Since March we have been going through a lot, globally and also in our workshop.
After a fire at our neighbour we had to close the workshop temporarily. It then turned out to be a serious damage to the building and we were evicted from our lovely workshop on Burgemeester Roosstraat where we stayed almost 6 years. It is very sad for us all but we would like to keep our activities going on.
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Athens. Greece. Statement by Notara 26 on yesterday’s eviction of the Themistokleus refugee squat.
Today (May 18, 2020) at dawn, the Greek state whose racism can not be bent neither by pandemics, nor by meteorites possibly, went ahead with the eviction of the refugee housing squat of Themistokleus street.
Dozens of people, mostly women refugees with children, lost their home again as well as the minimal protection they had found. They were moved on police buses to Petrou Rallli and then they were dumped in the middle of nowhere to wander the streets homeless and fatigued, with no place to go to.
At the moment they have gathered at Exarchia square with no access to food and housing. Amongst them many babies and children.
We are under no illusion. We don’t expect any kind of salvation from the guard-dogs and their superiors who have raised inhumanity and repression to the ultimate dogma.
Only solidarity can give hope back to those who have been deprived of it.
We call all the friends of Notara26 refugee – immigrant housing squat to support these people in the same way they have been supporting our community all those years.
“IN ORDER TO TURN THE REFUGEES’ JOURNEY TOWARDS SURVIVAL INTO MANKIND’S JOURNEY TOWARDS FREEDOM”
Notara 26, May 18, 2020
Via EnoughisEnough, originally published by Notara 26 Facebook page
May 1st is well known as international workers day across the globe, but this year we want it to be known as a day where anyone who is sick and tired of capitalists and the state threatening their life can step up and fight back by any means necessary.
The Green Anti-capitalist Front (GAF) is calling for May 1st to be a day of action, where we can all be apart physically but united as one cause against the rich and the state.
These actions should be done to maximise the amount of damage inflicted upon the ruling class while staying safe and observing social distancing. Each action should be done safely and in small crews or alone. Use the hash tag #MayDayRevolt to show what you find on the day.
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On Saturday April 18th, our members and supporters organized the Kennedy Stewart Squat in the Downtown Eastside to provide emergency shelter for unhoused and underhoused residents seeking space during the COVID-19 global health pandemic. It has been heartening to receive support for the squat in our community and our member organizations. The squat was also supported by Vancouver School Board commissioners, following cities in Ontario, Massachusetts, Arkansas and elsewhere that have used schools for emergency shelter during the coronavirus pandemic. It has also been a sign of the success of the squat that, in the days following the repression of the squat with the arrest of 14 squatters, both the City and Provincial government made statements that they are taking measures to provide housing for homeless residents in BC, and that the “anxieties of DTES residents are justified.” We feel partially vindicated by these statements, but unfortunately the provincial government’s current plans are seriously lacking.
Our objective with this squat was twofold: to protect ourselves from the harms of COVID-19 while pressuring the government for immediate and long-term housing solutions. In the short term, the government must open some of the existing 12,000 units of tourist hotels as has been done in cities like Toronto and San Francisco. There are at least 8,000 homeless people in BC. In Vancouver alone, at least 2,500 people are living in the streets. Another 4,700 live in private SROs where access to COVID-safe washing facilities is not available, and 2,000 in government-owned SROs, where again washing facilities are shared, scarce, and significantly under-maintained. We therefore estimate that there are at least 8,500 people in Vancouver for which it is impossible to follow basic provincial COVID-19 protocol.
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UK UPDATE: Them mother fuckers have changed the law again to suit the interests of lazy property owners who leave places empty and unused.
The Civil Procedure Rules Practice Direction 51Z (government site here) have been updated so as to not include trespass claims and IPOs (ie most squat cases). Previously it did include them.
Therefore, as of April 20, 51Z will no longer apply to possession claims against ‘persons unknown’ or claims for interim possession orders. What does this mean in these uncertain times? This means owners will probably still try illegal methods of eviction, that’s what we are hearing from Brighton and London. How will the courts be working? Zooming?? Who knows, but it will not be a surprise if court cases happen without the awareness of the squatters.
