London (UK): The old Crown Court in Southwark squatted

By: R! - April 23rd, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News

News from London squatters:

The old Crown Court in Southwark squatted !

Between the Trinity House estate and the snatch-vans at Southwark Police Station, the old Crown Court was squatted. The building was formerly the Inner-London Crown Court, and was used to convict and imprison primarily poor and working-class inner-London residents. Along with much of the neighbourhood, it is now owned by the Trinity of St Clement, whose redevelopment plans are eerily similar to the violent regeneration elsewhere in Southwark.

Squatting this building is our response to the criminalisation of the poor and deviant in Southwark, London and beyond. This building’s legacy of imprisonment should be written-over and damaged, and the current situation for London’s poor and deviant challenged. Mainstream culture talks of state and prison violence as if they were elsewhere, but being nicked and doing bird are realities in poor, inner-London life. Wherever we steal, work illegally or resist evictions at our council homes and squats, snatch-vans and courts are used against us. [Read More]

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Athens: Refugee Accommodation Centre City Plaza

By: fawda - April 22nd, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News

2016_Athens_Refugees_Welcome_demoSince the morning of 22/4/2016, the abandoned Hotel “City Plaza” in Athens has been turned into an Accommodation Centre for Refugees. Currently refugee families from different nationalities, together with hundreds of people of solidarityare working collectively for the cleaning, repairing and organization of space, so that it can open soon as a project of self-organization and solidarity, as a center of struggle against racism and exclusion, for the right to free movement, decent living conditions and equal rights.
The Solidarity Itiniative to Economic and Political Refugees invites everyone topractical and material support of the Accommodation Centre “City Plaza”. For the next few days and as long as there are works in progress in the building, it will not be possible to accommodate more refugees.

From the summer 2015 and on, Europe and Greece have been found unable to respond to the issues emerging from the largest refugees’ wave in their territory, since the World War II, in the source of which there can be found the declaration and act of war, on a military as well as an economic level, from the countries of the North to the countries of the South, which has lead their populations to poverty, fear and oppression. [Read More]

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Hambach Forest: Eviction Alert!

By: sisulscz - April 21st, 2016  Filed under: Communique

Anti-Coal Mining Fight continues in the Rhineland in the Hambacher Forest (previously on S!N)for the 4th consecutive year with direct action, forest barricades, and three treesits/treehouse occupations: Oaktown, Beechtown, F*ck Off, and Death Trap. Sending a message to those engaging in exploitation of natural resources in the form of brown coal and other fossil fools that their destruction of natural habitats such as Hambacher Forest and ensuing global mercury and cadmium emissions combined with CO2 dumping and its global climate chaos effects will not be tolerated. [Read More]

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Oslo: Vestbredden Vel Vel, one of the Scandinavian’s oldest existing squat, under threat of eviction

By: R! - April 21st, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News, Press release

from: https://resiste.squat.net/?p=2927

The living-and-working collective Vestbredden Vel Vel which resides in Hausmannsgate 40 in Oslo, is under threat of eviction.

Oslo municipality are close to ending a long term sales process that, if it is approved by the city council which everything points to, will result in eviction and demolition of Scandinavia’s oldest existing squat.

You are more than welcome to write back if you publicly want to support us or in other ways contribute! [Read More]

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Marseille: Message from friends that were in custody following the Manba squat eviction, rue Bel Air

By: dolph-l - April 19th, 2016  Filed under: Communique

Without repeating here and right now everything that happened, a short recap, we’ll start by informing you that all 3 people have been freed yesterday [April 14th]. Two amongst us have been summoned to the criminal court on June 10th at 2pm for: destruction/criminal damage/defacement of a building intended for worship, as a group, and refusing DNA.

We narrowly avoided having to sign on at the police station, but regardless are under bail conditions. Another friend received a summons to the police station. The driving license of a mate is still in the hands of the cops… [Read More]

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Barcelona: Statement on the last repressive operation and in solidarity with the imprisoned comrade in Soto de Real (Madrid)

By: sisulscz - April 17th, 2016  Filed under: Communique

Last Wednesday 13th of April, at 5 o’clock in the morning, the Mossos d’Esquadra started an operation in which they raided two houses and a social center in La Salut neighbourhood, «los Blokes Fantasma», where around twenty people that live in the building were detained for twelve hours.

In addition to the looting and destruction that comes together with a police raid, the operation ended with the arrest of a comrade that was already imprisoned due to the Operation Pandora, and who was under an European search warrant that was issued the 11th of April accused of participating in different bank expropriations in the German territory.
[Read More]

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Utrecht: Eight apartment flats squatted on Kanaleneiland

By: fawda - April 16th, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News

20160416_Utrecht_Eight_apartment_flats_squatted_on_KanaleneilandLast week, eight apartment flats were squatted in Kanaleneiland. The flatslocated at Monnetlaan (within the so-called “Eiland 8” block) are the property of the city of Utrecht, and are managed by housing corporations Mitros and Portaal who want to transform the flats into free housing sector apartments for rent and for sale.
The squatters disagree with the way former renters have been treated, and are against the gentrification of the city.
Before, there were 224 social renting apartments in this blok, which the former renters had to leave in due to demolition, as a result of the long-term neglect of the homes. These plans are part of a big-scale gentrification that is taking place in Utrecht (and the rest of the Netherlands).
Based on the “leegstandswet” (“vacancy law”). The temporary renters put into the appartments, were promised, in writing, to be allowed to stay until demolition. This is how project Eiland 8 came into being, realized by Wolf huisvestingsgroep and Sophies Kunstprojecten.
Eventually, there didn’t seem to be sufficient money from the city of Utrecht to be able to build the new constructions so, the project was then sold to the Swiss-Quatarese asset management company Aventicum, that hired construction company Heijmans to have the places refurbished thoroughly. [Read More]

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Marseille: Eviction of third Manba ends with 3 comrades in custody, as well as home raided

By: dolph-l - April 16th, 2016  Filed under: News

This afternoon April 12th, the latest Manba was evicted by numerous cops, we faced two arrests and police violence. This squat opening followed the eviction of Manba 2 (last week).

