Emigration
Lucian Soloman De Sade, known as Spider De Sade, is an immigrant from the UK, a squatter now living in Spain. He shared how to get useful “perks” there, told his story, and gave his thoughts on the coming global collapse. Weapons, drugs, Chinese demonologists—all in this new interview for Nottoday.
Why Spain? Escaping the Law and Seeking Freedom
— Why did you decide to leave the UK?
— I’ve been squatting my whole life. At some point, the laws started changing in the UK, and that’s when many Spaniards living there went back home. A large part of the English followed them. After all, in Spain, the laws remained the same as they used to be in Britain.
— Why did you choose Spain specifically? Were there other options?
— I’ve traveled all over the world, you could say, but squatting in Spain is notably different from other countries—primarily because of the local legislation. The laws here were very similar to what used to be in the UK, so finding housing turned out to be quite simple. That’s exactly why I chose Spain.
Everywhere else, you’d be sitting in prison much longer for squatting.
I tried Mexico, India, Germany, even Toronto. Those aren’t the places to go if you’re a squatter.
Relocation: Spontaneity and Old Connections
— How did the move go—was it quick and spontaneous, or did you prepare gradually?
— The final stage was quick and spontaneous. I went to a festival called La Jungla Fest, stayed in friends’ squats, got to know the scene, other punks, and then I just stayed here, that’s all.
— Did you have any experience living in Spain before you came here permanently?
— Yes, I was “in the context,” so to speak, because most of the Spanish squatters lived in Britain, and then they all moved back home, so I just followed them.
— When you first arrived, were there any problems?
— No, there wasn’t even a language barrier.
Legal Status and Healthcare: Illness as a Pass
— What is your current legal status in Spain? Do you have a residence permit or temporary protection?
— Right now I’m under temporary protection in Spain due to my health status—I have HIV. In the near future, I need to arrange a residence card.
Once, because of all the illnesses I have, I had to return to the UK to try and resolve my health issues. But everything turned out very badly—I ended up on the street without any help.
Then I came back to Spain. Here, they organized a hospitalization for me almost immediately, provided free medication, free medical care, all the way to rehabilitation. Later, they transferred me to housing for HIV-positive people, which helps prepare for the transition to social housing. This is where I can finally resolve all these issues normally and with support.
— How did the document process start?
— Dealing with documents was quite difficult, but getting my Spanish medical number was very easy. That’s because I’m ill, which made it significantly easier to get medical cards and other documents.
— Did you figure all this out yourself? I mean, maybe you read about it somewhere, or someone shared the necessary information?
— An addiction clinic helped me in the very early stages. When you live as a squatter, the first thing you do is study the law. It’s common practice: read the constitution, check your rights—as a person with health issues, as a refugee, and simply as a resident of the country.
There are many organizations you can turn to for information about your rights. Fortunately—as paradoxical as it sounds—I used drugs, and going to an addiction clinic was the best way for me to start the path to legalization.
As soon as I registered with them, I got access to doctors, sorted out medical cards, and then told the police that I’ve lived here for 23 years—this is a mandatory step on the path to legalization in Spain.
The Addiction Clinic as an Entry Point: Medical and Legal Support
— Okay. The next questions are about medical and psychiatric support. Do you know if there is free access to healthcare in Spain if you have illegal status?
— Getting documents is a bit hard, but there are channels you can go through. The best channel is through the addiction clinic. In Spain, they prefer to keep you on their drugs rather than the ones you buy on the street, so there isn’t really a “time to quit drugs” vibe. They just keep giving you substitutes, and if you have a heroin problem, they’ll give you methadone over and over, and there’s no weaning off. No change. That part is very strange here.
Since I’ve already rehabilitated regarding drugs and “got off” them, they transferred me to a regular doctor because I couldn’t be around other people using; that would have put me back in the same state.
So I was transferred to new doctors and psychiatrists. All through the addiction clinic. You can even get a lawyer through the addiction clinic, so if you have problems from being on the street or constant fights over drugs, you tell the needle exchange point, and their lawyer will help you get out of the situation you’re in.
