Amsterdam: Mobiele Eenheid, new collective on the Gedempt Hamerkanaal in Noord

By: fawda - October 18th, 2018  Filed under: Communique, News, video

Press statement, 17 october 2018

Today, the Mobiele Eenheid, a collective of involved Amsterdammers, occupied the old Gedempt Hamerkanaal 86. The building has been empty for over a year without any concrete plans for use in the near future. We plan to transform this badly maintained building into a non-commercial social center; a space by and for people to come together, exchange ideas and skills, work collectively and actively influence the developments in the city.

We oppose the current developments in the city. Over the last 5 years the average price of a house in Amsterdam has gone up by more than 80%. Due to high rent many inhabitants have been pushed out (of their homes) and the city. Many are forced to give up their tenancy rights and live in anti-squats, currently a conventional alternative to renting, even though it enables real estate speculation. In addition, gentrification and tourism are changing Amsterdam. Space for people with a small wallet or non-profit initiatives have basically disappeared. The last free-spaces are currently under threat. Amsterdam is increasingly becoming an expensive, predictable, individualistic and exclusive city, whereas we want to live in a city that is diverse and inclusive. [Read More]

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The latest status of squats in Istanbul (Oct 2018)

By: g - October 18th, 2018  Filed under: Announcement

– Yeldeğirmeni, Don Kişot: Began during Summer 2013. Evicted in November 2015. Torn down in November 2016. A new building rises now instead of squat.

– Kadıköy, Caferağa: Began in Autumn 2013. Evicted in December 2014. Back then, activists had organized the largest demo ever in Turkey to protest a squat eviction (https://bit.ly/2ypyMuO). Burnt down in November 2016.

– Beşiktaş, Berkin Elvan: Began in Spring 2014. Evicted in a month…

– Söğütlüçeşme, Samsa: Began in Spring 2014. Abandoned by many activists by Winter 2015. The building stands still as doors locked.

– Acıbadem, Lojman: Began in Winter 2016. Its anarchist collective has largely been dissolved by Summer 2016. As of October 2018, Lojman is still being maintained as a de-facto squat by several occupiers. Restricted access. For short stays, visits and other queries, please contact: lojman@@@riseup.net

*There are ongoing guerilla gardening (bostan) projects as well. Some of those areas are located on squatted sites like Roma Bostani in Cihangir.

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Montreuil (Paris-banlieue): opening of l’Écharde

By: xxx - October 15th, 2018  Filed under: News

Monday October 1st, 2018, while Jardin d’Alice‘s docile artists were giving back their building’s keys (at 19 rue Garibaldi, in Montreuil), about thirty people came to disrupt their plans, occupying the building. After three years of caretaking, this space was about to be given back to Nexity, French “master” of property business, who is managing the building on behalf of the EPFIF (Public Land Office of the Paris region). While the state is trying to empty the meaning of housing struggles by signing precarious occupancy agreements to artists (like Jardin d’Alice) and zadists, while the left-wing mayors talk about requisitioning to scrounge a few ballot papers, we, like many others, are squatting. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Gedempt Hamerkanaal 92, Spijkerkade 2 squatted

By: fawda - October 15th, 2018  Filed under: News

Yesterday 14 October 2018, the building on the Spijkerkade 2 and Gedempt Hamerkanaal 92 has been resquatted. Not much happened there since it was for a first time squatted on 17 December 2006. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: ADM update, October 14th 2018

By: fawda - October 14th, 2018  Filed under: Communique, News, video

Dear ADM newsletter receivers: at last, a newsletter from the ADM. Many of you have been following ADM news and updates through Farcebook but here is our one and only independent home made newsletter on October 12th 2018, the 21st ADM birthday. We’ve enjoyed a sensational three day Viva ADMfestival in september, but this week a historic 21 year anniversary surprise was the concert by the world famous Concertgebouworkest on the ADM, which finished with everyone singing happy birthday for the ADM. [Read More]

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Germany: We squatted Mannheim! Friedenstrasse 44 occupied

