Calais: the tension does not fall back

By: fawda - September 28th, 2020  Filed under: News

On Saturday, September 26, 2020, more than 400 people walk in the rain for freedom and human dignity.

Calaisians, activists, volunteers and migrants found themselves in the pouring rain and set off in a demonstration from the camp next to the hospital in Calais. In spite of the wind and rain, the migrants join the parade by dancing to the sound of drums, leading the march and parading with joy and determination in the rain.

At the arrival at the Place de Norvège, a few words from supporters and migrants alternate with music and hip-hop improvisation in all languages. In spite of the cold, it is a moment of euphoria and unity between people who don’t have the opportunity to mix in the city otherwise.
At the microphone, migrants testify to their fatigue and exasperation in the face of daily harassment by the police who evict, destroy tents and confiscate their materials, calling for them to be treated as human beings and not as animals. [Read More]

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Montpellier: the police evict a squat in rue Triolet, eight families with young children find themselves without solution

By: fawda - September 25th, 2020  Filed under: News

On the morning of Friday, September 25th, the police evicted a squat in Montpellier, leaving about thirty people without a solution, half of them children.

Eight families, including some with young children, lived in this squat on rue Triolet, which was opened under tension a year ago, in particular to accommodate migrants. No arrests were made. Private security will remain night and day for two weeks in front of the building, and should allow the evicted people to recover their belongings – although it is still necessary to know where to put them. The network of solidarity has allowed the families to find a place to stay for a few days, but nothing stable. Some children who left this morning for school will bitterly discover this afternoon that they no longer have a home. A construction company is on site to seal the entrances, the toilets have already been broken.

This eviction is part of an offensive against squats. At the end of August, the media repeated over and over again the story of a couple from Lyon, distraught by the occupation of their second home by a family. One commentator after another expressed indignation at the plight of the owners and protested against allegedly lax legislation. On September 16th 2020, the deputies voted an amendment allowing the rapid eviction of squats, left to the decision of the prefect, without a court decision, even after forty-eight hours of occupation. A call for mobilization is circulating to recall the obvious: squatting in an abandoned building for housing and escaping the hell of the street is absolutely legitimate. [Read More]

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Saint-Étienne: imminent eviction of the squat of the post office of Solaure

By: fawda - September 25th, 2020  Filed under: News

On Tuesday September 22nd, a new judgment was handed down at the Administrative Court of Lyon. Even if there are few evidence, the City of Saint-Etienne is claiming a housing project with a ground-floor business carried by Inovy, a project carrying company. The court handed down its decision on Thursday September 24 with the order to leave the premises and the possibility of immediate eviction by the police. The residents are, as of today, in permanent risk of being thrown out onto the street without accommodation.

About forty people are currently living in the squat of the former post office, including school children, people in poor health and people undergoing training. A majority are in the process of applying for asylum. The mayor of Saint-Etienne and his team, in response to questions put to the municipal council on 21/09/2020 , have again and again abdicated their responsibilities on the back of the State and have taken it upon themselves to throw the inhabitants of the former post office out onto the streets. [Read More]

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Calais: the ban on distributing food to migrants is maintained. Mobilization on September 26th

By: fawda - September 23rd, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

For the judge of the administrative court of Lille, 4 kms on foot to eat, that’s fine.

In an order dated September 22, the judge of the administrative court of Lille rejected the request made by 12 local and national associations to cancel the order of September 10, by which the prefect of Pas-de-Calais prohibited any free distribution of drinks and food in certain places in the city center of the municipality of Calais.

The judge stated that the distributions put in place by the State were allegedly sufficient to cover the needs of all exiled people present in Calais, including those sleeping in the city center, considering that “the circumstance that in order to access them, migrants settled in the city center since early August must travel three kilometers is not such as to characterize undignified living conditions”.

This assessment is particularly questionable. Indeed, the humanitarian indicators developed either by the UNHCR or within the framework of the SPHERE project, specify, for example, concerning drinking water, that it must be accessible at less than 500m from where people live – the distances in question being in this case between 4 and 5km, which represents an hour’s walk one way, and that it is necessary to go to two distributions per day. [Read More]

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France: an anti-squat amendment threatens untitled occupiers

By: fawda - September 22nd, 2020  Filed under: News

Update of September 17: The anti-squat amendment supported by the Government (Ministry of Housing) generalizing the administrative eviction (by decision of the prefect and without trial) of untitled occupants was adopted in the law committees of the National Assembly on Wednesday, September 16. This proposal is excessively dangerous, and the time frame is short, since the law in which the amendment will be inserted will be discussed in the National Assembly the week of September 28.

