Hambach Forest: Skillsharing camp in September

The second Skillsharing Camp of this year will take place from September 15th to 25th.
Details will follow soon.
We, the orga team, are currently very understaffed. If you are currently in the forest and / or in the meadow and you can imagine helping, then write to skillsharing [dot] hambacherforst [at] riseup [dot] net. No prior knowledge required 😉

We still don’t have a kitchen crew. If you happen to be a culinary collective that can imagine cooking in the period then write as well.

Also artists, speakers and people who are already in demand can write. More information will follow soon 🙂

Hambi bleibt

Cologne: Elster230 evicted

– Police evicts Elster230 with large contingent
– Brutal police action
– Simultaneous eviction of squatted house ZentraleM in Münster
– Occupants announce demonstrations today in Cologne and Münster

This morning around 9am, a large police contingent forcibly invaded the Elster at Vogelsanger Str. 230 and evicted the self-governing queer feminist center.
The police’s actions were extremely brutal. In a different way, we observed, in addition to the measures of fixation mentioned above, that a person was tied up with cable ties and brutally dragged across the Lidl parking lot to a police car. There are several people with injuries and we saw that civil servants kneeled on the activists backs for a very long time, while the activists were already lying on the floor with their faces fixed.
In the middle of this scenario, Mrs. Windischmann (Head of Region West DB Real Estate) did not let herself miss the opportunity to enter the house and thus demonstrate her power. With this relentless eviction, the 1,5 week revitalization of the previously vacant property is abruptly ended. [Read More]

Cologne: Police invades the Elster

Police invades Elster 230 and provokes escalation

After Deutsche Bahn yesterday filed a complaint against the occupation of Vogelsanger Str. 230 according to its own statement, the police today gained access to the Elster 230 and recorded personal details of individuals. All this happens against the background that next Monday talks are to take place between the city and DB, as we learned today.
As a result of unconfirmed sources from the mayor’s office, we also learned that the mayor is now also trying to persuade DB to negotiate with us. There the opinion is represented that the DB should hear at least our offers, before other steps would be introduced.
In this context, DB’s approach is becoming increasingly incomprehensible to us: “There is contact with a mediator – the city – who has to be taken seriously, also by DB. DB announces that it basically approves of our idea of use and at the same time it creates the ground for individual activists who work directly for it to be prosecuted. We ask ourselves what DB expects of itself from the criminalisation of individuals, at a time when X people happen to be in the house,” says Anna Meise. [Read More]

Berlin: Police raid on Liebig34

This morning 6:30, the police broke into Liebig34 to search evidence and DNA in one room. The reason is an attack with stones against repression forces on Friday night. Soon after many riot police vans and a helicopter arrived, a barricade was burning in Rigaer Street. After some hours police left, no one was arrested. There is a call for resistance tonight and solidarity actions.
Cops destroyed doors and took some stuff. You are welcome to pass by but cops are still around in the area.


Statement from Liebig34:

Raided. Radical. Motivated
Saturday 20.07.2019 Friedrichshainer Nordkiez:

This morning, the cops of the LKA 5.21 unit under the command of Kranich raided Liebig34. Unusual was the saturday, unusual the mix of units from different departments. New were a few civil cop faces, not new: the repression. [Read More]

Cologne: Elster squat in Ehrenfeld

German territory, July 19, 2019. Tonight, supporters of Cologne caravan spaces, Assata im Hof, the Autonomous Centre Cologne (AZ), the women of the 1006, the Socialist Self-help Mülheim (SSM) and other emancipatory projects for living spaces and open spaces squatted a house in Cologne-Ehrenfeld, Vogelsanger Straße 230, which had been unused for years. Concerts and a party will take place in the evening. For the coming days there is also a varied program with lectures, workshops and other things planned.

“We have joined together to revolt against failed urban development. The neoliberal exploitation policy of the City of Cologne does not meet the needs of its residents but prioritises economic interests. Affordable living space is given up in favour of luxury renovations or office space and self-organized (open space) projects are to be pushed to the outskirts or closed in order to create investment opportunities. We are fighting together against this sell-out of the city,” says activist Petra Silie.

[Read More]

Berlin: The Fight for Liebig34 goes further

The Court hearing for the eviction of our anarcha-queer-feminist housing project will take place on the 20th of september 2019. Padovicz wants to snitch away the house, while the politicians are trying to keep our mouths shut. Both parties are awaiting a final court decision. We do not let any cis-men decide about the future of our anarcha-queer-feminist project, cause simply no one should decide about us, but ourselves.

The last weeks in Nordkiez

Lately, the presence of cops in our neighbourhood increased massively. Helicopters are flying daily and nightly over our roofs. Multiple police vans drive through our streets and ID-controls become part of everyday normality.

Also, during our self-organized neighbour fest in which a lot of children participated, the cops reacted in an aggressive way, trying to ruin our day. Several persons sympathizing with our project, have been arrested and taken into custody. The arrests of these friends were very violent and sexist. Whether it’s about getting a coffee in the morning at the other side of the street or having dinner in front of our house, the cops find ways to intimidate us. The system of state tries to silence us by all means. As a consequence, we face daily confrontation with the cops. However, their provocation is not something we allow to set us back or keep us small. It is something that encourages us to resist.
We are aware that their violent behavior is purely a reaction on our mobilization in our joint-fight against gentrification, patriarchy and capital. All of this, shows us, that our battle against “the city of the rich and powerful” is effectively starting to worry the establishment. [Read More]

Germany: Aachen is squatting again!

