Czech squatting weekend in Amsterdam

By: Hlulome - January 31st, 2015  Filed under: News

20150220_Czech_squatting_weekend_in_AmsterdamCzech squatting weekend in Amsterdam, February 20th – 22nd 2015. Klinika on tour!
Friday 20.02.2015 Klinika soli night with food, presentation, discussion & more @ Squatted autonomous space Joe’s Garage http://www.joesgarage.nl/

19:00 Soli dinner (some Czech traditional dish in the vegan style)
20:00 Presentation
21:00 Discussion, maybe some movie about current squatting theme in Czech Republic and maybe some acoustic concert

Some members of Czech squatting movement are coming to Amsterdam to present and discuss about the actual breakthrough in the squatting movement in Czech Republic. On Saturday, November 29th, an abandoned building of a former clinic in Prague district of Žižkov was occupied by a group of activists. Cleaning works, reconstruction and program started immediately. Despite widespread support, including neighbors, politicians, artists, journalists etc., the owner of the house – Office for Government Representation in Property Affairs – withdrawed from negotiations. Regarding to some sources, the “anti-extremist” department of Czech police played an important role in this decision.

20150220_Klinika_Soli_nightAutonomní sociální centrum Klinika (Autonomous Social Centre Klinika /Clinic http://451.cz/klinika/ ) was evicted December 9th after ten days of struggle and hundreds of people participating. Spontaneous demonstrations immediately took place in front and inside of Žižkov city hall and in office of the owner. After a few days, one thousand people demonstrated in support of the autonomous center. The building is now being guarded, but the struggle isn’t over yet. Žižkov councilors agreed that they will start negotiations with the state. The public support of squatting is now the highest in Czech history. The ministers of interior, finance and social affairs publicly admitted the possibility of decriminalization of squatting. We, as a group supporting a project of social centre, are calling for international support! A pressure on Czech state can help us to create a historical success. Every city needs it’s clinic!

Saturday 21.02.2015, Soli concert and party @ DisKontrol, Papaverweg 7, Amsterdam Noord [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Eviction letter Kerkstraat 104

By: fawda - January 22nd, 2015  Filed under: Communique, News

Today, just after the eviction of the Pieter Vlamingstraat 98, the squatted building on Kerkstraat 104 got the 8 weeks eviction letter.
The house was squatted on the 7th of December, and according to the letter it will be evicted before the 18th of March.
Will there be an eviction wave, as Van der Laan wishes to re-establish it?
If other houses got eviction letters for the same period, please let us know.
Rebel, resist, revolt! [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Pieter Vlamingstraat 98 resists eviction

By: fawda - January 16th, 2015  Filed under: Communique, News, Press release

Today, Friday the 16th, the building is not yet evicted.

The buildings on the Pieter Vlamingstraat 94-96-98 had been empty since 2008, when the tenants were kicked out. The demolition of these and other surrounding buildings started in 2009 with the exception of Pieter Vlamingstraat 98, where the owner of the coffeshop on the ground floor refused to leave. The original plan of De Key was to demolish the existing social houses for building luxury apartments for the free market. The neighbors protested against the plan, started a court-case and the project was eventually rejected. De Key then proposed to build both social and private sector apartments, but this was rejected as well. Eventually De Key proposed to build 145 apartments for students, and the projects got finally approved despite the opposition of the neighbors, who started yet another court case against De Key but lost it at the end of 2014.

In July 2012 a group of people squatted the Pieter Vlamingstraat 98 and the empty field that was left after the demolition of the buildings aside. These fields are quite common in Amsterdam Oost, where housing corporations like De Key, after demolishing entire social housing blocks, run out of money to complete the project and left only waste lands behind. At the time of the occupation, the state of the house was very poor. All the basic infrastructures were missing, and the structure of the building was rotting away. The squatters massively renovated the building to make it livable. Through these years more then 30 people have called this building ‘home’. A lively communally grew around it, and started a number of activities for the neighborhood such as a neighborhood garden (Roomtuintje Oostbos), a give away shop and a free library. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Kerkstraat 104 squatted

By: fawda - December 8th, 2014  Filed under: News

Yesterday, Sunday December the 7th, the Kerkstraat 104 was squatted. The building is owned by a well known real estate speculator: Jorgen Bakker, owner of the company ‘Capital Investments’, and recently renamed ‘Cap Living’. The building has been empty for several months, and there are no permits requests for renovation.
Mister Bakker threatened to come back with a fiery swords (apparently it is a Dutch thing), and he wished us to be beaten to death by the riot cops… while we wait either for his hobbit army of doom to come over, or for the state pigs to take over, we are just going to enjoy the last hours of our life using this empty property as a home.
Hail our CEO and savior chupacabra. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Living group and neighborhood center thrown out for some anti-squatter artists? Confuciusplein court case

By: fawda - December 2nd, 2014  Filed under: News

On September the 13th we squatted the spaces on Confuciusplein 6-8 and 14 in Slotermeer, Amsterdam West. We transformed these dilapidated spaces into housing and a lively meeting spot for locals. Our Neighbourhood centre ‘Pluk van de Senecaflat‘ opened with a free shop, film screenings, food nights, story telling events and workshops for children. A large group of neighbours opened a teahouse.