An amendment discussed this afternoon in committee extends the expulsion without trial.
To all untitled occupants!

The proposed amendment No. 695 of the ASAP bill, inserted after article 30 bis, of the rapporteur Mr. Guillaume Kasbarian, deputy LREM and supported by the Government, extends the administrative eviction (forced eviction by decision of the prefect and without judgment), within a few days and retroactively to all untitled occupants of housing, offices, premises and vacant land. [Read More]

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Paris: Call for support for a new squat in Montreuil

By: fawda - September 15th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

A new squatted space, Le Marbré opens in Montreuil at 1 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau and is already threatened with eviction. The so-called owner passed by this morning together with the cops and he wants the eviction to be carried out as soon as possible. “If we evict them fast enough they won’t have time to bring back reinforcements.”

In these buildings that have been abandoned for 4 years, in addition to spaces that are inhabited, we will set up spaces for political organization for autonomous collectives that are not linked to parties, unions or associations that already have so much space to act. We want this place to be used for meetings and assemblies, workshops, spaces for sharing and free of charge (solidarity canteens and grocery stores, infoshop, library…). The idea is that any individual, informal group, or collective that fights against the State, capitalism, patriarchy, racism, psychophobia and the different forms of oppression could invest this space.

Our presence is also part of a desire to fight against the gentrification of the neighborhood. The so-called landlord practices real estate speculation and has plans to build housing that will benefit his wallet and encourage gentrification. [Read More]

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Vitry-sur-Seine: Presentation of La Kunda, new autonomous social center

By: fawda - September 12th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

Since February 2020, we are about fifty people – precarious, undocumented, students – to occupy a plot of land with three buildings in Vitry-sur-Seine. This place, empty for less than a year, owned by the Val-de-Marne, was a home and the headquarters of a company of land shareholders in the department. We chose to call it La Kunda (the community in Soninké).
Why squatting it? The squatter responds first of all to the need, for some of us, to have decent housing and for others, quite simply, to have a home. We refuse precarious work in order to pay a rent that is too expensive, just as we refuse the blackmail of the real estate market and social institutions.
Some of us are undocumented, and follow long procedures that leave them on the street, without housing and without the possibility of working. Without the squat, it is the street, and everyone knows the difficulties of the street. Thanks to these places, some of us can go to school, move forward and have a place to live. [Read More]

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Calais: a decree forbids associations to distribute food to migrants, humanitarians rise up

By: fawda - September 11th, 2020  Filed under: News

An order published Thursday by the prefect of Pas-de-Calais forbids associations not mandated by the State to distribute food to migrants living in Calais. L’Auberge des migrants and Utopia 56 insist on such a measure which they consider “shameful and scandalous”.

A new tug-of-war between migrant aid associations and the authorities in Calais, northern France. In a decree published on Thursday, September 10, the prefect of the Pas-de-Calais, Louis le Franc, announced a ban on “any free distribution of drinks and food [in about twenty streets, quays, squares in the city center] to put an end to public disorder and limit the health risks associated with undeclared gatherings.

“Non-compliance with distancing measures”

Insofar as the State has mandated an association, la Vie active, to provide “four daily distributions of meals”, that it makes available to migrants 38 water taps 5 days a week, including “22 accessible 7 days a week” and that water is distributed during meals, the prefecture considers that “the set of services provided makes it possible to provide migrants with sufficient humanitarian services with regard to the needs of this population, particularly food”. [Read More]

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France: ZAD du Carnet

By: sisulscz - September 11th, 2020  Filed under: News

In just one week, the ZAD du Carnet has become a place of resistance, solidarity and welcome for all those who wish to join it. A welcome area raises awareness about the project for locals, cyclists and walkers. Every day we set up common living spaces thanks to donations of equipment and recycling and a free-shop offers second-hand clothing or other items. Self-built structures protect people from the rain and wind. A bicycle repair workshop allows bicycles to be repaired in order to be able to move around the site. The barricades still prevent construction machinery from passing, material and physical resistance necessary to prevent the continuation of the devastating works.
The ZAD obviously does not prevent walkers and residents from accessing the Carnet natural area, it only protects it from roadworks. We are a free zone where sexist, racist, homophobic and ableist oppressions (among others) are proscribed, feel free to join it.

