Amsterdam: Mokum Kraakt squats on the Kinkerstraat

By: fawda - March 16th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Statement from Mokum Kraakt on 13 March 2022 after the squatting of Kinkerstraat 304 ground floor.

We are action group Mokum Kraakt. We are a mix of Hotel Mokum, Kinderen van Mokum and other squatters: young and old, experienced and new, but we’re all angry, full of love for Amsterdam and ready to fight for our city. Since 10th of march we are settled on Kinkerstraat, in one of the many empty shops in Amsterdam. Because Amsterdam belongs to its residents, not to big capital. We demand radical change. We demand accessible, livable and affordable housing. We demand a just and free city.

Underneath the clean and smooth streets, the city is collapsing. It’s almost invisible how the foundation of a lively city is beginning to burst under a layer of monoculture. In the cracks that Mokum Squats, spaces for counterculture are forming themselves. Spaces to experiment, to meet and to live. [Read More]

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London: mansion occupied and evicted on Belgrave Square, owned by a russian oligarch

By: fawda - March 14th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

[update: all the squatters arrested on 15 march for occupying the house are been released on 16 march]

Russian Elite’s – You Occupy Ukraine, We Occupy You
We Are Anarchists. We Occupy this property in protest against Putin and his world. This mansion is owned by a Russian Oligarch (Oleg Deripaska), Complicit in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Do we need to remind you why Putin Sucks?
The invasion of Ukraine is only the latest episode in a long series, from the support of Assad in Syria to the neo-nazi Wanger militia assistanting dictatorship, concentration camps for LGBT+ people, ecosides, brutal wealth inequality, far right troll farms and so on.

By Occupying this mansion, We want to show solidarity for the people on Ukraine but also for the people of Russia who never agreed to this madness.
We want to show our sympathy to the brave protesters who have been in the belly of the beast, and suffer unjust imprisonment for staying up to Putin.

Finally a few words for the elites here in the UK, who have been Putins Minions for years. You received bribes, you managed Oligarch’s property, you even adopted Putin’s authoritarian attitude to protest and decent. FUCK YOU TOO. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8 resquatted and a second time evicted

By: fawda - March 7th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

On Saturday 5 March, three houses, Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8 (WP8) in Amsterdam, JC van Hattumweg 3 in Amstelveen, and the Red Door in Utrecht were announced as resquatted. WP8 was evicted a second time the same evening, with 9 arrests. Monday morning, JC van Hattumweg was back in the hands of the owner.
The 9 people arrested at WP8 will be taken to court on Wednesday. The public prosecutor wants their further detention for 14 days and the examining magistrate has to decide whether that’s appropriate. The hearings will not be public and no time is known. Autonomous soli actions are highly appreciated!

Statement from Autonomous Student Struggle – Waldeck Pyrmontlaan resquatted! 5 March 2022

3 days ago, we re-squatted the building on the Waldeck Pyrmontlaan in Amsterdam. Today we announce it publicly. We have been living here again since last Thursday. Today 3 buildings have been re-squatted. We stand in solidarity with our comrades from Elektra Flinta who re-squatted a building in Utrecht and our comrades from the Anarcha Feminist Group Amsterdam who re-squatted the squat in Amstelveen [1]. This action is a response to the evictions done by the police and to create a broader housing struggle. In the past we stated the importance of creating a culture of resistance, today we show that repression will be met with a collective response. For every eviction, new places will be squatted, evictions will be resisted. [Read More]

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Wassenaar: Villa Ivicke eviction in 3 months – Let’s use this time well!

By: fawda - March 2nd, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Wassenaar (Netherlands) – On Monday, we received the verdict in the interim measure court case against the notorious real estate speculator and owner of Ivicke, Ronnie van de Putte aka the Slum Lord, and the municipality of Wassenaar.

The judge denied our request to postpone our eviction until we’ve had a chance to appeal against the ruling of December’s court case. Despite claiming to recognize our interest in having a roof over our heads, and the lack of urgency of both the owner and the municipality to evict, the judge decided we have to leave Ivicke in 3 months.

