Since May 25th we squatted the area at Hauptstraße 2-3 in Rummelsburger Bucht. Extensive infrastructure was built and installed for our living space as well as for the public and communal area WIDER-STRAND. There are many solidarity events at WIDER-STRAND, connecting with our neighbours and other projects in Berlin.
We do not want to live on the sideways of the streets anymore. The wagenplatz DieselA needs a safe place for living. Besides that we want to make a spotlight on the disgusting way how the plan for the Rummelsburger Bucht was agreed on.
Hundreds of people will loose their living space and/or place for activities and free time. The Coral World is planned to be build here for 500 000 visitors a year as a tourist attraction, the interest is not to keep alternative living spaces. The City of the Rich expands!
For the last months we were ignored by police, politicians and the owners, now the situation is getting more acute. They brought a lot of fences to secure and control the future construction site that will be enormous. Some days ago we heard the rumor that the whole Bucht should be evicted by 2nd September 2019. [Read More]
Berlin: Wagenplatz DieselA and Rummelsburger Bucht faces eviction!
Utrecht: Protest action against new anti squat law
Today, there was an attempt to resquat the Watertoren on the Amsterdamsestraatweg in Utrecht. This water tower has been squatted many times already. Today, squatters unfortunately failed. The water tower, a designated national monument, has not been in use since 1986. The real estate developer who bought it in 2014, has not succeeded yet in developing anything. At the same time, alternative uses are not tolerated and eviction for emptiness has been the systematic answer. This while the monumental building is falling into disrepair.
Today’s squatting action was intended as a protest against the plan of the CDA and VVD to tighten up the law against squatting. The aim of the 2010 law was to tackle both squatting and vacancy. In recent years, squatters have been the main target of prosecution, while only a few cities have been acting against emptiness. The new proposal gives squatters hardly any time and space to defend themselves. The right of residence of people who take matters into their own hands, is so further eroded. [Read More]
Athens: Statement from Spirou Trikoupi 17
The last weeks, after the elections, we are witnessing the development of a more totalitarian and far right state, that threatens the existence of our self-organized and free structures, as well as the life of the most poor and oppressed parts of this society. The new government started from the very first day showing its real face by taking control of the medias, disestablishing the ministry of migration and transferring its jurisdiction to the ministry of public order, under the authority of the police. They continued with massive arrests of people without “legal” papers, they strengthened the borders controls, pushing back to Turkey “illegally” people, and they banned the access of refugees and migrants to the national health system, by not providing them the social insurance number that it is needed. This also have immediate consequences to the access of the children to the education system, that without vaccines they are not allowed to attend the school. One other dimension of the same policy concerned Exarcheia and all the structures of this neighborhood that they are against this rotten, hierarchical and corrupted system. Their plan is to gentrify and take control of the only place in Athens that still resists. Immediately they attacked two refugees’ squats, Notara 26 and Hotel Oneiro, trying to cut down the water and the electricity forcing hundreds of people being scared for their lives and freedom.
[Read More]
Bologna (Italy): The bulldozers of the Partito Democratico against XM24
The bulldozers of the PD of Bologna against XM24, the historic social center of Via Fioravanti, active for 17 years. After years of threats, at dawn on Tuesday August 6, bulldozers, armored vehicles and dozens and dozens of uniforms showed up to clear the XM24. The declared objective of the mayor PD Merola’s junta is to gentrify the area, between students for money and other real estate operations, cloaked in the usual rhetoric of “decorum”. Inside and outside XM24 there are hundreds of solidarity workers, to defend the experience of self-management of the social space.
5 p.m. – The activists who have been resisting the eviction of the XM24 since dawn this morning are still on the roof. Gradually, the other people who were inside the building went out and joined the garrison that is still in progress in the parking lot near the social center. In the meantime, the workers continue to work quickly to demolish most of the structures inside the building and take away the material. The destruction of the garden also began a short while ago. It began shortly after 15.30, after the meeting at the police headquarters between a delegation of the XM24, the city councilor for culture, Matteo Lepore and Valerio Montalto, general manager of the municipality. [Read More]
Hambach Forest: Skillsharing camp in September
The second Skillsharing Camp of this year will take place from September 15th to 25th.
