A building located at 124 rue de Belleville, belonging to the city hall of the 20th district and empty for several years, was squatted to make it an anarcha-feminist space as well as a living space for about ten people. The place was evicted this Wednesday and 8 people are in custody.
For a long time, everything has been done so that the district of Belleville and its surroundings are reserved for the rich. Rents are constantly rising, cheap fast food is replaced by trendy bars and restaurants with ever more expensive drinks, migrant workers’ hostels have been transformed into controlled social residences, the authorities are sending more and more cops into the streets to wage war on the poor, etc.
All this is not specific to Belleville, it is the case everywhere in the north and east of Paris. Faced with this generalized and growing gentrification, some people are organizing themselves to live without paying rent, by occupying buildings. Since last Friday a small group of people occupied the building empty for a long time at 124 boulevard de Belleville to turn it into a queer and anarcha feminist space. The city council of the 20th district, owner of the place and the cops decided otherwise.
On wednesday 15 september, while the building was already occupied for several days, some cops showed up, accompanied by two deputies of the city council. Quickly, dozens of squatters’ supporters were in front of the building, followed closely by new teams of cops. While some people tried to break the police lines to prevent the locksmith from doing his dirty work, CSI and BRAV-M also appeared to ensure the smooth running of the eviction. Outside, people are playing cat and mouse with the cops while blocking the traffic and sometimes going to the cops who do not hesitate to use their batons and gas. The cops finally managed to intervene and put in custody the 8 inhabitants who had taken refuge on the roof in spite of the presence of more than 50 people in front of it. Let’s note that throughout the confrontations, many local residents and people passing by stopped and marked their solidarity.
We propose to meet this friday at 3pm in front of Macdo place Gambetta to go together to the 20th police station and support our friends who were arrested.
We think it is important not to forget the role of the mayor’s office in the arrest of the 8 people who did not want to pay rent to live under a roof. Special thought to the mayor, Eric Pliez, president of the OPH of the city of Paris, Paris Habitat, who makes his buziness on the misery of the people by giving himself a social look, while dragging every day the bad payers in front of justice to evict them. Let’s remember that Paris Habitat owns a large number of empty apartments in Paris.
Everybody hates the police.
Everybody hates the city council.
Some squats in and around Paris: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/city/paris/country/FR/squated/squat
Some squats in France: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/FR/squated/squat
Groups (collectives, social centres, squats) in France: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/FR
Events in France: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/FR
