That the passion for changing things on the street has been lowered, that the courage for the struggle has been dispelled, that the critical gaze is blurred. It is not Donostia as it is now, that the oppressed do not feel the mouthpiece of the oppressor nailed in the back of the neck. In the last week they have shown that there is a lot of rebellious citizens, the square of the sum of many struggles. What is behind the idyllic San Sebastian of tourist postcards has come to light. From a young age, with few resources, the La Vida Da Mayor campaign has tried to project a different city, from the addition and empowerment of different thoughts and struggles. The message was simple but clear: “We disagree.”

The dynamic La Vida is Mayor has the support of 63 agents, some politically supporting the project and others throwing the cart of social struggles, organizing, debating and celebrating. The confluence of 63 agents was not an easy challenge. A veteran member of the last assembly stated that in the Gipuzkoan capital there have been many attempts to create such a thing in the last 30 years, and that this is one of the few that has materialized. “This is real, it has been created from the bottom up and we are here,” he said. So far, everyone has resisted from their trench, but it was suspected that the forces could unite in the struggle. The common enemy is called “the Basque regime”: they are distanced from the seats of citizens who take decisions unilaterally from the cold offices; those who want to build the subway pass in San Sebastian and the incinerator in Zubieta, which makes it impossible for the emancipation of young people by increasing rents; those who want to open more hotels in the city; those who have put the red carpet to the World Tourism Organization have approved the budgets. But, more than a common enemy, agents have shared their passion for the transformation of society. The same starting point: non-violent struggle based on resistance, civil disobedience and lack of collaboration, and putting life at the centre.

With this goal, the “week of social struggles” is born. A week of activities, conferences, music and disobedient activities. An egalitarian and participatory week, a reboot and growth of popular power. A collective empowerment.

First surprise of the building

Everything started with a kalejira that took place on the Boulevard on May 19 in the morning. About 300 people followed the Trikitilaris, disguised and cheerful. La Vida Da Mayor requested that the joy of living be brought to him, and with the duties done appeared those who live outside the framework of the Donostian postal system. What few people expected happened. Once on Idiakez Street, the doors of an eight-storey block were opened for the first time since 2002. Next to Plaza Gipuzkoa, full of ertzainas, the neighbors came to the surprise: With an occupation the week of social struggles has begun.

The building, abandoned, was dusty. Old chairs, thick law books and abandoned view rooms. The building, owned by the Spanish Social Security General Treasury, has been suspended for years for evictions in the city center from eviction in 2002 to its auction on September 29, 2009 for almost 10 million euros. Until the dynamic Life is the Greatest has revitalized it.

“The House of Citizenship”: Vigilance and struggle

They've cleaned the building up and down, all in auzolan. Put the light, take advantage of the washing water of the sleeves on the floors and take the spirit from the source of the Bretxa, arrange the walls with agent posters, place a huge banner on the facade from the eighth floor, announce the street and set on the portal to two young people as guardians of the popular power for a week.

In the press conference after the occupation of the building, it opened to the four winds: The Municipal Police and the Ertzaintza have committed crimes of gender-based violence in Donostia-San Sebastián during the last year and a half. At a press conference, they clarified that the law provides that, in the event of entering the public building, the administration must give a period of ten days for eviction. La Vida Da Mayor was a one-week initiative, it has spent eight nights in “Herritarron Etxea”. Despite regular visits by the Ertzaintza and the Municipal Police, they have not been dismissed. The warning to the authorities that, if dismissed, the camp would be moved to the plazas was likely to have weight. “It’s time for someone to do something with this building,” said an old man who has been through him during the occupation.

It was attended by Ira, Haizea, Bittor, Lur and Ilargi. They are not the real names of those who have brought testimonies to these pages, but they have been organizing the campaign all week and living in the building. At the end of the week full of activities, they've taken a space to talk to ARGIA.

Instead of the occupation, Lur considered that "the most important thing is what has happened on the street." However, all of them have emphasized that care and coexistence have been created "at home". “Here we have met people of different ideologies and carried it forward without any kind of anger,” said Bittor. The moon has resisted the same thing: “We’ve met some people that we might never have known if this space didn’t exist.”

There are many people who have come to life in the occupied block. There they have prepared popular meals in exchange for the will, making cleaning shifts; without care the struggle is impracticable. That is what the wind has underlined: “I liked all meals to be vegan and not to question it. Do not question the existence of a non-mixed space, as well as the creation of cooking and cleaning shifts. It’s a great achievement to launch electricity, water, wifi and a sleeping space in a week.”

In the pre-elaboration of the campaign La Vida Es Mayor, occupation was foreseen as “one more action”, but following the cry of the motto, “The House of Citizens” has been the space that has put life in the center and has managed to move away from the model of exhausting militancy, creating a space for enjoyment. The building, which was once dusty, has been the scene of a round-table discussion and a setting for culture. He has also fought for Gaubel and the party: The performance of the Donostiarra guitarist, two Argentine women have made feminist theater, the music groups Hatxe and Eraul and the guitarist Andoni.

Space has been shared not only by people of different sensibilities, but also by different bodies that have tried to turn the building into a liberating space. From outside Norma, Iraq talks, it's transsexual. “There is a work done, a desire and an effort to internalize the presentation of other identities. You've seen diversity, there have been older people, young people, different identities, different bodies. That is very important. However, it has not been a totally liberating space.” The dynamic La Vida Da Mayor has tried to create the most egalitarian spaces possible: they have created a non-mixed room in the building, that is, a room for non-men, where to share experiences, possible attacks and joint responses. They have also written a feminist protocol and formed a working group in the assemblies, in charge of ensuring "the comfort of diverse bodies".

