Does Rozbrat have problems? Rozbrat has friends! Rozbrat stays! [we need your help] Since Rozbrat’s land is about to be auctioned off we’ve started a support campaign which coincides with the 25th birthday of our squat coming later this year. In May the debt collector Bartosz Guzik estimated the value of Rozbrat at 6m zlotys (1,5m euro). The auction might be announced at any given moment. Poznan authorities haven’t made any statements although they would be able to take over the land which was nationalised after World War 2, then it was illegally appropriated during reprivatisation. But we know we’re not alone and many people can’t imagine Poznan without Rozbrat! We will regularly be posting pictures of our friends! What can you do? Write down “Rozbrat Zostaje!” or “Rozbrat Stays!” on a piece of paper or say why Rozbrat is important to you and why it should stay, take a picture or make a video, send it to us and post it on your page. We need your support! Rozbrat – we were here, we are here and we will be here! [Read More]
Poznan: Call for support from Rozbrat
Bern (Switzerland): Brunnmattstrasse 46a squatted
Today, Saturday 8 June, Brunnmattstrasse 46a in Bern was squatted.
In one world
which is characterized by exploitation and oppression,
where everything is determined by money,
where people work their whole lives to make a living,
in the companies, through the oppression of employees create immense profits,
in which there is an indifference towards the exploitation and destruction that is taking place by these very companies all over the world,
in which socially constructed norms prevail,
in which it is difficult for people to escape the striving for social and financial success. [Read More]
Zürich (Switzerland): Kolibriweg 5 squatted
During the night of 7 june 2019 we occupied the house at Kolibriweg 5 in Zürich. There are too many empty houses in this city and at the same time rents can no longer be paid and many people have and find hardly or no roof over their heads. We have decided not to take these conditions any further and to become active.
Shortly after the occupation, the first cops appeared. We were asked to communicate and then threatened for a long time, lied and tried to put us under pressure.
We have not consistently responded to this game and have decided not to leave the house and defend the occupation. After long and tough negotiations, the cops had to leave again. Negotiations with the owner are sought. From now on we are looking forward to a solidarity visit. Further updates will follow. [Read More]
Poznan: One of the oldest European squats calls for solidarity in face of eviction threat
Rozbrat, an anarchist squatted space in Poland, has called for solidarity in face of eviction threat.
Rozbrat is located in the western Poland city of Poznan. The property was squatted in 1994 and since then it became an alternative politics and cultural centre. It also serves as a home for over 20 people, and is both temporary and permanent shelter for homeless people.
The principal idea behind the space is grassroots organising and self-governing. It is a home to the local Anarchist Federation branch and Food not Bombs among others. The activists involved in Rozbrat have been very much part of the local and beyond projects, including Anarchist Black Cross, the Free Caucasus Committee and Workers Initiative Trade Union. The squat has also been hosting many grassroots initiatives, such as the anarchist library and publishing house, the printing workshop, self-education initiatives, bicycle workshop, a sports club, and a rehearsal space for musicians. Over the years, thousands of events have been organised at Rozbrat, including concerts, exhibitions, theatre plays, lectures, seminars, meetings and workshops. [Read More]
Freiburg (Germany): Squatted former police station evicted after 45 hours
Eviction of the F52 in broad daylight +++ 25 arbitrary controls +++ Masked policemen jog through child day-care centre +++ State government favours misappropriation and speculation with batons
“Attention, attention. This is the first, second and final announcement…” With these words, the head of police operations, Harry Hochuli, started the eviction of Fehrenbachallee 52. There was no willingness to negotiate, the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg had already filed a criminal complaint in the evening the occupation started. We criticize the ruthless actions of the Freiburg head of operations, also in the face of the fact that the adjacent kindergarten would have been empty an hour later. The children could easily have been spared the traumatizing appearance of a masked and helmeted riot squad. Now the spacious property was returned to its inglorious state of vacancy.