This verdict is totally contradictory, and justified with reference to bullshit “theoretical” assumptions about the owner and municipality’s interests and intentions. [Read More]

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Amstelveen: Last squatted house evicted

By: fawda - February 18th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

[Press release] Amstelveen (Netherlands) – Today, we, the group of people living at the Villa Aardappeleters (Potato Eaters), have left the house. After a legal battle of 6 years, we have chosen to respect the verdict of the Amsterdam court and to leave our home without a physical fight.

Villa Aardappeleters at the JC van Hattumweg 3 in Amstelveen would have been squatted for 19 years next month. In its 19 years of existence, the group had almost 30 inhabitants. Some of them lived here for more than 10 years, others for only a few months. Where one inhabitant consciously chose for the freedom and space that this special place offered, for others it was pure necessity, as, for example, for some undocumented persons who have lived here.

Although Villa Aardappeleters was a rather unknown squat, it has an infamous past. After the building was squatted in March 2003, the squatters found several weapons and explosives hidden in the attic during a party. [Read More]

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Wassenaar: Possible Ivicke Eviction Within Two Weeks

By: fawda - February 16th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Update on the hearing of the Provisional Ruling – 15 February 2022

Wassenaar (Netherlands) – Today, there was a hearing at the Raad van State in The Hague, which will decide the future of Huize Ivicke. The villa in Wassenaar that has been squatted for three and a half years is threatened with eviction because the building is officially designated as an office. In a court case on December 20th, the administrative judge in The Hague decided that vacancy was more appropriate than occupation, to which the residents have filed an appeal. To prevent an eviction before the date of the higher appeal, they have applied for a so-called preliminary injunction. This request was heard today by the Raad van State. The lawsuit is between the residents of Ivicke and the municipality of Wassenaar, with the latter wanting an immediate end of the occupation in violation of the zoning plan.

During the ruling on December 20th, the judge hardly considered the interests of the residents. In administrative law it has long been customary that little attention is paid to interests and results of decisions, but rather to the legal aspects of a case. As a result of the “toeslagenaffaire,” however, the Raad van State realised last year that the concrete consequences of their decisions are also somewhat important. [Read More]

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Calais: “We will not let ourselves be taken away!”

By: fawda - February 9th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Statement from Housing for All Calais

Since Friday 4 February, we have been occupying a building in Rue d’Ajaccio, which has been uninhabited for a year. This occupation took place within the framework of the commemoraction, an international day of mobilization initiated by the families and relatives of people who have died at the border, to denounce the murderous migration policies of the UK, France and the EU.

In Calais, about 1500 people are living on the streets in unacceptable living conditions. Displaced people occupy wastelands and have no access to basic services: housing, sanitation, water, food and medical care. The state imposes conditions of extreme precariousness and invisibility through illegal evictions every 48 hours, the theft of personal belongings by the police, the illegal dismantling of living sites without the possibility of defense in front of a judge, and recurrent police violence. The French and British governments, alongside Natacha Bouchard and all their other friends, have deliberately turned a political issue into a humanitarian crisis, keeping people who want to cross the border in a context of survival. [Read More]

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Groningen: Kraaienest stays! Squatters win court case!

By: fawda - February 8th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

After the squatters of the Kraaienest in Groningen won the court case on friday 28 january, Stichting Valquest will now probably appeal. The landlord with hundreds of properties can do without the 2.8 million building, but wants to prevent a home for homeless students and a social center in the former Heerenhuis, and prefers to exploit even more people with luxury apartments and high rents. Squatting goes on!

