Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.
Canary Islands closes a historic weekend of housing protests
The Canary Islands closed on Sunday with further demonstrations after a historic weekend of protests over housing. On 4 October, around a thousand people took to the streets of Arrecife, Lanzarote, in response to a citizens’ call to demand that this fundamental right is upheld.
“The Canary Islands are not for sale, the Canary Islands are defended”, “Your Airbnb was my home” and “The Canary Islands Government is an estate agency” were among the slogans heard during the march, which followed in the wake of the mass mobilisations held on Saturday in Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Fuerteventura. The protests over the right to housing swept through several cities across the islands just hours after the PP, Vox and Junts voted down the Government’s two decrees.
“It’s not a cool flat, it’s a hovel” and “We want to keep living in our neighbourhoods and municipalities” were among the other criticisms and demands heard this Sunday in Arrecife. The demonstration was also the first step on the island towards creating a support platform for tenants, as highlighted by those who read out the manifesto.
Derecho al Techo ends its camp in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
In Gran Canaria, the collective Derecho al Techo announced on Sunday that after six days and following Saturday’s demonstration, it will pack up its camp in the Plaza de la Feria in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
“We are leaving the square with the tiredness of these days, but also with the strength of having shown that, when we organise and take to the streets, we are capable of putting housing at the centre of public debate and social mobilisation,” they said in a statement.
The collective thanked everyone who took part in the camp, the assemblies, the demonstration and all the activities that have filled these days with organisation, solidarity, culture and struggle. They also thanked those who donated food, materials, water and coffee, offered care and support, and the residents of the Plaza de la Feria for “their support and for living alongside us during these days”.
Although they are leaving the square, Derecho al Techo stresses that an urgent task still lies ahead: supporting families facing the loss of their homes.
“The defeat of the housing decrees leaves many families in an even more vulnerable situation, and every day we are receiving new cases of evictions and imminent removals that we must try to stop. That is why, in the coming days, we will focus much of our energy on supporting families, organising the response to evictions and generating the resources needed so that nobody has to face the loss of their home alone,” they state.
“We are also going to take another step. We want to take the organisation into the neighbourhoods and villages, create gatherings, open up spaces for participation and keep building people’s power from the ground up. And we want to start preparing, alongside other social and trade union organisations, the road towards a general strike that puts the housing emergency and the rest of the working class’s demands at the centre of the mobilisation,” they maintain.
Tenerife tenants’ union steps back as new groups take shape
For its part, according to Efe, the Sindicato de Inquilinas de Tenerife, which has been camping since Tuesday in the Plaza de España in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, has also decided to “take a step back”, although participants intend to remain in the square for a period still to be decided.
Its spokesperson, David González, explained that more and more people are interested in joining and that, although from now on they will take on a “secondary role” in the camp, they will continue to support it.
“The important thing is that a genuine autonomy is being created in all the assemblies, and that is what matters: that the unions or collectives that have taken part in this will support everything that emerges,” he concluded.
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