Athens (Greece): International day of action in defence of Exarchia neighborhood, 25 June 2022

25 June / Demonstration in Exarchia Square

The construction of the metro station on Exarchia square and the redevelopment of Strefi Hill are expected to start during the summer months, according to reports in the mainstream media, but also according to notifications by the Municipality of Athens to shops located in the square.

The government’s ultimatum is the final blow to the character of the historic neighborhood of Exarchia. The construction of a Metro stop on the square, the conversion of the Polytechnic school into a museum, the attempted eradication of the monument of Alexandros Grigoropoulos through the construction of luxury apartment buildings on Mesologgiou Street, the surrender of Strefi Hill to private interests (which includes the cementing of the park’s paths, cutting down trees, placing cameras, gates and security posts to control the entrance) are part of the overall designs for the gentrification of the area, the transformation of the neighborhood into a tourist destination, the development of control and repression. [Read More]

Notre-Dame-des-Landes (France): The Mohawked Salamanders Burn Down the Salamander’s School – Why We Attacked the Zad

“I simply didn’t see where the inevitable reformism was coming from this time, discreetly but surely, from those who speak of insurrection and autonomy by the thousands of copies.”
Quote from “The movement is dead… Long live reform”, November 2017.

The Zad was our pirate ship, the mother of all Zads. It emerged in a time with no way out and it was as if the world became a little more bearable. Like a brief glimmer of light, a possibility breaking through the thick, sticky fog of our future. For those of us who lead full and busy lives, off the beaten track, it was the knowledge that there would always be a place to welcome us if we were on the run. A place where the state would never come for us. A place where we would always find allies to feed us, to clothe us, to hide us in the folds of its hedges.

And this very state, which crushes us, kills us, hunts us, was given the Zad three years ago by a handful of opportunists. Those who, only yesterday, claimed this territory as being in “secession”.

This despicable betrayal, which took place behind the backs of those who confronted the police on the barricades, cannot be forgotten. Even less so when the local Comintern has come up with a project for an École des tritons [salamanders'(1) school], to celebrate the three year anniversary of what they call victory.

Rebuilding on the Planchettes(2) then? How can we not exult in rage at this umpteenth provocation? How can we not cry vengeance for the devastated East? [Read More]

Berlin: Die Rigaer lebt – an address to our friends and comrades

Thanks to every support that was developed during the last weeks and especially the last two days of preparation and collective fight against our common enemies, we managed to develop the most intensive fighting days that we could have imagined. Days which turned every plan from the state and capital into a catastrophy. A great reminder to ourselves, our collective and its supporters, how important the movement’s networks, infrastructures of solidarity and self-organisation are.

Starting with the defence of the neighbourhood against the establishment of the red zone we drew the right concequence out of the aggressions of the state and the real estate market, against the people living in the city. The announcement of danger zones and red zones, where people get easy targets for the police in order to create an atmosphere of isolation and fear, has become normality in this city of the rich. We saw in the last years many occassions where we as those who are targeted by the states attacks had to stand in almost silent protest at the fences, guarded by a militarized police force. Let’s name the eviction of the Ohlauer School in Kreuzberg, the eviction of the Kiezladen Friedel54 and all the other projects as Syndikat, Meuterei and our neighboors Liebig34. This fact can not be tolerated anymore – the people have to rise up! [Read More]

Valencia: Neighborhood of Benimaclet stops the attempt to evict the CSOA l’Horta

Early in the morning the National Police changed the locks and installed anti-occupation doors in the CSOA l’Horta in Benimaclet (Valencia), a fact to which the neighborhood has responded by gathering against the action dictated by the Sareb, according to the collective in defense of the CSOA, which has managed to expel the police operation and reoccupy the center.

