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Join activist-journalists and organizers from Spain’s housing movement for a conversation about documenting popular politics and building power from below.

Founded in Spain in 2009 as an immediate response to the devastating effects of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (or PAH, Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca ) has since grown into a nationwide movement with more than two hundred local chapters.

Together, they have stopped thousands of evictions, negotiated with banks, forced legislative change, occupied fifty buildings, and, most importantly, rescued thousands of people from the edge of the abyss. They achieved all of this without backing from any party, union, or major NGO, and without full-time staff or external funding.

As the PAH faced off against some of the country’s most powerful institutions, its members learned how to organize themselves, how to look after one another, how to do politics from the street, and how to bring about legislative reform. They managed to change the dominant narrative that blamed the victims of speculation in the housing market, they’ve won broad popular support, and through civil disobedience, they forced political parties to pass laws and pressured wealthy property owners and international corporations to concede to their demands.

How did they do this? The conversation will share highlights from more than a decade and a half of experience in social movement and community organizing.

Common Notions Press published their landmark movement account and handbook, Yes, It's Possible!: A Handbook for Building Power from Below, which details the lessons learned and tactics developed by the Spanish housing rights organization. The book is a practical and accessible guide for social change—starting with the home and the community—at a time of overlapping crises of rising authoritarianism, climate catastrophe, and institutional failure. It documents lessons for winning large-scale