A section of Barcelona’s Plaza de Catalunya has been darkened since Tuesday afternoon. It’s not a breakdown: the city council cut off the electricity supply to the homes where the tents have been camping for three weeks, born a few days after the one still active in Seoul. It justifies this with a report from firefighters: the campers were irregularly connected to the square’s network and this, the council says, created an imminent danger to people (for example, a bad connection could cause a fire). Campers believe they have taken away the light so they can leave.
What is known The city council, where socialist Jaume Colboni currently governs, claims to protect the physical integrity of those who sleep there. But the report has not been made public: we know it from municipal sources. The scope is also unclear. Bateve talks about the part of the street lighting, while the campers say they are left without lighting in the square.
under the rain To understand what it means to turn off the lights, you have to look at what that camp is today. According to EFE, there are more than 600 tents and it has withstood the rain that flooded several and several tarps were damaged by the wind. There are rules of coexistence, including silence after 00:30, and a kitchen committee that prepares 300 to 400 dishes a day. The center has a place for homeless people in the area, estimated to be between fifteen and twenty per day, who receive mats, sleeping bags and food.
Leon, a spokesman, is a school monitor, lives in Naval Barris and combines his work with the square. “We are together, we are organized, and we will continue camping,” he summarized to EFE. This is not a weekend camp. Although they lack an urban planning councillor, this is an organized neighborhood where people work, study and sleep outside in October, even though the temperature was 14 degrees Celsius last night.
What they wanted on 7th October. That day the camp registered a formal request to the city council, to which EFE had access, to define protocols and guarantee minimum potable water, electricity and lighting. Two days ago, a demonstration for housing rights ended with the Mossos d’Esquadra, burning containers and throwing objects at the police. Police 13 prisoners and 28 officers slightly injured. Events reached the Plaza de Catalunya, where some campers scolded the rioters for sheltering in tents and threw objects at Frances Macia from the monument.
After thirteen days of public response we know the cut. The spokeswoman, Kiara Monroy, said there was a meeting with municipal representatives and a visit to a citizen services office, without an agreement. “They don’t respond to us,” he says. He also assured that no one warned them about the electrical hazards.
Safety or wear and tear? The city council maintains that an uncertain connection with hundreds of shops, heavy rain and street furniture is a bad combination, and it’s hard to explain why no action was taken if something happened. Campers have another version: according to the mentioned report, this problem was there from the beginning, endured for three weeks and was cut off only after asking for a guarantee, there is no alternative.
They warned that the mayor would be held responsible for any incident and feared that there would be fountain water later. This Tuesday, according to Leon, two municipal workers asked to come in to fix something related to water and were not allowed to enter because of that suspicion.
And in Madrid, other routes. Monroy compares it to Madrid: not even there, “led by the right”, has such a cut been seen. Pressure on the sole has come in other ways, such as the hour-long closure of a metro station for cleaning, which has since reopened (although they don’t rule out closing again if ammonia levels are higher than allowed by analysis). Or the store census that Almeida requested, as we said yesterday. In both cities the war is played in the administrative field: reports, supplies, measurements.
what’s coming The campers say they will go on a general strike at least on November 11 and until the election on 29 if necessary. The City Council has not clarified, as far as we know, whether power will be restored or whether the outage is temporary. According to CatalunyaPress, last night the occupied area was dark and fenced off. For his part, security lieutenant Albert Battle does not see the evacuation as relevant, as he considers it “unnecessary and completely irresponsible”.
There is some déjà vu. This same square was one of the focal points of 15-M in 2011 and housing the flag again fifteen years later. Then, an attempt to “cleanse” the square ended with thousands returning to the occupation. Now the tool is different, quieter, and makes the square darker than it was a week ago. And turning off the lights only solves a physical problem of wiring, but not a human problem, what has been done with this square that already functions like a small neighborhood, with a kitchen, rules and homeless people sleeping.
Picture | Reconstruction from an original from elDiario, edited for illustrative purposes only
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