Stay safe everybody!
To the Préfet of Pas-de-Calais
To the media
To all people concerned
Calais, Monday 13 th April 2020
Open Letter from the Eritrean community of Calais Jungle
Before we get to start writing our complaint about what is happening to us with the CRS (Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité), we would like to say something about ourselves; We are migrants from Eritrea. The reason we are here is because we want to live in a safe place, and have a future. We are not criminals, we are just innocent migrants trying to go to the UK and pursue our dreams.
Our complaint is about the CRS company and their aggressive, impulsive actions on us.
They don’t think that we are humans. They called us names like monkey, bitch, etc….
And a couple weeks ago, they started threatening our lives by keeping on beating us every time they get a chance, like when they found two or three people walking around the foodstreet (note : near the food distribution place) or, in our tents when we are sleeping.
They keep driving fast towards us on the street, like they want to run us over, and they started taking people with them to some places outside of Calais and keeping on beating them until they faint out.
They hide their personal code (note: RIO number) when they are doing something wrong to us. And whenever they see we are recording while they are doing so, they break our mobiles and our bodies.
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Zürich. Switzerland. April 9, 2020. We (Für alle ein Zuhause – English: A home for all) have squatted four empty houses in Altstetten today to create a home and refuge for people from the virus. Like any emergency, this one hits hardest those for whom the circumstances were already difficult before.
To protect the population, the Federal Council appeals to everyone to stay at home in solidarity. While the majority in Switzerland has the privilege of being able to retreat into a house, those who cannot are left out in the cold. Some people have no papers, their rights are denied. They are illegalized, isolated and ignored. Many of these people are locked up in so-called asylum centres, prisons and camps. Their freedom and self-determination are denied to them. Again other people have “fallen through the cracks” – they do not fit into the meritocracy. Our society accepts the premature death of all these people, because protective measures do not seem to apply to them. This situation was intolerable even before Corona. Now it becomes even clearer that it cannot go on like this for one more day.
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Yesterday (1 April) the DiY Kodak Collective (previously on S!N) were again illegally evicted from a building. This is the second time in a week. This time it was a squatted basement flat, part of the complex which used to be the Hostelpoint at Pool Valley coach station in central Brighton.
Three men claiming to be the owners came by at noon to threaten violence unless the squatters left by 9am on 2 April. They then came back at 7pm the same day with a sledgehammer and smashed their way in. While they did so, a passerby flagged down a police car. Instead of arresting the angry men brandishing a sledgehammer, the police entered the squat, quoting PACE 17 which is complete nonsense. The legal warning was on the door stating that anyone using force to enter was breaking the law. No-one wanted to stay and wait for more violence to come, so we decided to leave.
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#StayAtHome is not possible for everyone in times of Covid19. Especially if you are homeless. That’s why we squatted one Airbnb, 9 empty apartments and 2 houses in Berlin and gave them for those who need a safe place.
Solidarity will win!
#besetzen @besetzenberlin
Even as police let loose with rubber bullets and beatings against shoppers yesterday in an effort to enforce the new national Covid-19 lockdown, in Durban they were turfing people into the street.
The eThekwini municipality evicted residents from the Ekuphumeleleni settlement near Shallcross in Ward 17 on Friday when, at 2pm, nine vehicles linked to Calvin Security arrived at the contested site, which was first established as a land occupation in October 2019, to tear down people’s homes. No court order was produced and residents say the evictions were illegal and criminal, as well as being in violation of rules governing the national state of disaster.
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While the Greek people are placed under quarantine due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Greek authorities continue their agenda against the social movements in the country. The state has found the perfect timing to conduct its new attack on the self-managed Vio.Me. factory in Thessaloniki: early this morning, accompanied by two squads of riot police, employees of the state-owned electric company have cut off the power to the factory.
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Because of the pandemic, eviction court cases and enforcement have been stopped from 27th March to 29th October, possibly to be extended.
Of course landlords and others may try other methods so keep prepared, and let us know.
Reference – 117th Practice Direction Update to the Civil Procedure Rules – Coronavirus Pandemic related
Source – Advisory Service for Squatters
