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In Support of the Patio Maravillas

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Support against the eviction of the Patio Maravillas

Through Miriam Ruiz’s blog, we learned of the threat to evict the Patio Maravillas.

The Patio Maravillas is a self-managed social centre in Madrid, located in an abandoned building that had once been a school. This building, refurbished by the people who helped turn the place into somewhere that helps the community, is now threatened with eviction. The place legally belongs to Grupo 2 Reunidos, and by law it should be somewhere offering services to the community, something that did not happen in the last ten years, until the CSOA of the Patio Maravillas was created. Nobody knows what plans they have for the eviction, but it is highly likely that its future destination is connected to property speculation.

The police will evict them this Thursday, coinciding by chance with the start of the World Social Forum (World Social Forum), for which the Patio Maravillas was going to be one of the buildings hosting it. Madrid is not a place known for its support of social movements in general, and with the conservative government of the Community of Madrid, one might think the coincidence is not down to chance. The Patio Maravillas had been running courses and workshops of every kind, including free software, for the whole community since July 2007, and it is very well regarded and supported by other organisations.

The eviction is meant to happen without violence, but knowing the Spanish police in these situations, that is unlikely to be the case.

The event will be broadcast by streaming and all the information is being gathered on twitter, so let us hope nothing serious happens and everything goes well.

I give Miriam my virtual thanks for her post, and I hope she does not mind that I translated it; likewise I join in passing on my support to the Patio Maravillas.

Statement from the Patio Maravillas Assembly

Below I transcribe the statement from the Patio Maravillas assembly:

Right in the centre of Madrid, the Patiomaravillas is a squatted and self-managed social space that brings together more than 20 groups and associations and more than 500 people every week. And on Thursday morning the police are coming to throw us out of this place violently, for not speculating with knowledge, for not going on destroying the city, for self-managing our lives, our culture and our technology. Many of you will not be able to come and support us, to explain to the police what we really do, to ask them not to crush us any more, to shout at them that the ones who have to be evicted from this world are the speculators and bankers who led us into the crisis. But you can be the observers of the barbarity.

A whole spectacle of police democracy will take place at number 8 Acuerdo street in Madrid. This Thursday the 22nd at 9.30 in the morning we expect about 10 vans full of riot police, with no breakfast and in a very bad mood, to come and evict us violently. They will start the trouble, we will resist in an active non-violent way. And we will broadcast it live for you. Are you going to miss it?

Thousands of security cameras watch us permanently (on the underground, in shops, on the street, at work, …). But Thursday morning is the moment for you to get on the other side of Big Brother and watch the watchers. The hamlab (the hacktivist lab of the Patio Maravillas) has set up several webcams to broadcast live, and without exclusives, the first televised eviction in history. Press play and pass it on. Thousands of internet users will watch over our safety. We will also have a streaming radio reporting what happens, and a twitter account from which you can ask questions and follow how it develops. It will be quite a spectacle!

Thursday morning, live from PatioMaravillas.Net … Do not miss it!