Netherlands: Actions against the ban on squatting

By: fawda - October 5th, 2020  Filed under: News

This year, October 1st marks the ten year anniversary of the Squatting Ban coming into effect in the Netherlands.

Much like what we saw in the UK following the criminalisation of squatting in 2012, the repercussions have been drastic for our community and our movement. We’ve been pushed out of city centres, drastically reducing our visibility and contact with the public outside our own community. The number of squats across the country has been divided by ten, and the legal risks surrounding squatting have risen. Perhaps most damaging of all, our community is sorely lacking in participation from a “new generation”. A large number of people in that age group are totally oblivious to the concept of squatting.

Since the squatting ban came into effect, homelessness has doubled. Simultaneously, waiting lists for social housing have grown enormously, the average waiting time being nine years. The total lack of affordable housing constitutes a housing crisis which, since 2020, is being referred to as a housing emergency. [Read More]

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France: Anti-squat law, the parliament triples the penalties and introduces a denunciation measure

By: fawda - October 4th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

The assembly triples the penalties for untitled occupiers and allows any person to refer the matter to the prefect about an expeditious eviction.

Droit au Logement denounces the tripling of penalties against untitled occupiers, voted on Friday morning in the Assembly, at the initiative of the rapporteur Kasbarian, with no other opposition than that of a deputy FI (E. Coquerel).
This punitive measure satisfies security obsessed people, such as deputy E. Cioti, who declares that he wants “squatters to sleep in prison”. The homeless who settle in a vacant apartment are thus labeled criminals, because the street brings them nothing but suffering and premature death.
These MPs, like all those who demand anti-squat measures, do not care about the tenants who are illegally evicted, while no prosecution is initiated, except in exceptional cases.
They are however much more numerous than the very rare “occupants of other people’s homes” that we have been receiving since the end of August.

This punitive measure pursues another goal: by raising the sentence to three years, the public prosecutor’s office can thus bring the occupants to an immediate court appearance, after having taken them into custody. It thus proceeded to expel them without involving the Prefect. [Read More]

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Brussels: Festival du Coucou Puissant, 3rd edition

By: fawda - October 4th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

For the third consecutive year, the Festival du Coucou Puissant will be held in Brussels from October 8 to November 1, 2020. There are countless private, public or unclassifiable spaces, temporarily occupied in our big city. This festival wants to make visible the occupations and the interstices of creation, alternative housing, resistance and collective experimentation that tries to develop there. The Coucou Puissant wants to be autonomous and self-organized. We are aware of the diversity of places and practices (squat, legal ones with a temporary contract…). We are also aware that there are fewer and fewer squats in Brussels to the benefit of occupations negotiated in advance… This questions us and we wonder how to assert the dynamics of the squats? In the current context of “post” confinement and the eviction period coming back, we also want to affirm our support with the very young “anti-eviction front”. The nomadic program of the festival will be able to support places in peril. The festival wants to be a space of solidarity, meeting, debate, autonomy, celebration and emancipation. [Read More]

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Winterthur: Zensur, a new occupation for a social centre

By: fawda - October 2nd, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

We occupied the building on Talackerstrasse 99 this Friday evening. After it has been vacant for more than 3 years, we want to bring life to the former Sulzer office building and establish a social and cultural center.

The building is currently “owned” by Implenia, which is a driving force in the development of Winterthur into a “City of the Rich” with major projects such as LokStadt and the gentrification process of Hegi.