Manba was opened a few days ago on Rue Bel Air, in a building empty for several years. The opening allowed the continuation of events at Manba: welcoming migrants, collective workshops, political meetings, freeshop… This place also wanted to be a meeting point between struggles at this time of social movement.

The police turned up on April 12th and stayed for several hours in front of the building, occupied at the time by five comrades (including one arrested the evening of April 12th). An “expert architect” showed up to pretend that the building was dangerous, although it wasn’t sanctioned as dangerous or unfit. The eviction after 48 hours of occupation was therefore an illegal eviction. People came in support against the eviction, around 20-30, who were then violently handled by cops, so the numbers then swelled throughout the confrontation. After pushing back supporters, cops then completely blocked the street and access to the building, which they eventually entered, bringing out the occupants and proceeding to arrest one of them. [Read More]

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Prague: You can’t evict ideas

By: fawda - April 11th, 2016  Filed under: Interviews, News, video

Praha_Klinika_zostaneThe Autonomous Social Centre Klinika, which occupies the building of a former clinic in Prague, has attracted a large number of supporters and was awarded a prestigious prize. Yet its future remains uncertain.

Since 1987, the Charter 77 Foundation has annually awarded the František Kriegl Prize in the Czech Republic. The award is a reminder of the brave attitude of the Czechoslovak politician František Kriegl, who refused, as the only member of the political elite at the time, to sign the “Moscow Protocol” after the country was invaded by the armies of the Warsaw Pact in 1968 and so legitimate the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Soviet tanks. The current mission of the prize is to highlight exemplary courage expressed by individuals or civic institutions in the quest for upholding human and civil rights, and political tolerance. Its results are announced each year on 10 April, the day of František Kriegl’s birth. This year, the prize was awarded to the collective of the Autonomous Social Centre Klinika, located in Prague’s Žižkov district. Its activists now stand alongside figures such as the Czech dissident Jaroslav Šabata, leading Roma scholar Milena Hübschmannová, or anarchist Jakub Polák, who all held the award previously. It is undoubtedly one of the most telling proofs of the social necessity and importance of the Autonomous Social Centre. “Klinika lives, the struggle continues”, runs the slogan of the movement that arose around Klinika in the past year. But despite the award and the strong imprint that Klinika has left, the centre’s future, symbolically and physically connected with the building of a former healthcare facility in Prague’s Žižkov, is still not certain. [Read More]

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Marseille, France: Newly squatted Manba evicted

By: dolph-l - April 11th, 2016  Filed under: News

The new Manba, that was opened following the eviction of the former (based at 180 rue Horace Bertin), was evicted at the yesterday at the end of the afternoon, April 6th, by hordes of cops.

The space at 49 rue Chape was opened to continue activities that previously took place – namely as a migrant welcome centre, collective workshops and political meetings – it also wanted to contribute to taking part in developing a convergence of struggles, in the context of the social movement.

[Read More]

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Occupy Spring in Barcelona: Multi-Cine successfully Liberated

By: freedom - April 8th, 2016  Filed under: News

cinètikaLast Saturday a gigantic 10 screen cinema was occupied as an autonomous social center in Barcelona. The abandoned building is owned by the City Council who had failed to find a use for it. The action began as an advertised 4 day series of debates and workshops, meals etc… with a whole range of strikers, squatters, immigrants, feminist struggles etc.. taking part.. all to be held in a local square, and beginning with a street parade around historic struggle sites.,.

The parade ended with the Cinètika occupation

The liberated area, with thousands of square meters and ten cinemas will become, henceforth, an open space in the neighborhood. The promoters of the project want to build a squatting assembly, feminist and outside the institutions. No alcohol will be sold at the venue, as the group believes that “alcoholism and drugs are a problem in the workers neighborhoods.” [Read More]

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Slovenia: Reutilization of abandoned industrial buildings

By: fawda - April 7th, 2016  Filed under: essay

Inde_KoperIndustrial archeology

Built structures often outlive their original purpose. In addition to historical buildings such as castles, this also applies to industrial buildings. Abandoned mills, mines, factory halls and warehouses are in most cases doomed to collapse, but sometimes they get saved, refurbished and revived with new content. In Great Britain the evaluation and revitalization of industrial plants started in the fifties, because a lot of the buildings were destroyed during the war. In 1955 the British historian Michael Rix coined the term industrial archeology and the beginnings of revitalization of this architecture date back to this period. Today the Unesco’s list includes a large number of buildings that belong in the category of industrial heritage as evidenced by the agreement on the importance of these historical legacies that bear witness to a time of great social and technological change. However, few qualify as monuments of national importance. [Read More]

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