Ghent: statement from ‘t Pand! Demonstration 25 October

By: fawda - October 18th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

More than 1800 citizens want us to intervene at the city council, but we were gagged. The city does not call itself responsible for the housing crisis. We received the mandate from these 1800 citizens to ask the city council to speak out against the privatization of ‘t Pand.

We do not intend to remain silent. If participation and democracy are not empty concepts, we must make our voices heard now. Come with us to the City Council. Together we will take the floor and ask:
– Address the housing crisis: no privatization of the property and commons in general
– Through co-creation and participation, provide a public interpretation for ‘t Pand
– Investigate other financing options for commons than the sale of public heritage.

We will gather at ‘t Pand, Lange Steenstraat 16, at 18:00 and then head for our board, the city council. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Take back Mokum! Hotel Marnix squatted during ADEV

By: fawda - October 16th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

During the ADEV (Amsterdam Danst Ergens Voor) demonstration on 16 October 2021, former Hotel Marnix was squatted on Marnixstraat 382. Statement from Pak Mokum Terug! action group :

Amsterdam is in crisis. Housing is unaffordable. People with low and middle incomes are being chased out of the city. There is no room for young people. The commercialization of the center has attracted masses of tourists who make the city unlivable, while property owners, investors and large companies enrich themselves endlessly. There is no room for alternative culture. Amsterdam is losing its soul.

We, the collective Pak Mokum Terug! (Get Mokum Back!) are young Amsterdammers who have had enough. We no longer want to accept the trend that our city can only be inhabited by the rich. That economic and commercial interests are all-important. That we cannot shape our city, its culture, the way we live, ourselves. Therefore we claim the city, we claim the space for the people of Amsterdam, we take back Mokum. [Read More]

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Ghent: PANDPaRaDe, demonstration on 12 October

By: fawda - October 8th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Judges, the city and the province want the property owners to get rid of the property (‘t Pand) in order to sell it to rich investors.
This is done without any consultation from the former residents and without listening to the citizens of Ghent themselves. The right to property is again more important than the right to a decent and affordable roof over one’s head.
The judge has given us 8 days to vacate the premises. They may be able to sabotage the occupation but that does not end the fight.
More than 1800 citizens want us to intervene at the city council and here too we were silenced. The city does not hold itself responsible for the housing crisis. Therefore, we call on everyone to come out onto the streets with your pots and pans, and together we will make our point:
– tackle the housing crisis: no privatisation of the property and commons in general
– no eviction of the inhabitants
– citizens’ participation in our commons, including on the city council

We gather on Tuesday 12 October at 6 pm at Lange Steenstraat 16 ! [Read More]

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Berlin: Rigaer94 – First statement on the raid of 6th of October, 2021

By: fawda - October 6th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

The Berlin cops, today, 06.10.2021 at 7am, wearing their dirty trash-bag uniforms and carrying shields full of color from the resistance on 17th of June and armed, raided our political structure and living space, Rigaer94. Once again, as everyday, the servants of the state fulfill their commands and obey to the capital. The state guarantees the order of the capitalist system, so to squeeze even more profit from people and their living spaces, gain power over every life, destroy any political idea that fights against them and oppress any individual who does not fit to their plans in this capitalistic, patriarchal and racist society. It is clear that the Berlin cops still work with Lafone Investments Ltd. and are their mercenaries, who execute orders of the plan to get rid of Rigaer94 and so to force the gentrification process of Nordkiez, Friedrichshain – after they lost their last attack on us in June this year. [Read More]

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Montreuil: Support Le Marbré – Let’s Defend our spaces – Attack the city of the rich

By: fawda - October 5th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Le Marbré opened its doors in september 2020, since then the marble dust and rockwool has made room for a living space and a space of radical autonomous* and self-organized political organisation. Diverse ideas carrying a discourse against market logic, against capitalism and all oppression , on the search of a rupture with the state and all existing cross and meet in this space. Some of the bigger lines around which people around Marbré organize are housing, anti-gentrification, social struggles, prison, specism, feminism and borders. The place is organised through an open general assembly and happy to welcome new people and groups.

Some words on the situation
We met a first eviction in february 2021, but successfully reopened the building the next day which gave us a lot of strength. Since september 2021 we are facing a new threat following our eviction process. The ruling received in june 2021 admitted us cumulative delays of 3 month + a 2 months grace period + the winter eviction break(1.11-1.4.). But the bailiff seems deaf on that ear: he signed a request to leave the space by september 23. [Read More]

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Paris: Call for a rally in front of the 20th district police station after the eviction of a squat

By: fawda - September 16th, 2021  Filed under: News

A building located at 124 rue de Belleville, belonging to the city hall of the 20th district and empty for several years, was squatted to make it an anarcha-feminist space as well as a living space for about ten people. The place was evicted this Wednesday and 8 people are in custody.

For a long time, everything has been done so that the district of Belleville and its surroundings are reserved for the rich. Rents are constantly rising, cheap fast food is replaced by trendy bars and restaurants with ever more expensive drinks, migrant workers’ hostels have been transformed into controlled social residences, the authorities are sending more and more cops into the streets to wage war on the poor, etc. [Read More]

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Lucerne: Free Spaces Now! Demo 17 september

By: fawda - September 15th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Even after a summer, the now empty house on Murmattweg sits heavy in our stomachs. We continue to be angry and sad about the tough structures in Lucerne that keep getting in the way of the implementation of self-determined projects and ideas. We stand in solidarity with projects in Lucerne that continue to withstand this pressure, forming important free spaces.