By: fawda - October 13th, 2018  Filed under: Communique, News

Two weeks ago humans were chased from their homes in Hambacher Forst. Whilst the main public focus was on the protests in the forest, already for years people have been forced out of the surrounding villages. And so also in Mannheim.
Rather than only concerning local inhabitants, coal mining in the Rhineland is also a global problem.
It doesn‘t matter if it‘s a question of the dormouse seeing their old oak being destroyed, local farmers seeing their fields dry out and settlements being torn down, humans having to leave the streets in which they first learnt to ride a bicycle, or Peruvian villages being threatened by melting glaciers. All living creatures suffer in common, from this problem from the behaviour of RWE and this destructive culture in general. Multinationals like RWE and politicians need to take responsibility for this issue. If they are not willing to change their methods of energy production, then we as ordinary people are obliged to act.
We are not willing to accept the destruction of these homes, so we‘re occupying them to prevent this. In doing so, we intend to open up a space for free and self-organised living, one that encourages creativity and quality of life and supports each one another in the struggles against RWE. We demand from RWE to give those people the houses back who want to return.
Living in rural areas became attractive to a lot of humans. Far away from an anonymous life in small, unpayable flats in the concrete jungles all over the world where people can help each other, live together and where living projects of different generations can be possible.
We want to make this possible together in unity. With people who live together in Mannheim since decades. With people who lived here and already left with their families. With people who came here to fight the structural destruction of nature. And with people who were forced to flee from their homes in other parts of the world, just to be chased away once again from here. [Read More]

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Susa Valley: Chez Jesus in Claviere evicted. Call for solidarity

By: fawda - October 10th, 2018  Filed under: Communique, News

This morning, October 10, very early, the Italian police evicted the squat located in the parish hall of Claviere, where migrants were temporarily sheltered. Among the people present were three undocumented migrants and several supporters. The people were quickly removed from their home. The police broke everything inside the place and then took out all the belongings.

The fifteen supporters who were present inside were rounded up for several hours in the garden. The three undocumented people were taken elsewhere and are reportedly free. After checking their identities and “files”, they were released but charged with illegal occupation in a meeting.

Since this winter, this self-managed place allowed migrants, harassed by the police, to find a place to rest before crossing the mountain. This place was crucial to fight against the racist policy of the French and Italian governments, as they collected testimonies of police violence and they opposed this policy by helping the migrants who passed through (children and adults). They were preparing them to cross the mountain, where too many people die during this crossing. [Read More]

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Book: Fighting for Spaces, Fighting for our Lives

By: sisulscz - October 9th, 2018  Filed under: Announcement

Squatting everywhere kollective (SqEK) aims with this book to move beyond the conventional understandings of squatting, investigating its history in different places over the past four decades.

While waves of repression against squatters seem to spread across many places, attacking and shutting down its remaining squatting strongholds and its historical spaces of rebellion, some squatted social centres manage to persist and new occupied zones arise – successfully defended through public mobilization and widespread solidarity, alongside militant action. At the same time, squatting has seen a rebirth as a tool of radical praxis in movements fighting against the rising number of evictions and foreclosures during the financial crisis, facing the policies of racism and creating open spaces for refugees, migrants and people of colour. The collected essays, first-hand accounts and photographs in this book do not intend to offer an over-arching narrative of where the squatters movement is heading. Instead the book provides glimpses into a diverse and multi-faceted movement, with accounts from local struggles, experiences of repression and stories of collective forms of life which have grown out of squatted spaces in various cities and countries throughout the world, including accounts from Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, Seattle and Australia.

PDF available to download (10MB)

Source

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Amsterdam: ADM news update

By: fawda - October 7th, 2018  Filed under: Communique, News

Another Amsterdam council meeting took place on October 3 in the Committee for Economic Affairs. To most councillors it is obvious that there will not be a shipyard here, which is the only activity that is legally allowed on the ADM terrain (26 ha). In spite of the controversy and contradictory expertise the Aldermaster (wethouder) insisted he does not have a choice but to evict the ADM because he has to uphold the law.

