PUSHBACK Talks

It's summertime in Sweden and Canada. The Filmmaker and the Advocate are taking a break, but the podcast isn't.  For five weeks, Fredrik and Leilani bring their faithful fans and new listeners the PushBack Talks - Summer Series.  These are curated podcasts from Season 2 - episodes you may have missed that are definitely worth a listen. We've pared them down,  and updated each with recent news and a few personal reflections. So, whether you're stuck at home, or chilling on a beach - we hope you enjoy our Summer Series! 

Executive Vice President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, joins the Filmmaker and the Advocate in a frank discussion of the current housing crisis in the EU that is often overlooked and overshadowed. Mr. Timmermans reflects on the mistakes that were made along the way to cause the crisis, recognizing that the Social Democrats' commitment to Thatcher-Reagan neoliberalism, the market-based economy, and deregulation did not achieve just outcomes and in fact had gone very wrong where housing is concerned. But with housing or residential real estate being a persistently lucrative investment (including during crises), used to bolster GDPs, and given the primacy of private property, the housing crisis is one that is extremely difficult to undo. Change is afoot in Europe with the Parliament having adopted a report reaffirming the right to housing, and several States and cities adopting progressive legislation to protect tenants and affordable housing. But is there more that the Commission could do to advance the right to housing?  Mr. Timmermans suggests that real change will only occur once the urgency of the situation is better understood by more people – and to make that happen he suggests that millions need to see PUSH-the film. We agree!

Produced by WG Film 
Recorded & Edited by Mikey Jones
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support - Maja Moberg

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Canada, one of the ten wealthiest countries in the world, has an international reputation as a progressive place - where universal health care is guaranteed, marijuana is legal and same-sex marriage, a given. But the country’s most densely populated city – Toronto – is one of the most expensive on the planet. The financialization of housing is hitting Toronto hard, with affordable apartments being purchased en masse by institutional investors, while homeless encampments spring up in parks throughout the city.  The Filmmaker and the Advocate are joined by Toronto City Councillor Mike Layton who’s in the thick of it – trying to address the big issues, from housing affordability to climate change, navigating the constraints of municipal politics, while harnessing its strength: the unique ability to mobilize residents to make change.

Produced by WG Film 
Recorded & Edited by Mikey Jones
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support - Maja Moberg

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Summer! Time to kick-back and get away. With holidays on the agenda, The Filmmaker and the Advocate take a deeper dive into Air BnB and the short-term rental world. Joined by Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at University College London, Claire Colomb, Leilani and Fredrik discuss the rapid rise of Air BnB in 16 cities across Europe – going from zero presence in 2010 to 18,000 listings in Amsterdam, 26,000 in Berlin, 28,000 in Barcelona, 48,000 in London and just over 60,000 in Paris in a six-year period. The impact of this on cities is considerable – from a decline in long-term housing stock, an increase in rents  and overall living costs, to the dominance of tourist amenities which are replacing community services for long-term residents. Now valued at $100 billion USD, the multi-national is flexing its might, increasingly sitting at political tables, wielding resources and influence. But City governments like Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid and others are pushing back – finding creative ways to protect their cities and those who live there.

 For more about Air BnB see:

Regulating short-term rentals. Platform-based property rentals in European cities: the policy debates by Claire Colomb and Tatiana de Souza
https://www.propertyresearchtrust.org/short_term_rentals.html

 The Airbnb ‘movement’ for deregulation how platform-sponsored grassroots lobbying is changing politics by L. Yates https://research.ethicalconsumer.org/research-hub/ethical-consumption-review/airbnbs-growing-political-power

Produced by WG Film 
Recorded & Edited by Mikey Jones
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support - Maja Moberg

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On 28 June 2021, Jaime Palomera, a tenants union leader in  Barcelona and two tenants were brought to trial by the Public Prosecutor and now face three years imprisonment. Their crime?  Peacefully and successfully protesting violations of the tenants’ right to housing including exorbitant rent increases and uninhabitable housing conditions. 

