La Ingobernable is a series of

self-managed social centre A self-managed social center, also known as an autonomous social center, is a self-organized community center in which Anti-authoritarianism, anti-authoritarians put on voluntary activities. These autonomous spaces, often in multi-purpose venue ...

s in central

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. The

squats Squat, squatter or squatting may refer to: Body position * Squatting position, a sitting position where one's knees are folded with heels touching one's buttocks or back of the thighs * Squat (exercise), a lower-body exercise in strength and co ...

have been used by

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

environmentalists Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecologi ...

LGBTI Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (such as genitals, gonads, and chromosome patterns) that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". They are substantially more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexua ...

, anti-racist and other cultural groups. Between 2017 and 2019, the La Ingobernable was based in a municipal building located at the corner of

Paseo del Prado The Paseo del Prado is one of the main boulevards in Madrid, Spain. It runs north–south between the Plaza de Cibeles and the Plaza del Emperador Carlos V (also known as Plaza de Madrid Atocha railway station, Atocha), with the Plaza de Cánov ...

and Calle del Gobernador (hence its name, which means ''ungovernable''). It was then located at Calle Alberto Bosch 4, behind the

Prado Museum The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century, based on ...

from March until April 2020, when it was evicted during the

state of alarm In Spain the state of alarm (''estado de alarma'') is the lowest of the three degrees of state of emergency that allows the government to perform actions or impose policies that it would normally not be permitted to undertake. It is regulated in th ...

. In 2021, an Office for Social Rights was set up at Calle Cruz 5.

Paseo del Prado

The 3,000m² building in the centre of

had previously been the headquarters of

UNED The National Distance Education University (, UNED) is a distance learning and research university founded in 1972 and is the only university run by the government of Spain. The headquarters is located in Madrid, with campuses in all Spanish aut ...

and a health centre before being left empty. Four years later, in 2017, when the new plans were stalled and the building was derelict, representatives of social movements and civil society organisations from Madrid

squatted Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there wer ...

the building with the intention of claiming public spaces in the city for the neighbourhood. It was occupied on 6 May, 2017, fulfilling the desire of activists to have a

in the heart of the city. A month after being occupied, La Ingobernable claimed to have organized 135 activities, 81 of them cultural. After two years, it was estimated that more than 100,000 people have attended over 170 monthly activities that the social centre organizes and communicates through its website and social networks. Hundreds of people go there every week to participate in a talk, workshop, assembly, exhibition or concert. Inside there is a self-managed bar service, a free clothing store, film library, art workshop and children's space, amongst other things. La Ingobernable served as a logistics centre during the two

strikes of 8 March in 2018 and 2019. As well as feminist collectives, the space was used by

, anti-racist and cultural groups. Somos Ingobernables 03

The first eviction order for La Ingobernable was issued in April 2018 but was not executed. There was a second attempt to evict in June 2018, which also unsuccessful. The centre had called for a day of resistance and met the municipal agents with

churros A churro (, ) is a type of List of fried dough foods, fried dough from Spanish cuisine, Spanish and Portuguese cuisine, Portuguese cuisine, made with choux pastry dough piped into hot oil with a piping bag and large closed star tip or similar ...

. A spokesperson stated that the centre had offered to undergo a legalisation process but the council was not interested. On 11 May 2019, between 700 and 800 people made a demonstration in support of La Ingobernable on the occasion of its second birthday. The centre was evicted on 13 November, 2019, by a police operation which began at 03.00 and involved 130 agents. In June 2020, the superior court of justice of Madrid declared that the eviction was illegal.

Calle Alberto Bosch

After a demonstration on 4 March 2020 which began in front of the

Madrid Stock Exchange (; Madrid Stock Exchange) is the largest and most international of Spain's four regional stock exchanges (the others are located in Barcelona, Valencia, and Bilbao) that trade shares and convertible bonds and fixed income securities, and both g ...

, La Ingobernable occupied a new building at Calle Alberto Bosch 4, behind the

. The former Archivo General de Protocolos building was over 2000m³ and located in one of the most expensive residential areas in the city. It had been empty for five years and was owned by the

Ministry of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

. When the

began on 14 March because of the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the ministry began an eviction process which La Ingobernable said it had been unable to participate in. The notice of eviction was announced on 14 April, to occur within 48 hours. In the end, the building was evicted on 22 April 2020. There was nobody inside at the time and neighbours told the group the locks had been changed. La Ingobernable was only able to protest online on social media networks. After the eviction, the collective stated it was having internet meetings of 50 people and would squat a new building after the state of alarm was lifted, saying "La Ingobernable is a project which goes beyond a space".

Calle Cruz

A new building was occupied in 2021 at Calle Cruz 5 in Madrid. Representatives of La Ingobernable stated they had opened an Office for Social Rights, to push for "common resistance and conquer new rights".

References

External links

* - Centro Social de Comunes Urbanos {{DEFAULTSORT:Ingobernable, La Squats in Spain Buildings and structures in Embajadores neighborhood, Madrid DIY culture Self-managed social centers Culture in Madrid Infoshops

Paseo del Prado

Calle Alberto Bosch

Calle Cruz

See also

References

External links