Amsterdam: squat action attempt on Gravenstraat and police brutality

By: fawda - September 14th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Today 12 september there was an attempt to squat Gravenstraat 26-28 on the day of the Housing Protest. Thousands of people took the streets to demonstrate against the so-called housing crisis – the shortage and exploitation in the housing market, the lack of affordable housing and the disproportionate increase in rents.

The police used excessive force to beat us away from the place that was to become our new home. From the moment we arrived at the demonstration, certain activists were excessively watched by the police and even arrested for wearing an anti-Nazi symbol. From the beginning, the police were out to repress and arrest activists. Police brutality escalated as soon as we arrived at Dam Square. We were beaten up, dragged out of the crowd by silent cops, and some of us were even beaten to the ground and walked over by cops until we were bloody. The police deliberately chose to escalate and we even heard them say that they deliberately “went full on”. [Read More]

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Bern: Worbstrasse 104 and 108 squatted

By: fawda - September 13th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

We are a creative and mixed collective. We all share the desire for free space, self-organized culture and living space. We have already contacted the municipality of Muri.

The two listed houses have unfortunately been empty for some time since the municipality of Muri stopped offering emergency housing. Now the bourgeois city of Bern is supposed to buy the houses. The city already owns many properties and only the planned small farm store would be accessible to the general public.

The two houses are part of the Schürmattsareal, which is to be developed. In the guideline plan of the development of the Schürmatt, it says: “To promote the quality of the open space” a “central meeting point and event location” should be created in addition to a “play and recreation area”. We would like to contribute many ideas and possibilities to this with our occupation. For this purpose we want to create a space for discussions and new ideas. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Joe’s Garage, sweet sixteen and still angry!

By: fawda - September 9th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Joe’s Garage was squatted 16 years ago. The squatting group East has been active in the Transvaal neighborhood for about 20 years, starting with the squatting of Pretoriussstraat 28 in 2001. We are open to the neighborhood on a weekly basis, with the give away shop, the squatting assistance, movie nights and the people’s kitchen.
In addition to our activities as a squatting group with other squats such as Het Blijvertje and de Valreep, we’ve also supported initiatives in East such as Bajesdorp in the Amstel district, the Nieuwland in the Dapper neighbourhood and soon the Nieuwe Meent on the Archimedesplantsoen, in which buildings were acquired in collective ownership and combining activities for and in the neighbourhood.

Despite all this, in Amsterdam East and the Transvaal neighbourhood, social housing and other affordable housing is under great pressure from speculation in the housing market, with more and more people finding themselves financially struggling. Increasing uncertainty of your housing because of precarity and affordability make people desperate.

Good affordable and secure housing is not a luxury item, but a necessity for everyone! [Read More]

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Montreuil: Le Marbré under threat from September 23 to October 5, let’s get ready!

By: fawda - September 7th, 2021  Filed under: News

From September 23, Le Marbré will be under eviction threat by the cops, at least until October 5. Many public events will be proposed in the space on this occasion, to make known its activities and to prepare to resist collectively to the eviction.

Le Marbré, a squatted building in Montreuil for a year, is a space for meetings and self-organization, which hosts daily moments of struggle against all forms of domination.

From September 23, 2021 he will risk eviction by the cops, at least until October 5, when a hearing is scheduled before the enforcement judge (JEX) who could decide to give a delay until the winter truce that was granted in the initial judgment. This would ensure that it would continue until April 1, 2022.

During these 12 days of uncertainty we do not want to be left waiting. Many public events will be proposed in the place on this occasion, to make known its activities and to prepare to resist collectively to the eviction. [Read More]

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Brussels: Louise Occupation, victory for the squatters

By: fawda - September 3rd, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Mobilization pays off! In May, faced with the threat of eviction from the Louise/Defacqz occupation, the hundred or so homeless people who have found refuge there mobilized. In a few days, several actions were organized. More than 60 associations and 2000 citizens had signed a petition to ask the owners to reconsider their position and to allow the occupying persons and families to stay in the shelter until renovations. Faced with this impressive mobilization, the eviction was suspended. After several weeks of tough negotiations, a temporary occupation agreement has just been signed with the owners and public authorities, for at least one year (renewable). The building has been squatted within the framework of the “Campagne de Réquisition Solidaire” (Solidarity Requisition Campaign) with several groups of homeless or badly housed people, including La Voix des Sans papiers which will manage the building. More than ever, let’s stay mobilized for the right to housing and papers for all! [Read More]

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Susa Valley: eviction of the occupied customs house in Claviere

By: fawda - August 5th, 2021  Filed under: News

This morning at 6 o’clock we woke up to the shots of Carabinieri, police and firemen destroying the barricades.
We are currently on our way out, being identified and denounced for aggravated occupation.
The people of passage without papers who were at the infopoint were removed by the Red Cross and the police to identify them and bring them to institutional centers between Turin and Bardonecchia.
This is how they try to cancel the spontaneous and direct solidarity on this infamous border.
We resist, join us in Claviere! Meet us after the last tunnel at the first parking of the village.
The police is trying to block the access to the village at the round about. The tunnel towards France is free. You can still pass, or you can leave your cars and continue on foot. [Read More]

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Susa Valley: former customs squatted in Claviere, statement against all borders

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

Today 31 july 2021, we have occupied Claviere’s ex customs, the Dagona Occupata. The building place that represented both border’s control and repression, and free circulation of products and tourists, now becomes a self-organized refuge, a space for political organization and direct solidarity, free and open to everyone.
We decided to occupy again to maintain a presence on the border and as a response to the previous evictions of Chez Jesus in Claviere (october 2018) and the Casa Cantoniera in Oulx (march 2021).
Following the last eviction, we came back to Claviere with a permanent camping, this is the place where people on the move are being pushed back during their journey by the repressive dispositives/forces of both the italian and french state. [Read More]

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Uithuizen: Villa Tocama squatted

By: fawda - July 27th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Uithuizen, the Netherlands – Since last weekend Villa Tocama is inhabited again. Concerned citizens have occupied the historical building on the Dingeweg 3 in Uithuizen, also the land around it.

