Refugee collective We Are Here has squatted a house at Rudolf Dieselstraat 72 for a woman and two children, together with people who now live under harsh circumstances in the church in the James Wattstraat.
After more than 5 years of fighting for a normal life, we know what it means to live on the street or to continuously move from one place to another. It means that you loose all the time, your life looses sense, you are affected. Six of us have already lost their life. The pressure is rising. A solution has to come now.
The women’s building on the Burgemeester Roëllstraat 70, where 25 women of We Are Here are living since a year and a half, can be evicted by the housing corporation from the 10th of April.
Most political parties have agreed that no building of We Are Here will be evicted as long as they negotiate about the new board. We invite them to work together on a stable place and a real Amsterdam-style solution.
We are here and we need a place to live. [Read More]
Amsterdam: We Are Here squats a house for a woman and two children
Amsterdam: ADM wins court procedure
Another court-case took place on January 24th, ADM asking for an interim measure in the appeal court-case of Chidda versus The Municipality of Amsterdam, about evicting the ADM.
Today February 7th 2018, we did get the interim measure so this means that we can await the verdict in our appeal case that is expected to take place in the summer of 2018. ADM stays!!!! You can read the verdict in the interim measure court-case here: https://www.raadvanstate.nl/uitspraken/zoeken-in-uitspraken/tekst-uitspraak.html?id=93981&summary_only=&q= [Read More]
The Hague: 1st february, support De Vloek 10! Come to the Court of Appeal!
On the 1st of February the appeal of the 10 people who resisted against the eviction of De Vloek. The city of The Hague (Netherlands) tries to impose a fine of 50,000 Euro against the 10, earlier the 10 were convicted to pay 33,000 Euro. The court case will start at 09:30am at the court in The Hague.
On the February the 9th, 2015 the free space De Vloek was evicted. De Vloek was squatted for 13 years and offered people a place to live, a vegan and organic eat café, a space for concerts, several working spaces and the development of extra parliamentary politics. After a one and a half year campaign to save De Vloek the free space was evicted for a sailing center.
During the eviction 10 people were arrested. All arrestees were prosecuted, five of them were imprisoned for 2 weeks. The city of The Hague now also demands 50,000 Euro “damages” from the 10 in a civil court case. The claim for damages by city authorities is a repressive way to punish the 10 people double who resisted against the eviction. This absurd claim must be off the table!
Come to the court case and support De Vloek 10!
Date: 01/02/2018 Time: 9am
Location: Paleis van Justitie, Prins Clauslaan 60 , The hague, Netherlands [Read More]
Netherlands: January 24th, new court case for the ADM
Another court-case is coming up: ADM asking for an interim measure in the appeal court-case of Chidda versus The Municipality of Amsterdam, about evicting the ADM.
In this upcoming court-case we ask the Raad van State, an administrative court of law, that we can await the verdict of the appeal court-case that we started, together with the Municipality, against the verdict in the court-case that was started by Chidda Vastgoed BV & Amstelimmo BV (The heirs of Bertus Lüske), which orders that the Municipality has to start enforcing the ‘bestemmingsplan’ (=> the zoning of the area, “It’s not allowed to live in this part of the harbor”). The initial verdict, given in July 2017, in fact orders the Municipality to evict us, and they started the process by handing us all a letter on August 5th. 2017 stating that we have 6 months to stop violating the zoning of the area. So in fact, for now, the Municipality has to start the eviction of the ADM any day from February 5th. 2018 onward… (!)
This interim measure court-case will be held at the Raad van State (‘The Council of the State’) in The Hague on January 24th 2018 at 11.45 (Address: Kneuterdijk 22, 2514 EN, Den Haag)
More info and background about this and other court-cases; click here [Read More]
Turin: Updates on the 3rd May arrests
A court of review hearing, held to decide over Kam, Fran, Antonio, Beppe and Lorenzo ended a few hours ago. The charges that led the five comrades behind bars and banned Monica and Michela from the city were discussed, in order to decide if the measures imposed before the trial were to be modified.
Even if the hearing was held behind closed doors we learned that a large assortment of cops was in the courtroom: plain clothes officers from Porta Palazzo police station, Digos officers, screws, [prosecutors] Padalino’s and Rinaudo’s bodyguards and a bunch of carabinieri. They were all there to highlight the power that they hold in a courtroom. Power transferred through court papers and the reconstruction of that night’s events, like the events of many other nights, days and moments spent in a corner of some police station or in the streets during a police check. Anything that happens before and after, the cause and the effect, are mixed up to create a tale that is more effective on paper, the assessment of the charges and the weight of the sentence.
Nothing to be surprised about; the violence of the cops’ control in the streets is backed up by the violence of the sterile language of court papers, imprisonment and the limitation of freedom. We won’t dwell on the chronological order of that night’s events. It’s more interesting to look at what those events have provoked more generally. [Read More]
Amsterdam: Bad news for the ADM
The municipality of Amsterdam lost from the so-called owners (‘the Chidda’s) in the court case about ‘enforcing’ (the fact that one isn’t allowed to live on the ADM, according to the zoning plan). This means in fact that the municipality is now forced to make plans to evict the ADM and has to make a decision within 6 weeks about the time schedule. The municipality could appeal this verdict, but will they? We also expect very soon the verdict in the appeal of the ‘bodemprocedure (in depth court case) The question is then also how they’re in relation to each other. We can appeal this decision as well. More information about what we’re going to do will follow… [Read More]
Amsterdam: ADM court cases update
Verdicts in 2 most important court cases postponed till July 4th 2017.