Ambulances and Distrust of Volunteers: Squat Communities and “Government”
— Have you ever been in a situation where you needed emergency help or an ambulance?
— Yes, quite a few times. The ambulances here are very shitty. They’ll take you to the nearest hospital unless you fight them to take you to your specific hospital. They say it’s better to go where you’re being treated, but sometimes the ambulances won’t take you there, so yes, they’re shitty.
— Are there teams or outreach services that work with vulnerable groups—real places, for example, on the streets, in dens, or squats?
— Yes, there are many squat communities that do this, but I don’t trust any of them. I tend to turn to government organizations here more—go to the clinic, or my doctor, or my HIV social worker and do it through them.
I had a lot of trouble dealing with places like Synetica (a social center in Spain – ed.) or other lawyers supposed to help. I don’t want to be rude, but they are kids studying law. Synetica was recently exposed because undercover police were working there. That’s not what I’m looking for.
I would prefer to turn to government organizations here that know the law and do it through them. Usually, it’s better to pay for something; unfortunately, the result is better then. Synetica was the place you could go to get lawyers. It was one of the biggest places.
A few years ago, I had a lot of arguments with Synetica because I told them about some guy there I didn’t trust, and they blamed it all on my methamphetamine use, saying I was an addict, and later they found out he actually was a policeman.
— Is that the main reason you don’t trust volunteer organizations?
— Yes, I’ve seen too many squat communities trust people they shouldn’t have. Sometimes it’s better to keep your doors closed.
Legal Aid and Survival: Where to Look for Support
— Can you name a few other places where one can turn for help and protection of rights?
— Synetica still exists. There is also a place, a punk organization in Horta. That’s a new group of people, but I don’t know much about them. If you need good legal help, you can turn to the Red Cross or an addiction clinic. In my last case, I went to a real lawyer who supports squatters. He was a squatter himself when he was very young. He and his boyfriend advocate for that lifestyle. They believe in the same things I do. Everyone needs somewhere to live. Everyone needs food. Everyone needs water and safety, and they believe that too. They found me a judge who was on my side.
— Can you tell us a bit more about places that can help you survive, like places that give out food, clothes, or hygiene products?
— As I mentioned, the two places—the addiction clinic is very good. You can always take a shower, get free tea and coffee, free advice, free food, free help. You can also turn to the Red Cross; you can either get food from them if you have a place to live and cook, or they’ll give you a card you can use around Barcelona to get food at certain restaurants.
Temporary Housing and Language: Squats Without Rules and Barriers
— What about temporary housing, do you know of any places like squats?
— Squats are much better because you don’t have rules and regulations. Right now, they want me to go into rehab, which is the start of social housing. I’ll have to be in rehab for up to a year, then live in HIV housing for about six months, and then after that, they’ll put me in social housing. But that also comes with work, because once you go through their social housing, they expect you to give back all the free things they gave you, all the free help. I also went through many medical trials to help my “list,” to say I’m a good boy and get these perks.
— Regarding language and communication—I know you speak Spanish, but for those who don’t or know it poorly, how would you rate the accessibility of information and support in other languages?
— It’s difficult, very difficult. A squat like the one we live in now is very good for Russian speakers because most people there are either Russian or Polish. When I first arrived, it was mostly English, yes, English and Polish.
Catalans are very friendly, Spaniards even friendlier; they like to help you try to master the language.
To the point that the Red Cross will ask if you want Spanish lessons. There used to be squats that hosted Spanish lessons once a month, but it wasn’t great for me because you could drink there, so it wasn’t the best environment for learning anything. I just got drunk and learned swear words.
Adaptation in Spain: Cunit Squats and Barcelona’s Lost Past
— Okay, maybe you could summarize which resources, places, or people could help someone who has just arrived in Spain?
