Welcome to post gentrification. Forget about affordable housing, these words are gone from the vocabulary. In Amsterdam, the price per meter square is higher in social housing than on the market price. Tenants are waiting in temporary housing for a proper one. These anti-squatters, also called “guardians” to preserve their image, haven’t been given the rights of a normal tenant. They even pay to guard houses. Not only young people and students live in this precariat. Anti-squat companies have seen their benefits exploding in recent years, while former social housing corporations have been cashing big money and forgotten since long about their social purpose.
People who can’t afford to live in the city have to go. They are denied the right to live in the city, they are made feeling guilty and ashamed of being social tenants. Our policy makers want people to move around in this monetary driven housing market. Social dramas on individual scales are common, people can’t sell back their house, the money they make is used to pay back mortgages. In Germany, a group like Recht Auf Stadt put back these issues on the political agenda. Some political parties have now an opinion about that. In the Netherlands, the discourse is still the same, “there is no problem”. SNS nationalised, the Russian roulette game has reached money lender Rabobank. For how long? [Read More]
The following statement was issued by the Occupiers:
Athens.indymedia and 98fm radio are emiting RIGHT NOW throught NTUA s occupied rector. Athens imc collective called people to come over to the university now “Those who consider themselves as being solidarious with counter-information projects are invited to support us with their physical presence to intervene so as to keep those projects to emit through their physical space, as much as this is possible” the two media that were targeted by the state repression (through the intervention of the rector Simopoulos) from April 11, managed to emit because of the decisive action of solidarity.For the same reason, a solidarity march/ demonstration will take place, starting from Monastiraki square, on Thursday the 25th of April at 18:00We will win