 Dr. Zaida Muxi Martinez; architect, city planner, and author joins the Filmmaker and the Advocate this week to discuss the clampdown on activism in Spain, echoes of its dark past.  The trio discuss the political power held by the richest families in Spain who dominate the real estate market and their ability to shut down threats to their power such as the successful tenant's movement headed by Palomera.  How is it possible that Spain, a country in the European Union can so blatantly infringe the right to peaceful assembly and protest? Is Spain an outlier or is this a global pattern?

See: The Shift's Letter of Concern sent to the Government of Spain. 

Produced by WG Film 
Recorded & Edited by Mikey Jones
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support - Maja Moberg

Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/pushbacktalks)

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The Filmmaker and the Advocate continue their season two Zoom tour around the world. After a brief discussion on encampment evictions carried out across the City of Toronto, the two make a stop in New Zealand to interview Brennan Rigby of Shift Aoteara. New Zealand’s housing market has some interesting elements; the country’s real estate market has been closed to foreign investment since 2018, while at the same time a strong market-driven real estate culture means the general population has an above-average understanding of how to use home equity to purchase multiple properties. As a result, multi-homeowners are quite common. Despite this, New Zealand has the highest rate of homelessness amongst OECD countries. 

After a period of nearly 30 years, New Zealand just began building new social housing in 2018, meaning there is not nearly enough social housing supply. This, along with an increasingly financialized real estate market has created an environment where homelessness can grow at an alarming rate. In the last 12 months alone, housing costs have increased by almost 25%. Growing concerns about housing supply have spilled over into immigration, with many wondering if the country can allow immigration with the housing market in its current state. 

Fredrik, Leilani, and Brennan discuss the elements that contributed to the current situation in New Zealand and how to shift a market-minded culture towards a human rights framework. 

Produced by WG Film 
Edited by Mikey Jones
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support - Maja Moberg

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What is wrong with Sweden? the Advocate asks the Filmmaker. The country is in political turmoil - in a fight about market rents that brought the government down this week.  

The final straw that caused Sweden’s Left Party to call for vote of confidence, was Prime Minister Lofven’s decision to sell-out tenants and support a proposal to abolish rent control on newly built properties. 

Leilani and Fredrik discuss the state of Sweden’s housing market and how the country got here. Affordable housing options have been disappearing across the country in the last year. How have different philosophies on the role of the market impacted housing all over the world and in Sweden? And how does this square with what's required by human rights law? What necessary to keep the monster of financialization at bay?

But it's not all politics and strife. PUSH - The film has won a Prix Italia Award!  This prestigious TV award has been around since 1948, presented by the Italian public broadcasting company RAI. The prize raises the profile of PUSH around the world. Best of all: Fredrik was able to travel to Milan to accept the award in person - wining, dining and dancing - while Leilani remains stuck in her basement bunker in Ottawa!

 Produced by WG Film 
Recorded & Edited by Mikey Jones
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support - Maja Moberg

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This week, the Filmmaker and the Advocate are in conversation with Gert Jan Bakker of WOON.  Amsterdam used to have strong rent control policies that protected tenants. But a neo-liberal government changed all that - selling off social housing stock to private corporations, and favoring landlords over tenants, and allowing rents to increase drastically.  Apartments that once rented for 600 euros a month increased to over 2,000, driving people out of the city. The national government still believes the market will right all wrongs, but rents are going up with no sign of relief.

But national politics are not standing in the way of the City government's vision for Amsterdam.  In a city of 900,000 with 4.5 million visitors every year, and with 1 in 15 dwellings in Amsterdam registered as short-term rentals, short-term rental accommodation,  The Filmmaker and the Advocate discuss the city's push back against the short-term rentals industry.  The city is fighting to regulate Air BnB to protect popular neighborhoods from being overrun with short-term rental properties, going so far as to ban Air BnB in central zones of the city. They are now litigating the matter - and to Gert's mind, it's one of many fights worth having.  He's also preoccupied with the city struggle to preserve its way of life for local residents. Financialization has tightened its grip, with private corporations spending hundreds of millions of euros buying up thousands of properties.  Amsterdam is truly under siege, but will it survive?