— I would say that right now Spain is probably the best option for anyone fleeing a country where they can’t survive. Buy a ticket, come to Spain, and be happy. Obviously, there’s a lot of shit involved, a lot of politics, but it’s usually ten times better than the country you’re in. I’d also say learn something that makes you useful to a team—if you’re squatting a place, you have a team of people doing things: people doing electrics, people doing water, people cleaning, people DJing so you can start throwing parties.
I’d say learn something, even in the modification industry—learn how to tattoo, pierce, maybe even do hair—get that ready before moving, because these things are always needed by punks. It’ll be easier if you know how to do something to bring to the situation; people are more likely to say, “Yes, you’re a great fit for the house, you can do this, you can do that,” and then you shouldn’t have many obstacles.
I’d say if you want to be trusted, be a modifier, because when you’re a modifier, you’re already working against the law, so no one can say you’re working for the law because you’re doing something illegal—you’re modifying a person, which is mutilation from the Spanish government’s perspective. In England, it’s illegal; they’ll put you in prison for quite a long time.
A friend of mine got caught for cutting someone’s tongue.
Luckily, she stopped halfway and said she couldn’t do it, but the cops still closed three tattoo parlors belonging to the owner.
All my modifications, especially at the beginning, were done by a person who didn’t really know what he was doing. He didn’t have a clue—he practiced on mannequins first, then on himself. And I became his first “real” client. The first guinea pig.
It was funny, of course. We used tools that were actually intended for liposuction—huge tubes—and tried to shape my brows and “horns” with them. They had to peel all the skin off my head… well, not quite from the scalp—right from the skull—to pull it up and insert the implants.
If it weren’t for people like me and others, this would never have developed. In the beginning, it was actually quite scary because there were no modifications. You couldn’t be under anesthesia because that’s super against the law—you could die if you’re knocked out during surgery or given too much painkiller—so we used ketamine and glucose, and then sugar.
It took about eight hours to do my first six horns, and while doing it, the shop owner was running back and forth with ice cream, giving me ice cream while I had big sticks sticking out of my head and I was snorting line after line of ketamine. It was funny, yeah. To get a modification back then, you had to go to a tattoo parlor, everything would be locked, you’d be the last customer, and it would be very secret. I tried to promote this in squats, but many in the community don’t like modifications.
More precisely, they prefer you to go to their shop or salon, but you can’t do certain things there, or they charge you a lot of money. For example, eyeball tattoos are a thousand per eyeball.
The strangest thing I encountered was squat porn; it was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, but it’s a very good idea. It’s sort of the underside of porn where you have dirty, scruffy bastards doing weird shit: getting drunk, throwing parties, fucking, or doing suspensions—that kind of porn. I have a friend who does porn only with people with dreadlocks, but it’s hardcore; they suspend you or can bury you. And it always involves either branding or some modification during the sex scene, or suspending a girl and roasting her on a spit while she’s suspended—that kind of shit was funny. You should really go to the Tattoo Circus; it’s the squat version of a tattoo convention that happens every year. I used to do shows for them until my ex and I started fighting, but they’re good; they have many tattooists ready to do any kind of tattoo, you should like it.
Also, this time of year, you can head to the outskirts of Madrid. There’s a scene there you can find through a techno party with Pula Vida, and they illegally harvest poppies. So during the day, they harvest poppies for the farmers, and at night, a sound system is set up and there’s a party, and people obviously go around and try to “rob” themselves of what they harvested during the day. Usually, after these two months of harvest, you can find large bags of opium heads in the area because farmers only take the opium, they don’t leave the heads, so they’re just thrown away like wheat.
It seems like something serious that should be regulated, but it isn’t. The thing is, a lot of opium is used in Spain. The heads—many people use them because the effect is like a painkiller, so you can boil a few heads and have your own natural painkiller.
You won’t have opium, but you’ll just have a natural painkiller.
Opium is used for, I don’t know what it’s called… it’s when you have a baby and you hate that baby, when you have those weird thoughts: “Oh, the baby doesn’t love me,” postpartum or something like that. They give you morphine, opium, and codeine pills, and it basically calms you down. There are quite a few products in Spain containing opium.
