Bertolt Brecht once wrote that whoever intends to fight lies and ignorance must overcome, at the very least, five difficulties. First, one should have the courage to write the truth, despite the measures others take to stifle it. One should possess, moreover, the intelligence in order to find the truth in the midst of noise and manipulation. One should, at the same time, master the art of making truth a weapon. One must present, in the fourth place, the ability to target those who will use that weapon most effectively. Finally, one should possess the cunning means to spread this weapon among themselves. Judging by these words, it's very likely that Brecht would have smiled gratefully, if he had gotten his hands on this book.
Mortgaged Lives is, before everything, a courageous book. It's a book that bursts in without asking permission, just at the moment when the same powers who created the crisis try to establish their own impunity and place blame on the most vulnerable. It is no easy task to denounce power, to catch it in fraganti covering its own tracks and trying to diminish its responsibility, much less when done using the first and last names, as they occur throughout these pages. Of all the explanations for the crisis that circulate in the media, there is a recurring one; that attributes everything to the design of the "markets", conceived as a kind of mysterious entity able to operate outside the will of people made of flesh and blood. It is against this kind of magical thinking that these lines revolt against. When the authors of this book speak of power, of the concentrated block of power, within financial, real estate, and construction sectors, behind the Spanish crisis, they do not do so in the spirit of resigning it to some inexplicable phenomenon that simply happens because things could not be any other way. On the contrary, they point to a mafia-like plot built from decisions and concrete actions and with the explicit support of administrations, courts, and political parties from across the political spectrum.
As Brecht notes, the predisposition to tell the truth can result in it becoming sterile if one lacks the intelligence to discover it. This is an intelligent book. Endless official documents and academic reports neither prevented the current debacle, nor are they capable of offering both just and sustainable solutions. In the majority of the pages that follow, the readers will find indignation, but a reasoned indignation, supported by solid empirical data and a deep comprehension of the political economy and legal avenues that brought on the crisis. In defense of the book’s point of view, the authors are not alone. They share solidarity and support with some of the most authoritative voices on the crisis: people such as geographer David Harvey, journalist Naomi Klein, and in Spain, economists José Manuel Naredo and Albert Recio. These affinities towards Mortgaged Lives adhere to one guiding principle: that of the critical essay, designed to inflame, but never lose sight of the complexity of the issues nor the need to rigorously explain why this reality is the way it is.
This should come as no surprise. Ada Colau and Adria Alemany are, after all, two of the most well-known activists that the movement for the right to dignified housing has produced in Barcelona in the last few years. They are known, among other reasons, firstly for their involvement in “V for Vivienda” and, later on, for being the most visible faces in the Platform for those Affected by Mortgage (PAH), having displayed a great talent for communicating the truth at all levels and using it, as Brecht noted, as a weapon. This book is no exception. It is a work of activists but not of the kind that prioritize their own vanity or obscure communication with jargon. What is said here is said in a way that is both direct and understandable, with one deliberate pretense: to extend the circle of the already converted and influence through common sense the way in which these issues are often governed.
Of course, this pedagogical zeal is also due another Brechtian requirement: to know how to evaluate in whose hands the truth will be handled most effectively. In this regard, the work unfolds as an ambitious bet. On one hand, it is sharp x-ray of the urban and real estate bubble that is in tune with, a diagnosis of and a treatment for the proposals by groups such as Democracia Real Ya (Real Democracy Now), Juventud Sin Futuro (Youth Without Future) and the 15-M. On the other hand, it aspires to be, in a more specific way, an operational tool in the service of those affected by the mortgage crisis. The chapters with tips and resources for people and families threatened by eviction should be read with this consideration. As a practical resource, by an advisory association, it is designed to foster solidarity among those affected, to free them from fear and paralysis, and to strengthen their ability to organize.
The combination of condemnation and deep analysis, between a call to action and concern for immediate problems, is one of this book's greatest virtues. It would be wrong, however, to attribute it to a simple theoretical intuition. If this book is possible, it is because those who write it are not just external observers of a widespread social phenomenon. On the contrary, what the authors explain in these pages reflects what they, and so many others like them, have been doing for years in social centers, migrant advocacy groups, neighborhood associations, in their streets and neighborhoods. This personal experience does not exempt them from error nor make them infallible but it does help explain why their message has succeeded in breaking the media’s siege on critical ideas, reaching thousands of people and earning the respect and the trust of those affected by this crisis.
In classical antiquity, the abolition of debt slavery was already one of the crucial flags of the democratic movement that unveiled oligarchy and major creditors. Centuries later, this work by the PAH seeks to revive that old and noble undertaking, tying it to the eradication of large financial, urban, and real estate privileges and to the guarantee of the right to decent housing for all. With mortgaged lives, there is no freedom nor democracy worthy of the name. As the women and men of the PAH remember every day, "Yes we can!"
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