As a squatted social center, how do we communicate to the outside world? Where do you find us on-line and where do you NOT find us? We are not here to provide passive intelligence to state intelligence agencies, or to make their task easier. Making ourselves visible on a website hosted by a radical and political server is a first necessary step. Being able to reach other activists and squatters, not only the ones based in the Netherlands, is something we would not want to miss. In the will to be an open space for political initiatives, we want to reach further than the neighbourhood, further than a city and its squatting scene.
Being a squat and having a squat scene active and visible on decent platforms may have some importance in these times of repression. Reading about houses being squatted and evicted is one thing, being able to find each other, not only on-line, knowing which are our public events has its importance to strengthen us all.
Plantage Middenlaan 64
There were a few squats opened these last weeks in Amsterdam. Plantage Middenlaan 64 was squatted on September 8th. Property from the Kingdom of Morocco, these 2000 square meters are now being transformed into a social center, providing a give away shop, a library and a people’s kitchen. We can only recommend you to go there and help them.
Wilhelminastraat 151 ground floor, property of Eigen Haard, was squatted on September 15th. Another ground floor, also from Eigen Haard, was squatted on October 1st.
The Dutch government has again expressed no consideration or solidarity for refugees in the Netherlands. By October 1st, the refugees from the Vluchflat on the Jan Tooropstraat 29, had to leave their building squatted in June. The answer was quick to come. On October 2nd, the empty office building on the Weteringschans 109 was squatted and has now became the new center of the ‘Here We Are‘ campaign.
October 2nd, Weteringschans 109 squatted
At Joe’s Garage, September has been a busy month. Squatters from UK updated us about the squatting situation over there, the Hambacher Forest activists relaunched their campaign, and Jeremy, ‘Pedalling for Papua‘, made a stop on his tour to tell us about the political situation in West Papua. Skogen and the Balcony Players also made a little surprise performance.
A date to write down in your agenda, October 19th, the Valreep will take to the streets of Amsterdam with a ‘Valreep Legalized‘ demonstration. We are all expecting you there to support the Valreep. At Joe’s Garage these coming days, you’ll also find various causes to support, the Anti Columbus Day, Voices of Women Media, the Hambacher Forest activists and Soweto. You’ll get another acoustic session. You’ll attend the discussion about ‘The enemy within – What can we do about internalized sexism?’ On the film program, you’ll get to see This Is Spinal Tap, Eyes Wide Shut, It’s Gonna Get Worse. Joe’s is welcoming a new by-monthly event on Wednesday, with the Kritische Studenten Amsterdam.
Valreep Legaal demonstration, October 19th 2013
Joe’s Garage is an autonomous squatted political social center, a meeting place in the Transvaal neighbourhood for squatters and non squatters, subsidy free, entirely run by volunteers. New faces, new projects are very welcome, bring your ideas, get involved. Thanks a lot to all our volunteers.
Sunday October 6th, Movie night: This Is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984, 82′), 8pm Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. Director Rob Reiner’s largely improvised cult classic follows the key members of fictional British heavy metal band Spinal Tap – lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), lead singer/guitarist David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) – as they embark on their first American tour in years, with filmmaker/TV commercial director Marty DiBergi (Reiner) on hand to document the occasion and retrace the group’s evolution. [Read more]
Monday October 7th 2013, Columbus Day, nothing to celebrate, a lot to reflect, decolonize! Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. Indigenous Movement is cooking for a Benefit day, October 12th. A group of indigenous groups wants to make an event that will be named “Columbus day, nothing to celebrate but a lot to reflect DECOLONIZATION!” We will do a ceremony for all the Indigenous Peoples who died with the came of Columbus, also we will show a movie about the Kogi people (Colombia) the gathering of Indigenous peoples will be from 15.00 till 20.00 at the Buurtboerderij Ons Genoegen, Amsterdam on October 12th 2013. [Read more]
