Squatters of London Action Paper number 7 is out now – pdf
Turin: Six arrests in latest raid on Asilo Occupato
Heavily armed officers from the General Investigations and Special Operations Division of Italy (Digos) broke down the front door and invaded the Asilo Occupato (occupied asylum) building in Turin on Wednesday, arresting six activists.
Occupants of the anarchist-run space, located on Via Allesandria, in the neighbourhood of Aurora, resisted for several hours on the roof of the property before the raid. Carabinieri (Italian militarised police) also participated in the repressive operation.
Among the detainees are four Italians (Fabiola De Costanzo,Antonio Pittalis, Antonio Rizzo, and Giada Volpacchio), a Frenchwoman (Camille Casteran) and a Spaniard (Francisco Javier Esteban Tosina), who were detained as a “precautionary measure.”
The arrests are related to a clash with carabinieri guards that took place on February 28th in the vicinity of Asilo. Agents alleged obstruction and damage to a police vehicle as they prepared to carry out the identification of a “suspect” but were stymied by the arrival of 15 people who blocked them from doing so.
Asilo Occupato has been targeted by repressive institutions for months, which have issued several precautionary measures against people who visit it, such as a ban on residing in Turin or preventive detention. In December, eight people were arrested for “not respecting residence prohibitions” imposed on them in a major dawn raid. [Read More]
Chania (Crete): Anarcho-syndicalist Initiative Rosinante: “Hands off the occupation Rosa Nera – Solidarity with the social spaces of struggle”
On the occasion of reports that talk about transforming the building where occupation Rosa Nera is in a hotel, the Anarchosindicalists Initiative “Rosinante” has published the following announcement:
In the last week, in newspapers (Eleftheros Press, Kathimerini) and racist web sites belonging to the “New Democracy” appears the Rectorate of the Polytechnic of Crete to offer informal “in secret” auctions buildings of the city to tourism bosses. Among these buildings is the building of the Rosa Nera Occupation. This move is part of the wider attack on social and labor movements – and with the backs of the current government.
The occupation of Rosa Nera, for 13 years, is a working machine of support and organization for important aspects of social and labor movements in Chania. Through a libertarian and anarchist culture that supports the organization on the ground, the political work of occupation offers both a hospitable “home” for social struggles and a critical human potential for most social, labor, environmental and rightful claims in Chania. [Read More]
Wuppertal: For a District Social- and Refugee Welcome Center at Marienstrasse 41
Solidarity with City Plaza in Athens and all other squats on the planet! Friedel 54 in Berlin will stay! Take the streets for an autonomous May Day!
Today, the 30th of April we did a small action in front of the building at Marien street 41 to create awareness of the many empty buildings at the Ölberg district and the repression against self-organised housing projects. It was an action in front of the building. Still.
In August and September 2014 the Marien Street 41 was squatted twice and immediately evicted again. The protected monument was barricaded with aluminium plates by the former owner to make it more difficult to occupy the building. Until today the city of Wuppertal did nothing against this clear violation of the regulations for protected monuments.
After years of vaccantness the former squatters wanted to create, apart from affordable living-space, a district social- and refugees welcome center in the building. But the police evicted the building only hours after it was squatted. Several people were detained and some people were injured because of police violence at the Ölberg district. [Read More]
Amsterdam: Two houses re-squatted on the Minckelersstraat
Two houses were today re-squatted in Jeruzalem (Amsterdam) after being left empty by Rochdale since the eviction of the previous squatters in January.
Today two houses were re-squatted in the neighbourhood of Jeruzalem (Amsterdam). These houses on Minckelersstraat have been left empty by the housing corporation Rochdale since the eviction of the previous squatters at the end of January 2017.
The neighbourhood contains a mix of social and free sector housing, and the entire area is being renovated or demolished and redeveloped. The previous squatters were presented with court documents by Rochdale detailing their plans for the houses which today were re-squatted – they were to be used as modelwoning, to demonstrate to residents what to expect from their renovations. However, this purported use of the properties never materialised, instead they were boarded up and left vacant.
According to Rochdale’s concept plan for the renovations (dated March 2017), modelwoning exist elsewhere in the neighbourhood. Residents of the block concerned had the opportunity to view these in March. In other words, the previous squatters were evicted for no reason other than to leave these houses empty. [Read More]
Vienna: Squat in Kienmayergasse 15 evicted. And now?
The occupation of the house in Kienmayergasse 15 is over, but the struggle goes on!
Noone left the house voluntarily! Noone fulfilled the demands of the owner and noone left voluntarily! At the time of the eviction there was noone home, but that doesn’t mean that the occupiers didn’t prefer to stay! That the police evicted the building based on an action for eviction of the owner „Vestwerk“, shows clearly who the law and the its executioners are protecting: property, profit, power,… Those who don’t these things loose, get displaced, become the affected ones of a capitalist logic of exploitation, which they didn’t choose.
To live a self determined life noone needs neither a law nor executioners, noone who decides over our homes to make profit out of it. What we’d rather need is solidarity within the neighborhood, a net of mutual support and an atmoshpere in which the police and the owner know, that they can’t play with our lifes and do what they want with us.
