Susa Valley: Call for demonstration in Claviere

The self-organized refuge ChezJesOulx calls everyone for a walk of resistance sunday 1st november at 11h from Claviere. The walk will be preceeded by a day of discussion on related topics such as: the border and the repression deriving from it, the detentions in the CPR, the exploitation connected to migratory flows in the Saluzzo countryside and beyond, at the occupied Casa Cantoniera in Oulx on the 31st of october at 11h.

Solidarity is under attack on both sides of the border, from the high valsusa to the briançonnais. In Italy, the Casa Cantoniera Occupata has continued for two years now to provide a free and self-determined space for all people who want to fight for their freedom of movement. The principles of self-management, anti-authoritarianism and direct solidarity guide our political project. As part of an investigation involving more than 170 people, 17 of them have received a residence ban from the border territory, the first time a precautionary measure is confirmed against an occupation.

In France, the occupied house in Gap, Cesai, was recently evicted, although this did not prevent the reopening of a new space, Chez Roger. In Briançon, the new mayor, Arnaud Murgia, declared open hostility to all solidarity initiatives, with the intention of closing the Maraudes and the CRS legal refuge,legally under possible eviction from the 28 of october. In addition, at the end of the summer, 60 new gendarmerie units were mobilized at the border between Montgenèvre and Claviere to increase the level of surveillance and pushbacks, with the support of the Italian police. But, as several cases already demonstrate, closing the borders, the places of association and struggle has never been a deterrent to migration. [Read More]

Calais: the saga of evictions continues

Yesterday morning, October 22, 2020, the Prefecture of Pas de Calais once again proceeded with the eviction and mass destruction of a camp. It was a place called “Unicorn Jungle”, where nearly 300 exiled people were surviving, according to the distribution of tents made by Utopia 56 a week earlier. Once again, the associations denounced the brutality and inefficiency of these operations. They do not respect the fundamental rights of the exiled.

The associations denounce the violation of the exiled people’s right to come and go. Once again, a dozen buses had been chartered to take them to an unknown destination. The authorities carried out a “sheltering” operation for at least 190 people. This “sheltering” of men, but also women and children. The uselessness of this “sheltering” operation can be seen, in particular, by the frequency of these operations. [Read More]

Berlin: Update on the International Call for Action and Discussion Days

International Call for Action and Discussion Days in Berlin 30.10.-01.11.2020
United We Fight! Connect Urban Struggles – Defend Autonomous Spaces

As Interkiezionale we keep up our 9 September call to the international action and discussion days of 30.10.-01.11.2020! We would like to inform you briefly about the current status of the preparations.

The spread of the Corona Pandemic, especially in a cold autumn like this one, and the governmental measures and regulations that accompany it, present us with new challenges. Clearly, we must and want to take care of each other and not endanger our health. At the same time, we see it as a necessity and not an arbitrary voluntary decision to continue our struggles in urban areas and, accordingly, to discuss and come together. [Read More]

Caen: Eleventh eviction in 4 months!

This morning, around 8:00 am, the gendarmerie evicted the three houses of the Cité de la Sucrerie in Cagny, squatted since September 9 by 7 families of Albanian and Kosovar origin. The procedure initiated by the multinational company Südzucker, owner of the premises, was quick. The deliberation reached us very late on Monday, October 5, day of the passage of the judicial officer who gave us an order to leave the premises within 48 hours! This one, very partial, was totally unfavorable to us, because it stipulated that the right to housing is of lower value than the right to property, and none of our arguments were retained. Those of the opposing party, which were not at all supported, were all retained: the unsanitary condition of the premises, the houses for sale on September 10, the day after their occupation as if by coincidence, the occupation, the failure to send the children to school even though we had produced the school certificates, the failure to seek housing on the part of families who “prefer” to squat, the implication of illegal income, etc. [Read More]

France: Anti-squat law, the parliament triples the penalties and introduces a denunciation measure

The assembly triples the penalties for untitled occupiers and allows any person to refer the matter to the prefect about an expeditious eviction.

Droit au Logement denounces the tripling of penalties against untitled occupiers, voted on Friday morning in the Assembly, at the initiative of the rapporteur Kasbarian, with no other opposition than that of a deputy FI (E. Coquerel).
This punitive measure satisfies security obsessed people, such as deputy E. Cioti, who declares that he wants “squatters to sleep in prison”. The homeless who settle in a vacant apartment are thus labeled criminals, because the street brings them nothing but suffering and premature death.
These MPs, like all those who demand anti-squat measures, do not care about the tenants who are illegally evicted, while no prosecution is initiated, except in exceptional cases.
They are however much more numerous than the very rare “occupants of other people’s homes” that we have been receiving since the end of August.

This punitive measure pursues another goal: by raising the sentence to three years, the public prosecutor’s office can thus bring the occupants to an immediate court appearance, after having taken them into custody. It thus proceeded to expel them without involving the Prefect. [Read More]

Brussels: Festival du Coucou Puissant, 3rd edition

For the third consecutive year, the Festival du Coucou Puissant will be held in Brussels from October 8 to November 1, 2020. There are countless private, public or unclassifiable spaces, temporarily occupied in our big city. This festival wants to make visible the occupations and the interstices of creation, alternative housing, resistance and collective experimentation that tries to develop there. The Coucou Puissant wants to be autonomous and self-organized. We are aware of the diversity of places and practices (squat, legal ones with a temporary contract…). We are also aware that there are fewer and fewer squats in Brussels to the benefit of occupations negotiated in advance… This questions us and we wonder how to assert the dynamics of the squats? In the current context of “post” confinement and the eviction period coming back, we also want to affirm our support with the very young “anti-eviction front”. The nomadic program of the festival will be able to support places in peril. The festival wants to be a space of solidarity, meeting, debate, autonomy, celebration and emancipation. [Read More]

Winterthur: Zensur, a new occupation for a social centre

We occupied the building on Talackerstrasse 99 this Friday evening. After it has been vacant for more than 3 years, we want to bring life to the former Sulzer office building and establish a social and cultural center.

