By
Ada Colau
/ opendemocracy.net
First We Take Barcelona...
Just under a year ago, a group of activists, members of social movements, and progressive political forces in Barcelona presented our plan to take back our city council for the people at the May 24 local elections. We're Barcelona en Comú, and this Sunday we have a good chance of kicking out Mayor Xavier Trias and winning back the city for the people.
But from the start we've felt that our movement is about more than just Barcelona. Some of the problems we want to tackle are particular to our city, like scandalously high eviction rates and the pernicious effects of uncontrolled mass tourism. But many of our concerns, like rising inequalities and a professional political class tainted by corruption, are shared by people in cities all over Europe and much of the rest of the world.
We're told we live in a democracy, but many of the most important decisions affecting our lives have been taken out of our hands. We're told to leave it to the experts, that we don't know what's best for us. The Spanish government denies the citizens of Catalonia our right to self-determination, the EU holds secret negotiations on the TTIP, and international financial institutions play Russian roulette with our economies.