This was stated in the public announcment of the occupation „In these days it’s not about raising awareness of empty houses or demand something from the city. But it’s about raising awareness of the conditions and starting something, getting aware of the own strength, not letting ’em take anything from us, not letting ’em displace us, celebrating the neighborhood and supporting ourselfs mutually.“
And if this occupation succeded in anything, than it was this!
It’s a pity, that the house is empty again now and that the owner put a private security company in front of it. But what they cannot take from us is, that people got to know each other, started connecting, expressed mutual solidarity,… [Read More]
The Hague: Spui 275A and 277 squatted
Today 24th April, we squatted Spui 275A and 277, two buildings empty for many years.
We decided to squat the buildings because we find it unacceptable that in times of housing shortages in the Hague many buildings are empty to produce profits with speculation by the owner. A city is there for its citizens and not for gaining profits by capitalist elements. One of the squatters said: “That squatting is being criminalized since 2010 means nothing to us.” He continued by saying: “Squatting might be illegal but for us its a legitimate method of action which produces a direct result, it contests vacantness and provides living space.”
The latest plans that are known for the buildings at Spui 275A/277 are that they will be demolished for the construction of a new hotel instead of renovating it for affordable living space in a city with more and more gentrification. Its another sign that the owners are only interested in making profits and interests of society are losing ground. While the average citizen of the Hague is on a waiting list for years to get an apartment which he or she can afford, speculating owners can do what they want to gain their profits. [Read More]
Precarious housing in the Czech Republic
Kuncovka, an apartment complex 10 minutes by tram from the centre of Brno, the 2nd city of the Czech Republic with a prosperous centre. A five year old girl is walking her “dog”, a broken DVD-player, on the field at the front door. The power cord serves as the leash. Inside a group of 15 sits in a 18m2 room, the largest room of the apartment. In between the meeting children play with cardboard boxes, no toy in sight. 4 chairs, 2 small tables and a mattress are all the furniture there is. Coffee and tea is made in the bathroom, there is no kitchen.
Julek is our host. He lives in 1 of the 48 apartments in the complex. He tells us the dilapidated apartments of 30m2, without kitchen, are rented out for 10500 crowns (roughly 400 euro) a month. Last winter the owner refused to turn on the heating. He wanted to make an even higher profit. He often extorts the tenants by switching off the electricity. For 750 crowns (30 euro) he puts the electricity back on for a day.
The tenants lack regular rent contracts. There are monthly contracts which are tacitly renewed by the owner, even though these are illegal according to the Czech law. If you criticize the owner, the extortion, or the atrocious state of the building, your contract won’t be renewed. When the owner has a bad mood he refuses to give a payment receipt for the rent, which causes you to lose your housing benefits. [Read More]
Athens: Open Letter To Ms. Aliki Papachela, owner of the City Plaza Hotel
OPEN LETTER
To Ms. Aliki Papachela, owner of the City Plaza hotel
Dear Madam,
Sympathizing with your agony for the 81.500 euro bill sent to you by EYDAP (the Greek water company), we feel the need to clarify the following: on the day that we entered the hotel (22 April 2016), EYDAP technicians visited the hotel in order to read the water meter so that, given that the building was now under occupation, the owner, you, that is, would no longer have to bear the burden of the costs, which you too had also requested through an out of course dispute resolution document to EYDAP. In the immediately following period, we requested a regular connection from EYDAP, yet this was refused on the grounds that the owner of the building had to agree to it as well. The strange thing is that the EYDAP bill was calculated using household pricing, when it should in fact be calculated using professional (if not humanitarian) pricing, as was the case when the hotel was in operation, which resulted in a bill that is much higher than it would otherwise be. Therefore, while this bill poses no threat to you, EYDAP gave a «gift of propaganda» to you by issuing an extortionately high bill, which you do not have to pay (you admit as much yourself), but which you use for propaganda purposes. We imagine that, even within your value system, public health is above public order, so we hope you understand our «illegal» act, given that you are not even required to pay for it. [Read More]
Brighton: Land occupation evicted, so activists squat £100m development
A homeless camp set up in Brighton on April 5th to protest against a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) which has been imposed on the city’s parks and seafront was evicted on Wednesday — and activists have responded by taking over a building linked to a £100m development project.
The Circus Street DIY Squatted Social Centre has been set up at the city’s old university building and are planning to hold it as a radical space and rebuke against the council, which they say is socially cleansing Brighton of its homeless by denying them a place to stay and sleep.
In a statement, the occupiers, who are involved in campaigns including Raised, Fist Collective, Screw the System, SolFed, Alt SU, Brighton Anti-Fascists and the camp itself, said:
[Read More]
Germany: Friedel54 Action Week!
Cop-green & Pinehill-grey in the disposer! We want more Friedel-green at every corner! Quite often one question is brought to us, “what do we want”?
We don’t want to be evicted. We want to stay.
We want to keep our non-commercial space and go on with the work we’ve been doing in the district since 13 years.
Is it utopist? Maybe… but we’ll continue to fight for it relentlessly.
We don’t want to let the Pinehill S.a.r.l. make profit in Neukölln or elsewhere without any resistance – even less with the ground floor of the Friedelstrasse 54. We don’t want their flawless image to cover up what they really are: displacers, existences destroyers, spoilsports.
[Read More]
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