The Liebig 34 will celebrate its 30th birthday at the beginning of July. Eviction titles, media hype and annoying cops don’t spoil these days. Viva la Liebig!
Thirty years ago, after the fall of the Wall, people from a wide variety of backgrounds flocked to East Berlin to take advantage of the chance offered by the unresolved chains of command and the unspeakable vacancy. Entire streets and blocks of houses were occupied, redesigned and filled with ideas and creativity. The streets of Friedrichshain were full of life and very practical solidarity. At one corner there was a discussion meeting, in the next open-air cinema and there food was cooked for the whole street.
In these hours also lies the origin of our collective, which entered the rooms of Liebigstraße 34 in July 1990 and thus made the beginning of this project. In the following years a lot changed: the squat became a feminist house project without cis men. Through hard work and years of struggle it was tried to create a shelter and to offer an alternative to the cis-sexist everyday life.
Now, 30 years later, is the project to end? [Read More]
Berlin: 30 years Liebig 34 – We never stop!
Wassenaar: Ivicke’s Zoning Plan, a Monumental Fuck Up
Enforcement of a zoning plan would suggest there is a plan. There isn’t.
The municipality of Wassenaar has decided to pursue our eviction from Huize Ivicke on the basis of the building’s zoning plan which designates its function as an office, not a residence.
Their reasoning for the decision appears to be that ‘Kantoor Ivicke’ must become ‘uninhabited’ once again in order to be ‘presentable.’ Strange, since we all seem to recall that Ivicke being uninhabited is what led to it becoming unpresentable in the first place.
The fact that it is a house, that it has largely been used as a house, that anti-squat guardians lived at Ivicke for several years under the current owner’s watch, and that many thousands of people are living “illegally” in non-residential (and often state-owned) buildings as anti-squat guardians across the country is apparently irrelevant.
The normalization of actual offices and other business premises as anti-squat housing – operating in a ‘legal grey zone’ – demonstrates that Ivicke’s designation as an office is incidental; a handy bureaucratic tool the municipality can choose to use or disregard, depending on their interests at any given time. [Read More]
Caen: eviction of the squat of the former Guy Liar College in Mondeville
On Wednesday 24th June, from 6am, the Calvados prefecture evicted a squat in Mondeville, the former Guy Liard college on rue Albert Bayet at the request of the owner, the departmental council and with the agreement of the town hall of Mondeville. Four families were housed in four former staff housing units, two other families and single people had been living in a former administrative building since January 4th. A total of about 40 people, including about 15 children, were evicted this morning. The Prefecture communicated as early as 6.15 am on social networks, proposing a solution of one week’s re-housing in a hotel after studying the individual situations, and it “will invite foreign nationals in an irregular situation to leave the national territory”! This means that families will either be placed under house arrest at the hotel (daily judicial control at the police station, obligation to be present at the hotel from 6pm to 9pm…), or deported to the CRA (Administrative Detention Centre) in Oissel near Rouen (the one in Rennes is closed and will reopen on 30 June) awaiting a hypothetical deportation.
As part of the state of health emergency, the winter truce has been extended until July 10th. This measure applies to all the squats under the jurisdiction of the Tribunal d’Instance (ten out of twelve squats currently). This squat was evictable since February 21st by decision of the Administrative Court, therefore it could not benefit from the winter truce from a legal point of view. Nevertheless, given the current circumstances, it is perfectly scandalous to throw dozens of people out on the street after a week of rehousing in a hotel or to consider their eviction in some cases. [Read More]
Zürich: Juch resists! New occupations
This evening June 20th, Grimselstrasse 18 and 20, Saumackerstrasse 67 and 69 have been squatted. The squatters* took these spaces in response to the Juch eviction on 23rd May.
If you evict one space, we* will open a new one!
