Presentation I made on the social situation in Spain in Autumn 2013 from for the European Settlement movement. Surely incomplete - suggestions are welcome. My self, I would have liked to have the time to research on domestic violence (is it bigger problem in Spain than elsewhere in Europe) and the state of different ecosystems in Spain.

1. A picture of Spanish society
November 2013
European settlements movement
London 10th and 11th November
h

2. Population and
singularities
●
Population:
–
–
Emigration (grew by 400 000 people in 2011
officially)
–
●
Near 47 million people
Growing interest on country side but no
moving there happening
Specific trends in Spain:
–
No clear increase in extreme right support
–
Catalan and Basque identities
Source: National Statistics Institute, El Pais 1, El Pais 2

3. Unemployment in Spain
●
●
Source: International university of La Rioja
Regional
variation
Signs in
Autumn 2013
that job
destruction
has stopped

4. Positive response: local
currencies
●
●
Small
phenomena
Examples
–
–
Number of currencies in area. Image captured from Life without employment,
http://mapa.vivirsinempleo.org/map/
Puma
(Sevilla)
RES
(Cataluña)

5. Unemployment and poverty
●
●
●
●
Active people: 23 millions (60% of 16
years old and over)
Unemployment (25,98%, 55% youngest)
26,8% of Spanish people lives in
poverty and social exclusion
630.000 households without income
Sources: National Statistics Institute, National Spanish Radio and Television (RTVE)

6. Caritas
●
1,900,000 people attended in 2012 in Spain
●
Local Caritas 30th October in media:
–
Refuses social mark by local government
●
●
–
Private donations would get 40% tax discount
The organization would have been assessed by government
Quotes:
●
”one more step in privatization of the support of the
weak” ”we don't agree with this in any way”
●
”is it the moment to give tax reductions?”
●
”Caritas needs independence from government”
●
”Caritas is advancing public social rents since
government pays them late: is the government in a
position to assess the work of social NGOs?”
Source: Noticas de Navarra, Diario de Navarra

7. Housing movement
●
Movement of Mortgage Victims PAH
●
PAH has stopped 825 evictions
●
●
●
●
It has relocated 712 people in houses owned by banks and
occupied by PAH members. The European Court of Human
Rights stopped the eviction of an occupied bloc of
apartments in October
Own successful popular legislative initiative for a nonrecourse mortgage law
It has organized polemical demonstrations in front of the
houses of politicians
European citizien prize 2013,
National Human Rights Prize 2013
Source: Spanish Wikipedia

8. Wealth, financing and
innovation
●
Capital outflow has stopped this year 2013
●
Biggest rents grew to 7 times smallest
●
mean rents -4%, prices +10% (2001-2007)
●
●
●
saving rate peaked in 2009 now below precrisis rates
Financing difficulties for small enterprises
I+D investment below European average: I+D
below 1,5% GDP (avg. Europe over 2% GDP)
Sources: RTVE, National Statistics Institute, El Pais

9. Ethical banks
●
Duch Triodos Bank working in Spain since 2003
–
–
21% growth in the first semester of 2013
–
●
130,000 clients (6/2013)
5,900 millions € of balance sheet
Fiare bank project since 2003
–
Offers products of Italian Banca Etica
–
It is now merging with Banca Etica
–
33.5 millions € of savings (31/12)
–
4.3 millions € of capital (8/13)
–
4,400 cooperative members

10. ●
New Style of Relationships (NER, style =
”estilo” in Spanish). 14 organizations, 1338
people, 279 Mill. € in sales. What units them:
●
Ethics
●
Transparency
●
Communication Information
●
Trust
●
Self-managed teams
●
Freedom
●
Responsibility
Making decisions together
● Vision for the future
● Solidarity
● NO paid overtime
● Dividing up the harvest
● NO layoffs
● Integrated into society
●

11. Governance
●
●
Reforms on education, labor
markets
Cuts and privatizations
–
●
Affecting a lot NGOs
Corruption affecting central,
regional and local governments;
opposition party; labor unions;
firms

12. National identities
●
Issues concerning:
–
language of education
–
financing of regional
governments
–
independence aspirations
–
imprisonment and court
cases
Photo: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:11s2012_Arc_de_Triomf.JPG

13. Citiziens' Tide
●
Union of different movements, popularly known as
”tides” of different colors
●
Against cuts and for democracy
●
Participating are also 15M “indignados” groups
●
Most prominent:
–
White tide: against health system privatization
–
Green tide: against cuts in education
Source: Spanish wikipedia, Marea Ciudadana
Photo: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Puertadelsol2011.jpg

14. Other setlements­like
organizatiations
●
Emmaus Spain
●
Once fundation (disabilities)
●
Proyecto Hombre (drug use)
●
●
Local and national youth, educational
and cultural organizations
Local and national social organizations

15. Made by Oscar Fresán Landíbar for the
International Federation of
Settlements. November 2013
Oscar.fresan@kaapeli.fi
First slide photos from wikipedia commons:
Human chain photo, market place photo,parliament photo
This presentation is licensed under the Creative Commons
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