Friday December 20th
Hello comrades,
We write this communiqué from La Emboscada (Tetuán, Madrid) to inform you that last December 17th a judge ordered our precautionary eviction based on a complaint made by one of the owners of our Anarchist Occupied Space La Emboscada.
According to this report, the eviction can be very close, in less than 20 days. Taking into account this information, we decided to fight with all our capacities to prevent this eviction. So we called for a demonstration in the evening on the day of the eviction, at 8pm, and we are counting on your support. The meeting place will not be published until the last moment, so we encourage you to be attentive. We decided not to remain silent while we see dozens and dozens of eviction processes both in housing and social centers.
We decided not to give up or negotiate with those people who want to defend their private property above all, because we know that private property only seeks the individual benefit of some and we know that the State defends and supports these old class enemies already known.
We know that this case is not an isolated case (we have all the previous facts occurred this last year) but it responds to a normal capitalist functioning and structure. We know that the owner is not the devil who escapes the norm or the common sense accepted by most citizens. So we have decided to approach it as one more conflict to be faced and with all the will and mutual support that is given among all those who understand and are in solidarity with this fight against Capital, laws and State. [Read More]
Madrid: La Emboscada under eviction threat
Athens : No Pasaran anarchists react to the evictions
The greek government has gone into war with anarchists and anti authoritarians, following the end of a 15 days ultimatum issued by the Ministry of Public Order, towards the dozens of political and refugee squats across Greece (some of them more than 30 years old), threatening them with violent evictions by the riot police and police special forces, if they did not evacuate within the deadline. The deadline ended on Thursday night on the 5th of December 2019, a political decision by the greek State aiming to agitate and create an “explosive atmosphere”.
Following the first wave of attacks and evictions, mainly against squats housing refugees during the fall, the second wave of attacks has just begun, this time against political squats and social centers. Coinciding with the arrest of antifascists and the proposed judicial acquittal of neonazi leaders in the Golden Dawn trial, the right wing greek government and its self proclaimed socialist Minister of Public Order have proceeded with the eviction of Villa Kouvelou in Marousi on tuesday 17 december, while another three squats (Matrozou 45, Panaitoliou 21 and Arvali 3) have been evicted today 18 december in Koukaki, following a massive police operation, that terrorized a whole neighborhood with police brutality, attacking people living in adjoining houses that were no squats. Brutal images of greek SWAT policemen having their boots on people’s heads on the ground and a mother bound on the floor of her terrace with a hood on her head, reminiscing of Abu Ghraib torture images, have been circulated in the media. [Read More]
Rotterdam: Call to occupy Tweebosbuurt!
Tweebosbuurt is a neighborhood in the Afrikaanderwijk district, which is mostly inhabited by descendants of migrants from North-Africa, and situated in the South of Rotterdam, nearby the city center. There are four blocks of small buildings surrounding public parks and gardens. This disctrict has been gentrified for years already, mostly due to the highly increasing rent in the rest of Rotterdam which is leading students and white yuppies to settle in, and then to reclaim pacification of one of the last alive neighborhood of the city.
The city council has decided to take this issue seriously. The next step for the gentrification of Afrikaanderwijk is the demolition of the totality of Tweebosbuurt. We’re speaking here about 600 houses and shops, almost 25 000m2. 535 of these are ruled by Vestia, a private social renter which is mandated by the city council of Rotterdam to make this giant “social plan” a reality. Vestia is paid 24M euros only for the eviction itself, not including the price of the demolition and reconstruction.
[Read More]
Brighton: As council seals arches, where do the people go?
On Thursday 12th and Friday 13th several arches and shelters above Madeira Drive, at Black Rock, spaces which had housed a community of people over the summer were sealed off with metal grilles — the question has to be where are those people now? [UPDATE the grilles were taken down again a week later]
This summer I was really shocked by the number of homeless people in Brighton. It was much higher than it used to be. Despite a controversial official survey which said numbers had dropped by half, the evidence from my own eyes was that I saw many more homeless people on my way into town than in previous years. There are also many people living in the parks and on the beach. There have been encampments all over town, for example Hove Lawns. Now it’s getting colder, the camps are disappearing and so are the people. Where have they gone? Each person sleeping rough has their own reasons for doing so, maybe some have chosen to move on because of the weather, but what about the others?
[Read More]
Athens: Statement by the Koukaki Squat Community
We may have fallen, but we’ve fallen on their heads.
Statement of the squatters and comrades who defended Matrozou 45 and escaped from the MAT, OPKE, and EKAM police forces of repression. While facing a police raid, we were informed to the fate of the other houses in our squatted community.
We immediately barricaded the house and entered conflict with the forces of repression. Furniture, electrical appliances, boilers, paint, fire extinguishers, everything and anything in the house fell upon their heads. They responded by shooting and injuring us with plastic bullets as well as with stun grenades thrown directly into our home. We shouted “Here we live, here is our home, here we will die!”—”Fuck your development and Airbnb.” [Read More]
Athens: Solidarity call with the Koukaki Squat Community
The state’s spectacular repression made another show this morning with the eviction of three living spaces, squats of housing and struggle, those of the Koukaki Squat Community (*). Armed to the teeth state guards, using all their gadgets, broke down doors, shot tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets into the houses and the bodies of those living inside, in order to “return the buildings to their rightful owners”, in other words, to the desert of private ownership and capitalism. During the operation, they even tortured and arrested neighbours who dared question their all mightiness.
The message carried out by the bastard torturers and murderers, those bodyguards of fat cats and their politicians, was one of sweeping state terrorism against the social body.
