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]

Amsterdam: Mokum Kraakt squats former windows in the Red Light District

Mokum Kraakt squats on the Dollebegijnensteeg in the Red Light District in solidarity with the sex workers and against the arrival of the erotic center. During a protest against the planned erotic centre, squatting collective Mokum Kraakt announced it has squatted a number of former sex work windows in De Wallen, Amsterdam’s red light district.

The squatters say the windows were squatted in solidarity with sex workers who fight against plans for an erotic centre on the outskirts of the city. Sex work has been a part of De Wallen for over 400 years and sex workers have clearly and repeatedly said they want to stay in the city centre. The people living close to the location of the prospective location of the erotic centre are also against it. And still, mayor Halsema is pushing through her plans. [Read More]

Athens: demonstration in defense of Ano Kato Patission

Demonstration in defense of Ano Kato Patission, after the successful resquat of the steki on 9 december 2023. Sunday 17 december, at 12.00 pm. Pre-gathering at Steki Ano Kato Patission, Naxos 75.

Last summer, while Greece was experiencing the violent signs of the climate crisis (fires, floods), magnified by the unpreparedness of the relevant state mechanisms, the government adopted a classic recipe for decoordination for disasters: the eviction of occupied spaces.
At the same time that the state proves in practice that it is incapable of dealing with our problems, it is trying to gain some legitimacy in the eyes of the world by selling security and order.
But with tenacity and militancy, three of the evicted squats of the summer are once again in the hands of the community. After Zizania in Victoria and Evagelismos in Heraklion, Crete, it is the turn of Stekiou Ano Kato Patission to get its space back, to revive a debris building. [Read More]

Athens: Steki Ano Kato Patission resquatted

[Update: During the resquat, 11 arrests were made on misdemeanor charges. The trial of the comrades has been postponed until February 13. The legal costs to be collected are many, your financial support is welcome.]

On saturday december 9, 2023, the Steki Ano Kato Patission was resquatted by 80 comrades. Then 250 people gathered in front to support the reoccupation. This gathering was attacked by cops and people were trapped in apartment buildings, in the adjacent dormitories and in the Steki itself. At the same time, teargas was thrown into cars, cops shouted at people that they would burn them alive, arrests were made, and people were beaten up. The cops also surrounded the Steki, teargas was thrown inside. People defended the Steki and kept it. There are seriously injured comrades, they are taken to the hospital. Around 19 people were arrested. On sunday 10, solidarity rally for those arrested during the Steki Ano-Kato Patission resquat at 11:00, Dikastiria (Evelpidon).
The Ano-Kato resquat took place on the nationwide day of action in solidarity with the squats, with a demonstration at Monastiraki in Athens. The attacks on our squats confirm once again that solidarity, self-organization and unmediated struggle are a formidable enemy for the state. The call out was made by Ano Kato Patission, ASP (Autonomous Polytechnic Steki), Evagelismos and Zizania.
STRUGGLES ARE NOT EMPTIED, IDEAS ARE NOT SEALED
SOLIDARITY WITH SQUATS

Statement from Steki Ano-Kato Patission:

We said that we are not leaving and we mean it [Read More]

Heraklion: Evagelismos resquatted

Today December 1, 2023, we resquatted Evagelismos, giving our final response to the repression and militarization of our neighborhood and the wider city center.

We are here, in the place where two months ago our comrade A. was almost found dead at the hands of bastards in uniforms when armed forces of ECM and OPKE invaded the building. In the same spot, where for two months all kinds of cops have been harassing passers-by and neighbors, afraid of sitting on the steps of the building. At the same point, which by order of the Senate of the University of Cyprus, the historic building of of Evagelismos was sealed and suffered numerous damages by the tons of cement they poured. All the above were considered “collateral” damage, according to the Rector, in order to return the building to its rightful owner, at the same time, of course, returning to its previous state, devastated and abandoned and far away from being a public space. Today -all together- we validate in practice, what the whole city knows: THE EVAGELISMOS SQUAT WILL STAY. [Read More]

Amsterdam: two buildings squatted next to Nieuwmarkt

We squatted two buildings in light of the Housing Crisis, International Day against Sexist and Sexual Violence, in solidarity with our Palestinian comrades, and we express our anger about fascism taking over the Netherlands.

We revealed two squatted buildings on 22 November, at Krom Boomssloot 45 and 47, in light of the need for housing for our comrades and our sisters.

