My name's Elisenda Barrera and I'm 40 years old.
And... I'm linked to Can Vies because...
I occupied it together with many other people
<i>I lived there for 4 years.</i>
They were very intense, full of life experiences
and I wouldn't change them for anything.
Here was a graffiti, a sign.
And here a store, Amena, when mobile phones were introduced.
There was a graffiti we sprayed everywhere:
It said: "You can't buy freedom with a credit card"
Here, in this coffee shop,
called "Petit Cafè" there were two girls
who were together, lesbians
they kissed each other, expressing their love.
They reprehended them and told them to leave.
It said: "Petit Cafè; Big Homophobe".
Those two were a classic on our graffiti night tour.
It's so strange to not see the tower!
Here was a tower. You could already see it from here.
I used to sleep on the top of the tower.
We set up a room in the attic.
It's unbelievable to see the landscape, without the tower.
The Can Vies tower! With the flag!
It's not here! It's missing!
<i>Looking back, I would never have imagined</i>
<i>that Can Vies would still be there after 18 years.</i>
<i>Not fully, but still alive.</i>
<i>Even hurt, it's alive.</i>
<i>The expectations of any squatter</i>
<i>or somebody occupying a place in the 90s were very ephemeral.</i>
<i>You knew you would occupy</i>
<i>and, anyway, the expectations were</i>
<i>to stand until eviction.</i>
<i>It was a matter of dignity</i>
<i>even honor</i>
<i>to defend and protest about</i>
<i>those empty buildings still having an use,</i>
<i>being there to be rescued, and an eviction</i>
<i>would mean stepping on all the work.</i>
For our neighbourhood
it has been like a school for activism and initiatives by assembly.
For the preparation and implemention of direct actions.
With the particularity that it covered many generations.
Can Vies is a benchmark
for the Sants district
and for other districts, and for the city,
for Catalonia,
and for the south of Europe.
as a reference for self-management.
The particularity of this social center is that it has kept a policy of
incorporating young people and taking them afterwards
to other places,
in and outside the district, because people move out.
It has survived many other social centres.
It has had a very long life.
Many different generations have been part of Can Vies
and have kept in touch with the district and Can Vies.
Either bringing our kids to the events or participating ourselves.
Built, established and boosted
in a time as complex as the 90s.
When a generation of young people
was politically homeless
lacking in models.
And the democracy, now in free falling,
was starting to show signs of exhaustion:
Corruption cases, state terrorism,
a post-olympic financial crisis that showed precariousness,
unemployment, flexibility...
<i>I was studying Social Education at the university</i>
and a gorup of people and I met, boys and girls
among which there were 2 or 3 people
who had occupied the Hamsa.
<i>That was also a consequence</i>
<i>of the occupation of the Princesa Cinema 2 months before</i>
<i>in the centre of Barcelona.</i>
And that's when I got in touch
with all that world that was new in Barcelona.
<i>We went in one night.</i>
<i>We made a hole and talked to the people outside</i>
<i>from a mobile phone.</i>
<i>We let them know that we were inside and everything was alright.</i>
<i>And on Saturday we organized a demonstration that concluded here.</i>
<i>And while they were tearing down</i>
<i>a part of the walled up doorway</i>
<i> we made sure that the place was the right one.</i>
<i>We prepared the building</i>
<i>to inaugurate the first day of work.</i>
<i>The pictures, the first people</i>
<i>coming from other districts, etc.</i>
<i>Since its occupation in 1997, Can Vies has received four eviction letters.</i>
<i>The last one was in Spring 2014, it stirred up many acts of protest and solidarity.</i>
Can Vies has always been involved in the neighbourhoods' mobilisations.
And the joint work with other movements has allowed for sympathy and recognition
to be shown whenever there have been any threats.
The different platforms supporting Can Vies are found all over the city.
But these arise out of the great support we get from the district.
Important: Slowly, make a queue.
We want to bring down the town hall with a big queue.
Very calmly, if they let us in,
we will tell them what we are up to.
<i>Let's stop the eviction</i>
I wrote: "Dear Mayor, don't sell yourself".
Seven...
Exactly 100.
<i>We are Can Vies. Resisting for 15 years.</i>
<i>Action Occupy TMB (original building owner, public transportation company)</i>
<i>Let's stop the eviction</i>
<i>Can Vies for the district</i>
<i>Are you taking us for idiots?</i>
<i>No to the eviction! Occupy TMB!</i>
<i>Against the eviction, we occupy TMB</i> (repeatedly)
<i>TMB, think about it! (repeatedly)</i>
<i>The first steps when occupying a house</i>
<i>are difficult and hard.</i>
No water, no electricity, the house almost falling apart...