Of course most people feel that respecting the law would mean waiting until the legal fight against the permission for an asbestos company to start on the ADM terrain is over. There is no date set for this appeal, and our left/green council accepts that eviction comes first, and that getting our right as citizens is of minor importance.

To ease the pain the council is offering the current ADMers a 2 ha piece of polluted wasteland beside the A10 motorway in the north of Amsterdam, for the duration of only two years. With this land come many restrictions: no more cultural events or festivals, very little space to work and no communal or public spaces. There is not enough room for even half the ADMers, and where are all the ships supposed to go? The ADM forest, habitat for wild animals and rare species will not be relocated…

ADMers have been looking around for additional alternatives, but nothing concrete has come out so far or is likely to be realised before the 25 of december, the date that everyone on the ADM terrain is expected to have moved out voluntarily. To date the only realistic option is to keep what is here. Why evict for some hardly realistic business plan, which is all that is needed to get rid of the ADM community. [Read More]

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Utrecht: Defend the Swamp. Come to the court case!

By: fawda - October 6th, 2018  Filed under: Communique, News

After 5 years of creating alternative living spaces with nature, the Swamp, Kanaleneiland, is being threatened with destruction.
The state and the company Borghese are working hand in hand to turn the Swamp’s beautiful young forest into asphalt to then build a distribution centre and a bus remise, while there are alternative locations for these projects where the destruction of nature isn’t necessary.
From the Hambach Forest and ZAD evictions, to the ADM case and the expansion of the A27, time after time, people and nature have to defend themselves against capitalist greed and neoliberalist development policies.
The Swamp became a space of living and sharing with people and nature, outside of consumption trends. In a city where the waiting list for expensive “social housing” is endless, we decided to build our own houses and work in a sustainable and self-sufficient way. In Kanaleneiland in particular, only a couple of years back social housing was sold to private corporations behind people’s backs.
While the Netherlands presents itself as a “green country”, green spaces in the city keep on disappearing. We are not the only ones being evicted from the Swamp. Birds, rabbits, bats, bees and other animals and insects will also lose their living spaces.
We won’t keep silent. We won’t just leave. Come to the court case and join the struggle to save the Swamp. [Read More]

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Durban (South Africa): Abahlali to march against state repression, threats and assassinations

By: xxx - October 6th, 2018  Filed under: News

Friday, 4 October 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

On Monday 8 October Abahlali baseMjondolo will march against repression in Durban. There will be solidarity protests in Cape Town, Johannesburg and New York. Since our movement was founded in 2005 we have faced waves of repression including assault, arrest, torture in police custody, organised campaigns of slander, the destruction of our homes, death threats, the murder of our members during protests and evictions, and the targeted assassination of our leaders. The price for land and dignity has been paid in blood. [Read More]

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Zagreb: Presentation about squatting in Croatia. Call for support by the BEK collective

By: fawda - September 27th, 2018  Filed under: Communique, News, video

Presentation and discussion about squatting in Croatia, during the Van sistema DIY fest, on 6 October 2018 at the BEK squat in Zagreb: “Our colleague squatter Damir Batarelo will have a presentation about squatting in Croatia, as well as about the squatting scene, its history and context. After his presentation, there will be an open-table discussion so – squatters of the world unite! Come and let us emerge in sharing experiences and let’s talk about the foundations of the squatter solidarity network not only in this area, but wider.” The festival program: https://squ.at/r/69vf

Call for support by the BEK collective, autonomous space for free social and cultural activities.

When talking about our story, first of all, we want to emphasize that one day, hopefully soon, this will really become OUR story. A story of all included, anyone who wants to participate, a story of a community that builds it’s own part of a creative and self-sustainable space, a story of no one left aside. We want to make a new spot for all of us who don’t have a place to create and invest their time into, and for us who don’t have money or access to social and cultural programs that we can be a part of.
We are BEK collective, a group of enthusiastic young people, emerged from the “Food not Bombs” collective, who squatted an old abandoned school at the beginning of 2018. The building is located in the heart of Croatia’s capital city Zagreb. It was built in the 1940’s and it has 2500m2 on three floors. [Read More]

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