In light of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on the 25th of November, it is crucial and a priority to open housing where women can feel safer, where we can find each other and grow our resistance together. [Read More]

Barcelona: La Ruïna and el Kubo will not die

We will turn our house into a battlefield, el Kubo and the Ruïna will not fall. See you on November 30 at 5:30 a.m. in Uri Caballero square, Vallcarca metro station in Barcelona. If el Kubo and La Ruïna fall, the neighborhood will burn down. OKUPA Y RESISTE!

Statement made in February 2023, La Ruïna and el Kubo threatened with eviction:

Our squats are trenches.
Here we go, on March 23 they are going to try to evict us. In 2016, an office building was squatted for the first time in the Sant Gervasi neighbourhood and we called it El Kubo. The Kubo has been the home and place of passage of more than a hundred people in the more than 6 years that it has been in existence. This has been the home and trench of many people. It has been an oasis of resistance in the bourgeois quarter of Barcelona for many years and this has not been easy. “Squat and resist” defines the history of the Kubo very well. During all these years we have faced two evictions and the constant siege of extreme right-wing groups, capitalist press and political parties. And despite the hostilities we have reoccupied and resisted this house all this time. [Read More]

Amsterdam: two houses owned by Blackstone squatted during the ADEV demo

No free spaces without a free Palestine

Amsterdam, October 21st – We have squatted these 2 buildings (Prinsengracht 804 et 806), despite the city’s (and the police’s) best attempts to make it very difficult, because we believe that ADEV(Amsterdam Danst Ergens Voor – Amsterdam dances for something)’s call to ‘disown stupid property’ is a call to action.

These buildings, owned and left empty by a massive american investment firm called Blackstone, some (though not all) of whose crimes you can read on the banner, are definitely, by all definitions, stupid property. But we want to stress that, in a capitalist system that puts corporate giants over human life and dignity, ALL PROPERTY IS STUPID AND ALL PROPERTY IS THEFT. [Read More]

Ljubljana: news from the displaced anarcha community of Mačjak

On ruins.

Parmova 1312 is gone. it has been more than a month since the first machinery arrived. walls, rooftops and furniture are by now all grinded to dust and scattered around the lot.
We (Mačjak) did not know the exact date when they would demolish our part. Nonetheless, we organised an eviction fest, one last collective gathering with the aim to give away everything we had not been able to move to the other spaces and celebrate all that had happened in the times before. Our squat was still standing the day after the eviction fest. and the next. A fence was mounted around us, but our building remained intact. meanwhile, in Athens, two squats were evicted – Ano Kato and Zizania. In solidarity, we raised a banner against gentrification, evictions and for the creation of new squats in our deserted space. [Read More]

Heraklion: neither 21 nor 100, squat forever in Evagelismos

Text of the people arrested during the evacuation of Evagelismos Squat in Heraklion, after 21 years of history

In the early hours of Saturday 30.09.2023, around 5:30 in the morning, cops of various forces overrun the neighborhood of Theotokopoulou. People living in the Evagelismos squat wake up to the sound of broken glasses and metal shaking from the blows. After the very short time during which the police forces managed to enter the building, they find half of the people inside it, and half on the terrace above it. The people inside the building are immobilized in rooms by the intervening forces (OPKE, EKAM), while EKAM proceed to intervene on the terrace. At this point there is tension between the people on the roof and the cops trying to approach them, which ends when the cops manage to reach us, to avoid violence towards us. They lay us on our faces and tie us up, some with handcuffs and others more roughly. [Read More]

Heraklion: the whole city knows it. Evagelismos does not surrender

On Saturday morning, numerous police forces stormed inside Evagelismos Squat. 10 comrades were arrested, one of whom -while being handcuffed- was led to fall from the roof of the building, and is currently still in the hospital. The sealing of the building with iron plates started immediately. The comrades were transferred to the General Police Directorate of Heraklion, where they were charged, while the injured comrade was being held separately and not receiving the necessary medical care. Outside the building dynamic reflex reactions took place, resulting in the arrest of one more comrade. Reactions that continue in the following days…

The first public information about a possible evacuation operation had been released on September 20, with statements by the General Secretary of Higher Education and former rector of the University of Crete Od. Zoras, regarding the evacuation and “utilization” of the building. Thus, on Thursday September 28, we did an intervention in the University’s online Senate, where a text was read. The current rector G. Kontakis -who was in Rethymno at that time- had an sarcastic tone and avoided making any comments. [Read More]