Assemblies: Multiple and horizontal

One of the most important quotes from day to day has been the assembly. All the evenings at 19:30 have met in the squares of the city to value what the day has given and to discuss collectively the decisions to be taken. The first was held on Saturday in the Plaza de Gipuzkoa, with the witness of camp Gipuzkoa Zutik two years ago, in the center of the assembly with a parachute of colors, symbol of diversity. The assemblies have departed from the criteria collectively agreed two years ago.

Consensus on the dynamics of the assemblies was drafted in order to reach as horizontal an agreement as possible. As Lur pointed out, “the assembly has been in charge of guiding the whole week.”

Daily work has been managed through working groups: Economic surveillance, communication, comfort of the different bodies, organization of activities, kitchen, dynamization of the assembly and building infrastructure. According to Bittor, innovation has been the working group that has been created for the comfort of multiple bodies: “We have tried to look around and identify and meet the needs of neighbors and neighbors.” In addition to trying to attract all kinds of bodies and identities to the Vida Da Mayor Campaign, newcomers have been informed to avoid the discomforts that could cause access to a management related working group.

This same working group aimed to guide the passage of the week with a feminist view and was reflected in the assemblies, according to Haizea: “Many non-men have dared to speak. In the assemblies there has been no leading role for man”.

Street activities: Humble but strong

They have created a program for the whole week, collecting public space and recovering the real meaning of the word “public”: the street.

On May 19, the day of the occupation was auzolan under the motto La Vida es Mayor. The meeting point of the struggle is already ready and in a week many activities have been carried out on the street. These are initiatives undertaken by the various players who have joined the campaign:

March to Ulía, Festivities against the shops that open on Sundays Fiesta, drilling against the metro in the Concha, fanzine workshop, solidarity initiative with the prisoners of Catalonia, identification of the video-biking cameras that exist in the city, the assembly of pensioners, the “red carpet” initiative of ERNAI to denounce that some workers are not paid. In the program, disseminated on the network, they stated that “congratulations to the workers of the hotels”, referring to the strike that was in the program and that they have not had to do because the employers have accepted their requests at the last moment.

There has also been room for talk and training: the experience of several people detained in the popular wall of Donostia, the presentation of the book of the 100 commitments of the Free Territory, the talk about digital security, the presentation of the People of Alternatives in Pamplona, Iñaki Gil de San Vicente on the capital of Europe, Ainhoa Intxaurrandieta in a talk about the incinerator and corruption.

In some initiatives thousands of people have gathered, in others a dozen, and the participants of the La Vida es Mayor campaign have also had time to make self-criticism, as they have qualified “fewer people than they expected” the organized activities. One of the reasons is the censorship that some media have imposed on the campaign, “for your interests”. However, they wanted to attach importance to the achievement of a week of action and to the objectives that have been achieved. “One of our goals was to provoke us, and we have succeeded, even though they have used the repression against us,” says Bittor.

The people who live the week of the social struggle from within have been satisfied. “Quantitatively, it may not have been what we expected, but the message has come. It has been shown that there are many people who want a more just society,” said Ilargi. The wind, for its part, looks to the future: “The week has been very intense. I have seen that there is a desire to organize more things together, I have seen nice discussions and common work. A sanding process has been initiated.”

The Basque Government shields tourism

The reason for the celebration of this week of Vida Da Mayor was the visit of representatives of the World Tourism Organization (WTO), and one of the objectives of the campaign was that its representatives realized that many Donostiarras do not agree with the current tourism model. Donostia-San Sebastián is part of the SET network of Cities of the South of Europe against Turistification and was in charge of transferring the manifesto written in collaboration with the other cities to the congress members. When they were in Kursaal, they did not want to take up the document.

In two cases, the Ertzaintza response has been rapid. On Tuesday night, convened by the Great Life, they received the "no" greeting from the representatives of the World Tourism Organization. The protesters went out into the street at night, placed banners with the motto “WTO go home” in front of the Maria Cristina and London hotels, and launched a rocket in the air to awaken the congressmen. This is the first time in history that a protest is made to the MSD. That night, the police identified five people, including an ARGIA journalist, who was arrested for gunfire.

On Wednesday, the assembly of Gladys Enea was that of La Vida, while Tabakalera was surrounded by ertzainas. The police, as a countryman, not only dealt with the park, but also had to watch a drone through the air. The representatives of the TME stressed in the assembly the action to be taken in Tabakalera: they decided to make noise with whistles.

But it wasn't that easy. The policemen threw themselves on them and, pulling out the batons, began to peacefully beat the protesters who protested. In the course of the fight, the agents threw two people to the ground and took them to the knife. The protesters wanted to cover the protest with buses, but the activists sent social media videos of the time of the arrests to congressmen looking through the building's windows. That night, the two arrested were released, according to the same source.

The police action did not scare the campaign La Vida is Mayor and the fight against turistification. Hundreds of people took to the streets at the demonstration called by the BiziLagunEkin platform on Friday afternoon, under the cry of different agents “tourism kills the people”.

And now what?

On Saturday night the “Victory Party” was held in the building, with the aim of emptying the joys and the tiredness. “At the end of this week we are stronger than at the beginning of the week,” said a member of La Vida Da Mayor at the last meeting of the social struggle week. The doors of the building will be closed, the week of social struggles in the White House is over.

Life Day has begun to collect three demands from each of the agents, and from them, they will try to set in motion a process to continue to unite the struggles.

But now what? The Police has identified sixteen people from the dynamic La Vida Da Mayor, and has arrested two others who were in hospital. After the identifications, the trials and, after them, the fines will arrive. How will they be faced? Will the seed sown in the mud of the "Basque Regime" flourish again?

Before the lockdown of the "Citizens' House", a banner with the legend "Life is the Greatest" and the fist adorned with horns has been removed from the facade. But, be careful! Another banner hung: "The game is going to continue. Until soon!