Amsterdam: ADM – Lüske’ heirs commit fraud by tree-felling permit application

Again shoddy evidence by Chidda Lüske’heirss commit fraud by tree-felling permit

Last Thursday (January 28, 2016) Chidda C. S. again presented proof that was tampered with. Already before, crucial pages from an ecological report were made unreadable in an appeal against the municipally (10 dec 2015) and they withheld this important information in relation to the ecological value of the ADM from the environment department, who had to assess the permit for the felling of the trees and had specifically requested more information. Then Chidda hired another ecological bureau who were instructed to make a new report (19 jan) that suggests to make a summary of the previous report, but leaves out all the relevant conclusions and recommendations and presents completely other conclusions.

This is what the heirs of Lüske did in a court-case, where the residents of the ADM asked the judge to not allow the trees to be felled while the appeal against the permit to fell 470 trees in front of the gate is still going on. [Read More]

Amsterdam: In-depth procedure against ADM

Also in in-depth procedure the judge concludes: plans insufficiently specific and realistic. January 7, 2016

Last summer the judge concluded that the plans presented by Chidda c.s. [=> Lüske’ heirs] for the ADM-terrain are insufficiently specific (verdict July 13th 2015). The municipally concluded the same on September 15th and again on December 10th 2015.
Now the judge of the in-depth procedure, a thorough procedure where every detail is investigated, draws the same conclusion. [Read More]

London: Squatters of London Action Paper (SLAP!), 1st edition

201601_Squatters_of_London_Action_Paper_SLAPSquatters of London Action Paper is a new London freesheet for squat news, actions, history and events. Paper copies soon available at Freedom Bookshop in Whitechapel and 56a Infoshop in Elephant and Castle.
SLAP, 1st edition (page 1, page 2)
Contact: squatterslap [at] riseup [dot] net [Read More]

London: Eviction Resistance Success at the Hope and Anchor Pub

20160128_London_Eviction_Resistance_Success_at_the_Hope_and_Anchor_Pub‘I’m going to call Billy Bragg.’ Despite the promise of one local supporter, the singing socialist did not show at the successful eviction resistance at the Hope and Anchor pub in Mornington Crescent two days ago – but many did. A small mob turned out to resist an eviction by county court bailiffs of squat crew Squatters and Homeless Autonomy, who had occupied the building just before its planned regeneration.

The building, owned by multi-millionaire Oliver Bengough, was initially intended for a mixture of upmarket flats and commercial space. But many in the area believe it will end as extension to Koko – the pricey “independent” music venue next door. This example of gentrification is among many others in Camden. Pubs that served the former working-class population are closed as their customers are priced-out, bought-up or evicted. [Read More]

Learning From SHAC: Winter European Speaking Tour

We are pleased to announce our Winter European Speaking Tour across France, the Basque Country & Spain.

Friday 29th January – Dijon | 7pm | Eternel Detour, 16ter rue de Fontaine-lès-Dijon, Dijon

Saturday 30th January – Grenoble | 12pm | Parpaing Paillette, 104 avenue Ambroise Croizat, Saint Martin D’here

Saturday 30th January – Lyon | 8pm | l’Atelier des Canulars Canulars Workshop, 91 rue Montesquieu, Lyon

Sunday 31st January – Marseille | 7pm | Le Raccoon, Place du Lycée Thiers, Marseille

Monday 1st February – Toulouse | 5.30pm | Self-managed Social Centre of Toulouse (CREA)

Wednesday 3rd February – Pamplona | 6pm | Iruñeko Gaztetxea, Konpania Kalea, 3, Pamplona

Thursday 4th February – San Sebastian | 12pm | EHU Gipuzkoako Kanpusa, Donostia

Thursday 4th February – Zarautz | 8.30pm | Putzuzulo, 20800 Zarautz

Saturday 6th February – Bilbao | 5pm | Izar Beltz Social Centre, Bilbao

Sunday 7th FebruaryGijon | 5pm | Centru Social La Llume. C/Nava 1 (Esq. Avenida de Portugal), Xixón, Asturies [Read More]

France/Finland: Direct actions from Rennes to Helsinki in solidarity with the ZAD

This Friday, January 22nd, at dawn, people decided to blockade the road passing through the middle of the construction site for the new Eurorennes train station and in front of the women’s prisons’ main entrance.

Bins were overturned, oil spilled and the following text plastered on the jail walls and site fences:

This morning, we’re blocking this road with help from some bins tipped over and spilled oil…

Because “the city of tomorrow”, wedged between the business district’s megalomaniac construction site that is Euro-Rennes, its future LGV high-speed rail and Europe’s largest women’s prison, represents itself exactly as dreamt up in the offices of Rennes Métropole’s project. [Read More]

Melbourne, Australia: Disruption of Vinci and French Consulate in solidarity with the ZAD

To the defenders of the ZAD,

Solidarity from anarchists in so-called ‘Melbourne, Australia’- the never-ceded indigenous land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, stolen and occupied by the genocidal settler-colonial state.

In response to recent threats of violent eviction by the French State, actions were taken at several locations in Melbourne, the city built on the stolen lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation, in colonised Australia. The actions targetted the French consulate and offices of companies of the VINCI corporate-family linked to the proposed destruction of land at the Zone-A-Defendre [Zone to Defend]. [Read More]

Groningen, Netherlands: Pino has to stay!

