Mobilization pays off! In May, faced with the threat of eviction from the Louise/Defacqz occupation, the hundred or so homeless people who have found refuge there mobilized. In a few days, several actions were organized. More than 60 associations and 2000 citizens had signed a petition to ask the owners to reconsider their position and to allow the occupying persons and families to stay in the shelter until renovations. Faced with this impressive mobilization, the eviction was suspended. After several weeks of tough negotiations, a temporary occupation agreement has just been signed with the owners and public authorities, for at least one year (renewable). The building has been squatted within the framework of the “Campagne de Réquisition Solidaire” (Solidarity Requisition Campaign) with several groups of homeless or badly housed people, including La Voix des Sans papiers which will manage the building. More than ever, let’s stay mobilized for the right to housing and papers for all! [Read More]
Uithuizen: Villa Tocama squatted
Uithuizen, the Netherlands – Since last weekend Villa Tocama is inhabited again. Concerned citizens have occupied the historical building on the Dingeweg 3 in Uithuizen, also the land around it.
Activist Jan on the reasons for occupying Villa Tocama:
”The property has been bought by the Woonbedrijf Aardbevingsgebied Groningen Foundation (SWAG). Swag is 100 percent owned by the Dutch state and is financed by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and is used as a purchasing tool for the various buyout programs. According to their own website, they act in the public interest and without a profit motive, have a specific focus on the liveability in the area and manage the acquired properties to prevent vacancy, deterioration, squatting and vandalism. Unfortunately, it remains with this general vision, because practice shows a very different picture.”
Currently, the foundation owns 35 properties. Of those properties, 3 are used as temporary housing and 8 are in use through vacancy management (anti-squat). Of the remaining 24 properties, no use, destination or future vision can be found in the foundation’s overviews. [Read More]
London: The Serious Annoyance continue to trespass despite judgement
Freedom Newspaper received the following communique from squatters occupying the former Camberwell police station in South London. The group, known as the Serious Annoyance, lost the legal battle to remain in possession of the property on Tuesday July 20th but remain in occupation in defiance of the granting of an interim possession order (IPO). This high court judgement criminalises anyone remaining in the property from 2.30pm on Wednesday onwards, meaning that the occupiers face arrest and potentially up to six months imprisonment for failing to leave. They have been in occupation since July 9th, when they released this initial statement and are calling for people to support by sharing their story and being present on the street outside pending the threatened eviction.
The police station occupation is part of the resurgent militant squatting movement that has coalesced from a mixture of anarchists, environmental protesters and travellers against the proposed new anti-trespass laws being brought forward by the UK government. The new laws are seen as an outright attack on those from nomadic cultures, as well as against the burgeoning anti-HS2 protest movement. A former police station was occupied earlier this year in response to the Sarah Everard murder, as well as last year in Paddington Green, and previously back in 2014. [Read More]
Gros-de-Vaud: armed offensive of the owners against the resquatted Auberge d’Etagnières
Since Saturday, a collective has been occupying the old hostel and pizzeria in Etagnières in the Gros-de-Vaud region. The owner and his henchmen came, armed, in order to evict us.
“We will kill you”.
This Thursday 8 july at 15:00, the owner accompanied by a dozen acolytes armed with pickaxes, sledgehammers, a giant bolt cutter and a grinder attacked the Auberge d’Etagnières, which we have been occupying since Saturday, with the firm intention of evicting us and doing us harm. “We are going to kill you” they repeated several times. The owner and his men broke some of the windows on the first floor and broke down the front door. Barricaded urgently on the top floor, we repeatedly reminded them of the numerous violations of Swiss law they were committing, encouraged them to file a complaint and to go through legal channels. The police had already noticed our presence on Monday evening and warned the owner of the squatting procedures. Instead of complying with the legal framework by filing a complaint, he decided to take justice into his own hands. In this country, the minority of landlords think they are above the law, since it is of course forbidden for the landlord to take justice into his own hands, although we are protected by the law of the lease. [Read More]
Amsterdam: Anarcha-Feminist Group Squat a building on Kinkerstraat 16, Medusa Squat & Social Centre
Today we announce our new squat on the Kinkerstraat 16.
We have been living on the Kinkerstraat 16 for about a week now. After many tries it seems that we have now managed to avoid a speed eviction and we might actually be able to stay for some time- though all squats are temporary and under neo-liberal, late capitalism, precarity has become the norm, something that does not just apply for squats. The time to get organised, to built alternative structures that are directly opposed to and in conflict with the structures of the state – is now! We call on all Flint* people who agree with our manifesto and who have a willingness to participate to join us. This space belongs to all that struggle against capitalism, the state and the patriarchy. For us that dream of a world where we can all be free and equal, without hierarchies and cages. If you have an idea for an event, want to use to space to organise in, or want to help out, please get in touch by writing an email. [Read More]
Ghent: opening of the Blauwhuis
Since this morning, the Blauwhuis in Nazareth (Belgium) is open. The farmstead and the land around it belong to the Ghent public patrimony and are sold on the private market. The squatting of the Blauwhuis is an indictment of the privatization of our public housing and land, especially when we see how many people do not have access to (decent) housing and nutritious meals. We give the homes to those who need them and the land to the farmers without land, so that food from the Ghent countryside comes to the city again.
For sustainable agriculture, a sustainable investment policy, food sovereignty and sustainable coexistence.
