| squatters action weekend in Amsterdam |
Last night supporters of the squatted buildings at the Entrepotdok paid a visit to the houses of councilmembers and put glue in their locks. According to the action group the council members are responsible for the planned eviction of the Kalenderpanden.
The kalenderpanden were squatted in 1996. Since then an active environment developed with a free radio station, bar, concert hall, art exhibition and last but not least housing for about 15 people. The last project which was started at the Entrepotdok was the Counter information agency. Their English homepage is http://squat.net/cia/
According to the action group the council members don’t have the will to save the Entrepotdok. They hide themselves behind a contract which they signed with a luxury apartment developper after the squat action in 1996.
An opinion poll done by the council showed that 49% of the population in Amsterdam is against the eviction of the Kalenderpanden and about a quarter didn’t know the buildings. The other quarter is in favour of eviction.
This afternoon there was a theatre play at Dam Square. A wall of boxes with the Kalenderpanden painted on them was the back ground of the stage. Unfortunately this wall got demolished after an eviction with real looking pigs in uniform and a luxury apartment block was raised. The whole play ended in much smoke which probably was meant for the demonstration tomorrow….
Usually sunday afternoon is the time of the week to squat new buildings and apartments. Since the amsterdam squatters community will be busy with the demonstration this was done this afternoon. Some houses were added to the stock of freed housing and homelessneess was reduced a tiny bit. One of the places which got squatted was Jan Hanzenstraat 80-82. The former unorganised squatters were terrorised by the old tenant, a sewing factory. Heavy guys came through the door with an axe and the squatters left. This was the reason the squatters advisory and support service of the western part of Amsterdam planned this succesfull resquat action. The police who were phoned by the squatters didn’t disagree with the action and left the squatters in peace. Hopefully the squatters alarm system works well enough to save the squat for trouble.
At this moment there is a concert going on at Leidseplein (square) organised by the concert group of the Kalenderpanden at the Entrepotdok.
About many individual actions we didn’t receive information yet. Tomorrow there is a demonstration with in advance a picnic by one of the groups who uses the squats. On tuesday president Wolfensohn of the World bank will be welcomed by activists. Originally this was the planned eviction day but probably because Wolfensohn was invited to amsterdam the evictions are cancelled and delayed until the end of october
More info and pictures will follow or is already available in other languages at squat!net
[squat!net]
Also the SPOK (spekulatie onderzoeks kollektief) did a small action. This group of real estate speculator investigators usually only leave office to eat raw herring, visit the chamber of commerce or drink to much wheat beer. This time they occupied an empty building not to far from their office. Here they stated that the council is too helpfull for owners who let their possesions deteriorate for more than ten years by giving them a demolition permit and a permit to build a another big hotel.. SPOK: 
About 70 squatters went in the council ground office around seven o’clock. Here they released ten chicken. With this occupation they protested against the policy of ‘breeding places’. After a long time the council said to help keeping places where there was a breeding ground for culture. At the same time the council evicted some squats and planned to evict more. These squats were and are usually the breeding places for new and low budget activities. After all the evictions in the last few years Amsterdam gets more boring. The money for breeding places comes to late if they keep on evicting them and selling the land to project developers and builders of luxury apartments. more info in dutch: 