During the international climate strike today, we occupied the Bastei. Those who live in Aachen for a bit longer, probably know the Bastei. Between 1930 and 1990 it hosted a lot of different kinds of pubs and bars. Since 1994 the Theater K played shows there. 2014 the theatre moved out, since then the building is empty. According to the local press, during this time the Bastei was owned by the architect and investor Hans Kahlen. Although Kahlen was one of the main initiators of the Aquis Plaza shopping mall. More ore less 29.000 qm of living places were destroyed for this project and many little shops had to close or to move.

All over Germany its the same system: cheap living places get sold to private investors who raise the rents for their private enrichment. If there are new building projects, it‘s expensive flats for the rich or bullshit like the Aquis Plaza. While the ecological base of our lives is getting destroyed faster and faster, there is enough living spaces for all of us. Its just not well shared. Because our economical system is not based on the needs of people but on consumerism. It aims for a constant growing, while the fossil resources are not growing with it. So why should we build new houses, that again destroy landscape and need a lot of resources, if we can just move into the ones already existing and kept empty? [Read More]

Hannover (Germany): Squatting action at Klagesmarkt

On Wednesday evening a house at the Klagesmarkt was squatted. At one point 250 people took part in the occupation. The eviction by the police took place in the early morning hours of the following day.

In a world of rising rents and a lack of affordable housing, people have decided to squat a house that has been empty for at least four years. The shop space on the ground floor of the house was to be used for social and cultural activities to enrich the neighbourhood.

A varied programme with concerts and other cultural events was planned for the duration of the occupation. On Thursday, the neighbourhood was to be invited to develop joint plans for the use of the house with coffee and cake. Unfortunately, this idea could not be put into practice, as the owners preferred to file a criminal complaint and to have the house evicted by the police during the night. The squatters offered to talk about possible usage options but the owners rejected; apparently further vacancy is desired instead.
[Read More]

Freiburg (Germany): Squatted former police station evicted after 45 hours

Eviction of the F52 in broad daylight +++ 25 arbitrary controls +++ Masked policemen jog through child day-care centre +++ State government favours misappropriation and speculation with batons

“Attention, attention. This is the first, second and final announcement…” With these words, the head of police operations, Harry Hochuli, started the eviction of Fehrenbachallee 52. There was no willingness to negotiate, the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg had already filed a criminal complaint in the evening the occupation started. We criticize the ruthless actions of the Freiburg head of operations, also in the face of the fact that the adjacent kindergarten would have been empty an hour later. The children could easily have been spared the traumatizing appearance of a masked and helmeted riot squad. Now the spacious property was returned to its inglorious state of vacancy.

The demand for affordable living space and self-organised district centres continues to grow, and not only in the western part of the Stühlinger district. We still demand the construction of a large rest house for people with refugee experience and more than ever it is necessary to fight for anti-fascist district centres and social perspectives through direct action. [Read More]

Berlin (Germany): Attack against an office of the leftist party „Die Linke“ – Solidarity to Squats in Athens and Berlin

Late saturday evening, May 4, we commited an attack with stones against the store front of the office from Sebastian Schlüsselburg, member of the Committee on Justice and Secret Service, parliamentarian of „Die Linke“ in the district of Berlin-Lichtenberg. Most of its windows were smashed. [Read More]

Berlin: Squatted Bizim Bakkal store violently evacuated without eviction title

Today (April 6th 2019), after the Mietenwahnsinn (rent madness) demonstration, the empty Bizim Bakkal shop was squatted, which had been empty for 4 years. Berlin police evacuated without a valid eviction title, without contact to the owner and using massive force against activists, journalists and parliamentary observers.

Last year, we occupied several houses, apartments and shops, all of which were evicted by the Senate and the Berlin police except one apartment in Großbeerenstraße. We see ourselves as part of a movement that is defending itself against Berlin increasingly developing into a city for the rich. A city in which social participation and place of residence depend on income and in which every square centimeter is used. The city is losing its open spaces, and Berlin’s neighborhoods are increasingly shaped by tourism, consumption and property speculation. Despite many promises regarding housing policy, the Senate is only watching or even actively helping in this process of displacement.

Today, 40,000 people took to the streets in a demonstration against rent madness and displacement. How have the demands, which were also supported by parts of the Berlin Senate, been put into practice and how have we begun to get our neighbourhood back? Many demonstrators joined this project on the spot in Wrangelstraße. [Read More]

Berlin, Germany: Invitation to Liebig34 Day X

“It takes a lot of material to stop European police forces … participate in mass protests and organise yourself in affinity groups. Domination breaks when we prepare … and the hunter becomes a hunted one. Fear will change the side when we create moments of resistance!
This is an invitation to Berlin, Dax X – if Police tries to evict the anarcha queer feminist squat Liebig34.
Smash Patriarchy Fight Gentrification Defend Liebig34
Thank you”
[Read More]