On 25 July 2018, in higher appeal, the Council of State has announced ADM to be empty within 5 months, by 25 December 2018. A new court case started by the ADM against the city of Amsterdam took place on 23 july 2018.
The ADM festival 2018 is scheduled from 20 till 23 September 2018. The event is moved earlier and won’t take place around the ADM birthday on October 12th.
During the Jetlag fourth edition, on Sunday 22 July 2018, Hay Schoolmeesters gave a speech about the current ADM situation:
Just great that you are all here
In a time wherein gentrification and commercialisation are preached by administrators and companies
Not only as an all-embracing credo
But even worse, every time is used as a methodology for the design of our city, our culture and our society
The public space has been sold to greed and commerce Renting is unaffordable
Social housing is prehistoric
People are kicked out or forced to move
Social and cultural initiatives are expelled from the city Hardly any squats are left
And the last Cultural Free Spaces like ADM
Are threatened to be pulverised
I hereby appeal to opposition
Opposition against the sale of the city!
For a city without wilfulness loses her attraction
And degenerates into humdrum
Come and resist against the exclusion of our culture!
And today I am living 20 years and 282 days at the ADM one of the last principle, struggling zones of opportunities which has succeeded to stand up to this date now
On the basis of cultural and politically relevant social ideals
But when it comes to Amsterdam’s Board of the municipal council, this will end
They want to consent to the plans of the alleged owner
Even before an independent research has been undertaken whether these plans are possible at all
And even before investigating what the financial and economic interests are for the future of Amsterdam
And if the Amsterdam’ Board persists in its statement then ADM is really declared dead
And then it can be evicted from Xmas onward
We do not want to be chased!
We want to be appreciated for our culture!
We want to save Amsterdam for a blunder of enormous size!
Because Amsterdam will then donate 100 million euros to the malicious owner
On top of that Amsterdam also loses 400 million euros
Because she does not buy the entire terrain to solve future space problems in the city
But especially Amsterdam loses the ADM community
And loses an unprecedented invention-location
For creators and inspirational doers, thinkers and free spirits in which money does not play a primary role
People,
Who are bringing life into soulless urban landscapes
With their own life philosophy and another way of viewing
People,
Whose spirit and mindsets are a great cultural heritage that has to be preserved.
Not just in history books
But also in reality of now and the future
For decades places like theaters, galleries and social centers are a structural part of the cultural spectrum
So are squats and Cultural Free Spaces
Only the first ones are recognised by everybody and have a permanent place of manifestation
While the latter have been declared illegal and are constantly chased out
This has to stop!
We do not want attenuation of the city
We want a city in which everyone can work and live on his or her own way
Where there is always affordable space
Where there is cooperation and color or age do not matter,
wWhere everyone happily adds dynamism
But where gentrification is ruled out principally
We claim our permanent place in society
We say fuck off with the norm
Because the norm is the gentrification worm
For 20 years ADM has been fighting
For maximum movement space for the individual
Against corruption and capitalism
Against human disgracefulness and corporate greed
Against liberal municipal policy, inequality and exclusion
And for freedom in the mind
And for freedom in doing and acting
And for freedom in shaping your own space
And with that ADM is a rule-free nobodies everymansland
And with that,
With that ADM is a symbol
A symbol for the freedom of everybody in Amsterdam and beyond
But the struggle for that freedom hasn’t been over yet
Because the counter forces are greater than ever
And our fight is also your fight
A struggle that can not only be executed by the ADM-rs themselves anymore
A struggle that also affects you and all of Amsterdam
Join in to keep pearls of freedom like ADM
And especially to build new ones
Not only ADM is under threat of eviction,
It’s our culture that’s under threat of extinction
Reclaim free-space
Viva ADM!
ADM
Hornweg 6, 1045AR, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
https://adm.amsterdam/
https://squ.at/r/5g4
