Istanbul (Turkey): squatting update

– Yeldeğirmeni, Don Kişot: Began during Summer 2013. Evicted in November 2015. Torn down in November 2016.

– Kadıköy, Caferağa: Began in Autumn 2013. Evicted in December 2014. Burnt down in November 2016.

– Beşiktaş, Berkin Elvan: Began in Spring 2014. Evicted in a month…

– Söğütlüçeşme, Samsa: Began in Spring 2014. Abandoned by many activists by Winter 2015. The building stands still as doors locked.

– Acıbadem, Lojman: Began in Winter 2016. Abandoned by many activists by Summer 2016. This squat is still open. Contact: lojman@@@riseup.net

[Translated from Turkish.]

Milan: Crackdown threatens Torricelli St anarchist squat after 40 years

Supporters of Milan’s longest-running squatted social centre remain on high alert after a threatened eviction order slated for November 24th by the centre-left city administration failed to materialise.

In a statement on Thursday 24th Grupo Anarchico Bruzzi-Malatesta, which is linked to the squat at 19 Torricelli St, wrote*: “From the tone of the eviction order we feared that we really had reached the final phase, so we were on a higher alert and a special mobilisation with the constitution of a committee of defence. On the day a service was put on to give the defenders breakfast, and as the day went on around 80 comrades filled the building in solidarity, including many anarchists.

“To our relief though, possibly because of the organised defence and mobilisation, we got the news that the eviction had again been postponed for another three months. Only after that did people start to filter away. [Read More]

Madrid: Month of solidarity (19 November/19 December), 10, 100, 1000 occupied social centres

201611_mes_de_solidaridad_y_lucha_por_la_okupacionWe understand occupation (squatting) as a tool of fight whose main purpose is far from the idea of shaping recreational places. It is an strategy to fight, theoretically and practically, against property as a key pillar of capitalist democracy. Occupation (squatting) is beyond merely logistic.

It brings partnership among comrades, builds affinity networks and solidarity, as well as create meeting points to discuss, share experiences or to make out some self criticism. Okupation is not and end but a mean that allows us to organize ourselves and conspire. It is a tangible expression of the notion of “Do it yourself”.

The power has done everything to erase any self-management projects since they prove our capacity to organize ourselves outside the system. For that purpose, many strategies have been deployed. From harsh repression; raids, arrests, police farce, to “kinder” strategies based on negotiation. Despite superficial differences, the final end of these strategies is the control and domestication (of our ideas and practices) of social movements.

For some time now, Madrid City Council, a so-called council “of change”, has deployed a warfare of harassment, threat and burnout against squatted social centres. They disguise their real purposes through a deceiver maneuver of fake dialogue, using blackmail to achieve the assimilation of these collectives. What is been sold as an exercise of tolerance and understanding, as an effort to strengthen social networks, is nevertheless an attempt of demobilization and devitalize those who don´t accept their imperatives. [Read More]

Mexico City: Chanti Ollin evicted

The squat space known as Chanti Ollin in Mexico City was evicted this morning. 26 people were arrested. Four are from other countries and will be deported. We’re going to stay making pressure to the authorities to let them free.

Thr Chanti Ollin is one of the most known squat spaces in Mexico, it could resist other two evict intentions [one attempt was in 2015]. This time looks hard and terrific because the police bring it with them bulldozers and machinery to demolish the building.

Right now we could lost one of the most relevant alternative culture spaces in Mexico City, please make diffusion and spread the info.

You could find the info with the hashtag #ChantiOllin
https://chantiollinmx.wordpress.com/

Uk: Squatters Handbook, fourteenth edition

sqhanbkviralmarketing1The Squatters Handbook  (ISBN 0 – 9507769 – 7-1) has been published by the Advisory Service for Squatters in London since 1976. It is now in its fourteenth edition and provides over a hundred pages of detailed legal and practical information about squatting and homelessness in England and Wales. Be aware that the law is different in Scotland and Northern Ireland and that the info in the handbook won’t apply there.

We put out the 14th edition of the handbook in October, 2016. More content, easier to read, plus glossary and index and more up to date.

It costs only £2, or £3.50 with postage. Arrangements for squat groups and bookshops.

If you’re in London, come into the office to pick them up. Otherwise, write, phone, or email for your copy. Send us your name and address along with a cheque for £3.50 written out to ASS, or seven 50p stamps (or equivalent), and we’ll get one in the post straight away. We don’t take credit cards. If you urgently need one, call or email us with your details and we’ll send one out along with an invoice. If you live outside of the UK, you can order them from AK press. Contact us for bulk rates if you need a load of them. [Read More]

Den Haag: About the mass arrests at the Fight Repression Demonstration

20161119_Den_Haag_Fight_Repression_demoYesterday (19th of November) at 16:00, 250 people gathered at the Kerkplein to march in a demonstration against the repression that anarchists and antifascists in The Hague and elsewhere have been facing during the last few years. Repression such as constantly prohibiting demonstrations, and mapping the activities of anarchists and antifascists in order to implement repressive measures. This demonstration was also crushed with repression and violence from the police, per order of Hague mayor van Aartsen.

