Tree houses at Placa de Catalunya

I did a little research and found out that the squatters in the Placa de Catalunya are part of a nationwide protest to raise awareness of jobs and housing issues. A search on youtube brings up many police brutality incidents that occurred just a couple of weeks before we arrived. The protesters are passively resisting while the police pick an easy victim, usually beating women on the side of the legs with a baton or grabbing a lanky skinny man and trying to carry him out of the square. In any case, the police gave up and most of the protesters are gone leaving just the squatters to set up a self governing community.

We also saw a "pride parade" while we were in Barcelona. This was right outside our Hotel so we could watch from our windows and from the roof.