But we don’t want to just quietly accept that more projects will be lost and that the conservative and inflexible attitude of the city government will simply go unanswered. We need places where conventions and hierarchies can be broken. That’s why on September 17 we’re taking to the streets together and loudly, demanding space for education, networking and emancipation.

For more free, self-determined and solidary spaces in Lucerne! [Read More]

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Amsterdam: squat action attempt on Gravenstraat and police brutality

By: fawda - September 14th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Today 12 september there was an attempt to squat Gravenstraat 26-28 on the day of the Housing Protest. Thousands of people took the streets to demonstrate against the so-called housing crisis – the shortage and exploitation in the housing market, the lack of affordable housing and the disproportionate increase in rents.

The police used excessive force to beat us away from the place that was to become our new home. From the moment we arrived at the demonstration, certain activists were excessively watched by the police and even arrested for wearing an anti-Nazi symbol. From the beginning, the police were out to repress and arrest activists. Police brutality escalated as soon as we arrived at Dam Square. We were beaten up, dragged out of the crowd by silent cops, and some of us were even beaten to the ground and walked over by cops until we were bloody. The police deliberately chose to escalate and we even heard them say that they deliberately “went full on”. [Read More]

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Montreuil: Le Marbré under threat from September 23 to October 5, let’s get ready!

By: fawda - September 7th, 2021  Filed under: News

From September 23, Le Marbré will be under eviction threat by the cops, at least until October 5. Many public events will be proposed in the space on this occasion, to make known its activities and to prepare to resist collectively to the eviction.

Le Marbré, a squatted building in Montreuil for a year, is a space for meetings and self-organization, which hosts daily moments of struggle against all forms of domination.

From September 23, 2021 he will risk eviction by the cops, at least until October 5, when a hearing is scheduled before the enforcement judge (JEX) who could decide to give a delay until the winter truce that was granted in the initial judgment. This would ensure that it would continue until April 1, 2022.

During these 12 days of uncertainty we do not want to be left waiting. Many public events will be proposed in the place on this occasion, to make known its activities and to prepare to resist collectively to the eviction. [Read More]

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Berlin: Manifestation against the eviction process of Køpi Wagenplatz

By: fawda - June 2nd, 2021  Filed under: News

A home doesn’t always need four brick walls, and spaces sometimes come on wheels.

Køpi wagenplatz is synonymous with a way of life that attempts to exist autonomously and self determinedly, offering a clear and visible answer to a dominant culture of property as status that shuts its front door on community, neighbourhood and solidarity.

On the 10th of June the trial against this structure will take place. The “legal” existence of this self-organized project, as various other houses in Berlin, is being decided from people who have only one priority: to serve the interest of the capital, the landlords, the real estate companies. Our position is to make clear that not only we’ll defend every threatened project but we stand for the self determination of our existence and our life. We do not recognize their institutions but we want to be present to every decision that is taken for us, without us. [Read More]

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Berlin: Analysis, Tips and Tactics – Don’t wait until it’s too late

By: fawda - May 8th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Køpi and Rigaer94 are calling for the “Don’t wait until it’s too late” Demo, may 15th on Gendarmenmarkt.

It should be a strong and dynamic demo, not waiting for the next eviction date. There have been many evaluations and analysis of our demos in the last years, enough so to succeed a few times in breaking out of our usual behaviour and winning back some potential for action. We’re hoping for our demos to be good for more than just being seen and heard, or blocking something. It’s about creating collective moments, moments where we can find together in the street, moments of breaking with normality, getting over mass inertia and snapping the social reigns. Moments were we can recognize and experience our collective strength. Not as an event but with the goal of creating an instant which connects us with other points in a timeline of radical praxis and building on them. Moments from which a dynamic can grow, where it’s possible to join spontaneously, where people can dare to try new things and gain experience. In order not to turn this quest into our own impasse it’s necessary to always rethink and adjust our approach and break out of habits and routines. As a base we gathered some analysis and suggestions here. [Read More]

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Berlin: Køpi Weekend of Protest

By: fawda - May 2nd, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Køpi calls for friends and allies from around the world to meet in Berlin on the 15th and 16th of May for a weekend of protest. As Køpiplatz (trailer park) faces the most serious eviction threat to date, Køpi stands united to fight for our homes and families. Køpi has been a DIY project in the heart of Berlin offering living space for people in the house and trailer park for more than 30 years. It also continues to be a home for collectives, events, and creative energy since the day the first door was broken open. We will not give up our way of life for some state backed developers! When the law wants to take our homes away, it’s time to break the law!
The alleged owner of Køpi, Startezia GmbH, is just another example of how our homes and autonomous communities are destroyed by anonymous postbox companies that care only about profit and not about people. Køpiplatz does not face the threat of eviction alone. Other Berlin projects, Potse, Rigaer 94, and Queer Wagenplatz Mollies are also in immediate danger. In the last year alone, crucial left-wing places like Liebig 34, Syndikat, Meuterei, Diesel A, Sabot Garden and G17a have already been evicted. [Read More]

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