Housing corporation Stadgenoot left the spaces empty for several years, but now they want to evict us. To do so, they found two artists to sign a dubious anti-squat contract. This is one of many examples of how housing corporations continue to behave more like speculators instead of fulfilling their obligations in social housing.

This Wednesday, December the 3rd at 15.00, we are going to court to claim our right to this city. People should have access to affordable housing in Amsterdam without waiting for 15 years. This city is not just a fancy party for yuppies, and housing corporations should get back to the task they were created for: Affordable housing. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Rent Rebels, screenings and discussion with activists from Berlin

By: Hlulome - November 15th, 2014  Filed under: News

On the weekend of the 21th and 22nd of November we are welcoming people from Berlin to screen with us the very recent film about the Renter Rebels in the Berlin, a quite popular and diverse movement that emerged in the last couple of years and that struggles against massive gentrification and forced evictions of renters that take place at high pace. That weekend shall serve as space for discussion and exchange with the people from Berlin, about experiences being made in struggle, the urban restructuring that goes on in Berlin, and the self-organisation of all kinds of people to fight against it. Besides of being inspirational the events shall also be a space to come together and exchange ideas and experiences related to the unacceptable housing situation in Amsterdam and necessary housing struggles. Descent housing in its various forms and shapes and the city itself is not for profit but for us, the people, and a basic need of everybody independent of social status. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: 66 apartments squatted

By: fawda - November 4th, 2014  Filed under: Communique, News

Last Sunday a group of enthusiastic young people squatted 66 apartments on the Rijswijkstraat in Amsterdam. The flat was part of the failed New-West project which entailed some Housing Cooperations on the hight of their money-grabbing, privatized, Neo-Liberal Cocaine high, just before the financial crisis hit in 2009 and they were forced to cancel the project. As a result of this the flats where left to rot, until even the anti-squat where moved out.
Last Sunday a group of either recently, or almost evicted squatters decided that it was enough, and a group of ninety rode out to reclaim the space for the common interest. Since then the police has given no notice of eviction, but De Key (the official owner) has made a report to the authorities of “squatting”. A thing of note is that yesterday, a couple of people from the city came by pretending to give a fuck about our “health and safety” (yeah….). For the rest now, no news.

Cheerful greets & Squatting Will Stay!

update 04/11/2014 – 18:35 Only hours after the posting of this message we received letter for a court date……coming Friday.

Update 5/11/14 – the squat was today evicted by order of the mayor [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Understanding and resisting the corporatisation of the university

By: fawda - November 1st, 2014  Filed under: News

Two months ago the former Common Room of the Spinhuis was squatted. We see our action and presence in the Spinhuis as an act of resistance against the top-down run university. A university that is increasingly run by managers in a corporate manner, focusing on efficiency and output. Anything that does not directly lead to diplomas or a higher spot on the international rankings, is seen as a waste of time and money. We want to have an evening of discussion in our space, the day before the verdict of the university’s court-case against us.

We will first have several speakers providing a bit of background behind the neoliberalisation of higher education in the last decades. For instance, the financialization of the university (in particular the UvA) after the university took over the management of real estate from the Dutch state. Afterwards there will be space for discussion on what we can do about it. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Spinhuis update

By: fawda - October 22nd, 2014  Filed under: Communique, News

Spinhuis Newsletter Week 7
Dear all,

It’s been some time since the last email. Quite a lot of things have happened in the last week that require an update, but lets start with this week’s program. At this moment a group of people participating in the workshop Situationist psychogeography are confusing themselves and the tourists around them through the rain in central Amsterdam. This Thursday 20.00 we have an exciting storytelling evening with stories that you do not hear from the news or the papers, stories from people who occupied places and tried to change things for the better. Besides stories there will also be great klezmer music from Caspian Scratch! On Friday evening there will be music in the Spinhuis as well, with To Twelve (and maybe more) playing some funky tunes [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Response to UvA board threats to legal action

By: fawda - October 2nd, 2014  Filed under: Communique, News

As many of you have probably noticed, the media have reported that we’ve received a letter from the UvA in which they threaten to take judicial action against our use of the Spinhuis. Firstly, we want to take away any fears by declaring that we will stay open for at least the next few weeks. If the board of directors of the UvA do indeed decide to follow up on their threat it will take a while before we will be evicted from the Spinhuis. In the meantime we we will continue offering a full programme (to be found below), especially because more and more people and groups come to us to organize events. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Vechtstraat eviction court case

By: sisulscz - September 3rd, 2014  Filed under: News

The arrested have been acquitted! Yesterday morning some of the people arrested at the eviction of Vechtstraat/Amstelkade were brought to court with the charge of squatting. Due to several mistakes by the police during the operation, the eviction has been declared illegal and the arrested have been acquitted.
[Read More]

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Amsterdam: Vechtstraat/Amstelkade eviction account

By: sisulscz - July 24th, 2014  Filed under: News

Tuesday morning the police evicted the 16 squatted apartment on the Vechtstraat and Amstelkade (including the social centre De Strijd). 8 people were arrested and released tonight (july 23rd). This evening, during the noise demo in solidarity with the arrested, 3 people were arrested and are still detained.

– Background
[Read More]

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