Madrid: Anarchist squat La Gatonera evicted

In the early morning of October 27th, 2014, the squatted social centre La Gatonera in Madrid was evicted. We send strength to the comrades; nothing is finished.

Below is their communiqué (translation from Contra Info) from the day of eviction:

The State orders, the Press targets and the police evicts La Gatonera: this is how this story begins once again, that far from being a novelty, ends up being a suspicious routine. A disgusting routine that, by force of repression and fear, gradually makes an entire movement and a whole history of anarchist struggle get accustomed to having this sensation, which has become way too normalized, in its interior. The importance of so many generations that have striven, each one for years, to demonstrate that another life is possible, that there is an option outside the system in which we live, that they target us because we no longer want to be part of their miseries and because we seek to be able to manage our lives. [Read More]

Spain’s unlikely squatters

[From liberal mainstream press]

To a casual observer, the apartment blocks look much like any other. Well maintained, adequately furnished and with a reliable supply of power and water, few would guess the buildings are squatted by families who lost their jobs and homes to Spain’s long-running economic recession.

Around 250,000 seizure orders were served on properties between 2008 and 2012 but the cash-strapped state offers little support for ruined homeowners. So, in apartments dotted across Spain, grassroots anti- eviction group Platform for Mortgage Affected People [PAH] is attempting to engineer its own housing-crisis solution.
[Read More]

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Madrid: Police threaten to evict the anarchist squat La Gatonera

We received a notification from the police, threatening once again to evict the social centre if the concert takes place on January 5th, 2014.

The door was forced but they didn’t enter the squat.
[Read More]

Spain: European Court of Human Rights halts eviction of families

[Note – this story is taken from mainstream press]

The European Court of Human Rights has blocked the eviction of a group of families in northeastern Spain who have been squatting in a block of flats owned by the country’s bad bank. [Read More]

Revendication Week at la Nave Espacial in Barcelona

Dear Friends of LA NAVE ESPACIAL,

In just few days starts the Revindication Week (28  of May – 2 of June 2013) against the eviction of la Nave Espacial.

As usual all the activities are FREE.

[Read More]

[Spain] This is not a demonstration – Actions, constructions and revolutionary turns to save the world

From : http://takethesquare.net

In the past two years we have completely reinvented the way we try to transform the world into a place where life does not hurt. The old demonstrations, so grey and limited, become obsolete and useless, and have given way to an infinity of possibilities. We rethought the action, the complaint, the relationships, the public, the common, and our imagination has completely overwhelmed the space of what is possible, building already new worlds inside the old structure of this one. We collect here a list of dozens of actions and constructions that we have organized during these two years, sharing all of them that brightness of the new, that smell so special that returns us the confidence in us, and announces what is to come. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

[Original Spanish version of the compilation in this link]

[Read More]

Spain: Homeless Families Squatting After Eviction

A good article from the Voice of America website!?

Protest groups in Spain have helped families that were kicked out of their homes by banks find shelter in repossessed, empty apartment buildings. Police moved in quickly in most cases, but in Seville about 30 families are going on six months of illegal occupation.
[Read More]

New York: Solidarity with Casablanca

Today at noon activists in solidarity with the struggle to reclaim Casablanca Social Center in Madrid gathered in front of the Spanish Consulate on East 58th Street in Manhattan, New York City.
Met by a squad of police, the activists engaged passersby and members of the Spanish Consulate on their lunch break. After an hour the activists made an attempt to enter the premises but were told thet they were barred from the building! Our lawyer attempted to negotiate … but we were told we would be arrested if we persisted …
[Read More]

Madrid: CSOA Casablanca evicted

Communique from the Casablanca Assembly immediately after the eviction Wednesday September 19, 2012

Today, at 7 am, the police have forcibly evicted without notice the squatted and self-managed social center Casablanca, situated at calle Santa Isabel 21-23, in Madrid, Spain.

This was totally illegal eviction. A magistrate’s court and the Provincial Court of Madrid firm filed the criminal case started building ownership. It is illegal to reopen the case, and it is illegal we have not been notified of the decision to evict.
[Read More]

Collado Villalba, Madrid (Spain): Communiqué by “CSO La Fábrika” about the recent fascist attacks in Sierra de Guadarrama

During the last two months (July and August), at least five fascist attacks have been carried out against the CSO La Fábrika (Squatted Social Center “The Factory”), at dawn as always. The first one  consisted of threatening slogans signed with Nazi symbols and the slogan “Alpedrete resists” (a nearby village, where many fascists meet). Only two weeks later, a group of strangers tried to set fire to the social centre, but did it in such a clumsy way that the fire itself melted a water pipe which finished with both the arson and the hopes of the wannabe terrorists.

After this failed attack, that could have been felt not only by the social centre but also by the lives of our neighbors and the surrounding forest, measures were taken by the Assembly. [Read More]

Madrid: Welcome to the Hotel Ocupa

Back in Madrid after a month in the USA, I find the indignados of the 15M movement have just taken a building nearby. The Hotel Madrid, at 10 calle Carretas is a long-abandoned former Best Western hotel. Now it is swarming with folks coming around to see what is up. The hotel is steps away from the Puerta del Sol, the center of Madrid and site of the original encampment of May 15th, 2011 that launched the Spanish movement which is the big sister of Occupy Wall Street.
[Read More]

Sevilla (Spain): Police Winkle Out Stubborn Squatters

Dec. 1st, 2007

It took teams of policemen and fire-fighters nearly 38 hours to remove two squatters from an underground refuge at the end of a tunnel underneath the Casas Viejas building in the Macarena district close to Sevilla city centre that has been earmarked for conversion into residential properties and a community centre.

Iván Díaz, a 28 year old geography lecturer at Sevilla university, lasted 36 hours, but was finally removed at 7.30pm yesterday evening. His fellow protester, Agustín, who is a builder and carpenter, held out for an an extra hour and a half.

The two men had taken refuge in a small cave at the end of a tunnel built over the last twelve months to resist eviction, and had padlocked themselves to concrete blocks in the wall behind an armour-plated door.

A similar siege in London a few years ago was brought to an end after police decided to dig an alternative tunnel, which took several days.

[Read More]

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