Bristol: ‘Burn Baby Burn!’

The chant goes up into the air as the flames of the cop van rise higher and higher, burning away a pressure that has been building for far too long.
The cop station’s windows are kicked in to the roaring joy of the crowd, its raining rocks from above on the riot cops from youths who’ve occupied part of its roof. Repeated attacks on the cop lines are visibly putting the fear into them. Bottles rain down on the cop dog unit’s failed attempt to assault the mob from behind. Riot shields and batons liberated from the cops are used to fight back, a piece of their own medicine. Others are caring for people sprayed with mace, while sound systems ring out. Another cop car is burning round the corner, this is like nothing we have seen before…

This is the scene in Bristol in 2021, 10 years since the Stokes Croft & August riots in 2011. The riot that erupted last night was a continuation of our combative memories, but from seeing so many new young uncontrollables it is the beginning of a new wave. Nothing much has changed on this prison island since 2011, if anything the conditions that led to those days are still with us, more repressive than ever. We’re being pushed over the edge, as the system of control demands either lick the boot or have our way of life extinguished. [Read More]

Lugano: CS()A Il Molino under eviction threat!

Unnamed comrades, friends who remain
be strong and spread the social truths,
This is the revenge we demand from you.
This is the revenge we demand from you.
(From the song “Addio Lugano bella”, Pietro Gori, 1895)

The social center Il Molino in Lugano (Ticino-Switzerland), is under eviction threat. Following the strong repression of the 8th of march demo in the train station of Lugano, when the police used pepper spray and batons against the demonstrators, politicians (Lega dei Ticinesi, UDC-SVP, PLR-FDP) and local media started a campaign for the eviction of the Molino under the old bourgeois discourse of the “respect of the rules of democracy for all its citizens” and “for social peace and law and order”.

The message is clear: in the tax haven of Lugano, there is no place for a space that does not follow the capitalistic rule of profit. In a city where you have a bank in every street, what would you expect?
We don’t know when it will happen, but it could be soon! So better be prepared! [Read More]

Briançon: 3+4+2 trial – Call for support, call for mobilisation

Spring 2021 will be marked by two political trials, criminalising solidarity with exiles and people without documents.
On 22 April at the court of Gap, two solidarity activists will be tried in the first instance for “aiding the entry and circulation on national territory of people in an irregular situation”. They were arrested on 19 November while helping an Afghan family on French territory.
On 27 May, the “7 of Briançon” were appealed following their conviction on 13 December 2018. They were sentenced in the first instance to up to four months in prison and eight months suspended for participating in an anti-fascist/no border demonstration on 22 April 2018. This spontaneous demonstration aimed to denounce (with the practice) the action of the fascist group Génération Identitaire present the day before at the Echelle pass (Hautes Alpes) and the big militarisation of these days of the border which puts lives in danger. [Read More]

Dijon: Justice orders the eviction of the Engrenage Gardens in 6 months!

Press release from the Engrenage Gardens

Since June 17, 2020, we occupy a wasteland renamed “Les Jardins de l’Engrenage“, avenue de Langres in Dijon, to prevent the real estate development of 307 housing units “Garden State”, which plans the destruction of this precious natural space.
Without ever having visited the land to appreciate its soil qualities and the dynamic life created in the neighborhood, the Mayor of Dijon launched in August 2020 a legal procedure to evict the gardeners and occupants of the house located on the plot. After having pronounced in November 2020 the eviction of the gardens only (still suspended), the Dijon Court of Justice has just rules its judgment this Friday, March 19, 2021 concerning the occupied house: the judge pronounces an eviction order but grants the occupants a 6-month delay to leave the premises.
We take note of this decision: for us, each day, each week, each month gained in this fight against the destruction of nature, is a victory against adversity. Gardeners at the Engrenage, Dijon residents protecting this space, we will take advantage of the next 6 months to root ourselves even more solidly in this land that we take care of, just like the vegetables that will grow there for a new season in the collective vegetable garden and the allotment gardens. [Read More]

Bern: call for solidarity at the new squat on Wasserwerkgasse

On Monday 14 March 2021, we occupied the house at Wasserwerkgasse 17 in Bern. Our existences are highly threatened due to acute housing shortages. Furthermore, in the current crisis, the people who suffer the most are those who are already in difficult circumstances. Under the current circumstances, as well as the general developments in the city’s spatial policy, it is regrettably an impossibility for people with low incomes to get access to urgently needed spaces in the city. Our ideas for the use of the house include living and working spaces as well as integration projects and low-threshold meeting possibilities in the form of non-commercial offers for everybody. People without papers, people with small incomes, people who are fed up with overpriced pop-ups and cool ice scream shops, people who do not orient their lives on capitalism and people who want to shape their lives and their environment together and decide not to live in rented apartments. We want to live, offer space for people who are systematically excluded and be a sustainable and solidary alternative to the individualized and consumer-oriented throwaway society! [Read More]

Berlin: Demo Freedom for all prisoners affected by repression in Barcelona

Monday 22 March 2021, 16:00
Meeting point: Delegació del Govern a Alemanya
Regierung von Katalonien – Vertretung in Deutschland, Friedrichstrasse, 185. 10117 Berlin

On February 27, 2021, 8 anarchist comrades* were arrested during the riots in Barcelona, as a result of the protests that have been going on since the arrest of Pablo Hasél. All of them are currently in pre-trial detention without bail. They are accused of criminal organization, attempted murder, unlawful demonstration, attack on authority, damage and public disorder. All this as a consequence of a fire being set at one of the vans of the riot police of the Guardia Urbana of Barcelona, a police organization that has a long history of torture and violence. The media, as a propaganda tool of the State, are justifying the repression against our comrades and infusing fear to stop self-organization and dismantle the protests.

