Amsterdam: Klokkenhof squatters’ stronghold

By: fawda - September 26th, 2024  Filed under: News

September 28, the OCCII is hosting a benefit event to help the Klokkenhof squatters prepare for a court case and other expenses:

Towering over Surinameplein stands the monumental Klokkenhof flat. Originally built in 1962 with the purpose of housing single working women, now its current owner, property investor Vesteda, plans to renovate the building and charge returning renters higher rent, and is continuing the longstanding trend of investors driving low income workers, students and elderly people further out of the city. Where there used to be 144 social housing apartments, there will be very few left after the renovation.

Vesteda has for years been trampling on renters’ rights and creating a lot of uncertainty amongst them. Renters are being asked to find alternative housing in a market that’s in the worst shape it has ever been in, and then return to their homes which will cost them hundreds of euros more to live in. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Squat on Rokin evicted after celebration of one year of Takland

By: fawda - June 16th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

Takland is a year older and we celebrate! With resistance in the form of squatting a new building. After a year full of action, discussion, movies and parties, this new addition to the alley will be the revolutionary art of Amsterdam again. The new squatted building (ground floor Rokin 104) on the corner of Taksteeg/Rokin had been vacant for years and has the same owner (Axel P Nielsen BV) as the already squatted Taksteeg 6.

The police didn’t want to hear anything about it, after promising at 19:00 on Friday that they will not evict, they came later in the evening at 23:30 during our festival with 10 riot cops vans, dog brigade, popo on horses and BraTra to show their teeth. An illegal eviction in Amsterdam, which has not happened since the squatting of the Waldeck Pyrmonkade in January 2022. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: One Year Takland Vrijstraat

By: fawda - June 6th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

June 14, 15 & 16, 2024, TAKLAND 1 YEAR FESTIVAL – TAKLAND 4 EVER https://squ.at/r/9e0a

ONE YEAR (and a bit) TAKLAND WAS FOUNDED AND EXPANDED.
On the 27th of April 2023, the puppet-mayor, puppet-king and a member of puppet-parliament came together in the Taksteeg to come up with a plan to make as much money from the city as possible. The plan was to evict every single person who lives in Amsterdam and to rent it out as air-bnb’s, hotels and nutella shops. However, before the puppet-authorities were even able to open air-bnb, resistance was already popping up right behind them. Taksteeg 8 got squatted and occupied for 6 weeks, housing a freeshop, movie screenings and other political events.
Later the Takland people had to move to the adjacent building, bringing the freeshop and the puppet-people with them. It has now been a year since we lived in this house, and we have expended even more by also occupying the time travelers hotel. Together with Villa Mina we want to celebrate the 1 year mark with a 3 day festival.
Details will be published here as soon as confirmed, but expect great acts, bands, movies, dancing, fun and crazy stuff in general! [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Achter Oosteinde 16 squatted. Opening of the Shadia Abu Ghazaleh campus

By: fawda - May 26th, 2024  Filed under: News

Pro-Palestinian protesters open Shadia Abu Ghazaleh Campus of the People’s Free University. Around 14:45, pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched from the Spui to Achter Oosteinde 14 and opened the Shadia Abu Ghazaleh Campus of the people’s Free university in a squatted building.
Today, on May 25, pro-Palestinian demonstrators began their protest on the Spui at 14:00. This demonstration moved through the streets of Amsterdam to Achter Oosteinde 16, where the protesters revealed that a squatted building is being opened to the public as the first campus of the People’s Free University. The Shadia Abu Ghazaleh Campus will be a space of resistance where people can learn from each other and teach each other. The campus is named after one of the first Palestinian women to participate in armed resistance in 1967: “She knew the importance of knowledge and education in the struggle for liberation. […] We will create this space in her legacy,” the protesters say. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Building squatted for Housing Day. Gravenstraat 26 resquatted

By: fawda - April 29th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

NO HOUSING NO KING

Today, April 27, we come together to celebrate Housing Day (Woningsdag), not Koningsdag (King’s Day). Instead of celebrating the monarchy, we will celebrate the resistance and bravery of everyday people. Kingsday is a day of hypocrisy, where we wear orange plastic crowns to pretend we are a king, while every other day we are struggling to make ends meet. While the royal family bathes in luxury we are struggling to pay for basic necessities like food, energy and housing. Nationalism and the celebrations of the monarchy we see today, work to create false divisions that do not serve us. It draws artificial borders over land and divides us, it breaks the natural tendency of solidarity between people and instead teaches us we should fear one another. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Vossiusstraat 16 under threat – Removal of Russian oligarch Arkady Volozh from the sanctions list

By: fawda - March 13th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

The Russian oligarch and founder of Yandex, Arkady Volozh, the owner of the squatted building Vossiusstraat 16, was removed from the European sanctions list on the 12th of March 2024. This is likely to lead to a new court case and the eviction of the squat.

