CALL TO ACTION: Come to our civil court case and support the squat on the Vossiusstraat 16!
This Wednesday 9th of November 10:30 at Parnassusweg 280, 1076 AV Amsterdam. Let’s show the judge, the owner Arkadiy Volozj (who is a sanctioned Russian billionaire) and Wolfs Advocaten that there is broad support for the squatting of Vossiusstraat 16. Volozj’s involvement in the war will not go unnoticed. We will not be intimidated by the law or the rich!
The court case is publicly accessible. You can be present for the entire hearing, or a part thereof, to show support for the action. To attend the hearing you need to show your identification at the entrance of the courthouse, but your name will not be shared with anyone besides the personel of the courthouse. It is therefore not anonymous, we encourage those who do not feel comfortable identifying themselves to the court to show up anyway but stay outside in front of the courthouse as a solidarity protest.
On the 31st of October, we announced that we squatted the house of Yandex founder and EU- sanctioned billionaire Arkadiy Volozj. On Wednesday morning we will be in court to defend our squat. The law firm Wolfs advocaten (https://www.wolfsadvocaten.nl) has filed a civil case against us in the name of Volozj (Paraseven Limited) and JFPE BV (http://jfpe.nl/) the company that claims to have been renovating Volozj’s house. Yandex founder Arkady Volozj is on the EU- sanctions list for directly and indirectly supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.(https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L:2022:153:FU…) We stand with the people of Ukraine and are outraged that Wolfs advocaten and JFPE BV have chosen to support Volozj. We question JFPE’s claim that they were actively doing construction work at Vossiusstraat 16, as this would be a breach of the sanctions placed on Volozj.
We are outraged that Yandex’s headoffice is based in the Netherlands. It is important to note that Yandex is not yet another tech company. Their news aggregator – the front page of the internet for a lot of people, censors all oppositional media, providing only state-approved articles. Yandex has repeatedly passed on data collected from its users to the FSB (Russian security services) to search for activists. (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-13274443). Their food delivery and taxi services are exploiting immigrant workers and the company has been blocking attempts by workers to unionise. (https://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/russian-gig-economy-violates-worker-rights-wit…). The Dutch state is complicit in allowing this to happen and is supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine by allowing Yandex to have their head office in the Netherlands. The Dutch government is lining the pockets of the mega-rich by providing companies such as Yandex and Royal Shell with tax breaks. This government is more concerned with being a tax haven for warlords and exploiters than with supporting people fleeing the wars and disasters caused by these companies.
What if we win the court case? The building will continue to be used for housing and we will set up an anarchist political space where theory and practice can meet. Solidarity and learning together will be at the centre of our activities. We will use the space to hold solidarity events and organise with those taking action against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and all people affected by war and capitalism. We would like to invite other people, whether they are outspokenly anarchist like ourselves or not, to make use of the building too, in particular organizers that affiliate themselves with our activities or do direct actions to fight oppression locally.
Vossiusstraat 16
1071AB Amsterdam
Netherlands
vossiusstraat16 [at] riseup [dot] net
https://squ.at/r/91hd
Some squats in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/NL/squated/squat
Groups (social center, collective, squat) in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/NL
Events in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/NL
