Brussels: eviction suspended and doors open to the Louise occupation

By: fawda - May 26th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

The mobilization against the threat of eviction of the Louise/Defacqz occupation seems to be bearing fruit. In a few days, more than 60 associations and 2000 citizens have signed a petition to ask the owners to reconsider their position and to allow the occupying individuals and families to stay in the shelter until the work is done. Thank you for your support!

The eviction has been suspended and the owners could start negotiating a temporary occupation agreement again. Contacts in this sense have taken place with their lawyer and with the alderman for housing of the city of Brussels. The owners have to come back to the occupants in order to, we hope, advance in the negotiations. Nothing is won yet, but things are moving in the right direction. Let’s stay mobilized for the future! [Read More]

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Berlin: Analysis, Tips and Tactics – Don’t wait until it’s too late

By: fawda - May 8th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Køpi and Rigaer94 are calling for the “Don’t wait until it’s too late” Demo, may 15th on Gendarmenmarkt.

It should be a strong and dynamic demo, not waiting for the next eviction date. There have been many evaluations and analysis of our demos in the last years, enough so to succeed a few times in breaking out of our usual behaviour and winning back some potential for action. We’re hoping for our demos to be good for more than just being seen and heard, or blocking something. It’s about creating collective moments, moments where we can find together in the street, moments of breaking with normality, getting over mass inertia and snapping the social reigns. Moments were we can recognize and experience our collective strength. Not as an event but with the goal of creating an instant which connects us with other points in a timeline of radical praxis and building on them. Moments from which a dynamic can grow, where it’s possible to join spontaneously, where people can dare to try new things and gain experience. In order not to turn this quest into our own impasse it’s necessary to always rethink and adjust our approach and break out of habits and routines. As a base we gathered some analysis and suggestions here. [Read More]

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Madrid: La Ingobernable opens a Social Rights Office in the center of the city

By: fawda - May 7th, 2021  Filed under: Communique

The collective that squatted the building at 39 Gobernador St. announced this morning that they have occupied a building at 5 Cruz St. to “resist in common and conquer new rights”.

With the slogan “Social rights to change everything”, the collective of La Ingobernable has started this new project that they have called Office of Social Rights (ODS, Oficina de Derechos Sociales). In a communiqué they explain that it will serve to “resist in common and conquer new rights” because they cannot “wait any longer” and point out that the current crisis of covid19 “hits us with other pandemics: hunger lines, distrust, fascism, precariousness, racism, speculation, loneliness, pessimism and fear,” they claim.

The ODS will have seven axes that respond to seven social urgencies: the right to housing, the right to food, the right to protest, labor precariousness, transfeminisms and dissidence, basic income and community health. It is this context of social emergency, which has prompted the collective to raise the slogan “Social rights to change everything”, with a commitment to “resist in common” and open this space where “develop, protect and fight for social rights”. [Read More]

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Brussels: a hundred residents mobilise to avoid eviction

By: fawda - May 7th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Press release 7 May 2021. Brussels city – a hundred residents are mobilising to avoid eviction: the building has been empty since 2017 and belongs to Belgium’s second largest fortune.

The building was squatted by the “Solidarity Requisition Campaign” in March. Following the occupation, negotiations were started in order to reach an agreement and sign a temporary occupation agreement with the owner, Viscountess Caroline de Spoelberch. Despite encouraging beginnings, the latter is now backing down and has obtained an eviction order. The residents are mobilising to avoid being thrown out on the street in the midst of a social and health crisis.

A hundred or so people have been living for over a month in the gigantic building , which overlooks both Rue de Livourne and Avenue Louise. Purchased in 2018 for 18 million euros by Caroline de Spoelberch, it has remained unoccupied since then. For this reason, the “Solidarity Requisitioning Campaign” took over the building at the end of March and several groups of homeless or badly housed people, including the Voice of the Homeless BXL and the Voice of the Homeless Family, quickly moved in. [Read More]

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Solothurn: Wagenplatz “Wagabunten”, 7 years are enough! The “Wagabunten” are still around!

