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]
Berlin: Køpi Weekend of Protest
Utrecht: save the Reactorweg
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]
Saint-Étienne: le Steal, new squatted space
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]
Amsterdam: squat eviction, what happened at Oudezijds Voorburgwal 136
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]
Basel: actions days, new squat on Florastrasse 23 evicted
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]
Dijon: Ransacking at l’Engrenage
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]
Brussels: School 404 evicted after fire
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]
Dijon: opening of a house for exiled women and gender minorities
A house for exiled people in Dijon
Since Wednesday, April 7, a house located at 23 avenue Roland Carraz in Chenôve has been occupied, with the objective of making it a place of residence for exiled women and gender minorities. Women represent nearly 30% of asylum seekers, but they are still invisible in the media and public discourse.
However, being an exiled woman, and even more so being LGBTQIA+, means being exposed to more difficulties, on the one hand on the migratory routes but also once you arrive in France: precariousness, sexual violence… and administrative violence, inflicted by the whole asylum application process. In the OFPRA offices, among other absurd and painful justifications, LGBTQIA+ people are obliged to prove their sexual orientation or gender, undergoing the heavy (and often impossible) task of telling their intimate story, while possibly not being believed if they do not fit the stereotypes. [Read More]
Berlin: Demonstration – 6 Months Undead – Liebig 34 is Everywhere
Friday 9 April 2021 – 16:00, rally at Dorfplatz (Friedrichshain), Rigaerstr. Ecke Liebigstr
Saturday 10 April 2021 – 12:00, demonstration from Dorfplatz.
Six months since Liebig 34, as the constellation of the haus on the corner of Liebigstrasse and Rigaerstrasse, ceased to exist. Six months since years of struggle culminated in an eviction in the morning, a riot in the evening, countless other acts of solidarity -including an attack on the ringbahn which left it out of service for days- and ultimately the loss of a global symbol of anarcho-queer-feminism.
But six months on and Liebig lives; in Bristol where last week a demonstration -following the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard by a Metropolitican police officer- against gendered violence and a new authoritarian policing bill escalated into a night of violence against the police; in London where the same struggle resulted in the occupation of a disused police station; in Mexico City on International Women’s day, where militant feminists broke down the fence surrounding the National Palace and set fire to the riot cops’ shields; in the last week in Berlin where the eviction of Meuterei and the ongoing threat to Rigaer 94, Potse, Koepi Wagenplatz and other projects saw demonstrating and attacks. With the haus gone Liebig is at once nowhere and everywhere. [Read More]
Rotterdam: You can’t evict a movement
Dear neighbours,
This week are threatened with eviction by Woonbron. The police will arrive on the street and the local news might write an article about “squatters in the Havenstraat”. We will not leave the building until we are forced to do so. We want to take a moment to explain our perspective and thank you for your support.
We are not criminals. We have been working to setup a neighbourhood social center in the Havenstraat for over 2 months as part of a campaign to create political pressure for more affordable and well maintained social housing and a higher minimum wage. Since we have occupied this building, we have made it accessible to the neighbourhood and the city, repaired the damage caused by Woonbron’s neglect in the building and organised public activities.
Woonbron used false claims to win a court case against us and force an eviction. Please see the post where we make a public response. Unfortunately, we know there are no clear plans for socially responsible use of this building. Because of this, we want to propose a new name for Woonbron: Leegstandsbron.
We have met some of you visiting in the building, showing solidarity with posters on your windows and some of you have even made press statements in support of our action. We would like to thank you very much for your support. [Read More]
Athens: Zizania, new squatted social center in Victoria
Welcome to Zizania, a squatted social center in Victoria, at the corner of Fylis and Feron streets. May it be a neighbourhood space for self-organisation, social interventions, collective resistance and community building. Let’s meet in this space for sharing thoughts, food, coffee, clothes and whatever else we can imagine. For freeshops and free haircuts, for caffeneios and screenings, for learning and reading, for workshops and assemblies. Let’s celebrate it as a step towards the liberation of more public spaces, let’s make the best of this opportunity, as we are the ones who shape and take on our own struggles and shouldn’t rely neither on other people, designated institutions, nor better circumstances to do so.
With Zizania we foremostly aim to create a breathing space from the racist, sexist, capitalistic violence of the state and society. We envision a space of interaction and exchange between people of different backgrounds, origins, identities and ages, who speak different languages and have different opinions. These are conditions we must create and concretise together, through meeting each other, strengthening relationships inside and between our communities and connecting our struggles. For too long we have only been dreaming about something like this – surely we weren’t the only ones – and now we want to take action. In that spirit, we invite you to bring your issues, ideas, initiatives, and struggles to discuss how we can shape this space together. [Read More]
Susa Valley: about the eviction of the Casa Cantoniera
For a year now, the pandemic has disrupted the lives of billions of people, and in the dystopian world where the huge increase in surveillance and control systems is legitimised by the doctrine of war on the virus, where everything is illegal except going to work, the evictions do not stop.
Two and a half years after it opened, the Casa Cantoniera Occupata, the self-managed shelter in Oulx, was evicted.
Inside the House was full of people: the pandemic has never stopped those on the move without the privilege of having a place to stay.
Occupied in December 2018, it was a place created to give solidarity to people who wanted to cross the French-Italian border at the Montgenèvre Pass. A place of struggle and self-organisation, against all borders and military and political devices that seek to control and select. [Read More]
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