Barcelona A number of the members of the Organizers Forum delegation were involved in various aspects of tenant organizing, including ACORN Canada, ACORN England/Wales, and Living Rent, so we were excited to meet with representatives of the Barcelona Tenants Union (Sindicat de Llogateres) who were part of their international working group.
Felix and Marti offered us a good history of the union, since its founding in 2017 and its burst of growth after 2024. There are 6000 dues-paying members with dues averaging about 60 euros annually, with some also donating more. This is the main source of their regular income which they use to employ six staff members. Like ACORN, the leaders are unpaid. Unlike ACORN, the staff, along with the heads of each working group, are part of the 15-person overall coordinating group. There are chapters in Barcelona as well as a number of other towns in Catalan.
External money is not sought or accepted for the main operations of the tenants’ union, but they do raise outside money to support their international work and meetings as well as their rallies and marches. For example, in a recent rent strike in 2024-25 in a building of more than 100 units, the tenants paid their rent in escrow, but they raised 500,000 euros for potential legal defense from outside sources in order to be prepared for judicial attacks since rent strikes are still technically illegal. In that instance, the strike was concluded victoriously when the government bought the building, allowing all of the tenants to remain in their units on long term leases.
They explained that policy decisions on programs are made in their annual meeting in November, generally attended by 100 to 150 people. They also have three plenaries during the year to coordinate and discuss programs that are attended by about 40 people usually. They describe their structure as “horizontal”, but in essence they work, similar to ACORN on a principle of “coordinated autonomy”, where each local is responsible for its own decisions and affairs, until it overlaps in issues or interest with other chapters and then works through the coordinating committee in between plenaries or the plenaries, if necessary. There are chairs of the working groups, so that there is final responsibility, and the staff also operates with a similar command structure with individual staff acting as supervisors and responsible for different programs.
They do respond to complaints on eviction defense, but they also do direct organizing outreach in buildings. A law in Barcelona allows them to access all property ownership information for a fee, so when they are dealing with outside investors, like Blackstone or major landlords, they are able to target all of the buildings under the same ownership. Like ACORN, they door knock those buildings with staff and members.
One of the delegates from BCGEU raised the question of how they looked at leveraging foreign investors, including private equity with union and governmental pension funds. They were interested in learning more. In a follow-up question, Joel Rogers asked how they handled research. Marti explained that the tenants’ union was original organized by researchers at the university, and they still relied on that research help, as well as their own researchers on staff and in the membership.
We discussed their campaigns to force the registration and licensing of Airbnb locations and second homes. They were very interested in the Renters Rights Bill that we had joined with others to win in the United Kingdom. They formally had five-year leases that had now been watered down to three years. They have no right to renew, though they can negotiate a new lease potentially, even though still caught in fixed-term leases.
The Organizers’ Forum exists for just this kind of constructive dialogue. We felt there might be grounds for collaboration in the future when dealing with common targets, so these were introductions that might lead to something positive to come.