Battle for Can Vies

The Battle for Can Vies was an anti-eviction uprising near the Can Vies squat, Barcelona, Spain in 2014.

Background

The Can Vies squat had been occupied for over seventeen years and was a popular community social center. The local government announced plans to evict the squatters and demolish the building. This was to remove non-market spaces from the city in order to gentrify it, increasing rents and prices for the working class.

Events

Peter Gelderloos describes the events in The Failure of Nonviolence:

On May 26, the police in Barcelona evicted the seventeen-year-old squatted social center, Barcelona. The eviction was one small part of an ongoing, aggressive gentrification campaign designed to remake Barcelona for tourists and tech-sector yuppies, putting an end to free, non-commercial spaces and spaces intended for the autonomous use of neighbors. That evening, a thousand people gathered in the rain to protest, and a small group of a few hundred masked anarchists set fire to a media van, smashed banks, and attacked police. The next day, people returned to the streets, setting fire to an excavator that had begun to demolish the Can Vies building. Arsons and attacks were carried out across the city. The third day, over ten thousand people took to the streets, smashing banks, setting up barricades, and fighting with police until late in the night. Rioting lasted until the end of the week. The Can Vies collective refused to negotiate with the city government. The mayor accurately summed up the situation with the phrase, “As long as their is violence, there can be no dialogue,” underscoring exactly why so many people supported the violence. When it became apparent that the police were unable to win in the streets and that the revolt might spread to other neighborhoods or even throughout the rest of Catalunya (there had been solidarity protests in dozens of other towns and cities, with the offices of the ruling political party frequently attacked), the mayor abandoned his insistence on peacefulness and began pleading for dialogue in any form. When the protesters still refused, he unilaterally began to throw out concessions, including cancelling the eviction of Can Vies. But thanks to the rioters, this was already fait accompli. Rioters had retaken the Can Vies building and pushed out police.

These events are an extremely successful example of direct action.

Results

The uprising succeeded in stopping and reversing the eviction of Can Vies. Squatters had crowdfunded over a hundred euros to rebuild and renovate the site, which was done with the help of volunteer firefighters, architects and workers.

See Also

• Battle for Can Masdeu