On Sunday 22 November a building on the Tugelaweg 18A has been re-squatted out of discontent with the current housing policy in Amsterdam. The policy that is being fought is not a recent one. The breaking down of social housing has been going on for years. The privatizing of social housing companies, which have to handle their own finances since the 90s, has created a situation in which affordable housing is considered unprofitable both by the social housing companies and politicians. Social housing companies, whose goal is housing people, are for this reason rejecting social housing instead. Local politics see this happening but do not act. Because of this the situation on the housing market is becoming unsustainable; rents rise and waiting lists become longer and longer. Exactly those people for whom social housing is intended are getting problems because of this. [Read More]
Amsterdam: 10 years Joe’s Garage
For 10 years, Joe’s Garage organizes political action, film and debate evenings, discussions and demonstrations. Everyone is welcome whether it’s for advice in precarious housing, employment and other life issues or for a bowl of soup, a good conversation, nice music or a free raincoat from the Giveaway Shop.
As known, there is a desperate shortage of housing in Amsterdam. That is, we believe, generally not because of a lack of actual buildings but due to shortcomings of housing policy, power struggles in politics and greed in this capitalist capital. None of the 50 shades of the cabinet has ever really been able to solve this urgent problem.
Therefore we squat houses. After all, in hollow promises, one can’t live from pretty words and symbolic politics. [Read More]
Amsterdam: The New University squatted an empty office
Today at 13:00 the DNU [De Nieuwe Universiteit / The New University] squatted Oude Turf Markt 147, an empty part of an university building of the UvA [Universiteit van Amsterdam / University of Amsterdam]. The building will be a DNU headquarters, where people can meet to plan actions, do administrative work etc. For a movement, a space to organize is of great importance, this is exactly what DNU had in the Maagdenhuis, but unfortunately that did not last. It seems that the building where they are now located will be empty for longer due to the fact that the faculty of Humanities is cutting its budgets on housing and has moved large groups of administration elsewhere. The part that DNU now owns is barricaded and has its own door to the outside, meaning the rest of the building can still be used by UvA personnel.
[Read More]
Amsterdam: ADM’s 18th Birthday Festival
The ADM is the biggest and longest surviving cultural freehaven in the Netherlands, known over the whole world due to 18 years social and cultural renewal and hospitality. It is an organically grown village in the western harbours of Amsterdam, arising from the longing to experiment in all possible areas. The ADM is a niche in the margin of organised society. A laboratory where the arrangement of our daily lives is practised as an art form, where the development of simple and sustainable solutions are automatic and innovation is not trendy but pure necessity.
The people of this self-regulating community are closely linked to each other by the space, visions and creations they share. On the terrain live some 130 people from all ages, nationalities and walks of life. Amongst them are: children and pensioners, theatre-makers and stage-builders, inventors and technicians, dancers and musicians, actors and directors, craftsmen and -women, sailors and buccaneerss, life-lovers and ‘different-thinkers’…
We improvise with time and money, test our place in the ecosystem, tinker with human relationships and build sculptures, compositions, heat sources and means of transport using another’s waste. In a direct interaction with our environment we thus create alternative ways of living, sharing, learning and growing. [Read More]
Amsterdam: October 1st, Right to the City demo
Why are we demonstrating?
RIGHT TO A SOCIAL HOUSING POLICY
The city belongs to all of us, including to the poor and to the refugees. The city council needs to focus on making the biggest medley so not only people or organizations with money, but everyone has a chance to settle at their place of choice. The heart of a city is essential part of making a city livable and therefore cheap rents for housing and shops should be preserved.
RIGHT TO COMMONALTY
A city exists out of neighborhoods. This should be neighborhoods made able by its inhabitants, neighborhoods where the grocery store, bakery and local tailor should have a place. Amsterdam is no brand, but a city where people cohabit. [Read More]
Amsterdam: De Overval, protest against the eviction
Come out to De Overval, Prins Hendrikkade 138, Amsterdam, to give a big warm sloppy old fashioned welcome to mr. Deurwaarder (the bailiff)! Let’s say ‘hi’, and make sure we say ‘bye’ to them too.
There’s coffee and tea and a rain cover, and actually the rain isn’t real too. Solidarity and resistance are! See you on the street.
Update 12:24 The police came by this morning and left after a few minutes! They did not announce a new eviction date but we will keep you posted. Everybody is still welcome for a delayed breakfast, with freeshop and music on the street!!!
