Thessaloniki: Terra Incognita evicted

This morning (17 August), around 5 am, the uniformed scum of the greek police invaded Terra Incognita in Thessaloniki, which is a building that has been occupied since 2004 and constitutes a landmark of struggle and the anarchist movement in the city.

The cops proceeded to evacuate the building, while technical and material equipment was confiscated and a large part of the resources within the building have been withheld.

More specifically, equipment from the following anarchist infrastructures housed within the squat, was confiscated: the medical -first aid infrastructure, the gym, the library and the printing infrastructure, as well as a large archive of posters and other printed material that date decades. [Read More]

Calais: associations refer cases to the Human Rights Defender and UN rapporteurs on the situation of migrants

Today took place in Calais the 693rd eviction from an informal living space since 1 January 2020. As of 13 August 2020, the fundamental rights of the exiled people surviving in Calais are still not respected (Human Rights Observers).

Thirteen associations working with migrants in Calais announced on Friday that they had contacted the Human Rights Defender, as well as seven United Nations special rapporteurs on human rights, to “alert them to the inhuman living conditions” of refugees.

In Calais, the evictions of camps are continuing and police repression of migrants has increased since the arrival of Gérald Darmanin at the Ministry of the Interior, according to human rights groups present in the area.

In an attempt to make their voices heard, thirteen of them – including the Auberge des Migrants, Médecins du Monde and Secours Catholique – seized on Friday 14 August the Human Rights Defender Claire Hédon, whose mandate has just begun, as well as seven United Nations special rapporteurs on human rights. [Read More]

Montpellier: Families evicted, buildings occupied!

On July 10 2020, in front of associations, collectives, squatters and unions, while the préfet was reassuring about the squats situation during the summer, and was only talking about the “problematic” situation of the former Institut Bouisson Bertrand, he was actually preparing evictions for the 23rd. Evictions that affected two buildings in the city centre, putting around 50 vulnerable people and families on the street, and others in detention in CRA. The generous solution provided: 3 nights in a hotel and a return to the violence of the tent in the street.

Knowing the CV of the current préfet of the Hérault, Jacques Witkowski, we had not believed in his promise of the 10th, and therefore decided to squat this building owned by the council which had remained empty and walled up for too long, since 15 July, in order to rehouse the people that Jacques put outside during the heat wave, and during the biggest health crisis we have experienced since the beginning of the century, thus directly endangering the people concerned and the population of Montpellier. [Read More]

Berlin: Syndikat evicted, Day X demonstration

So sorry for our abrupt exit earlier. But the eviction, as foreseeable as it might have been, has taken us all mega hard at the moment of the execution. Hopefully some of you are at Herrfurthplatz right now, for the neighbourhood demonstration after our eviction.

Regardless of that, today is Day X, which means that the angry Sponti of the Interkiezionale will take place at 9pm at Richardplatz. We will evaluate the last few days and get back to you as soon as we have coped with the efforts of the last time.

But tomorrow we will publish all information about our anti-repression structure, because unfortunately the escalation strategy of the cops has led to many arrests and charges. But we deal with it the same way we deal with our fight: together, in solidarity & we don’t leave anybody alone! Independent of us, EA and Gesa support will continue to work until everyone is out. Deep thanks from us to all who do this.

We just want to say thank you after these incredibly intense days & weeks! Thanks to all of you who have supported us in so many ways until this day and made sure that we could experience this day at all. Thanks to all the encouragement, the time, the nerves, the know-how, the capacities and our own integrity. [Read More]

Paris: eviction of the young migrants camp set up in Jules Ferry Square

The camp, which housed more than 70 young people considered by several associations as foreign minors, in the Jules Ferry square in the centre of Paris, was evicted Tuesday morning. The young people were directed to a gymnasium and hotels.

