Wassenaar: Villa Ivicke, news from the last six months

Zoning plan, construction works, court proceedings.

A lot has happened in the past six months. In April, the owner started a lawsuit to evict us. And in May, the municipality of Wassenaar imposed an administrative order on both the owner Ronnie van de Putte and us as residents. With this administrative order, the municipality wants to put pressure on the owner to carry out construction works, and on us to leave the building; the latter on the grounds that Ivicke’s zoning plan is not “housing” but “office”.

As the residents of Ivicke, we have filed an appeal against the enforcement of the zoning plan, the hearing was supposed to take place on the 16th of September. However, the case was referred to court, wherefore the hearing was cancelled. We are now waiting for a date for this hearing. In the administrative order, the municipality has marked November 19 as our leaving date. Be that as it may, it is already clear that there won’t be a ruling in this case before said date, but this doesn’t mean that the municipality cannot evict us. For this reason, we have submitted a request to the municipality to suspend the enforcement of the administrative order until the court has ruled whether such enforcement is lawful. [Read More]

Belo Horizonte: Kasa Invisível, Solidarity, Direct Action, and Self-Determination

An Occupied Social Center Becomes a Hub of Mutual Aid in Belo Horizonte, Brazi.

Through interviews with the founders and participants, we explore how an occupied social center and housing collective in Brazil has continued to function as a hub for mutual aid through the pandemic. This is the third installment in a series exploring mutual aid projects around the world in the era of covid-19.

The Zapatistas have said the best solidarity anyone can offer is to start their own social centers, projects, movements, and revolutions wherever they are based. In Belo Horizonte, the capital city of the state of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil, a collective called Kasa Invisível (Portuguese for “Invisible House”) has heeded that proposal, and hopes to inspire you to do the same.

The three formerly abandoned houses now occupied by this autonomous, anti-capitalist collective serve as a home for people in need, a social and cultural center for the community, and a meeting and organizing space for anti-authoritarian resistance and mutual aid. While there are hundreds of building and land occupations in Minas Gerais alone, Kasa is one of only a few squats in the region that explicitly exist to support struggles against the state and capitalism. [Read More]

Calais: the tension does not fall back

On Saturday, September 26, 2020, more than 400 people walk in the rain for freedom and human dignity.

Calaisians, activists, volunteers and migrants found themselves in the pouring rain and set off in a demonstration from the camp next to the hospital in Calais. In spite of the wind and rain, the migrants join the parade by dancing to the sound of drums, leading the march and parading with joy and determination in the rain.

At the arrival at the Place de Norvège, a few words from supporters and migrants alternate with music and hip-hop improvisation in all languages. In spite of the cold, it is a moment of euphoria and unity between people who don’t have the opportunity to mix in the city otherwise.
At the microphone, migrants testify to their fatigue and exasperation in the face of daily harassment by the police who evict, destroy tents and confiscate their materials, calling for them to be treated as human beings and not as animals. [Read More]

Spanish State: Occupation, the ghost of the table

“I’m not sure what the fatal secret is”, Mathilde in The Castle of Otranto.

The recent media campaign against the occupation of homes was not the first, but one of the most intense in recent times. Its launch, on the eve of a probable intensification of the housing conflict, does not seem to be coincidental. The economic and health crisis has put the sectors involved on alert, and this seems to be a first move on one side. This campaign is beginning to have answers, especially in the form of articles and social networks. In these responses, it has been denounced that the phenomenon of home occupation is less widespread than the media suggests with an alarmist tone. The data and statistics reinforce this denunciation. Moreover, it has been rightly criticised that squatting is being deliberately confused with breaking and entering. Finally, an attempt has been made to refocus the debate on the problem of access to housing, which is the primary cause of property occupation.

