Discussion
Incredible to see the amount of shops and infrastructure closed down for the general strike in Barcelona against the rising living costs. Crowds organized by strike committees walk through shopping streets and make the last ones close down too. Negotiating with owners, bringing in chairs and tables at cafées.
Just 5-10 minutes after shutting down Zara, the police charge and detain four young people. I guess going after a huge chain on a central square was more than the police would accept. Crowds gather and the cops let them go after a while.
How do you get lunch after shutting down the city, including restaurants and supermarkets? You cook big pots of food. Here in a squatted plot turned into a green oasis since 2014 in densely populated El Raval and now the base for the local strike committee as well as weekly soup kitchens for the people of the street. These kind of sustained initiatives make the general strike possible. A saying comes to mind: "Never strike above your own ability to self-organize".
What we've learned is that the cost of living and especially housing is at the heart of the recent protests and the strike today. In Barcelona, the police are evicting people daily and a recent survey showed that around 30% of the population live below a defined threshold of just "what it costs to live".
Back in September, the police were forcibly evicting people in Madrid, among them a 87-year old lady called Maricarmen Abascal. On normal days, this is where the local strike committees are active to support people in struggles like that so people showed up to fight the eviction. After her eviction, she spent time at a hospital and died there weeks later.