We had to think about projects, painting, organise meetings
make flyers, to-do lists,
coordinate with others, pick up materials, etc.
From the beginning I remember having dirty hands
nails covered with painting, torn jogging pants,
sleeping little and badly.
A lot of emotions, people visiting,
people asking, approaching us,
being the centre of attention in the neighbourhood...
The Can Vies building is the building
that was occupied illegally by various groups of basically young people.
<i>8 years ago</i>
the previous government, together with TMB representatives,
under the socialist and the green party
put forth a lawsuit
to evict the illegal occupiers.
<i>We reached 2011</i>
with the new government of Mayor Xavier Trias
and we found ourselves in a very difficult situation.
And with a trial in place
that ends up in the Spanish Supreme Court.
And with a non-challengeable judgement
it is the current government's responsibility to enforce it.
In a constitutional state, wether you agree with a judgement or not,
<i>have to be enforced.</i>
<i>If I remember correctly, there were 3 or 4 meetings with the district councillor.</i>
<i>There were brief meetings</i>
45-60 minutes long.
The organisations would always bring proposals
that didn't had to appeal
but we brought them with us
with possible arrangements to avoid eviction.
<i>We tried to negotiate for a year and a half</i>
with very poor results, honestly.
But the town hall tried to give options.
We even offered 3 alternatives.
It's difficult to arrange, because they do not want to talk with the administration.
You can't talk about negotiating if the mindsets are so narrow.
and there are things you cannot talk about.
For more than a year we...me personally...have been talking
trying to enter into a dialogue and to negotiate
with the people from Can Vies looking for a solution
satisfying or acceptable for them and the town hall administration.
If they don't see there's an unfair urban planning in place,
as well as a need for equipment,
and you can't address the problem from the core,
then you cannot call it a negotiation.
We would only be talking about the final enforcement of an unjust law.
But there are people, only a few,
that want to subvert the law in this case
and impose their model.
They do not want to submit to any authority
because it would go against their strategy
to protest against private property and the privatisation of culture
which has always been a fighting cause for the movement.
Therefore, a situation ensuits
in which the possibility of mediation or of an agreement are scarce,
because they have antagonising views.
For me, it wasn't neither a mediation, nor a negotiation.
That's not it.
A mediation would be
to seat down with the willingness and the time which we did not have there.
The people in charge in Can Vies
who are the ones making everything difficult nowadays,
refuses to talk with the administration.
With politicians or the government,
they refurse because they do not acknowledge you as a mediator.
How to do it then?
You let them know that the possible eviction will have its consequences
and the councillor accepted his responsibility for anything that could happen,
but that he did not understand the meaning or the value of it all:
The value that Can Vies holds in the district, socially and collectively speaking,
for the district and for Barcelona.
I repeat: We offered 3 very different alternatives.
and they only offered one: Illegal occupation
and to do whatever they want, however they want. That can't be.
I consider the demolition to be a determining factor.
During those meetings, it was never mentioned,
not even hypothetically, if they had to move out or not,
they never spoke of demolishing Can Vies. and that is provoking double.
Not only eviction, but even more so, tearing it down.
They are evicting
<i>- You're very safe with a club, eh? Take the helmet off, son of a bitch!</i>
<i>Resistance, resistance! (repeatedly)</i>
<i>Occupation, occupation! (repeatedly)</i>
<i>Hitmen!</i>
<i>Son of a bitch!</i>
<i>To me, that was hurtful.</i>
<i>It hurt the building, and also left</i>
<i>a painful wound during that time.</i>
<i>It was a time of anger, pain, melancholy, nostalgia.</i>
<i>Also when I think about it, looking back,</i>
because in the end, it is inevitable to go back 18 years.
Back then 17, but now 18 years ago.
And 18 years is half of my life.
To our surprise, when we occupied it,
<i>we realized that there was a chapel inside.</i>
We later learned that it had been desacralized.
We put some gas cylinders, a table,
we organized a meeting with squatters, in the middle of a church, very surreal.
At the end we decided to occupy it.
During the last 10 years, it has been the 40 and 42 of the street,
but in the beginning the social space was only that here.
<i>I mean, of course, Can Vies has its...</i>
<i>Wow! Half of the church... Impressive!</i>
<i>Wow, man!</i>
It looks so tiny!
It looks very tiny.
I'm not kidding, this is the old chappell.