The mobile phones of several people woke up this morning with an important message: “Illegal eviction in the CSOA l’Horta. There are police surrounding the space inside and outside. They’ve put up three anti-occupation gates, and they’re using grinders”. The police operation, witnesses say, consisted of about 8 police vans. Through the same media channels, the activist collective called on the neighbourhood to go immediately to the surroundings of the centre. In barely an hour, dozens of people from Benimaclet and other neighbourhoods gathered to oppose the police action that the collective claims is illegal. [Read More]

Berlin: Update on the International Call for Action and Discussion Days

International Call for Action and Discussion Days in Berlin 30.10.-01.11.2020
United We Fight! Connect Urban Struggles – Defend Autonomous Spaces

As Interkiezionale we keep up our 9 September call to the international action and discussion days of 30.10.-01.11.2020! We would like to inform you briefly about the current status of the preparations.

The spread of the Corona Pandemic, especially in a cold autumn like this one, and the governmental measures and regulations that accompany it, present us with new challenges. Clearly, we must and want to take care of each other and not endanger our health. At the same time, we see it as a necessity and not an arbitrary voluntary decision to continue our struggles in urban areas and, accordingly, to discuss and come together. [Read More]

Berlin: Liebig34 is evicted. Call for day X demo 09.10.20

It feels incredible to type these words into the keys: The Liebig34 is cleared.
At 7:00 a.m. Robocops started sawing and flexing fences, doors, windows and barricades and at 11:00 a.m. the last inhabitants* of the Liebig34 were dragged out of the rooms.
We are sad. We are crying. We are exhausted. WE ARE ANGRY.
They can‘t imagine the determination they have awakened in us. This act of violence will explode in an act of counter-violence and self-defense. Already so much solidarity has happened in the last nights, months, years and has shown what we are capable of doing. This eviction is a moment of radicalization. We can use it and together we can express our hatred for this shit. [Read More]

Berlin: Don’t touch Liebig 34! Eviction date on 9 october 2020

Today, on September 15, we received mail from the bailiff T. Knop. They threatened to evict Liebig34 on Friday, October 9 at 7 am!

We will not let that happen! How is it possible that an attempt to evict is being planned even though it is publicly known that a different association than the defendant is present in the rooms?
How is it possible that in times when a second wave of Corona and #StayHome is expected, a home is to be evicted by so many people?
How is it possible that especially now, in times of fascist marches and a shift to the right, a feminist, leftist and queer house project is being attacked so massively?

We are angry but determined. We will not easily give up the Liebig 34.
Support us in our struggle.
Come to the general assemblies, annoy politicians and homeowners.
Be creative! Let’s make the eviction attempt a disaster! [Read More]

Leipzig: Violence is part of the problem – and the problem is the system

Last Thursday there were clashes with the police in Connewitz, initially around Eisenbahnstraße and the following days. Thursday’s events are directly related to the Day X+1 demonstration following the Luwi71 eviction. We also understand the subsequent fighting in Connewitz as a solidarity reaction to this and other occupations. Therefore we would like to contribute a few lines to the debate about so-called politically motivated violence in Leipzig.
As a direct action, we peacefully occupied the house at Ludwigstraße 71 for one and a half weeks. Within a few days, the Luwi71 became a meeting place in the neighborhood. Discussions about housing and self-managed open spaces became a topic of conversation again across different political spectrum.
Right from the start, we showed the city and the owner that we were ready to negotiate, we worked out possible uses and offered talks. We were pleased that representatives of public authorities and political parties were prepared to talk to us, to express solidarity with our concerns or to voice serious criticism. [Read More]

Leipzig: Who sows wind, will reap storm

We look back on a long weekend full of determined action against the increasing evictions, against the gentrification and the unbearable cop siege of our neighbourhoods. After two occupied houses had been evicted within a very short time, the anger about social grievances in Leipzig came to a climax once again.

