Villeurbanne: trial of the Ile égalité squat, call for support

Friday 26 february 2021, gathering and breakfast at 8:30 in front of the court house in Villeurbanne.

The île égalité squat, a place for housing and solidarity of the Collectif Solidarités Cusset, is in danger. After 3 months of existence, renovation, activities and meetings, the survival of the place is threatened by a court decision. Call for support!

After a first postponement, our trial will take place on Friday, February 26th following the lawsuit filed by the Richard Foundation, owner of the building, which demands the immediate eviction of the inhabitants. In a period of extreme cold and in the midst of a health crisis, the Richard Foundation is going so far as to ask that they be deprived of the protection guaranteed by the winter truce!

Since the first confinement, a neighborhood group of residents of Cusset decided to organize themselves collectively to deal with the health and social situation in order to offer concrete solidarity with the most vulnerable: students, the unemployed, undocumented workers, workers, large families, retirees, etc. For four months, they made their contribution in the face of the food and health emergency. They set up distributions of food and hygiene products in the form of a free market, with the support of several city organizations. [Read More]

Berlin: Rigaer94 – A thunderstorm is coming

As already explained in our last text from Friday (1), we expect from now on a bigger operation against our house. The initially ridiculous fire safety issue has led to developments that put the continued existence of Rigaer94 as a (partially) occupied space in the highest danger. We would like to explain what happened legally, what we expect concretely and what we can do now to defend this place and the idea behind it.

New judgment regarding the legal representation and the house management

During the last attack on our house in the summer of 2020, the duo of Luschnat and Bernau gathered extensive information about the house. Despite court orders in force at the time, which had unanimously declared their powers of representation for Lafone Ltd. invalid, the police task force had given the two access to large parts of the house. Pretext of the whole action were search warrants for two dwellings because of alleged social fraud and the search for a laser pointer. Luschnat and Bernau, who were involved in the operation, used the information they had obtained to compile a list of alleged fire safety deficiencies. Police also documented the house with this in mind. [Read More]

Berlin: Køpi Wagenplatz – Legal proceeding of eviction have started

It is almost our 31st birthday and we would love to celebrate with all of you but instead we have difficult news to share: Køpi Wagenplatz has received a legal document starting the eviction process from the current owner Startezia GmbH.
Startezia`s letter demands they will take vacant possession of Køpi Wagenplatz by the end of February 2021. After this date the owner will continue legal proceedings for eviction.
Obviously this news hits us hard but this is just the beginning of a long fight. We will update you regularly and we count on international solidarity.

Come to the Wagenplatz demonstration and support our fight against displacement and for self-determined housing! On the 20th of February at 2pm sharp we will start from KØPI by bike and join the the truck convoy in Scheffelstrasse at 3pm.

Køpi bleibt Risikokapital! [Read More]

France: Zad du Carnet, eviction risk confirmed

This morning, February 10th, we had the pleasure to be woken up by the bailiff accompanied by the cops. We were given the eviction order.

On February 4, the local elected officials and the harbour manager gave formal notice to the prefecture to demand the eviction of the ZAD du Carnet, during a hearing in summary proceedings at the administrative court of Nantes. We expect to learn the court’s decision any day.

After 5 months of pressure from the cops, the fascists, the mayors who are waiting for their checks, and the media smearing us, this time they think they can finally subdue us.
We have strong reason to believe that the decision will be to our disadvantage and will order our eviction. We expect the cops taking action within the next few days. So we need moral, human and material support!

Let’s not wait for their deliberation to organize ourselves! If you want to defend the ZAD du Carnet: it’s now or never! [Read More]

Berlin: Rigaer94 calls for international solidarity – destruction of our space expected

After the eviction of the anarcha-queer-feminist house project Liebig34 on 9th of october 2020, the offensive of state and capital against self-organized structures in the northern area of Friedrichshain and other parts of the city did not cease. The Liebig34 is since then under the control of the owner and the presence of his gang had also an affect on the local life. The so called Dorfplatz (“village square”) lying directly in front of the house was during the last months less used by residents and visitors as a common space and saw some minor confrontations with the invaders. With having taken one of the strategic points in the area and in the same time removing a political obstacle, state and capital could focus on the Rigaer94, which lies just some meters away from the Dorfplatz and has been a constant topic in the medias over the last year.

A few days ago, cops and diggers destroyed a settlement of homeless people in Rummels Bay, a few kilometers from us. The pretext here was the extreme frost, in reality it is also there to serve the profit of investors. Also expected in the next few weeks is the eviction of the Potse Youth Center – the city is in the process of removing any rebellious site. [Read More]

London: Harvil Road Protection Camp eviction alert

Urgent update: Harvil Road Protection Camp, Colne valley, Greater London (StopHS2) being evicted now. [13 Feb 11:00] As the anti-HS2 protestors dig in for a 17th night in tunnels Euston, central London… 25 miles west, Harvil Road protection camp in the Colne valley, Greater London is under siege. Harvil road where the on ground opposition to HS2 all began 3.5 years ago, for long the only outpost of resistance to HS2, might breath its last breath tonight.
The National Eviction Team arrived en masse at midnight threatening arrests if protestors high up in the trees in hammocks did not immediately get down. Protestors at the protection camp have said the NET’s forceful and aggressive arrival in the dead of night has put the physical safety of the protestors in jeapordy. Some have been forcefully removed and thrown into the freezing subzero night, others have had police chase them through fields for over a mile.
The camp, once situated in a green and verdant landscape is now surrounded by mile after mile of building site and endless floodlights at night. Protestors currently on the ground at the camp are expecting much more to come especially in the early hours of the morning and have put a call out for support.

Brussels: Update from the Solidarity Requisition Campaign

On December 18, 2020, L’Hospitalière was open! Since then, the Solidarity Requisition Campaign continues! Here the news from the different buildings.

