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ife: Amsterdam – Evictions stir up sympathy for the squatters with a social conscience The Independent – United Kingdom; Jan 15, 2001 BY ISABEL CONWAY

IVO AND his squatter pals pride themselves on being able to break through any door within two minutes. Heavily bolted and padlocked entrances can be penetrated in less than 30 seconds but it may take a little longer to invade reinforced steel, admits the 27-year-old Dutch university drop- out.

His impressive arsenal of high-powered steel cutters, battering rams, crowbars and hatchets are the tools of the trade for “breakers” such as himself. But it may not be long before the house-breaking implements start gathering dust.

Amsterdam’s army of squatters – known as Krakers – is under siege. The Dutch still have some of the most liberal laws anywhere on squatting but the Amsterdam authorities have declared war on the Krakers. The motive is profit: property prices are soaring on the back of a mini economic boom, and aggressive commercial redevelopment is forcing squatters back on to the streets.

Many of the hundreds of squats in the Dutch capital have been relentlessly hunted down in recent weeks to make way for commercial progress and satisfy, in particular, demand for luxury apartments by wealthy professionals in the burgeoning financial services and IT sectors. The shift in policy is, claim the squatters and their supporters, squeezing the unique artistic and student life out of the city.

The Dutch squatters’ movement, formed in the postwar years against a backdrop of chronic housing shortage, became a widely accepted public interest group against big commercial invasion of old city centres. In the 70s and 80s it won public backing for exposing speculation and governmental indifference to residents’ needs. Its numbers soared to 20,000.

The laxity of existing laws means that when a building lies empty for a year or longer it is invariably squatted.

Daniel, 25, said: “The only illegality is actually breaking in but we have it perfected to a fine art, we are in in no time.” He gave up a history degree to devote himself full time to “creating space where there was none” for the tens of thousands who spend years on housing waiting lists.

Once inside a building, squatters inform the police. “We invite them to look around and make a report,” said Daniel, one of six who have been occupying a 17th-century house in the city centre for the past four years.

Traditionally, it was only when an owner intended to renovate a building that the squatters were evicted. Even then they would be told in advance of the date and time when police would arrive to clear the building.

But the squatters’ spirit of non-cooperation and pitched battles with police down the years cost the movement support from a public that views them increasingly as nuisances living at the workers’ expense.

The movement has an elaborate network bordering on a business empire: it publishes a guide to squats city-wide, has its own TV programme, internet cafe, fitness centre and even runs coach and bike hire services.

The squatters argue that they provide essential maintenance for many of the buildings they occupy, repairing roofs and structural damage and paying for central heating.

There is a policy, too, of occupying buildings bought with the proceeds of crime. British activists are among the squatters who have recently taken over a former hotel seized by the authorities after its Pakistani owners, convicted of laundering drug money, were jailed.

But the large number of foreign squatters – many of those evicted are Spanish, Italian, British and German – has helped to harden attitudes.

Miriam Otten of Amsterdam Municipality said: “In one recent eviction we took 17 people out of a house and 15 of them were Italians. More and more foreigners are coming here looking for a cheap or free place to stay. A lot of people think anything is possible in Amsterdam but it isn’t so and they are finding that out.”

A series of high-profile evictions seems to be turning public opinion back in the squatters’ favour, however.

Outraged members of the city’s cultural and artistic elite tried to stop the closure of the Kalenderpanden, which had provided spaces for artists and craftspeople to live and work. The former warehouse, squatted for more than 20 years, was shut down to make way for luxury flats, with the help of tear gas and water cannon.

The clearout of entire streets in the historic “Pijp” quarter followed a month later. Since then squatters have twice been evicted from the bankrupt American theme restaurant Planet Hollywood. During the second eviction on 7 January, 25 squatters were hurt, suffering cuts, bruises and bites from police dogs.

Daniel, the squatters’ spokesman, said: “We wanted to convert the Planet Hollywood building back to its former use as a film house and centre for arts in a street which has become a tatty version of Disneyland with its garish amusement arcades and fast food outlets.”

