Barcelona Holds Nov. 11 General Strike Over Housing and Living Costs
Catalonia's Nov. 11 general strike targeted housing access and living costs, with pickets, a demonstration and unrest on Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona.
Catalonia held a general strike on Nov. 11 to protest the cost of living and the difficulty of getting housing, according to a photo report published on go.eln.cat. In Barcelona the day included a demonstration, a picket and a shop in the city centre with its shutter pulled down.
The strike also became a political argument, and it arrives ahead of general elections that Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has called for Nov. 29.
Where the strike came from
The Sindicat de Llogateres (the tenants’ union) first proposed the strike, after the so-called Maricarmen decrees ran into difficulties on the way to approval. Sánchez called the general elections afterwards, according to the report.
The strike was called over two issues: the cost of living and access to housing.
A divided political reaction
Parties did not agree on the strike. Some defended it. Others said it was electoralist, meaning in their view it was timed or used for electoral advantage. The parties were not named in the report.
What the day looked like in Barcelona
The photographs and captions in the report describe a day with several different scenes:
- A shopkeeper in the centre of Barcelona stood by a lowered shutter.
- People hung strike posters around the city, including one person at Plaça d’Espanya, and a woman sat in a bar displaying a general strike notice.
- Several people painted graffiti in favour of the strike on walls in the city.
- A demonstration took place on Nov. 11, and a woman held up a sign about the general strike.
- Activists occupied the set of the programme Cafè d’Idees at RTVE Catalunya (the Catalan arm of Spanish public broadcaster RTVE) in Barcelona.
- A picket formed at Mercabarna, where a barricade was set on fire at the entrance the night before the strike.
- After the demonstration, unrest broke out on Passeig de Gràcia.
What this means for people in Barcelona
The strike links the pressure on tenants and household budgets to national politics. The tenants’ union that proposed it started from housing, after the Maricarmen decrees had trouble getting approved, and the prime minister then called elections.
For people living in Catalonia, including foreign residents who rent, the housing question that drew the strike is now part of the argument between parties. The next date in the story is Nov. 29, the day of the general elections.
Source: go.eln.cat