With the ZENSUR we want to create a space that enables people to implement projects without a lot of money. So that everyone can afford to be creative, do sports, show films and organize discussions. Every person should be able to contribute to the ZENSUR with his or her suggestions and skills to fulfill and realize their wishes and ideas collectively. [Read More]

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Wendover (UK): Jones Hill Woods under attack

By: sisulscz - October 1st, 2020  Filed under: News

News from the StopHS2 Jones Hill Woods protection camp eviction today. This morning at 5:30 am circa 40 National Eviction Team officers, working for HS2 & the government, supported by police, entered the woods. Their intention was to clear the camp to enable mass tree felling. Whilst 2 protestors were removed quickly by excessive force, many more protestors occupy multiple treehouses across the site. This ancient woodland has been a protest camp site for over half a year 6 months & is one of 20 ancient woodlands #HS2 is targeting this month. This woodland represents just one of 108 woodlands that are due to be impacted during Phase 1 construction of HS2. Jones Hill Wood also represents the cultural loss that will be caused by this large scale industrial development.
[Read More]

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Netherlands: Actions after 10 years of squatting ban

By: fawda - October 1st, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

10 Years On! And you still can’t live in a waiting list!

Today, October 1st, 2020 marks the 10 year anniversary of the criminalisation of squatting in the Netherlands through the Kraken en Leegstand (Squatting & Emptiness) law.
Despite the law, kraken gaat door (squatting continues).
On the face of it, the law was created to end both squatting and emptiness. It has done neither. Buildings are still empty and for many people squatting remains a necessity. After all, it is not the existence of empty buildings that leads to squatting, but rather the lack of accessible housing.
Whether you are squatting, renting, or looking to buy a home, finding an available (let alone affordable) house is a struggle. [Read More]

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Paris: Le Marbré, a new space to bring our struggles to life in Montreuil

By: fawda - October 1st, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

Squat Le Marbré made itself known following the visit of the cops and the property manager on September 16 2020. Many people responded to the call for support that day and the following ones, and it was too much fun. Following a collective opening of the buildings and because we want this place to be self-organized, decisions will be made in a regular open general assembly of the place. We want to fight against all forms of authority and formal or informal hierarchies, both outside and inside the place. For us this means fighting all forms of domination and oppression.

This occupation is based on a refusal: the one of having to work and struggle to pay rent in the south part of Montreuil that is constantly gentrifying, whether to live or to organize. This space is part of a struggle against the capitalist valorization of the neighborhood, which always ends up pushing the poor away to make way for the richest and their small, uneventful meadow. No meadow, no precariousness!

Le Marbré wants to be a non-market place. Reflections have been initiated on the practice: operating at a free price, favoring moments of sociability without consumerism… [Read More]

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Wassenaar: Villa Ivicke, news from the last six months

By: fawda - September 30th, 2020  Filed under: News

Zoning plan, construction works, court proceedings.

A lot has happened in the past six months. In April, the owner started a lawsuit to evict us. And in May, the municipality of Wassenaar imposed an administrative order on both the owner Ronnie van de Putte and us as residents. With this administrative order, the municipality wants to put pressure on the owner to carry out construction works, and on us to leave the building; the latter on the grounds that Ivicke’s zoning plan is not “housing” but “office”.

As the residents of Ivicke, we have filed an appeal against the enforcement of the zoning plan, the hearing was supposed to take place on the 16th of September. However, the case was referred to court, wherefore the hearing was cancelled. We are now waiting for a date for this hearing. In the administrative order, the municipality has marked November 19 as our leaving date. Be that as it may, it is already clear that there won’t be a ruling in this case before said date, but this doesn’t mean that the municipality cannot evict us. For this reason, we have submitted a request to the municipality to suspend the enforcement of the administrative order until the court has ruled whether such enforcement is lawful. [Read More]

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Belo Horizonte: Kasa Invisível, Solidarity, Direct Action, and Self-Determination

By: fawda - September 29th, 2020  Filed under: Interviews, News

An Occupied Social Center Becomes a Hub of Mutual Aid in Belo Horizonte, Brazi.

Through interviews with the founders and participants, we explore how an occupied social center and housing collective in Brazil has continued to function as a hub for mutual aid through the pandemic. This is the third installment in a series exploring mutual aid projects around the world in the era of covid-19.