They would say to her: “Why are you bringing this dirty AIDS-ridden bastard into our country?”
And later in Distrito Federal, two cops—one senior—when I was adjusting my cock ring, he said I had pissed in a corner somewhere. The junior one basically tried to say “no,” but obviously, that was his superior, so he agreed with him. They forced us to withdraw as much money as we could from an ATM. Otherwise, they were going to take our passports.
If you can pay them off, it’s very, very good. Otherwise, a gun comes in handy, but stay away from the police. They don’t usually hang around the streets, but if you go to a tourist area, you’ll find them there. Once I ran into some AIDS-punks in Distrito Federal. It’s a group of punks who all specifically infected themselves with AIDS, but they use it as a weapon against the police. So they carry infected things with them because they’re always in trouble, they’re always growing something, they’re always robbing, they’re always carrying a syringe full of blood. Just in case the police or army come for them, then they are a bunch of punks with HIV-needles, and the cops know it and are afraid of it. It’s probably better than having a gun sometimes.
Weapons: Experience and Combat Philosophy
— By the way, regarding the use of weapons. A gun is very easy to get in Mexico. Is it actually useful?
— In Mexico, we were told we’d have to have one because I was English and she was Italian, and both of us are modified. People were worried we’d be kidnapped and held for ransom. And we thought: “Okay, fine, we’ll buy everything.” And in the end, the hitman we bought it from said: “I don’t know why you’re buying this, you won’t have any problems, you’re so tattooed and modified that people won’t even approach you.” And just like he said, people really didn’t approach us. Plenty of little kids came up to us saying: “I’ll take you to a piercing place” or “I know where you can buy cool clothes and stuff.”
— What is your experience with using weapons?
— I have a lot. As a kid, I was in the Scouts and then the Army Cadets. I spent quite a few years in the Army Cadets. I’ve shot everything from giant Thompson submachine guns to stupid Gap pistols. They would send us for weeks in the summer into the woods. Where you’d be dropped off in the middle of “nowhere” blindfolded with a rifle. And you had to reach a certain point and then rescue a flag. And the whole time you don’t sleep, and usually, you’re shooting blanks.
It’s one of the rules in British culture, if you are involved with the Scouts and Army Cadets, you are introduced to weapons immediately.
Weapons and archery are the first things for survival.
I think that’s why most Brits were Scouts and Army Cadets, because they knew they wanted something more from life. They taught us how to build shelters outdoors. They taught us how to make fire from nothing, eat from nothing, create a water supply. Yeah, they teach a lot of shit. A lot of shit I didn’t know I’d need right now.
— Have you ever been in a situation where weapons were used?
— A couple of times. Но usually, I was the one with the weapon.
— What are the rules for handling a weapon or talking to a person with a weapon?
— I’d say you don’t talk to a person with a weapon. Just hope they don’t have a weapon, that’s the main thing. Knife fighting is much safer than firearms. But in the case of firearms, I’ll blow your kneecaps out before you can cock your weapon or take it off safety. Your kneecaps will be gone, you’ll be lying on the floor. I wouldn’t kill you, but yeah, kneecaps are my favorite.
— Did you have any experience with 3D-printed weapons or something similar?
— No, but I love the darknet, and many people there told me: “No, no, it’s you and the meth again.” Но because I like diving into the darknet, I found some schematics for 3D-printed weapons and got somewhat into it; maybe I could start making them. Given where the world is going now, I feel everyone should learn knife fighting, how to fight, shoot guns, and do archery. You’ll need these skills when the world goes to hell and martial law is declared.
The World Is Going to Hell: Predictions, Martial Law, and Survival Skills
— Can you tell us a bit more about where we are headed, where the world is going in your opinion?
— Yes, the world is going to hell. We have until 2027 before everything falls apart. And until then, everything will just get worse. Our freedom of speech, freedom of movement, our food, housing—all of it will get 10 times worse.
We will be put in a position where we act like Nazis toward our own people or like Nazis toward our friends, which is already happening in Spain.