The demand for affordable living space and self-organised district centres continues to grow, and not only in the western part of the Stühlinger district. We still demand the construction of a large rest house for people with refugee experience and more than ever it is necessary to fight for anti-fascist district centres and social perspectives through direct action. [Read More]
Wassenaar: Living in a Haunted Palace
King of Slums
Early in July 2018, the rapidly decaying historical manor house and the surrounding wooded park Ívicke at Rust en Vreugdlaan 2 in Wassenaar were squatted. Built as a little paradise — degraded to a real estate speculator’s plaything. His name is Ronnie van de Putte: a man with an eye-catching reputation in the world of real estate, infamous for speculating with prime locations and deliberately letting cultural heritage rot away for decades. In the seventies and eighties he acquired the nickname the ‘King of Slums’ and ‘Van de Beerputte’ (‘beerput’ is Dutch for ‘cesspool’). Van de Putte made a fortune buying real estate and reselling it for profit, but he never built or developed anything. For decades, Bever Holding (the real estate fund held by Ronnie and his wife Ria) has left a trail of slums and urban voids throughout the Netherlands and Belgium. Among Van de Putte’s most noteworthy achievements are the total deterioration of a former monastery in Zeeland (abandoned for thirty years) and inviting the collapse of an old horse stable in Noordwijk, creating quite a stir in March 2018, after the place burnt for the third time and the owner still refused to clean up the mess. Also his “Void of Palace” (where the Palace Hotel was located) and the Vuurtorenplein are an ongoing subject of conflict between Van de Putte and the municipality of Noordwijk. In Leiden, a little further south, Ronnie played the same game with the ‘Void of Van de Putte’, right in front of the train station. In 2005, during the kick-off of the nationwide Woonstrijd! Action Tour (‘Woonstrijd’ means ‘Fight for Housing’), the void and the neighbouring office building were squatted and turned into Vrijplaats Multipleks († 2015). Due to clerical errors, the municipality failed to expropriate the building from Van de Putte, which, in 2010, resulted in councilman Van Woensel (VVD: the liberal party) acquiescing to the ‘King of Slums’ and rewarding him handsomely for twenty years of deceiving the municipality: to the tune of 17,9 million euros! [Read More]
Netherlands: JaKra! squatting yearbook 2018 released
JaKra! is initiated by KSU Den Haag (The Hague Squatting Info Centre). In this book project we would like to look back on a number of developments and events in the past year, together with squatters and housing activists in different places.
It turns out that squatting is still necessary and useful — as some of the stories in the first JaKra! issue (squatting yearbook 2018) demonstrate. Housing is a necessity. There needs to be space for autonomy. Protests against speculation, social degradation, and miserable urban regeneration are necessary. We must fight for an inclusive city with sufficient affordable housing and non-commercial places to go out and meet people.
By sharing some of our successes and setbacks on an annual basis, we hope to contribute to creating more intercity involvement and solidarity between squatters and housing activists in the Netherlands and beyond and to inspire more people to become active themselves, helping to build an effective movement for the housing struggle.
In the Netherlands JaKra! #1 will soon be available for 5 euros in the subversive bookshops Rosa (Groningen), the Opstand (Den Haag) and the Fort van Sjakoo (Amsterdam) and soon also available to download. The book is bilingual, Dutch-English. [Read More]
Madrid: Statement of the anarchist compañeras arrested on May 13
In the early morning of May 13, an anti-riot unit was breaking into our homes and the anarchist space La Emboscada (The Ambush) – three weeks after its inauguration – together with the 21st group of the Provincial Information Brigade of Madrid, dedicated exclusively to spy and hunt anarchists. We were informed that they were bringing a search and arrest warrant for two of us on terrorism charges. During the search, which lasted approximately 6 hours, comrades from all over Madrid came to show their support.
Meanwhile, the police seemed especially interested in taking clothes with them: coloured and black coats, concrete coloured scarves, scarves, flower scarves, specific footwear; they were also interested in agendas, calendars, some notebooks, some annotations, notes between the pages of books, computers, hard disks, memory cards, usb, mobile phones, photographic and video cameras, CDs and DVDs, construction tools and, especially, hammers; as well as stickers, patches and T-shirts of the brand M.A.L.P.; posters and propaganda in relation to the G20 counter-summit in 2017. [Read More]
Bern (Switzerland): Fabrikool evicted
Since the early hours of the morning, the squatted Fabrikool house in the Länggass in Bern has been evicted by representatives of the canton and cops. The building is closed off on a large scale and surrounded by about 25 riot cops with dogs. All the trees around the building are cut down, a scaffold erected, all the windows screwed up from the inside with boards and everything outside, from pizza oven to trampoline to outdoor kitchen, is dismantled and cleared away. Again and again cops with bolt cutters and sledgehammers were sighted, eagerly working on their destructive work in the building. The highly motivated cantonal representative Beat Keller is, of course, personally on site and is not too sad to help clear away.