This statement begins with a legal overview of the Vossiusstraat 16 case, and then summarises the changes that led to Volozh’s removal from the sanctions list. Finally, we present reasons why his removal from the list should not have taken place. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Mokum Kraakt squats former windows in the Red Light District

By: fawda - January 19th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, News

Mokum Kraakt squats on the Dollebegijnensteeg in the Red Light District in solidarity with the sex workers and against the arrival of the erotic center. During a protest against the planned erotic centre, squatting collective Mokum Kraakt announced it has squatted a number of former sex work windows in De Wallen, Amsterdam’s red light district.

The squatters say the windows were squatted in solidarity with sex workers who fight against plans for an erotic centre on the outskirts of the city. Sex work has been a part of De Wallen for over 400 years and sex workers have clearly and repeatedly said they want to stay in the city centre. The people living close to the location of the prospective location of the erotic centre are also against it. And still, mayor Halsema is pushing through her plans. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: two buildings squatted next to Nieuwmarkt

By: fawda - November 26th, 2023  Filed under: Communique, News

We squatted two buildings in light of the Housing Crisis, International Day against Sexist and Sexual Violence, in solidarity with our Palestinian comrades, and we express our anger about fascism taking over the Netherlands.

We revealed two squatted buildings on 22 November, at Krom Boomssloot 45 and 47, in light of the need for housing for our comrades and our sisters.

In light of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on the 25th of November, it is crucial and a priority to open housing where women can feel safer, where we can find each other and grow our resistance together. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: two houses owned by Blackstone squatted during the ADEV demo

By: fawda - October 22nd, 2023  Filed under: Communique, News, Press release

No free spaces without a free Palestine

Amsterdam, October 21st – We have squatted these 2 buildings (Prinsengracht 804 et 806), despite the city’s (and the police’s) best attempts to make it very difficult, because we believe that ADEV(Amsterdam Danst Ergens Voor – Amsterdam dances for something)’s call to ‘disown stupid property’ is a call to action.

These buildings, owned and left empty by a massive american investment firm called Blackstone, some (though not all) of whose crimes you can read on the banner, are definitely, by all definitions, stupid property. But we want to stress that, in a capitalist system that puts corporate giants over human life and dignity, ALL PROPERTY IS STUPID AND ALL PROPERTY IS THEFT. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: news from Vossiusstraat 16

By: fawda - October 2nd, 2023  Filed under: Communique, News

Why there are no public events anymore, comment on Volozh’s statement against the war

Soon Vossiusstraat 16 will have existed for one year!
During the last few months, many changes happened. We won the court case and its appeal and this stability allowed us to make this house our home. While the doors of Vossiusstraat 16 were initially open, there have not been any public events in the past few months. This statement is here to explain why that is.
We will also comment on a statement issued by the owner of Vossiusstraat 16, Russian oligarch Arkady Volozh, where he claims he is against the war.

Why we don’t organize public events anymore

When the Vossisstraat 16 squat opened, we decided that it would be both a place to house ourselves and new people and a social space where anyone who wants can come and organise. Many discussions, benefit evenings, meetings, workshops, and more initiatives took place at Vossiusstraat over the span of several months. We really appreciate the fact that so many people were able to use the building and that Vossiusstraat 16 could be a place for political organising and for people to meet.
However, for the past few months, there have not been any public events organised at Vossiusstraat 16. This is a decision we took in response to the verdict of the appeals court. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Time Travelers Hotel, new squat on Rokin 108

By: fawda - October 1st, 2023  Filed under: Communique, News

Time travelers arrived a couple months in Amsterdam to usher in a new era of activism and change. They have been publishing newspapers, running amok, and resurrecting the inherited tradition of the Hi-Ha Happenings originally started by the Provos in the sixties. After the success of the first Happening, during which the structure that eats away at the lives of ordinary folk was denounced and partially dismantled through ritual and magic, a second Hi-Ha Happening took place on the 29th of September.

This Happening was a constructive one, in counterpart to it’s destructive predecessor. This came to a climax when at the end of the Happening a new squat was announced: the Time Travelers Hotel. The following statement was made during the revealing, and is thus made public for all those who experience a like minded sense of time-dysmorphia, unrest, urge for change, and willingness to provoke and be provoked. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Nieuwe Leliestraat 70 squatted

By: fawda - September 29th, 2023  Filed under: Communique, News

Some time ago we squatted Nieuwe Leliestraat 70. We stayed there silently until 23.09.2023 after which we revealed our new home to the neighborhood. The building is owned by the social housing company Ymere, which has left it to rot unused for more than six years. It was previously squatted in 2020, but was quickly evicted, after which Ymere left it unoccupied again. We believe it is a disgrace to leave such a beautiful big house empty in the midst of a housing crisis, so we moved in.

Our new neighbors told us that the building next door used to also be social housing owned by Ymere until they renovated it and sold it privately. We suspect that they would have liked to do the same with our new home. This is something that happens often; there are 53,000 fewer social houses in Amsterdam now than there were in 2003. Meanwhile the demand for affordable housing grows every year. [Read More]

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