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]
Athens: Evictions in Marousi and Koukaki
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]
Athens (Greece): Notara26 issues ultimatum to Greek government
Notara 26 issues ultimatum to Greek government, answering back to the government’s ultimatum to evacuate all squats within 15 days.
From occupied Exarchia we give a 15 days deadline to resign tho all those who dream of the revival of the dictatorship along with their propaganda mechanisms, through beatings, virtual rapes, stripping of women, denial of legal rights, intimidations and surveillance of comrades, workers and students. These are only some of the practices of the increasing repression and onslaught towards the people’s struggle. Their excellence and normality consists of closed borders, closed camps, closed minds and then the smokestacks will follow.
We have been given a 15day deadline. 15 days…
Notara 26 has existed for 1500 days. It has sheltered more than 9000 people from 15 different countries of origin. Hundreds of solidarians from all over the planet have participated in the project. Thousands of different stories. One constant common struggle for solidarity, selforganisation of our lives, acceptance of difference and uniqueness. One struggle in our squat, our neighborhood, the street.
Ideas cannot be supressed. Notara 26 is here and will stay alive !
You cannot evict a movement. Not now, not ever ! [Read More]
UK: The Social Centre Bulletin. Fash Attack Pie ‘n’ Mash
I was going to leave the Bulletin for another couple of weeks but then fascists happened. It’s always fascist innit, they got a thing about social spaces. Kicking off and trying to spoil everyone’s nice time.
On the 9th Nov, down in Deptford in London, a couple of hooligans tried to smash their way into Pie ‘n’ Mash squatted community cafe with the intention of attacking the people inside. Obviously not appreciating the re-appropriation of their bit of rhyming slang (it’s “Antifash Pie ‘n’ Mash” now see :p) nor the signs of any community organising it seems. They’d been seen lurking around the streets of Deptford for a few weeks (even visiting the squat a few times) and had been caught being typical racist trash in the local offy spewing homophobic and racist slurs as the fella behind the counter in the run up to their assault.
Then a couple of Saturdays ago they thought they’d give the social centre a go, putting through the front windows and kicking in the door before bailing as support came down the stairs to see what the noise was about. It’s nothing more than a nasty attempt at intimidation from people who only know threats and violence. [Read More]
Athens (Greece): The day after November 17, a taste of blood in the mouth
A tough night for those who like Exarcheia and revolutionnary struggle in Greece.
Many of our comrades spent the night between four walls after systematic beatings. Others were injured, three of whom were transferred to hospital by ambulance. Others had to hide for a good part of the evening, or all night, not to be picked up and beaten by police who seemed very excited, as if in a full war video game throughout the neighborhood.
In total, more than 5,000 policemen, a helicopter and drones permanently transmitting the position of insurgents resisting from rooftops. Anti-terrorist policemen, riot police, plainclothes policemen, mobile police, tanks with water cannons … The armada in uniform that converged on Exarcheia, during two successive demonstrations (1), was much too numerous and over-equipped for the solidarity of the defenders of the rebellious neighbourhood.
Exarcheia did not hold out long. Already partially occupied for weeks, it quickly tipped under the control of the soldiery, allegedly guardian of the peace. Few places within it are still safe. This morning, while the sun has not returned yet, Notara 26 is still standing, as well as the K * Vox and the Exarcheia self-managed health structure (ADYE). But these places and some others are but the last bastions in an exceptional neighborhood minutely devastated by the Greek state over the last weeks, in order to remove one of the sources of inspiration for social movements the world over. [Read More]
Athens (Greece): About the eviction of Bouboulinas 42
On May 2019, Bouboulinas 42 squat began as an answer to the operation of the state (governed by SYRIZA) to evict a series of squats, mostly migrant housing ones and throw hundreds of migrants to the streets or transfer them to concentration camps. It was an answer that came from occupied Gini, which said “we, locals, migrants, solidarians, squatters, realize that our answer must be given in common. That is why we decided to occupy the building of Gini in Polytechnio, as an immediate response to the evictions and to organize the resistance against the repression, the defense of the squats, the neighborhood and our lives.”
From then until its eviction, Bouboulinas squat became the house for hundreds of people that are constantly prosecuted, incarcerated and tortured by the Greek state. The same people who are stripped off of any right to exist, are stigmatized as criminals and scum by the media and a national body hungry for human meat and a cheap labor force. Bouboulinas 42 squat was and is the realization of the desire for a better life and the struggle for freedom and equality beyond nations, religions and gender differences. [Read More]
Poznan: Rise up for Rozbrat!
Across Europe, autonomous spaces are fighting for survival in the face of mounting repression. Following the violent evictions of La Zad in 2018, ADM in January and Grow Heathrow in February of this year, the State is setting its sights on Poland’s oldest squat. After celebrating its 25th anniversary in October, the future of the Rozbrat social centre now hangs in the balance as the land it occupies is to be auctioned off.
From Rigaerstrasse in Berlin, to the streets of Exarchia, to the deserts of Syria, the class war is raging as governments continue to lurch to the right and property developers, fascist politicians and land bankers close in on the generation of squats that were opened during the 90s. They have resisted before, and will do so again with the popular support of the communities of Poznan and the squatting community. Demonstrations in support of Rozbrat regularly attract thousands of people. Now more than ever, the autonomous movement of Europe and the world must look beyond our immediate localities and borders to show how we can support our collective struggles against capitalism and the State in the spirit of internationalism and solidarity. [Read More]
Bologna (Italy): former Sani barracks squatted by XM24
Give in to those who would like us to be extinct, exiled or forgotten: we may have little sense, but our imagination is infinite! Today XM24 reopens a place closed and abandoned for decades. What was once the Sani barracks begins a new life as a place of self-management, solidarity and aggregation. We are opposed to the abandonment of public spaces, regaining possession of the spaces we need to live and breathe.
For 17 years XM24 has produced sociality and self-managed culture in Via Fioravanti 24. A Self-managed public space that has also been the starting point of social struggles that have crossed Bologna and the entire country. A place where many activities have been able to escape the logic of profit, a place of human and political experimentation. [Read More]
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