Andalusia: Spanish Constitutional Court uses the Constitution as toilet paper

Occupied homes in Andalusia

A year ago I commented with satisfaction that the Andalusian Parliament had approved a law that would allow expropriation of empty homes in order to guarantee the fundamental right to a dignified home, established in the Spanish Constitution. 

By this basic law of the Kingdom of Spain, the right to a home, as well as to a job, are fundamental rights, well above the accessory right to private property. Until now the main formal argument against tribunals upholding such fundamental rights was that they were not regulated by the state and therefore there was a legal vacuum. 

So what happens when the Andalusian institutions in full use of their legislating capabilities do regulate these rights as clearly intended by the letter and spirit of the Spanish Constitution of 1978? That the ultra-conservative Constitutional Court declares that hyper-constitutional law "possibly unconstitutional". 

It is not yet a firm sentence but just a procedural suspension for five months but the fact that the high court even dares to consider debatable the Madrid and Brussels claim of the right to property being above the right to a home, in clear contradiction with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, is a clear signal that, exactly as it has been for the last many decades, the Spanish Constitution is only worth as toilet paper. 

The Constitutional Court is clearly underlining this well known fact: there's no constitution, just banks.

Source: Diagonal[es].

Andalusia: union leader arrested

Diego Cañamero, leader of the militant Andalusian Workers Union (SAT) was arrested yesterday after he rejected to pay homage to bourgeois injustice by not going to court to declare on the workers struggle for the collectivization of Las Turquillas ranch, owned by the Spanish military. 

Plain clothes policemen arrested him at the Worker Center of El Coronil, where he and dozens of supporters were awaiting the announced arrest.

The demand of collectivization of farmlands in Andalusia is a popular struggle that comes from old, as most of the land belongs to aristocrats who were assigned it by the Medieval dictatorships. The workers want to collectivize the right of use of those lands (property means nothing) in order to tackle the massive chronic unemployment, which reaches 40% in many districts. 

In the words of Cañamero himself:

We do not want the property of the land, we want its use. 

...

It can't be that the lands public or private are kept aside from a people that does not know anymore what to do with unemployment. We want to demonstrate that, in the hands of cooperatives, the ranch will have another use, oriented to the creation of jobs and to extract productivity from the land and not just from EU subsidies.

Source: Borroka Garaia Da![es]

Update on anarchist arrests in Catalonia and Spain

Some more info is showing up on the arrests of several anarchists in Catalonia and other Iberian localities. The arrested are accused of being the administrators of a Facebook group known as Kolektivo Bandera Negra (Black Flag Kollektivity), which was used for counter-information and anarchist propaganda. 

The relationship between the arrested and the Ateneu Llibertari of Sabadell was at best accidental (one of their members may have gone a few times to this social center), what was no problem for police to raid the Ateneu mercilessly and take all the documentation in it, including hard disks and such. 

There were also police raids in Málaga (Andalusia), Zaragoza (Aragon) and Avinyó (Catalonia). So far there is no known evidence of any "terrorist" link, in spite of wild bourgeois media speculations.

In a single day, with this and other operatives (against Basque Independentists, striking teachers in Aragon and even a Venezuelan PSUV activist arrested after a conference in Valencia), 21 people were arrested for crimes of political opinion in the Kingdom of Spain. 

Source[es]: A Las Barricadas (via Borroka Garaia Da!)


Update: the Grupo Bandera Negra (Black Flag Group) of Madrid denies any link with the arrested but shows its solidarity with them and especially with the Ateneu Llibertari of Sabadell → Juventudes Libertarias de Madrid[es].

Andalusia: fascist attack against social library

The nameless occupied social center of San Bernardo Street 42, Seville, was attacked last night resulting in massive destruction, notably of the library. While there is no direct evidence of the attackers as of now, all suspicions fall on a fascist gang under the name Resistencia Estudiantil (Student Resistance) which is well known in the Betic city for its continuous provocations. 

Source: Coordinadora Antifascista de Sevilla[es].

Andalusia: workers persist in their attempt to collectivize Las Turquillas farmland

Hundreds of workers organized around the Andalusian Workers' Union (SAT) continue in their attempt to occupy and collectivize the ranch Las Turquillas, legal "property" of the Ministry of Defense of Castile-Spain, state that occupies the Andalusian territory since centuries ago in colonial and late feudal style. 

The military police corps Guardia Civil threatened to charge with all and without mercy if they continued in their first attempt today. Therefore the workers attempted to proceed by other areas less protected but without success because they were trying to avoid direct confrontation with the police and military forces, which have helicopters and mounted forces.

Years ago the now ruling party PP (conservatives nearing outright fascism) demanded from the government of the time (PSOE, blairites) to cede the unused military land to the municipality of Osuna in order to create jobs. As soon as they reached power they "forgot" about their demands.

Source: Coordinadora Antifascista de Sevilla[es].

Andalusia: workers occupy state-owned farmland

Some 500 workers occupied yesterday the parcel known as Las Turquillas, owned by the Spanish Ministry of Defense. Police evicted them at night but the workers have decided to keep pressure at the gate of said farmland.

The direct action has been organized by the Union of Andalusian Workers (SAT) and the 'Critical Bloc' (coalition of many organizations against "austerity").

The same organizations mustered thousands of workers yesterday in Seville and Granada. In Jaén, some 400 union members attempted to occupy the ranch La Rueda but were blocked by police forces. In Lebrija some 100 workers also marched to the ranch Lebrojo.

Source: Kaos en la Red[es].