Against the privatization of public property, against the concept of ‘not growing = dead flourishing’, against hunger and against the housing shortage, against profit maximization at the expense of the citizens of Ghent [Read More]
Berlin: Die Rigaer lebt – an address to our friends and comrades
Thanks to every support that was developed during the last weeks and especially the last two days of preparation and collective fight against our common enemies, we managed to develop the most intensive fighting days that we could have imagined. Days which turned every plan from the state and capital into a catastrophy. A great reminder to ourselves, our collective and its supporters, how important the movement’s networks, infrastructures of solidarity and self-organisation are.
Starting with the defence of the neighbourhood against the establishment of the red zone we drew the right concequence out of the aggressions of the state and the real estate market, against the people living in the city. The announcement of danger zones and red zones, where people get easy targets for the police in order to create an atmosphere of isolation and fear, has become normality in this city of the rich. We saw in the last years many occassions where we as those who are targeted by the states attacks had to stand in almost silent protest at the fences, guarded by a militarized police force. Let’s name the eviction of the Ohlauer School in Kreuzberg, the eviction of the Kiezladen Friedel54 and all the other projects as Syndikat, Meuterei and our neighboors Liebig34. This fact can not be tolerated anymore – the people have to rise up! [Read More]
Berlin: Rigaer94, our statement on the current situation
Today, on the evening of June 16, we look back on a militant day and a temporary autonomous zone and look forward with a clenched fist. Yes, we will remember the barricades in Rigaer Straße and their collective defense for a long time with a big smile on our faces. Step by step, the Senate and the owners are burning their fingers at the attempted destruction of our home.
After the street, there are now problems on the legal level. A higher administrative court has considerably complicated the starting position for those responsible at the Senate and the letterbox company for the attack on our house. The latter, represented by Bernau, Luschnat and von Arentin, was forbidden to enter our premises at all. Moreover, the cops are to be given access only to the stairwell, attic, courtyard, etc., but not to the private apartments.
At this moment, the expert, who is now declared to be responsible, is told by our lawyers that he can inspect the fire protection in our house without any danger to his health and can come in and out without any problems. Of course, without even a cop, as we have already declared in January 2021. And we keep our word. That should have become more than clear again today. Completely in contrast to the word of numerous politicians, whether in the district or senate, that of the cops or even a windy letter box company. Some of them still dare to claim that it is not about an eviction of Rigaer94. [Read More]
Amsterdam: Anarcha-Feminst Group squat building on Sint Willibrodrusstraat
New chapter in the zero tolerance policy towards squatting in Amsterdam. In the evening of friday 4 June 2021, many people are taking part in a squatting action in the Pijp. A house is squatted, banners hanged, slogans chanted, fireworks lighted up, a neighborhood letter handed out. Cops are showing up in big numbers, claiming squatters are caught in the act. They want to evict right away. The big group and neighbors are all together pushed away from the area. Later in the evening, riot cops won’t find anybody inside the squatted house which is ending boarded up by a private company. No arrests are reported.
Statement by the Anarcha-Feminst Group Amsterdam:
Today we squatted Sint Willibrodrusstraat 15 owned by ‘evil corp’ Blackstone. This building has been empty for a long time. today we ended this situation of emptiness and speculation by giving the house back its purpose.
Fuck Blackstone, eat the rich!
Stop speculation, squat the world
We are told that there are not enough houses for everyone, that there are not enough spaces for the refugees and migrants coming here fleeing imperialist wars and economies that have been destroyed by (neo)colonialism. It is unacceptable that the media blame migration for the fact that we all seem to struggle to find a home.There is no problem of a lack of space, there is no “housing crisis”, the only problem is the unequal distribution of wealth. The problem is capitalism. [Read More]
Athens: Theater Embros resquatted
A very large and enthusiastic meeting of Embros on Sunday 23 May decided to continue the defense of the Free Self-Managed Theater. The attempt of the police and the Public Property Company to reseal the Embros on the morning of Monday 24 May was met by the lawyers of the movement and the people of the struggle, the united solidarity forces and the works were stopped. We start today Monday 24 May and every day from 5 pm a week of Art and Freedom in front of the building and collective works to repair the damages caused by the eviction.
On Saturday 29 May, we call for a nationwide Day of Action of artists, neighbourhood assemblies and social centers in every corner of the country to defend not only Embros but all liberated spaces. The power of self-organization can stop the destruction of our neighborhoods and nature threatened by the tide of exploitation and the insolence of obscenity.
The weekly program of events starts now! It will be enriched daily with new entries. We invite art groups to present their ideas and work during the day outside the building. [Read More]
Athens: on the side of the Embros Theatre
The chronicle of a repression announced for 10 years was completed yesterday with the eviction of the Embros theatre. A space that began as a response to the capital’s overthrow of iconic urban landmarks is sealed off to be overpowered.
The occupation of the Embros Theatre was the appropriation of a decaying cultural tool and its true utilization by people of art, politics, and the neighborhood. All these masses of people who passed, the participants and producers of another culture testing its grips, can attest to this but also reflect on what its loss signifies.
In the midst of the pandemic, in the most gentrified area for the capital’s small and large tourist capital, Embros was a thorn, not only for its political flavour but also for constituting an agitated and agressive voice at the centre of the tourist product. Something like a stronghold a few meters from the tables of the occupied city held parties, theatre performances, speeches, events, concerts, seminars, collective kitchens, festivals… For free. Organized horizontally. And without discrimination, neither ethnic, nor racial, nor, unfortunately for gentrification. [Read More]