Kraken gaat door!
Update 24/09/2015 De overval got evicted yesterday. Nobody was arrested.
Amsterdam: De Overval lost the court case. OverVal Block Party, September 14th
Long story made short. De overval, Prins Hendrikkade 138, is getting evicted on 14th of september because the owner is an asshole and because Amsterdam licks the ass to speculants, mafia and tourists. Their plan is to destroy living spaces and our social centre and to make yet another hotel.
Come on the 14th of september, From 8AM, to show your support and solidarity, and to protest against the eviction!!
Short story made long: De Overval, was squatted on February 2015.
The owner, Mister Tol from Volendam, had already sold the building for 2.5 millions to a Chinese company that wants to build another hotel. According to the selling contract the property had to be delivered empty, but as a woman used to live on the upper floors of the building, the selling transaction never went through. The owner tried to kick her out for many years, but her housing rights always prevailed. Mister Tol tried to get her out both with money, legally and then with pressure and intimidation, but the woman did not accept to be relocated. [Read More]
Amsterdam: Koole Maritime BV demolishing the nature on the ADM terrain without permits
Koole Maritime BV did come three times to the ADM terrain and started destroying the nature without the proper permits.
They were stopped on all three occasions by the police, but every time they managed to take out more and more nature.
Koole Maritime tells a different story each time about putting in some kind of road.
They started out saying that it was supposed to be an emergency road, then they said a temporary building road and now they say it needs to be an official road with drainage and everything.
That road, they claim is going to a new office building of theirs at the waterfront, but they haven’t obtained permission to build this.
They already started building this road without knowing whether they can continue any of their planned activities on the terrain, as the council did NOT give permission for this yet. [Read More]
Amsterdam: The Elephant, new social center threatened with eviction
On the 26th of July a commercial space at the Eerste van Swindenstraat 391 in Amsterdam that had been left empty by property speculators was squatted with the intention of transforming this empty shell into a community social centre: The Elephant.
This space was managed by real estate agency Van Maarschaalkerwaart, known to deliberately leave properties empty for a long time, as a means to make profit through speculation on property markets.
This is a widespread trend amongst property corporations, contributing to the gentrification process in the Dapperbuurt in which small businesses and low-income family are displaced from the neighborhood, through the raising of rents, lack of maintenance and other means. This has taken shape in the destruction of community and cultural spaces, as well as pressure on small businesses, forcing closures. This feature of the gentrification process can be noted clearly in the the closure of two social centres in the Dapperbuurt, as a result of corporations such as DeKey raising the rent to extortionate rates, in order to sell to property developers, speculators, hipster bars, and chain stores. [Read More]
Amsterdam: July 25th, demo, the Village of the ADM moves to the city
UPDATE: The demo from tomorrow is postponed to another date!
Saturday July 25th 2015, Demonstration, parade starting at 15.00, De Dokwerker, Jonas Daniel Meijerplein.
We take our village to the city and show who we are and what we do. We live at the ADM for a reason. The fringe- and free-zone freely wandering human being needs a place too. We won’t give up and we’ll show in theatrical form that we are an addition and therefore should stay. Join us and express yourself. This will be epic.
ADM is under threat. The destructive forces of greed, power, big industry and Economic growth have focused their eyes on our little oasis in the Amsterdam Harbor. This little self organized experimental community of more then 120 people is more important then a ship yard which is what the owner wants to change our little village into. Lets keep ADM an autonomous and free.
Amsterdam: Short explanation of all ADM court cases (in 2015)
In the most recent court-case (the so-called “kort geding”) the owners demanded urgent eviction of the ADM. Verdict July 13th 2015 [ADM won!]
The so called ‘evidence’ of the owners entailed 2 rental contracts: One was lacking a signature (concerns small part of the ADM land) and the other was lacking a date (concerns ADM water).
[Read More]
Amsterdam: Paint & Beer cancelled
Dear Friekfriends. We are very sorry but we have decided to cancel Paint&Beer coming Saturday. We didn’t get the permit and if we let it happen anyway, the city council will enforce the law and stop all negotiations considering new places. The graffiti jam will happen behind closed doors. PLEASE don’t show up coz you think there will be something anyway, it will put us in great trouble. We will try to document, film, register the whole “making of”, and we hope there will be a moment we can still show the results to you all for real, we’re working on it. Please spread this message as much as you can to help us. Luv Villa Friekens
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