On Friday 16th June 2000, the squatters of Swammerdam neighbourhood invited local neighbours and other Amsterdam squatters for a ‘breakfast on the square’ from 6 in the morning. This was to greet the police who were expected to come to “see if we were gone”. Of course we weren’t!! Only one local policeman turned up but sadly did not join us for breakfast (anyway, he was too late – he didn’t come until 2pm).
But later in the afternoon, a small group of bored eviction police turned up unexpectedly at 6:30pm and proceeded to ‘check our security measures but not do anything yet’. An alarm call was made and within minutes people started arriving from all over the city in an amazing show of solidarity and support. People crowded the street, masked squatters were on the rooftops and at the windows and all the doors and windows were firmly barricaded. Banners saying “why privatise when you can socialise?”, “we stay” and “no pasaran” were hanging from the buildings. This surprised the ‘bratra’ (breaking and teargas team) who didn’t hang around for too much longer.
It was decided that this kind of intimidation should not go unchallenged, so a group of 60 people went to the local police station to “check the security measures but not do anything yet”… It was found that their doors were very poorly barricaded and when they raised the alarm call the support was clearly very confused as to where to go (in fact, they couldn’t find the police station at all!).
The residents of these squats (in the Swammerdam neighbourhood in East Amsterdam) are really amazed and grateful at the support that was shown by other Amsterdam squatters.
The following evening (Saturday) a party was organised in the squatted guerrilla garden (a demolition site since April, planned originally to be a site for construction workers’ cabins). Over the past few weeks, we have turned this sterile wasteland into an open community garden with a fire, outdoor cinema screen and flowerbeds.
We expect the police to return, but we’re fighting both in the courts and by our actions here – the CIA infocafe, No. 13 tapas bar, our low-impact lifestyles – and refusing to leave. Our eight houses used to be affordable social housing, but the owners – De Key housing corporation – have different ideas and want to sell them off for luxury housing at 850,000 guilders (quarter of a million pounds) EACH!!
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