Ghent: Wondelmeersen occupied

By: fawda - July 13th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

Since June 20, the summer solstice, the Wondelgemse Meersen have been occupied and declared an autonomous zone!

This nature reserve, 14ha large, is the last continuous piece of wilderness of what was once a vast swamp area in the north of Ghent.

If it were up to transport company De Lijn and politicians such as Zuhal Demir (N-VA) and Lydia Peeters (Open Vld), the Wondelmeersen would be destroyed to make way for a so-called “green” depot for buses and trams. But a “green” depot you don’t build at the expense of valuable green nature. [Read More]

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Utrecht: two buildings squatted after 10 years of vacancy

By: fawda - June 28th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

28 June, Utrecht – This morning, a group of squatters announced that they had squatted two houses on the Burgemeesters Reigerstraat. The squatters have been in the buildings next to the Wilhelminapark since Wednesday, they said in a statement. Due to the current housing crisis, the group feels justified in reoccupying the vacant houses. According to the squatters, the houses have been empty for more than ten years.

Banners with the slogans “attention, vacancy prevention” and “three times is the right to live” have been hanging on the facades of the buildings since this morning. “Apparently, there have been two attempts to squat these buildings before,” says Sander, spokesperson for the group. “These houses have been empty for so long now and we are in the middle of a gigantic housing crisis. It is therefore inconceivable for us that we will be evicted and put out on the street.” The young group of squatters indicates that they have been looking for a home for a long time. With the campaign, they want to show that squatting can offer a solution to rising house prices and the growing housing shortage. According to the group of squatters, several local residents have already indicated that they support the squatting action. [Read More]

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Dijon: a look back at the public meeting to present the agri-cultural park of the Maraîchers ecocity

By: fawda - June 23rd, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

Press releases from the assembly of the Quartier Libre des Lentillères.
First press release distributed before the public presentation:

The Quartier Libre des Lentillères reaffirms its willingness to dialogue with the city of Dijon!

Since 2010, hundreds of people have been cultivating the land, organising cultural events, offering markets and meals on donations, self-managed on the 9 hectares of the Quartier Libre des Lentillères. We are still united by the desire to collectively continue the project we are carrying out for this district.

A dialogue began 18 months ago at the initiative of the city council, and we have taken an active part in it. We want to consider all possible forms of sustainability for the Quartier Libre des Lentillères, its activities and its uses, including in the form of legalisation. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Squat on Rokin evicted after celebration of one year of Takland

By: fawda - June 16th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

Takland is a year older and we celebrate! With resistance in the form of squatting a new building. After a year full of action, discussion, movies and parties, this new addition to the alley will be the revolutionary art of Amsterdam again. The new squatted building (ground floor Rokin 104) on the corner of Taksteeg/Rokin had been vacant for years and has the same owner (Axel P Nielsen BV) as the already squatted Taksteeg 6.

The police didn’t want to hear anything about it, after promising at 19:00 on Friday that they will not evict, they came later in the evening at 23:30 during our festival with 10 riot cops vans, dog brigade, popo on horses and BraTra to show their teeth. An illegal eviction in Amsterdam, which has not happened since the squatting of the Waldeck Pyrmonkade in January 2022. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: One Year Takland Vrijstraat

By: fawda - June 6th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

June 14, 15 & 16, 2024, TAKLAND 1 YEAR FESTIVAL – TAKLAND 4 EVER https://squ.at/r/9e0a

ONE YEAR (and a bit) TAKLAND WAS FOUNDED AND EXPANDED.
On the 27th of April 2023, the puppet-mayor, puppet-king and a member of puppet-parliament came together in the Taksteeg to come up with a plan to make as much money from the city as possible. The plan was to evict every single person who lives in Amsterdam and to rent it out as air-bnb’s, hotels and nutella shops. However, before the puppet-authorities were even able to open air-bnb, resistance was already popping up right behind them. Taksteeg 8 got squatted and occupied for 6 weeks, housing a freeshop, movie screenings and other political events.
Later the Takland people had to move to the adjacent building, bringing the freeshop and the puppet-people with them. It has now been a year since we lived in this house, and we have expended even more by also occupying the time travelers hotel. Together with Villa Mina we want to celebrate the 1 year mark with a 3 day festival.
Details will be published here as soon as confirmed, but expect great acts, bands, movies, dancing, fun and crazy stuff in general! [Read More]

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Dijon: Lentillères Spring Festival, Commons Week

By: fawda - May 3rd, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

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]

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Amsterdam: Building squatted for Housing Day. Gravenstraat 26 resquatted

By: fawda - April 29th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

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]

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Berlin: Tuntenhaus update

By: sisulscz - April 22nd, 2024  Filed under: Communique

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]

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Heraklion: Evagelismos squat threatened with new eviction

By: fawda - April 15th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

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]

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

By: fawda - April 9th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

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]

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

By: fawda - March 13th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

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]

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Dear property guardians …

By: sisulscz - March 4th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, essay

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]

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