Refugee collective We Are Here has squatted a house at Rudolf Dieselstraat 72 for a woman and two children, together with people who now live under harsh circumstances in the church in the James Wattstraat.
After more than 5 years of fighting for a normal life, we know what it means to live on the street or to continuously move from one place to another. It means that you loose all the time, your life looses sense, you are affected. Six of us have already lost their life. The pressure is rising. A solution has to come now.
The women’s building on the Burgemeester Roëllstraat 70, where 25 women of We Are Here are living since a year and a half, can be evicted by the housing corporation from the 10th of April.
Most political parties have agreed that no building of We Are Here will be evicted as long as they negotiate about the new board. We invite them to work together on a stable place and a real Amsterdam-style solution.
We are here and we need a place to live. [Read More]
Amsterdam: We Are Here squats a house for a woman and two children
Athens: March 24, demonstration to defend the squats community of Koukaki & in solidarity with squats & places of struggle
24 of March, Saturday, 12:00 in Paidiki Hara, Koukaki we are calling comrades, friends, from Athens and all over Greece, all of ages, genders, persons who work, studying, or are unemployed, with animals, with their music instruments and their expression means, to walk together.
Almost a year ago, a new project bloomed in the neighborhood of Koukaki. We created a community of housing and struggling squats. We occupied three empty buildings which were getting rotten at Matrozou 45, Panaitoliou 21 and Arvali 3. We rebuilt them through a lot of work to become sustainable, to become places of gathering and communal organization. Some us them are living here permanently.
We are coming from different places of the planet, co-exist with dogs and cats, creating relations of solidarity and freedom. This community, as its buildings is opened to the people through discussions in public spaces, projections, music events, café-bar, presentations of theories, and games with children. We have create structures for common use like library-reading space, compost on the Filopappou hill, public bathroom-laundry and free shop to exchange clothes, laboratory of conserves production and urban gardening. From the very start, we knew that freedom can be claimed only through struggle. Our community is part of the anti-authoritarian/anarchist/libertarian movement and participates to the defending of the squats, in struggle against state repression, prisons and detention centers, against patriarchy, fascism, destruction of nature and stand in solidarity with migrants. [Read More]
Brussels: Demo march 21. A roof for everybody!
Because the housing crisis can not be ignored. There are between 15,000 and 30,000 empty dwellings in Brussels, while there are around 4,000 homeless people. 40,000 families are on the waiting list for social housing, with waiting times varying between 8 and 12 years. Lastly, rents on the private market have steadily increased in recent years. As a result, households whose incomes do not exceed € 1500 have to average 60% of their budget to rent.
Because, in spite of this context, the government has passed an anti-squat law, which puts people in risks to go to jail for squatting empty houses to sleep in.
Because this law appears in a general movement of repression: the constant criminalization of the undocumented and the individuals who are in solidarity with them, the installation of surveillance cameras in the streets, the police and military presence in the public space are as much clues to a desire for global control.
Because applicable solutions exist (right of requisition, right of public management, …) or have been proposed incessantly by associations for the right to housing (consequent increase of the number of social housing, framing of the rents …).
The authorities refuse to apply them.
As for us, we continue to squat, we continue to protest!
For the demo to be enjoyable for all participants, take care of the ones and avoid unconscious or oppressive behaviors.
Wednesday 21 march,2018 – 18:00, Place Bara – Baraplein, Brussels
nonalaloiantisquat [at] riseup [dot] net
https://squ.at/r/4jg5
https://squatbelgium.noblogs.org/post/manif/
Bournemouth (UK): Second Sanctuary eviction
The Sanctuary occupied homeless camp on Ashley Road, east Bournemouth, was evicted yesterday {March13}, leaving rough sleepers struggling to find anywhere safe to stay or put their belongings.
The camp was the second set up by homeless people working with Occupy Bournemouth activists in the wake of a brutal New Year eviction of a site on Exeter Road, opposite the Bournemouth International Centre (BIC) in which bailiffs tore down and crushed people’s belongings despite freezing conditions. An Occupy activist said:
[Read More]
Thessaloniki: March 10, No Nation, No Homeland, Fire to the States
About our participation in the mass anti-nationalist demonstration in Salonika on the 10th of March 2018, in the clashes against the repressive forces of the state that followed, and in the attack against the Turkish consulate and the cops that guard it:
On the 10th of March 2018, we participated in a mass demonstration in the city of Salonika, responding to a call across Greece and the Balkans. On this day thousands of people came together on the streets with a common stance against fascism and nationalism. Every block in the demonstration lent a different focus to the manifestation. Some blocks expressed primarily their solidarity to Libertatia, the squat that was burned down by fascists during the recent nationalistic manifestations over the naming of a neighboring country. Others stressed nationalism and patriotism as foundations of the greek society. Others stressed patriarchy as a structural element of the nation-state. There was also internationalist presence from the Balkans. This mass demo was well and strongly guarded against possible police or fascist attacks. A big part of this gathering understood that the struggle against fascism is one and the same with the struggle against the state. [Read More]
Berlin: Intersquat Block at the chaos and discussion days, 10.5. -13.5.2018
You’re invited to an Intersquat Block at the Chaos and Discussion days in May in Berlin. We want to offer the space for an exchange on our tactics and techniques, discussions and information within the Chaos and Discussion days at Rigaerstrasse.
