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]
Trespass Journal
We are pleased to present issue one of Trespass Journal. Trespass is self-managed, open access, and unfunded. It is multidisciplinary and publishes work in different languages. It is an online journal which also publishes selected works in print. [2022 – https://blogs.sindominio.net/trespass/en/]
London: Anarchist Haringey. Brief radical history of a London borough
I guess Tottenham is most known for its riots in 1985 and 2011. These were in no way organised or led by anarchists, and we were a very small part of them. But, they definitely showed the anger sections of the local community had toward the killing of members of their community by the police. This anger was also evident on the streets of Haringey when Joy Gardner and Roger Sylvester were also killed by the state. Local anarchists have always tried to stand side-by-side with those more directly affected.
But disquiet goes back a long way in Tottenham. In 1909 two alleged anarchists held up a payroll followed by a two-hour gun battle with the local police. Maybe not our most positive moment but still part of our local history. For more details, check out “Tottenham Outrage.”
Tottenham and anarchism probably go back a lot further but this is a quick and brief history of the last 30 or so years.
The early ’80s saw three different anarchist newspapers in Haringey. In 1984/5 there was the aptly named Soci@list Opportunist which lasted for six issues. Then there was Haringey Anarchist News in 1986 followed by Haringey Free in 1987/8. [Read More]
Zürich: “I tell you: Fight with me against the camp system”
In Switzerland, refugees are often isolated and housed in old fall-out bunkers all over the country. There is, of course, no sunlight and people are exposed to constant harassment by the authorities. Frida Frey spoke to one of thirteen illegalised refugees who took into consideration, that for them to get out and be part of society is more important than complying with what the state tells them to do. He doesn’t want to be called by his real name, he prefers to be called by «something simple, like ‘illegalised refuge’ or ‘refuge activist’». In March 2017, they decided to move into a derelict house in central Zurich that is owned by Credit Suisse Group AG.
Hey, can you tell me something about the house?
The house exists since one month and has another month to stay. The current owner is Credit Suisse that wants to start with the construction for a new building in a month. It’s an apartment with 4 floors and 9 flats and a garage for 10 Cars and 24 rooms.
How was the squatting?
We were a group of people, refugee and some swiss activists that wanted to support us and they helped us in communicating with the owner. During the time our swiss friends were talking with the owner, the rest of us was really panic that there could happen something bad what could have severe consequences for us. But surprisingly, all went really good and we made the deal that we could stay for two months. We just make no noise and no trash and we pay for water and electricity. It’s the 3rd house we try, so we are really happy that it worked out. [Read More]
Amsterdam: The living breathing lungs of ADM terrain Westpoort
On the edge of an expanding industrial area in Amsterdam called Westpoort, a special development took place.
A group of people created a forest. The forest functions as a natural filter for emissions from local industries. It filters particulate matter, which are small particles of toxic debris and dust from the coal, concrete and petroleum industries located in the nearby area.
On the ADM terrain the trees and plants continually capture these small particles and hold on to them with their leaves and branches until they are washed away naturally by the rain. This is a pollution barrier at work.
The ADM trees also work as a sound barrier to the activity in the industrial freight and coal terminals located in the area. The trees also capture and store CO2 gas. This sound barrier, natural air filter and CO2 storage works every day.
At present the ADM forest forms a direct benefit for the surrounding living areas such as Westzaan and Zaandam, but also for the environment in a much bigger sense. [Read More]
Argentina: Hotel Bauen eviction called off at last minute
Famed worker-occupied building Hotel Bauen got a stay of execution last night after the National Chamber of Appeals in Buenos Aires allowed an injunction against its eviction, just hours before the site was due to be forced out.
In its comments the court overturned an order by María Paula Hualde that Bauen’s 140 workers had no right to appeal their eviction. It said she had “erred” in rushing through the order. Hualde’s overenthusiastic ruling followed President Mauricio Macri’s decision to veto a Senate agreement last year to give the building over to the workers.
Over the last month staff at the Bauen have been building solidarity and organising support events to raise awareness about the threat to the hotel, which has been under occupation for 14 years and is a mainstay of left-wing organising in the city. City bosses have been reluctant to take on the hotel, which is a national symbol for the co-operative movement and has a long history of successfully seeing off eviction attempts. [Read More]
Vienna: Kienmayergasse 15 squatted
Update: The house is still squatted. There’s a program for this evening from 5pm on:
– at 5pm there’s a lecture from the book “the net knows everything”
– after we are going to cook and eat together
– and a plenary will also take place
Come by! Take your sleeping bags and camping mats with you and stay over night!
We are happy about your solidarity!
Attention: There’s quite a lot of civil police in the streets around! And cop cars are passing the house over and over again!
Take care of each other!
Call for a squat action
Soon we are going to squat a house, to create a room of struggle and to reclaim a piece of our lifes. From this publication in advance we expect, that everyone who recognizes her*himself in the ideas as they are formulated here, develops her*his own initiatives, plan her*his own activities and actions and intensifies the struggles. [Read More]
Montevideo: About the raids and arrests linked to La Solidaria Social Center
On Tuesday April 04, members of Police Intelligence and the regular police carried out two coordinated raids linked to the La Solidaria Social Center. The raids ended with 5 comrades detained, one of whom was charged and bailed, accused of criminal damage. This accusation could be upgraded to to robbery charges and is a result of investigations by the repressive organs of the State that have been carried out since the eviction of the social center and the protests that followed.
The state has promised more arrests in the coming days. Presumably then, there will be more detainees. Private property was put into question and self-organization was made the culprit. The clash between the State standards that defend the existing order based on profit and exploitation and the ability of the self-organized to struggle for radical social transformation was inevitable.
The ability to transform spaces and give them a real life, placing them at the service of the autonomous social struggle and the ability to disrespect the world of dominion will never be forgiven by the defenders of capital…
At the moment, clarity in ideas is very important and the ability to remain strong is crucial.
Defend our social centers, defend the struggle for freedom.
For self-organization and direct action. [Read More]
Thessaloniki: About the eviction of the squatted house Albatross
In the morning of Wednesday the 5th of April, the police, led by an OPKE unit, evicted a house in Ano Poli, Thessaloniki. Under the threat of fire-weapons, 13 people were arrested and brought to the police station in Monastiriou. The cops refused to let the arrested use their right to contact a lawyer and get translators for 5 hours. 9 people that came to in solidarity were also brought to the “megaron” and kept 3 hours for identity control. One of them now faces the charge of resistance after the pigs beat him up.
During the day, 2 people had to be transferred to the hospital : one with a severe head-wound after the treatment he received in the police station (the physical and psychological violence of the cops following him even in the walls of the hospital) ; the other because of his health, the pigs refusing for hours to take in consideration his signed appointment with a doctor for this precise day, and for hours refusing giving their prescribed medication to him and another person.
After 32 hours, only 12 people were set free before the trial, one being kept imprisoned for having no paper. He may stay in up to six month for this only, and is also accused, like the others, of both squatting and damaging private property. The asylum process in Greece is still so insufficient that thousands of people are not able to obtain a “legal status” and have therefore no possibilities to get access to accommodation or other forms of support. Living in a squat is often the only option they have. [Read More]