Amstelveen: Last squatted house evicted

By: fawda - February 18th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

[Press release] Amstelveen (Netherlands) – Today, we, the group of people living at the Villa Aardappeleters (Potato Eaters), have left the house. After a legal battle of 6 years, we have chosen to respect the verdict of the Amsterdam court and to leave our home without a physical fight.

Villa Aardappeleters at the JC van Hattumweg 3 in Amstelveen would have been squatted for 19 years next month. In its 19 years of existence, the group had almost 30 inhabitants. Some of them lived here for more than 10 years, others for only a few months. Where one inhabitant consciously chose for the freedom and space that this special place offered, for others it was pure necessity, as, for example, for some undocumented persons who have lived here.

Although Villa Aardappeleters was a rather unknown squat, it has an infamous past. After the building was squatted in March 2003, the squatters found several weapons and explosives hidden in the attic during a party. [Read More]

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Wassenaar: Possible Ivicke Eviction Within Two Weeks

By: fawda - February 16th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Update on the hearing of the Provisional Ruling – 15 February 2022

Wassenaar (Netherlands) – Today, there was a hearing at the Raad van State in The Hague, which will decide the future of Huize Ivicke. The villa in Wassenaar that has been squatted for three and a half years is threatened with eviction because the building is officially designated as an office. In a court case on December 20th, the administrative judge in The Hague decided that vacancy was more appropriate than occupation, to which the residents have filed an appeal. To prevent an eviction before the date of the higher appeal, they have applied for a so-called preliminary injunction. This request was heard today by the Raad van State. The lawsuit is between the residents of Ivicke and the municipality of Wassenaar, with the latter wanting an immediate end of the occupation in violation of the zoning plan.

During the ruling on December 20th, the judge hardly considered the interests of the residents. In administrative law it has long been customary that little attention is paid to interests and results of decisions, but rather to the legal aspects of a case. As a result of the “toeslagenaffaire,” however, the Raad van State realised last year that the concrete consequences of their decisions are also somewhat important. [Read More]

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Calais: “We will not let ourselves be taken away!”

By: fawda - February 9th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Statement from Housing for All Calais

Since Friday 4 February, we have been occupying a building in Rue d’Ajaccio, which has been uninhabited for a year. This occupation took place within the framework of the commemoraction, an international day of mobilization initiated by the families and relatives of people who have died at the border, to denounce the murderous migration policies of the UK, France and the EU.

In Calais, about 1500 people are living on the streets in unacceptable living conditions. Displaced people occupy wastelands and have no access to basic services: housing, sanitation, water, food and medical care. The state imposes conditions of extreme precariousness and invisibility through illegal evictions every 48 hours, the theft of personal belongings by the police, the illegal dismantling of living sites without the possibility of defense in front of a judge, and recurrent police violence. The French and British governments, alongside Natacha Bouchard and all their other friends, have deliberately turned a political issue into a humanitarian crisis, keeping people who want to cross the border in a context of survival. [Read More]

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Groningen: Kraaienest stays! Squatters win court case!

By: fawda - February 8th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

After the squatters of the Kraaienest in Groningen won the court case on friday 28 january, Stichting Valquest will now probably appeal. The landlord with hundreds of properties can do without the 2.8 million building, but wants to prevent a home for homeless students and a social center in the former Heerenhuis, and prefers to exploit even more people with luxury apartments and high rents. Squatting goes on!

We, a group of homeless international students and others who need a home, squatted the Heerenhuis at Spilsluizen in Groningen. In the past, the house functioned as a christian youth organisation, and it hosted two different restaurants with meeting and event rooms. At the beginning of the pandemic the famous real estate owner Joshua Camera, under the name Stichting Valquest, bought the building. Shortly after that the restaurant Heerenhuis quit, and the huge building has been empty for 2 years until we moved in. Camera is known in Groningen and beyond, for demanding too high rent, illegal management costs and intimidation. In 2019 he won the Rood Huisjesmelker van het jaar, and his shady reputation was confirmed by the media (Boos, Sikkom and SBS6). [Read More]

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Calais: Communiqué from Housing for All Calais

By: fawda - February 7th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Housing is a right, even in Calais.

We are a group of people from different countries fighting for everyone’s right to dignified and safe housing. We are currently occupying, for over 48 hours, some of the many buildings in the city of Calais that sit empty and wasted while people sleep on the streets.

We occupy these spaces hoping to break the vicious cycle of state and police violence and dehumanisation that continues in Calais and across the world to enforce national borders. We aim to create an open space free from state violence and discrimination, where someone’s administrative status has no impact on their ability to have their basic needs met, experience solidarity, and live in dignity. [Read More]

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London: Learn how to use the radar.squat.net events calendar

By: fawda - January 24th, 2022  Filed under: News

New online workshop, saturday 29 january 2022, from 13:00 to 15:00 (UK time) https://squ.at/r/8kgw. By popular demand, a workshop for those who missed the one from 15 january, during the the Kill The Bill demo.

London is a radical city, full of events taking place, but people don’t know where the hell to find them unless they’re already part of certain groups on facebook and the like.
Social media websites rely on people becoming part of social circles and targeting people based on their interests. But it’s left to the algorithms as to whether you might see an event or activity come up. Even your searches are affected by these algorithms.

