Today we talked about the current squatting action on Bendigo Street in Collingwood where the Homeless Persons Union of Victoria (HPUVIC) and supporters are occupying empty houses owned by the state government, and briefly discussed the squatting history of Melbourne.
Listen to the Girls Radio Offensive show from April 4th 2016: https://www.mixcloud.com/girlsradiooffensive/4-april-2016/ [Read More]
On Friday, when the judge at Boulogne-sur-mer announced, three times that the trial of 8 friends was irregular the court room erupted into applause and cheering. Waiting outside were a brace of Police de l’Air et des Frontières (PAF) waiting to take 5 of them (the foreigners) to detention after they had been served with Obligation de Quitter la Territoire Français (OQTF). But these had already escaped and were not present to appreciate the announcement of their victory.
The judges had decided that there were too many irregularities and that the authorities had not followed procedure when arresting and detaining the 8 people on the roof of an abandoned building in the centre of Calais on Sunday the 27th April.
Dear reader,
This is our first issue in English!
We chose a topic about spaces: there’s been a squat in Kaunas, Lower Šančiai have been filled with expensive stores for rich newcomers, the station district is getting another shopping mall which will push the poor out of the city centre. EU is trying to close its borders to immigrants who remind us of current and past “greatness” of colonialism and disciplined space. People move towards the centre- the centre tries to stop them by putting up barbed fences, enhancing the budget of the “Frontex” corporation which deals with border security, and creating refugee concentration camps in Europe’s periphery and around. [Read More]
A group of housing activists and homeless people have occupied properties in Bendigo Street, Collingwood.
These 6 government-owned houses were pledged to be used to address homelessness by the Andrews government, but many have been sitting empty for over a year.
The occupiers of the properties have made the following demands and refuse to leave until they are met.
• Immediate release of all information relating to the current ownership of all
properties acquired for the East-West Link, with full transparency about all
acquired land and no more dishonesty.
•The 6 unused houses on Bendigo St to be made into genuine public housing
and allocated to some of the 35,000 people on the public housing waiting list.
Occupation will continue until the first keys are handed over.
• All unoccupied properties acquired for the East-West Link that are still in the
government’s possession to be added to the public housing register. [Read More]
As Melburnians wake to one of the chilliest mornings this year, and a trail of pretty hot-air balloons floats across the city skyline, over 1,000 homeless men, women, children and families have faced a night exposed to the elements or in their cars.
Standing in solidarity, members of the HPUV and homeless community have begun occupying another empty residential property on Bendigo St, Collingwood, overnight. They continue to demand clarification on the ownership and management of six long-term vacant residential properties on this street.
It was revealed to the demonstration late yesterday afternoon that a commercial relationship exists between the state government and Noble Knight Real Estate concerning property numbers 16 and 18 on Bendigo St, Collingwood.
Today the demonstrators once again call on the Andrews government for transparency regarding their relationship with Noble Knight Real Estate as it pertains to any of the empty properties on Bendigo St, and they demand to know why these properties have been left abandoned for over 1 year amidst a homelessness and public housing crisis.
They will continue their campaign until they receive these answers in the name of the 23,000+ homeless Victorians and the 35,000+ Victorians languishing on the public housing waiting list.
The protesters will once again provide a free community breakfast at the site this morning and are encouraging all community members to join them in their demand for clear and accountable government throughout the day.
They will hold a public meeting at the site at 6PM where all those concerned at the government’s underhanded treatment of this issue are urged to attend. [Read More]
After a long-fought day, protesters have successfully occupied an empty domestic property on Bendigo St this morning.
This is despite being informed late yesterday afternoon, and after weathering a 3-hour holding pattern conducted by Victoria Police officers and an anonymous party of three, that their occupation of 18 Bendigo St, Collingwood, constituted an act of unlawful trespass on private property.
Noble Knight Real Estate spokesman, Travis Sanders, acting on behalf of his unnamed ‘client’, informed the demonstrators of this, alongside a Senior Sergeant of Victoria Police.
However, earlier in the day, with the assistance of Yarra City Councillor Stephen Jolly, the demonstrators received confirmation, via a title search, that the six empty residential properties they sought ownership and management clarification on still remain in the ownership of the Victorian government.