The verdicts in the appeal of the ‘in depth’ court case (Chidda’s versus ADM) and the verdict in the ‘short’ court case (Chidda’s versus Municipality of Amsterdam) are both postponed till (at least) July 4th. 2017
In the appeal of the ‘in depth’ court case we have tried last minute to bring in evidence (deriving from the recent appeal court case (Chidda’s versus ADM) about the permit issuing for our XIX birthday festival. In this case, which we won, the court ruled that we should be regarded as the holders of the ADM terrain, since we act as if we ‘re the owners and because of the fact that children are born and raised here, that we build our own roads and that we generate our own electricity, through our 200 solar panels, but on June 9th. the court told us that they won’t take this evidence into account. For now it’s unknown when the court is giving their verdict, somehow it seems logical if this date will be July 4th. 2017…
The verdict in the ‘short’ court case is now due to be given on July 4th.
In both court cases the Chidda’s (heirs of Bertus Lüske) are trying to get us evicted. [Read More]
Amsterdam: Refugee collective We Are Here wins court case and can stay in the Vluchtlumumba till 3 july
Yesterday, the Somali group of We Are Here won the court case against the State of the Netherlands with regard to their stay at Florijn 8-11 in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. The authorities ordered the immediate eviction of the ‘Vluchtlumumba’, which they started to inhabit on 9 April 2017. However, their request to stay until the end of the Ramadan has been granted by the Court of Amsterdam.
The group consists of 20 men who have been in the Netherlands for a long time. Some of them have been here for up to 20 years, without the possibility to go back, or to lead a normal life in The Netherlands. After being evicted from a previous building last year, they were on the street for four months. As many of them have various health problems and as they needed more time to find another place, the group decided not to leave the building as ordered, but demanded to be allowed to stay until 3 July. [Read More]
Thessaloniki: Call for Solidarity
Last summer the Squat Orfanotrofio in Thessaloniki was evicted and demolished by the Greek government. One commerade faces repressions now for the squating alone, standing at court for all of us, on the trial on the 31.05.2017. We call for solidarity.
The story begins with the squatting of the Orfanotrofeio in December 2015. Thousands of migrants have been declared illegal overnight and are stuck on Greek territory. Within a months they were also displaced from Idomeni, an massive self-made and to a great extent self-managed settlement near the border with the Rep of Macedonia. They were moved to isolated camps throughout the country, under the surveillance of the army and the NGOs.
Those of us who had been visiting Idomeni frequently during the summer of 2015 had seen a wall being built in front of our eyes, people practically living in the mud, being beaten up by the police, giving birth in offhand tents, burning anything they could find from the ruble for some heat in the freezing cold, being moved around from town to town and from camp to camp, in buses that would just show up and then disappear, being constantly stopped for pointless checks in the middle of nowhere on their way to the border. If when they made it to the border, they were often pushed back to Athens, where many of them fell into the hands of smugglers and even organ harvesting mafias. [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]
Amsterdam: Finally clarity about ADM terrain
Chidda admits, Koole Maritime is not intending building a shipyard.
The ADM terrain in the port of Amsterdam has been disused since 1977. From that time, the land was ‘owned’ by various speculators, who however still had to deal with a limitation that the municipality had included in the Act of Ownership, when they gifted the then ADM shipyard in 1970; “the terrain is destined for a company, which aims to build and repair ships.” The Supreme Court ruled earlier that this destination restriction (the ‘perpetual clause’) is still in place. The current ‘owner’, Chidda Vastgoed BV, argued for some time that they had found a company that would indeed plan to launch a genuine shipyard on the terrain. In the appeal court-case of the ‘Bodemprocedure’ (=> in-depth court case), which took place Tuesday (March 28th. 2017), Chidda was forced to admit that it is not about a shipyard, but “a displacement of the current activities.” The company in question, Koole Maritime BV, is known for, among others, asbestos removal, waste treatment and excavation works.
That real estate company Chidda BV insisted this long that it indeed was about a shipyard, has to do with the fact that they’re attempting already for about two years to remove the more than 200 residents, who settled in the area in the past 40 years, through various procedures. However, in order to accomplish this, the real estate company must have a “demonstrable and law respecting interest in the matter”, according to the judges in the three previous court cases. For the ADM terrain it means that there must be serious plans presented for a shipyard. These plans were proven again and again below par. Last Tuesday it became finally clear why. [Read More]
Dublin: Video tour of previous Dublin eviction by injunction sites on the morning of Apollo House hearing
This video was shot on the morning of the Apollo House injunction hearing at the High Court, 21st December. As well as footage from outside the courts on our way there we had earlier visited the sites of other occupied buildings evicted in the last 20 months. We discovered all of them were still vacant and in most cases no visible work at all had been done on them.
Apollo house is a NAMA building occupied to provide emergency accommodation for homeless people. 35-40 people have been accommodated there over the last couple of nights. As expected the judge granted the injunction, it will come into operation on January 11th.
We visit 4 other occupations evicted after the same judge granted injunctions over the previous 20 months. All four of those sites are currently vacant and in 3 cases no apparent work has been done. At the largest, Grangegorman all the habitable structures have now been demolished, it had previously housed 30 people. [Read More]
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