Wednesday October 9th and Wednesday October 23rd 2013, Kritische Studenten Avond, 8pm. Did you expect a more critical environment in your university? Are you disappointed with the lack of political engagement you’ve found there? Not feeling represented by the lobbyist student council groups? Tired of how education and knowledge are primarily in service of economic interests rather than societal? Are you against an educational system that mostly just reproduces class differences and do you want to fight for free and democratically organized education? Then come and join us in making plans on how to reclaim the university. Every second and fourth Wednesday of the month we have a open meeting where you can get to know like-minded individuals. [Read more]
Sunday October 13th, Movie night: Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999, 159′), 8pm Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. A New York City doctor, who is married to an art curator, pushes himself on a harrowing and dangerous night-long odyssey of sexual and moral discovery after his wife admits that she once almost cheated on him. [Read more]
Monday October 14th 2013, Voices of Women Media Benefit, Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. Time for a new Voices of Women Media evening! We are a women’s organization that works with different communities of girls and women to encourage the understanding and making of media. We are in the process of raising funds for our latest project. The project, called ‘Displaced,’ aims at providing young first or second-generation migrant women living in the Netherlands, Romania, Greece and Spain with video and photography tools to allow them to create and tell their own stories, as well as control their own images of representation. [Read more]
Thursday October 17th 2013, Hambacher Forest Benefit, Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. RESPECT EXISTENCE OR EXPECT RESISTANCE! In order to excavate coal, the energy company RWE clears near Cologne the originally more than 4500 hectares big and 12000 years old Hambacher forest, damages agricultural land and evicts villages. Some Effects of the excavation of coal are: air and fine dust pollution, release of radioactive substances, the lowering of ground water, emissions of CO2 (1t cole = 1t CO2). We occupied the forest to resist and counteract the expansion of the open-cast pit! [Read more]
Friday October 18th 2013. Monthly music event, Singer Songwriters #5. Door opens at 7pm, vegan food on donation. Performances end at 10pm. [Read more]
Monday October 21st 2013, Benefiet Voku SOWETO, Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. Soweto goes for Pieter Nieuwland – Update on SOWETO & the Pieter Nieuwland project. We are a collective that is enthusiastic about creating more community owned housing. We are currently taking an old school building in Amsterdam Oost and turning it into a community living, working, and social space. We are seeing this as a starting point in bringing more buildings back in to the public domain – a counter movement toward the growing privatization of public spaces a reclaiming move against the increased corporate ownership of property. [Read more]
Friday October 25th 2013, Workshop: “The enemy within – What can we do about internalized sexism?” Discussion, 6:30 pm. Many of us can spot sexism. It is at work, in the women’s lower wages. It is among our friends and family, when eyebrows are raised when hearing of a man taking paternity leave. It is on billboards, in ads for washing liquid only starring women. It is on TV, where transwomen are only depicted as sex workers or sexual predators. It is in schools, when boys who are perceived as ‘girly’ are bullied in order to ‘man up.’ It is on the streets, in the whistle and kissing sounds made when women perceived as attractive walk by. It’s everywhere and we see it! [Read more]
Sunday October 27th 2013, Movie night, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock. It’s Gonna Get Worse (Directed by Petr Nikolaev, 2007, 86 minutes, In Czech with English subtitles). Original title: A bude hůř. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm. This movie has become a renowned cult film in Czechoslovakia, but has been basically unseen anywhere else. Shot in a beautifully rough b&w, this film is like no other in taking us back to Czechoslovakia and how alternative-types lived under Communist rule. The main characters are hippies, but a much rougher type than what was found in America. These are guys who drink incredible amounts of hard alcohol, take drugs and have hard sex…. but listen to psychedelic rock music and have found their own way to be alternative. [Read more]
Opening times:
Mo: 19.00 Volkseten Vegazulu
Tu: 11.00 – 15:00 Office Hours
Tu: 20.00 – 21.30 Kraakspreekuur
We: 15.00 – 18.00 Lonely Collective Day Cafe
We: 20:00 Kritische Studenten Avond (twice a month)
Th: 19.00 Volkseten Vegazulu
Fr: 19:00 Joe’s Collage, Cut & Paste Party (once a month)
Fr: 19:00 Singer Songwriters (once a month)
Sa: 14.00 – 18.00 Weggeefwinkel
Su: 20.00 Filmavond/Infoavond
Joe’s Garage
Pretoriusstraat 43, Amsterdam
http://joesgarage.nl hosted by Squat!net [http://squat.net]