Details will follow soon.
We, the orga team, are currently very understaffed. If you are currently in the forest and / or in the meadow and you can imagine helping, then write to skillsharing [dot] hambacherforst [at] riseup [dot] net. No prior knowledge required 😉
We still don’t have a kitchen crew. If you happen to be a culinary collective that can imagine cooking in the period then write as well.
Also artists, speakers and people who are already in demand can write. More information will follow soon 🙂
Pisa: Galeone Occupato has been evicted
On 30 July 2019 has been evicted Galeone Occupato, located at via Lucchese 65, in Pisa, an anarchist squatted building existing since 26 May 2017. A huge deployment of law enforcement, along with the fire brigade, arrived near the building at around 10.30 am. Following the raid, a comrade was arrested (later released) and another comrade barricaded himself on the roof of the building in an attempt to resist the eviction as long as possible, while comrades in solidarity arrived nearby. Finally the Galeone was evicted after a few hours.
Eleven people were notified of investigations with allegations of abusive occupation, theft of electricity and damage to Enel (company that manages energy supply) cabins. With reference to these investigations, the public prosecutor had initially requested the obligation not to enter the city (“foglio di via”) with the obligation to sign to the police station for a certain period. [Read More]
Greece: The hunt for anarchists is on!
The new government is setting up an unprecedented offensive against the libertarian and self-managing movement, which has become embarrassing and reputed over the years.
The newly elected Prime Minister and leader of the right, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, promised to “clean up Exarchia” during the summer and “get rid of Rouvikonas”. Beyond the famous libertarian neighborhood and the elusive anarchist group, the entire revolutionary nebula and the squat network are targeted, using various repressive tools and processes.
Once again, what is happening in Greece gives food for thought to what is also being prepared elsewhere in Europe, as the Greek example has clearly shown the way, in the past, for the new hardening of capitalism on the continent and for an increasingly authoritarian society.
The government will start by reactivating the rogue laws already in place in the 1920s, which were then aimed at both the Greek Communist Party and the anti-authoritarians.
This time, the aim is, first of all, to hinder anarchist propaganda by literally considering its revolutionary political project as an immediate threat, and therefore liable in these terms to prosecution. In short, censorship, not anarchist propaganda as such, but as “threatening speech” whenever it represents a “danger to social order and civil peace”. [Read More]
Cologne: Elster230 evicted
– Police evicts Elster230 with large contingent
– Brutal police action
– Simultaneous eviction of squatted house ZentraleM in Münster
– Occupants announce demonstrations today in Cologne and Münster
This morning around 9am, a large police contingent forcibly invaded the Elster at Vogelsanger Str. 230 and evicted the self-governing queer feminist center.
The police’s actions were extremely brutal. In a different way, we observed, in addition to the measures of fixation mentioned above, that a person was tied up with cable ties and brutally dragged across the Lidl parking lot to a police car. There are several people with injuries and we saw that civil servants kneeled on the activists backs for a very long time, while the activists were already lying on the floor with their faces fixed.
In the middle of this scenario, Mrs. Windischmann (Head of Region West DB Real Estate) did not let herself miss the opportunity to enter the house and thus demonstrate her power. With this relentless eviction, the 1,5 week revitalization of the previously vacant property is abruptly ended. [Read More]
Mexico: Occupied social center Casa Naranja closes its doors
The anarchist squat in Mexico state, Casa Naranja, has been forced to close its doors and abandon its space. This communique comes from the compas of Casa Naranja as they reflect on the history and future of the space, and the more general absurdity of private property.
