In the clash of rights, the force will decide
The commodification of housing is an undeniable reality. And behind there is a series of tragic evidences: evictions, inability to access decent housing, speculation, living drowned by renting… In short, the brutal imposition of the logic of private property. Faced with this, we often claim the “right to housing”. But don't homeowners have the right to do business with housing?
It is a subject with political and not terminological consequences. The right versus business dichotomy in housing is a mere mystification. Because housing is in turn a right (use value) and a business (exchange value). This means that we cannot claim a right as a natural characteristic, as an abstract ethics or morality. Because law is a social relationship, a relationship of strength and antagonism.
"There is a collision of conflicting rights: proprietary class (capital accumulation right) and expropriated class (housing right)"
David Harvey investigated the ambivalence of the concept of law, saying that its use and claim is contradictory: “The right of access to the city can be requested by the financiers and promoters, and it has full right to do so, but it can also be claimed by the homeless and papers. The definition of the right is therefore the object of the struggle, which must accompany the struggle for its exercise”.
Something similar happens with the right to housing. In capitalist society there is a collision between two contradictory and antagonistic rights: that of the proprietary class (right to capital accumulation) and that of the expropriated class (right to housing). And, as Marx said, "among the same rights, force decides."
In other words, we cannot raise the issue of rights only at the moral level. We must bring it to the plane of class organization and accumulation of forces. The ruling class is organized to exercise the right to housing as a business, reproducing the regime of goods and establishing the dictatorship of private property. The right to housing for the expropriated, therefore, will not come from institutions or bourgeois reforms. The right to housing will only be achieved by our ability to develop the organisation and the instruments of struggle.
There is no compatibility between conflicting rights. Therefore, class struggle will be the battlefield that will decide which of the two conceptions of the right to housing will prevail.
Bidali zure iritzi artikuluak iritzia@argia.eus helbide elektronikora
ARGIAk ez du zertan bat etorri artikuluen edukiarekin. Idatzien gehienezko luzera 4.500 karakterekoa da (espazioak barne). Idazkera aldetik gutxieneko zuzentasun bat beharrezkoa da: batetik, ARGIAk ezin du hartu zuzenketa sakona egiteko lanik; bestetik, egitekotan edukia nahi gabe aldatzeko arriskua dago. ARGIAk azaleko zuzenketak edo moldaketak egingo dizkie artikuluei, behar izanez gero.
September 26 is European Day of Languages, which should be an important day for vasco-speakers. We have a lot to celebrate, the same thing we have to denounce many others. But I have decided to talk about what we have to celebrate today and to claim the strength that this... [+]
August is the holiday month for many people, including those who rule. And yet it is common to take advantage of the month of August to deal with some issues without much noise, albeit of great importance.
This is what is happening with the project to centralize sludge... [+]
"How many are you going to do in Basque in 2075? ". The article just published by Kike Amonarriz in the press has an overwhelming title. Before in Euskal Herria, a question of this kind has been asked in Catalonia. Joan M. The sociolinguistionist Tolosarra awake wanted to share... [+]
Euskaltzaindia's motto is "ekin eta jarrai" ("ekin eta jarrai"), the outlawing of Euskaltzaindia. I don't know why the Academy wasn't outlawed, all three words appeared on its logo. The allegations have been made with less - and (those of one age remember the cassette of The Mondragon... [+]
Are we running out of shame? This is the diagnosis of several authors today. Is there no longer a look that can embarrass us? Another thing that Jean-Paul Sartre described in 1943 around shame is that on the other side of the lock, with the eye stuck in the key slot, a person is... [+]
The problem of the afrancession of the names of the places of Euskal Herria is not only due to the lack of consideration of the language in the signaling panels, but also to the execution of a decision on the domiciliation that was taken a few years ago.
Ultimately, the... [+]
For the powers, the salami tactic is attractive. It consists of cutting steaks progressively. With the enlargement of NATO, violations of international law, regime changes and the international proliferation of its military bases, the United States reduced the security and... [+]
On this rainy Sunday, we are responsible for the fate of people living in disquiet at the various conflicts that exist in the world. By far, it seems that we cannot be freed from the hands of many rulers acting towards power. Many human beings live in the world with the... [+]
The first of September, releases, novelties and releases: new case and notebook, first meeting with the members of the group for the courses and/or activities to which it is appointed, a wide range of activities in the advertising pages where you can complete the course agenda,... [+]
She is a mother of Peru and could not start learning Euskera from scratch, as we have read in the newspapers (it was a lie): here perhaps yes, because here the city council guarantees that right (Hernani). If he comes to me at the end of the course (as they have come to me),... [+]
If we were to ask which of the four concerts they love most is that of the “four seasons” of Vivaldi, the answers would give them on an equal footing, half the spring and the other half the fall. However, the balance would be made in favour of spring, perhaps because it was... [+]
With this article, the BDS movement wants to make a public boycott of the event to be held on 24 September at the Guggenheim in Bilbao. In it, they will have the presence of the renowned Zionist artist, Noa, who will present his last record work.
When, in the context of the... [+]
Summer has taken its steps and the festive atmosphere has weakened. We are now faced with the needs that we have left behind and, once again, the right reasons must be given to Basque society.
The first contacts seem to be trying to pave the way for the political environment,... [+]