There you can see the spots where you put the Virgin Mary statues and the altar.
This is where the altar was when we occupied it.
And underneath was the grail that was used to drink.
And it was turned into a room...
a meeting and relaxing room.
A meeting point.
<i>And now, wow, a part is missing. It's gone.</i>
<i>There was a wall here and this was the dining room.</i>
The dining room had a few benches.
For practical reasons but also for ideological ones.
We ate at a very big table, on church benches
brought by someone and no one had a chair. If one moved, everyone did as well.
It became part of the spirit, of how we wanted to live back then.
This is the entrance, with the latch we built in.
This is a recycled window.
We took a look....
and we renovated without any architectural knowledge.
We realised this was our place, we renovated, a little bit of concrete and that was it.
Can Vies has a lot of history, if you look at it this way. A lot of history.
<i>Can Vies felt down The neighborhood is on a war footing.</i>
After the eviction, the demolition started.
After the demonstration the excavator was burnt. The police charged against demonstrators.
<i>Police! Out of the neighbourhood!</i>
<i>I pay this gasoline with my taxes, stop waisting it!</i>
Yes, 7000 is a lot of people, but not the majority
neither in the neighbourhood nor in the city.
It's my opinion, with respect for minorities and these 7000 people.
But I don't respect neither the people that provoked the incidents
nor the people that acted irresponsibly.
The authorities demolished a self-managed, social and cultural centre
working since 17 years. It had only contributed positively to the city.
Other squatters in the city, the aggressive tourism industry,
and certain criminal groups, present in the port of Barcelona,
are given a red carpet welcome. And this plutocracy,
always in the service of power, originates a widespread popular indignation.
Lots of people have demonstrated
or have shown their support to the Can Vies movement
which doesn't belong to Sants, nor Barcelona or Catalonia
and doesn't belong to Spain either.
There is a lot of people that doesn't know what Can Vies is.
They have no idea what Can Vies is but they support an alternative movement
anti-establishment and anti-status quo.
The 60 demonstrations that took place in the region
on the day of the Can Vies eviction, or the day after
took place because the people felt attacked as citizens.
And also as participants, because people were mobilised
in these 60 districts and was participating in social spaces as "ateneus" or "casals"
they shared the premise of solidarity: "If one of us is attacked, we are all attacked"
and they felt attacked.
And the crisis has exacerbated it. It is the long-term, deep failure
of what is known as system which becomes even weaker.
Sants is one of the neighbourhoods with the highest cooperative movement
of both, workers and consumers, and it originates a network of local actors
and people involved in; there is a capillarity of this presence
of activists from different generations and Can Vies is a node within a network
because there is a lot of mobility between the people from different spaces
and it is deeply rooted in the territory.
It is a 17 years conflict.
We musn't forget that it was caused by the tripartite government
by complaining against Can Vies. It was the inability of the power
to assume that without public resources, or subsidies
aside from the institutions, public communal and city council level
there is social life and people want to organise themselves
and refuse just being viewers, consumers or voters
but rather to do things ourselves by sharing efforts.
<i>We don't negotiate to change the world. Against social capital. </i>
<i>We firmly condemn the police deployment</i>
<i>and the police action,</i>
<i>the arbitrary arrests, the beating and caning,</i>
<i> police charges, intimidation and identification measures</i>
<i>and the violence against the neighbourhood.</i>
<i>Resistance, resistance! (repeatedly)</i>
<i>A neighbours assembly took place</i>
because during that tragic week a lot of things happened in Sants
I realised that many neighbours
could not provide their opinion to the media
a number of people
<i>that were not represented.</i>
This assembly wasn't for neighbours against Can Vies
because the project had coexisted in the neighbourhood for 15-20 years
<i>without any problem.</i>
<i>A different thing is to occupy the highway with violent demonstrations</i>
against street furniture and heritage demanding something that we found not fair:
That the system itself should solve the problem of lack of space
but without being part of the system.
We think that wasn't compatible.
There is a logic of participation monitored, subsidised and assisted
and a logic that doesn't ask for permission to be free and doesn't apologise for it.
There should be a dialogue in Can Vies.
No matter how, but it should because it never existed.
Or almost never.
Therefore, what will Can Vies be? It will be what people want.
The Jocs Florals street is very quiet
they did some activities, they were quiet, without causing any trouble.
They say that it's open to the neighbours, but it isn't true.
The neighbors don't go to there. Only young people, friends or other squatters.
As we were young, we met there, they opened a Café
they hosted parties in the chapel
and hold workshops.
