La Fragua Projects is joining the general strike on November 11 in defense of the right to housing and social justice

The organization condemns the rentier system as a mechanism for transferring wealth from the working classes and the most vulnerable groups to a privileged minority, and calls for policies that guarantee universal access to decent housing.

We at La Fragua Projects announce our participation in the general strike called for November 11 and call for the right to housing to be placed at the center of public debate as a matter of human rights, social justice, and democratic equality.

The housing crisis our country is facing is neither an inevitable consequence of the market nor a mere economic dysfunction. It is the result of a model that has allowed a fundamental right to be turned into a financial asset and an instrument for the accumulation of wealth.

For decades, governments of various political stripes have helped consolidate a rent-seeking system that favors the concentration of real estate wealth and growing profits for a minority, while large segments of the population see an ever-increasing portion of their income going toward rent, mortgages, and basic utilities. This is a model that extracts wealth from the working and lower classes and transfers it to those who live off the accumulation of rent, thereby deepening social inequalities and limiting the effective exercise of fundamental rights.

The consequences of this system do not affect everyone equally. The housing crisis has a clear class dimension, but also a gender and racial dimension. Women—especially single mothers—Rroma people, migrants, young people, and those who face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination face greater obstacles in accessing and maintaining decent housing.

Likewise, people who face intersectional discrimination—such as many women of color, Indigenous people, and LGBTIQ+ migrants—suffer particularly intensely from the effects of housing exclusion, economic insecurity, and displacement from their neighborhoods and communities. We are not talking about isolated identities, but rather about the accumulation of inequalities that place certain people in a position of greater vulnerability in the face of an increasingly hostile housing market.

The displacement of residents from their neighborhoods, the displacement of entire communities by speculative interests, the inability of young people to build an independent life for themselves, and the growing impoverishment of thousands of families are some of the most visible consequences of a system that prioritizes economic profit over the collective well-being.

As a Rromani, anti-racist, feminist organization committed to the defense of human rights, we understand that the struggle for housing is inseparable from the struggle against racism, anti-Romani discrimination, LGBTIphobia, poverty, and all the structures that perpetuate inequality and exclusion.

La Fragua Projects has informed its entire workforce of their rights regarding the exercise of the fundamental right to strike and will facilitate the full exercise of that right in accordance with current legislation.

We are joining this day of mobilization because we stand for a simple yet fundamental idea: housing must be a guaranteed right for everyone, not a source of enrichment for those who benefit from a rent-seeking system that makes living conditions precarious for the majority of society.

Source: La Fragua Projects
Photos: Tenants' Union