Poznan: Eviction of Rozbrat is approaching. Demonstration on september 10th.

After years of fighting for preservation of Rozbrat, the most critical moment in almost thirty years of history of this place is coming. A court hearing will be held on September 15th, at which a final judgment is to be issued, giving a green light to the eviction of Rozbrat.

Practically, this means throwing out over twenty inhabitants, as well as a number of socio-political, cultural and environmental initiatives gathering hundreds of people. It is also a real threat to a part of the West Greenery Wedge, which is effectively protected against construction development by Rozbrat.

Although a threat has been hanging over us for many years, the culmination of which is expected in September, Rozbrat tirelessly continues its activities. We do not stop to oppose the neoliberal and anti-social policy of the Poznań authorities, which represent interests of business at the expense of needs of the majority of the city’s residents. [Read More]

Rotterdam: No Border Camp 2022 has started

Week of actions and workshops against repressive border and migration policies

Rotterdam, 8 August 2022 – At 10 am this morning the No Border Camp 2022 has started at the Giessenweg 25 in Rotterdam. Over the coming week, hundreds of international activists will gather for actions, meetings, workshops, discussion and culture in the context of the struggle for a world without borders and freedom of movement for all. The international ‘Abolish Frontex’ campaign is an important spearhead of the camp.

The camp, including its actions and workshops, will call attention to the repressive and militarised Dutch and EU border and migration policies, at a time they reach new heights with walls, racism, violence and pushbacks at and beyond the borders. ‘The No Border Camp will bring people together to build a movement to resist the appalling, racist European border policies and take action against its profiteers, such as arms companies ‘, according to Noah of the organisation of the camp. [Read More]

Amsterdam: Mokum Kraakt starts fundraising for comrades arrested during Hotel Mokum eviction!

We are Mokum Krrraakt, a squatting collective regrouping Hotel Mokum, Kinderen van Mokum, and other squatters.

We are currently located at Nicole (Kinkerstraat 304). We house people and organize nonprofit, open and free cultural and political events to fight against the growing monoculture of the city. We squat as a protest against violently incompetent urban housing and planning policy, against gentrification, and against the unaffordability of the city.

On the 26th of November 2021, Hotel Mokum on Marnixstraat was evicted. During the eviction, several people were arrested for peacefully demonstrating, some of them violently. For their solidarity with Hotel Mokum and the squatting movement, they were violently arrested and threatened with fines and court cases.

We want to support these people by covering their juridical costs. But we can’t do this alone. The little income we generate goes to cleaning and rebuilding Nicole, where we organize free events. That’s why we’re organizing this fundraiser, and we need your help! [Read More]

Groningen: Kraaienest lives!

Groningen (Netherlands) – Kraaienest squat in Groningen lost the appeal and had to be out within three days. A quick end to a six-month period that was more than worth it. But we’ve only started.
Kraaienest at the Spilsluizen in Groningen has been evicted. On Tuesday morning, 5 July 2022, the verdict of the Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court in the appeal proceedings was announced. We had to leave within three days with the threat of a fine of 10,000 euros for every day we stayed (plus 4500 euros in legal costs). The reason was that Stichting Valquest had sold the property to the real estate company LMJD B.V. before we came to live there, even though the real estate company had not yet explicitly announced its concrete plans. He wanted to start renovating immediately, so that “there would be no more actual vacancy”. When we won the preliminary relief proceedings in January, the court in preliminary relief proceedings found that there was no urgent interest to evict, and that our living interests temporarily outweighed ours. Now a ruling has been given against this decision. What interests are we talking about? The only interest for the real estate speculators like Joshua Camera and all those other capitalists who would have a vested interest in this is to make money that they already have enough. That is not an interest, that is profiting on the backs of others. Our interests are our lives and the struggle for justice. This capitalist logic of property has almost put us on the street. We already knew that the courts protect private property, so we are not surprised. It does not make us any less angry. [Read More]

Amsterdam: demonstration against gentrification

Call out by the Radikale Anti Anti Kraak (R.A.A.K.) for a demonstration against gentrification on saturday 9 July 2022, 16:00, at Marie Heinekenplein in Amsterdam.

Gentrification does not just happen. It is a direct result of state policies and the system we live in: large corporations see potential to make money off a neighbourhood, and the state creates space for them to do this. Social housing gets sold and becomes private housing, more expensive stores are opened, and soon the original residents realize that they cannot afford to live in their neighbourhood anymore. More and more people with low income, especially people of colour and migrants, are forced to move to the outskirts of the city, and wealthier people take their place. Public spaces are no longer public but only affordable for people with high income. Gentrification does not solve poverty, but creates it, while moving it out of sight from wealthier people and tourists.

