Thessaloniki: Political statement of the squat Terra Incognita. International call for solidarity

By: fawda - August 21st, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

In the morning of 17th of August Terra Incognita gets TEMPORARILY evicted by the repressive forces of neoliberalism. Police forces intrude in the building and conduct researches for hours and confiscations. Days after the eviction the squat still remains open with cops celebrating TEMPORARILY their capability of violating every corner of our liberalized grounds.

For over 16 years Terra Incognita consituted a meeting place for hundrends of people of the struggling social basis. With constant events, direct acts, demonstrations and conflicts Terra Incognita was present in moments of the violent struggle against the violence of the state, the benefits of capitalistic monopolies, against the violating authority of fascism and patriarchy, against any type of discrimination and speciesism. In the grounds of the self-organised structures of self-education, solidarity and mutual aid of the squat all the “known-unknown” strugglers of freedom met and will continue to meet. Liberating and equallity-based relationships were constructed, subversive plans and operations, dreams that day by day found and still find a space of moral and physical substance. For 16 years the squat proves itself to be the flesh of the flesh of the multiform struggle against any type of authority and opression, without prioritizing or distinguishing the means that contribute to the spreading of libertarian ideas and the organization of social and class-conscious counter attack. Because for us this is liberation. [Read More]

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Gap: Cesaï violently and illegally evicted

By: fawda - August 21st, 2020  Filed under: Announcement, Communique

On Wednesday 19 August, at six o’clock, police officers broke down the doors of the rooms of the inhabitants of Césaï, the Gap autonomous social centre, with a battering ram. They gather everyone in a courtyard and check their identities. This is the beginning of the eviction from Cesaï.

Results: 43 people outside, 20 staying in campsites, 2 boarded at the station. 43 exiled and homeless people who barely had time to take their belongings and collect food before Cesaï was walled up. 43 people on the Place Saint Arnoux, in front of the Prefecture, soon joined by militants.

A camp is being organized while waiting for a solution that will not come from the Prefecture, which is increasingly afraid of the famous “vacuum effect”. While waiting for a place to sleep and to put down their bags, families, young migrants, Dublin cases and homeless young people are all astonished to find themselves homeless in a few hours. [Read More]

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Thessaloniki: Terra Incognita evicted

By: fawda - August 18th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

This morning (17 August), around 5 am, the uniformed scum of the greek police invaded Terra Incognita in Thessaloniki, which is a building that has been occupied since 2004 and constitutes a landmark of struggle and the anarchist movement in the city.

The cops proceeded to evacuate the building, while technical and material equipment was confiscated and a large part of the resources within the building have been withheld.

More specifically, equipment from the following anarchist infrastructures housed within the squat, was confiscated: the medical -first aid infrastructure, the gym, the library and the printing infrastructure, as well as a large archive of posters and other printed material that date decades. [Read More]

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Calais: associations refer cases to the Human Rights Defender and UN rapporteurs on the situation of migrants

By: fawda - August 15th, 2020  Filed under: News

Today took place in Calais the 693rd eviction from an informal living space since 1 January 2020. As of 13 August 2020, the fundamental rights of the exiled people surviving in Calais are still not respected (Human Rights Observers).

Thirteen associations working with migrants in Calais announced on Friday that they had contacted the Human Rights Defender, as well as seven United Nations special rapporteurs on human rights, to “alert them to the inhuman living conditions” of refugees.

In Calais, the evictions of camps are continuing and police repression of migrants has increased since the arrival of Gérald Darmanin at the Ministry of the Interior, according to human rights groups present in the area.

In an attempt to make their voices heard, thirteen of them – including the Auberge des Migrants, Médecins du Monde and Secours Catholique – seized on Friday 14 August the Human Rights Defender Claire Hédon, whose mandate has just begun, as well as seven United Nations special rapporteurs on human rights. [Read More]

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Saint-Denis: Two weeks after the eviction from Aubervilliers camp, hundreds of migrants return home

By: fawda - August 15th, 2020  Filed under: News

Between 300 and 400 migrants live under the bridge of the A1 motorway in Saint-Denis in totally undignified conditions, only fifteen days after the eviction from the Aubervilliers camp. The associations denounce an absurd situation where evictions and resettlements follow one another without any lasting solution.