By: fawda - May 5th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

For 7 years now we can be found in our trailers in the city of Solothurn and the surrounding area. 7 years in which we have tried to get our request for a fixed location for our caravan site. But unfortunately there is still no solution for our alternative living project.
In these 7 years we have tried different solutions: we have collected signatures, we have actively approached land owners, be they private individuals, the city, the canton or the surrounding communities.
A concept was also worked out and sent to various parties. But even with the consent of a private land owner and a building permit, obstacles were put in the way of our project. Therefore, the occupation of brownfield sites has proved to be the most effective method for us. In this way we have occupied over 25 derelict sites in the last 7 years. For us “Wagabunten” this means moving on average every 3 to 4 months!
We demand a location for our trailer park!
There are some examples of alternative living in Bern, Biel, Lucerne, etc. that show that they’re in demand and that there are possibilities to legalise such projects. [Read More]

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Berlin: Køpi Weekend of Protest

By: fawda - May 2nd, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Køpi calls for friends and allies from around the world to meet in Berlin on the 15th and 16th of May for a weekend of protest. As Køpiplatz (trailer park) faces the most serious eviction threat to date, Køpi stands united to fight for our homes and families. Køpi has been a DIY project in the heart of Berlin offering living space for people in the house and trailer park for more than 30 years. It also continues to be a home for collectives, events, and creative energy since the day the first door was broken open. We will not give up our way of life for some state backed developers! When the law wants to take our homes away, it’s time to break the law!
The alleged owner of Køpi, Startezia GmbH, is just another example of how our homes and autonomous communities are destroyed by anonymous postbox companies that care only about profit and not about people. Køpiplatz does not face the threat of eviction alone. Other Berlin projects, Potse, Rigaer 94, and Queer Wagenplatz Mollies are also in immediate danger. In the last year alone, crucial left-wing places like Liebig 34, Syndikat, Meuterei, Diesel A, Sabot Garden and G17a have already been evicted. [Read More]

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Utrecht: save the Reactorweg

By: fawda - May 2nd, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

A squat in the city of Utrecht at Reactorweg in the district of Lage Weide is being threatened with eviction. The reason? The Utrechts Studenten Corps (Utrecht Student Association, USC from here), a Fraternity, wants to throw its 77th annual “lustre” party in the 3 squatted buildings that house 25 people and numerous social, cultural, and political initiatives. To make such an eviction during the COVID-pandemic and a housing crisis in Utrecht, the students are essentially helping the owner evict the 25 squatters, putting them on the streets.
But we still have hope! If we manage to raise sufficient funding we can initiate a higher appeal, in which other judges will revise the case.

The situation

A court ruling last week decided that the people living at the Reactorweg in Utrecht will be evicted to facilitate a week-long party organized by the USC.
The living groups think it is unacceptable that a student party gets precedence over their right to proper and affordable housing. Consequently, the living groups went to court to prevent this from happening. “The people living here are very diverse. Some live here as there are no alternatives, others live here more out of ideological reasons.” In the court case, the squatters emphasized the urgency of the case and said they will be homeless if the eviction continues. “Some have applied for social housing a decade ago and still can’t find proper housing,” one of the defendants explained. [Read More]

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Saint-Étienne: le Steal, new squatted space

By: fawda - April 22nd, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Since Sunday 18 April 2021, we have been occupying le Steal, a former music school in Saint-Etienne, which has been empty for several months and which belongs to the city. We wish to make it a place of struggle, life and discussions open to all.
We occupy this building because we refuse to choose between a growing precariousness and a world of profit more and more dehumanizing, to always more toiling while others amass billions and to rent slums while the city hall leaves buildings to the abandonment. This place is meant to host various cultural and political events and to support anti-capitalist, anti-racist, LGBTI+, ecologist struggles, etc… and therefore open to all people and groups wishing to organize, meet and discuss around them.
We will keep you informed about the next events and we want to keep the communication around this place.
Do not hesitate to come and meet us! [Read More]

