Over the past year, tenants and supporters have resisted multiple eviction attempts at Casa Orsola, organising community mobilisations, legal battles, and direct action to protect residents from displacement. The latest eviction order targeted five flats, but the broader objective of the investment firm is to clear the entire building.
The 27-unit residential building in Esquerra de l’Eixample neighbourhood has become a focal point in the fight against gentrification and mass evictions. In 2021, a real estate investment firm purchased the building, seeking to evict long-term tenants in order to convert the apartments into high-priced, short-term tourist rentals—a trend that has transformed the city’s housing market and displaced thousands of local residents in recent years.
By early morning, hundreds of people had gathered to block the eviction, forming human barricades and occupying the building. The crowd included not only experienced activists and housing organisers but many ordinary residents. Tenants and supporters live-streamed the situation from inside and outside the building, and media coverage intensified.
The Sindicat de Llogateres, Barcelona’s leading tenants’ union, has been at the forefront of the fight to defend the residents, combining the tactics of the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH)—a grassroots movement against mortgage evictions—with methods rooted in anarcho-syndicalism. The residents and union have called for live-streamed resistance to continue this morning, with defensive organising to mobilise supporters before tomorrow’s 5am deadline, and community activities such as performances, discussions and food sharing through the night.
A decade of resistance
The defence of Casa Orsola is part of a long history of housing struggles in Spain. Resistance against gentrification and speculative real estate development has repeatedly flared up in Barcelona and across the country, at times erupting into major uprisings.
In the Burgos uprising of 2014, residents of the working-class neighbour of Gamonal fought against a government-backed plan to gentrify their district by constructing a high-end boulevard. When police cracked down on protests, the neighbourhood erupted in four nights of rioting, during which residents destroyed banks, fought police, and blockaded the construction site. The local government ultimately cancelled the gentrification project. In the same year, Barcelona witnessed the Can Vies revolt, when a 17-year-old squatted social centre was forcibly evicted by police. What began as a protest quickly escalated into a week-long urban revolt involving tens of thousands of people. Police stations were attacked, barricades were erected, and banks were smashed as demonstrators forced authorities to abandon their plans.
The revolt and its decisive victory also spread radical critiques of urban planning, mass tourism, and housing speculation, further fuelling anti-gentrification movements in Spain and internationally.
With Barcelona increasingly resembling a “tourist circus” rather than a livable city for locals, many people—regardless of their previous involvement in social struggles and direct action—are joining efforts to resist corporate-driven evictions. This growing frustration has been nurtured by years of grassroots organising by groups like the PAH, the Sindicat de Llogateres, as well as local neighbourhood groups, which have built strong networks of solidarity and direct action.
Found on: Freedom News UK