After more than a month camping in the Square Jules Ferry in central Paris, some 70 young migrants who claim to be minors were evicted on Tuesday 4 August.
The eviction, which was carried out peacefully, ended at around 8:30 a.m. With masks on their faces, the young people were accompanied on buses by agents of the Ile-de-France prefecture and the Paris City Hall, under the watchful eye of a few police officers standing back. An eviction order had been posted by the police on Sunday evening in the camp.
Forty-eight young people were taken to the Japy gymnasium in the 11th arrondissement. Thirty others, more vulnerable due to medical conditions – including seven young girls – were housed in social hotels.
Evaluated as adults by several departments, the young men present in the camp are currently awaiting their appeal against this evaluation. In the meantime, no accommodation arrangements are planned for them. [Read More]

Paris: Eviction from the Saint-Denis Canal migrant camp

Nearly 1,500 migrants were “sheltered” on Wednesday when they were expelled from the Aubervilliers camp north of Paris. The associations fear the reformation of a camp within a few weeks. They denounce the repeated dismantling without any real solution.

The migrant camp located along the Saint-Denis canal in Aubervilliers, in the north of Paris, was evicted on Wednesday 29 July. As early as 6am, a large police presence squared the area, where nearly 1,500 people were settled.

“This operation is the logical continuation of all the operations we have been carrying out for several months,” Paris police prefect Didier Lallement, who was present at the scene, told reporters. “I wanted to evacuate the camps on the outskirts of Paris and make sure that migrants do not gather in the camps for the entire Paris police force and the three neighbouring departments” he added. [Read More]

Paris: At the Saint-Denis canal camp, migrants are “left to die”

This Wednesday, July 29th, the camp of the Saint-Denis canal in Aubervilliers should be dismantled by the authorities announced associations helping migrants. The camp welcomes more than 1200 people in extremely precarious conditions. An eviction which is nothing new, the “sheltering” or “evacuations”, in the words of the authorities, is repeated tirelessly in France. A problem that the authorities refuse to tackle.

Between Aubervilliers and Saint Denis, along the canal, Brahim comes out of his tent crushed by the sun. He explains that he has been there for 3 months, with his wife and his newborn baby. Like the others, he lines up in spite of the heat to get antibacterial hand gel, masks, T-shirts and a bit of shampoo. An aid distributed by the association Utopia 56, Brahim, desperate, searches the five boxes of old clothes lying on the quayside: “this place is not possible for my child” he explains, “it’s just not possible. Is this Europe? France is like Africa?! My life is shattered. “The rule: one health kit, one T-shirt, one pair of pants per person, no more. Everyone has to be able to help themselves. In the end, nearly 150 people take advantage of the distribution, but soon the stocks leave. There are only too big pants left. [Read More]

Athens: Solidarity action for Dervenion 56. An international call for solidarity

On friday 26 june, in Exarchia, the Greek state evicted and sealed Dervenion 56 and the building at Dervenion 52. An immediate gathering of solidarity was held on Exarcheia square for several hours. In the evening of the same day, a solidarity march was held with the participation of 300 people. The march ended at the Dervenion squat, barricades were set up around the perimeter and then comrades broke the concrete blocks of shame. Police never came and after some hours the protesters left. Riot cops made again an operation the next morning, building again a concrete wall in front of the squat’s door. According to information, in the following days, various solidarity actions followed, a demonstration took place on the main shopping street of Athens, Ermou, where slogans were shouted, and apparently some people attacked multinational clothing companies in Ermou in the occupied -by the police-, center of Athens. Even the rich yuppie nephew of the Prime Minister, the mayor of Athens, Costas Bakogiannis, could not escape the anger caused by the evictions. The pioneer of violent gentrification and his bodyguards were attacked with coffees and other items by dozens of people at a local religious festival. In the following days a march was held again at Exarcheia where comrades demolished the walls of the sealed migrants’ squats at Themistokleous 58 and Spirou Trikoupi 15. All these days, texts of solidarity were written and banners were put in various locations in Greece. [Read More]

Madrid: The High Court of Justice rules that the eviction of La Ingobernable was illegal

The Madrid High Court of Justice (TSJM) ruled on two appeals filed by La Ingobernable in June and November 2019, confirming that the Madrid City Council did not have the legitimacy to carry out the eviction but claiming that “the damages are not irreparable”.

