Visiting Can Masdeu, a rurban (rural & urban) network of fertile projects
The valley of Can Masdeu is a network of projects existing since 2001 which are resisting the voracity of a city without limits while following the rhythm of the seasons. This network mobilises hundreds of people through one or more of the projects of the valley. A stable housing community historically involved in Barcelona activist history; some rur-urban, horizontally-managed agroecological community gardens and a vibrant social center are some of the long-term projects that are taking place for more years in this extraordinary location, at the gateway of the natural park of Collserola. Participating of Can Masdeu projects is itself a creative act of disobedience to the world of money, smoke, noise and speed which is enacted at and by the city. It also represents a place for cooperation and solidarity among generations, rooted in the combative working-class neighbourhood of Nou Barris.
Can Masdeu is deeply committed to a post-carbon society and to the agroecological defence of Collserola. It is considered both a common and accessible friendly space to foster learning and sharing and also a fertile ground full of initiatives which have fled from the market logic and have successfully been self-managed by a community.
Community Meetings
Community meetings are visits to movement initiatives and discussions with local activists in or around Barcelona, possibly including bus travel.
Grassroots Resistance and Alternatives on the Resources Front
This tour is an opportunity to connect with the local and regional network working on a systemic approach to resources, including work to support the grassroots communities at the frontlines of resistance to extractive economy in the outskirts of Barcelona, in this case the local groups resisting waste incineration in cement kilns, and the organizations that are developing and implementing alternative systems to increase the resource efficiency of our production and consumption models. The tour also aims at giving visibility to the socio-environmental conflicts in periurban areas of Barcelona, which often remain in the shadows of other struggles that take the centrestage in the city. The tour will consist of the following activities:
Passing by the cement industry plant in St.Feliu dels Horts, industrial outskirts of Barcelona: this plant is one of the frontlines of the struggle against incineration of waste in cement plants, which is an emergent social-environmental movement at the local and global level, with special intensity in Spain since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2008. A group of representatives of the national network of impacted communities by waste incineration will be with us on the bus and will be able to tell their testimony during the journey (30-40 min).
Presentations about local bottom-up alternatives on the resources and waste front at the Finca Parera winery with a wine tasting activity and brief interventions on:
- Challenges and opportunities in the path to transform local waste and resources systems in Barcelona, looking at the recent experiences of collaboration between the municipality and grassroots organizations, by Víctor Mitjans from Barcelona en Comú / Ecology Committee.
- Presentation of project Rewine, by Rezero: a project that has brought together NGOs, institutions, and wine producers, to involve consumers, producers, bars, restaurants, wholesalers and shops to demonstrate the viability of the reuse of wine bottles in Catalonia, from washing, labelling, bottling and distribution on the market until their collection.
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Both interventions will include time for Q&A and debate.
Visit to a Housing cooperative
This activity promotes Gender Justice
Presentation of the new housing cooperative of Barcelona. Participants will have the chance to see the project, the neighbourhood and to learn about the cooperatives movement in Catalonia.
The activity will take place in Sants, 20 minutes away by metro from CCCB.
Three aspects of the project will be highlighted: the architectural and environmental project (which intends to build the tallest wood building in Spain and highly energy efficient); the project living in community and mutual support; and the financial structure of the project, one of the first cooperative proposals to be 100% financed by ethical financing cooperative networks.