The Platform for the Dignity of the Self-Employed has organized a demonstration in Lanzarote that will take place this Sunday, November 30, at 10:00 AM, starting from the Arrecife town hall, heading towards the Government Sub-delegation in Arrecife (Blas Cabrera Felipe street, 6), where a manifesto will be read by various groups of island businessmen, SMEs, and self-employed individuals.
In a surge of "solidarity and collective unity," the Platform for the Dignity of Self-Employed Workers celebrates the incorporation of three new cities into its national call for next November 30: Ceuta, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Santander, and Seville. With this expansion, the movement now reaches cities across the entire Spanish territory, where thousands of self-employed workers, along with families, students, and supportive neighbors, will take to the streets to denounce "the fiscal, bureaucratic, and social suffocation that threatens the future of entrepreneurship in Spain." Under the slogan "For dignified working conditions!", this peaceful and apolitical demonstration stands as "a unified cry for labor justice".
The marches, scheduled simultaneously, will depart from emblematic points in each city and will tour the urban centers, culminating in the public reading of the National Manifesto of the Self-Employed. Specific times and details of routes, starting and ending points are available on local posters and on the official website. To coordinate and obtain updated information, join your local Telegram group.
The National Manifesto, which will be read at the end of each march, focuses on "the injustices that are suffocating the collective: the disproportionate increase in fees and costs despite falling incomes; the absence of social protection comparable to that of employees; the delay in applying the VAT exemption for turnovers below 85,000 euros annually, as established by the European directive; and the suffocating bureaucracy that prevents access to aid or normal invoicing," they assure. Furthermore, they denounce "the accelerated disappearance of local commerce and the proximity economic fabric, vital for our neighborhoods and towns."
The Platform demands urgent and fair measures:
● Fair review of fees. No more equal payments regardless of income. The tables for 2026 assume increases of up to 2.5% for high earners, while small entrepreneurs struggle to survive.
● Reduction of the tax burden. A progressive system adapted to our reality.
● Dignified social protection. Sick leave, retirement, and maternity/paternity benefits comparable to those of salaried employees.
● Immediate approval of VAT exemption for invoices under 85,000 euros annually, pending European directive.
●Support for small businesses and local entrepreneurship.
● End of bureaucratic hurdles and administrative delays that prevent timely collection of aid or invoicing.
"We are not asking for privileges, we are asking for justice. We are the ones who open our businesses every day, who keep local commerce alive, and who sustain a good part of the economy. Without the self-employed, there is no future," the organization states.
A national, peaceful, and ideology-free movement
The Platform, which is citizen-based, independent, non-partisan, and non-profit, has been established to give a voice to the self-employed collective in what they consider an “unsustainable” situation. It is not an association or a union, but a movement protected by Articles 21 and 22 of the Spanish Constitution, which allow for free citizen organization and the calling of peaceful demonstrations.
A call to the entire collective and to citizens
The organizers call for participation not only from the self-employed, but also from workers, families, students, and neighbors "who are seeing the businesses in their neighborhoods and towns disappear." For their part, they assure, "we are not enemies of the State, we are its engine."
