La Plaça meets at the cinema to celebrate its birthday. ‘In a few days’ uncovers the manoeuvres of the traditional banks to derail 11Onze and the work of its team to move the project forward.

Friday 22 April, around 8 p.m., the square at the entrance of the Cinesa Diagonal in Barcelona began to fill with members of La Plaça. Workers, investors, managers and members of the community gathered to watch the premiere of the documentary ‘In a few days’, the film that explains everything that happened while 11Onze was being set up and which is now available on 11Onze TV.

Alongside those of ‘Batman’, ‘Dog’, ‘Ambulance’, ‘Sonic 2’… another poster appeared: a yellow poster from top to bottom announcing ‘In a few days’. The audience started to enter, to discover that 11Onze’s film would occupy room 2, taking the place of ‘The Bad Guys’. A good summary of what 11Onze is about to do to the banking system.

Once in the hall, the 150 people present were waiting for the premiere. The content director of 11Onze, Toni Mata, welcomed them and explained that “today we are celebrating one year of La Plaça. And it is a very happy day because we can say that 11Onze exists, is very much alive and has a bright future, despite everything that has happened.”

Mata talked about the obstacles and the foul play that 11Onze has had to dodge in order to move forward, a fact that has delayed some processes, such as the launch of El Canut. Regarding the fact of releasing the film for Sant Jordi, Mata remarked: “We are fed up with dragons scaring us. They tell us what we can and can’t do. This film is also about that: when people decide to do something together, it goes ahead, whether they want to or not.”

A team raising 11Onze

‘In a few days’ explains how El Canut was set up on the last 1-O of 2021 despite the manoeuvres of traditional banks to prevent it. It explains how a German fintech backed out at the last minute despite agreements signed with 11Onze and how, at the same time, the Bank of Spain warned 11Onze’s president, James Sène, with a notice sent directly to his home. “How did they have your address?,” he is asked in the documentary. James replies: “I don’t know, I don’t know… The lawyers will have to look into it, because if it wasn’t through a bank, there was no way of knowing that I could be found at that address.”

The documentary, therefore, presents some very nice things, such as a human team capable of rebuilding and starting up a financial institution when they have tried to derail it, but it also points out some dark points: Why did the German fintech back out? Why is the Bank of Spain pursuing 11Onze if the entity had not applied for a banking licence in Spain? And the last unpleasant question: Who infiltrated 11Onze?

Without mincing words

At the end of the film there was a question and answer session with the president of the organisation, James Sène. He acknowledged that some content has been left out of the documentary due to “legal issues” and that it will be taken to court so that “the people responsible will be held accountable”. He was referring to some foul play practices that the company has had to face in this first year and that “little by little will come out.”

The reason is that, according to Sène, “the Catalan banking system is in the hands of very few people and they have no intention of letting it go.” He added: “We knew things would happen. We were prepared. We know that the system does not want 11Onze to exist, which is good news, it means that something is right,” he said emphatically.

Sène added that “it is not in anyone’s interest to talk about 11Onze because it shows that “ordinary people can decide to do something that works.” He concluded by reasoning: “The birth of an institution that does not owe anything to anyone is a problem for everyone“.

Regarding the current concentration of the Catalan financial market, James Sène said that “it does not help the people who generate the resources, the productive ones, to also appropriate the profits, which always end up going to four shareholders.” Hence the idea of “setting up a community bank, since the profits have to go back to the community“.

The inevitable big crisis

Despite the good atmosphere of the event, the president of 11Onze did not want to give up his traditional role of ‘killjoy’ and was very explicit about the magnitude of the crisis that he expects to break out in the coming months: “We know that the system will collapse, it was already expected to do so when covid arrived”. The pandemic has only made it possible, according to Sène, to “print even more banknotes to plug the hole” of governments and financial institutions.

In this regard, the president of 11Onze highlighted the current inflation rate and what this means for the population: “Everything is much more expensive. Money is worth less. If you lose 10% of your money every year, it is as if you leave it in a box and there are mice eating it. You are losing purchasing power and this will lead to a crisis in the next 12-24 months. There will be a crash.”

Hence the need to find ways to secure savings, according to Sène: “You have to invest in physical things: buying real estate, physical gold, physical silver…. Having 80% of your assets protected.” As for the remaining 20%, he acknowledged that one could take risks with products such as cryptocurrencies or ETFs, but warned they are “paper” and that “the first thing that happens when a crisis arises is that the stock market falls by 40%”. That is why these are services being carefully analysed to identify the “safest” options when it comes to offering them to the 11Onze community.

A movie ending

Coincidentally or not, when the president of 11Onze was making his most pessimistic forecasts, the lights in the room went out because it was time to start a countdown on the screen to commemorate the exact year of the launch of La Plaça. At 22:22:22 on 22 April 2021, the current version of 11onze.cat was launched. The community celebrated its own special chimes, followed by dinner and a standing toast in the cinema hall.

The attendees were able to conjure themselves to face the dark clouds that threaten the global economy and the shadows with which some will continue to try to tarnish this community banking project. 

The next step is to take ‘In a few days’ to every corner of Catalonia, organising sessions for associations, athenaeums or anyone who asks for it. If you would like to organise a screening of the documentary ‘In a few days’ in your municipality with a representative of 11Onze, you can write to [email protected].

11Onze is the fintech community of Catalonia. Register in La Plaça for free and join the revolution! Register – 11Onze