Bitter victory for Madrid’s neighbours. Justice agrees with La Ingobernable and shows how partisan interests are above legality and the common good. The TSJM ruled in favour of the Social Centre La Ingobernable, arguing that “the Madrid City Council lacks legitimacy” over the eviction that took place on 13 November 2019 in Calle Gobernador 39.

La Ingobernable denounced that “the City Council did not have the legitimacy to initiate and process the eviction process because there was a current assignment to the Ambasz Foundation and in any case they should have initiated the procedure through criminal law” explains Naomi Abad, lawyer from Red Jurídica who filed the appeal with the TSJM in June 2019. “The administration was perfectly aware that they did not have the legitimacy to do so and yet they ordered the eviction procedure. [Read More]

Caen: eviction of the squat of the former Guy Liar College in Mondeville

On Wednesday 24th June, from 6am, the Calvados prefecture evicted a squat in Mondeville, the former Guy Liard college on rue Albert Bayet at the request of the owner, the departmental council and with the agreement of the town hall of Mondeville. Four families were housed in four former staff housing units, two other families and single people had been living in a former administrative building since January 4th. A total of about 40 people, including about 15 children, were evicted this morning. The Prefecture communicated as early as 6.15 am on social networks, proposing a solution of one week’s re-housing in a hotel after studying the individual situations, and it “will invite foreign nationals in an irregular situation to leave the national territory”! This means that families will either be placed under house arrest at the hotel (daily judicial control at the police station, obligation to be present at the hotel from 6pm to 9pm…), or deported to the CRA (Administrative Detention Centre) in Oissel near Rouen (the one in Rennes is closed and will reopen on 30 June) awaiting a hypothetical deportation.

As part of the state of health emergency, the winter truce has been extended until July 10th. This measure applies to all the squats under the jurisdiction of the Tribunal d’Instance (ten out of twelve squats currently). This squat was evictable since February 21st by decision of the Administrative Court, therefore it could not benefit from the winter truce from a legal point of view. Nevertheless, given the current circumstances, it is perfectly scandalous to throw dozens of people out on the street after a week of rehousing in a hotel or to consider their eviction in some cases. [Read More]

Bristol: Glenfrome Road eviction resistance report

This is a report from participants in the successful eviction resistance in Bristol on 13th June.

Soon after 6 in the morning around 30 bailiffs from GRC turned up at a site in St Werburgh’s with a JCB to do the dirty work of making people homeless. The people squatting the land and over 100 friends and supporters had other ideas. Here’s how it went.

Now as we all know, all bailiffs are total scum, but GRC bailiffs have a reputation for being the worst of the worst. They have repeatedly shown how they enjoy hurting people and mixing work with pleasure. There are undoubtedly far right thugs in their ranks, enthusiastically honouring the age old tradition of fascists doing the dirty work for the bosses and landlords.

On the other side stood people who had found their housing solution, living in vans and trucks on a large piece of disused land which had been empty for a decade or so. Travellers and van dwellers need safe sites and self organised housing makes even more sense during a pandemic. You’d think the same would be true of not evicting people during a dangerous virus outbreak, but when has what’s right ever mattered for the rule of property and the law that protects it? [Read More]

Lausanne: Occupation of a building to accommodate homeless people

On Friday May 29th at the end of the day, during the Critical Mass, we occupied the Place Bel-Air 4 building in downtown Lausanne with the aim of creating a place of welcome for people in need of housing, but also a place of solidarity, convergence of struggles, culture and sharing. The Municipality gave the order to evict and the building was emptied a few hours later by the police, but this event will be remembered and reminds us that autonomous, supportive and resistant places are more than ever necessary.

With the end of the lock down, Lausanne has reduced the number of housing units for the homeless. Friday’s occupation was made in response to the Sleep-In Association’s Appeal 212, which asked to do everything possible to ensure that the 212 beds that were provided during the coronavirus period would be maintained all year round, thus meeting the real needs of homeless people in the Lausanne region. The covid-19 pandemic has shown that many emergency measures can be put in place quickly and that immense financial resources can be found to support the economy and save multinationals. Why don’t we see a similar mobilization for climate emergency and social justice? [Read More]