Barcelona, the city that three years ago saw the birth of the movement of those affected by mortgage, is from where Ada and Adrià as me to write a text as a prologue for this book.
It is April of 2012. More than a hundred activists from different parts of the territory have gathered in the capital of Barcelona to coordinate the campaign of collecting signatures for the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP). A thread of optimism runs through the assembly. We feel the PAH growing stronger and stronger. From nothing, we build a movement that has not yet reached its peak and has already become the focus of resistance to the injustice and violence of the banks and the crisis of the system. But it's a cautious optimism. We are aware of the economic and political context in which we operate. Among other issues, we are concerned about the drift Spanish government has taken in being prepared to amend the Criminal Code in order to punish the peaceful resistance we practice in order to halt evictions and lobby for homeowners’ rights, mainly by occupying of banks, with the aim of achieving repossessions and social rent for families.
Nevertheless, the support for the movement is consolidating and growing with new (PAH) nodes that continue appearing in cities and municipalities. We even joke about going to prison due to the “reform” that the Ministry of the Interior intends to adopt because at least behind bars, it's more difficult to evict you.
At moments, our optimism turns into euphoria. As I write these lines there exists more than sixty PAH nodes distributed throughout Spain. But beyond the numbers, the care, empathy and participation by people gives us the most strength. We verify it every day and in each of our actions.
Upon looking back and examining the journey we have shared, we cannot help but feel proud of our most veteran members, those who have known us for more than two years. Our trajectory has gone from less to more, taking into account that when we started, we were truly taking a trip through the desert. The reason for this is the difficulty that we victims have in speaking publically about the reality we are experiencing as a personal failure, in a society that rewards people for their successes. It is the problem that we victims of the crisis face, when we hit rock bottom and realize that it is not possible to take care of the debts; to overcome the shame, the stigma and fear associated with the process, and to dare to talk about the situation we are facing, even in the immediate environment.
One of the most important achievements of the PAH was to visualize an individual problem, contained within an intimate and private space, and make it into a social issue.
The PAH has given us self-esteem, security, and a collective identity that allows us to face the banks and deal with them as equals. The PAH has also been fundamental in the hour of presenting an alternate story of the crisis in response to structural reasons of the current model. It has helped those affected to stop feeling guilty for the situation they find themselves in, thanks to having transformed the feeling of powerlessness and isolation into one of strengthening and collective organization. We are not responsible for the crisis, nor for having lost our jobs.
Take for example my own personal story. It took time for me to come to the conclusion that I wasn’t at fault for having stayed unemployed and to arrive at this feeling of indignation and rebellion. I led a normal life with a small, well paid, self-sustaining business within the textile sector. Globalization, with great strength, destroyed an activity in various places throughout the Mediterranean arc and the closing of financing by the banks marked the last straw. I spent three years unable to meet my mortgage payments and was able to stop the auction of my house after four days of hunger strike.
The PAH gave me the tools and strength to continue. I can't ever forget my first telephone conversation with Ada, in which she told me about the operation of the “experiment” that, under the name of Platform of those Affected by Mortgage, had been launched in Cataluña with good results. We quickly understood the concepts that these comrades worked with. Months earlier we tried to do something similar that didn't catch on. Thus, we seized the initiative, incorporating the techniques, criteria, work methods and the guidelines used in Barcelona to address the problem.
This passionately written prologue speaks of a reality and conflict whose ending in not written yet. At the time I trace out these lines, we find ourselves in a context of growing social unrest in the streets and immersed in the campaign to collect signatures. A campaign that allows us once again to share the warmth of the people and solidarity of the citizens with our demands. As Joaquin, Murcian priest and activist of the PAH, often prays, "The bank doesn't have a heart; the citizens do."
The recession we are immersed in and the policy of cuts applied by the government to get out of it—policies that deepen our wounds and slow down economic recovery—drive us into a situation of social deterioration without precedent. The recipe for austerity imposed on us by the market dictatorship makes the PAH a useful and powerful tool for fighting. This becomes a cause for hope for the hundreds of thousands of families condemned to a life of social exclusion and precarity.
But difficult times are upon us. Job destruction does not stop and with it increases the number of families forced to choose between eating and paying the mortgage. Given this scenario, despite the tireless work done to date, we must redouble our efforts to reach the cities and towns where we are not yet. And, in turn, continue to drive the plurality that holds together the movement in terms of backgrounds, identities, beliefs and cultures, as we have done so far. A transversality that enriches and empowers us. Undoubtedly, this is one of the factors that explains the roots of the movement and an element that has allowed us to grow while dodging the difficulties we have encountered along the way.
Despite being relatively young, the PAH has already earned a place in the history of social movements in Southern Europe. We form a bridge between other movements, like the neighborhood movement, the trade union and the 15-M, among others. In fact, we are a part of the origin of the indignados movement, which amplified our struggle, served to speak for our proposals and delivered us a great amount of activists.
We went from initial silence within the media to being a news source and object of endless analysis, articles and studies.
As I finish this preface, I read in the newspapers that the government will inject billions of Euros to clean up Bankia accounts. A system that rescues financial institutions that caused the crisis and abandons millions of citizens has numbered days.
It has been one year since the emergence of 15-M, the squares and streets of neighborhoods, towns and cities are again filling up. I am certain that we will live through historic events (we are already living through them) and will bear witness to powerful social struggles and shifts in consciousness. I am also certain that the PAH will be a key driving force in these changes. I am convinced we will not only witness an era of change, but something deeper. We are on the threshold of a change of an era.
Yes we can!
José Coy, Founder of the Platform for those Affected by the Mortgage of Murcia and victim of the mortgage crisis
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