The demonstration was surrounded from the outset by the Riot Cops and was filmed by the police on all sides. Afterwards, the police ordered that everyone remove their face coverings because, “that was the agreement”. One thing is certain, there was no agreement made about this and this was also not in the notice that the police drafted listing the conditions.

It was immediately clear that the riot cops were just looking for an excuse to engage in a mass arrest, which also happened. The police kettled the demonstration and attacked the group. While the police were attacking the demonstration, they called on people to be calm; a prime example of the way The Hague police try to deescalate. During this mass-arrest, people were hit in their faces, an arm was dislocated, and several people had leg injuries. The police used chokeholds several times and the few people who left the demonstration after being ordered to do so were subsequently beaten. Eventually between 166-184 people were arrested. [Read More]

Amsterdam: Boerhaaverplein 3 squatted

201611_Boerhaaverplein_3_squatted_AmsterdamOne week ago on Sunday (13 november), we successfully squatted a restaurant on Boerhaaverplein 3, Amsterdam Oost. The building is owned by two stock brokers and has been empty for three years.Seeing as they don’t have the right permissions to operate as a restaurant and have made a few half hearted attempts to rent it out, we decided to take it off their hands.The owners have been notified that we are in the building and so far, we haven’t heard from them. [Read More]

Den Haag: Update in Fight Repression demo

20161119_Den_Haag_fight_repression_demo_flyerThis coming Saturday the Fight Repression demonstration will take place in The Hague. The demonstration will assemble at 16:00 on the Kerkplein. The constant attacks on antifascists and anarchists from the state, on the national and international level cannot go unanswered!

Mayor criminalizes demonstration

The mayor of The Hague has been trying to prohibit the demonstration from the outset. We received a letter stating that the demonstration would not be allowed to march, and would already need to begin at 12:00. Kerkplein would also not be allowed to serve as a starting point for the demonstration and the demonstration would need to take place outside of the city center. Pages and pages were devoted to criminalizing the demonstration take in advance, and AFA’s participation in the demonstration was given as a reason for prohibiting it.

We see no reason to move the location and work within the repressive parameters placed on a demonstration that is supposed to be against repression. We stood firm, and the mayor has since given in and we will be allowed to assemble at 16:00 on the Kerkplein and walk a route. The route has now been reduced by half, which will leave us with a very short demonstration. It is typical for the mayor and police to limit the freedom of movement for a demonstration against repression. Even more of a reason to come to the demonstration on Saturday and stand strong together against repression. [Read More]

Deptford (South-East London): Communique from the Bank of No Money

Bank_of_no_money_Deptford_South_East_LondonWe are rats running rabid through the stinking guts of London …

Sick of the fractured ‘scene’ of squatters in London, sick of faux-punk venues and the fashionable veneer of rebellion, sick of the apathy and passivity, sick of housing where everyone is locked in their own rooms, their own lives, their existence atomised, stinking of fried chicken and choking on the bones of what once was, we came together to act …

We are a collective of those in active rebellion.

Warsaw. Barcelona. Roma. Thessaloniki. London. All over we meet in joint attack.

We organised on the beaches of London for the TRESPASS gig – selling propaganda to fashion punx and tourists about the trial of the Warsaw 3, dropping banners and smoke flares whilst the crowd rioted amongst itself, spitting in our faces and rejecting all politics.

We put on infonights, skyping with comrades from across Europe, and people came and listened, complained that there was nothing organised in London, that everything was too fluid, too temporary, that nothing ever happened, and we laughed to hide the tragedy of their blindness to their own domestication.

‘You can’t win’, they said, and we sneered, knowing our victory is in the struggle itself.

We meet in the streets outside squats under threat of eviction in Bethnal Green, Brixton, Aldwych, to jeer at bailiffs covered in paint, or see doors battered in, or taunt the cops and accuse them of murder by association. Though we called out for accomplices, few came, but enough remained to support each other and fight. [Read More]

São Paulo (Brazil): Dozens of buildings are squatted against the backdrop of social movement against austerity

During the night between Sunday 30 October and Monday 31, dozens of buildings were squatted in São Paulo. The action was coordinated by several homeless movements, including the FLM (Frente de Luta por Moradia) and the MMPT (Movimento de Moradia Para Todos).

Beyond the struggle for housing, the action was also made in solidarity with the current social movement against austerity measures taken by the government.

[Read More]