Wassenaar: Rust Vreugd Terreur, benefit festival in support of legal costs

May 17th & 18th 2019, Rust Vreugd Terreur at Huize Ívicke, Rust en Vreugdlaan 2 in Wassenaar, a benefit festival in support of legal costs for WH7 Amsterdam, AC Den Haag, and K19 Zeist in corporation with ]LAG(

With legal fees and bills to pay and anniversaries to celebrate, Rust Vreugd en Terreur brings together an eclectic coagulation of visual and sonic experiences. Analogue and digital conjoin in outbursts of DIY and antifascist spirits, resonating sweet harmonics and harsh noises. Two days of performances, workshops, bands, vj’s, dj’s and more in the subverted pinnacle of bourgeois decadence that is Huize Ivicke. All capital accumulation will be redistributed towards the below three court cases.
Two arrestees of the Wijde Heisteeg are in threat by time in jail, fines and DNA samples. Four arrestees of the Autonomous centre in The Hague are still proceeding against fines and probation. Five arrestees of Zeist are summoned.
All arrestees of the above cases were temporarily taken into custody for squatting and are now being prosecuted. Their living spaces remain empty, or partly used by anti squat. They were evicted from places in which active autonomous subculture was thriving without any governmental support or interference. Instead of being grateful for their social function, they are put aside and criminalized [Read More]

Athens: Open Discussion of Bouboulinas squatters with the neighbours

As an open structure and community, aimed at strengthening and developing the co-organization of our daily life and common struggles, we invite all residents of this neighbourhood and beyond to join us in putting our visions into practice. In the end it is everyone’s responsibility to take sides either with the word of community and of free self-organization or with the side of fascism and repression.

We are living in a time of war. Terror, poverty, political and economic violence, those are the consequences. By closing borders, persecuting and massacring at the borders, and mass incarceration and isolation into concentration camps with no prospect of freedom, Europe is waging a war against migrants.

Since February 2019, a mass eviction operation of squats has began, with the migrant squat Arachovis 44 in Exarchia being the first one to be evicted. At 11/4, at 6 in the morning, an army of cops evicts the housing squats Azadi and New Babylon, from where 120 people are detained. Just one week later, another operation takes place against the migrant squat Clandestina, and the anarcho-feminist squat Cyclope.

During the operations, the police violently and forcefully entered people’s homes in the early morning, kicking in doors and entering people’s rooms with weapons. After arresting residents, including crying children trembling in fear, and taking them away to police stations and prisons, the police proceeds to enter their homes once again, humiliating the residents further by throwing their belongings into disarray. [Read More]

Hamburg: Two occupations during #MietenMove demo against gentrification and high rents

On Saturday more than 6000 people took the streets against high rents and gentrification on a rainy day in Hamburg (German territory) [May6]. During and after the demo there were two occupations. A reportback.

The demo started in front of city hall and marched through downtown Hamburg. When the demo marched into the completely gentrified Haven-City (Harbour-City) disitrict I had to smile… People are paying huge amounts of mony to live here but can hardly sit outside on their terraces and balconies because of the smell of diesel from the cruise ships in the harbour.

When the demo arrived in Haven-City a big group went straight, while the rest of the demo marched to the Elb Philharmonie. Out of the group that went straight Sandtorkai 28a was squatted.
[Read More]

Berlin (Germany): Attack against an office of the leftist party „Die Linke“ – Solidarity to Squats in Athens and Berlin

Late saturday evening, May 4, we commited an attack with stones against the store front of the office from Sebastian Schlüsselburg, member of the Committee on Justice and Secret Service, parliamentarian of „Die Linke“ in the district of Berlin-Lichtenberg. Most of its windows were smashed. [Read More]

Philadelphia (USA): May Day Anti-Gentrification Actions

For May Day we claim responsibility for the following actions:

-Deflating the tires and painting the windshield of a yuppie housing shuttle bus.
-Throwing paint at the facade of two OCF properties.
-Smashing glass and cutting all non-hydraulic cables of at least four construction machines at the site of a development project intending to manicure a once wild place. [Read More]

Athens: Reoccupation of Bouboulinas 42. Call to solidarity gathering

Solidarity Gathering now in front of the reoccupied building on Bouboulinas 42

Since February ‘19, an operation has begun of mass evacuation of squats, beginning with the migrant housing squat Arachovis 44 in Exarchia. On 11/4 at 6 in the morning an army of cops evacuate the housing squats Azadi and New Babylon, from where 120 people are detained. Only a week later on 18/4 another operation takes place to evacuate the migrant housing squat Clandestina and Cyclope.