 Produced by WG Film 
Recorded & Edited by Mikey Jones
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support - Maja Moberg

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The Filmmaker & the Advocate call on an old friend in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Raquel Rolnik is a world-leading writer, academic, and head of the Design & Planning program at the University of Sao Paulo. Raquel was Leilani Farha's predecessor as UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing (2008-2014) and remains a strong voice in the global conversation. She recently published a new book entitled Urban Warfare: Housing Under the Empire of Finance. 

In this episode of PUSHBACK Talks, Raquel speaks about the special situation the pandemic has brought to Brazil and Latin America . A crisis that is also an opportunity to make things better.
 
Brazil has had many struggles in the last few years, as the pandemic has exacerbated existing economic crises. Neoliberal economic policy combined with denial of Covid-19 and the measures necessary to control its spread means the government has been cutting down on public spending at a time when many are in dire need. All of this has led to a new wave of informal settlements, and the creation of a national zero eviction movement in Brazil. Although this movement has a bill that is progressing through the Senate, those living in informal settlements are still subject to violence and mistreatment by police during unprecedented times. Meanwhile, financialization is just creeping into the major cities of Latin America. 

The Filmmaker Fredrik Gertten met Raquel Rolnik first in 2013 when shooting his film Bikes vs Cars.  In the film, Raquel says:  "The traffic jam is the solution. " When everybody is stuck in traffic even the most conservative car lovers need to think of alternatives." In the same way, the Pandemic can also be the Cure. If we want it.

Support PUSHBACK Talks on Patreon. This week all Patreons will get a free viewing of Bikes vs Cars.

Watch Bikes vs Cars on Vimeo here.

Produced by WG Film 
Recorded & Edited by Mikey Jones
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support - Maja Moberg

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The Filmmaker and the Advocate are taken on a tour of exciting developments in France — community land trusts, new social housing and a newly minted housing Brigaid taking on Airbnb and landlords who don’t follow the law. 

Marc Uhry, one of France’s leading housing activists has moved from advocate to implementor of his own ideas, now as councillor and close adviser to the Mayor of the small city of Villeurbane.

France officially recognized the right to housing in domestic law in 2007. But good law hasn’t translated into good conditions. At least not yet. With the price of land on the rise, housing is expensive, the waiting list for social rents is ever-growing and homelessness is on the rise. 

Despite this, Marc reveals a few "Vive La France" moments . The community land trusts are on the rise, even in conservative led cities. A parallel non-speculative market is happening. 

Marc’s main challenge now: To stay brave. To keep the Monster at bay.

Produced by WG Film 
Recorded & Edited by Mikey Jones
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support Team - Maja Moberg, Valerie Estrina, Hanna Leander

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California–known to the world as the home of Hollywood stars, relaxed beach vibes, and…the location of 25% of the homeless population in the US.

After an emotional introduction about the conflict between Israel and Palestine, and an update on how the billionaires in the world are faring, the Filmmaker and the Advocate sit down with Pete White, founder & Executive Director of Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN) to talk about Skid Row, a 50-square block area in downtown LA that was created by the state to hide its poverty. Now that housing and land are the hottest commodities the world over, development and financialization are threatening to push the city’s poorest residents out of a space that was once designed to contain them. For Skid Row’s nearly 15,000 residents, riding out the pandemic was always going to be a feat of community action. With only seven public bathrooms available in those 50-square blocks, and charitable food donations grinding to a halt, how did this community protect itself from Covid-19 when the government wouldn’t? Pete walks Leilani & Fredrik through the historical and systemic causes of poverty and homelessness amongst people of color in Los Angeles and how those causes are still at work today. The trio also discusses the May 2021 legal case that attempts to address the houselessness in Skid Row, and Judge Carter’s controversial remedy.

For more information on the work of LA CAN, visit: www.cangress.org

For more information on Israel and Palestine, see Human Rights Watch report, “Threshold Crossed”: https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution

Produced by WG Film 
Recorded & Edited by Mikey Jones
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support Team - Maja Moberg, Valerie Estrina, Hanna Leander

Support the show