Exactly one month ago today, the Social Department of the City of Zurich filed a criminal complaint and subsequently had the Juch area evicted by a large contingent of the Zurich City Police. This is only because the neighboring stadium construction site of HRS Real Estate seems to need more space to turn its trucks around and thus expand its empire as quickly and profitably as possible on behalf of the city. Marco Cortesi (spokesperson for the Zurich city police) also stressed in an interview in front of the freshly evicted area that the main thing now was to immediately make the area uninhabitable and then guard it with private security forces. Even the left-wing parties of the city of Zurich complain that it is extremely questionable and inappropriate to destroy residential and cultural spaces for a building site installation, and wrote in a jointly published media release: “For us it is clear: the demolition of buildings for the use of an area as parking space is unacceptable. Although no meaningful use was promised and a shady deal between the city of Zurich and HRS was settled without any transparency, the squatters* had to leave the Juch area. It cannot be said often enough: This is outrageous from the city of Zurich! We are furious! [Read More]
Dijon: Land occupation on Avenue de Langres
Statement from the June 17 Collective – Land occupation in Dijon as part of the June 17 appeal against the repeated intoxication of the world!
Today wednesday June 17th 2020, despite the rain, we were nearly four hundred people to demonstrate from the Place de la République to the abandoned plot located at 63 avenue de Langres. Armed with spades and pitchforks, the participants were able to clear the land to make gardens, set up new meeting and breathing spaces in the heart of the neighbourhood, plant vegetables, debate the common future on this land and beyond, or share a meal.
This land is threatened by a real estate project carried by the council which, with a great deal of “greenwashing” communication, is trying to impose yet another useless urban plan. According to the INSEE, there are more than 6000 vacant homes in the commune of Dijon alone. Except for the municipality – which wants to grow at all costs to establish its status as a “metropolis” – for whom is it a priority to have more new housing? [Read More]
Strasbourg: La Pigeonne, feminist and queer squat
Why are we squatting?
We, women and queer people, feminists, precarious, exiled and marginalised on several levels, are occupying a building in Strasbourg that has been abandoned for several years. Since February 27th 2020, La Pigeonne has become a squat for housing and organization in a selected mix (without cisgender men*).
As women and queers, we are targets of physical, sexual, economic, social and administrative violence. We suffer more poverty and precariousness. We claim our unconditional right to have a roof over our heads. We find it aberrant to be on the street, to lack care or food while the wealthy one are wasting and continue to enrich themselves. Precariousness has never been a choice for anyone. It is the result of a political, organized and reaffirmed will of the dominant to maintain an exploitable class. Neither the institutions nor the bosses want our autonomy. On the contrary, they participate daily in our precariousness.
Therefore, our priorities are to protect ourselves, to build solidarity among ourselves, to denounce together a patriarchal society and an economic system that sacrifices the most vulnerable. For a social transformation and the emancipation of all women and queer people, we favour initiatives made by us and for us.
In the face of the incompetence of the state, the violence of its institutions, and its sexist, queerphobic and racist police repression that is increasingly violent and systematic, we organize ourselves. We are occupying the space we are being denied. [Read More]
Lyon: Trial of the Feyzin squat, call for support
Faced with the threats of evictions that are likely to follow one another at the end of the winter truce, let’s organize solidarity!
Squats and other informal housing are among the places most exposed to the risks linked to the health crisis. While during the confinement, the State and the Metropolis have hardly brought any help in these already precarious housing, the eviction procedures are starting again, and threaten to put on the street more than a thousand people in Lyon as soon as the winter truce ends (July 10).
On June 16, the former Georges Brassens school in Feyzin, now owned by Total, went on trial. Home to about 70 people, the school has been renovated and made liveable, and is now a place where its residents can live. Let’s come and support them in the face of threats of eviction to demand decent housing for all and to denounce the repressive and discriminatory policies of this government.
Meet on Tuesday 16 June at 9am in front of the court of first instance of Villeurbanne at 3 Rue Docteur Fleury Pierre Papillon for a breakfast of support. [Read More]
Berlin: Attack the city of the rich. Defend the projects
The gentrification in Berlin continues incessantly, and with it displacement. Not only people but also spaces are affected: Spaces of the radical movement, open spaces, safer spaces for people affected by discrimination, non-commercial spaces, spaces of subculture, of political networking and spaces where people try to live concrete utopias.
One struggle – one fight
In recent years, spaces such as the Liebig14 house project, the youth centre Drugstore , the community space Friedel54, the wagon places DieselA & Sabot Garden, the O-Platz occupation and the occupied school in Ohlauer Straße have already disappeared.
But it does not stop there. Many other spaces are currently under threat. The youth centre Potse, the house project Liebig34 and the bar collective Syndikat & Meuterei expect an eviction before the end of the year. Other spaces such as the house project Rigaer94, the house project Köpi137, the community house Lause10/11 or the community garden Prachttomate face a similar threat in the near future.
