Occupy Spring in Barcelona: Multi-Cine successfully Liberated

cinètikaLast Saturday a gigantic 10 screen cinema was occupied as an autonomous social center in Barcelona. The abandoned building is owned by the City Council who had failed to find a use for it. The action began as an advertised 4 day series of debates and workshops, meals etc… with a whole range of strikers, squatters, immigrants, feminist struggles etc.. taking part.. all to be held in a local square, and beginning with a street parade around historic struggle sites.,.

The parade ended with the Cinètika occupation

The liberated area, with thousands of square meters and ten cinemas will become, henceforth, an open space in the neighborhood. The promoters of the project want to build a squatting assembly, feminist and outside the institutions. No alcohol will be sold at the venue, as the group believes that “alcoholism and drugs are a problem in the workers neighborhoods.” [Read More]

Slovenia: Reutilization of abandoned industrial buildings

Inde_KoperIndustrial archeology

Built structures often outlive their original purpose. In addition to historical buildings such as castles, this also applies to industrial buildings. Abandoned mills, mines, factory halls and warehouses are in most cases doomed to collapse, but sometimes they get saved, refurbished and revived with new content. In Great Britain the evaluation and revitalization of industrial plants started in the fifties, because a lot of the buildings were destroyed during the war. In 1955 the British historian Michael Rix coined the term industrial archeology and the beginnings of revitalization of this architecture date back to this period. Today the Unesco’s list includes a large number of buildings that belong in the category of industrial heritage as evidenced by the agreement on the importance of these historical legacies that bear witness to a time of great social and technological change. However, few qualify as monuments of national importance. [Read More]

London: Another Eviction Resistance at the squatted Hope and Anchor

Squatters in Mornington Crescent successfully resisted a second eviction attempt on Wednesday [previously on S!N]. In another show of strength and solidarity by London squatters, thirty to forty people turned out against the bailiffs. Banners were dropped opposing the Housing Bill and evictions ‘from London to Calais’ after the recent squat eviction in the French city. Security contractors Clearway Services arrived prematurely to secure the building but were quickly forced back into their van. ‘There’s who-knows how many of them here,’ a contractor reported to his manager, before driving off with the pigs not so far behind.
[Read More]

Melbourne: Audio reports from the Bendigo Street

201604_Homeless_Persons_Union_of_Victoria_Collingwood_Occupation_Melbourne_2Today we talked about the current squatting action on Bendigo Street in Collingwood where the Homeless Persons Union of Victoria (HPUVIC) and supporters are occupying empty houses owned by the state government, and briefly discussed the squatting history of Melbourne.

Listen to the Girls Radio Offensive show from April 4th 2016: https://www.mixcloud.com/girlsradiooffensive/4-april-2016/ [Read More]

Calais, France: A political victory for the Calais 8

On Friday,  when the judge at Boulogne-sur-mer announced, three times that the trial of 8 friends was irregular the court room erupted into applause and cheering. Waiting outside were a brace of Police de l’Air et des Frontières (PAF) waiting to take 5 of them (the foreigners) to detention after they had been served with Obligation de Quitter la Territoire Français (OQTF). But these had already escaped and were not present to appreciate the announcement of their victory.

The judges had decided that there were too many irregularities and that the authorities had not followed procedure when arresting and detaining the 8 people on the roof of an abandoned building in the centre of Calais on Sunday the 27th April.

[Read More]

Kaunas (Lithuania): Kauno Spiauda issue 4 “On Space”

Dear reader,

This is our first issue in English!

We chose a topic about spaces: there’s been a squat in Kaunas, Lower Šančiai have been filled with expensive stores for rich newcomers, the station district is getting another shopping mall which will push the poor out of the city centre. EU is trying to close its borders to immigrants who remind us of current and past “greatness” of colonialism and disciplined space. People move towards the centre- the centre tries to stop them by putting up barbed fences, enhancing the budget of the “Frontex” corporation which deals with border security, and creating refugee concentration camps in Europe’s periphery and around. [Read More]

Melbourne: Bendigo Street occupation to continue until demands are met. Public housing now

201604_Melbourne_Public_housing_nowA group of housing activists and homeless people have occupied properties in Bendigo Street, Collingwood.
These 6 government-owned houses were pledged to be used to address homelessness by the Andrews government, but many have been sitting empty for over a year.
The occupiers of the properties have made the following demands and refuse to leave until they are met.
• Immediate release of all information relating to the current ownership of all
properties acquired for the East-West Link, with full transparency about all
acquired land and no more dishonesty.
•The 6 unused houses on Bendigo St to be made into genuine public housing
and allocated to some of the 35,000 people on the public housing waiting list.
Occupation will continue until the first keys are handed over.
• All unoccupied properties acquired for the East-West Link that are still in the
government’s possession to be added to the public housing register. [Read More]