A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #366 - Ecology - Right to the City: Capital's Assault on Our Spaces (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The project for a new stadium in Brest is not an isolated phenomenon[4]. 
The construction of this new stadium follows urban planning logics that 
are very common under predatory capitalism. Beyond simply comparing 
projects, we can build a vision of the city capable of transforming it.
The desire for a new stadium on the outskirts of Brest is just the 
latest in a multitude of projects seeking to force top-level football 
clubs to leave their historic homes. This phenomenon can be explained by 
the excessive inflation of football, where the fight to avoid relegation 
from Ligue 1 is at least as much a race for revenue as it is a matter of 
sporting results in a league that itself suffers from the economic 
pressure of other European leagues.

The construction of a new stadium provides the developer (private or 
public) with an opportunity for the development, or even redevelopment, 
of a site. The chosen locations are systematically on the outskirts of 
cities. In some cases, such as in Brest, the land has not yet been 
developed, and the new infrastructure will contribute to urban sprawl. 
In other cases, such as in Turin, the land is located in a neighborhood 
considered "run-down," inhabited by populations of African descent and 
Roma, for example. The stadium will allow for "resolving this 
situation," that is, gentrifying the neighborhood[1].

A city transformed into an amusement park
These new developments embody a functionalism of space, meaning that 
they organize space around a single activity: in this case, consumption. 
Indeed, the football stadium is no longer primarily a space focused on 
entertainment; football becomes a "pretext" for developing commercial 
activities within the stadium itself. For the largest stadiums, an 
integrated shopping center becomes absolutely essential, and the 
addition of extra amenities such as hotels, retail stores, and leisure 
facilities leads to a more "theme park" model. To attract customers to 
these ever-increasing stores, a new, more "family-oriented" clientele is 
also needed-in other words, customers with greater purchasing power. 
This is achieved through an overall increase in ticket prices, a 
reduction in the availability of cheap seats, and measures hostile to 
ultras[2]. Building a new stadium in a suburban area is an effective way 
to overcome the limitations imposed by the urban forms of the (often 
working-class) neighborhoods where historic stadiums are located, while 
simultaneously bringing it closer to new target audiences (higher-income 
suburban families with cars).

The goal is to transform spaces into places of consumption to maximize 
profits. This logic is clearly not inherent to the world of football, or 
even to sport in general. Under capitalism, the commodification of space 
is an inevitable force driven by the need for growth imposed on all 
competing businesses. This type of analysis can be applied to industrial 
parks, open-air shopping centers, and tourist districts, which transform 
cities into mini "theme parks" designed to extract maximum value. The 
race for investment, in which territories compete, leads political 
decision-makers to allow the forces of capital to dictate the new forms 
that the city must take.

Faced with this, the struggles we wage on the ground must be guided by a 
political project. What kind of city do we want to shape our 
transformative vision? These struggles must also serve as the foundation 
for this vision and thus create a genuine right to the city.

Developing a program for a right to the city should allow the various 
areas of struggle to converge at the local level. The issue of housing 
can be linked to the issue of tourism, which is itself connected to the 
issue of territorial marketing. A new stadium is often marketed as a way 
to improve a city's brand image[3].

The cycle that begins with the 2026 municipal elections will be a new 
battleground concerning the vision of the city. In the United States, in 
New York and Seattle, socialists have fought and won around the themes 
of the right to the city and housing. It is likely that such issues will 
also emerge in France and elsewhere in the world. While convergences may 
exist with municipal socialism (the real kind), the social movement must 
maintain its autonomy and advocate for qualitative transformation within 
cities.

Times Square, emblem of a city entirely at the service of capitalism.

Wikimedia/Terabass
Building a Program for the Right to the City
Social-democratic approaches, such as the 15-minute city, contain a 
fundamental contradiction, as stated by its theorist Carlos Moreno. 
Indeed, according to him, "there are aspects[of urban organization]that 
have no solution because they depend on changes by private companies." 
As environmental activists, trade unionists, or libertarian communists, 
we have the tools to overcome this contradiction.

For example, the question of access to employment in a city that aims to 
be less car-dependent is central. We have already addressed the issue of 
mobility in the pages of Alternative libertaire, but we can delve deeper 
based on our own on-the-ground experience within our local unions and 
work collectives. The threat of job losses often allows Capital to 
choose the location of workplaces and impose its urban policies. These 
geographical considerations have real effects on the balance of power 
between capital and labor (teleworking, potential union involvement, 
etc.). Many bridges can be built to propose, neighborhood by 
neighborhood, city by city, a transition program capable of fueling the 
struggles.

Corentin (UCL Finistère)

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[1]Pietro Palvarini and Simone Tosi, "Globalization, stadiums and the 
consumerist city: The case of the new Juventus stadium in Turin," 
European Journal for Sport and Society, 2013.

[2]Far from combating sexist violence or racism, repressive measures can 
even encourage them. See, for example, "Abusive searches and sexual 
violence: the Minister of Sports denigrates the voices of female 
supporters," Dialectik-football.info.

[3]See in particular "Collective Mobility: Free Public Transport, a 
Societal Choice," Alternative libertaire no. 365, November 2025, and 
"https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?ZFE-L-impossible-ecologie-liberale,"; 
Alternative libertaire no. 362, July-August 2025.

[4]See "Football: Red Card Against Billionaire Football," Alternative 
libertaire no. 366, December 2025.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Droit-a-la-ville-Le-Capital-a-l-assaut-de-nos-espaces
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