We, a group of homeless international students and others who need a home, squatted the Heerenhuis at Spilsluizen in Groningen. In the past, the house functioned as a christian youth organisation, and it hosted two different restaurants with meeting and event rooms. At the beginning of the pandemic the famous real estate owner Joshua Camera, under the name Stichting Valquest, bought the building. Shortly after that the restaurant Heerenhuis quit, and the huge building has been empty for 2 years until we moved in. Camera is known in Groningen and beyond, for demanding too high rent, illegal management costs and intimidation. In 2019 he won the Rood Huisjesmelker van het jaar, and his shady reputation was confirmed by the media (Boos, Sikkom and SBS6). [Read More]

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Calais: Communiqué from Housing for All Calais

By: fawda - February 7th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Housing is a right, even in Calais.

We are a group of people from different countries fighting for everyone’s right to dignified and safe housing. We are currently occupying, for over 48 hours, some of the many buildings in the city of Calais that sit empty and wasted while people sleep on the streets.

We occupy these spaces hoping to break the vicious cycle of state and police violence and dehumanisation that continues in Calais and across the world to enforce national borders. We aim to create an open space free from state violence and discrimination, where someone’s administrative status has no impact on their ability to have their basic needs met, experience solidarity, and live in dignity. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Some reflections on the eviction of Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8

By: fawda - January 20th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Last Sunday we were evicted from our home after having been there for 5 days. Here are some reflections on what happened. We had a small taste of what could have been when we made Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8 in Amsterdam our home. Even though the last few days have been hard on us, there were many moments filled with joy and hope. The support and acts of solidarity we received from old and new friends, comrades and neighbours have deeply touched us. After 5 days of occupation and what we thought was a successful public revealing of the squat, we were quickly reminded of what should’ve been so obvious to us; that there is no safety for people like us living under the state and it’s capitalist system. All evictions are a form of violence and Sunday was no exception. We have yet to hear all the stories and experiences surrounding the eviction, and we are only representing our own experiences here. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Statement Squatting action Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8

By: fawda - January 15th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

[update: Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8 was evicted on sunday evening 16 January. 8 people got arrested in total, one of them outside the house. Some remained anonymous while in custody. Everybody was released the next day in the afternoon, accused of breaking domestic peace and squatting.]

In the last few months many have been taking action as part of a broader housing struggle. The recent housing demonstrations have revealed that we are massive in numbers, and that there is a urgent need for affordable housing, but the political system is incapable of real and meaningful change.

There is a growing awareness that this struggle needs to be anti-capitalist. A respect for a diversity of tactics is essential in this fight. Housing struggle is class war. We continue this fight here, by collectively taking back a space from those in power. All the wealth in the world is created by the workers, today we take back what is ours, lets bring back the commons.

We have squatted Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8, and we will use it as a home for houseless students and a political space for Autonomous Student Struggle. In this space, we want to share knowledge that doesn’t rely on opressive power structures and to actively organise against capitalism and the state, for a free world where everyone can live meaningful and fulfilling lives. We are not free until everyone is free.

The housing ‘crisis’ doesn’t exist, scarcity of housing is a myth -the problem is the unequal distribution of wealth. The problem is capitalism. When we squat, we don’t ask politicians to secure our housing needs: we do it ourselves! Rent is theft, all housing should be free, we want a world without private property. [Read More]

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Thessaloniki: gathering in solidarity with those arrested during the eviction of the new occupation

By: fawda - January 12th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

In the early morning of Wednesday 12 January at 05:45 am, once again, masked security guards approach the space occupied on Monday 10 in solidarity with the eviction of the occupation of the sketi at the biological building, which took place on new year’s eve, while at the same time police vans are lined up in the streets around the university campus and riot cops invade the campus. The squat was guarded by comrades, who defended it with dignity. The known garbage of repression, with their known murderous intentions, sought to drown the occupiers with tear gas and by using stun grenades in a space where they did not even know what materials were left over from the former use of the space as a pharmaceutical laboratory. Of course we have no doubt that ridiculous and misleading narratives will be played out by the state and the media about the materials that were already in the space and the destruction that the cops themselves caused in their rage when they invaded the space, smashing windows and walls. Besides, it seems that the cops’ sledgehammers have the magical property of making the spaces usable for the university and student community… [Read More]

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