Yes, It's Possible!: A Handbook for Building Power from Below

9781945335648_YesItsPossible_FC.jpg
9781945335648_YesItsPossible_FC.jpg

Yes, It's Possible!: A Handbook for Building Power from Below

$18.00

João França and The Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH)
Preface by Rob Robinson
Afterword by Silvia Federici

Forthcoming, Ships April 2026

Organizing / Social Movements / Urban Studies

A handbook for achieving social change through collective action based on lessons from a revolutionary movement’s struggle for housing justice in Spain.

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 (Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca – PAH) has since grown into a nationwide movement with over 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. It 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 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 on 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 negotiate and accept their demands.

How did they do this? This handbook collects and curates more than a decade-and-a-half worth of experience in social movement and community organizing. The lessons offered here, ranging from how to run a citizens’ assembly and manage conflicts to reflections on negotiation tactics, street-level organizing, and collective care, are drawn from the PAH’s struggle for housing justice, but can be useful for groups of citizens fighting collectively anywhere in the world. The PAH’s message to the world? “Only by organizing in the streets can we force legislative change, and only through legislative change can we gain more rights.”

Quantity:
Preorder

Product Details

ISBN: 9781945335648
Published: April 28, 2026
Format: Paperback
Size: 5.5 x 8.5 in
Page count: 224

  • “Here we can find hope for the advancement of emancipatory housing struggles.” —Miguel A. Martínez, author of Squatters in the Capitalist City

    “This handbook makes accessible what we all need in these dark times: An experience and knowledge of a successful strategy against rent extraction from our cities, a story of solidarity. The PAH has inspired many housing movements globally and this book helps to spread their message: Yes, it’s possible! Highly recommended for both movement researchers and activist.” —Dr. Lisa Vollmer, Leibniz Institute for Research on Society and Space

  • João França (Brasília, 1990) is a researcher and journalist based in Barcelona. His work is focused on social movements and collective action, and his projects have been devoted to subjects such as the right to housing and the right to the city, queer history, migrants’ rights, collective memory, and the challenges posed by disinformation. He is currently working at the Social Anthropology department at the University of Barcelona, where he is developing a dissertation on coalitions and alliances within social movements. He is involved in different movements and organizations, and since 2023, he has also served as the president of the Progressive Summer University of Catalonia (UPEC).

    The Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (Plataforma de los Afectados por la Hipoteca–PAH) is an assembly-based housing justice movement established in Barcelona in early 2009 in response to the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent housing crisis in Spain. In 2013, PAH received the Premio Nacional de Derechos Humanos, a national human rights award, and the European Citizens' Prize.

    Silvia Federici is a long-time feminist, writer, and teacher living in Brooklyn, NY. Her most recent book is Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction, and Feminist Struggle (Common Notions/PM Press, 2012). Born in Italy, Federici has lectured and taught widely in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the U.S. She has participated in numerous international movements and social struggles, including feminist, education, anti-death penalty, as well as anti-nuclear and anti-globalization movements.

  • Foreword: Assemble, Support, Resist | Rob Robinson

    Preface: Seizing the Right to Housing Worldwide | International Committee

    Introduction: To Do Something

    The Deep Roots of the Movement

    Building Power From Below

    1. Organizing With Care

    2. Solving Problems Collectively

    3. Organizing an Assembly-Based Movement

    4. Building a Decentralized Movement

    5. Safeguarding Rights Through Civil Disobedience

    6. Shifting Narratives

    7. Get the Ones in Power to Sit Down And Negotiate

    8. Transforming Policies From the Streets

    9. Managing Conflicts

    10. Joining Forces

    The Need to Keep Learning – An interview with the PAH’s International Committee

    Epilogue: Sí se puede

    Afterword | Silvia Federici

    Appendix A – Red Lines excerpt

    Appendix B – Facilitation Manual

    Acknowledgments