L’Hospitalière:
A precarious occupancy agreement has been signed: 80 places of decent housing have been opened, in a building that was otherwise doomed to remain unoccupied. This occupation will also allow the collectives to organize their struggles for the regularization of undocumented migrants and for dignity!

Citydev building:
Negotiations are underway, we hope to be able to conclude a one-year agreement (at least until the end of March 2022). About 30 people are already living in the building. We are waiting for the heating to be turned on again and for the fire department to visit us so that we can complete the move of the Jette occupancy. In all, 200 people will be able to live there. [Read More]

Toulouse: call-out for solidarity with the squat on Fronton Avenue

In September, an unoccupied house in Toulouse‘s Minimes district is squatted and, following legal proceedings, the occupants benefit from the winter truce (recently extended from March 31 to June 1 as part of the health crisis). These two months of extension alone trigger an update of the anti-squat media and political wave of recent months.

On February 7, the newspaper La Dépêche, published a miserable article on the “so-called” situation of Roland, a former employee of the same newspaper… The affair invaded social networks and media in the days that followed, leading to the massive presence of journalists, always there to defend the owners, possessors and other dominants.

Each time, it’s the same rhetoric, the same bogus story: old people who would be put out on the street by squatters. For them, the fable is attractive: it is the landlords who would be in misery and it is the squatters who would be at the origin of the evils of old age. Behind this fable, which plays on pathos, are clear objectives: to support the intensification of repression against squats by promoting new laws reinforcing the rights of landlords (ASAP law and other proposals to parliament). But no one is fooled: if some elderly people cannot afford the EPHAD (housing establishments for dependent elderly people) and others occupy empty houses, it is because the states and capitalism organize and maintain the misery of billions of people, elderly or not. [Read More]

Rotterdam: building squatted in Delfshaven

A number of Rotterdammers have squatted a building in Delfshaven. They want to make a statement to the city council. Rotterdam has been pushing people on the minimum wage out of the city for years. The activists are now drawing a line and want a higher minimum wage and affordable housing.
Inequality in Rotterdam is becoming more and more visible. Everywhere in the city, social housing is poorly maintained and demolished to make way for expensive housing. Rents continue to rise in our city and the income of Rotterdammers with a minimum wage or a benefit is lagging behind. There is also less and less room for their social activities and initiatives. They are being pushed out of our city. There seems to be no place for them anymore.
We do not accept this. That is why we support the Rotterdammers who have moved into the building at Havenstraat 231. They are claiming back a piece of Rotterdam to draw attention to the struggle of many Rotterdammers. Together with them we want the wealth and space in our city to be distributed more fairly. Only then can every Rotterdammer participate and have a place. This can be done by raising the minimum wage to 14 euros per hour in 2022 and by properly maintaining and renovating social housing.
Our city council did not want to listen before. Once again we call on them to ensure that every Rotterdammer can live affordably and have a decent income. We call on the City of Rotterdam to choose for us.
We want a thriving, colorful city in which everyone can live and thrive instead of survive. [Read More]

Angers: eviction of the Grande Ourse and nazi attack, the city where it is good to live

On Thursday, January 21, 2021, in the middle of winter, the forces of law and order and the prefecture proceeded to evict the Grande Ourse squat, a place of militancy and solidarity. It housed many homeless people, students, the working poor … The issues of poverty, equality, solidarity, were at the center of the actions carried out by its activists, they regularly organized rounds to distribute food to people on the streets. People from outside the city could also get together, there were regular cultural events, film screenings, debates… But what is the problem, at a time when students in Angers are facing a housing shortage, at a time when the covid-19 crisis is plunging an increasingly large proportion of young workers into poverty? The problem is that these activists are holding a political discourse, that by occupying an unused building the holiness of private property has been called into question. That’s unacceptable, we don’t question that, especially when that questioning benefits people who don’t intend to use it for capitalist ends, especially when it benefits people who advocate values other than competition and individual financial enrichment. So here we are, the prefecture will return the furniture store to its legitimate owner. He will be able to put back beds where no one will ever sleep or make other projects allowing him to increase his capital a little more. [Read More]

Wuppertal (Germany): A statement by the Osterholz Forest Occupation

Wuppertal. Germany. A statement by the Osterholz Forest Occupation, a forest that is occupied since August 2019. The Oetelshofen company wants to clear a part of the Osterholz forest to store the waste of their lime pit. In the past weeks cop activity has increased in the forest and it all smells like the state is preparing an eviction of the forest occupation. The Osterholz Occupation is now asking people to come to the forest.

The forest has called us and we have heard its call. We were absent for a long time, but we are back on the island of freedom. The oasis has grown, a lot has changed. Old platforms have disappeared and new ones have been built. It is beautiful here. We thank the people who have stayed here for so long without us.
[Read More]

Arlon: Call to resist. Eviction threat at the Zablière on January 26

For more than a year, a piece of land has been torn from the concrete. The former Schoppach sandpit, where wild animals and plants used to coexist with Sunday walks, is threatened by a zoning project for businesses including offices and parking lots, and this since it was bought from the municipality by Idelux-Aive.

Some people decided to occupy this forest in order to defend it against this threat, responding to a call from local residents desperate for attention to their voice. This year was an opportunity to bring about another turning point in the struggle “for the climate” by making it take a real ecological and social turn; from the occupation of roundabouts by yellow vests to a forest occupation by Zadists. In this way, the tree houses made it possible to hear the cries of the birds.

For a year, the winter, police and mafia threats did not succeed in lowering the mood of the Zablière’s occupants, not even a few slanderous opponents. From this impulse of resistance were born direct actions, a book of photos and poetry, a film, a free university, friendships and a lot of other things impossible to describe without being there. [Read More]