The number of people that have arrived in London not knowing what’s going on or where to find radical/anarchist events is somewhat shameful. And the thing is that a resource already exists, and is put to great use in many locations across the globe.
Radar (radar.squat.net) is a great resource, a really powerful events calendar that people can use to find events, and to advertise them to people that are interested and looking (rather than spamming thousands of people on social media that won’t pay it no mind). However it is hardly used in London, or in the UK, compared to other European countries. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Some reflections on the eviction of Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8

By: fawda - January 20th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Last Sunday we were evicted from our home after having been there for 5 days. Here are some reflections on what happened. We had a small taste of what could have been when we made Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8 in Amsterdam our home. Even though the last few days have been hard on us, there were many moments filled with joy and hope. The support and acts of solidarity we received from old and new friends, comrades and neighbours have deeply touched us. After 5 days of occupation and what we thought was a successful public revealing of the squat, we were quickly reminded of what should’ve been so obvious to us; that there is no safety for people like us living under the state and it’s capitalist system. All evictions are a form of violence and Sunday was no exception. We have yet to hear all the stories and experiences surrounding the eviction, and we are only representing our own experiences here. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Statement Squatting action Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8

By: fawda - January 15th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

[update: Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8 was evicted on sunday evening 16 January. 8 people got arrested in total, one of them outside the house. Some remained anonymous while in custody. Everybody was released the next day in the afternoon, accused of breaking domestic peace and squatting.]

In the last few months many have been taking action as part of a broader housing struggle. The recent housing demonstrations have revealed that we are massive in numbers, and that there is a urgent need for affordable housing, but the political system is incapable of real and meaningful change.

There is a growing awareness that this struggle needs to be anti-capitalist. A respect for a diversity of tactics is essential in this fight. Housing struggle is class war. We continue this fight here, by collectively taking back a space from those in power. All the wealth in the world is created by the workers, today we take back what is ours, lets bring back the commons.

We have squatted Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8, and we will use it as a home for houseless students and a political space for Autonomous Student Struggle. In this space, we want to share knowledge that doesn’t rely on opressive power structures and to actively organise against capitalism and the state, for a free world where everyone can live meaningful and fulfilling lives. We are not free until everyone is free.

The housing ‘crisis’ doesn’t exist, scarcity of housing is a myth -the problem is the unequal distribution of wealth. The problem is capitalism. When we squat, we don’t ask politicians to secure our housing needs: we do it ourselves! Rent is theft, all housing should be free, we want a world without private property. [Read More]

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Thessaloniki: gathering in solidarity with those arrested during the eviction of the new occupation

By: fawda - January 12th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

In the early morning of Wednesday 12 January at 05:45 am, once again, masked security guards approach the space occupied on Monday 10 in solidarity with the eviction of the occupation of the sketi at the biological building, which took place on new year’s eve, while at the same time police vans are lined up in the streets around the university campus and riot cops invade the campus. The squat was guarded by comrades, who defended it with dignity. The known garbage of repression, with their known murderous intentions, sought to drown the occupiers with tear gas and by using stun grenades in a space where they did not even know what materials were left over from the former use of the space as a pharmaceutical laboratory. Of course we have no doubt that ridiculous and misleading narratives will be played out by the state and the media about the materials that were already in the space and the destruction that the cops themselves caused in their rage when they invaded the space, smashing windows and walls. Besides, it seems that the cops’ sledgehammers have the magical property of making the spaces usable for the university and student community… [Read More]

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Thessaloniki (Greece): Eviction of Biologica squat & Call for solidarity week, 10-17 January 2022

By: xxx - January 11th, 2022  Filed under: News

The state, cops and university lackies decided on 31 December 2021 to realize an eviction that has already been announced the previous months. After unofficial threats for an upcoming eviction of the Biologica squat during the previous years, in September a project agreement was signed and assigned to a contractor, with the aim of “remodeling” and “utilizing” the spaces on the ground floor of the Biology building where the squat used to be. In the plans, of course, they included the squatted area with the intention of demolishing the surrounding walls and turning it into a secretariat room and a waiting room. In New Year’s Eve as in the long gone 1992 – at that time they built the door of the squat – the university campus is surrounded by police forces while underground cops are moving towards the area of the squat. They invaded our liberated ground and after conducting a thorough search, while destroying anything that was in the squat, they took pictures of their “grand” findings and they gave the space to the workers to finish off the first stage of their plan, the demolition of the walls. [Read More]

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Ghent: Will the Pand be sold to the highest bidder?

By: fawda - January 11th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Once…
Twice…
Three times squatted against privatisation!

On 19 December 2021, two weeks after the last eviction, we resquatted the heart of Ghent (Belgium)! Out of political necessity, because once again the voice of the people is ignored and the city and its puppets want to sell the Caermersklooster to the highest bidder.

For more than forty years, the building has symbolised the struggle of ordinary inhabitants of Ghent for the preservation of their public property and right to live in dignity. Opposite them is the interest of private investors and speculators, mainly interested in buying up heritage in order to make a profit. Even more than that, the building embodies the power of the people if they make their voices heard loud enough. In 1980, thousands of inhabitants of Ghent, squatters and sympathisers, took to the streets against the sale of the Pand to the private tourist sector. They won the battle and for more than 25 years the Caermersklooster was used for social housing. [Read More]

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Thessaloniki: The eviction of the Biologica steki won’t go unanswered

By: fawda - December 31st, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Open Assembly in solidarity with the Biologica steki, friday 31 december at 3:00 p.m. at the first student restaurant.

Today 31 december, on new year’s eve, the state and the cops evicted the occupied Biologica steki, surrounding the area around the campus, with an increased presence inside the university. The storming and eviction of the steki was chosen to take place at dawn (6:00 am) as they would not face any form of resistance at this time. We do not consider the eviction of the steki to be an exception, as part of the political methods of the state in the form of control and repression to silence any mode of expression and action that deviates from the dominant one. [Read More]

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