dear beloved friends of all squats and self-organised spaces,
we are absolutely impressed by the 10000+ people that have been on the streets last saturday in athens and other cities[1], showing their solidarity with all squats and self-organised spaces, with the 92 prisoners of the evicted and re-squatted Villa Amalias[2], the evicted Skaramanga squat[3] and the evicted pirate radio 98FM.. massive!
we are pleased to see that you do not leave the eviction of squats unanswered, that you continue to squat and re-squat, that you attack those that are jointly responsible for the attempt to attack and criminalize our self-determined life and autonomous spaces, those that try to impose their pale and joyless concept of life and liberty upon us:
…police, political parties, military, fascists, media, macker and all those that wield power over others, no matter where, no matter how, all those submissive to authority…
fuck off
our message to you is simple: hands off all squats and self-organised spaces. you can‘t oppress the reclaiming our life’s, the self-determined and cooperative organisation of our diverse lived spaces, neither in the city, nor in the rural, nor in the intermediate spaces. you can‘t evict ideas.
dear beloved friends in athens, volos, thessaloniki, patros, naxos, dear all:we sent you infinite love, rage and power for now and the days and nights to come.
here in cologne we are stuck since several month in a similar threatening situation[4]. the cities politics, first and foremost the ruling SPD (social democrats) in line with the fascists of ProKöln and the CDU (christian democrats) already signed off the closing of the AZ (autonomous centre) in the city‘s council at the begin of last year [5].
what‘s up with cologne‘s croneyism?
the city‘s budget is collapsing soon[6], the dom (a cathedral) is shacking by the new metro line underneath , the city cuts the budget of their social and cultural engagement, is incapable and reluctant to provide answers to ever growing rents and housing shortage (except, of course, when providing building ground for the next office monolith or the exclusive condos at rheinauhafen or the gerling quarter) and the same politicians seem to believe yet that they can just decide that there is no space for an entirely independent, autonomously organised centre in the whole city? this is just a ridiculous joke and we just wanna tell you one thing:
hands off the AZ! AZ stays. period.
since almost three years the AZ is organised and shaped by innoumerous people. several evictions attempts have been prevented[7], the last attempt ended with an indefinite usage agreement[8] at the begin of april 2011, after four days of barricades, actions and negotiations. since its squatting in april 2010 the AZ lives every week anew from the multitude of ideas and impulses of its users, it is the space where we aim to negotiate our mutual cooperation and the solution of our conflicts, sometimes successful, sometime not. it is the place where we experiment and develop self-determination and self-organisation, where we spent a beautiful and exertive time.
and so will we stay in the many years to come..
we neither need public politics nor administration, nor those that try to tell us what we have to do. your talking and acting is just without prospects.
in contrast we would love to greet two projects around the corner. we would like to say hello and sent our solidarity to bonn and siegburg.
almost two weeks ago, the first squatting action since several years has been conducted in bonn[9].its aim: the establishment of a libertarian centre. the campaign called – LIZ – her mit den libertären zentren – has been formed last year in order to establish self-organised spaces in bonn[10]. as in cologne, self-organised spaces are scarce in the city. therefore we are totally happy that you have been squatting the empty building on university ground at the Meckenheimer Allee 160. even though the occupation lasted just one day and even though the university administration filed criminal charges for breach of domestic peace: this day is pushing us much more and shows that it is possible to struggle for new spaces in bonn and that the occupation and utilization of empty buildings is a proper way towards them. we hope to see you soon again.
the self-organised youth centre SJZ[11], existing in siegburg since 20 years, is having heavy times with the despotism of the the city‘s administration. even though the city installed noise protection in the new SJZ building and even though the city‘s regulatory agency conducted sufficient noise measurements, the same agency threatened the SJZ at the end of last year with immediate police eviction if there should be just a single more complaint from the neighbourhood about too noisy events. this threat led to an temporary stop of all planned parties and concerts. after a demonstration on the 21th of december last year, the SJZ is now in negotiation with the city administration and already brought them to agree to conduct the necessary building measures within one month[12]. SJZ stays! and we wish you all our love.
we also sent our declaration of love to the ZAD[13], a piece of land nearby nantes, that is still occupied and that is fighting since its re-occupation by 30000+ people in november last year[14] against armed riotcops that are trying to enforce a useless airport construction with thousands of tear gas cartridges, rubber bullets and flashbangs [15], an airport construction that is prevented from being realized in this area since the 70ies [16].
we also sent our declaration of love to the Assentamento Milton Santos[17] in americana, nearby campinas in the metropolitan area of são paulo. Milton Santos is a land occupation existing since 7 years, hosting 68 families that live and work there and organize themselves [18] and that resisted on the 20th of december last year against a planned eviction with burning road blockades and the temporary occupation of the office of the governmental party (pt/partido dos trabalhadores) in são paulo [19]. a new eviction is scheduled within the next two weeks [20].
squat the hearts of the soil and the cities
some people from az köln
http://az-koeln.org/
[1] http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2013/01/12/athens-updates-on-the-92-arrestees-of-the-re-occupation-of-villa-amalias-squat
[2] https://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/75556
[3] http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2013/01/10/athens-about-skaramaga-squat-evicted-by-police-on-january-9th
[4] http://az-koeln.org/presse-news/autonomes-zentrum-koln-vertrag-wird-gekundigt
[5] http://az-koeln.org/presse-news/stellungnahme-des-autonomen-zentrums-koln-zur-suche-nach-einem-moglichen-ersatzobjekt-durch-die-stadt-koln
[6] http://www.report-k.de/Politik/Lokales/Koelner-Rat-Aktuelle-Stunde-zum-Sparkonzept-des-Stadtvorstandes-13721
[7] http://de.indymedia.org/2010/06/285103.shtml
[8] http://de.indymedia.org/2011/03/303734.shtml
[9] https://linksunten.indymedia.org/de/node/75268
[10] http://lizbonn.blogsport.de
[11] http://www.sjz.de
[12] http://www.sjz.de/?p=186
[13] https://zad.nadir.org/?lang=en
[14] https://secure.flickr.com/photos/valkphotos/sets/72157632092769815
[15] https://zad.nadir.org/spip.php?article960
[16] https://zad.nadir.org/spip.php?article183
[17] http://www.assentamentomiltonsantos.com.br
[18] http://passapalavra.info/?p=70627
[19] http://passapalavra.info/?p=69669
[20] http://midiaindependente.org/pt/blue/2013/01/515477.shtml
