Long live the people's uprising for housing!
Puerta del Sol mobilized as the epicenter of the housing protests in Spain
By Xavier Sedov - Marx Spain
September 23, 2026, will go down in Spanish history as the day the spark was ignited that ignited the national uprising of our people. On that day, Maricarmen Abascal, an 87-year-old woman with mobility issues, was evicted from the home she had lived in for 70 years in Madrid by Urbagestión, the company that owned the property. As soon as the news broke, a nationwide protest erupted, with thousands of people taking to the streets in support of Maricarmen. This sparked a true revolution, resulting in massive demonstrations and encampments throughout Spain, including in Barcelona, Seville, Vigo, Malaga, Zaragoza, Palma, Santiago de Compostela, Toledo, Cadiz, Cordoba, Huelva (Sol Square), and many other cities. The mobilizations demanding a General Strike to halt evictions and achieve affordable housing have put the capitalist PSOE government, led by Pedro Sánchez, on the ropes, potentially leading to its downfall and the consideration of calling early elections. But they also put all the parties (PP, VOX, ERC, SUMAR, Podemos) that defend the reactionary bourgeois political regime of La Moncloa in Spain on the ropes.
A revolution that puts Spanish capitalism on the ropes
On October 3, 2026, massive demonstrations with slogans like " Against the housing business" and "Rentists out of our neighborhoods" took place in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, A Coruña, Vigo, Málaga, Valladolid, Alicante, Granada, Santander, and Santiago de Compostela, among other cities, in a revolutionary uprising demanding an end to evictions and affordable housing for both tenants unable to pay their rent and those struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments. A key feature of this movement is the development of self-organization, manifested in encampments where thousands of activists organized to carry on the struggle that had sprung from the grassroots and had overwhelmed all political and union leadership, including the UGT and CCOO, which were completely outnumbered and outpaced by the people's mobilization.
The housing crisis demonstrates that capitalism cannot provide even the most basic solutions to the population's most fundamental problems. Although the Sánchez government proclaims itself "progressive," it is incapable of implementing a public works plan that would provide housing for thousands of families in need because doing so would require allocating budget funds that would disrupt the systems imposed by the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Union (EU), and the IMF—the capitalist-imperialist " troika" that defends the Euro, which benefits imperialist corporations and European ruling classes. This has triggered a housing crisis throughout Europe, and in our country, it has transformed the housing problem into a "structural" issue , as we have already pointed out in the article you can read by clicking here.
The Sánchez government, along with the leaders of the PP, VOX, Podemos, SUMAR, and ERC parties, defend the imperialist Euro and have no chance whatsoever of implementing a housing plan. This became clear when Pedro Sánchez's government, on September 29, 2026, approved a decree of relief measures that included a ban on evictions until 2030 and a two-year extension for rental contracts expiring before December 31, 2028. Sánchez's measures, rejected by Parliament, are not a fundamental solution to the problem, but merely a temporary palliative that mortgages the future of millions of families. This is why this revolution of the Spanish people has the government on the ropes, because the capitalist state cannot provide a real solution to the housing problem.
A step forward in the people's awareness in relation to the 15M movement
The development of the encampments and self-organization expresses a February revolution, and an advance in the people's consciousness if we compare it to the 15M movement of 2011, which was also a February revolution. In that year, imperialist capitalism suffered a collapse, and as a result of the bursting of the subprime mortgage bubble in the US, the housing bubble also burst in our country, which provoked a massive revolution known as the 15M movement or the "Indignados" (Outraged), which was part of the first global revolutionary wave. Spain's capitalist economy was "rescued" by the ECB with a €30 billion loan that was used to bail out the bankers, which led to the banking restructuring that gave rise to Bankia, and resulted in a greater concentration of wealth in the hands of the ruling classes in banks like Sabadell and BBVA. That movement was monopolized by the " autonomist" tendencies that rejected Marxism, inspired by Tony Negri, and the Zapatistas.
However, the encampments and mobilizations are now part of the third global revolutionary wave, marked by political revolution. The calls to action are led by two blocs of organizations: one is the Confederation of Tenants' Unions, the largest organization comprised of 11 federated unions from cities such as Madrid, Catalonia, Malaga, Seville, Cadiz, Asturias, Zaragoza, Vigo, Ibiza, Segovia, and Guadalajara; the other is the bloc made up of the Socialist Housing Union of Catalonia (SHSC) and the Madrid Housing Union. The spokespeople for these two blocs are Valeria Racu, Alicia del Río, Alejandra Jacinto, Carme Arcarazo, and Fernando de los Santos, activists who identify as independent. The fact that unions are calling for self-organization and that thousands of activists across the country are heeding the call represents an advance in awareness among broad sectors who no longer expect things to be resolved by the institutions of the regime.
