Athens: Reoccupation of Bouboulinas 42. Call to solidarity gathering

Solidarity Gathering now in front of the reoccupied building on Bouboulinas 42

Since February ‘19, an operation has begun of mass evacuation of squats, beginning with the migrant housing squat Arachovis 44 in Exarchia. On 11/4 at 6 in the morning an army of cops evacuate the housing squats Azadi and New Babylon, from where 120 people are detained. Only a week later on 18/4 another operation takes place to evacuate the migrant housing squat Clandestina and Cyclope.

We understand this attack on all fronts against the squats and self-organized structures, with Exarchia at its centre, as an attack that serves the media profile of state and government, so as to appear as guarantor of security, law and order, and of the interestes of bosses and ladlords. The operations against the housing squats were accompanied by house raids in places for which the cops had information about drug dealing, so that all this may be presented as an operation against drugs. The result of these operations is that many of the squat residents are now imprisoned in the hellholes of the state, while the rest are left homeless.

This operation is taking place at a time with very specific characteristics. The total isolation and trap that migrants experience in greec -and in exarchia those who don’t have papers- sooner or later will fuel social eruptions. Either in the form of Eidomenis and Diavata, that is of the violent assertion that the borders be abolished, or in the form of self-organized struggles, such as housing squats. At the same time, the intensification of contradictions is reinforced by the big heads of the e.u.: the evictions of families from the homes provided by ngos is imminent, since the big capital considers that its high time these people enter the labour market, ideal flesh for the slave trade of capitalism. [Read More]

Amsterdam: Wijde Heisteeg 7

More than two years after the eviction of Wijde Heisteeg 7 in Amsterdam centre, two people are still fighting against a prison sentence for squatting a house that it is still empty today.
The eviction was on 23 December 2016 some hours after the civil court case was lost. At the eviction 4 people were arrested and they were charged for squatting. In November 2017 two of the people arrested got a fine of 500€ and were requested to give their DNA samples. For the other two people the court has ordered prison sentences, one of four and one of six weeks and DNA samples from each.
The son of the owner filed a claim for € 106.110,60 in damages and compensation for lost rent and VAT. the court declared this request inadmissible.
The people who risk prison sentences have appealed and there is no date for the hearing yet. But we know that the son of the owner upholds his request for compensation in the appeal procedure for a house that is still empty today, except for the ground floor, which since the eviction has been rented out to a small clothing antikraak pop up store.

Background info about Wijde Heisteeg 7

The monumental house was squatted a first time 4 years long from February 2007 till March 2011. According the squatters, in 2007 the house was in bad condition, the roof leaking on several spots, some windows broken and the rooms humid and dirty. They worked on the house to make it inhabitable. Wijde Heisteeg 7 was evicted a first time on 22nd March 2011. It was the first eviction wave in Amsterdam after the squatting ban from 1st October 2010. [Read More]