THE LAST SHANTYTOWNS
The actions of the democratic City Council
1st Catalan Symposium on the Gypsy Population
Eradication of the shanties and end of shantyism
In 1980, with the formation of the democratic City Council, the Managing
Commission for the Eradication of Shantyism was created. Thereafter, the
eradication programmes included projects for social insertion before the
final reaccommodations in housing estates.
These projects proved little
effective owing to problems of conception, coordination and shortage of
resources. Despite the new outlook, the sale of drugs and small crime could
not be prevented from causing problems of coexistence with the nearby
neighbourhoods, contributing to a generic stigmatisation (with racist
overtones) of all the inhabitants of the areas concerned. Except for the
shantytown of El Carmel, which took advantage of the moment of political
change to make heard its demands and to achieve improvements, the rest
of the shantytowns were nuclei without internal consistency and without
any capacity to negotiate their future. 1981 marked the holding of the 1st
Catalan Symposium on the Gypsy Population, with proposals of action for the
shantytowns which still existed and for the reaccommodation neighbourhoods.
Shantyism acquired a totally different air: mere reaccommodation did not
guarantee a greater incorporation into the city.
The 1982 census registered
1,108 shanties and in November 1990, in the run up to the Summer Olympics,
Barcelona City Council officially declared the final eradication of the shanties
and the end of shantyism, although small nuclei of a more ephemeral nature
would subsequently arise.
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