Direct action and grassroots self-organization, driven by tens of thousands of young people and activists, has overwhelmed the bureaucratic political and trade union apparatuses. Compared to the 15M movement of 2011, this is a giant leap forward because anti-political prejudices have disappeared from squares and demonstrations, which have been filled with red flags and a clear class consciousness, with unequivocal anti-capitalist slogans, and which has made the expropriation of the rentier class and a general strike its immediate program.
The break with the PSOE, with Podemos, with SUMAR fuels the self-organization of the encampments. As we have been stating, there is a process of global political revolution underway, a break with the old parties and political leaderships, and a " Sovietization" with the emergence of self-organized bodies, which is evident in this movement and is now culminating in the popular struggle for housing—a tremendously progressive process that the Sánchez government is trying to "divert" toward the elections.
The social and political crisis of capitalist Spain
The backdrop is the profound economic, social, and political crisis gripping our country. Spain's capitalist economy presents a picture of stagflation, with a meager monthly growth rate of 0.7%, indicating that the economy is not expanding. This is compounded by a very high inflation rate of 4.9%, which drives up the cost of living every day. Stagflation is a global trend in capitalism that leads to price increases for basic goods, energy, fuel, and services, meaning that families can buy less with the same amount of money due to a loss of purchasing power. When economic activity slows or stalls, unemployment rises, increasing the pressure on joblessness.
The crisis of capitalism in Spain has created a breeding ground for social discontent, which has manifested itself in multiple ways, such as the protests following the DANA storm in Valencia, the protests at the Vuelta a España cycling race in support of Palestine, the teachers' strikes in Valencia and Catalonia, and the metalworkers' strikes in Cádiz and at Airbus, all of which foreshadowed the struggle we are now witnessing. Furthermore, the economic and social crisis has triggered a political crisis, exemplified by the serious allegations of corruption that permeate all capitalist parties.
Far from being isolated incidents, the main parties have traded accusations that reveal the moral and social decay of the ruling class leaders. The People's Party (PP) is still grappling with the Gürtel case and its slush fund scandal, after the courts determined the existence of parallel accounting and structural illegal financing within the party for years, which led to the historic vote of no confidence that ousted the PP from government in 2018. Furthermore, cases like Púnica and Lezo uncovered networks of illegal commissions, rigged contracts, and the misappropriation of public funds in autonomous communities and municipalities where the PP held power, as in the case of the Community of Madrid, which involves Isabel Díaz Ayuso and her brother.
The Socialist Party (PSOE) has also been besieged in recent years by various judicial investigations, such as the Koldo case and the emergency contracts case, which focused on alleged illegal commissions linked to the awarding of public contracts for the purchase of face masks during the worst moments of the COVID-19 pandemic, implicating former high-ranking officials and key ministries. There have also been investigations into the personal and family circles of party members, with open legal cases involving close relatives for alleged influence peddling or labor irregularities. These cases have been repeatedly sensationalized by the leaders of bourgeois political groups, reflecting the institutional degradation and moral and political decay characteristic of the crisis in capitalist Spain.
We reject the call for early elections; we need an emergency workers' and people's government.
The current struggle, led by a new generation, also represents a significant step in the fight against Spanish capitalism, which has cornered the political regime and brought Sánchez's government to the brink of collapse. Faced with a growing power vacuum and a deepening economic, social, and political crisis, Sánchez is considering calling early elections, a move also being demanded by leaders like Alberto Núñez Feijóo of the PP and his lapdog in VOX. Thus, the ruling classes, faced with the worsening crisis, are desperately seeking a way to save Spanish capitalism.
We reject any call for early elections, which will offer no solution to the crisis afflicting the people. The path forward is a general strike and the formation of a crisis committee comprised of leaders from social, housing, labor, and political organizations. This committee will implement the measures the people demand and break all agreements and pacts that bind the country to the policies of the Euro, the Troika, the ECB, the EU, and the IMF. These institutions have plunged the country into a severe crisis and have served only to enrich a minority of the population, while the majority of workers and the people are sinking into poverty.
The groups that claim to be "Marxist" or "leftist" do not represent an alternative for the working class and the people. They focus on the fight against "the far right" and, in doing so, serve the interests of the PSOE government and Sánchez. In general, they pursue a Stalinist policy of class collaboration, refusing to support the Ukrainian people's revolution and to unite the European revolution against capitalism; in fact, they support Putin. But today, the current revolution in Spain presents us with the possibility of regrouping revolutionaries, uniting revolutionaries from all over Europe, to build a Marxist organization in our country to fight for socialism in Spain and the world. This is the invitation we extend to you from Marx Spain .