On the 13th of June, we squatted an abandoned building owned by the municipality in the Pijp, one of the most gentrified neighbourhoods in Amsterdam. Besides housing people, we are creating a much needed space that does not revolve around money. We are providing a place for people to relax, drink coffee and tea, or enjoy free food, as well as a free shop for people to bring and collect clothes, and a place to do laundry for those who cannot afford to wash it somewhere else. We are taking direct action against gentrification, rather than waiting for the municipality to solve the problems that their own policies helped to create. [Read More]

Susa Valley: new squatted shelter in Cesana-Torinese

In almost a year since the last eviction of the Casa Cantoniera in Claviere, we stayed here, in this valley, on this bloody and racist border, close to the people who challenge and overcome it every day, despite being forced to do so “illegally”: controlled, rejected and violated by the state and its armed forces. In the same valley where thousands of “migrants” with “the good papers”, called tourists, transit undisturbed. In the same valley where only in January this year the border killed two people, Fatallah Belhafif and Ullah Rezwan.

As of today, we return to organize in a place that has been abandoned for decades, which now belongs to nobody but lives thanks to the people who inhabit, build and self-manage it, in opposition to one and all states and laws that would like to repress any form of collective and individual autonomy. [Read More]

Swynnerton, UK: Update from Bluebell Woods protection camp

43 Days our friends have spent in a network of tunnels beneath this beautiful woodland.
THE LONGEST TUNNEL EVICTION IN [UK] PROTEST HISTORY! 📢
This railway optimises corporate capitalsim and governmental power and produces injustices, oppression, corruption and the dismantling of democracy.
[Read More]

Amsterdam: Ferdinand Bolstraat 14 squatted

On the 13th of June we squatted a building on Ferdinand Bolstraat 14 ground floor. This house is owned by the municipality of Amsterdam and has been empty for over a year. We are a group of people in need for housing who found in squatting the only solution in order to live in Amsterdam. Houses stay empty for speculation, rent prices increase, council housing is sold of privately and the working class is being pushed out of the city. We decided to squat in de Pijp because it is a classic example of a beautiful neighborhood ruined by gentrification. We work in the city for minimum wage but like many other cannot afford to live here. We’re sick of exploitation, having our wages stolen from us while barely surviving. We’re sick of getting pushed to the outskirts while traveling to the pijp to serve food to yuppies in a neighborhood we cannot afford to live in. We will not stay quiet, we will not stay hidden. [Read More]

Athens (Greece): International day of action in defence of Exarchia neighborhood, 25 June 2022

25 June / Demonstration in Exarchia Square

The construction of the metro station on Exarchia square and the redevelopment of Strefi Hill are expected to start during the summer months, according to reports in the mainstream media, but also according to notifications by the Municipality of Athens to shops located in the square.

The government’s ultimatum is the final blow to the character of the historic neighborhood of Exarchia. The construction of a Metro stop on the square, the conversion of the Polytechnic school into a museum, the attempted eradication of the monument of Alexandros Grigoropoulos through the construction of luxury apartment buildings on Mesologgiou Street, the surrender of Strefi Hill to private interests (which includes the cementing of the park’s paths, cutting down trees, placing cameras, gates and security posts to control the entrance) are part of the overall designs for the gentrification of the area, the transformation of the neighborhood into a tourist destination, the development of control and repression. [Read More]

Seville: CSOA la Leona illegally evicted by force and without court order

After several months of collective work and some very intense weeks preparing the space, on Thursday May 19th it was finally time to make it public and open the space to anyone who wanted to get closer and get involved. Many people came to show their support and joy. There was finally a Self-Managed Squatted Social Center in Seville, after so many years.

We didn’t lose our cool when the police approached, as we were prepared to face the situation, with about a hundred people nearby, with the assembly well organised and united, including a mediator and a lawyer. We told the police that the building had been occupied by us for weeks, so they would need a court order to evict us, which they obviously didn’t have. [Read More]

Wassenaar: Ivicktion called off—but for how long?

Wassenaar (Netherlands) – On the 24th of May, Ivicke had a second “voorlopige voorziening” (VoVo)* hearing, to request a suspension of eviction until the higher appeal in our case against the municipality, who want to evict us on the grounds that according to the zoning plan our home should be an office.

We already had a first VoVo about this in February. That one we lost, but the judge gave us until the 28th of May before we had to leave. In the meantime, we actually won a civil court case against the owner, because the judge agreed that his plans for Ivicke are nonsense. Our lawyers then managed to get this new hearing because of that change of circumstances.

In the documents they submitted for this case, the municipality revealed that they already had the whole eviction planned for the 31st of May, coordinated with the cops and everything. With the added threat that, if they can’t evict then, the cops wouldn’t have time anymore before September because of the festival season, trying to pressure the judge into a fast ruling. Luckily, the judge started the case by making clear that they can get an eviction on the 31st out of their heads: he needs time for his decision, and he also recognises that we will need time to move if it’s negative. [Read More]

Manchester: Persons Unknown Festival blasts back into action

From May 13th to 16th the Persons Unknown Festival returned, after a three-year break, to the same venue used for its inauguration back in 2019. For three days the disused swimming baths and leisure centre in Chorlton, Manchester, was transformed once again into a hub of art, activity and anarchism that is rapidly rising to become a serious contender to take Temporary Autonomous Arts‘ crown as the most ambitious event in the UK squat scene calendar.

PuF was facilitated by the Manchester squat community and ran in partnership with grassroots activist organisations from across the country, with the aim to support and promote a diverse range of campaigns through workshops, art, and live music.
[Read More]