The Koukaki squat community 3 years ago, opened up a space that kept growing, for the needs of the struggle for social self organization, against capitalist and state oppression. The community has defended its ground combatively whenever this was called for. This morning’s battle returned a bit of the violence to its institutional beares, proving in deed that the only lost battle is the one not fought for. [Read More]
Athens: Evictions in Marousi and Koukaki
Today in the early morning hours, Villa Kouvelos in Marousi (northern part of Athens) was evicted by a strong state anti-terrorist police force.
The empty and dilapidated building was squatted by anarchists in April 2010 and quickly developed into a nationally known social center, providing the district with concerts, lectures, discussions, political events, etc.
The villa has also been the target of attacks by right-wing groups such as the Golden Dawn. In the north of Athens, Villa Kouvelos was an institution and its eviction is a catastrophe for the neighborhood in cultural terms alone, leaving behind – similar to the eviction of the Villa Zografou – a socio-cultural desert. As far as is known, there is also no special reason for the eviction, there are no plans to use the building or sell the land. The eviction is therefore a purely populist act. [Read More]
Finland: New squat Kattila under threat of eviction
A small, cozy wooden house was squatted on 13 December in kivihaka, Helsinki, Finland on the corner of roads Hämeenlinnanväylä (E12) and Hakamäentie.
We all need space to live and be in. Space to sleep, cook, meet each other, perform mutual projects, study and develop ourselves, organize events, create new and to have fun. These kinds of spaces are not distributed fairly in hierarchically organized society. When some let their “owned” buildings sit empty, others are without communal spaces or even homes. Besides this, there are numerous places that are not safe if you’re something else than a white cis-hetero male or even open at all for poor people. This feels unfair and pisses us off. Something must be done! [Read More]
Bordeaux (France): ‘Living from day to day’ in migrant squats
As the western French city of Bordeaux struggles to accommodate its growing migrant population, more and more squats have popped up to keep the city’s legal and illegal migrants off the streets. However, since the region appointed Fabienne Buccio as its prefect, an aggressive evacuation campaign has been set in motion; with over 70 squats having been shut down in the past 6 months alone.
Like most children her age, eight-year-old Samar loves the extracurricular activities that are held on Wednesdays. “Today we painted, and we were even allowed to paint on the wall [of the squat]!,” she exclaims in impeccable French before one of her mates interrupts her for a play fight. “He annoys me a lot, but what is good here is that we’re allowed to disagree,” Samar says and points to the little boy who goes on to pull a face and then bursts out laughing. “There’s respect, but above all there’s no war like in my country,” she says [Read More]
Ronzón (Spanish State): Social center El Palaciu under threat
The social center El Palaciu of Ronzón, Asturias, which was squatted last April is facing threat of eviction.
The mansion which houses the social center is owned by the Fundacion de Ronzón. They are the inheritors of Spain’s feudal system. They have extensive land holdings in and around Ronzón. As this includes all the houses of the families living in Ronzón, they also are the landlords to the entire local community. Charged by the conditions of the trust with developing the countryside, their only action of note has been to undermine the Palace by profiting from the unwanted, unfinished AVE high speed train. Oh, they also profited from a duck farm scam.
Our vision of the countryside is different. If they are the continuation of feudal oppression, we are the continuation of peasant resistance. The rent seeking of the Fundacion and their ilk has led to the abandonment of over 800 villages in the Asturian countryside. The bureaucrats in rural town halls dream vapid dreams of wealthy city dwellers spending their excess capital in an uninhabited, natural paradise. We live and breathe and work for a sustainable, thriving agrarian world; a world where the necessities of life, like land and housing, are held in common for the empowerment of all. [Read More]
Greece: New Democracy, the new face of state violence
A view from Exarchia as the showdown looms. Interview with an anarchist in Athens about current situation.
he neighborhood of Exarchia in Athens, Greece is known worldwide as an epicenter of combative anarchism. For many years, anarchists and refugees have worked together to occupy buildings, establishing housing collectives and social centers that provide a variety of services outside the control of the state. Starting in August, the new government has carried out a series of massive raids targeting immigrants, anarchists, and other rebels, while revoking the autonomy previously granted to universities and introducing a wide range of new repressive measures and technologies. Now the government has given all the remaining occupations in Greece two weeks to conclude lease agreements with the owners or face the same fate. This deadline coincides with December 6, a day that anarchists have observed for ten years as the anniversary of the police murder of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos and the uprising that followed it.
The new governing party of Greece, aptly named New Democracy, is described by some media outlets as “center right,” in contrast to outright fascist parties like Golden Dawn; in fact, New Democracy has adopted much of its repressive and xenophobic agenda directly from the fascist right, while pursuing a neoliberal agenda in service of international finance capital. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mytsotakis, a hereditary representative of the capitalist class whose father was also prime minister, exemplifies the political caste that seeks to destroy the last safeguards protecting workers and poor people while scapegoating those who resist. [Read More]
Berlin: Renters organize to expropriate the mega-landlords
Berlin’s spatial dynamics and organized working class show how to secure liveable spaces and combat the financial nature of housing: socialize them.
Over the last few decades, housing in cities around the world has undergone unprecedented financialization and artificial speculation. Investors have never been richer. The worldwide value of the current real estate market is $217 trillion, 36 times worth the value of all the gold ever mined.
Profits from the commodification of the housing market have skyrocketed in step with the enclosure of spaces and the fixing of financial value to them. Living spaces are now complex financial products that can be packaged up into investment funds and swapped by companies across the world. [Read More]
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