The next confrontation will strike at the heart of the squatters’ existence. The city authorities intend to shut the bar of the Vrankrijk, a leading centre for alternative culture near the Royal Palace.

Daniel vows the squatters will not go quietly. “It proves their new zero tolerance mentality but we will fight against this attack on our whole structure and already a lot of public opinion is behind us.”

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source: http://www.ft.com/

EUROPE & AFRICA: Amsterdam’s squatters run out of time and space: Evictions are on the increase as developers seek to turn rundown buildings into luxury flats, writes Gordon Cramb

Financial Times; Jan 2, 2001 By GORDON CRAMB

When Amsterdam police evicted the squatters from Planet Hollywood last month, it signalled what the squatters say is a new determination by the authorities to curb their presence in the city.

The action followed a number of squatter evictions from both private and public properties in the past few months. More are expected. The action comes amid a period of prosperity for the city, with rundown buildings being snapped up by developers, often to turn into luxury flats.

The US theme-restaurant chain had opened its latest branch only months before entering bankruptcy proceedings. The listed 1930s building, empty for a year, used to be a newsreel cinema, and the few dozen who broke in wanted to create an alternative arts centre.

A film evening and a television broadcast were as far as they got. Eight days later they were out. It was the latest in a series of setbacks for what was once one of Europe’s largest squatter movements.

Schelto Patijn, who retired at the weekend after six years as mayor of Amsterdam, defends evictions from council-owned properties such as the Kalenderpanden warehouse complex, cleared in October with the help of tear gas.

The city, which is selling the historic premises to create 47 apartments, needs to cater to the “increased expectations of young urban executives”, he says.

But Mr Patijn also defends the composition of the housing stock that makes luxury flats relatively rare pushing up prices.

Five out of six homes in the city are rent-controlled, most of them owned by semi-public housing associations. The departing mayor says that remains necessary in a city where, in spite of strong job creation, a third of the population earns the national minimum wage or less.

In addition, Amsterdam needs to ensure it does not squeeze out the student and artistic population that contributes to urban life, Mr Patijn says. Indeed the local authority is allocating Fl 90m (Pounds 25m) to a programme providing spaces for 1,000 artists and craftspeople to live and work.

The country’s consensus culture means that numerous squats have been made legal over the years, and the number of people living without authorisation has dropped from some 20,000 during the movement’s high point of the early 1980s into the hundreds. Those most active for squatter rights are these days likely to be living legally.

Increased commercial redevelopment, as property prices began an 18-year rise, has also meant fewer suitable squats have become available and the power to enforce evictions has also strengthened.

According to Eric Duivenvoorden, author of a history of the movement, many squatters have moved on and begun small businesses, while others have turned their experience into gainful employment at bodies such as the housing associations.

A movement that had shunned the legal system has become used to deploying judicial measures in its defence.

Conflicts had moved to the courtroom or city hall. Last month an organisation called Vrije Ruimte (“free space”) was set up to negotiate with the council on the squatters’ behalf.

Squatter numbers are said to be rising again and in recent months direct clashes have also revived: 13 police were injured during the Kalenderpanden clearance as supporters of the occupants threw stones, bottles and fireworks. The consensus approach is fraying at both ends, and the unannounced police raid on the Planet Hollywood building confirmed that.

Rodrigo Fernandez, a 25-year-old squatter involved with Vrije Ruimte, says: “It fits the new pattern of zero tolerance, where everything has to conform with the rules.”

The next test is likely to come at Vrankrijk, a cafe squat set up in 1982 near the royal palace. A decade later, the occupants raised the money to buy the building. Now city authorities intend to shut the bar because it has no food or drink licence, which Vrankrijk has resisted because it would mean allowing police on the premises.

As one of his last mayoral duties, Mr Patijn met the organising collective but all that followed was a notice of closure pushed under the door.

The suspicion is that the council will seek to have the place boarded up before Job Cohen, currently junior justice minister, succeeds him in the middle of this month.

Copyright: The Financial Times Limited

Planet Hollywood was squatted again after the first eviction. After 3 hours the police came to evict the place again. More information (in Dutch)

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