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Amsterdam: squat eviction, what happened at Oudezijds Voorburgwal 136

By: fawda - April 21st, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

This is going to be personal, this is going to be emotional. We are people with feelings, with political convictions, with longing for freedom. Our struggle and our wounds are written and felt in our bodies. We are angry and we are sad, we are tired and we are determined. Evictions are public spectacles, collective traumas. Certain people are to blame. So we will name them and we will shame them.

Why we squatted Oudezijds Voorburgwal 136:

There are many reasons to squat. The line between personal reasons and political is – as always – blurred. We not only squat because of a need for affordable housing with an imagination of what this space could be, but also with anger towards the racism, colonialism and capitalism this building represents. Watch the video to see our political statement. [Read More]

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Basel: actions days, new squat on Florastrasse 23 evicted

By: fawda - April 21st, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

TOGETHER AGAINST EMPTINESS – WHO OWNS THE SPACE?“
APRIL 17-23, EVERYWHERE

With the rapid deepening of structural inequalities, lack of solutions, and the economic crisis amplified by Corona, a void has entered many of our minds, bodies, future plans, social interactions, relationships, and wallets.
Stay at home and do nothing? We have a different idea of solidarity! Let’s denounce grievances together! Point out where the problems of the crisis are buried! Question the principles of our society! Share experiences! Time for unconventional solutions! Civil disobedience is more than appropriate! Solidarity with hand and foot can be lived! Together against emptiness!

This morning, april 21 2021, Florastrasse 23 was occupied. The house has been empty for a year and should have been used again. The owner, however, was not happy about this news and called in the police without further notice. A constructive conversation or other negotiation between the squatters and the owner was unfortunately not possible. The house was thus evicted by the police after a few hours. There were no arrests. [Read More]

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Dijon: Ransacking at l’Engrenage

By: fawda - April 20th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Very early this Tuesday morning, a police force accompanied by an armada of construction machines was deployed to devastate the land on Avenue de Langres that had been occupied for almost a year.
Several bulldozers, excavators, trucks and the DESERTOT company’s manitou were mobilized to try to put an end to the gardens, as well as loggers who were in charge of cutting down the trees.
The municipality deploys the great means. Flowers, blades of grass, everything goes. The will is clear: nothing must remain of what can look like greenery.
This ransacking operation comes at the beginning of spring, whereas for weeks the gardeners had been working to make this place an open and shared place of passage between the residents.

The house located in the middle of the gardens remains protected by a court decision, and will not be evicted today (unless the cops decide to illegally force their way in). It is thanks to the presence of the inhabitants in this house that the alert was given early in the morning. The call relayed by friendly neighbors allowed people to converge in solidarity from the first minutes. They tried to block the construction machines by overtaking the police force that had just been set up. Some people were thus able to reach the house to defend it, while several others climbed on the roof of the house. [Read More]

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Brussels: School 404 evicted after fire

By: fawda - April 18th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Press release of the school 404

This Saturday, April 10th, a fire took place in the former school 14, rue Capronnier 1, in Schaerbeek. Renamed School 404, this place was inhabited since March 2020 by about thirty people and several associations including Hope4ever and the ASBL 404. Fortunately, there were no physical injuries. On the same day, the municipality enforced its decision to evict these inhabitants from their dwelling by the police.
The course of this day and those that followed, the handling of the situation by the public services, the forces of order, the firemen, the media and the owners of the place, reveals various mistreatments, discriminations and abuses of all kinds.

We will not keep quiet about our anger and refuse that once again, our dissident voices are silenced and stripped of their political dimension. We refuse the stigmatization of squatters, and claim squatting as one of the most relevant and emancipating political dynamics in the city of Brussels today. [Read More]

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