Sociaal_Centrum_Groningen_Pino_Hereweg_97Where there is a will, there is a way. The former pizzaria Pino, at the Hereweg in Groningen is the oldest house in the street and has been on the demolition list for almost 30 years.
Now, 2016, it is the home for creative, free spirits.
Because the place is squatted and its interest is not economical profit, it makes it easier for people to get involved and organise something here. We notice that this activates lots op people! A few examples of activities that have taken place at Pino:
– the March against Monsanto was planned at our table
– we had a benefit evening for a teacher who was raising money for children in Kenia
– because our stage is open to all kinds of music, we get lots of surprising acts. International, but also a lot of local musicians. Almost every week we host live music here. Once we had a Norwegian duo that made music with a beer crate and a loop machine and we also hosted the very first concert of De Kat, a band from Groningen. The Pino is also part of the festival PleuropSonic, during Eurosonic, which attracts a lot of people every year. [Read More]

Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France: February 27th – General mobilisation for the abandonment of the airport project – prepare yourselves!

The mobilisation in recent days has been tremendous: thanks to the strength of the demonstration on Nantes’ outskirts, but also due to the actions and gatherings multiplying in dozens of other French cities. It’s clear that the anti-airport movement is denser and livelier than ever. This is because it’s become emblematic of so many other struggles against social and environmental destruction, the loss of agricultural land, climate change, the commodification of land and our lives. It’s also because it sprouts the discovery of inhabiting the world in other ways.

However the government confines itself in its deafness. The farmers and inhabitants of the zad are still threatened by eviction. The beginning of the airport project work is still announced in the short term.

The movement therefore calls for the continuation of actions for the coming weeks, and to pay particular attention to the judgement handed down on January 25th.

All components of the struggle also call for a day of massive mobilisation on February 27th. This mobilisation will be under the banner of stopping eviction threats against farmers and inhabitants of the zad, as well as the airport project’s definitive abandonment. [Read More]

Dublin, Ireland: Eviction of Villa Park

Monday saw an eviction without court order in Dublin involving Garda and private security / builders at Villa Park, Dublin 7.  The house had been left abandoned for at least two years according to  neighbours before being brought back into use last October by people who needed a home.  One of them told us that it was a “Beautiful house that was to be demolished in order to make a new route to warehouse / bakery behind it but neighbours objected and planning permission was refused.  The person claiming ownership seemed to be very wealthy and is listed as a director of over 28 companies.” [Read More]

Riga: “The Capital of Empty Spaces”. Dealing with the Shrinking of the Great Baltic City

It’s a dead-eyed building the colour of a paving slab, set back from the street outside at the end of a pockmarked driveway. Looming behind the roof like a figment of a bad dream is a colossal edifice, copper-coloured, precision-cut and cartoonish, a child’s conception of a skyscraper, chiselled out of the twilight sky. This is Riga, capital of Latvia, and here, we’re on the other side of the tracks – literally: the railway lines leading into the city centre cordon off the Old Town from Maskavas Forštate (the Moscow Suburb), usually referred to as Maskačka, the sprawling, chaotic and large ethnic Russian district associated locally with crime and unemployment. The hulking skyscraper beyond is Riga’s most visually inescapable legacy of the fifty-year Soviet occupation – constructed in 1956 in the Stalinist classical model, a scaled-down colonial cousin of similar edifices in Moscow and Warsaw.

But today, though the building may look like the same drab grounded rectangle as ever, internally, it’s bursting with energy. Clusters of people hover around eating, talking or playing undirected music, some line the walls, looking at pictures and felt-tipped imperatives on drawing boards. The little rooms upstairs host workshops on a number of practical and impractical subjects, from improvisation to soap-making. Cakes and vegetarian food emanate endlessly from somewhere. A Latvian-language poster stuck on the inside of the door urges (or promises) “Latvian-Russian friendship”. At one point everyone squashes themselves into the truncated hall to listen to a speech. [Read More]

Dublin: Better to Squat Than Let Homes Rot

On the merits of Squatting as a tactical response to the permanent housing crisis.

While the government says there is no money to build social housing, they seem to forget the fact that there are over 270,000 vacant houses, flats and apartments scattered around the country, and over 30,000 in Dublin alone. There are over 90,000 people waiting on the social housing list in Ireland – but there is quite an easy answer to the housing crisis, the government doesn’t even need to stretch itself any distance to address. they simply need to introduce a law to legally allow people to squat properties that have been empty for over 6 months, or relax the laws to make it easier to squat. Coupled with a sensible social housing strategy, based around people’s actual needs and not purely profit for landlords, the housing/homeless crisis could be greatly reduced.

No government loan schemes, no sub-standard, gentrified social housing projects, and no need to wait for a new property bubble to develop to finish off the economy altogether. Over one billion a year is provided by the government to create and sustain social housing in Ireland over a two year period. The majority of this is a simple giveaway and effectively a government subsidy to private landlords (including large and small landlords, hotels, hostels and B&Bs), as the money goes straight into the coffers of already property- and capital-rich individuals/companies. It is largely dead money to those homeless or precariously homed people who have no choice but to pay artificially inflated rent for, in many cases, sub-standard and dangerous accommodation. [Read More]