The tense situation of calm that we are experiencing seems to be the prelude to greater social conflict, also around the issue we are dealing with. That is why defensive responses are essential, but it would be better to try to go a little further and take the initiative in the conflict, for which it may be useful to examine less visible or less explored aspects. Moreover, when faced with campaigns of this kind, data and statistics are often only half useful, because the issue here is whether or not occupying homes and premises is legitimate. [Read More]

Thessaloniki: The Struggle Through the Eyes of Terra Incognita Squat

This interview with members of Terra Incognita Squat reaches us by submission. The squat was invaded by the police on August 17, 2020, equipment confiscated, and the squat sealed off. Comrades issued a call for international support. This interview goes into further detail about the work and political objectives of the nearly two decade project.

Question: What is the goal of Terra Incognita squat? When did it establish its presence?

Answer: Comrades, greeting from the distant grounds of the western metropolitan areas. 17 years ago, our squat and political assembly found their roots in the results of the anti-globalization movement with the demonstration against the session of G7 during the summer of 2003 and the defense of the 7 arrested comrades after the events of the anti-session. The positive results of the struggle for the release of the arrested revolutionaries finds the anarchist movement of Thessaloniki in a moment of peak which seeks the territorialization of our anarchist ideology through the creation of stable reference points of expressing and referring to radical perceptions and choices of fighting against the state and the capital. Terra Incognita is the result of the need for a stable center of organising and supporting the struggle with all means, a choice that we would like to believe was consistently supported during these 17 years. [Read More]

London: Eviction resisted, we’d rather be squatters than scabs

On Thursday 24th September in Greenwich, London, an illegal eviction attempt on a squatted building was thwarted by a combination of self-organised defence and bloody minded stubbornness.

At 6.30am, high court enforcement agents in black masks used heavy tools to cut the locks on the gate and attempted to force entry into the building using threats of physical violence. The occupiers managed to hold the door, and by 8.30am a crowd of around 30 members of London’s autonomous community had gathered to support them as they besieged people inside. The defenders travelled from across the city in support, including members of the newly energised Eviction Resistance Network, a gang from militant trans activists NFA Queer Punx, and legal support from the Advisory Service for Squatters.

Spirits remained high as the crowd dominated the car park area in front of the building, gradually managing to squeeze the bailiffs and their hired goons back with a consistent tirade of obstinant resistance. The crowd sang “Well I’d rather be a squatter than a scab!”, and one activist was able to begin deliveries of food and toilet paper to those locked inside via the scaffolding.
[Read More]

Uppsala: Callout from Blodstensskogen

About a year ago, the forest-occupation project in Uppsala started [previously on S!N] after the municipality officially decided to clear a more than 200-year-old forest in order to build expensive high-rise buildings in its place.

The forest, Blodstensskogen, is located between two nature reserves and thus serves as a corridor for the many forest animals to move around. At the same time, Blodstensskogen has developed a strong and diverse ecosystem through its long existence. For example, there are deciduous trees and fir trees that are over a hundred years old, and it is home to many animals, including those that are protected (Red Listed Animals: different insects such as the longhorn beetle, musk longhorn beetle, scarlet fungus beetle, birds such as the black woodpecker and the crested tit, fungi such as the pine fire sponge, irpicodon pendulus, resupinate spurge and the beautiful earth stars, as well as three different species of bats that use the Blodstensskogen as hunting grounds and for reproduction).
[Read More]

Montpellier: the police evict a squat in rue Triolet, eight families with young children find themselves without solution

On the morning of Friday, September 25th, the police evicted a squat in Montpellier, leaving about thirty people without a solution, half of them children.

Eight families, including some with young children, lived in this squat on rue Triolet, which was opened under tension a year ago, in particular to accommodate migrants. No arrests were made. Private security will remain night and day for two weeks in front of the building, and should allow the evicted people to recover their belongings – although it is still necessary to know where to put them. The network of solidarity has allowed the families to find a place to stay for a few days, but nothing stable. Some children who left this morning for school will bitterly discover this afternoon that they no longer have a home. A construction company is on site to seal the entrances, the toilets have already been broken.