The building is currently “owned” by Implenia, which is a driving force in the development of Winterthur into a “City of the Rich” with major projects such as LokStadt and the gentrification process of Hegi.

With the ZENSUR we want to create a space that enables people to implement projects without a lot of money. So that everyone can afford to be creative, do sports, show films and organize discussions. Every person should be able to contribute to the ZENSUR with his or her suggestions and skills to fulfill and realize their wishes and ideas collectively. [Read More]

Netherlands: Actions after 10 years of squatting ban

10 Years On! And you still can’t live in a waiting list!

Today, October 1st, 2020 marks the 10 year anniversary of the criminalisation of squatting in the Netherlands through the Kraken en Leegstand (Squatting & Emptiness) law.
Despite the law, kraken gaat door (squatting continues).
On the face of it, the law was created to end both squatting and emptiness. It has done neither. Buildings are still empty and for many people squatting remains a necessity. After all, it is not the existence of empty buildings that leads to squatting, but rather the lack of accessible housing.
Whether you are squatting, renting, or looking to buy a home, finding an available (let alone affordable) house is a struggle. [Read More]

Paris: Le Marbré, a new space to bring our struggles to life in Montreuil

Squat Le Marbré made itself known following the visit of the cops and the property manager on September 16 2020. Many people responded to the call for support that day and the following ones, and it was too much fun. Following a collective opening of the buildings and because we want this place to be self-organized, decisions will be made in a regular open general assembly of the place. We want to fight against all forms of authority and formal or informal hierarchies, both outside and inside the place. For us this means fighting all forms of domination and oppression.

This occupation is based on a refusal: the one of having to work and struggle to pay rent in the south part of Montreuil that is constantly gentrifying, whether to live or to organize. This space is part of a struggle against the capitalist valorization of the neighborhood, which always ends up pushing the poor away to make way for the richest and their small, uneventful meadow. No meadow, no precariousness!

Le Marbré wants to be a non-market place. Reflections have been initiated on the practice: operating at a free price, favoring moments of sociability without consumerism… [Read More]

London: Eviction resisted, we’d rather be squatters than scabs

On Thursday 24th September in Greenwich, London, an illegal eviction attempt on a squatted building was thwarted by a combination of self-organised defence and bloody minded stubbornness.

At 6.30am, high court enforcement agents in black masks used heavy tools to cut the locks on the gate and attempted to force entry into the building using threats of physical violence. The occupiers managed to hold the door, and by 8.30am a crowd of around 30 members of London’s autonomous community had gathered to support them as they besieged people inside. The defenders travelled from across the city in support, including members of the newly energised Eviction Resistance Network, a gang from militant trans activists NFA Queer Punx, and legal support from the Advisory Service for Squatters.

Spirits remained high as the crowd dominated the car park area in front of the building, gradually managing to squeeze the bailiffs and their hired goons back with a consistent tirade of obstinant resistance. The crowd sang “Well I’d rather be a squatter than a scab!”, and one activist was able to begin deliveries of food and toilet paper to those locked inside via the scaffolding.
[Read More]

Uppsala: Callout from Blodstensskogen

About a year ago, the forest-occupation project in Uppsala started [previously on S!N] after the municipality officially decided to clear a more than 200-year-old forest in order to build expensive high-rise buildings in its place.

The forest, Blodstensskogen, is located between two nature reserves and thus serves as a corridor for the many forest animals to move around. At the same time, Blodstensskogen has developed a strong and diverse ecosystem through its long existence. For example, there are deciduous trees and fir trees that are over a hundred years old, and it is home to many animals, including those that are protected (Red Listed Animals: different insects such as the longhorn beetle, musk longhorn beetle, scarlet fungus beetle, birds such as the black woodpecker and the crested tit, fungi such as the pine fire sponge, irpicodon pendulus, resupinate spurge and the beautiful earth stars, as well as three different species of bats that use the Blodstensskogen as hunting grounds and for reproduction).
[Read More]

Calais: the ban on distributing food to migrants is maintained. Mobilization on September 26th

For the judge of the administrative court of Lille, 4 kms on foot to eat, that’s fine.

In an order dated September 22, the judge of the administrative court of Lille rejected the request made by 12 local and national associations to cancel the order of September 10, by which the prefect of Pas-de-Calais prohibited any free distribution of drinks and food in certain places in the city center of the municipality of Calais.

The judge stated that the distributions put in place by the State were allegedly sufficient to cover the needs of all exiled people present in Calais, including those sleeping in the city center, considering that “the circumstance that in order to access them, migrants settled in the city center since early August must travel three kilometers is not such as to characterize undignified living conditions”.

This assessment is particularly questionable. Indeed, the humanitarian indicators developed either by the UNHCR or within the framework of the SPHERE project, specify, for example, concerning drinking water, that it must be accessible at less than 500m from where people live – the distances in question being in this case between 4 and 5km, which represents an hour’s walk one way, and that it is necessary to go to two distributions per day. [Read More]