The Zapatistas have said the best solidarity anyone can offer is to start their own social centers, projects, movements, and revolutions wherever they are based. In Belo Horizonte, the capital city of the state of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil, a collective called Kasa Invisível (Portuguese for “Invisible House”) has heeded that proposal, and hopes to inspire you to do the same.

The three formerly abandoned houses now occupied by this autonomous, anti-capitalist collective serve as a home for people in need, a social and cultural center for the community, and a meeting and organizing space for anti-authoritarian resistance and mutual aid. While there are hundreds of building and land occupations in Minas Gerais alone, Kasa is one of only a few squats in the region that explicitly exist to support struggles against the state and capitalism. [Read More]

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Calais: the tension does not fall back

By: fawda - September 28th, 2020  Filed under: News

On Saturday, September 26, 2020, more than 400 people walk in the rain for freedom and human dignity.

Calaisians, activists, volunteers and migrants found themselves in the pouring rain and set off in a demonstration from the camp next to the hospital in Calais. In spite of the wind and rain, the migrants join the parade by dancing to the sound of drums, leading the march and parading with joy and determination in the rain.

At the arrival at the Place de Norvège, a few words from supporters and migrants alternate with music and hip-hop improvisation in all languages. In spite of the cold, it is a moment of euphoria and unity between people who don’t have the opportunity to mix in the city otherwise.
At the microphone, migrants testify to their fatigue and exasperation in the face of daily harassment by the police who evict, destroy tents and confiscate their materials, calling for them to be treated as human beings and not as animals. [Read More]

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Spanish State: Occupation, the ghost of the table

By: fawda - September 28th, 2020  Filed under: News

“I’m not sure what the fatal secret is”, Mathilde in The Castle of Otranto.

The recent media campaign against the occupation of homes was not the first, but one of the most intense in recent times. Its launch, on the eve of a probable intensification of the housing conflict, does not seem to be coincidental. The economic and health crisis has put the sectors involved on alert, and this seems to be a first move on one side. This campaign is beginning to have answers, especially in the form of articles and social networks. In these responses, it has been denounced that the phenomenon of home occupation is less widespread than the media suggests with an alarmist tone. The data and statistics reinforce this denunciation. Moreover, it has been rightly criticised that squatting is being deliberately confused with breaking and entering. Finally, an attempt has been made to refocus the debate on the problem of access to housing, which is the primary cause of property occupation.

The tense situation of calm that we are experiencing seems to be the prelude to greater social conflict, also around the issue we are dealing with. That is why defensive responses are essential, but it would be better to try to go a little further and take the initiative in the conflict, for which it may be useful to examine less visible or less explored aspects. Moreover, when faced with campaigns of this kind, data and statistics are often only half useful, because the issue here is whether or not occupying homes and premises is legitimate. [Read More]

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Thessaloniki: The Struggle Through the Eyes of Terra Incognita Squat

By: fawda - September 28th, 2020  Filed under: Interviews, News

This interview with members of Terra Incognita Squat reaches us by submission. The squat was invaded by the police on August 17, 2020, equipment confiscated, and the squat sealed off. Comrades issued a call for international support. This interview goes into further detail about the work and political objectives of the nearly two decade project.

Question: What is the goal of Terra Incognita squat? When did it establish its presence?

Answer: Comrades, greeting from the distant grounds of the western metropolitan areas. 17 years ago, our squat and political assembly found their roots in the results of the anti-globalization movement with the demonstration against the session of G7 during the summer of 2003 and the defense of the 7 arrested comrades after the events of the anti-session. The positive results of the struggle for the release of the arrested revolutionaries finds the anarchist movement of Thessaloniki in a moment of peak which seeks the territorialization of our anarchist ideology through the creation of stable reference points of expressing and referring to radical perceptions and choices of fighting against the state and the capital. Terra Incognita is the result of the need for a stable center of organising and supporting the struggle with all means, a choice that we would like to believe was consistently supported during these 17 years. [Read More]

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