On the night of April 17, the windows of two estate agencies in the Tetuán district were destroyed with a hammer. On the facades were left messages “Speculators” and “Houses belong to those who live in them” with an encircled A.
Stigmatisation and the din of the media were only the first part and a perfect precedent to fill the district with police. The announcement of the imminent installation of video surveillance in the Alvarado area seems to be a perfect way to strengthen police harassment that has been increasing for over a year.
With a stigmatized and devalued district the estate agencies, promoters and builders are rubbing their hands. For some time dozens of new cranes have been erected in the adjacent streets, and in the morning we hear the machinery and impact of an industry that is filling its pockets with the destruction of our neighbourhood. They want to build, they want to do business with our homes; then the evictions and clearing out begin.
Dozens of new blocks in which to amass people through their alienating, isolating spatial distribution. Common space dies in favour of stockpiling our lives. New clean shiny facades appear, and of course at a good price (for them). Along with them appear MiAlcampo, KFC, Decathlon, Rodilla and probably a few more banks.
The level of the area is going up, it is losing its history, its form, its neighbours. A new, clean, satisfying, controllable neighbourhood is announced, modern, luxurious, profitable … A neighbourhood which we cannot enter. A comfortable and perfect district for capitalism and social control.
We are defending our life, our space, our freedom. For each expulsion, for each new crane announcing speculation, for each camera and each patrol that aims to ensure that misery goes ahead in complete safety … Let’s act.
For anarchy.
Anarchists
Translated by Act for freedom now!
