This week, Barcelona has witnessed two scenes of coercive violence, painful to behold, that have quickly gone viral: first, the aggressions of some protesters against the congress attendees of the real estate fair The District 2023 and, secondly, the arrest of a young man of Gambian origin in the lobby of the Renfe station in Plaça de Catalunya. All comparisons are odious, and any nuance that the columnist on duty may invoke will be susceptible to offense. Indeed, the fellow citizens who exude anger against speculation (most of them, members of platforms in defense of housing and in favor of tourist degrowth) staining congress attendees with colors cannot be compared to the brutality employed by a gang of over-the-top security guards who subdued a kid as if, instead of not having paid the ticket, he was carrying a nuclear bomb in his pocket.
But it is also opportune to remember that housing problems in Barcelona (the unbearable inequality and injustice caused by the fact that many fellow citizens cannot continue living in their neighborhood or that too many people are considering leaving the city) are not solely attributable to the participants of The District nor to a sector that we too often demonize with demagoguery. We all speculate with our properties, and the rising cost of neighborhoods is not only caused by the ghost of vulture funds and the business community in general: it is also our responsibility when we decide to raise the rent of a property we own with the aim of dedicating extra money to things as natural as a trip to Tuscany or paying for the children's university. As much as they affect us, social injustices usually have more complex causes than banner slogans.
That said, it is necessary to comment on some good news because from time to time there is some. Despite the disturbances and coercion of the congressmen, the organizing company of The District has already confirmed that it will remain linked to the city with a contract until 2025. On the other hand, Renfe has very quickly reported that it will remove the nine security guards from their current function, that it will open an investigation against them, and that it will not tolerate any type of racist aggression from its workers. The important thing is not that the two scenes in question make us feel bad, because there is no coercion that is pleasant; the Renfe scene is unacceptable because it is not the first time it has happened, and it has always been associated with a racialized fellow citizen, but smearing congressmen with purple paint, apart from giving work to our excellent dry cleaners, will not lower our rent.
As much as they affect us, social injustices usually have more complex causes than banner slogansI understand (and suffer) the concerns of most protesters, but I also believe that Barcelona has a lot of resources at stake in the trade fair sector. I also understand the indignation of the people who filmed the security guards while they were beating a kid without any proportion. Perhaps, beyond sharing or being moved by the effects of anger, we should start thinking about how to avoid these scenes and understand the complexity of what causes them. As for the train, we would need more than one anti-racism course and to understand that poverty can be the cause of some minor crimes.As for congressmen, we could start to think that they are just the tip of an iceberg of a system where a sum of egoisms (ours too) is turning our city into a place where it is increasingly difficult to live, affected by a process of desertification that no one seems interested in alleviating.
Not taking a side is one of the sins of our time. I prefer to delve into the grays. I hope that the cited images of violence, beyond keeping us in the comfort of our own morality, make us embrace the difficulty of a present like ours. Every day more violent and more insane, this is undeniable.
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