This evening June 20th, Grimselstrasse 18 and 20, Saumackerstrasse 67 and 69 have been squatted. The squatters* took these spaces in response to the Juch eviction on 23rd May.
If you evict one space, we* will open a new one!
Exactly one month ago today, the Social Department of the City of Zurich filed a criminal complaint and subsequently had the Juch area evicted by a large contingent of the Zurich City Police. This is only because the neighboring stadium construction site of HRS Real Estate seems to need more space to turn its trucks around and thus expand its empire as quickly and profitably as possible on behalf of the city. Marco Cortesi (spokesperson for the Zurich city police) also stressed in an interview in front of the freshly evicted area that the main thing now was to immediately make the area uninhabitable and then guard it with private security forces. Even the left-wing parties of the city of Zurich complain that it is extremely questionable and inappropriate to destroy residential and cultural spaces for a building site installation, and wrote in a jointly published media release: “For us it is clear: the demolition of buildings for the use of an area as parking space is unacceptable. Although no meaningful use was promised and a shady deal between the city of Zurich and HRS was settled without any transparency, the squatters* had to leave the Juch area. It cannot be said often enough: This is outrageous from the city of Zurich! We are furious!
We keep our promises and do not let ourselves be driven away so easily.
The Juch area will be razed to the ground, but not our concerns.
With the eviction of the Juch area not only an autonomous space has been destroyed but the city is also trying to make the Juch history invisible. From the 1960s until 2019, the Juch was a place where people were housed by the city of Zurich. At first it was the guest workers who had to live in the barracks in a very confined space and had to work in this city for the wealth of others under the worst conditions and for the lowest wages. Then the barracks were used as asylum accommodations. With meter-high fences, entrance controls and far too many people in the tiny rooms, people were locked up in the area. The city of Zurich took and is still stealing the freedom of these people. Juch was a prison and the asylum shelters are camps. The camp policy is not history. They still exist in Urdorf, in Duttweiler, in Embrach… Immediately after the inhabitants of the Juch area were trasnfered to the newly built asylum camp in Duttweiler, the Juch area was squatted.
The property squatted today June 20th belongs to UBS and thus to one of those who benefit from the constant upgrading of this town. We continue to fight against evictions. We continue to fight against the destruction of spaces where people can network, politicize and organize. We continue to fight against a capitalist urban revaluation that does not take into account all the people of this city. We continue to fight against systematic, structural exclusion and against the exploitation of people!
An occupation like this is only one of many answers to the compulsion of exploitation and classification in urban space. Occupation is a practice in which much is possible, but which also excludes people because of various contexts. We are aware that occupations, especially in the beginning through their criminalization and possible repression, are spaces in which more privileged persons can stay more easily. However, this space should be maintained in the long term and then become more and more accessible to everyone. But repression is not the only exclusionary factor in an occupation. Here too, the various discrimination structures of this society are present. In order to create spaces that really try to be open for everyone, we have to deal with our own discriminatory patterns, take responsibility for discriminatory behavior and fight against it. The space should be open for all people who want to shape and participate in shaping it.
We have come to stay!
The resistance does not stop!
Juch resists!
Juch
unten [at] protonmail [dot] com
https://squ.at/r/7gaw
https://juch.zureich.rip/
*The “we” in this communiqué is not definite, but open to all who show solidarity.
Some squats in Zürich: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/city/zurich/country/CH/squated/squat
Groups (social center, collective, squat) in Zürich: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/city/zurich/country/CH
Events in Zürich: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/city/Zurich/country/CH
Some squats in Switzerland: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/CH/squated/squat
Groups (social center, collective, squat) in Switzerland: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/CH
Events in Switzerland: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/CH
