Political Mobilization of Irregular Street Vendors. The case of Barcelona.

Abstract

Conflicts between street vendors and the police are recurrent in Barcelona. While street vendors’ objective was to come to Spain in order to work with dignity and have a better life, the reality is much different. They suffer from persecution, racism and violence from the state authorities on a daily basis. Indeed, on one hand, street vendors are, for most of them, irregular in Spain. On the other hand, their activity is considered as a criminal offense on the Spanish territory. These two characteristics led to the criminalization of this group of people. For that reason, Barcelona’s street vendors decided to create a syndicate, named the Sindicato Popular de Vendedores Ambulantes de Barcelona. This organization, composed mainly by Senegalese migrants, represents all street vendors, wherever they are from. The creation of this collective was the departure point of street vendors’ political mobilization in Barcelona. Hence, this master thesis focuses on analyzing the political mobilization of irregular street vendors in Barcelona. In order to do so, this paper attempts to analyze the topic through a qualitative study. The main question that will guide this work is the following: “How do irregular street vendors manage to mobilize politically? The case of Barcelona”. In order to answer this question, three key concepts are useful in this paper: storytelling, solidarity, and resistance. It is through these three main concepts that the particular case of political mobilization of street vendors in Barcelona is analyzed in this paper.