After the Pandora and Piñata police set-ups, it is obvious that we are once again facing an operation to repress an ideological current contrary to capitalist interests. They are condemned because they are anarchists. In this type of set-up, the accusation of belonging to a criminal organization or terrorism is something that is being used to create an internal enemy and justify repression. This allows them to judicialize our lives through police harassment, raids, violation of our personal and political spaces, visits to penitentiary centers, etc. Through this they intend to wear us down psychologically and economically, and thus disarticulate our struggles. [Read More]

Arlon: the Zablière evicted

Early this monday morning, March 15, the forces of disorder evicted the zadists present in the area. The Arlon police mobilized last night with the support of the federal police on the outskirts of the Zablière to begin an eviction at dawn. This method of intervention without prior notice aims to avoid having to confront the movement as a whole, to prevent solidarity and resistance from organizing.
Motivated by a study of the local police attesting that the zadists were “a serious threat to security” the eviction was able to take place outside the classic legal channels; an eviction must be served by bailiff several days in advance. Nine zadists were arrested. It is essential that we do not let them make us invisible.
Vincent Magnus talks about an end of the saga, let’s show him that he is not at the end of his surprises, let’s be numerous at the beginning of the evening. Let’s bring back to the center of Arlon the resistance movement that he did not want to meet this morning. Let’s remind once again that we are a large and diverse movement, rich in colors and motivation! [Read More]

Bristol: Overkill on Gloucester Road, occupation evicted

A massive bailiff operation backed by police ended the occupation of a landmark building in Bristol yesterday after two months of operation.

The former Randstad office on Gloucester Road was raided after the Pigeonshit Collective dropped a large public banner and announced the space was to be used as a mutual aid centre, to help people left in difficulties by the long series of Covid crises and lockdowns.

Sixteen riot vans disgorged dozens of police at the eviction, which saw large crowds of locals turn out in support of the project, though they were ultimately unable to turn the bailiffs away as the building was secured for the owners, who had left it to rot for the previous seven years. [Read More]

Valencia: Case closed against the CSOA L’Horta after its attempted eviction by SAREB

The CSOA L’Horta communicates the “archiving and acquittal of the criminal case for usurpation urged by Sareb, S.A. and that motivated the attempt of illegal eviction” of the Valencian social center.

The popular response was forceful when, on 14 December, a large police force – 18 vans and several dozen officers – tried to evict the CSOA L’Horta in Benimaclet (Valencia): hundreds of people responded to the call of the social centre to defend the space built by the neighbourhood, managing to paralyse it and reoccupy it. Today, the collective has announced in a statement that the criminal case that led to the attempted eviction, the illegality of which the CSOA denounced from the beginning, has been closed and the case acquitted.

According to the centre, on 22 February last, the 13th Court of Instruction in Valencia decreed the provisional dismissal of the proceedings that led to the attempted eviction of the CSOA. A few weeks later, on 3 March, this dismissal became final as the plaintiff did not appeal against the dismissal of the case. [Read More]

Lyon: Maria Carré trial. Call for a rally. No eviction in the middle of winter!

In spite of the promises of the Metropolis of “no one kicked out to the street”, Grand Lyon Habitat (the social housing provider of the city) asks for an eviction without delay and without respect of the winter truce for the inhabitants of the Maria Carré squat. Several dozen people, including many families with children, are at risk of being made homeless. Call for support in front of the court of Lyon (67 rue Servient, 69003) on Friday 12 March from 8.30 am for the trial.

Through Grand Lyon Habitat, the Metropolis of Lyon, held by “the left” and “the greens” is preparing to put back on the street one of the most populated squat of Lyon. In the summons to the trial, they demand an eviction without delay and an end to the winter break.

This new attack follows a year of harassment by the public authorities against this place and its inhabitants:
broken doors, intrusion and ID checks… the disgusting methods of Grand Lyon Habitat
– in the middle of winter and illegally, Grand Lyon Habitat drills the wall of a squat!
– the cops ransacking garbage containers in front of a building in the Guillotière district and making racist controls. [Read More]

Berlin: statement about the 8 arrested anarchists in Barcelona

On February 27th, 2021, 8 anarchist comrades* from Italy, France and Spain were arrested during the riots in Barcelona stemming from the protests that have been taking place since the arrest of Pablo Hasél on February 16th. All are currently in pre-trial detention without bail in Brians I prison (Catalonia). The serving judge of the 17th Court of Barcelona charged them with belonging to a criminal organization, attempted murder, participation in an illegal demonstration, resistance to state authority, damage to property and disturbance of public order.
All this happened as a result of a vehicle being set on fire which belonged to the riot police of the Guardia Urbana of Barcelona, a police force that has a long history of torture and indiscriminate violence against migrants and homeless people (1) and which the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau (Barcelona en Comú) promised to disband during the 2015 municipal elections (2). However as we can see, they are still there.

All these accusations are accompanied by a propaganda apparatus provided by the media, which, as a tool of the state, justifies the repression against our comrades* and sparks a climate of fear in order to crush the protests. [Read More]

Berlin: Fire protection inspection today at Rigaer94

This morning an inspection of Rigaer94 by the responsible official for building supervision/fire protection of the district office Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg took place. As we had previously announced, this independent expert inspected all the rooms of the building without the protection of the Berlin cops and without feeling threatened.

As suspected by us and now also confirmed, our house is not in a condition that makes an evacuation necessary due to fire protection. The official has also not identified any deficiencies that we cannot remedy ourselves. As has been clearly stated several times: Our own safety is important to us and we do not need cops or self-declared “owners” or “property managers” or any party to “protect” us or our neighbors from us.

The report is not yet in our hands, but it will certainly be in the hands of the Senator of the Interior when he commits political suicide with his invasion on Thursday. [Read More]