Activist Jan on the reasons for occupying Villa Tocama:
”The property has been bought by the Woonbedrijf Aardbevingsgebied Groningen Foundation (SWAG). Swag is 100 percent owned by the Dutch state and is financed by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and is used as a purchasing tool for the various buyout programs. According to their own website, they act in the public interest and without a profit motive, have a specific focus on the liveability in the area and manage the acquired properties to prevent vacancy, deterioration, squatting and vandalism. Unfortunately, it remains with this general vision, because practice shows a very different picture.”

Currently, the foundation owns 35 properties. Of those properties, 3 are used as temporary housing and 8 are in use through vacancy management (anti-squat). Of the remaining 24 properties, no use, destination or future vision can be found in the foundation’s overviews. [Read More]

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London: The Serious Annoyance continue to trespass despite judgement

By: fawda - July 22nd, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Freedom Newspaper received the following communique from squatters occupying the former Camberwell police station in South London. The group, known as the Serious Annoyance, lost the legal battle to remain in possession of the property on Tuesday July 20th but remain in occupation in defiance of the granting of an interim possession order (IPO). This high court judgement criminalises anyone remaining in the property from 2.30pm on Wednesday onwards, meaning that the occupiers face arrest and potentially up to six months imprisonment for failing to leave. They have been in occupation since July 9th, when they released this initial statement and are calling for people to support by sharing their story and being present on the street outside pending the threatened eviction.

The police station occupation is part of the resurgent militant squatting movement that has coalesced from a mixture of anarchists, environmental protesters and travellers against the proposed new anti-trespass laws being brought forward by the UK government. The new laws are seen as an outright attack on those from nomadic cultures, as well as against the burgeoning anti-HS2 protest movement. A former police station was occupied earlier this year in response to the Sarah Everard murder, as well as last year in Paddington Green, and previously back in 2014. [Read More]

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Gros-de-Vaud: armed offensive of the owners against the resquatted Auberge d’Etagnières

By: fawda - July 9th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Since Saturday, a collective has been occupying the old hostel and pizzeria in Etagnières in the Gros-de-Vaud region. The owner and his henchmen came, armed, in order to evict us.

“We will kill you”.

This Thursday 8 july at 15:00, the owner accompanied by a dozen acolytes armed with pickaxes, sledgehammers, a giant bolt cutter and a grinder attacked the Auberge d’Etagnières, which we have been occupying since Saturday, with the firm intention of evicting us and doing us harm. “We are going to kill you” they repeated several times. The owner and his men broke some of the windows on the first floor and broke down the front door. Barricaded urgently on the top floor, we repeatedly reminded them of the numerous violations of Swiss law they were committing, encouraged them to file a complaint and to go through legal channels. The police had already noticed our presence on Monday evening and warned the owner of the squatting procedures. Instead of complying with the legal framework by filing a complaint, he decided to take justice into his own hands. In this country, the minority of landlords think they are above the law, since it is of course forbidden for the landlord to take justice into his own hands, although we are protected by the law of the lease. [Read More]

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London: Squatters take Camberwell Cop Shop (2.0)

By: xxx - July 9th, 2021  Filed under: News

The Serious Annoyance has returned to occupy the empty Camberwell Police Station, Camberwell Church St SE5, as we continue in our fight to #killthebill and highlight the destructive role of the police.

This week, the draconian PCSC Bill passed its third reading in the commons as the state continues to enforce the expansion of police powers that do nothing but increase the ruling class’s ability to repress us. We know the cops don’t protect us – their resources aren’t focused on catching so-called “criminals”, but on protecting the wealth and power of the capitalist class. We also know that no demand to defund the police is enough – the bastard Tories have already been defunding the police for years! As all these empty cop shops prove… Instead we must build a world which abolishes the police by organsing our own communities and making the cops completely unnecessary.We do not and we will not accept increased police powers which effectively ban protest and criminalise trespass, something which amounts to the ethnic cleansing of the GRT community in the UK by making a travelling life impossible. [Read More]

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Netherlands: New Squatting Law. Squat Wars IV, Return of the squatting ban

By: fawda - July 6th, 2021  Filed under: News

The Dutch government recently passed a new law, Wet Handhaving Kraakverbod (or law to Enforce the Squatting Ban), with the aim of evicting squatters more quickly. There is a lot of confusion and uncertainty about what exactly this law will entail and especially what influence this will have on squatters and their housing rights.

Unfortunately, this text will not be able to answer all questions since this law has been written by politicians who see squatting as a terrible thing and want to get rid of it, without actually seeming to have much understanding of the legal protocols and procedures. The result is a law that says that from now on, squatters must be evacuated more quickly without clearly establishing exactly how this should work. Both the Public Prosecution Service, the Council of Judiciary and Bond of Lawyers strongly criticised the proposal and called for this law not to be adopted, nevertheless a large majority voted in favour and this law entered into effect on 19 May, 2021. [Read More]

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