Workers from Ipar Euskal Herria of the Manu Robles-Arangiz Foundation now offer several hours of work to the Alda Association. As we have been told, two years ago the first thoughts began: “We realized that in the movements of associations and militants of our tradition, popular society did not overwhelm us. With popular society we mean people who live with little chance, with little profit.” His analysis corroborated the movement of these jackets in France: “There people said that for the first time they had gone to a demonstration, that they mobilized for the first time.”

Community's organizational method

They began to learn from other experiences and have as their model the method of work and organization carried out in the United States: “The organization used in working-class neighborhoods is a method and, in short, is a labor union in the neighborhoods. Organize people in the neighborhoods, using the methods of the unions, but working on issues that are outside the world of work: housing, transport, leisure…”.

The reading they make is that popular societies are not organized collectively, “the structures that organized them have disappeared, and now these people are usually isolated, lack people, movements or networks around them, have problems to help them. They live a great loneliness.”

Those who have created Alda are already militants, especially work in the ecological transition and in social justice, “but we realize that we do not have to go to work with our discourse, which is already prepared for these people. We have to start from people's needs, because so far we have not managed to relate to those people and we have to start from their problems and needs to work and create a relationship with those people. We have to teach them that organizing together can change things. Then, little by little, thanks to the practice we are going to share, the things we are going to do and the way we do, the rest of the issues will come later. We have to start from the social point of view and then other things will come.”

 

Street survey intended to reach 1,000 people

The Alda project was launched in 2020 and the partnership was created in October 2020. “The first job we started was to do a survey in the neighborhoods, going to the people, to better understand the neighborhoods and the people in the neighborhoods.” Through a 10-15 minute questionnaire, they know the problems of citizenship, they need help to know who they're headed for, how they see the neighborhood -- they're on the street and in the markets, and they want to get information from 1,000 people until September.

The survey and the joint work has focused on Baiona, to begin with: “Later on we will extend it in Ipar Euskal Herria, but first it has to create the partnership, the movements as well, and then it will expand.”

Alda Kazeta

A quarterly newspaper has also been created in the districts of Baiona: “The first issue was taken in January, the second at the end of April. We printed 20,000 copies and made the distribution through volunteers at home, but we didn’t leave it in mailboxes, but at the door of each apartment.”

The aim of this journal is to present the neighborhoods, “since in most cases they do not appear in the press or appear in most cases related to negative information. Our goal is to publicize the neighborhoods in order to denounce the issues that must be denounced, as well as the positive information: to present an association, for example”. Most articles draw them from information or themes received from people: “We want to be people’s loudspeakers.”

Neighborhood analysis and response to individual problems

Based on statistical sources, they also perform a theoretical analysis of neighborhoods. But since the end of April, Alda's day to day has changed because people have started contacting them, asked for help, and it has become a daily task to solve these people's problems: “People start to realize that Alda exists and that her goal is to improve things in people’s daily lives. Most of the time they get in touch with us because of housing issues.”

Two examples have been given to explain Alda's work: “In one case, a person with a salary of €1,290 paid €159/month to car insurance. We've helped this person make a letter to his insurer asking for information from an expert in our environment, asking for change and he's done it, and now they pay 70 € less a month. This demonstrates what makes collective organization and gear possible, since only that person, due to lack of information or a linguistic problem, could not change it”. Another person had severe moisture problems in the house, so water entered the house: “We have helped to have an appointment with the owner and to have the owner accept that he must assume his reparation.”

The cases that have so far come to Alda are individual, not collective issues, “but those people who until now were alone see that they are not alone organizing and entangling and that things can change through collective organization.”

Looking forward

The conditions of the pandemic have not been adequate so far to implement the Community organizing method on the ground floor, but they want to start in October in a neighborhood. On the other hand, the housing issue is being addressed: “This year the housing issue is in a lot, among other things because the Iparralde Commonwealth is defining housing policy and many movements are working on it. We are preparing a campaign on this issue to make the voice of people who have already had difficulty accessing housing heard.”

Alda starts with the working hours of the team of Ipar Euskal Herria of the Manu Robles-Arangiz Foundation: “Looking ahead, the goal is for Alda to self-finance her members’ contributions. At the moment we are 50 members.”

FICHE

Manu Robles-Arangiz Foundation

What it does: Training and publications for the development and promotion of the values of the labor movement. Disseminate, guard and store the memory in the historical archive of ELA. In Ipar Euskal Herria, we have an inter-associative headquarters for different movements, we bring the magazine Enbata and we promote the construction of alternatives (EHLG, Eusko, I-Ener, Enargia…) also in the poorest neighborhoods (Alda! ).

Residence: Bilbao and Baiona.

Number of members 9. 5 of them in the South and 4 in the North.

Contact: fundazioa@ela.eus / 944 037 799