[Squat!net]

We are a group that squatted Commelinstraat 246 – 250 on Sunday 15th of February. On Monday morning we were awakened by a group of at least ten men, led by Menno Jeen Bos (the owner of this building) into the house. They broke down the door, and threatening physical violence, they demanded that we leave within ten seconds.

By breaking into this house, where we had secured the right to domestic peace, they took the law into their own hands. They throw us out onto the street and then threw our belongings down from the second floor onto our heads. Due to these actions a few people sustained physical injuries.

The police came and asked mister Bos the reason for the disturbance. He claimed that the house had not been empty for a year and that anti-squatters were living there last sunmmer. We know this is a lie for we have received from several neighbours, declarations that say that the house is empty for at least a year (average astimation – 2 years). When mister Bos could not reproduce any documentation for his story, the police respected our legal rights to be there and let us back into the building, with no further immediate action taken against mister Bos.

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Here is some very incomplete information on problems around a newly squatted building. It is very unclear, what did really happen from these fragments of information:

This afternoon, on the 18th of january 2008, two ground floor spaces in the Vinkzicht building in the Kinkerstraat were squatted. Soon after the squat the police arrived, inspected the buildings and OK’ed the squat action for the time being. Soon after that -the police had not left yet- some thugs showed up, started harassing the squatters and smashed a window of a snackbar next to the squat. One of these thugs got arrested. The whole scene calmed down and a start was made with cleaning up the place. At seven thirty a gang of about 20-25 thugs showed up, who all spoke Russian. They forced their way into the building with brute force and viciously attacked the squatters, injuring three of them. One had to be admitted into hospital with a fractured jaw. The thugs operated in an organized fashion, as if they were used to using violence together. Soon after the police arrived, and the thugs convinced them that they had been sitting inside peacefully, and that the squatters had attacked them. Only after people from the neighborhood had interfered did the police realize their mistake and then decided to enter the building and arrest the thugs that remained there. The building was then handed over to the squatters again, who have started repairing the damage done by the thugs and firmly barricading the place up.

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27 november 2008 – On this day we will conduct a protest march against the eviction order for our house. Everybody come!

25 november 2008 – We have now hung several banners in front of our windows! https://squat.net/celebes/spandoeken/banners.jpg

8 november 2008 – This letter has been distributed in the neighbourhood. Read the full background story here: https://squat.net/celebes/background8nov.html

Neighbourhood letter and summary of background story

November 6th, 2008

Dear neighbors,

We, the squatters of Celebestraat 33/34 ground floors, are being evicted from our home. The new owner claims that he plans to renovate the social housing apartments and sell them at a high price. The judge has decided to evict us but is her decision just? We disagree and therefore we refuse to leave voluntarily.

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On the night of Nov. 5th, 2008 windows were smashed and paintbombs thrown inside and outside of the Ymere office at Mauritskade. There were still unreplaced windows from when they were thrown in a few weeks ago. We made so that they would have to replace them all.

There is no attempt on our part to make a very deep political explanation of this action. It is in direct response to their visit and distruction of the recently squatted apartments in Van boetzelaerstraat. It is clear that our enemies have decided to continuously show violence against ourselves and our spaces, carrying out the cities gentrification plans enforced by the police.

Symbolic resistance doesn’t actually effect the people in charge behind our displacement and the city’s gentrification. WE would like to propose that spectacular battles (that will never be won) against riot cops during evictions should be in combination with direct actions against the poeple and companies that want to have control over and buy out our lives and spaces.

THIS IS PERSONAL. YOU COME VISIT US WE COME VISIT YOU. BRING THE WAR TO THEIR HOMES!!!!

Source Indy NL

1st November 2008

Two appartments in these houses got squatted last year and evicted on the basis of article 429 on the 30th of October – for emptiness. The appartments belong to “Block AB24”, owned by Ymere, and will be demolished in the future. When exactly, nobody seems to know, not even Ymere, as the project has been postponed time and time again.