Many people in solidarity – also from the neighbourhood – are on site and observe what is happening. Throughout the morning, several people were subjected to person checks, district bans were imposed and two young people were arrested after being searched and detained by a bunch of robocops.
Just because the authorities think they can let off steam in our house is not the end of it! Therefore: Keep your eyes and ears open, more information will follow. [Read More]
Ljubljana: Open call of The Autonomous Factory Rog
Against violence of the City Municipality of Ljubljana – for Open Dialogue
The users of the Autonomous Factory Rog are observing the statements and moves of the management of the City Municipality of Ljubljana with concern. By denying dialogue, refusing recognition of users’ activities, with financial sanctions and open threats of eviction, it suggests that the repetition of the 2016 conflict is expected.
Let us remember, at that time the Municipality attempted to vacate the factory premises and establish a construction site in the middle of the night with private security officers, but encountered a large number of users who wanted to protect those premises, in which they developed alternative culture, social and political organization, a sports program and other activities free of charge since 2006. Following up, these users appealed to their adverse possession rights and did not want to leave. The rights were later acknowledged by the district court in Ljubljana. From that moment on until the conclusion of the property rights lawsuit the construction work had to be discontinued. [Read More]
Wassenaar: Rust Vreugd Terreur, benefit festival in support of legal costs
May 17th & 18th 2019, Rust Vreugd Terreur at Huize Ívicke, Rust en Vreugdlaan 2 in Wassenaar, a benefit festival in support of legal costs for WH7 Amsterdam, AC Den Haag, and K19 Zeist in corporation with ]LAG(
With legal fees and bills to pay and anniversaries to celebrate, Rust Vreugd en Terreur brings together an eclectic coagulation of visual and sonic experiences. Analogue and digital conjoin in outbursts of DIY and antifascist spirits, resonating sweet harmonics and harsh noises. Two days of performances, workshops, bands, vj’s, dj’s and more in the subverted pinnacle of bourgeois decadence that is Huize Ivicke. All capital accumulation will be redistributed towards the below three court cases.
Two arrestees of the Wijde Heisteeg are in threat by time in jail, fines and DNA samples. Four arrestees of the Autonomous centre in The Hague are still proceeding against fines and probation. Five arrestees of Zeist are summoned.
All arrestees of the above cases were temporarily taken into custody for squatting and are now being prosecuted. Their living spaces remain empty, or partly used by anti squat. They were evicted from places in which active autonomous subculture was thriving without any governmental support or interference. Instead of being grateful for their social function, they are put aside and criminalized [Read More]
Athens: Open Discussion of Bouboulinas squatters with the neighbours
As an open structure and community, aimed at strengthening and developing the co-organization of our daily life and common struggles, we invite all residents of this neighbourhood and beyond to join us in putting our visions into practice. In the end it is everyone’s responsibility to take sides either with the word of community and of free self-organization or with the side of fascism and repression.
We are living in a time of war. Terror, poverty, political and economic violence, those are the consequences. By closing borders, persecuting and massacring at the borders, and mass incarceration and isolation into concentration camps with no prospect of freedom, Europe is waging a war against migrants.
Since February 2019, a mass eviction operation of squats has began, with the migrant squat Arachovis 44 in Exarchia being the first one to be evicted. At 11/4, at 6 in the morning, an army of cops evicts the housing squats Azadi and New Babylon, from where 120 people are detained. Just one week later, another operation takes place against the migrant squat Clandestina, and the anarcho-feminist squat Cyclope.
During the operations, the police violently and forcefully entered people’s homes in the early morning, kicking in doors and entering people’s rooms with weapons. After arresting residents, including crying children trembling in fear, and taking them away to police stations and prisons, the police proceeds to enter their homes once again, humiliating the residents further by throwing their belongings into disarray. [Read More]
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