Germany: Berliners defy massive siege by police defending Rigaer 94 and autonomous revolution from market gentrification

By: freedom - July 12th, 2016  Filed under: News

rigaer-9418Rigaer 94 occupied center in Berlin symbolizes the struggle for a practical alternative to rampant insane predator capitalism. Police complained that more than 120 officers were injured on Saturday (one had a bruise on his arm) and some 86 demonstrators were violently arrested during popular defence in the German capital which mercenary police complained was ‘the most aggressive and violent resistance in the last five years’.

see also: Berlin: Rigaer 94 Action Day

Berlin state propaganda officials said in a statement Sunday that evil leftist protesters threw bottles, cobble stones and fireworks at the, attacking officers in full protective riot gear and hurt them with fists and kicks.

They declined to say how many brave demonstrators were hurt by the 1000’s of ‘overzealous’ fully armed hysterical police on overtime double-pay. The day’s headlines went planetwide on commercial media ..”Anarchist terrorists hurt over 120 nice innocent Policemen’‘. [Read More]

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Ljubljana: Interview on the defense of the Rog factory squat

By: fawda - June 17th, 2016  Filed under: Audio, News

In cooperation with Crna Luknja, the anarchist radio show on Radio Student in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, we produced the following interview on the ongoing struggle against the attempted eviction of Rog, a former bicycle factory and an active squat for 10 years now. The interview focuses on the resistance against the attempts of eviction by the city as well as Nazi attacks and also on the political framework right now in Slovenia.

[Read More]

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Balade in Saint-Henri loots expensive grocery store

By: pinkxedge - June 8th, 2016  Filed under: Communique

From Montreal Counter-Info

A balade for de-gentrification took to the streets of Saint-Henri on the evening of May 28, 2016. About 30 people, all in black bloc, strolled down rue Notre-Dame and looted the yuppie boutique grocery store “Le 3734”. As most of the crowd held down the street outside the store, a few people went inside and filled duffel bags with fresh and dry sausages, cheese, maple syrup, and other items. Meanwhile, the storefront was redecorated with graffiti reading ‘Fuck Empire’ and wheatpasted posters that communicated some of the intentions behind the action. After throwing smoke bombs ahead of and behind the crowd on Notre-Dame, people dispersed via the train tracks before police could arrive, and no arrests have been made. In the days that followed, we re-distributed the food to people in the neighborhood who wouldn’t regularly have had access to it. The poster left behind read as follows:

With the arrival of the condos in Saint-Henri, a multitude of expensive businesses, hipster restaurants, and bourgeois grocery stores followed. Nevertheless, despite this affluence of food, the neighborhood remains practically a food desert for people with little money. Such a paradox it is to live in a world that produces so much food, but that isn’t accessible for those who are hungry!

May 28th, we tried to recalibrate things a bit, to the extent of our means. We put on masks to protect our identity, we entered one of these extravagant businesses, we took everything we could and we left to redistribute the goods joyously in the neighborhood. Inspired by the recent actions against the police in different neighborhoods and knowing that they were going to show up to protect the property owners, we brought what we needed to protect ourselves.

Everyone deserves to eat well and there is enough food for everyone! It is with great pleasure that we organized this pillaging, which is a slap in the face to the forces that impoverish and starve us. We invite everyone to do the same!

Long live de-gentrication!

Tonight is the great banquet, we celebrate complicity and abundance!

 

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Utrecht: Eight apartment flats squatted on Kanaleneiland

By: fawda - April 16th, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News

20160416_Utrecht_Eight_apartment_flats_squatted_on_KanaleneilandLast week, eight apartment flats were squatted in Kanaleneiland. The flatslocated at Monnetlaan (within the so-called “Eiland 8” block) are the property of the city of Utrecht, and are managed by housing corporations Mitros and Portaal who want to transform the flats into free housing sector apartments for rent and for sale.
The squatters disagree with the way former renters have been treated, and are against the gentrification of the city.
Before, there were 224 social renting apartments in this blok, which the former renters had to leave in due to demolition, as a result of the long-term neglect of the homes. These plans are part of a big-scale gentrification that is taking place in Utrecht (and the rest of the Netherlands).
Based on the “leegstandswet” (“vacancy law”). The temporary renters put into the appartments, were promised, in writing, to be allowed to stay until demolition. This is how project Eiland 8 came into being, realized by Wolf huisvestingsgroep and Sophies Kunstprojecten.
Eventually, there didn’t seem to be sufficient money from the city of Utrecht to be able to build the new constructions so, the project was then sold to the Swiss-Quatarese asset management company Aventicum, that hired construction company Heijmans to have the places refurbished thoroughly. [Read More]

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Melbourne: Audio reports from the Bendigo Street

By: fawda - April 4th, 2016  Filed under: Audio, Interviews, News

201604_Homeless_Persons_Union_of_Victoria_Collingwood_Occupation_Melbourne_2Today we talked about the current squatting action on Bendigo Street in Collingwood where the Homeless Persons Union of Victoria (HPUVIC) and supporters are occupying empty houses owned by the state government, and briefly discussed the squatting history of Melbourne.

Listen to the Girls Radio Offensive show from April 4th 2016: https://www.mixcloud.com/girlsradiooffensive/4-april-2016/ [Read More]

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Saving Midtown: San Francisco Renters on Strike

By: fawda - February 24th, 2016  Filed under: video

This is the story of the Midtown rent strike, the largest rent strike in San Francisco since 1978.
by Global Uprisings http://www.globaluprisings.org/midtown/

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Berlin: Stop gentrification ! Autonomes ”will do 1M€ damage per crazy police raid”

By: freedom - February 11th, 2016  Filed under: Communique

201602_BerlinActivists in Berlin warned on Sunday that they would exact €1m in revenge for any more mass police raids on their squats and other ‘projects’ in the capital, after luxury cars were burned at the weekend.