Many people in Spain who are returning tourists are the same people I lived with in Britain when they were squatting in Britain.
So yeah, you see people’s brains changing. And I just feel safer in Spain because my government would be the first to point a gun at me. And then, once martial law is declared, everyone will have a gun and everyone will know how to shoot. And they will look for vulnerable people who have either a good place to live, or supplies, or good bunker space. We are quite vulnerable in this place. So it’s always good to be safe.
— How can one learn these skills independently, especially if a person doesn’t have legal status to just go and join the army?
— Before I had a conflict with the “Pizzeria” (a squat in Cunit, Spain — ed. note), we found out I had a gun—and they did too. We were going to go to a range and shoot. For example, if we can get a bow and arrows, I could teach you archery.
I wanted to learn from my friend named Alex… He was going to come to Torre Baró and show us how to properly skin, butcher, and clean a wild boar. Yeah, you can’t eat the wild boar here, but it’s still one of those skills you’ll have to master.
Because, you know, if everything goes to hell and the supermarkets close—you’ll have to live off the land. Unless, of course, they shut everything down completely.
— Speaking of living off the land, have you had any experience living in places with farming or something self-sufficient?
— I was a woodsman for about two or three years, in the middle of Devon, looking after a friend’s forest. I treated his trees, cut trees, maintained the woods. Essentially, I lived there “naked” and self-sufficient, eating rabbits and such. My job was that I could go to a neighboring farm and make cider or help them with cider production, and then I’d get a little bit of money and then buy cider from them.
Yes, I liked that since I was younger; it was nice to be alone, doing what I needed to do. Knowing that I could do it was also very important to me.
But my acquaintances who took me there were all trying to make me quit drugs, which is why they stuffed me into that damn forest.
But it somehow worked.
Signs of the Times: The Chinese Demonologist and Lost Freedoms
— Could you also tell us a bit more about the changing world? Maybe how one can try to take care of themselves and prevent such models from appearing or spreading?
— These models are already appearing; you see what’s happening in every country. It started with Russia—no, not just Russia—with Poland too, building that wall. Also Trump is rebuilding his walls and changing policies that shouldn’t even be changed. So when you watch the government, you see them going backward.
Once you start seeing that, you need to start preparing for something bigger. And then you see it with Poland, that fence on the border. And then your human rights are taken away. And they will be taken away slowly. The right to speech, the right to manifest, the right to vote, the right to food, water, safe housing—things like that. And yes, when they start cutting them, or everything becomes super chaotic, you know it’s not good.
People before us fought wars to have all this in place, to have free medical care, to have a place to go for food, to have a home where you can go and live in safety, because they knew what war was.
And all of this was established. When you see all this being taken away, then you know you need to prepare for something else. Whether it’s a change in mindset among people when they riot, or, as you see in America, people there don’t actually riot, they just sit on their asses and do nothing and let the politicians do all of it. That’s when you should start being a little afraid. It’s a sign of the times.
But also, many of my visions come from a Chinese demonologist. Yes, she studies demons. Essentially, during COVID, I started looking for her on the darknet. Some things she said were very exaggerated, and I didn’t believe it until COVID happened. And then I became very wary of what would happen next because she sort of predicted COVID. And because of certain things happening in space. Then she predicted the start of the war. Then she predicted that people would be washed up on shores. So everything she sort of said came true, and I said to myself: “Ah, okay, that happened.” So maybe she has a connection to some source of higher information.
There used to be many soothsayers or seers that Hitler and Stalin used.
In any case, during that war, they used magic.
By the way, it wasn’t called the First or Second World War in Britain. It was the Occult War. Because both sides, Germany and Britain—and not just Hitler, but Winston Churchill too—used witches. I’ve heard of some similar organizations in the Soviet Union that also used witches. The Germans were looking for them; they were always a step ahead in this, but the British had a good choice of their own witches—maybe that’s why the war ended that way?
— Final word to the readers?
— This world has long been sliding into the abyss, and one must be ready for it.