More than 100 people gathered in Faro’s Praça da Liberdade on Sunday, 25 October, to protest against the police handling of the housing protest camps, or acampadas, in Lisbon and Porto. Participants condemned the undue violence used against peaceful demonstrators seeking to defend the right to housing, freedom, and democracy.
“Police repression in itself was neither new nor a surprise, because it was already there and has happened before at the camps. What we found truly unacceptable was that the police now came back with even more force, and with dogs,” Filipa Alves told reporters.
The peaceful solidarity demonstration got under way at around 5pm outside the headquarters of the Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR). It was called by Algarve em Resistência (Algarve in Resistance), a movement bringing together several collectives campaigning for the right to housing.
“No home, no cash, just repression without end,” read one of the banners.
Ms Alves, of the Acampada movement, said there was “no reason to beat people, no reason to want to drive people out of the squares”.
The activist also hit out at the social media commentary being used to justify the violence. “When you see what happened last night, and we’re still in shock, reading comments like that is insulting. At the same time, I think we’ve got used to not paying much attention, because we understand where they come from. The far right is churning out this propaganda, painting the people who fight for their own rights, and other people’s, as the ones in the wrong,” she added.
“I’m as old as 25 April [the 1974 revolution]. I have a full-time job and I was working today until I came here. And like me, most of the people here have jobs and have children,” said one protester, who preferred to remain anonymous.
Afonso Coelho said the recent overnight police action had given the mobilisation a new dimension. “This is no longer just about housing. It’s about defending freedom and defending democracy too. The housing problem is creating an ever more unequal society, with social inequality galloping ahead, especially here in the Algarve but right across the country.”
“In an increasingly unequal society, we can see that authoritarianism is the response that works best. So what we are witnessing today is authoritarianism,” he said.
He explained that the Faro gathering had brought together people outraged by the events in Lisbon and Porto in the early hours. “They were shocked by what happened overnight and they are here to defend democracy, to defend freedom and, obviously, the right to housing. Because a fairer society is one that restores homes to their residential purpose, rather than treating them as an economic asset,” he said.
Asked whether he thought the crackdown was arbitrary and disproportionate given the protesters’ demands, he replied: “We are defending homes and the recovery of housing for its residential purpose, not as an economic asset. That’s all we’re doing, and we’re taking it from the police every day for defending a basic right in a democracy.”
Ms Alves also recalled the assault on an MP who tried to intervene with police in Lisbon. “I’m sorry to say that the only MP who went to try to help in Lisbon, to try to negotiate with the police, was attacked. If MPs have that attitude and that goodwill, they will of course be welcome,” she said.
Half an hour before the demonstration began, around two dozen people took part in a people’s assembly organised by Acampada de Faro. The protest gathered pace about half an hour after the scheduled start, by which point more than a hundred people were present.
After a text from A Passarada, billed as the camp’s “autonomous newspaper” and handed out as a leaflet, was read aloud, the chanting began. Slogans included “Montenegro, pay attention, your houses will be occupied”, “We want homes to live in, not to speculate on” and “Fewer truncheons, more homes”.
The crowd began to disperse at 6.30pm, after a member of Acampada de Faro invited those present to join the working groups set up at the people’s assemblies.
Earlier in the day, Algarve em Resistência had already condemned the “police repression” against the Lisbon and Porto camps in a statement. The movement said that, faced with peaceful demonstrations, “the State’s response was the truncheon”, as barlavento reported.
In the early hours, the PSP broke up housing demonstrations in Lisbon and Porto with batons and dogs, after more than two hours of tension and orders for people to leave, and for tents to be removed. The protesters refused to comply, citing their constitutional right to demonstrate.
According to the PSP, 33 people were injured, 27 in Lisbon and six in Porto, and 31 were detained for disobedience, 25 in the capital and six in Porto.
The protesters are demanding that the new rental law be reversed, an end to demolitions and evictions with no housing alternative, a freeze on the purchase of homes by property funds, more public housing, the reclaiming of vacant buildings for housing, and “truly affordable” rent caps.
Source: Barlavento
Photo credit: José Sena Goulão/LUSA