IMPORTANT INFO

Come to join: http://zadducarnet.org/index.php/venir-nous-rejoindre/
Supporting the struggle: http://zadducarnet.org/index.php/soutenir-la-lutte/
Facebook: ZAD du Carnet
Twitter: @ZAD_du_Carnet
Mail: zadducarnet [at] riseup [dot] net
Receive the newsletter by email: https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/info-zadcarnet
Receive urgent info by message: send ′′ hello ′′ to the number from Signal:+ 1 25 12 92 15 23
Reoccupation:In case of eviction in the next few weeks, we are already calling for a massive protest to reoccupy the site on the third Sunday following.

Via https://fr.squat.net/2020/09/08/frossay-44-bienvenue-a-la-zad-du-carnet/

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Montpellier: Squat des Archives, towards an evacuation and a legal transition?

By: fawda - September 11th, 2020  Filed under: News

The Luttopia collective, who is coordinating the squat of the former departmental archives, met today with the Prefecture’s chief of staff, Mr. Smith, in the presence of representatives of the municipality, the Departmental Directorate of Social Cohesion (DDCS), the Communal Center for Social Action (CCAS) and the French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII), to discuss the future of the building, which is subject to a judicial decision of eviction.

A change in the Prefecture’s discourse?

During this meeting, it would seem that the Prefecture has relatively changed its discourse regarding the eviction of the Squat des Archives, which Prefect Jacques Witkowski had announced last February. A certain awareness of the catastrophic situation of housing and social support in the department has obviously made it possible to envisage a common solution for the future of Luttopia 003, with a view to re-housing its occupants in a truly sustainable manner. [Read More]

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Lyon: Break-ins and ID checks… the disgusting methods of Grand Lyon Habitat

By: fawda - September 8th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

One morning at 7am, Grand Lyon Habitat broke down doors in a squat to register its inhabitants. Unacceptable practices of intimidation. Since a few months, Collomb is no longer mayor of Lyon. He has been thrown out by the green party allied with the “left”, represented by Grégory Doucet at the city hall and Bruno Bernard at the Metropolis. The latter had said that he would soon assert his positions on the subject of housing, when he was questioned on the night of his election by the “Trêve Générale” (general truce) movement.

On Monday, August 17, at 7 a.m., bailiffs came to break down the front door of the squat Le Maria, waking up the inhabitants by forcing their way into each room of the building, breaking the locks of the absent persons and searching through their belongings to find their identities. When we asked them what right they had to do this, the officials answered that they had a warrant, but they never wanted to show it to us, even later when we asked the bailiff for it by e-mail. The bailiffs were not willing to do anything other than put holes in the locks despite our proposals to give them names, either immediately or later by e-mail. Inhabitants and friends therefore had to react by protesting collectively, which eventually pushed them to leave. [Read More]

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Caen: as long as there are people on the street, we’ll squat!

By: fawda - September 4th, 2020  Filed under: News

Demonstration Saturday, September 5, 2 pm.

Since last June 24th, the Calvados prefecture has evicted nine squats in the Caen agglomeration in which about 360 people lived, the majority of which were families with children. The squats on rue Bayet in Mondeville and rue La Varende in Hérouville-Saint-Clair were evicted during the extended winter truce on July 10 with a state of health emergency. Seven other squats have since been evicted: allée du Bosphore in Caen, route de Caen à Ifs, rue Pasteur in Mondeville, rue Desmoueux, Boulevard Guillou, rue Damozanne and rue de la Grace de dieu in Caen.

The Prefecture’s intention is to place a maximum number of people in CRA (Administrative Detention Center) or to assign them to residence, thus putting them under the permanent threat of expulsion from French territory. The policy of repression put in place by the state is intensifying, two Georgians were recently expelled following a squat eviction.

Currently, around 200 people do not have a permanent accommodation solution, some of them benefit from temporary solidarity, others live in tents or in their cars in undignified conditions. [Read More]

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