Spanish State – Servir al Pueblo: First Week’s Report on the Protest Camp in Madrid
We hereby share a translation we have received per e-mail of a report published by Servir al Pueblo on October 2.
[Madrid] Report on the Sol Camp – Week 1
It has been a week since the start of the Puerta del Sol Camp. Following a demonstration attended by more than 10,000 people in support of the right to housing and in response to Maricarmen’s recent eviction, a camp sprang up spontaneously in Madrid’s central Plaza del Sol.
This camp, which began with just a few dozen tents, has been growing day by day, hour by hour, until it filled the plaza with more than a thousand tents and thousands of people who have come to support the struggle for housing. At certain times of the day, especially in the evening, the crowd is so dense that it’s almost impossible to move through the plaza, demonstrating the masses’ determination to struggle for housing.
Groups of fascists – acting as the lackeys of vulture funds and big banks, such as Desokupa and Núcleo Nacional – as well as the Madrid City Council have threatened to evict the encampment. However, in the face of this massive mobilization, none of these groups have dared to attack it so far.
The Revolutionary Committee of Madrid is mobilizing brigades for actions to serve the people in the neighborhood of Cañada Real. Additionally, stickers were put up in the camp and the newspaper Servir al Pueblo was sold. The revolutionary press and the necessity to spread the domestic and international class struggles brought big interest among the people.
Support has also been shown for the struggle in Palestine, as well as for India and the People’s War. Pamphlets from the International Anti-Imperialist League (AIL) have been distributed regarding the current Week of Solidarity with the People’s War in India, taking place from September 26 to October 3. People have shown great interest, asking questions about India and the ongoing revolution.
During the camp, not only can you hear housing slogans like “We’re not leaving – we stay!” or “We’re not leaving because we don’t have a home!”, but they’re also linked to the working-class struggle. Different workers organizations, like the educators of infants between 0 and 3 years, have come to the camp to show their struggle.
We had the opportunity to speak with them, and they have told us the following:
“Children are completely neglected by the institutions; our schools officially are public, but are in reality private.” They denounce the high children-teacher ratios: in the Community of Madrid, one educator is left alone with eight infants, 14 children aged 1–2, or 20 children aged 2–3. They state that they have been on strike for 178 days; so far, the Ministry has promised to lower the children-teacher ratios, but the educators remain committed to the struggle.
They also denounce the precarious conditions in which they live. “We earn the minimum wage in Madrid, which isn’t enough to live on (…) Since this is a highly feminized sector, it’s considered the norm for a woman to provide this care – that’s why it isn’t valued and why we’re paid so little. This happens in other sectors as well, such as among cleaning staff or home care workers (SAD).” They also add, “There’s a convergence of struggles here; everyone has the right to decent housing, and we depend on others. Many of our colleagues are living with their parents even at age 40 (…) How can you start a family on these wages when you can’t even become financially independent?”
They also comment on the problems with classroom ratios for the children themselves: “If we in Infant Education cannot support the people who are still developing [the children] (…) if a child is confined with five other people who are telling them they can’t disturb anyone, can’t make noise… they are being told that they ‘disturb’ others, and this triggers a problem regarding how that person will see themselves in the future.”
The Puerta del Sol camp is no longer just a struggle for housing – although that remains the main focus – but is now bringing together various struggles: for Palestine, labor rights, anti-fascism, environmentalism, and more. This encampment is a sign of the masses’ – especially the youth – exasperation with the imperialist system, which is increasingly attacking this just struggle with ever-greater repression.