- They behaved very well. Very well. - Yes, they didn't bother here.
They did positive things that were necessary.
Terrible. There was a riot. With all containers...
It was like a battle. - Yes, burned containers...
...damaged cars. There was fear in the streets.
Some...we don't say anything because we don't want that
It wasn't right, how the council did that
all squatters thrown out...A shame!
There was a lot of fuss on the streets, the police...
And people beating the police and the other way around.
And burning things, for the rest...
I don't know... I don't agree how they did that
That mess was caused by the way the city council did it
one day, they demolished it. It's not right.
I live in Sant Medir street; there was a fire between St. Jordi and Badal
and I couldn't go home.
There was police on both sides blocking the street.
There were burned containers broken shop windows....
It was over the top and I think it wasn't caused by the Can Vies people.
They were helping, but didn't reach any agreement with the city council.
There are interests.
There might have been people there not so desirable like the people who lived there.
There are always outsiders.
But we do not have anything against these people.
For me, for example, about burning the crane
it was well deserved, you know?
There was a constant tension from 7 in the afternoon.
You know how demonstrations will end up, because we know how the police acts
and people will not just remain paralysed.
That constant tension was perceived in the neighborhood.
That was not the way to fight it. It is not my car's fault.
The neighborhood was destroyed.
We gave a deplorable image to the whole country.
It's not fair. The council shouldn't have wait so long for the eviction
Is what we all think....they shouldn't have wait... The squatters were well settled...
The squatting movement...I don't know Not paying electricity, water and living off...
Pay dude, I'm paying taxes. It pisses my off.
We are fed up with it.
They did it for nothing.
They demolished it, exacerbated the neighborhood, to leave it as it was.
With the difference that it can't be used now, it is useless.
They were very quiet...
They made their live, just like you or I do...
It's like the proverb: "Dead dogs, don't bite"
But I don't see any sense, they gained nothing.
Demolishing the building, what do you gain? Nothing.
Who is now using it? Nobody.
<i>We are rebuilding Can Vies</i>.
Are you already in the house? Funny!
<i>Stickers from an alternative party, that's from the Torna.</i>
<i>That one is from June 28. And that one from 1999.</i>
<i>And these for the decriminalisation of squatting. They are stickers made of photocopies</i>.
Some things remain unchanged.
That was the bathroom that we could see from below.
That was one bedroom.
<i>And now it is overlooking the street.</i>
It was overlooking the chapel, the chapel area...
...the social area. And now, yes, it overlooks the street.
<i>It's a shock...</i>
Well... every cloud has a silver lining.
It brightens the room, there is more daylight.
Every cloud has a silver lining.
<i>This was the attic bedroom.</i>
<i>I lived in this bedroom a long time. I slept and lived here a long time.</i>
<i>There is nothing left. It's like...</i>
<i>going back to the beginning. As we painted the beams... my God!</i>
From here you could access the rooftop and the tower
that was of course destroyed during the eviction and demolition.
But this has been rebuilt. It has been rebuilt!
That's awesome!
Wow!
We used to hung the clothes here and gave some parties...
<i>Especially on Saint John's Eve.</i>
And the big tower was here and ascended upwards.
<i>As an emblem of the house, of the landscape and the neighborhood.</i>
<i>To destroy, only one second is needed. To build, many lives are needed.</i>
<i>Joint demonstration in the centre of Barcelona</i>
<i>We are Can Vies.</i>
<i>Anticapitalists! (repeatedly)</i>
<i>Direct anti-fascists action</i>
<i>After the demonstration, the police</i>
<i>turned away around 200 people during 3 hours</i>
<i>and forced some of them to be photographed with hoods on.</i>
Which came first? The chicken or the egg?
Did the police come because of the agitation and the burned containers?
Or were containers burned because the police was watching?
There was certainly a violent reaction.
Of course, the disturbances and the street violence
using strategies on the verge of urban terrorism
that took place in some moments
were due to the actions of a minority, that's the true.
But it caused a big fuss.
I think we overcame and went through
the first criminalisation barrier regarding the violence issue
because the alternative media did a very good job.
Fortunately, at neighbourhood level, social networks and alternative media
there are critical communication projects that are doing a great job.
We understand by default that the police is there to protect us
so that things don't go beyond and ensure that street furniture doesn't burn.
Therefore we don't defend their action
but we understand that they were executing a court order.
The fact that the conflict was one week in the center of media attention
facilitated that the media needed to search for other arguments and voices.