No spaces – no movement
All of these are spaces that live and fight for a different Berlin: a Berlin in which we know our neighbours, in which we create our houses and our neighbourhood together and jointly determine how public space is used. A Berlin where there is room for self-chosen living concepts. A Berlin in which we can try out alternatives to the exploitative and oppressive relations of wage labour, care work, educational system and on the basis of rent and ownership. [Read More]
Rotterdam: Temporary new place of DHZ
Since March we have been going through a lot, globally and also in our workshop.
After a fire at our neighbour we had to close the workshop temporarily. It then turned out to be a serious damage to the building and we were evicted from our lovely workshop on Burgemeester Roosstraat where we stayed almost 6 years. It is very sad for us all but we would like to keep our activities going on.
[Read More]
Uppsala: Imminent eviction of Försvara Blodstensskogen
The occupation of the forest aim to stop the clear cut of a centenary forest. Besqab company and Uppsala commune have plan to build luxury apartment.
The gentrification of Uppsala has been an ongoing process over many years. 2013 saw a luxury renovation of Rikshem’s housing in Gränby, 2016 saw the demolition of the community center (sw. allaktivitetshuset, colloquially known as Allis) on Kungsgatan for a luxury housing development project by Magnolia Bostad. The end of 2020 require the youth center (Ungdomens hus) to move for the space it currently occupies can be used for more lucrative endeavors. These mentioned are only a few examples of gentrification and urbanization that results in increased rent and degradation of living standards. However, the gentrification monster is still hungry and has its sights set on the forest. Blodstensskogen along with other various surrounding nature areas are on the menu as the appetizer, Norra Lunsen as a possible main course, and we can only imagine what will be served as dessert.
Eriksberg is currently in the most acute danger, as the company Besqab plans to begin its housing development project of Blodstensskogen. The company, along with the municipality, believe that something more important than biodiversity is luxury housing (four 8-story apartment buildings and five 4-story apartment buildings) along with a shopping center where customers can consume relentlessly. [Read More]
Wassenaar: Ivicke Sales Seizure, First Step To Expropriation?
The municipality of Wassenaar is going to court to annul the recent sales of Ivicke by the owner, Ronnie van de Putte, to two of his newly-established companies.
Van de Putte is currently subject to an administrative order from the municipality of Wassenaar to carry out restoration works on Ivicke by July 20. Otherwise, the municipality intends to carry out the work itself and send him the bill.
Thing is though, this bill could quickly add up. And van de Putte isn’t known for paying his debts.
Ivicke’s restoration costs are thought to be around 500,000 euros but this can (and probably will) shoot up once the works begin. Especially since there has not yet been a full architectural assessment.
Kees Wassenaar, the city’s alderman for spatial planning, said the dispute over Ivicke has already cost Wassenaar hundreds of thousands of euros. A spokesperson for the municipality did not want to give an exact overall figure, but the city has incurred around 40,000 in legal costs alone.
These spiraling costs are what led the municipality of Wassenaar to ask the province of Zuid-Holland for help. In response, Zuid-Holland pledged a maximum of 500,000 euros from its monument restoration fund for 2020. We stand against this abuse of public funds for a project that does not meet the criteria set by Zuid-Holland’s own monument restoration policy, where there is no guarantee the money could be recouped, and which does not guard against a new cycle of neglect and decay. [Read More]
Wassenaar: Report on Ivicke’s ‘Emergency Repairs’
In January, following the court ruling stating that the owner must comply with the municipality’s order to carry out emergency repairs, a contractor began the works on Ivicke.
At the request of members of two monument protection organisations, we sent a report (below) to the municipality, with details about how the repairs were carried out. We didn’t receive a response. Instead, municipal officials announced they would inspect the building. We agreed to this and showed the inspectors and the contractor around, pointing out the issues we’d already raised in the letter. The officials barely engaged with us, and merely went around with a clipboard and ticked off boxes. The conclusion of the municipality was that the owner fulfilled the obligation to do emergency repairs. Yay! Win-win for the municipality, who successfully enforced their administrative order, and for the owner, who can keep them off his back (for now). [Read More]
Radar Online Agenda
