Mexico: Occupied social center Casa Naranja closes its doors

The anarchist squat in Mexico state, Casa Naranja, has been forced to close its doors and abandon its space. This communique comes from the compas of Casa Naranja as they reflect on the history and future of the space, and the more general absurdity of private property.

In capitalism, property is one of the principal pillars that sustains the ruling class. Historically it has executed the greatest injustices, like the massive dispossession of people, genocide, the annihilation of wildlife, the assassination and incarceration of militants. However, what we consider to be the most dangerous, is that property has been fixed into our minds, making us believe that we can own the land as property, and that obtaining a physical space for the development of life will depend on the monetary capacity of each individual. It is here where the irony becomes absurd, paying for what was originally taken from us. Accepting and naturalizing this concept of property, we have been converted into agents that reproduce the same vileness on a smaller scale. We believe that we are free to possess everything that has a price and also everything that doesn’t, running through everything to fulfill our desire for possession. Thus, we see the need for sabotage and expropriation, the defense of natural resources, the recuperation of property for recreation and collective development. [Read More]

London: Squatter’s Digest, Greece

Greece, the home of democracy. And molotov cocktails. They also enjoy regular cocktail nights to raise money for the squats and imprisoned anarchists. It’s one thing to know what is going on inside the UK with regards to squats, but I feel we are severely lacking in communication with squats across Europe, or indeed the world. Hopefully I can bring to you some of the news from some of the squats in Greece along with the usual round-up of news from London and beyond.

Setting The Scene

A quick explanation of how the law works in Greece, from a meeting I had with a lawyer personally involved in one of the local neighbourhood squats. Unlike in the UK, squatting is a criminal rather than civil matter. It is based around a few points in the penal code, such as breaching someone’s right to asylum in their own house, or disturbing the community. However the police cannot act unless a complaint is made by the owner to the state prosecutor, who then instructs the police to enforce it. For public buildings there is a bit of a loophole in the penal code dating back to 1938, and a lot of squats in Greece fall into a kind of “hybrid” category, meaning the prosecutor is less likely to take action unless pushed by the local government. However as of the 1st of July this year, the penalties have gone up in accordance with the introduction of a new penal code. What were simple misdemeanours for resisting can now be classified as heavier breaches of law, and can see a jail-term of 3 years, up from the previous maximum of 1 year. Interestingly this was introduced at the same time as the reduction of a lot of other penalties, prompting outrage from other parties. In any case this was the doing of Syriza, and with the election on July 7th, the conservative New Democracy is back in power, so things can be expected to only get worse (more on this later). [Read More]

Cologne: Police invades the Elster

Police invades Elster 230 and provokes escalation

After Deutsche Bahn yesterday filed a complaint against the occupation of Vogelsanger Str. 230 according to its own statement, the police today gained access to the Elster 230 and recorded personal details of individuals. All this happens against the background that next Monday talks are to take place between the city and DB, as we learned today.
As a result of unconfirmed sources from the mayor’s office, we also learned that the mayor is now also trying to persuade DB to negotiate with us. There the opinion is represented that the DB should hear at least our offers, before other steps would be introduced.
In this context, DB’s approach is becoming increasingly incomprehensible to us: “There is contact with a mediator – the city – who has to be taken seriously, also by DB. DB announces that it basically approves of our idea of use and at the same time it creates the ground for individual activists who work directly for it to be prosecuted. We ask ourselves what DB expects of itself from the criminalisation of individuals, at a time when X people happen to be in the house,” says Anna Meise. [Read More]

Barcelona: We reoccupied Ca La Trava

We have returned to Ca La Trava, now an empty plot, and we are not planning to leave. This space, until now closed, will again be open to the neighborhood, and we will defend it as we have defended our houses. We want it to be again a trench from which to resist the onslaught of the speculators and give war to all those who are destroying our neighborhood. If in Ca La Trava they make luxury flats we all lose, and we can’t allow that.

These are times of empty phrases, of euphemisms, of symbolisms without content and of politicians contradicting each new declaration. For this reason, we want to make it clear that when we say “Ca La Trava will never be luxury flats” we say it as seriously as possible. The struggle of Ca La Trava is not a lost struggle, and resquatting is not an improvised decision or the fruit of sentimentalism. Our goal is to win and we are convinced that we will. [Read More]

Prague: Latest updates about fines, Klinika building and how we can all fight for the city

Fines and expenses
You may have already heard that a judge decreased the executor’s fee to “mere” 900 000 CZK (yes, nine hundred thousand, approx 36 000 EUR), which, thanks to your overwhelming solidarity, appears to have been mostly collected. However, this unfortunately is not the end to the repression and related expenses. We still need money to pay our lawyers because we are appealing the “executor’s fee” to the Constitutional Court.
At the same time we are being sued by the state and the State Railway Administration Company for allegedly using the squatted derelict building for profit and for denying the owners its profitable use. They are currently suing us in total for 938 000 CZK but the amount could in the end rise to 3 500 000 CZK. These lawsuits are, of course, absurd and we have already won at a lower court but we cannot be sure of the final result. We are also sorting out fines and legal expenses for people who defended Klinika on the roof. In short, money is still needed. If any money is left at the end of all these proceedings or if some of the already payed sums are returned we will put them back into future autonomous spaces. We are humbled by your incredible solidarity and see it as a signal that your are in it with us. [Read More]

Athens (Greece): Staki of self-organized collectives of anarchist immigrants

Today 17 July 19, we, the self-organized collective of anarchist immigrants together with others self-organized collectives and individuals solidaritian occupied a abandoned shop in the corner of Tsamadou/Tositsa streets, Exarchia. [Read More]

Berlin: Police raid on Liebig34

This morning 6:30, the police broke into Liebig34 to search evidence and DNA in one room. The reason is an attack with stones against repression forces on Friday night. Soon after many riot police vans and a helicopter arrived, a barricade was burning in Rigaer Street. After some hours police left, no one was arrested. There is a call for resistance tonight and solidarity actions.
Cops destroyed doors and took some stuff. You are welcome to pass by but cops are still around in the area.


