For the Tenants in Spain, No More of the Same
by Carl Eugene Stroud
“The anxiety of not knowing if your landlord will renew your lease, the fear of not making it to the end of the month because of the cost of housing, the violence of homelessness, or the way it’s impossible for young people to get on with building their lives when they lack basic access to housing.” (translated from Spanish to English)
While this will sound familiar to anyone in Washington State, it’s actually describing the current situation in Spain, where a widely covered eviction recently led to protests, occupations, and calls for a general strike by tenant and labor unions alike.
More than two weeks ago, tenants and their supporters across Spain began organizing protests in response to the eviction and hospitalization of María del Carmen Abascal. The 87-year-old woman, known as Maricarmen, was physically forced out of her home of more than 70 years in a violent scene that’s become emblematic of the housing struggle in Spain and the cruelty that’s inflicted on tenants.
Global Solidarity Part 1
by Peter Bohmer
This is the first part of the talk given by Peter Bohmer on Saturday, September 19, 2026 at the “United in Solidarity: Our Response to Hierarchy and Domination” conference at the University of Vienna, Austria. The second part will appear in the next online issue of Works in Progress. The speech has been modified for brevity and clarity.
I love the name of this conference, United In Radical Solidarity. Solidarity to me is an action of putting into practice the IWW slogan, “An Injury to one is an Injury to All.” Solidarity, if meaningful, is active, not just a feeling. Solidarity means the willingness to take risks as those in power will oppose and repress active solidarity. Without this willingness, solidarity is limited.
The Future Plans Without Us
by Jacqueline Garrison
Last month, we covered the fight over school closures in the Olympia School District. This month, we are taking a step back to look at the nationwide, ongoing crisis in public education. In doing so, we uncover a pattern in which state and federal divestment from schools pushes officials toward financial solutions that consolidate school models and integrate unproven technology.
Whether these conditions result in a total tech takeover or a popped AI bubble, public education faces the same disaster as the private sector moves in offering the free market as a stand-in for public investment. Privatization guts structural supports and sets our institutions on the path to austerity and marketization.
In the localized fight to protect our neighborhood schools as they face imminent closure, it’s worth grappling with some of the larger economic forces that are folding public services into the private sector. The whole historical, political, and economic picture gives us a blueprint to fight back.
For more stories from October and previous months go to our website, www.olywip.org
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