stop

"Stop" is one of those English words which have been adopted into usage by speakers of Spanish, Catalan, and probably half the languages on the planet. Traffic sign conventions have no doubt played a role in this, but the word itself has impeccable credentials for the job it has to do. Stop: it's short and to the point, when that's what matters. No need to waste time with soft-sounding, multi-syllabic Romance language imperatives, or indeed with the choice of what language will best get your message across. Just say STOP. Just STOP.

Among the cacophony of complex issues and affairs which are competing for the public's attention here in our crisis-bound country, there are currently a couple which you could call "Stop" issues: specific actions being taking by the authorities that are widely perceived as unjust, causing huge social harm, and needing to be stopped urgently. That is exactly the case in Spain with the issue of home evictions for people unable to keep up their mortgage payments. The obscene number of five hundred families are dumped out of their homes every day in Spain, according to 2012 figures. Horrific. But that is by no means the end of it. Under the draconian Spanish mortgage law, those who have suffered the trauma of being forced out of their homes cannot just hand over the keys and "try" to start again. No, no, no. They have to pay back the full value of the amount of the mortgage, and given that property prices have fallen by 35% since 2007, surrendering ownership of the apartment to the bank is only likely to cover part of what they "owe". So many are left with no home, no other assets, very likely no job, and huge debts still to pay. It is hardly surprising that there has been a steady stream of suicides among those threatened with  eviction.

So people have said, stop. Stop desahucios is the Spanglish slogan - stop evictions. Or Stop desnonaments in Catalanglès. This simple outcry has got louder and louder, due especially to about four years of struggle by a very dynamic pressure group, Plataforma d'Afectats per la Hipoteca, or PAH - the platform for people affected by mortgages (it's a bit of a mouthful - so maybe it's no wonder they just say "stop"). PAH started in Barcelona and has spread all over Spain. They organise physical blockades in front of buildings when evictions are scheduled, to stop the authorities from entering, as well as doing a lot of individual representation and negotiation with banks to enable people to stay in their homes. And working politically to change the law.

Meanwhile, the Spanish Government of the Partido Popular has basically just been sitting on its hands, with only a fairly cosmetic concession in 2012, affecting a small percentage of foreclosure cases. Rajoy and company get nervous about doing anything that might upset investors (in fact, that's actually a good summary of their entire economic policy). And yes, they have probably been counting on the issue remaining lost in the general din.

But PAH has persisted, and last week it won a battle. The Spanish parliament agreed to admit for debate a proposed bill on the matter - drafted by PAH itself, and brought to Parliament via a process of popular petition which exists in Spain, created by the previous Socialist government. The largest ever collection of signatures (around 1.4 million) backed the bill which includes three main proposals: a moratorium on further evictions, a retrospective law change so that evicted mortgage defaulters will no longer be left with extra debts if they have lost their home, and a plan to provide access to state-subsidised rental housing for these evicted homeowners - using the huge stock of flats which banks which have now acquired as a base. Up until the last minute, the governing PP - which has an absolute parliamentary majority - said it would block the passage of the bill. Suddenly on the afternoon of the parliamentary vote, the party leaders changed their minds.

Just how important a victory is this? On the face of it, it's nothing - yet. It's only an agreement to admit the bill to parliament, and the PP will surely propose ways to water it down or veto it. And in any case, even if it goes through, it's still only a band-aid to patch up a social disaster in one area while the system itself - and the PP's management of it - continues hacking apart the social fabric in lots of others. And yet, as a victory for protest, I think it's very important. The PAH people seem really well organised on lots of levels, with excellent leadership and use of all the media, old and new, and polls show they have overwhelming public support for the initiative (something like 90% of Spaniards are in favour of the law change). I think it can be said that democratic pressure, intelligently applied, has forced the PP to back down for once.

So it's a definite morale booster, but now it needs to be built on. By admitting the bill, the PP have bought time. The challenge for the PAH people is to keep the focus up so that the PP will not be able to weasel out of the provisions of the bill later on without a huge backlash. And keeping that focus up is not easy. I mentioned at the start of this post that there was another "Stop" issue around at the moment:

In fact, I lied. Corruption is not in the same category, even if you can easily put the word into a similar slogan, as in the photo. It's a huge and far more complex problem. As Catalan left wing MP  David Fernàndez said recently, corruption is not just systemic, it constitutes the system. He is not far wrong. There has been a storm of corruption cases gathering over most of the major Spanish political institutions (the government, all major political parties, the Spanish royal family) since Christmas, and in the last two weeks it has become a hurricane. But I won't discuss that here, I just mention it because you can see how the dilution of the stop desahucios / stop desnonaments campaign is already happening. It's going to be difficult to keep that little candle burning.



The photos were all taken with my mobile last Saturday in Barcelona, on one of the marches called by the PAH all over España. Plenty of creative protest going on too. You've probably heard of "bad banks" - there's an official bad bank in Spain now, it's called SAREB. It must be pretty bad, because here, to finish, are a couple of photos of the "good" banks: