The End of “La Canica” -- the "Anti-Bank" in Madrid

Photo of La Canica before eviction by Leah Pattem

Guest post by Leah Pattem of Madrid No Frills

Editor’s Introduction – An occupied bank on a main street of Madrid’s Lavapiés neighborhood was evicted after nearly a decade of operation. Following the 15M movement of 2011, sparked in large part by the collapse of banks in Spain, the many vacated premises of failed banks became prime targets for occupations. Everyone could see what that meant. The okupa La Canica launched with a utopian anti-capitalist mission – to replace the monetary system itself with a local community-based currency. The governing assembly quickly involved themselves in more practical issues, particularly housing, as Leah Pattem explains in this guest post.

Around fifty residents of Calle Tribulete 7 wait outside La Canica for the Sindicato de Inquilinas to arrive – they’re the one with the keys. Neighbours have come together to discuss their next strategic move in the fight against their eviction. Just a few months earlier, their homes had been purchased en masse by Elix Rental Housing, an American vulture fund which specialises in property speculation and who has requested them all to leave.
Residents aged between 93 and four years old begin entering. The more able unpack an eclectic collection of chairs, from comfortable office chairs and even an antique armchair to hard wooden benches and the iconic white plastic chairs. An uneven circle forms as close to the edges of the room as possible so that everyone can squeeze in without creating a second row. A small pop-up crèche forms by the stairs where children can play quietly as the adults talk. Stories about tall men in suits are shared, and how they entered the building without warning and knocked on residents’ doors. One neighbour has heard through the grapevine how to delay receiving an eviction notice – just don’t accept it from the postal worker. What I didn’t know at the time was that I was filming one of the last meetings in La Canica.
My first memory of the premises was as a Bankia bank. Many difficult conversations will have been had here as homeowners were told they were going to be evicted. But I also know there were moments of collective euphoria as housing activists succeeded in negotiations to stop evictions.
Following the bank’s closure, the commercial unit remained abandoned but still in the hands of the bank. After a few years, in 2016, a group of activists performed a profound act of subversion: they broke in, changed the locks, and La Canica was born. For the best part of eight years, the okupa was a community centre for Lavapiés residents and an important meeting space for the neighbourhood’s collectives.

Everyone Was Welcome (Almost)

There were rules: everyone was welcome – except for politicians, businessmen, security forces, priests and any other person who attempted to exercise authority. I fondly remember the multi-coloured wall of Post-it notes offering olive oil, therapy sessions, and language classes for children among other things. It was the structure of a counter-economy – get help putting up shelves for your neighbour in exchange for a home-cooked meal. The transaction doesn’t have to be equal in time or financial worth, only equal in personal value, and always accompanied by conversation.

The storefront today (photo by Leah Pattem)

La Canica also provided business support to Lavapiés’ migrant entrepreneurs. For a few years, up until the pandemic, Mauritanian farmer Usman sold his vegetables here one evening per week. He rents an allotment in Rivas, Madrid’s communist-run neighbourhood, where he grows a diverse range of organic fruits and vegetables. You would never know what you were going to get, including the occasional communist snail or spider. Usman would offer internships and the opportunity to learn how to farm. It was an expansion of La Canica’s counter-economy beyond Lavapiés.
But community spaces in the neighbourhood – both those registered with the town hall and those occupied – have been under increased attack in recent years. At times, it feels like the neighbourhood is swimming inside a wave sent to wipe us out. By closing social centres, removing municipal benches and cutting down trees to make squares so unbearably hot on summer nights, there are fewer opportunities for neighbours to talk and, therefore, fewer exchanges of empowering information happen, such as how to avoid being evicted.

Free Spaces Are Necessary

Free and organised spaces where it’s not required to buy a drink, and where there’s enough room to have structured meetings, are essential for local movements. Lavapiés has more collectives than any other Madrid neighbourhood – it’s infamous for organising, and the authorities know it. What many call gentrification is actually a deliberate act of social disruption and results in the dispersal of community structures. The authorities are trying to divide and conquer Lavapiés, and their closing of La Canica is part of the plan.
In the last La Canica meeting with residents of Tribulete 7, they planned a protest, a street performance, a group negotiation with the Elix company people, their press strategy, two documentaries about them – including mine – and another meeting. This is one of the most unionised buildings I’ve ever seen, and their strength and ability to organise is in huge part thanks to decades of resistance culture in Lavapiés and, of course, free spaces such as La Canica.
In June this year, I woke up to the news that La Canica had been evicted. The building is now undergoing works and, according to construction workers, it will be four self-contained tourist apartments, all of which will be unlicensed because the council is no longer granting new licences. The former okupa no longer belongs to us in any form – not even as a McDonald’s that at least lets us enter.
Lavapiés may have lost yet another okupa to unregulated tourism, but the hunt for the next empty building is already underway. There are dozens in the neighbourhood alone gathering dust and value. Once inside and locks changed, the community will simply pick up where they left off.

This post was supported by the Solo Foundation, NYC, Martin Wong Fund

NEXT -- La Canica Again -- A Game of Marbles

LINKS


Madrid No Frills
https://madridnofrills.com/


Sindicato de Inquilinas https://www.instagram.com/inquilinato_madrid/
#inquilinato_madrid

"52 flats at Tribulete 7 are facing mass eviction but tenants are fighting back"
https://madridnofrills.com/52-flats-at-tribulete-7-are-facing-mass-eviction-but-tenants-are-fighting-ba ck/

"From Mauritania to Lavapiés: meet Usman, the alternative vegetable farmer"
https://madridnofrills.com/huerto-de-usman/

"No a la Tala!’: As Madrid’s mass tree felling begins, residents are fighting back"
https://madridnofrills.com/no-a-la-tala-as-madrids-mass-tree-felling-begins-residents-are-fighting-back/

"Madrid’s climate inequality: temperature readings reveal 15-degree difference between rich and poor barrios"
https://madridnofrills.com/termometrada/

"‘Soy Tribulete 7’: Brand-new documentary in-the-making launches crowdfunding campaign"
https://madridnofrills.com/soy-tribulete-7-brand-new-documentary-in-the-making-about-lavapies-fight-back/