Structurally we don’t plan on this being an equal replacement for the past Intersquat meetings, unless you want to make it such. We do think this is a good opportunity to connect the general discussions on the sense and future of urban struggles with questions that come up when considering squatting as more than a tool to satisfy basic housing needs. We hope for a discussion on the importance of squatting for other liberatory struggles, houses as political tools, questions on working within and with neighbourhoods and more.
Evictions, Repression, Surveillance, Prisons, the maggots using and supporting oppressive structures are everywhere let’s get together to support each other and smash the ball not just into their court but through its heart. [Read More]
Nantes: New occupation by refugees and their supporters
Following the evictions from the Censive building and from the Château du Tertre, that saw more than 150 people thrown out, a new occupation followed the day after at the 9 rue Maurice Sibille. Help us to move in, call for solidarity.
On Thursday march 8th in the morning, the former EPHAD, an empty retirement home, a six story building on rue Maurice Sibille, has been occupied by refugees and their supporters. Around 12:00, riot cops came and pushed away the people gathered in the street, aiming at people with their rubber bullet guns. They tried to break into the building but failed. They used gas through an opening. One person would have been arrested. Some local politicians and unions members were around to show support to the refugees. After several hours of tension, riot cops left, followed by an explosion of joy. People in state of euphoria went in and visited this huge empty building. The space is in good state with water and electricity, perfect to host people in shared rooms, with individual kitchens and toilets, big common spaces, a professional kitchen, etc… [Read More]
Nantes: University occupied buildings evicted
On march 7th, at 7am, a few hundred riot cops evicted refugees occupying the Censive building and the Château du Tertre, at the Nantes university. Around 50 people from Censive and 60 others from the Château were violently kicked out under the smiles from the heads of the university and authorities in charge of the police operation.
The eviction was fast. One person went on the roof to protest. Around 10am, this person was still there. As soon as the eviction alarm was called, people gathered on the parking next to the Château du Tertre.
All belongings were moved out by Demeco, a removing company, who did not want to communicate what they were going to do with the mattresses. The police started to barricade the Château du Tertre from inside to prevent any new occupation.
The Censive occupation took place on November 22nd 2017, after the violent eviction of the former Art School, directly bricked up and still heated on! The Château du Tertre was occupied by students and refugees soon after, on November 26th. [Read More]
London: Radical Residency
Welcome to the Radical Residency! This is a space created by students, artists, radicals, unwaged and waged workers and activists. Radical Residency was set up by poc, queer and radical peeps who scrawl their joy and their rage upon the walls. We put on workshops and events that challenge traditional education and political institutions. We celebrate through solidarity, music, art and learning. We nurture self-development and self-awareness, being reflective and critical of all that we know and that we strive towards. Drop your binaries and your prejudices at the door and actively engage through radical listening and participation.
On Friday 9th March we are having our hearing at 3:30pm at the County Court at The Mayors and City of London Court Guildhall Buildings, Basinghall Street, London EC2V 5AR. We are calling for support and solidarity. Share with your comrades and help us remind the trustees of the British Museum who the real thieves are.
Below is our manifesto:
[Read More]
London: Solidarity space
Since temperatures are so low and homelessness is still a big issue, some people came to an idea of opening a safe space shelter available to everyone! [Squatted March1, still there March6]
So the building is at 204 Great Portland Street, entrance from 56 Bolsover Road (Sophia House). At the moment there’s some issues with electricity, however there is possibility to brew hot drinks and despite lack of heating at the moment it is still warmer & dryer than out on the street
[Read More]
Lisbon: New squat in the centre
We are human, young, old, pirate, student, homeless, worker, weak,
strong, shy, energetic…
We are Lisbon, Europe, the World. We were born into this society that
sees us as a number, as a list of material possessions, as somebody who
has to play a game for which we never volunteered and that we don’t want
to play. We walk the streets of Lisbon and we see the abandoned houses
that adorn it, we see the cardboard boxes that some buy to move houses
and others use as a bed, we hear music and we hear complaints. We want
to live here. We want to be able to live here. But how? Should we stop
talking of autonomy and enter the vicious cycle that makes us study,
work then retire? Should we try to rent a room, buy a house? Get
ourselves into debt? We don’t want to. We don’t want to! We want to live
the way we want.
[Read More]
Brescia: Fascist attack on the CSA Magazzino 47
Immediate mobilization, tomorrow city demonstration.
This night some rats entered the CSA Magazzino 47 social center after they broke a window. They have set a fire in the room of the bookshop and the wine shop. The broken window with obvious signs of forced entry and the intense smell of gasoline give no doubt about the suspect nature of the act, as immediately reported by the firefighters themselves.
The fast reaction of a comrade who was inside the social space meant that the firemen could intervene promptly and extinguishing the flames before they could provoke much worse damage. Several furniture and a large amount of books have been destroyed. Our brother, the only person present, fortunately is fine.
We can say with certainty that it was the umpteenth infamous attack of fascists and racists who try to sow a climate of racial hatred and intolerance in the city.
The same that in recent weeks have hit the “occupied houses” of via Gatti and the Sinti field in via Orzinuovi in Brescia city. They are the same ones that praise Luca Traini, author of the Macerata racist attack.
For this we will react accordingly. With anger, determination and pride.
We are already declaring a state of permanent anti-fascist mobilization in the city.
Tomorrow mass mobilisation at CSA Magazzino47, via Industriale 10, Brescia, Italy. [Read More]