This eviction is part of an offensive against squats. At the end of August, the media repeated over and over again the story of a couple from Lyon, distraught by the occupation of their second home by a family. One commentator after another expressed indignation at the plight of the owners and protested against allegedly lax legislation. On September 16th 2020, the deputies voted an amendment allowing the rapid eviction of squats, left to the decision of the prefect, without a court decision, even after forty-eight hours of occupation. A call for mobilization is circulating to recall the obvious: squatting in an abandoned building for housing and escaping the hell of the street is absolutely legitimate. [Read More]

Berlin: Interview with Liebig34 as it resists eviction

The anticapitalist struggle is an intersectional one. Liebig34 provides a perfect example. In their fight against housing being a commodity, capitalism and patriarchy, they have been a symbol for radical queer feminism for 30 years. Now, the project is faced with the threat of eviction. Being the valuable and inspiring project that Liebig34 has been, it cannot be taken away. Liebig34 stays! This interview serves to provide an insight into the immense value of Liebig34 and hopes to encourage action and solidarity.

What is the origin story of Liebig34, what is it, and what are it’s main principles, values, and goals? What have been some of the biggest changes in the last 30 years? And what has kept Liebig alive and active for all this time?

Liebig was originally squatted on June 30th, 1990, the summer after the fall of the Berlin wall, where many buildings were left empty. The house sits on the corner of Rigaer Straße, a place particularly known for its squatting history. [Read More]

Saint-Étienne: imminent eviction of the squat of the post office of Solaure

On Tuesday September 22nd, a new judgment was handed down at the Administrative Court of Lyon. Even if there are few evidence, the City of Saint-Etienne is claiming a housing project with a ground-floor business carried by Inovy, a project carrying company. The court handed down its decision on Thursday September 24 with the order to leave the premises and the possibility of immediate eviction by the police. The residents are, as of today, in permanent risk of being thrown out onto the street without accommodation.

About forty people are currently living in the squat of the former post office, including school children, people in poor health and people undergoing training. A majority are in the process of applying for asylum. The mayor of Saint-Etienne and his team, in response to questions put to the municipal council on 21/09/2020 , have again and again abdicated their responsibilities on the back of the State and have taken it upon themselves to throw the inhabitants of the former post office out onto the streets. [Read More]

Athens: Notara 26, five years of solidarity and resistance

The story has been told many a times now. We have heard, witnessed, and lived it in the past five years. In 2015, with the onset of mass migration and what was called the “refugee crisis” we saw the political, social, and urban landscapes of many places change—including Athens, Greece. The events touched and affected the public and private lives of many. The beginning of Noara26 points to one of those moments. A time when a group of people, with ideals and politics of self-organization, collective action, and solidarity were moved to occupy an empty public building in the city’s downtown and to create a place of shelter and safety for thousands of refugees who were abandoned in the streets of Athens.

This September marks the fifth year of our squat’s existence. It is true that we can mark this date in our calendars and remember it as a day of creation and celebration. But the lessons we have learned, the joyful moments we have created, the memories and lives we have shared, the challenges and struggles we have faced and overcome as community are unmeasurable and exceed the limits of time. [Read More]

Calais: the ban on distributing food to migrants is maintained. Mobilization on September 26th

For the judge of the administrative court of Lille, 4 kms on foot to eat, that’s fine.

In an order dated September 22, the judge of the administrative court of Lille rejected the request made by 12 local and national associations to cancel the order of September 10, by which the prefect of Pas-de-Calais prohibited any free distribution of drinks and food in certain places in the city center of the municipality of Calais.

The judge stated that the distributions put in place by the State were allegedly sufficient to cover the needs of all exiled people present in Calais, including those sleeping in the city center, considering that “the circumstance that in order to access them, migrants settled in the city center since early August must travel three kilometers is not such as to characterize undignified living conditions”.

This assessment is particularly questionable. Indeed, the humanitarian indicators developed either by the UNHCR or within the framework of the SPHERE project, specify, for example, concerning drinking water, that it must be accessible at less than 500m from where people live – the distances in question being in this case between 4 and 5km, which represents an hour’s walk one way, and that it is necessary to go to two distributions per day. [Read More]