbors of this community. It has made some believe, on the one hand, that it’s good to “improve the neighborhood,” allowing foreign investment. For example, Russian magnates have bought part of the port. They have their luxurious club where they organize their parties and park their yachts.
On the other hand there are those who believe that they can stop this eviction of workers by having demonstrations and fighting for reforms. The capitalist system gives them these tools, which can never resolve the problem of housing for the working class. Capitalism creates more racism and oppresses workers more every day.
Red Flag has written about gentrification. This can also be called “elitification” or “bourgeoisification” by revaluing or raising the price of a workers’ neighborhood.
In Spain, between 2008 and 2014, more than half a million families were evicted by the banks and abandoned out in the open. Some resorted to going to live with relatives or friends.
In November of 2010, Juan Alvarez, 45 years old, hung himself in the middle of the street because the City Council of Barcelona did not grant an extension for his eviction. It was winter and he didn’t want to spend it in the cold with his wife and daughter.
The banks seize the home that you bought on credit and you are obligated to keep paying this credit or mortgage even if you no longer have a home.
The working class does not need to rent or to buy any real estate. We don’t need to pay for anything. WE DON’T NEED MONEY. In a communist world, we only need ourselves, working to build our homes and to adapt them to meet our needs.
We have to build a society where the workers do not have to commit suicide or live outside because they don’t find “opportunities.” We don’t need owners of land (private property). We only need to live, and enjoy life, meeting the needs that we have by working together.
The defeat of capitalism is very certain. The International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) struggles every day, calling on the working class to mobilize for communism. ICWP is growing every day and we must continue growing to be able to destroy capitalism. ICWP and its political line of building a communist world needs the entire working class throughout the whole world because that is the only way that the social problems will be solved for the benefit of the same working class. We have to form collectives where the line of the party will be the vanguard. Our work must be focused on spreading communist ideas throughout the world.
The distribution of our newspaper Red Flag means the building of our party and also the struggle that we have against the system. Join us—we will win!