Berlin (Germany): Barricades and stones for the anniversary of Liebig34 eviction

Housing is not a commodity! Two apartments in the Liebig14 expropriated

“We will not surrender. And even if they drag us out of our homes. We will return. And we will take back what is taken from us.”
Words from the Liebig34 on October 9, 2020, at 04:00 am.

Exactly three years ago today, on October 9, 2020, the anarcha queer feminist project Liebig34 was evicted. More than twelve years ago, on February 2, 2011, the house project Liebig14 was evicted. The evictions were attacks on our struggles to shape our lives and places of living in a self-determined way and from below. They were attacks on our collective organizing against sexist violence and capitalist patriarchy.

Exactly today, on October 9, 2023, we expropriated two vacant apartments in Liebig14. We declare them common property of the neighborhood. [Read More]

Bristol: ‘Burn Baby Burn!’

The chant goes up into the air as the flames of the cop van rise higher and higher, burning away a pressure that has been building for far too long.
The cop station’s windows are kicked in to the roaring joy of the crowd, its raining rocks from above on the riot cops from youths who’ve occupied part of its roof. Repeated attacks on the cop lines are visibly putting the fear into them. Bottles rain down on the cop dog unit’s failed attempt to assault the mob from behind. Riot shields and batons liberated from the cops are used to fight back, a piece of their own medicine. Others are caring for people sprayed with mace, while sound systems ring out. Another cop car is burning round the corner, this is like nothing we have seen before…

This is the scene in Bristol in 2021, 10 years since the Stokes Croft & August riots in 2011. The riot that erupted last night was a continuation of our combative memories, but from seeing so many new young uncontrollables it is the beginning of a new wave. Nothing much has changed on this prison island since 2011, if anything the conditions that led to those days are still with us, more repressive than ever. We’re being pushed over the edge, as the system of control demands either lick the boot or have our way of life extinguished. [Read More]

Barcelona: solidarity with the arrested anarchist comrades!

8 of our comrades have been remanded in custody for the night of the 3rd of March 2021! The judge on duty of the court #17 of Barcelona accuses them of public disorder, attempted homicide, organized criminal group, illegal demonstration; according to the press (i.e. the Mossos, Catalan police) they would be responsible for all the riots and vandalism that have taken place since February 16th, including the burning of the police van on the Rambla on Saturday, February 27th. Currently the comrades are in quarantine-isolation in the prison of Brians I, in Martorell.

The real problem is that they are anarchists and they have shown it with their participation in the demonstration in solidarity with Pablo Hasel on Saturday 27th, called by the CUP (Candidatura d’Unitat Popular, left-wing Catalan independence party), like thousands of other people. What they didn’t know or ignored was that some of their enemies had them in their sights because of events 4 years ago in Girona*. This is a threat to many of us who are anti-authoritarian and have never hidden it! [Read More]

Catalonia: eight arrested and squats raided

An anarchist group would be, according to the Mossos, the main responsible for the riots in Barcelona for the freedom of Pablo Hasel. Faced with the wide social response, especially among the youth, to the aberrant imprisonment of the rapper Pablo Hasel, the Catalan police already have those responsible, the scapegoats whom they intend to criminalize for social mockery and to hide, by the way, the brutal abuses committed by the riot police (a demonstrator loosing her eye, massive beating in Gràcia…).

Undoubtedly, they will continue to count on the overwhelming support of a political (central and regional governments), judicial and media apparatus that, as good servants of the economic powers, are interested in diverting attention from the real causes of the mobilizations, such as the growing authoritarianism and repression of the State (the scandalous imprisonment of Hasel is the umpteenth case), the rampant corruption, with the Bourbons at the head, or the social exclusion and lack of prospects in the face of an increasingly predatory capitalism. [Read More]

Portland (USA): The Red House and the Future of Eviction Defense

To the Barricades

Portland, Oregon has been in the headlines again over the last few days, and this trend will continue.  The reasons for the headlines will vary depending on who you ask.  If you ask the far right they will say something about Antifa terrorists having violent confrontations with the police because they hate law and order.  The mainstream media’s headlines will also tend to lead with the so-called violent clashes, but then they may inform us that the reasons for the confrontation have to do with folks trying to prevent the eviction of a Black and indigenous family that has lived in the Red House at 4406 North Mississippi for multiple generations. [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: Cops inside the University of Economics. Vancouver squat symbolically reoccupied