We understand this attack on all fronts against the squats and self-organized structures, with Exarchia at its centre, as an attack that serves the media profile of state and government, so as to appear as guarantor of security, law and order, and of the interestes of bosses and ladlords. The operations against the housing squats were accompanied by house raids in places for which the cops had information about drug dealing, so that all this may be presented as an operation against drugs. The result of these operations is that many of the squat residents are now imprisoned in the hellholes of the state, while the rest are left homeless.

This operation is taking place at a time with very specific characteristics. The total isolation and trap that migrants experience in greec -and in exarchia those who don’t have papers- sooner or later will fuel social eruptions. Either in the form of Eidomenis and Diavata, that is of the violent assertion that the borders be abolished, or in the form of self-organized struggles, such as housing squats. At the same time, the intensification of contradictions is reinforced by the big heads of the e.u.: the evictions of families from the homes provided by ngos is imminent, since the big capital considers that its high time these people enter the labour market, ideal flesh for the slave trade of capitalism. [Read More]

Amsterdam: Wijde Heisteeg 7

More than two years after the eviction of Wijde Heisteeg 7 in Amsterdam centre, two people are still fighting against a prison sentence for squatting a house that it is still empty today.
The eviction was on 23 December 2016 some hours after the civil court case was lost. At the eviction 4 people were arrested and they were charged for squatting. In November 2017 two of the people arrested got a fine of 500€ and were requested to give their DNA samples. For the other two people the court has ordered prison sentences, one of four and one of six weeks and DNA samples from each.
The son of the owner filed a claim for € 106.110,60 in damages and compensation for lost rent and VAT. the court declared this request inadmissible.
The people who risk prison sentences have appealed and there is no date for the hearing yet. But we know that the son of the owner upholds his request for compensation in the appeal procedure for a house that is still empty today, except for the ground floor, which since the eviction has been rented out to a small clothing antikraak pop up store.

Background info about Wijde Heisteeg 7

The monumental house was squatted a first time 4 years long from February 2007 till March 2011. According the squatters, in 2007 the house was in bad condition, the roof leaking on several spots, some windows broken and the rooms humid and dirty. They worked on the house to make it inhabitable. Wijde Heisteeg 7 was evicted a first time on 22nd March 2011. It was the first eviction wave in Amsterdam after the squatting ban from 1st October 2010. [Read More]

Athens: Solidarity action for the evicted squats

In the morning hours of April 19th we attacked with fire the Ministry of Culture in Exarchia. This attack was pitched, because Clandestina, the squat housing migrants, which was evicted in the morning of 18 april, is owned by the Ministry of Culture. That same morning the anarchofeminist squat Cyclopi was evicted as well. A few days ago, squats housing migrants such as Azadi, New Babylon and Arachovis 44 (with single men) were also evicted.

As for Exarchia, the strategy of gentrification has already started and the evictions (or the demolitions) of squats, the ban for anti-authoritarian events at Strefi hill, the AirBnB’s that keep popping up, the upcoming metro station in the area, the green economy that is spreading rapidly, the cops that are permanently guarding the area overall, are parts of the visible part of the “invisible” war that has been declared by state and capital.

