Statement released on 31st of july by Mačjak, the squatted anarcha-queer space in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Eviction festival to take place on 15th of august 2023:
After little more than a year of constructing, organizing and maintaining the space known as Mačjak we are faced with an eviction notice coming into effect on the 1st of august.
Mačjak was always imagined as a temporary place for the anarcha-queer community here in Ljubljana to explore its means and desires. It was our chance to try squatting for the first time, after a 16-year void of political occupations in our city. Most of us who started the project were evicted in january 2021 from Autonomous Factory ROG (squatted in 2006) and moved into a shared space A-infoshop (built in 2003) in Metelkova (squatted in 1993). We needed to see what we can do by ourselves and what we really want for ourselves – what we first wanted was a small garage to host our our political art projects, but this initial space was in fact already occupied by homeless sleepers. So we took a part of a small building, it was trashed. One couldn’t even see the floor, let alone lay on them. we figured this was a nice place. There was no access to electricity, but we managed to open the water. The first summer we swept the walls off the floor and filled in the holes where electricity cables had been ripped out. We fixed the doors. It quickly became a place to spend time in, and we invited other groups to meet here. it soon became a place where we could work and party, where we could feel safe even though the place got attacked a few times. It became a place where we could build our community and nurture the anarcha resistance.
We anarchas were always part of the anti gentrification movement – our primary enemies are the bosses and sheriffs who grab every tiny piece of space we struggle to have for ourselves in this overpriced over-polished hateful city. In the last years we were joining neigborhood fights, we protested the raising rent prices, we campaigned against evictions of student homes, we recognised the rise of homelessness during corona and organised solidarity actions, we emphasised the need to retaliate against gentrification processes in our urban atmospheres in broader assemblies and within our movement.
This month comes the time when we have to fight our displacement in the city yet again. We are emptying out a space built with love to make room for demolition machines ready to mow everything into gravel. In the next years we will walk past the grave of Mačjak. It will probably remain an empty gated lot for a few years. Maybe the owner will decide to rent it out as a parking space for Teslas and SUVs. In the final instance high sky phalluses with Airbnb luxury homes, petit crapees and Lidl. There is always Lidl – luxury for the few, shopping conglomerats for the people.
Because we do not want to go quietly nor do we want our last moments in Mačjak to be times when we feel powerless we decided to throw an eviction festival. We want to fill the space with laughs and fun, with good food and music, with pool parties and protests with all the lovely people we already know and new people we are eager to meet.
Starting on the 15th of august and lasting until our energies run out (or until we move together into a new occupation story). We invite everyone to join our efforts of joyful militancy! When we stick together we will be able to spread the seeds of love and resistance around this concrete jungle.
love and rage,
the anarcha resistence of parmova
Mačjak
Parmova 1312
Ljubljana, Slovenia
crnemacke [at] riseup [dot] net
https://squ.at/r/8zgy
Some squats in Slovenia: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/SI/squated/squat
Groups (social center, collective, squat) in Slovenia: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/SI
Events in Slovenia: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/SI
