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The presence of left-wing political leaders who hold or have held positions in the government in the housing demonstrations that took place a few days ago is somewhat surreal.
These individuals and their respective organizations have been responsible for the deterioration that in recent years the exercise of the right recognized by article 47 of the Spanish Constitution has suffered: “All Spaniards have the right to enjoy decent and adequate housing.”
I am not saying that the increasing difficulty of access to housing for lower-income population groups has been caused by the left that has been governing in Spain since 2018, or in previous periods with Rodriguez Zapatero. Among other things, because the same or worse happened when the Popular Party governed and, furthermore, in many other countries in the world, even to a greater extent.
Nor am I saying that I find it bad that these leaders promote, support and attend demonstrations. I’m just saying that it represents demonstrate against themselves if, at the same time, they do not explain the reason for their failure to improve the right of access to housing.
Design appropriate strategies and policies in the medium and long term, achieve social alliances to carry them out and explain to the population the real nature of the problem.
It is naive to ask that the left be able to solve any problem while it governs when the problems are of extraordinary magnitude, as in this case, they require having a real power that one does not haveor a long time ahead for the decisions made to bear positive results. The atrocities that have been committed for so long in land and housing policy in Spain cannot be reversed not in one, nor perhaps in two or three legislatures. But something else can be done that is very important, since it is an inexcusable starting point to avoid making mistakes in the immediate future: design appropriate strategies and policies in the medium and long term, achieve agreements and social alliances to be able to carry them out and, Above all, explain to the population the real nature of the problem, its causes, the difficulties or barriers that must be overcome to solve it and, perhaps most importantly, why progress cannot be made in the desired direction. That is, doing pedagogy, informing, communicating and ensuring that citizens can be participants, cooperators and accomplices.
Almost all of the latter is what I believe the left is not doing.
You are making a mistake in strategy. In the case of POSE, in an egregious way. Engage in ask for solidarity from landlords or granting rental bonuses that are not going to lower prices but perhaps raise them, is not only frustrating, but even pathetic.
On your left, I believe that the mistake is made of insisting on correcting the performance of the market, when it is very rigid due to concentration, the large presence of speculative investment funds and the type of housing that has been built. And also, limiting oneself to making purely moralistic approaches, such as the one developed Alberto Garzontop leader of Izquierda Unida until recently, in a recent newspaper article.
It is essential to have a national park for the public good of housing. There is no other
The only strategy that will allow the right to housing to be exercised is its decommodification in the areas or modalities required to satisfy the population’s need for housing, giving priority to that right and building those that are necessary for this, if necessary, with the collaboration of the private sector. In other words: It is not about facing the market mills like donkeysbut to get out of it, because it has been demonstrated that it, driven by the exclusive engine of the desire for profit, is not capable of satisfying the entire social demand for a basic necessity.
It is essential to have a national park for the public good of housing. There is no other. And it is very urgent to move forward in that line because what is happening with housing and what I explained in a previous articleis accompanied by the commodification of other goods and services basic to human lifesuch as water and other natural resources, knowledge, health remedies, education and many others.
The impotence of the left can be justified, but it is unjustifiable that it is not aware of it, does not explain why, or that it acts as if the problem it leaves unresolved was not with it.
In this sense and finally, I cannot fail to mention one last responsibility (today it is not time to talk about the promoters, banks, and investment funds that make gold by speculating). I also believe that the tens of thousands of affected people who until now have barely been noticed, are not well informed, have it. They do not constantly go out into the streets to demand solutions and that, to make matters worse, they either do not vote or vote for parties that apply policies that prevent them from exercising their constitutional rights. Therefore, welcome are these mobilizations that, in any case, are the precondition for all people who need it to have housing.
#Housing #left #demonstrates