At the time of the eviction from the Aubervilliers camp on 29 July, Pierre Henry, the director general of France Terre d’Asile, had said to himself “See you in September”, certain that the camp would be re-formed in a few weeks.

We didn’t have to wait that long. Less than a fortnight after the eviction of the 1,500 or so people living in the camp, “between 300 and 400” people found refuge under the A1 motorway bridge at Saint-Denis. They are single men, mostly from Afghanistan.

Among them, some “missed the eviction of Aubervilliers, others had an administrative appointment that day and could not be present”, says Maël, a member of the association Utopia 56 who did not want his surname to be made public. Among these hundreds of exiles, there are also newcomers who only found this unhealthy place to settle. [Read More]

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Belo Horizonte (Brazil): For Squat Kasa Invisível, keep your support, we’re almost there!

By: xxx - August 15th, 2020  Filed under: News, video

First of all, we want to thank every one, every collective, union, and groups supporting us! We already reached almost 2,000 dolars to fix the entire roof of our squat. Keep sharing the message to those which are in a position to help us keep our work and our house! Stay safe and healthy!

Video Campaign:

[Read More]

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Wassenaar: The Danger of Occupied Ivicke

By: sisulscz - August 13th, 2020  Filed under: Communique

Why does the municipality of Wassenaar consider our residency at Ivicke to be a “danger”? And what exactly are we endangering? Here, I will give these questions some space, that necessarily lead us back in time.

In January 2019, Ivicke’s owner requested the municipality to enforce the bestemmingsplan (zoning plan), which was rejected a few months later in June. The municipality justified this decision by pointing out that our eviction would constitute a danger to public order given the owner’s lack of a plan for the building – that is, more vacancy could lead to a second act of squatting.

[Sidenote: The notorious bestemmingsplan is the bureaucratic destiny of Ivicke which was changed to an office function in the 1980s from its original purpose as residency. Thereafter, antisquat companies, hired by the current owner, made use of some rooms, which moves in a legal grey area but is tolerated due to its corporate nature and temporary status. While our residency is quite certainly of a temporary nature as well, the bestemmingsplan has been used as a strategy to evict the “danger” we pose by both the owner and the municipality.]

Back in time: The owner’s lawyer appealed on 29th of July, which was received on the 31st of July by the municipality – interesting timing, as the mayor got to know about the upcoming No Border Camp (NBC: 01.08.-04.08.) on the 30th of July. The NBC is an international gathering with workshops and actions, that inform about and act against the inhumane migratory policies of EU-states, and that aim to connect struggles in other parts of the world. Here, we pause in time because those days were packed with legal procedures and political struggles.

After the owner’s lawyer was informed about our plans with the terrain, she took the municipality to court in order to force them to prohibit the upcoming camp. When the judge didn’t grant her will, she went in appeal hoping that another judge would forbid the – at that point – ongoing camp. Luckily, this didn’t happen and the NBC proceeded. It is however interesting to investigate the lawyer’s justification for this legal upheaval. Her main argument emphasised the potential harm that the activities during the camp could cause to the monument. Her concern is quite ridiculous, as she is representing the person – Ronnie van de Putte – that has remorselessly observed the gradual degradation of the monument and not taken any steps to prevent its eventual destruction.
[Read More]

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UK: Tales from the Trees & Tracks

By: sisulscz - August 13th, 2020  Filed under: Communique

Hello, I am @mushrooni and I travelled down from West Yorkshire on the train to Crackley Protection Camp. Ironically I took the planned HS2 route from the north to Birmingham…
So I brought a tent and initially planned to stay for a couple days but it has nearly been a month now!

I joined this campaign to engage with others and take action against HS2. Obviously I’m here to protect and stand up for the trees, birds, bats and wildlife that are being ripped apart and killed, though it’s much bigger than this – it’s about the whole capitalistic project and the system that HS2 is part of and represents. Protectors have been mistreated, harmed and put in really serious situations – the National Eviction Team, HS2 security and police departments are getting away with their dirty work.
I have never felt so much kindness, generosity and openness from strangers as I have done being involved in these communities. I’ve realised how important it is to be around like minded people, working towards the same goal and how necessary it is to be able to stand up to what is wrong.
[Read More]

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Czech Republic: What Bublina is and what it is not

By: fawda - August 13th, 2020  Filed under: News

Bublina is a squat, located on the planet Earth, somewhere on the road between the cities of Aš and Břeclav. These buildings with a yard have been unused by the owner and inhabited by many different people with many various motivations over the years. Some of them left, others have been expelled by the police. Since August 2019, the squat has been occupied by first member of a newly emerging group of residents and supporters, and has been re-named “Bublina” (The Bubble).