Statement from Liebig34:

Raided. Radical. Motivated
Saturday 20.07.2019 Friedrichshainer Nordkiez:

This morning, the cops of the LKA 5.21 unit under the command of Kranich raided Liebig34. Unusual was the saturday, unusual the mix of units from different departments. New were a few civil cop faces, not new: the repression. [Read More]

Crete: Call-out for support from Evagelismos squat

Comrades,

Evagelismos Squat in Heraklion Crete is a space with a continuous 17-year history in the anarchist/antiauthoritarian movement. From May 2002 until today, it has given small and big battles, contributing with a small tile in the mosaic that is Anarchism in Greece. In July 2008, there was an ultimatum and subsequent threat of evacuation from the Dean of the University of Crete. Same with January of 2013 during the crackdown on squats by the Minister of Public Order, Dendias. In both cases we got to work and thanks to the solidarity from the movement, we have managed to still be here. However, despite the repression from the state, spaces such as this require continuous engagement and improving so as to continue to satisfy the needs of the movement. During the summer of 2015, we took it upon ourselves to repair the front facade of the building, based solely on our powers and ,of course, those of the movement. This summer, we are at a crossroads regarding the livability of the movement’s infrastructures. [Read More]

Berlin: The Fight for Liebig34 goes further

The Court hearing for the eviction of our anarcha-queer-feminist housing project will take place on the 20th of september 2019. Padovicz wants to snitch away the house, while the politicians are trying to keep our mouths shut. Both parties are awaiting a final court decision. We do not let any cis-men decide about the future of our anarcha-queer-feminist project, cause simply no one should decide about us, but ourselves.

The last weeks in Nordkiez

Lately, the presence of cops in our neighbourhood increased massively. Helicopters are flying daily and nightly over our roofs. Multiple police vans drive through our streets and ID-controls become part of everyday normality.

Also, during our self-organized neighbour fest in which a lot of children participated, the cops reacted in an aggressive way, trying to ruin our day. Several persons sympathizing with our project, have been arrested and taken into custody. The arrests of these friends were very violent and sexist. Whether it’s about getting a coffee in the morning at the other side of the street or having dinner in front of our house, the cops find ways to intimidate us. The system of state tries to silence us by all means. As a consequence, we face daily confrontation with the cops. However, their provocation is not something we allow to set us back or keep us small. It is something that encourages us to resist.
We are aware that their violent behavior is purely a reaction on our mobilization in our joint-fight against gentrification, patriarchy and capital. All of this, shows us, that our battle against “the city of the rich and powerful” is effectively starting to worry the establishment. [Read More]

Utrecht: New squat!

Since a few days, a group of squatters has been occupying a building located at the Australiëlaan 18-22 in Utrecht. Since 1998, a family from Woerden had ownership of the building. The company Boxx Opslagverhuur wants to use the building as storage place, though their plan has been rejected by the municipality of Utrecht on November 12, 2018. So far there are no concrete signs the place will be used on a short term. That’s why we arrived!
The cops have been informed about the situation. This morning around 25 people showed up in solidarity. We are still waiting for them to come. The ambiance is nice and chill, and we will keep you updated in case the cops arrive or the situation changes. [Read More]

London: Call out for a noise demo in solidarity with Barcelona’s war on gentrification

On Monday 8th July at 8.30am, activists will gather in front of Blackstone offices at 40 Berkley Square in London W1 J5AL for a noise demo to show solidarity with Barcelona’s residents fighting against gentrification.

Blackstone Group, a New York based multinational private equity firm and the World’s largest alternative investment company*, is the biggest property and hotel owner in Spain. The firm, along other large companies such as Goldman Sachs, Apollo Management and Cerberus, have been buying tens of thousands of residential properties in Spain and then raising rents and evicting thousands of long-term tenants to make space for richer and more “desirable” residents: or just leaving homes to rot empty while their value increases. [Read More]

Madrid: CSOA La Gatonera evicted

First of all, we want to thank all the people who have shown their support and solidarity, especially the collectives, spaces and individuals of the neighborhood. Thanks to the support, we have managed to resist more than 24 hours at the door and hold a demonstration and a parade that hopefully has made it clear that we are still here and will continue to fight.
It has been at least a year since the beginning of threats and coercion by the new owner and his watch dogs (private security companies). There were threats to get an eviction squad after refusing to accept their money (15.000 euros) to leave the building. Seeing that they couldn’t bend us, they started the legal way to evict us. The sentence for the usurpation trial was not favorable to them, and they were still in a situation of appeal. [Read More]