Even more when those who accuse are the ones provoking it,
who are unable to manage the reality of the crisis differently
and the impunity of those who provoked it. And it has changed.
It has changed a lot compared to the upper area of the city.
It's not only a youth movement. They are fathers, mothers, cousins
public service workers, doctors...
People that don't care much if an ATM window is broken.
What they care about is the conditions of most citizens.
Local shops have worked on transmitting the idea
that we are not capitalists, we are not big multinationals
but small entrepreneurs that give our best
and work more than anybody else to provide for our families.
And it has got through among many social movements
and they are respecting the small local businesses.
Without minimising their supports, they are a minority
and in some cases, a kind of support that no group should accept.
Hooded persons with Molotov cocktails in their backpacks
no group should accept that kind of support.
A cynical and hypocritical discourse on violence has been built
and not on other acts of violence of that social model, which are many.
And thus, the goose that laid the golden eggs has been killed
about condemning or not with cynicism and hypocrisy.
What happened in Can Vies was one of the most serious acts
of institutional violence against the grassroots movement over the past years.
<i>After the eviction there were 84 arrests</i>
<i>and 200 persons reported injuries.</i>
<i>More than 200.000 policemen were deployed.</i>
<i>The City council valued the damage at 415.000 euros.</i>
<i>The trials began in January 2015</i>
<i>with sanctions of up to 7 years imprisonment.</i>
This was the dining room, that we have seen with little light.
This a wall which has now disappeared.
This, a bedroom which we have seen as common room.
The tower, with a greeting card I received when I lived here
<i>That's in a patio....</i>
<i>I always say that time has proved us right.</i>
When we occupied you could read on the leaflets we did
that we critized and questioned the real state bubble
the fact that politicians were enriching themselves with commissions
that there were business interests
in land and property speculation, building, etc.
<i>The squatting movement back then</i>
<i>was identified with a urban tribe.</i>
<i>There was a clear element: A contradiction in the Spanish law</i>
<i>between the right to private property and housing.</i>
<i>A real contradiciton</i>
<i>still to be resolved.</i>
<i>But back then we were wild young people</i>
<i>that occupied houses</i>
<i>that went to other people's houses to attack private property.</i>
<i>And it turns out that the reasoning is the same as today, but with other words.</i>
<i>And it reveals that everything was real, it existed.</i>
I think that nowadays the message is also present
and is delivered e.g. by the PAH. The Mortgage victims platform.
The message has found its way
but no one would say that the PAH is an urban tribe or that they are squatters.
<i>Two of the biggest metropolitan infrastructures of the city are located in Sants</i>
<i>The Sants train station, now with high-speed railway lines.</i>
<i>And the enclosure of the Barcelona Trade Fair.</i>
<i>Secondarily, there are the neighbours needs</i>
as the demand of infrastructures, the remodeling of the market building,
or the decent refurbishment of Can Batlló, a self-managed project, among others.
As they don't have that metropolitan dimension
of providing with resources and infrastructure the capitalist city of Barcelona
all that becomes secondary, neglecting the neighbors' needs.
The occupation that took place 17-18 years ago
was the result of a very objective fact:
The lack of space for youth organisations in the neighborhood and the district.
There was a lack of equipments for youth organisations.
Many of the equipments we have in Sants
like Plaça de Sants, Cotxeres, the Parc de l'Espanya Industrial
or even the restoration of Can Batlló for the neighbours
have not been an achievement
of the City Council's provisions
who often makes a cheap political point about it
but of the stubborn fight of the neighborhood movement
which has had to go after available resources
during 35 long years in order to get equipments
that the neighborhood needs in their daily life.
Times have changed
It's not logical to demand privileges for some groups
if the rest is struggling to pay the spaces we have.
That is changing.
As municipal government we are working since more than 3 years
providing and making spaces available to youth organisations and others.
If someone asks for a public space
some basic things must be met:
The schedules, a particular kind of activities, adressed to all citizens
to join the network of entities of the city
and you have to pay a minimum public price.
They say: "We want self-management"
Ok, no problem, they can do it... but not in my house, which is the house of all.
A municipal space is the house of all. Some neighbors tell me:
"The people of Can Vies have privatised the urban space".
They are right. The people of Can Vies have privatised a public space.
The interest of the self-management is the self-government.
Where everyone is involved in deciding.
Deciding from an economic, social and political perspective
how things should be done.
And the other perspective you are asking for
that of the Barcelona brand,
is the one of the economic interests, the big companies' interests
and the interests of the big executive boards.
