While the Greek people are placed under quarantine due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Greek authorities continue their agenda against the social movements in the country. The state has found the perfect timing to conduct its new attack on the self-managed Vio.Me. factory in Thessaloniki: early this morning, accompanied by two squads of riot police, employees of the state-owned electric company have cut off the power to the factory.
[Read More]
Thessaloniki: Authorities use COVID-19 lockdown to crack down on self-managed Vio.Me factory
UK: Evictions halted by pandemic
Because of the pandemic, eviction court cases and enforcement have been stopped from 27th March to 29th October, possibly to be extended.
Of course landlords and others may try other methods so keep prepared, and let us know.
Reference – 117th Practice Direction Update to the Civil Procedure Rules – Coronavirus Pandemic related
Source – Advisory Service for Squatters
Brighton: Police and security firm evict people onto the streets in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic
Police and security guards have evicted a squatted homeless shelter, throwing people onto the streets as the coronavirus pandemic takes over the UK. The unbelievable eviction came one day after the government announced that people will be fined for not observing orders to stay at home.
The eviction also took place just before the government announced that it has asked all local authorities to house rough sleepers.
[Read More]
Berlin: “We will squat…
… until we no longer have to.” That’s what we have always said. In times of “emergency”, this wording can be expanded to an appeal: “You have to join in!”
Covid-19 is hitting more and more areas of the world and it turns out that the so-called emergency is the rule. For, where people are called by the supposedly necessary and strict father state: “Stay at home!”, not everyone has a home. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the state itself has been pushing up for a long time the numbers of homeless by evicting them. At the same time, the state closes day-care centers that the homeless need for the measly bread of mercy and a little soap and water. In its brazen double standards, the state then exhorts patriarchally, “Pay attention to hygiene!”
“Avoid social contacts!” That’s what the governments demand. But where should refugees retreat to, when they are penned up in camps and deportation prisons at Europe’s external borders and the German periphery? With human rights – such as asylum, freedom of movement and housing – they were also deprived of the opportunity to effectively protect themselves against Covid-19. [Read More]
Seattle: Rent Strike
Around the country, as people lose their jobs and wonder how they will pay their rent or mortgage, the words rent strike are being heard more and more. This website https://rentstrike.noblogs.org/ will serve as a resource for how to make a rent and mortgage strike a reality in Seattle. Check back for more resources for how we can refuse to pay together.
Have a resource to share? Want to send us your own declaration of rent strike? Get in touch: rentstrike [at] riseup [dot] net
Why Strike?
In this moment, millions of people are being faced with the reality of being unable to pay their bills. Countless people who live from one paycheck to the next have lost their jobs and income already and have no way to make April’s rent or mortgage payment. Even under normal circumstances, people in Seattle have been struggling to pay rent for years, with rents that are 93% above the national average. It should come as no surprise that in this moment, people simply cannot pay.
Some are calling on the state and federal government to put a moratorium on rent and mortgage collections. If this happens, great. If it does not, this changes nothing. We still can’t pay, so we won’t. Banks and landlords should not be able to continue profiting on renters and mortgages when there is no way to earn money. That’s just common sense. If we can’t make money, neither can or landlords, neither can the banks. [Read More]
USA: Rent strike declarations
Across the country some have already declared that they will refuse to pay rent on April first. Here are some of their declarations.
Station 40 (San Francisco)
Dear friends of Station 40,
We decided tonight that we’re going on rent strike. The urgency of the moment demands decisive and collective action. We are doing this to protect and care for ourselves and our community. Now more than ever, we refuse debt and we refuse to be exploited. We will not shoulder this burden for the capitalists. Five years ago, we defeated our landlord’s attempt to evict us. We won because of the the solidarity of our neighbors and our friends around the world. We are once again calling on that network. Our collective feels prepared for the shelter-in-place that begins at midnight throughout the bay area. The most meaningful act of solidarity for us in this moment is for everyone to go on strike together. We will have your back, as we know you will have ours. Rest, pray, take care of each other.
Everything for everyone! [Read More]
Brighton: Squatted Night Shelter update
Hello friends,
We’re sorry for being so quiet lately. In case you were wondering, we wanted to let you know that this project is still going. We currently have a building where people are being housed, although, for now at least, we are keeping its location private for the safety of those of us who live there and in the hope of keeping the building for longer.
[Read More]
Los Angeles: Reclaiming Our Homes
No one should be homeless when homes are sitting empty. Housing is a human right!
