Utrecht: Biltstraat 31 squatted and evicted

This year’s demo Rave voor de Rafelranden took place on 11 May. The building on the Biltstraat was squatted for the demo. The same night, the police evicted the squat and arrested 5 people.

On Saturday afternoon it was announced that the building at Biltstraat 31 in Utrecht has been squatted. The old hotel has been vacant since 2020 and is waiting for new permits that have been refused by the municipality. The squatters have chosen to announce the action today, as they drew attention to the frayed edges of the city today by means of a street rave through the center. With this action, the squatters would like to add a cultural space to the city. [Read More]

Dijon: Lentillères Spring Festival, Commons Week

On May 31st, June 1st and 2nd, we will celebrate the 14th anniversary of the beginning of the occupation of the Quartier Libre des Lentillères!

Since 2010, from land clearing to self-construction, 9 hectares have gradually been occupied by gardens, fields, cabins, parks, orchards and collective places open to all.

After having snatched the abandonment of phase 2 of the misnamed “eco-city of market gardeners” (éco-cité des maraîchers) project in 2019, and started a dialogue with the city council for the last 2 years, we find ourselves once again threatened by the city’s appetite for concrete. An “ultimatum”, taken out of the mayor’s pocket on a Sunday morning at dawn, forces us to question the indivisibility of the 9 hectares that make up the neighborhood, to make way for an urbanization project on a strip of 1.14 hectares. This pressure undermines the trust and exchanges that we had tried to establish in recent months. [Read More]

Amsterdam: Building squatted for Housing Day. Gravenstraat 26 resquatted

NO HOUSING NO KING

Today, April 27, we come together to celebrate Housing Day (Woningsdag), not Koningsdag (King’s Day). Instead of celebrating the monarchy, we will celebrate the resistance and bravery of everyday people. Kingsday is a day of hypocrisy, where we wear orange plastic crowns to pretend we are a king, while every other day we are struggling to make ends meet. While the royal family bathes in luxury we are struggling to pay for basic necessities like food, energy and housing. Nationalism and the celebrations of the monarchy we see today, work to create false divisions that do not serve us. It draws artificial borders over land and divides us, it breaks the natural tendency of solidarity between people and instead teaches us we should fear one another. [Read More]

Berlin: Tuntenhaus update

What happened?

February 2024

The Tuntenhaus has been sold to persons still unknown to us.

The district of Pankow would like to use the municipal right of first refusal to hand over the Tuntenhaus to a non-profit organization. We are in talks with a cooperative.
[Read More]

Intersquat Ile-de-France

From April 27 to May 5, the Intersquat Ile-de-France festival returns for a new edition! We invite all those concerned, squatters and their friends, and others interested to an Intersquat festival in Pantin (93500). On the program, canteens, screenings, singing, discussions, workshops and festive moments!

In the context of the Kasbarian Bergé law and faced with the first building evictions, several squatters in Île-de-France called for a crisis assembly to organize against this shitty law. Called “anti-squat” by the media, this repressive law criminalizes squatters and will increase the number of evictions of precarious tenants.

Heraklion: Evagelismos squat threatened with new eviction

Evangelismos Squat is threatened once again, we will not surrender, we will fight back!

During the last few days we received information regarding an upcoming eviction of Evangelismos squat, just shortly after the evictions of the Kastelli Hill squats in Chania, in the form of a total attack against squats in Crete. The possibility of a new operation was something that was also indicated by the deal between University of Crete and National Technical University of Athens for a building survey, costing 744.000€. At this point, we have valid and specific information about this upcoming eviction as well, since counting 22 years of struggle, Evangelismos is part of the local society of Heraklion, with deep roots and networks within it, and we are in a position to know anything. [Read More]

London: “Why we squatted Gordon Ramsay’s pub”

chairs and tables inside squat

Freedom News received this statement from the Camden Art Cafe squatters who have liberated Gordon Ramsay’s York and Albany Hotel restaurant in Camden, London:

We are occupying the York and Albany Hotel in Camden as the collective Camden Art Cafe. We aim to open our doors regularly to anyone and everyone, particularly the people of Camden who have been victims of gentrification and parasitic projects like HS2 [squat!net Stop HS2 archives]. We provide free food, drinks, and a space to display their art without the ridiculous red-tape galleries that require people to jump over. We believe all of us and our art deserves dignity.
[Read More]

Chania, Greece: Rosa Nera evicted for a second time, call for mobilization

The eviction of the Rosa Nera squat and the Rectorate squat on april 1st 2024 demonstrated Belvedere’s intentions to go ahead with its plans to turn the complex into a luxury hotel. According to a document that surfaced, the company has received the green light to start sampling work at the sites of the squat, despite the stated opposition of bodies, unions and associations of the city, even the city council itself, to the hotelization on Kastelli hill.
According to confirmed information, this work will start on Monday, April 8, by private crews that have been hired, most likely by Belvedere. We call on all struggling sections of the society of Chania not to leave Belvedere and its plans on a green branch and to block any work that is going to be done, starting Monday.
We call for mobilization on wednesday, april 10, at 7 a.m., outside the squat. [Read More]

Belo Horizonte: european tour for the book Casa Encantada

Comrades from the Kasa Invisível squat in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, are now touring all around Europe to present the book Casa Encantada, the Enchanted House, “A Portrait of the Fight for Housing in Belo Horizonte Going Through the Pandemic”. The book brings together illustrations by Renato Baruq and photographs by Cadu Passos. During 2022 and 2023, two Brazilian artists and organizers documents almost 20 old abandoned houses in the central region of Belo Horizonte that became living social and cultural spaces for people in vulnerable situations during the pandemic. The work is accompanied by interviews conducted between 2022 and 2023, which tell the story of these properties and their inhabitants in their own voices. [Read More]

What are the Squatting Techniques in France?

Many people resort to squatting at some time or another: the homeless or the poorly housed, travelers, activists challenging the principle of private property, precarious people in need of collective space…

Warning: under French law, “entering and remaining in a dwelling, commercial, agricultural or professional premises”, “degradation” and “home invasion” are offenses punishable by arrest, fine or even imprisonment. Inciting or facilitating squatting is also a crime, which is why this text is for information purposes only.

Spotting

In general, the longer a building has been out of use, the less likely it is that squatters will get into trouble by occupying it. So they look for houses, buildings, apartments or other premises that look as if they’ve been abandoned for a while: dust on the windows, overgrown vegetation, doors and windows sealed with wooden or metal plates, mailboxes overflowing with mail… Some people put pieces of paper in the doorways of different buildings to make sure that no one enters, then look later to see if the pieces of paper have fallen out. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Vossiusstraat 16 under threat – Removal of Russian oligarch Arkady Volozh from the sanctions list

The Russian oligarch and founder of Yandex, Arkady Volozh, the owner of the squatted building Vossiusstraat 16, was removed from the European sanctions list on the 12th of March 2024. This is likely to lead to a new court case and the eviction of the squat.

This statement begins with a legal overview of the Vossiusstraat 16 case, and then summarises the changes that led to Volozh’s removal from the sanctions list. Finally, we present reasons why his removal from the list should not have taken place. [Read More]

Dear property guardians …

Print out and post.

We get it. You’re looking for cheap rent in an expensive world. A way to keep a roof over your head while having time and money to pursue your goals and desires. And hey, maybe you get to live in some quirky buildings and situations!

This is a letter to you all. To explain why we disagree with Property Guardianship and to propose something else.

Property Guardianship came about as an idea in the Netherlands in the ’90s. A company called Camelot started advertising their services as anti-squatter security services, using people living in buildings as protection from people … living in buildings.
[Read More]