This New Year has begun with a full spectrum of intensity, from reactionary violence to collective resistance. Terror attacks, vigilantism and continued racism, and at the same time powerful mobilizations against police violence and state terror – from the US to Mexico, together with direct actions of people taking their lives and communities into their own hands all over the globe. With so many huge issues and mobilizations taking place it is too easy to lose sight of how all the threads are woven together to create the foundation of our new world. Threads like the increased recuperation of workplaces in Latin America and Europe, the expanding alternative economies developing in towns and villages with assemblies organizing producer-consumer networks, and of course, the experiments with direct and participatory democracy that helps facilitate it all. People continue to increase their defense of the land, blocking pipelines, mines and even Monsanto (in Argentina). And there is the ever-strong defense of people’s homes against evictions, together with the relocation and rehousing of those who do get evicted. The list of resistance forms and locations is enormous – not to say that our task is not daunting and that the state will not continue to up repression – but it is so important we look carefully at our successes so as to build on them, not just respond to repression and horror.

We are creating new worlds and bringing them more into the light is an important part of strengthening these experiences and reminding ourselves of our collective power.

One important thread being woven is Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH – Mortgage Victims’ Platform) in Spain. Through direct democracy, direct action and mutual aid, PAH has been changing people’s lives from very concrete ways – keeping families housed – as well as changing their subjectivity and dignity – feeling like actors and agents in their lives. Not receiving the attention of political parties such as Podemos or SYRIZA, PAH has been slowly, day by day, assembly by assembly and action by action recreating the lives of tens of thousands of Spaniards and inspiring thousands of others across the globe.

The PAH history, practice and experiences were powerfully captured in the voices of participants, written by two of its founders, Ada Colau and Adriá Alemany, in Mortgaged Lives: From the Housing Bubble to the Right to Housing – a book now available thanks to the solidarity and passion of fellow participant and artist, Michelle Teran.

I spoke with Michelle about the motivation behind and approach to the recent translation as well as the status of PAH today. Below is the January 2015 interview as well as a few selections from the book – accessible free for all those who want to be inspired and gain tools of direct action, mutual aid and real democracy.

http://www.joaap.org/press/mortgagedlives.html

Why did you decide to translate the book on the PAH?

I am a Canadian-born artist, currently residing in Berlin. I started to follow the activities of the PAH because I was interested in the ways that people were starting to organize themselves in response to the onset of the financial crisis and the surge of evictions of citizens who were unable to pay their mortgages. Their strategies pointed to a multi-situated, decentralized and horizontal approach towards creating a political body. This approach focused first within city neighborhoods and citizens directly affected, which made visible the insufficient measures within government for dealing with the housing crisis and abuses of power by the financial systems. In April 2013, I went to Madrid so I could observe and document their activities more directly. At that time, I was reading Ada Colau and Adriá Alemany’s book “Vidas Hipotecadas”. I found that their words and stories provided a narration and translation to what I was listening to and observing within the various PAH meetings that I attended. Their first-person and grounded account of the story of the PAH was something that was very accessible to me and something that I connected to in a profound way. The longer that I stayed in Madrid, the more directly involved I became with the PAH until I considered myself more of an active participant and collaborator with the movement. Because their book was instrumental in this transition, I wanted to give something back and translate their book into English for others to read.

How do you see the form of translation you used?

Approaching this project as an artist and not a professional translator, I am deeply mindful of the role of the translator being an ethical one and the translation process as an intimate act. Translation is never an unmediated flow of words from one language to another. Each time a text is translated into another language a new perspective is reached from which the original thought can be viewed. Ideas are therefore developed through repetition. Deeply sensitive to this, I tried to be as true to the original text as possible while still acknowledging my intermediary role within the translation process. This was also not an individual project, but carried with the support of many people who contributed their eyes and input at different stages.

Who do you hope to reach with the English version and why?

Ada Colau and Adriá Alemany’s “Vidas Hipotecadas” is a first-person account, which operates as a manifesto and how-to manual for a citizens’ movement in order to develop the necessary tools and strategies to deal with a society in crisis. Although some of the information is situated within a Spanish context, I believe that it also serves as a useful model and resource for other movements and audiences outside of Spain. Within our current climate, I feel that increasingly we need to rely on collective storytelling; in order to document, analyze and provide a framework for gaining a larger understanding of the economic crisis and its impact on individual lives. This book is one such example.