There are more vacant homes than people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles. Some of these vacant properties are even owned by the state. We are taking this housing back for our community.
Impacted by the housing crisis, and feeling even more urgency in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, we are reclaiming vacant houses owned by the state to fight for housing as a human right. We the Reclaimers are calling on the city and state to immediately use all vacant properties to house people. We need all levels of government to make a massive investment in public and social housing so that everyone has a home during this housing and public health crisis.
In California, a person needs to earn $32.68 an hour to afford an average two bedroom apartment. It’s an outrage that the state and city are leaving homes and property unused when so many people need housing. We are holding them accountable and demanding immediate action. [Read More]
Alcázar De San Juan (Spanish state): CSOA La Idea attacked and trashed
Since our beginning as a CSOA (self-managed occupied social centre) on 23rd May 2017, we announce with much sadness and resignation, that the collective LA IDEA ceases its activity in the current premises.
In the early morning of last Thursday 5th March, the social center suffered an extremely serious attack for the development of the activities we had been carrying out. The social center has suffered irreparable damage, they have destroyed all the infrastructure we built: windows, doors, solar energy, water tanks, furniture and much more seriously, they have stolen and destroyed all the electrical installation that made it possible to hold events and activities. They have opened the fences that delimit the space and have destroyed all the material that we had, such as cleaning products, refrigerators, stoves, tables, chairs, kitchens, bathrooms, lighting and a long etc… [Read More]
Amsterdam: Sarphatipark 87-H squatted
This afternoon a vacant building in Amsterdam got new inhabitants
The vacant building, Sarphatipark 87-H, has been empty for a while now. It is owned by the recently deceased real estate owner van Zijl. An owner that had a lot of buildings in Amsterdam, known for being vacant for a long time.
At this moment there are no concrete plans for the building.
The action went smooth, cops came verified the house was indeed squatted, and left. Some hours later, some other cops showed up, told the squatters that they were caught red handed and that there was no house peace. They told the squatters to immediately leave the house.
The squatters did not comply. You can’t really say they are caught in the act, several hours after their colleges already verified that people are living there. Also, the lack of house peace is being disputed by the squatters. By that time there has been a nice dinner, people took showers, some took a nap. Pretty homy.
The police insisted that they want to evict the place. It looks like tonight that it is not going to happen. They drove by a few times but that was it.
The squatters welcome everyone to come and help with the occupation
Fight for your rights!
Houses for everybody! [Read More]
Athens: Cops inside the University of Economics. Vancouver squat symbolically reoccupied
It all started on Monday 24 February inside the grounds of Athens University of Economics, when an off duty cop in plain clothes got off his bike and began harassing an immigrant street vendor outside the front gate. The policeman was spotted by anarchist students due to his boots and his helmet that bore the police insignia and was immediately confronted. In his panic, he began running inside the university grounds and managed to trap himself in a dead end corridor, pulled a gun on students and with his finger on the trigger threatened to shoot them while pointing the gun at them for at least 5 minutes, while desperately calling his colleagues on the phone to come and rescue him. The students, not losing their cool, but at the same time not taking a step back demanded he puts the gun down and exits the university grounds. Few minutes later scores of riot policemen stormed the university and attacked students during school hours with flash bang grenades and asphyxiating gas creating chaos because of one imbecile cop that thought he was a cowboy. [Read More]
Madrid: La Ingobernable, we are still in the heart of Madrid
For our friends.
For the ones who fight every day.
For those who are gone.
In this month of feminist revolt, of organized rage, of joy and of struggle, we, the neighbors of Madrid, make public the recovery of the building in Calle Alberto Bosch 4, as a new common and open space in the heart of Madrid. Now, in this week more than ever, we must remember the role that social centers have had, have and will have for the feminist movement, as a space for convergence, construction and self-organisation. The attack on social centers is undoubtedly a direct attack on feminism, which we are not prepared to tolerate.
In recent years we have witnessed a lamentable spectacle in which a few people share out the city, selling it to the highest bidder or handing it over to friends while others are thrown out of our neighbourhoods. Recently we learned that the building of La Ingobernable (Paseo del Prado 30) was once again being given, in the style of the PP, to a foundation directed by the former mayor Gallardón to build a museum instead of the so promised endowments for the neighborhood that the current mayor, Martínez-Almeida, was advocating during the electoral campaign. This story is very familiar to us because some years ago the also ex-mayor Botella already gave it, for 1 euro and at 75 years old, to a foundation friend of the PP. [Read More]
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