Historic call for a better future
I am writing these lines as the demonstration called by the #MenysTurismeMésVida platform approaches, under the slogan of #CanviemElRumb #PosemLimitsAlTurisme. Almost everything has already been said about the multiple grievances accumulated over the years, which justify this call and make a change of course urgent. It is not risky to make a prediction: this Sunday’s demonstration in Palma will mark a before and after. It will, for sure, be a historic demonstration because of the great mobilization – we will be many! – and because of what it will mean from a democratic quality point of view. It is not easy to mobilize massively in a “tourism democracy” regime.
Towards a more democratic and egalitarian society
This change of direction must also serve to turn Mallorca – and the Balearic Islands and Pitiüses in general – into more democratic societies with a greater drive towards equality. One of the characteristics of societies dominated by tourism is that, as a result of an excessive growth in the logic of capital, tourist activities subordinate economic and social issues to tourism reproduction, disregarding other needs of society and other uses of the common goods. This leads to democratic deficits. Perhaps the most important, although not the only ones, are the commodification of the right to the city and to decent housing, the lack of real participation of citizens and the constant rejection of conflict and the exercise of protest.
Problems hidden by tourism
An example of this concealment is the Social Affairs and Human Rights Commission of the Parliament of the Balearic Islands, which approved in April 2018 a Non-Law Proposal urging the Economic and Social Council of the Balearic Islands (CES IB ) to carry out a study on the present reality and the dynamics of the reproduction of poverty in the Balearic Islands. Although this report was submitted almost a year ago, it is still hidden.
Perspectives on equality and distribution of wealth
The co-author of this report also participated in the writing of the book ‘In defense of the basic income. Why is it fair and how is it financed’. This book uses very solid statistical data to analyze the dynamics of income, its distribution and existing inequalities. The fiscal microdata of the ‘Panel de Hogares’, prepared by the State Tax Administration Agency (AEAT), the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IEF), indicate that the The Balearic Islands are the third Spanish autonomous community, after Madrid and the Canary Islands, with the most inequality.
Although I don’t usually mention data from unpublished studies, this case is an exception. The dynamics of tourism as a whole, analyzed with this new source of information, do not show a fair distribution of the income and wealth generated or an egalitarian trend. On the contrary, the social majority barely lives from tourism. In fact, before the current protracted housing crisis, social elevators were still at a standstill. The belief that tourism led to social ascension was, even before the crisis, a myth.
A cry for unity in the face of injustice
Almost one hundred and fifty years ago, one of the founders of the labor movement, F. Engels, wrote: “We have subjected the forces of nature to the service of man; thanks to this we have increased production immeasurably […]. But what have been the consequences of this increase in production? The increase of exhausting work, a growing misery of the masses or a massive crisis every ten years’ (Introduction to the dialectic of nature).
These words still resonate today, especially in the context of recent tourism booms. It’s time to cry out: proletarianized and proletarianized by tourism, unite and let’s change the course!
