Suport Casa Àfrica

El barrio no se rinde, Casa Africa resiste! The neighborhood persists, Casa Africa resists!

Casa Africa is faced with another threat of eviction on 2nd of April. Three months ago the compañeros from the squat together with solidarity collectives and activists from the neighborhood and around the city managed to resist the first threat of eviction. We who live in squat Casa Africa and the assembly Suport a Casa Africa are convinced that we can resist and stop the eviction again – for this reason, we call for a manifestation of solidarity and strengthening our bonds, staking our bodies against racism and institutional violence.

It was in October of 2018 when faced with the situation of dozens of people denied the right of refuge in Barcelona and seeking a place to live that the CSO La Teixidora offered its space. Shortly it was renamed to Casa Africa by the same compañeros that started living there, turning the space into an alternative living space, as well as a place of political and cultural encounters that has developed creative forms of resistance.

We of Casa Africa are asking: why do there exist passports of first and second rate? How is it possible that Europe speaks about human rights while at the same time it imprisons people in detention centers and constantly deports people simply because of not having papers – the same papers, access to which is systematically denied by institutions and administrative bureaucracies? Migration, a fundamental freedom and an inherent dimension of human existence is being regulated criminalized it as if it was a problem. But there was no regulation of colonization, expulsion and expropriation of African territories carried out for centuries by the same European countries. Nowadays there is no regulation for the advancement of companies with European capital that continue exploiting African land, providing no benefits for the population and disregarding the consequences for the environment.

At the same time, the Spanish state is putting all its mechanisms in service of racism: closed, externalized and militarized borders that force people in search of security to depend on mafias and risk their lives crossing the sea; an asylum system that is completely arbitrary and designed so that the asylum seekers give up rather than be granted refuge (Spain rejects every 3 out of 4 asylum applications); their first right to a visitor being followed by an order of deportation and the first sentence they hear upon a riving to Barcelona “there is no place for you”. At the same time, the Generalitat and the city council, boasting to be ‘ciutat refugi’ [refuge city], do not complete their obligations: shelters with months-long waiting lists, difficulties accessing basic health services or accessing education based in equal conditions and opportunities; breach of right to universal healthcare and the right to education based in equal conditions and opportunities; spending months waiting to be attended by social workers and hindered access to any kind of social services; refusal of the right for empadronamiento* [inscription in registry of population which grants a very precarious possibility of minimal status legalization for people without papers] with the argument of lack of documents even though the legislation is designed specifically for these situations of people without papers… A long etcetera, added to the Alien Law and the lack of planning or (political) willingness for reception of people condones us to daily struggles against racism. We, the compañeros of Casa Africa and the support network of Casa Africa ask: where is the self-proclaimed refuge city that the city council of Barcelona is boasting with? What we are faced with are politics of persecution and repression against our brothers manteros* [self-given name of the work done by street vendors], the incessant racialized raids and a complete lack of action in the direction of giving refuge. Our answer comes from solidarity and self-organization from below and from the neighborhood (the community). We need and want Casa Africa to stay in Poblenou and we demand a decent refuge for all the people coming to our city.

Because of this…

2nd of April between 8.00h and 15.00h
Breakfast against eviction
Casa Africa, c/ Maria Aguillo 39, Metro L4 Poblenou

WE DEFEND CASA AFRICA IN THE STREETS
5th of April at 19h a demonstration against eviction
Rotonda del Casino de Poblenou, c / Ramon Turro con Rambla de Poblenou, Metro L4 Poblenou

• Solidarity
• casaafrica
• squat
• eviction
• antiracist