In the network of the metropolis the most totalitarian human tendencies are expressed through relationships. Only target: the accumulation of capital from every possible production field, from every “innovative” consummation field. And Exarchia couldn’t get away from this plan. The capitalist invasion is war. And this war, besides the consciously- politicized subjects, aims the people that are not considered productive and exploitable, such as migrants without papers, “illegal” street vendors, expropriators and substance users. We, by practically showing our solidarity, take position in this war, choose to stand by to every oppressed person and to remind the state that no attack and no eviction will stay unanswered. [Read More]

Zagreb: Social center BEK, new call for volunteers

Dear everyone, a year has passed already since BEK collective opened a new squat and social center in Zagreb, Croatia. It was a year of different struggles and challenges, some things changed and some didn’t, and we are still in process of learning and developing our social space. The basic ideas of a drug-free, free entrance and socially aware space are still on and will be on. Recently our old facebook page and riseup email had been hacked and a lot off misinformation sent around, so we apologize for confusion that was maybe made by that and are trying to fix it. Please note that the internet drama was made by people who are not part of the collective and heavy accusations and dramatic information in the text is all made up with purpose to discredit us, and here is everything in its ordinary function. As spring arrived, we are continuing to upgrade our gardens around the house, as well as other old projects like public kitchen, movie nights, rehearsals space and art studio, library, freeshop… [Read More]

Athens: Protest camp in front of Greek parliament after 4 evictions in 8 days

Yesterday [April 18] Greek police evicted the Clandestina refugee squat [pictured] and the queer feminist Cyclopi squat. One week before cops evicted the Azadi and Babylon refugee squats. Yesterday afternoon refugees have build up a protest camp in front of Greek parliament at Syntagma square to protest against the evictions.

The cops came in the very early morning hours to evict Clandestina refugee squat yesterday. At the same time they evicted Cyclopi. With 4 evictions in just 8 days, more than 300 people are homeless now.

Yesterday afternoon a group of about 70 refugees went to Syntagma square in Athens and started a protest camp in front of Greek parliament. The refugees demand housing, many of them are homeless after the evictions of the past 9 days.
[Read More]

Berlin: Squatted Bizim Bakkal store violently evacuated without eviction title

Today (April 6th 2019), after the Mietenwahnsinn (rent madness) demonstration, the empty Bizim Bakkal shop was squatted, which had been empty for 4 years. Berlin police evacuated without a valid eviction title, without contact to the owner and using massive force against activists, journalists and parliamentary observers.

Last year, we occupied several houses, apartments and shops, all of which were evicted by the Senate and the Berlin police except one apartment in Großbeerenstraße. We see ourselves as part of a movement that is defending itself against Berlin increasingly developing into a city for the rich. A city in which social participation and place of residence depend on income and in which every square centimeter is used. The city is losing its open spaces, and Berlin’s neighborhoods are increasingly shaped by tourism, consumption and property speculation. Despite many promises regarding housing policy, the Senate is only watching or even actively helping in this process of displacement.

Today, 40,000 people took to the streets in a demonstration against rent madness and displacement. How have the demands, which were also supported by parts of the Berlin Senate, been put into practice and how have we begun to get our neighbourhood back? Many demonstrators joined this project on the spot in Wrangelstraße. [Read More]

London: Squatter’s Digest: The Fight To Remain

No, no, not that fight to Remain. You’re here for the squatting right?

Well if you read last month’s entry (this is something of a journal I guess, rather than journalism), then you’ll be pleased to know that I write to you from the comfort of my squat, the same one as before. With 30 fellow squatters outside the barricaded front door, serving breakfast, tea and coffee, and a free shop to the public, the resistance to our eviction was handled with ease. So, here I remain.

Further resistance to the bailiffs was seen within a few days time in London, this time in the south, in Deptford. Expecting a somewhat firmer attempt from the bailiffs, people gathered from 7 in the morning to barricade (although some were still up from doing this the night before) and to protect the entrance-way. High court bailiffs arrived, and it seemed like it was on. However, despite the posturing of the initial few enforcers, and the entrance of another half-dozen reinforcements, the bailiffs had no success in removing the squatters. With the squatters being an integral part of local campaigns such as the oft-mentioned Tidemill Garden, scores of local residents and campaigners came down to show their displeasure at the attempt, and the police and bailiffs caved to the pressure and retreated. [Read More]