https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/11/i-pay-500-for-5-square-metres-spains-protesters-in-their-own-words
‘I pay $500 for 5 square metres’: Spain’s protesters, in their own words
Young people are trapped in the family home or forced to pay high rents for cramped accommodation, at the mercy of landlords.
It is the bankers at fault for the landlords. The landlords, they get the credit, at the bankers' pricing, the interest rate that tracks the central bank, and they charge rent to clear a profit. Or to at least service their mortgage, since failure there is foreclosure and going broke.
But the bankers are responsible. New, affordable housing cuts into supply/demand mechanics to where high rents cannot be sustained if there is a surplus of housing, or if the supply/demand equilibrium price exceeds what landlord can charge as at least sufficient to service the landlord's loan.
Banking is a mean and greedy thing. There used to be a site, "Hang The Bankers" which title had charm.
That said, as Crabgrass economic theory, the bankers in opposition to housing expansion and wanting a surplus of renters rather than a surplus of housing, or a supply/demand balance favoring their greed, by a plethora of unhoused people. Such a latter surplus has the additional banker-perspective of quelling expressions of dissent among the prols. Figure it better, get data and plug in numbers, massage the data, and there might be a counterargument, just as tabacco firms arguing the science was smoking was independent of lung cancer frequency, other things being responsible.
But - the bankers. When housing availability pinches, always blame the bankers first, before the landlords who the bankers have hold of and are squeezing. Not that landlords are a good bunch, just that they have to pay regularly as their tenants do.
Now an excerpt of the item cited at the start of the post:
Madrid, Spain – Tens of thousands of young people have protested across Spain in recent weeks, rallying against the country’s acute housing crisis. On Wednesday, many have gone on strike, heeding calls by Spain’s biggest unions for a nationwide walkout under the slogan: “Salarios, vivienda y precios” – or “wages, housing, and prices”.
Anger grew last month after the forcible eviction of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from the Madrid flat where she had lived for the past seven decades. Her corporate landlord had raised the rent to a level above her means. As the public outcry worsened, she died in hospital the day the property owners who had evicted her agreed to allow her to return to her home.
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To protect vulnerable renters, the government presented two emergency decrees to parliament, but these were defeated by right-wing parties.
So, the bankers, might they perhaps favor such right wing parties? Might they be a part of the propaganda that motivates otherwise sane voters to vote strangely against their own interests and vote for what the bankers, landlords, and corporate powers are financing and selling? As a part of the propaganda machine the wealthy, of Spain, manufacture and disperse via establishment media? Why deviate from what works so well in the U.S. of A. where finance and not manufacturing runs the show? The item continues -
Spain’s left-wing coalition government called a snap election for November 29, hoping to capitalise on anger over the housing crisis to rally voters as Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had trailed in the polls to the conservative People’s Party and the far-right Vox party.
Against this backdrop, the Bank of Spain has said the country has a shortage of 750,000 homes, but this figure could rise to 1 million by next year.
AJ, today, offers related coverage of unrest in Spain -
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/11/11/spains-first-general-strike-in-14-years-begins
Workers across Spain stage first general strike in 14 years
Strike disrupts public transport as housing reform takes centre stage ahead of the November 29 national elections. --
Published On 11 Nov 2026Updated: 11 Nov 2026 12:05 PM (GMT)
Millions of workers across Spain are striking to demand government action over the country’s housing crisis, less than three weeks before a national election that could bring the far right to power.
The 24-hour walkout, which began at midnight on Wednesday, disrupted public transport and forced businesses, factories and shops to scale back operations or close entirely across the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy. It’s Spain’s first general strike in 14 years.
Minor incidents were reported in the first hours, including roadblocks with burning tyres in Barcelona, the second-largest city in the country. There were also scuffles between picketers and police near the country’s main wholesale market on the outskirts of the capital, Madrid.
The two main unions that called the strike, UGT and CCOO, reported widespread participation in the early hours “with significant work stoppages in strategic sectors”, including 90 percent in the automotive and port sectors, according to a statement posted on social media.
The CEOE organisation, which represents business leaders, said in a statement that the impact varied by region and area of work, with a “low participation” in most sectors.
The UGT and CCOO unions called the strike following a wave of nationwide protests over access to housing, sparked by the eviction in September of Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old Madrid pensioner who died several days later.
The demonstrations included a five-week occupation of Madrid’s central Puerta del Sol square, where hundreds of tents were pitched, sparking imitations in other cities.
The average rent in Spain has almost doubled over the past 10 years, eating into household budgets and angering voters.
Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called a snap election for November 29 after his minority government failed to secure parliamentary approval for a package of housing measures proposed in response to the protests.
“This is not a strike against anyone, but rather one in favour of a common response from all levels of government to a real problem, which is access to housing,” he said in an interview published Sunday in the daily newspaper La Vanguardia.
The mentioned organizations are unfamiliar to Crabgrass, but the mood is resonant, RIGHT ON!
Some unrest is a good thing, and general strikes are a show of solidarity which are kept short in time to not cause any great harm or distress to the people, but to clearly make a point of organized dissatisfaction.
Doubtlessly other web-wide coverage exists, but a bet is the Spanish out on general strike is underreported in the U.S. of A. Don't give the North American prols any ideas of what the French an Spanish are feeling and doing. Who knows whether the mood could spread, so mainstream media here might be motivated to downplay European moods and actions. Reporting in a they do such-and-such, we, fortunately, are more restrained way, not too obvious, but there.
An AJ video - Barcelona - https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/11/11/barcelona-erupts-in-violence-after-general-strike
UPDATE: Reuters covers. https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/workers-across-spain-stage-first-general-strike-14-years-anger-over-housing-2026-11-11/
Such unrest over a government not doing enough for rank-&-file people, and with the US Democratic Party's recent election victory, if business as usual comes from the Congressional majorities, people will again become wholly disenchanted and the Party will have royally fucked up a great chance for change.
Crabgrass expects disenchantment, particularly if New York's Schumer and Jeffries keep holding things back because they at heart are coarse conservatives in a time of progresive Angst. If those two stiffs are purged, that's reaching square one of moving onto more squares. The resistance of the warring ruling class is going to be real, and leadership with a heart and mind will be needed to solidify change and progress, to establish Party preeminence and dominance.
Beware, the ratchet effect, where the Republicans fuck everybody and the Democrats are tried and don't unfuck a single thing. So the machine only rotates one way. And disenchantment is okay with the Dem inner party. Their donors matter, not their voters. The money comes from the donors, and that's the story.
Change it, or see the Republicans take it all back shortly. Not that current Dem leaders would think that a bad thing. It is natural, we win, we do squat, we are voted out, and then the Republicans are worse, etc.