In capitalism, property is one of the principal pillars that sustains the ruling class. Historically it has executed the greatest injustices, like the massive dispossession of people, genocide, the annihilation of wildlife, the assassination and incarceration of militants. However, what we consider to be the most dangerous, is that property has been fixed into our minds, making us believe that we can own the land as property, and that obtaining a physical space for the development of life will depend on the monetary capacity of each individual. It is here where the irony becomes absurd, paying for what was originally taken from us. Accepting and naturalizing this concept of property, we have been converted into agents that reproduce the same vileness on a smaller scale. We believe that we are free to possess everything that has a price and also everything that doesn’t, running through everything to fulfill our desire for possession. Thus, we see the need for sabotage and expropriation, the defense of natural resources, the recuperation of property for recreation and collective development. [Read More]
London: Squatter’s Digest, Greece
Greece, the home of democracy. And molotov cocktails. They also enjoy regular cocktail nights to raise money for the squats and imprisoned anarchists. It’s one thing to know what is going on inside the UK with regards to squats, but I feel we are severely lacking in communication with squats across Europe, or indeed the world. Hopefully I can bring to you some of the news from some of the squats in Greece along with the usual round-up of news from London and beyond.
Setting The Scene
A quick explanation of how the law works in Greece, from a meeting I had with a lawyer personally involved in one of the local neighbourhood squats. Unlike in the UK, squatting is a criminal rather than civil matter. It is based around a few points in the penal code, such as breaching someone’s right to asylum in their own house, or disturbing the community. However the police cannot act unless a complaint is made by the owner to the state prosecutor, who then instructs the police to enforce it. For public buildings there is a bit of a loophole in the penal code dating back to 1938, and a lot of squats in Greece fall into a kind of “hybrid” category, meaning the prosecutor is less likely to take action unless pushed by the local government. However as of the 1st of July this year, the penalties have gone up in accordance with the introduction of a new penal code. What were simple misdemeanours for resisting can now be classified as heavier breaches of law, and can see a jail-term of 3 years, up from the previous maximum of 1 year. Interestingly this was introduced at the same time as the reduction of a lot of other penalties, prompting outrage from other parties. In any case this was the doing of Syriza, and with the election on July 7th, the conservative New Democracy is back in power, so things can be expected to only get worse (more on this later). [Read More]
Cologne: Police invades the Elster
Police invades Elster 230 and provokes escalation
After Deutsche Bahn yesterday filed a complaint against the occupation of Vogelsanger Str. 230 according to its own statement, the police today gained access to the Elster 230 and recorded personal details of individuals. All this happens against the background that next Monday talks are to take place between the city and DB, as we learned today.
As a result of unconfirmed sources from the mayor’s office, we also learned that the mayor is now also trying to persuade DB to negotiate with us. There the opinion is represented that the DB should hear at least our offers, before other steps would be introduced.
In this context, DB’s approach is becoming increasingly incomprehensible to us: “There is contact with a mediator – the city – who has to be taken seriously, also by DB. DB announces that it basically approves of our idea of use and at the same time it creates the ground for individual activists who work directly for it to be prosecuted. We ask ourselves what DB expects of itself from the criminalisation of individuals, at a time when X people happen to be in the house,” says Anna Meise. [Read More]
Barcelona: We reoccupied Ca La Trava
We have returned to Ca La Trava, now an empty plot, and we are not planning to leave. This space, until now closed, will again be open to the neighborhood, and we will defend it as we have defended our houses. We want it to be again a trench from which to resist the onslaught of the speculators and give war to all those who are destroying our neighborhood. If in Ca La Trava they make luxury flats we all lose, and we can’t allow that.
These are times of empty phrases, of euphemisms, of symbolisms without content and of politicians contradicting each new declaration. For this reason, we want to make it clear that when we say “Ca La Trava will never be luxury flats” we say it as seriously as possible. The struggle of Ca La Trava is not a lost struggle, and resquatting is not an improvised decision or the fruit of sentimentalism. Our goal is to win and we are convinced that we will. [Read More]
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