After the squatted house Luwi71 was evicted on Wednesday, a Day X+1 demonstration was called on Thursday. Several hundred people joined the demonstration and expressed their anger at the eviction of the future social center near Eisenbahnstraße. Cops were attacked, barricades were erected and set on fire. Clashes lasted for several hours, during which even a resquat attempt of the Luwi71 was started. The cops tried again and again to disperse the masses, but instead many smaller demonstrations were formed, which drove the clashes forward. Many spectators joined the masses that were repeatedly scattered and yet found each other again. The anger at the police siege and criminalization of Eisenbahnstrasse, including the no weapons zone, was clearly palpable. In the course of the clashes and after several failed attempts by the cops, they began to shoot at random tear gas into the crowd. The fact that here as well as in the following evening ammunition forbidden according the War Weapon Act was used, which was fired also at journalists, probably surprises nobody knowing the Saxonian police. [Read More]

Athens: Solidarity action for Dervenion 56. An international call for solidarity

On friday 26 june, in Exarchia, the Greek state evicted and sealed Dervenion 56 and the building at Dervenion 52. An immediate gathering of solidarity was held on Exarcheia square for several hours. In the evening of the same day, a solidarity march was held with the participation of 300 people. The march ended at the Dervenion squat, barricades were set up around the perimeter and then comrades broke the concrete blocks of shame. Police never came and after some hours the protesters left. Riot cops made again an operation the next morning, building again a concrete wall in front of the squat’s door. According to information, in the following days, various solidarity actions followed, a demonstration took place on the main shopping street of Athens, Ermou, where slogans were shouted, and apparently some people attacked multinational clothing companies in Ermou in the occupied -by the police-, center of Athens. Even the rich yuppie nephew of the Prime Minister, the mayor of Athens, Costas Bakogiannis, could not escape the anger caused by the evictions. The pioneer of violent gentrification and his bodyguards were attacked with coffees and other items by dozens of people at a local religious festival. In the following days a march was held again at Exarcheia where comrades demolished the walls of the sealed migrants’ squats at Themistokleous 58 and Spirou Trikoupi 15. All these days, texts of solidarity were written and banners were put in various locations in Greece. [Read More]

Berlin: 30 years Liebig 34 – We never stop!

The Liebig 34 will celebrate its 30th birthday at the beginning of July. Eviction titles, media hype and annoying cops don’t spoil these days. Viva la Liebig!
Thirty years ago, after the fall of the Wall, people from a wide variety of backgrounds flocked to East Berlin to take advantage of the chance offered by the unresolved chains of command and the unspeakable vacancy. Entire streets and blocks of houses were occupied, redesigned and filled with ideas and creativity. The streets of Friedrichshain were full of life and very practical solidarity. At one corner there was a discussion meeting, in the next open-air cinema and there food was cooked for the whole street.
In these hours also lies the origin of our collective, which entered the rooms of Liebigstraße 34 in July 1990 and thus made the beginning of this project. In the following years a lot changed: the squat became a feminist house project without cis men. Through hard work and years of struggle it was tried to create a shelter and to offer an alternative to the cis-sexist everyday life.
Now, 30 years later, is the project to end? [Read More]

Berlin: Attack the city of the rich. Defend the projects

The gentrification in Berlin continues incessantly, and with it displacement. Not only people but also spaces are affected: Spaces of the radical movement, open spaces, safer spaces for people affected by discrimination, non-commercial spaces, spaces of subculture, of political networking and spaces where people try to live concrete utopias.

One struggle – one fight
In recent years, spaces such as the Liebig14 house project, the youth centre Drugstore , the community space Friedel54, the wagon places DieselA & Sabot Garden, the O-Platz occupation and the occupied school in Ohlauer Straße have already disappeared.
But it does not stop there. Many other spaces are currently under threat. The youth centre Potse, the house project Liebig34 and the bar collective Syndikat & Meuterei expect an eviction before the end of the year. Other spaces such as the house project Rigaer94, the house project Köpi137, the community house Lause10/11 or the community garden Prachttomate face a similar threat in the near future.

No spaces – no movement
All of these are spaces that live and fight for a different Berlin: a Berlin in which we know our neighbours, in which we create our houses and our neighbourhood together and jointly determine how public space is used. A Berlin where there is room for self-chosen living concepts. A Berlin in which we can try out alternatives to the exploitative and oppressive relations of wage labour, care work, educational system and on the basis of rent and ownership. [Read More]