“With the burning up of excessive luxury cars, the destruction of a surveillance camera and the smashing in of display windows, we refer to the call of autonomous groups on January 21st to cause €1 million of damage for any attack on projects in Berlin,” the unknown authors wrote on indymedia.

Yuppies Out

On Friday and Saturday nights, dozens of cars were destroyed ar damaged in the capital by hooded attackers, none of whom were arrested.

The claim of responsibility posted online on Sunday seemed to confirm city interior senator Frank Henkel’s belief that “left-wing slobs” were behind the attacks, with the authors saying they would cause €1m of property damage for attacks on left-wing ‘projects’ in Berlin. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Kolenkit is not for sale!

By: fawda - February 5th, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News

20160205_BPW_Kolenkit_niet_te_koop_The Kolenkitbuurt’s struggle is part of a broader struggle which is the claim for right to the city for people. Since the Kolenkit’s neighborhood was decided to be turned into transformations with renew urban projects, such as the Koelkit project, we decided to organize the struggle hand in hand with inhabitants.

Indeed, Rochdale has the plan to renovate and sell 4 buildings in which people with 5 different types of temporary contracts are currently living. This Koel Kit project will force these temporary tenants to leave, and replaced by others, given that the 154 housing accomodations are gonna be more expensive, sold and privatised.
Therefore we went to Rochdale on the 4th of January in order to claim our requests:
1. Stop sell out of these rental houses
2. Make temporary homes indefinite homes
3. No evictions without replacement housing [Read More]

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London: Eviction Resistance Success at the Hope and Anchor Pub

By: fawda - January 28th, 2016  Filed under: News

20160128_London_Eviction_Resistance_Success_at_the_Hope_and_Anchor_Pub‘I’m going to call Billy Bragg.’ Despite the promise of one local supporter, the singing socialist did not show at the successful eviction resistance at the Hope and Anchor pub in Mornington Crescent two days ago – but many did. A small mob turned out to resist an eviction by county court bailiffs of squat crew Squatters and Homeless Autonomy, who had occupied the building just before its planned regeneration.

The building, owned by multi-millionaire Oliver Bengough, was initially intended for a mixture of upmarket flats and commercial space. But many in the area believe it will end as extension to Koko – the pricey “independent” music venue next door. This example of gentrification is among many others in Camden. Pubs that served the former working-class population are closed as their customers are priced-out, bought-up or evicted. [Read More]

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Riga: “The Capital of Empty Spaces”. Dealing with the Shrinking of the Great Baltic City

By: fawda - January 20th, 2016  Filed under: essay

It’s a dead-eyed building the colour of a paving slab, set back from the street outside at the end of a pockmarked driveway. Looming behind the roof like a figment of a bad dream is a colossal edifice, copper-coloured, precision-cut and cartoonish, a child’s conception of a skyscraper, chiselled out of the twilight sky. This is Riga, capital of Latvia, and here, we’re on the other side of the tracks – literally: the railway lines leading into the city centre cordon off the Old Town from Maskavas Forštate (the Moscow Suburb), usually referred to as Maskačka, the sprawling, chaotic and large ethnic Russian district associated locally with crime and unemployment. The hulking skyscraper beyond is Riga’s most visually inescapable legacy of the fifty-year Soviet occupation – constructed in 1956 in the Stalinist classical model, a scaled-down colonial cousin of similar edifices in Moscow and Warsaw.

But today, though the building may look like the same drab grounded rectangle as ever, internally, it’s bursting with energy. Clusters of people hover around eating, talking or playing undirected music, some line the walls, looking at pictures and felt-tipped imperatives on drawing boards. The little rooms upstairs host workshops on a number of practical and impractical subjects, from improvisation to soap-making. Cakes and vegetarian food emanate endlessly from somewhere. A Latvian-language poster stuck on the inside of the door urges (or promises) “Latvian-Russian friendship”. At one point everyone squashes themselves into the truncated hall to listen to a speech. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: House re-squatted by Sociale Huur Tugela action group

By: fawda - November 22nd, 2015  Filed under: Communique, News

On Sunday 22 November a building on the Tugelaweg 18A has been re-squatted out of discontent with the current housing policy in Amsterdam. The policy that is being fought is not a recent one. The breaking down of social housing has been going on for years. The privatizing of social housing companies, which have to handle their own finances since the 90s, has created a situation in which affordable housing is considered unprofitable both by the social housing companies and politicians. Social housing companies, whose goal is housing people, are for this reason rejecting social housing instead. Local politics see this happening but do not act. Because of this the situation on the housing market is becoming unsustainable; rents rise and waiting lists become longer and longer. Exactly those people for whom social housing is intended are getting problems because of this. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: 10 years Joe’s Garage

By: Hlulome - November 15th, 2015  Filed under: Communique, News, video

2015_2005_10_years_joesgarageFor 10 years, Joe’s Garage organizes political action, film and debate evenings, discussions and demonstrations. Everyone is welcome whether it’s for advice in precarious housing, employment and other life issues or for a bowl of soup, a good conversation, nice music or a free raincoat from the Giveaway Shop.

As known, there is a desperate shortage of housing in Amsterdam. That is, we believe, generally not because of a lack of actual buildings but due to shortcomings of housing policy, power struggles in politics and greed in this capitalist capital. None of the 50 shades of the cabinet has ever really been able to solve this urgent problem.
Therefore we squat houses. After all, in hollow promises, one can’t live from pretty words and symbolic politics. [Read More]

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