The renters of the block were forced to move out already quite some time ago, only to be replaced by antisquatters. Now even the antisquatters have moved out and if Ymere will have their way the whole block will remain empty until the demolition will start.

And that’s where we step in! In our eyes it is not a crime to squat a house, no matter how long or short time it has been empty, especially during these times of housing shortage. People need houses to live in. 429 is just a number.

Source+photos: https://indymedia.nl/nl/2008/11/55483.shtml

AC*AB 24

SUNDAY, JULY 27, 2008

On Saturday afternoon, Swomp4 held their first permaculture workshop, which was well attended by people of all age groups, from both Holland and around the globe. After an introductory talk about the principles of permaculture and biodiversity, there was a question and answer session, and links, contacts and tips were exchanged. There were both beginners and experienced permaculture gardeners present. We learned all about the value of comfrey as a plant that helps to create good soil as well as being a good medicinal herb. The ground is very sandy so the garden will be built up in the shade areas first where the fallen leaves from the trees have already created a bit of topsoil. We also learned about companion planting, and the different ways to attract the bees and other beneficial fauna. Tobacco and tomatoes apparently grow well together. Then at the end we all got our hands dirty in the soil, planting the comfrey. Then the rain came down and watered everything, including us, very nicely. It was a good afternoon. We learned a lot and plan to keep in touch and build on what was achieved, and hold further workshops in the future.

Source with photos:
http://leightoncookie.blogspot.com/

p.

Swomp4 direct action in the Rustenburgerstraat in Amsterdam squats piece of land and starts urban regeneration permaculture project.

On Friday July 11th 2008, a group of squatters occupied this piece of land in the Rustenburgerstraat in de Pijp in Amsterdam. Technically they are wild campers, as the law in Holland only allows you to squat a building that has been empty for one year. Within three days they already had running water and had started to plant vegetables and develop an urban permaculture project. This is direct action at its very best. The land was going to waste in the heart of the city, and these guys are trying their utmost to turn the sandy wasteland into a green oasis. This coming Saturday they are planning a permaculture workshop, and I’ll be posting more details on that as soon as they become available. Yesterday it was inspiring talking to them and listening to their plans.

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Whoa, never thought we’d actually get this far… But yep, we managed to survive a whole year. Time for a parrrrrty!

Good music, bad coffee, cheap beer and expensive cocktails, dj’s, fireshow and all that shite.

Saturday 8 sept. 2007
18:00->
And, naturally, it doesn’t cost anything!

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On Friday July 14th 2005, ten people had to appear in the court of Amsterdam. They were prosecuted because of their participation in actions against the eviction of six squats in Amsterdam. Eight of them were already locked up since the evictions on Tuesday May 31st. That day around 70 people gathered in front of the Rokin squat in the center of Amsterdam. They made barricades on the street, set them on fire and blocked all traffic for hours. When the riotpolice arrived people started to attack them with stones, bottles and paintbombs. The clash on the streets went on for an hour, the eviction for five hours.
Two of the ten people that had to appear in court, were declared innocent ; seven people were convicted for 6 weeks prison (exactly the time they had spend inside already, so they were released the next day) ; and one woman got sentenced for 5 months, so she still has to spend 3 ½ months in prison ! When arrested a molotov cocktail was found on her body. Though nobody threw a molotov and there is no film or photograph footage from the police, she is convicted of throwing a molotov cocktail. All the accusations are based on the article of “public violence from a organised group”, with variations in : walking between the barricades, throwing water on police officers, throwing with objects like speaker boxes, empty beer cans, bread, molotov cocktails, fruit, a red coffee cup, bricks and pillows. During the court case the judge and the officer of justice made some remarkable political statements, that are very uncommon in dutch court. They compared the situation with “city guerrilla” because there were actions in a organised way that crossed the boundaries of violence.

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