What other activities has the PAH been involved in since this book was written?

There have been many new campaigns and initiatives since this book was released. Ada and Adriá wrote about these in their latest book “Si Se Puede”, published in 2013. One of the campaigns that I am currently following is “La Obra Social” (Social Work), in which empty buildings owned by the banks are re-appropriated by the PAH in order to rehouse people and families in precarious housing situations.

It is not just the concrete work of keeping people housed, though of course this is central and why people become a part of the PAH, but once participating, people speak of how they have changed, going from feeling powerless and depressed to feeling like actors, subjects and dignified fighters and organizers. The PAH participants who I have met from Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and as far as Lanzarote in the Canary Islands all speak similarly – they walk with a new dignity. The book shares many such examples, one, that of Blanca, is especially compelling.

“Blanca came to PAH Barcelona in 2010. Her brother, married and with a small daughter, was left without a job and could not keep up with his mortgage payments at Caixa Penedes. Blanca also had a mortgage and kept paying her monthly bills, though with difficulty. Blanca had a double problem when Caixa Penedes decided to resort to the path of foreclosure to reclaim her brother’s debt. In the first place, she suffered for her brother who, without resources and with the risk of homelessness and a growing depression that prevented him from reacting, eventually attempted suicide. In the second place, Blanca discovered that she could also lose her home because she was a guarantor of her brother’s mortgage.

She didn’t give up. She began attending PAH meetings where, with her voice breaking, she shared her suffering. In addition to seeing how her brother suffered more each day, out of fear of losing everything, she also endured the abuse that the Caixa Penedes office director subjected her to every time she asked for an appointment with him to try and find an alternative solution. The PAH advised and explained to her how the process worked and that no one had the right to insult or threaten her. They organized actions to accompany her to the bank’s office and to the auction as well. In a few months, Blanca went from a timid woman with frayed nerves to a strong woman with the will to make others respect her rights. Her case isn’t resolved yet, but Blanca found the strength to publicly claim what she was suffering, to face up to the office director who had in the past humiliated her, and to help her brother climb out of the hole he’d fallen into. She has one thing clear: she can always attend the assemblies to stop evictions and give support to other people affected by their banks. She knows that solidarity and collective action, like family, can save lives.”

The co-authors of the book explain why they feel the movement resonated the way it did in the beginning, in 2009, before the 15M movement for real democracy.

“It’s not that V de Vivienda said anything new, but that it said it in another way, renewing the language and the codes used by more traditional social movements. Without a doubt, one of the principal merits of the movement was its capacity to connect with public opinion through direct, communicative campaigns…”

And then, as they describe, once the 15M took off, the PAH did as well.

“In 2011, from the first moment, PAH joined and actively participated in the demonstration organized by Democracia RealYa! that – under the slogan “We are not merchandise in the hands of bankers and politicians” – went through the major cities in the country becoming the seed for the 15-M movement. The explosion of this movement marked a turning point. Many of the local PAHs that were established throughout Spain did so through the mobilizations and assemblies of the indignados. The campaign Stop Evictions received a major boost through the support of all neighborhood assemblies.

Without a doubt, one of the great successes of the movement – from a strategic point of view – has been its vocation and capacity to reproduce itself. The sum of all these PAH locals forms a movement much more powerful than the simple arithmetic sum of its parts. It is a machine that never sleeps and is constantly active.”

Since the writing of the book, as Michelle explains, there have been an ever increasing number of house defenses, PAH groups and building takeovers. The PAH is expanding and deepening its organizing. The PAH website has begun to keep a counter on the front page reflecting those people whose evictions have been permanently prevented and those who have been rehoused, in itself an inspiring daily record of lives changed.

This book is an incredibly useful tool and an insight into an important thread in the New World weaving, now available to English speakers. Not only does it inspire and tell the story of the PAH, how it organizes and the subjective pieces, but also suggests ways one might organize in our own locality. The last chapter, includes, “TIPS and Resources” for the development of more PAHs everywhere.

Mortgaged lives: From the Housing Bubble to the Right to Housing – free download or for purchase in paper copy, mailed anywhere in the world:

http://www.joaap.org/press/mortgagedlives.html

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