Eskalera Karakola
Exterior of building
EKKA at Calle de Embajadores 52
Map
General information
AddressCalle de Embajadores 52
Town or cityMadrid
CountrySpain
Website
eskalerakarakola.org

Eskalera Karakola is a feminist self-managed social centre in Madrid, Spain. Women squatted a bakery on Calle de Embajadores 40 from 1996 until 2005, whereupon they were given a building at Calle de Embajadores 52.

History

Eskalera Karakola (EKKA) emerged from a squat on Lavapiés 15, in the Lavapiés district, in 1996.[1] Staying in Lavapiés, several female participants decided to make a women-only occupation in a former bakery at Calle Embajadores 40. The project was eventually legalised in 2005, when it moved to its present location at Calle de Embajadores 52.[2] The bakery was evicted in 2005 and subsequently demolished.[3]

Activities

exterior of building
Eskalera Karakola at Calle de Embajadores 40

Eskalera Karakola works on the principles of autogestion and organizes activities focusing on domestic violence and women's precarity in post-industrial capitalism.[4] In 2002, it created a Female Workers' Laboratory (Laboratorio de Trabajadoras), and has carried out anti-racist activities, in particular with female immigrants, since 1998. Eskalera Karakola also took part in the organization of the LGBT Pride and the forum "Women and Architecture". It participated in alter-globalization events such as the European Social Forum and is part of the European nextGENDERation network.[5] It publishes a review, Mujeres Preokupando (a pun between "Concerned Women" and "Pre-Squatting Women").[6]

The research collective Precarias a la Deriva formed out of discussions at the social centre.[7] During the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain, its activities went online.[8]

References

  1. ^ Aguirre, Begoña (8 October 1996). "Cien agentes y un helicóptero para echar a cinco 'okupas'". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  2. ^ Sanz, Segundo; Tejero, Raquel (7 March 2019). "Huelga 8 de marzo: Un centro de 'okupas' feministas financiado por ediles de Carmena está detrás de la huelga del 8M". okdiario (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  3. ^ "Las integrantes del centro Eskalera Karakola serán desalojadas mañana". El País. 9 May 2005.
  4. ^ "La Eskalera Karakola: Un espacio deliberado". El Molotov. March 2003.
  5. ^ nextgenderation.net
  6. ^ Villacampa, Javier Alcalde; Argilés, Ramón Adell; López, Miguel Martínez (2004). ¿ Dónde están las llaves? El movimiento okupa: Prácticas y contextos sociales. Madrid: Los Libros de la Catarata. pp. 220–226. ISBN 9788483191828.
  7. ^ Shukaitis, Stevphen; Graeber, David; Biddle, Erika (2007). Constituent Imagination: Militant Investigations//collective Theorization. AK Press. ISBN 978-1-904859-35-2. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  8. ^ Tseng, Chenta Tsai (29 July 2020). "¿Cuándo fue la última vez que te aburriste?". EL PAÍS (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 September 2020.

Further reading

External links

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40°24′28.74″N 3°42′15.76″W / 40.4079833°N 3.7043778°W / 40.4079833; -3.7043778

Squatting in Spain
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