This first resident has been dealing with housing crisis and lack of space to thrive for quite some time. After a few months, two more people joined who has been on streets since their employer deprived them of financial resources. They moved right before outbreak of covid-19 pandemic, which allowed them to self- isolate in quarantine here and survive without health risks. Both of them are elderly, so their health could have been compromised otherwise. These elderly men and middle-aged anarchist soon became accustomed to living together. It is not ideology nor generational struggle which made them cooperate, but their willingness to solve their material conditions and fulfill their other needs by squatting. Their situation is quite different to those, often coming from middle-class, who squat for idealistic reasons and squatting is just another adventure for them. Residents of Bublina simple do not have resources to buy or rent flats and squatting is the only way out. A solution beyond the legal and mainstream norms, nevertheless legitimate and effective. If it wasn’t for activities of these residents, there would only be wreck of a building on the spot now, with owner who would not take care of it. Squatters take good care of this house and yard. It is their home now, after all. [Read More]

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UK: HS2 High Speed High Tension

By: sisulscz - August 11th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, essay

Over the last fortnight I have gone down a High Speed 2 research wormhole, sparked by the thought that I hadn’t heard much about what was going on lately with this bloated project. I started to google around and to read the media outside my usual reference points, which led to a fair few discoveries, some good some bad. This is a time of high tension, a time when the white elephant should be retired before it’s too late. With my head full of statistics and controversies, I chatted to friends and families in the park and at barbecues and received a fascinating range of opinions. There are protest camps going on and I visited some of them. There are reports from various groups, for and against, which I have read. I came to realise that Stop HS2is a huge socio-political issue which the mainstream media (and to be fair also the alternative media I tend to read) are simply not covering in all its complexity.

In this article, I’d like to draw attention to a few issues. The judicial review launched by Chris Packham has just failed on appeal and that’s a real shame, but the struggle is far from over. Various court cases are in progress and these people need our support, as well as the camps which are springing up to protect threatened areas of natural beauty. Nobody is against a railway in itself, but the story is far more nuanced than that.

[Read More]

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Montpellier: Families evicted, buildings occupied!

By: fawda - August 8th, 2020  Filed under: News

On July 10 2020, in front of associations, collectives, squatters and unions, while the préfet was reassuring about the squats situation during the summer, and was only talking about the “problematic” situation of the former Institut Bouisson Bertrand, he was actually preparing evictions for the 23rd. Evictions that affected two buildings in the city centre, putting around 50 vulnerable people and families on the street, and others in detention in CRA. The generous solution provided: 3 nights in a hotel and a return to the violence of the tent in the street.

Knowing the CV of the current préfet of the Hérault, Jacques Witkowski, we had not believed in his promise of the 10th, and therefore decided to squat this building owned by the council which had remained empty and walled up for too long, since 15 July, in order to rehouse the people that Jacques put outside during the heat wave, and during the biggest health crisis we have experienced since the beginning of the century, thus directly endangering the people concerned and the population of Montpellier. [Read More]

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Berlin: Syndikat evicted, Day X demonstration

By: fawda - August 7th, 2020  Filed under: News

So sorry for our abrupt exit earlier. But the eviction, as foreseeable as it might have been, has taken us all mega hard at the moment of the execution. Hopefully some of you are at Herrfurthplatz right now, for the neighbourhood demonstration after our eviction.

Regardless of that, today is Day X, which means that the angry Sponti of the Interkiezionale will take place at 9pm at Richardplatz. We will evaluate the last few days and get back to you as soon as we have coped with the efforts of the last time.

But tomorrow we will publish all information about our anti-repression structure, because unfortunately the escalation strategy of the cops has led to many arrests and charges. But we deal with it the same way we deal with our fight: together, in solidarity & we don’t leave anybody alone! Independent of us, EA and Gesa support will continue to work until everyone is out. Deep thanks from us to all who do this.

We just want to say thank you after these incredibly intense days & weeks! Thanks to all of you who have supported us in so many ways until this day and made sure that we could experience this day at all. Thanks to all the encouragement, the time, the nerves, the know-how, the capacities and our own integrity. [Read More]

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