The bourgeoisie, when it sees power escaping from its hands, resorts to fascism to maintain its privileges. That is what has happened in Spain. If the Republican Government had really wanted to defeat the fascists, it could have done so long ago. Instead of tackling them deeply, it has only sought compromises and agreements.” This famous expression was made by Buenaventura Durruti in an interview with Canadian journalist Von Passen for the newspaper Toronto Star, in the days after the military uprising in July 1936, Franco presided over the Durruti Column with four thousand volunteers shortly before leaving Barcelona to Aragon.
85 years later, it is clear that we cannot name the current government of the Spanish State “Republican”, although it is presented as the “most progressive government in history”. We cannot say that the PSOE-Podemos Cabinet is firmly facing the rise of the ultra-right. The state apparatus continues to be hijacked by very reactionary ideas and practices that work to counter any progressive social transformation. They use the monarchy, the judiciary and the security forces of the state, but also the new allies who want to strengthen their power and do business with the misery provoked by admirers.
"The strategy developed to deal with Desokupa has focused on three axes: complaints in the courts, the transmission of its origins and mafia practices and the neighborhood organization"
The company Desokupa is one of the most prominent examples of this new phase of a recession of rights and freedoms driven by public-private cooperation. With the complicity of the Ertzaintza, a building in Abadiño is presented in Euskal Herria evicting. Daniel Esteve leads this organization. In 2008, Mosso arrested and prosecuted Esteve in an operation against a deserving company, accusing him of illegal detention, insults, threats and the establishment of an illegal association. Among the members of the company are people experts in martial arts who have acted as paramilitaries, nightclub goalkeeper or private security agent. It has been demonstrated that most have links to the end derecho.La first Desokupa intervention with
public impact was the eviction of Can Dimoni in April 2016.
Can Dimoni is an estate of the Barcelona district of Gracia, catalogued as historical heritage and abandoned until a group of young people decided to occupy it. From that moment on, the popular movements activated the #StopDesokupa campaign to denounce the company’s practices, and Directo started an intense research work. The strategy developed to deal with Desokupa has focused on three axes: complaints before the courts (which have not so far been successful), on publicising its Mafia origins and practices and on the neighbourhood organization to respond quickly to an intervention.
Experience has shown the meeting between Desokupa and members of different policemen. And also that certain media have promoted the company in the heat of the campaign of criminalization against occupation. All this has helped them to increase their turnover. They build an aura of heroism that has led them to virality and to the multiplication of followers on social networks. The System is feeding Desokupa, but neighbors have an army of contemporary brigadists who have cut their way back and forth from the neighborhood unions. That will be their failure.