It all started on Monday 24 February inside the grounds of Athens University of Economics, when an off duty cop in plain clothes got off his bike and began harassing an immigrant street vendor outside the front gate. The policeman was spotted by anarchist students due to his boots and his helmet that bore the police insignia and was immediately confronted. In his panic, he began running inside the university grounds and managed to trap himself in a dead end corridor, pulled a gun on students and with his finger on the trigger threatened to shoot them while pointing the gun at them for at least 5 minutes, while desperately calling his colleagues on the phone to come and rescue him. The students, not losing their cool, but at the same time not taking a step back demanded he puts the gun down and exits the university grounds. Few minutes later scores of riot policemen stormed the university and attacked students during school hours with flash bang grenades and asphyxiating gas creating chaos because of one imbecile cop that thought he was a cowboy. [Read More]

Call for Solidarity with the Imprisoned of Operazione Scintilla, Italy

Summary of the recent repressive operation in Italy in connection with the resistance against the Italian migration regime.

On Thursday 7 February 2019, at 4:40 a.m., the eviction of the squat Asilo Occupato in Via Alessandria 12 in Turin, occupied since 1995, began. The eviction was carried out as part of the Operazione Scintilla (Operation Spark). Several hundred Carabinieri in riot gear, police officers and Guardia di finanza with machine guns and plain clothes police not only evicted the house, but also arrested six anarchists. A seventh person is still being searched for.

The charges are serious: formation of a subversive association, incitement to crime and the possession, manufacture and transportation of explosives in a public place. The charges are related to the resistance against the Italian migration regime, namely against the deportation camps/prisons CPR and CIE (Centro per l’Immigrazione e il Rimpatrio, Immigration and Repatriation Centre: Centro di identificazione ed espulsione, Identification and Deportation Centre).

The Asilo was evicted as part of this operation because the state regards it as the logistical and operational base of this subversive, insurrectional association. The eviction of the Asilo was delayed by the squatters for 36 hours because some of them had retreated to the roofs. In the meantime, sympathizers organized wild demos in the city, where there were clashes with the police. The Asilo was made uninhabitable in the last few days (destruction inside, bricked up windows, etc.). [Read More]

Turin (Italy): Asilo Occupato and CSO Giulio Cesare evicted

Thursday February 7, early in the morning, the cops with the help of the fire brigade, stormed the Asilo Occupato, a place that has been occupied since 1995 and been scene of organisation of social struggles (against evictions, against prisons for migrants, still a few years ago against the TAV…). People climbed on to the roof, where they remained for over 24 hours. In the end, the cops managed to get everyone out and condemn the building. Same thing for Le Serrande, the occupation of Corso Giulio Cesare.

Several solidarity gatherings took place in the neighbourhood, which had been completely cordoned off by the cops. Apparently some people have been arrested for resistance or violence against the blues. The evening rally to discuss the situation at Radio Blackout turned into a wild demonstration.

In addition to evicting the premises, the aim of this repressive operation was to arrest persons accused of subversive association. The 6 arrested (another person, under arrest warrant, wasn’t found) are accused of a series of explosive attacks against companies and institutions (including the French Embassy and several Post Offices) related to the detention and expulsion of migrants. [Read More]

Durban (South Africa): We March on the City Hall on 26 June 2017

Tuesday, 13 June 2017 – Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

One death and several injuries in Marianhill, three arrests in Kranskop

Today we came under serious attack from the Land Invasions Unit in eMansenseni in Marianhill. One person is confirmed dead, two are in a critical condition in hospital and a number of others are injured – all shot in the back. It was a war zone. The Land Invasions Unit didn’t talk to anyone. They just fired live ammunition. The intention was clearly to kill, to teach a lesson. [Read More]

Bure (France): Protests and attacks against the CIGEO nuclear disposal project

On Saturday, February 19, in Bure, in the north-east of France, a demo took place in the forest to support the occupation there and then on to the research lab of the planned nuclear waste disposal facility CIGEO. In the process, the ANDRA (French nuclear waste disposal agency) was pushed back more or less symbolically to a section of its illegally constructed wall in the forest. A small action report.

More than 700 people took part in Bure’s February 2017 events, which in the late afternoon resulted in violent protests and massive attacks against the site of the nuclear waste disposal agency ANDRA. [Read More]