Noble Knight Real Estate representative Travis Sanders and the Victoria Police Senior Sergeant declined to provide any clarification to the demonstrators on the relationship between the real estate and the government.
On behalf of the 22,000+ homeless Victorians and the 35,000+ people on the public housing waiting list, the demonstrators will continue to demand such clarification. [Read More]
An update on the court case of the 8 friends arrested for squatting an empty homeless shelter in Calais.
Today, the trial scheduled to take place at the court in Boulogne-sur-Mer was postponed until Friday, April 1. All 8 had accepted to be tried today, under the comparution immediate (fast track procedure).
Yesterday, after spending 48 hours in police custody, 3 friends were released until the trial and 5 kept in preventive detention to ensure that they would come to court. However, 3 of those in prison were not able to be transported to appear in person before the court. This was due to an apparent lack of organisation of transport from the prison to the court. [Read More]
Early this morning a coalition comprising members of the Homeless Persons Union Victoria and Melbourne’s homeless community began demonstrating at a number of empty properties on Bendigo St, Collingwood. The properties are among those that were compulsorily acquired by the former Napthine government for the now defunct East West link.
The demonstration seeks clarification on issues surrounding the ownership, management and occupancy of these empty, publicly-owned properties. The lack of transparency has led to confusion within the homeless community.
Six months ago there were media reports that 20 properties were transferred to the Collingwood Football Club’s ‘Magpie Nest’ program, a partnership with The Salvation Army, to house the homeless. A spokesman from Magpie Nest claims that all properties transferred to their management have been filled.
In light of this, the demonstrators call on those responsible to immediately provide clarification on who owns and manages the remaining empty properties. It is unjustifiable that these dwellings remain unoccupied with a Victorian winter approaching.
There are 35,000+ Victorians on the public housing waiting list, growing at 100 per month. This is while the Andrews government neglects, demolishes and privatises public housing. [Read More]
A recently squatted building was publicly opened this morning in Calais, on rue des Prêtres. The building was an abandoned homeless shelter capable of accommodating at least 50 people. People started gathering outside the building around 11 o’clock this morning in support of the people already barricaded inside. A neighbour-collaborator called the cops, even going as far as to offer them a hand when they arrived. By around 2.00 some 12 vans of riot cops had the building surrounded, and those inside had already climbed up on the roof. Around 4.30, they started pushing away the people outside and smashing down the front door of the house with a battering ram. The deputy mayor of Calais who’s name isn’t important enough to publish was holding the battering ram together with the riot cops. Not managing to break down the door, they smashed in a window and opened the front door from the inside. [Read More]
For years, the government and the prefecture of Calais have been destroying living places. For years, people in Calais have been assaulted by police and fascists and have had their belongings destroyed . For years, people are forced to live in fear and insecurity because they are foreigners. [Read More]
A group of determined people have stopped the government’s plans to cut down trees in Budapest’s biggest and most loved public park, Városliget, at least for now. How long will they be able to do so, we’ll see. The government wants to remove the museums found in the Royal Palace and relocate them to a to-be-created museum quarter carved out of the park. It is a very costly mega project that is just as unpopular as the compulsory Sunday closure of shops. Spending all these huge sums of public money, without any transparency, in a time when schools and hospitals are falling apart, is absolutely unnecessary. People understand it’s about two things. First, to distribute the EU funds Hungary receives among loyal friends who get these projects well overpriced, and so our Prime Minister can finally move in the castle where the Hungarian kings lived. A true story of rags to riches: from a mud-brick shack on the edge of a village to the Royal Palace. If people let it happen. [Read More]
This Wednesday 23rd March, four 2012 hunger strikers from Nantes, accompanied by four activists, met with the Calais hunger strikers. Here is their testimony:
“We are here in support, in sympathy, in bringing our experiences, but certainly not to bring advise.
Compared to theirs, our experiences were very light: they have been on hunger strike since March 2nd, isolated in the southern part of the jungle that was destroyed, with a background noise of bulldozers flattening rubble, and the polce that surround them. [Read More]
