On wednesday February 28th at 8.15 a.m. in the morning the Police broke in the doors of the squat gazpacho.
The 12 squatters alarmed through the noise of the breaking in have been woken up and went to the top of the roof of the house.
The cops arrived soon at the edge of the roof but could not make any arrests. The roof was to tiny, hard to walk on and also very steeb. It was quit dangerous to make any moves there. Therefore the cops decided not to try to arrest anyone from there, but were threwing cans and buckets of water once in a while on the people, what became quite dangerous, making the roof more wet and harder to walk on. After six hours the squtters left voluntarily the roof, took the stuff from their rooms and went on the streets after identification was taken by the police.
Among the 12 identified persons were 4 italiens, 4 germans and 4 french people. No arrests were made.
The squatters left , when the information became evident, that the appeal against the eviction order was not accepted by the judge dealing with the case.
While the squatters remained for six hours on the roof, a lot of journalists (TV, newspapers) were arriving at the spot and taking footage of the whole scenery.
Also a lot of supporters (other squatters and people from the left scene) came to the house, standing outside , chanting slogans, bringing food and showing their solidarity with the roofoccupants. Gazpacho was again occupied on Novembre 24th last year, after it was evicted a year before Gazpacho was not just a living house but also a meeting point for social and political events for the sqautting movement and the left in general. (parties, political discussions, soak screen-printing and other stuff).
After all squatters left the house the police closed it down.
On the evening of the same day a few hundred people gathered in the neighbourhood of Gracia and made a spontanous demonstration against the eviction of Gazpacho. Banks, McDonalds and a very fine restaurant for the rich were smashed, barricades were put up and all along the route of the demonstration slogans against the eviction, the police and thecapitalist system were painted on the walls. i.g. ” today Gazpacho- tomorrow your house …”
Especially the bank Caixa Catalunya was targeted heavily, cos` this bank was giving much money/loans to the new private owner of the house, which want to tear down the whole building and build a new one..
The police could not arrest anyone- all the demonstrators dispersed before the police arrived.
On March 9 th is going to be a big demonstration in Gracia against all evictions of the squatts and the ones who are threatened to be evicted in Barcelona , the criminilazation of the whole movement and the mafia of speculation of housing and grounds.
Just a few days before the Gazpacho-eviction, another incident took place when around 15 men, armed with clubs and metal-sticks, and probably paid by owner, stormed the squats La Discordia and Josefina, beat them up and destroyed many things inside the houses. A few persons had to go to the hospital., one persons nouse was broken. This illegal action did not have other means than to intimidate the squatters, who also trying to stop the eviction-order in legal ways, and make them leaving voluntarily.
The eviction of Gazpacho and the ongoing threat of more evictions goes along with the criminilazation of the whole movement.
The authorities and the media try to link the arrests and the alledged accusations against two people being supposedly members of the commando Barcelona (ETA) with the whole squatting movement in general and therefore are creating an image of ” violent, terrorist squatters”. The two arrested persons have been supposedly living in squatts or some other kind of relations to the squatting-scene.
The meeting place for the demonstration will be on March 9 th at 6 p.m. at Metro Joanic in Barcelona. Manifestacion contra todos los desalojos y la mafia de la especulation, Metro Joanic 18 H, Viernes 9 Marzo.
Long live the international squatting movenment – Hasta la victoria siempre – La lucha sigue!
See you on March 9th in Barcelona.