The Barcelona history as the "Rose of Fire" is about a city in ongoing conflict
between the interests of the rich and the popular classes
which have territorialised and been in constant conflict.
The ones, with their cumulation interests
and the others, with their interests in covering more direct needs.
Catalunya has a strong cooperative tradition
as strong as the governments' will to break it away.
There is the same level of tension as 100 years ago
when the cooperative movement provided
important possibilities for the social autonomy.
Such models and projects are good. Of course...
In order to show that they are indeed possible
that things can be done differently.
But... it is important to say that it requires a lot of effort
and work to the persons involved.
It means going against the flow, to constantly prove
that you are honest and a hard-worker, that you are...
You have to prove far more for doing things that way.
That groups such as Can Vies that want to manage themselves
have to comply with the basic rules
nothing complicated it should be very simple and basic
it can be agreed bilaterally but there must be a minimum link
in which two parties agree in the use of that public space.
They don't deal with the administration or their activities being supervised
neither their schedules or the kind of persons they invite, etc.
That's not normal.
You can not pretend being out of the system and asking it to resolve some issues.
Unfortunately, the model is not heading that way
even though it's a bit strange
and it cries to heaven, it is like knocking on the door
until the door is broken down.
It seems that with the recession
many people have the opinion that the economic model is exhausted,
that it doesn't work anymore, we need to change the paradigm...
Yes, it's true, but nobody is looking in another direction.
They all repeat and fall in the same trap.
There is a criticism that young people don't care about politics
that we don't get involved...
And when we do politics, in-depth political actions
we are draft dodgers from an anti-military consciousness
we occupy spaces to condemn speculation
and we regenerate them from a sociocultural and popular perspective
but we get a lot of stick and are harshly criticised.
They don't know if they want conscious, critic and active citizens.
It is obvious that the authorities don't want critic, conscious and active citizens.
The district will always try
to have a hand in the management of public spaces.
Certainly, we are seeing different experiences
looking it from the distance, like Can Batlló.
The people from Can Vies are different from all citizens
and want to do what nobody else intends to do.
It can't be accepted.
David Harvey, an urban geographer, that has analysed the models
and offers a good description calling it accumulation by dispossession
explaining how the municipal authorities have been unable to influence
the logic of capital accumulation, enrichment and speculation.
The tragedy of the country was to speculate on housing prices and living conditions.
It is expensive for someone that earns 1.000 euros or less to live in Barcelona.
We need a model change
that lies in leaving behind the logic of commercialising everything
and going into the logic of a cooperative, common and social city.
If we are recognised as a city, otherwise we would be recognised as
a free port or a giant shopping centre, and not a city.
But it will never be an illegally rebuilt building.
It won't ever be!
For a long time, there was a quote in Can Vies
on a banner hanging on the façade that said:
"If you don't want to do something, one excuse is as good as another".
That's the philosophy of the self-management.
<i>I remember attempting to change</i>
<i>the image they were trying to give of</i>
<i>linking us with fuss, riots...</i>
<i>rage and anger.</i>
<i>It was a part of the Can Vies' effect this is how it was.</i>
<i>But instead the work and effort weren't recognised</i>
the use given to the space the politisation of the space,
the empowerment for the people involved
it was like a school, we learnt a lot here.
It was ignored and we had to make it public.
<i>From that eviction, from that attack against Can Vies</i>
<i>against the popular organisation in Sants</i>
<i>has emerged an awareness, very reinforced.</i>
<i>Can Vies has emerged stronger from the eviction.</i>
<i>And with the ongoing reconstruction</i>
<i>it will have not only that great acceptation and protection</i>
<i> but it will increase.</i>
Can Vies has won the battle.
And it's not the first one. Can Vies has won many lawsuits.
You asked if it has been rising <i>in crescendo</i>.
Yes, Can Vies has only grown.
Can Vies was born when the Hamsa already existed.
When there were many squatted houses that...
...and Can Vies was the little sister.
And now Can Vies
it's a benchmark not only as squat house
but also as self-management model
and a space where dreams are possible.
That's how it is.
<i>Can Vies has a long future ahead.</i>
<i>It has a distant horizon.</i>
<i>It will be difficult that Can Vies is no longer, as it is today.</i>
<i>Because all onslaughts and attacks against it</i>
<i>and the difficulties it has faced over the past 18 years</i>
<i>it's still standing.</i>
<i>Because it still stands</i>
<i>and it's still protected, it's still being built</i>
<i>and it's still loved by people who build it from the bottom up.</i>
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