Amsterdam: Vossiusstraat 16 under threat – Removal of Russian oligarch Arkady Volozh from the sanctions list

The Russian oligarch and founder of Yandex, Arkady Volozh, the owner of the squatted building Vossiusstraat 16, was removed from the European sanctions list on the 12th of March 2024. This is likely to lead to a new court case and the eviction of the squat.

This statement begins with a legal overview of the Vossiusstraat 16 case, and then summarises the changes that led to Volozh’s removal from the sanctions list. Finally, we present reasons why his removal from the list should not have taken place. [Read More]

Amsterdam: Mokum Kraakt squats former windows in the Red Light District

Mokum Kraakt squats on the Dollebegijnensteeg in the Red Light District in solidarity with the sex workers and against the arrival of the erotic center. During a protest against the planned erotic centre, squatting collective Mokum Kraakt announced it has squatted a number of former sex work windows in De Wallen, Amsterdam’s red light district.

The squatters say the windows were squatted in solidarity with sex workers who fight against plans for an erotic centre on the outskirts of the city. Sex work has been a part of De Wallen for over 400 years and sex workers have clearly and repeatedly said they want to stay in the city centre. The people living close to the location of the prospective location of the erotic centre are also against it. And still, mayor Halsema is pushing through her plans. [Read More]

Amsterdam: two buildings squatted next to Nieuwmarkt

We squatted two buildings in light of the Housing Crisis, International Day against Sexist and Sexual Violence, in solidarity with our Palestinian comrades, and we express our anger about fascism taking over the Netherlands.

We revealed two squatted buildings on 22 November, at Krom Boomssloot 45 and 47, in light of the need for housing for our comrades and our sisters.

In light of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on the 25th of November, it is crucial and a priority to open housing where women can feel safer, where we can find each other and grow our resistance together. [Read More]

Amsterdam: two houses owned by Blackstone squatted during the ADEV demo

No free spaces without a free Palestine

Amsterdam, October 21st – We have squatted these 2 buildings (Prinsengracht 804 et 806), despite the city’s (and the police’s) best attempts to make it very difficult, because we believe that ADEV(Amsterdam Danst Ergens Voor – Amsterdam dances for something)’s call to ‘disown stupid property’ is a call to action.

These buildings, owned and left empty by a massive american investment firm called Blackstone, some (though not all) of whose crimes you can read on the banner, are definitely, by all definitions, stupid property. But we want to stress that, in a capitalist system that puts corporate giants over human life and dignity, ALL PROPERTY IS STUPID AND ALL PROPERTY IS THEFT. [Read More]

Amsterdam: news from Vossiusstraat 16

Why there are no public events anymore, comment on Volozh’s statement against the war

Soon Vossiusstraat 16 will have existed for one year!
During the last few months, many changes happened. We won the court case and its appeal and this stability allowed us to make this house our home. While the doors of Vossiusstraat 16 were initially open, there have not been any public events in the past few months. This statement is here to explain why that is.
We will also comment on a statement issued by the owner of Vossiusstraat 16, Russian oligarch Arkady Volozh, where he claims he is against the war.

Why we don’t organize public events anymore

When the Vossisstraat 16 squat opened, we decided that it would be both a place to house ourselves and new people and a social space where anyone who wants can come and organise. Many discussions, benefit evenings, meetings, workshops, and more initiatives took place at Vossiusstraat over the span of several months. We really appreciate the fact that so many people were able to use the building and that Vossiusstraat 16 could be a place for political organising and for people to meet.
However, for the past few months, there have not been any public events organised at Vossiusstraat 16. This is a decision we took in response to the verdict of the appeals court. [Read More]

Amsterdam: Time Travelers Hotel, new squat on Rokin 108

Time travelers arrived a couple months in Amsterdam to usher in a new era of activism and change. They have been publishing newspapers, running amok, and resurrecting the inherited tradition of the Hi-Ha Happenings originally started by the Provos in the sixties. After the success of the first Happening, during which the structure that eats away at the lives of ordinary folk was denounced and partially dismantled through ritual and magic, a second Hi-Ha Happening took place on the 29th of September.

This Happening was a constructive one, in counterpart to it’s destructive predecessor. This came to a climax when at the end of the Happening a new squat was announced: the Time Travelers Hotel. The following statement was made during the revealing, and is thus made public for all those who experience a like minded sense of time-dysmorphia, unrest, urge for change, and willingness to provoke and be provoked. [Read More]

Amsterdam: Nieuwe Leliestraat 70 squatted

Some time ago we squatted Nieuwe Leliestraat 70. We stayed there silently until 23.09.2023 after which we revealed our new home to the neighborhood. The building is owned by the social housing company Ymere, which has left it to rot unused for more than six years. It was previously squatted in 2020, but was quickly evicted, after which Ymere left it unoccupied again. We believe it is a disgrace to leave such a beautiful big house empty in the midst of a housing crisis, so we moved in.

Our new neighbors told us that the building next door used to also be social housing owned by Ymere until they renovated it and sold it privately. We suspect that they would have liked to do the same with our new home. This is something that happens often; there are 53,000 fewer social houses in Amsterdam now than there were in 2003. Meanwhile the demand for affordable housing grows every year. [Read More]

Amsterdam: 18 years Pretoriusstraat 43 and Joe’s Garage

On September 25, 2005, Pretoriusstraat 43 was squatted by the Amsterdam-Oost squatting group as a protest against long-term vacancy, criminal money laundering practices and real estate speculation.
For 18 years the house has been a place for a living group on the upper floors, and in 2008, after 3 years of residence and the eviction of Pretoriusstraat 28, Joe’s Garage moved to the Pretoriusstraat 43 ground floor.
The Amsterdam-Oost squatting group has now been present in the Pretoriusstraat for more than 20 years. Joe’s Garage is a political / social center, run by a broad volunteer collective. Independent, in solidarity and non-profit. A place where the ‘cold wind from the market’ does not blow, a meeting place for many.
Joe’s is also 18 years old, with more than 1800 (people’s) kitchens (Voku’s), more than 1000 openings of the give-away shop, countless film evenings, music performances, language cafes, the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and of course, every Tuesday evening for 18 years, the housing / squatting assistance hour (KSU Oost) for help & info. [Read More]

Groningen: No Border Camp 2023 started

Week of actions and workshops against repressive border and migration policies

Groningen (Netherlands), 21 August 2022 – This morning the No Border Camp 2023 has started at the terrain between Paddepoelsterweg 14 and 16 in Groningen. Over the coming week, hundreds of international activists will gather for actions, meetings, workshops, discussion and culture in the context of the struggle for a world without borders and freedom of movement for all.

It is no coincidence that this year’s No Border Camp is taking place in the north of the Netherlands, where only a year ago Ter Apel became the face of the failing migration policy. The border policy not only causes tragedy far from the Netherlands, such as the recent shipping disaster off the Greek coast, the consequences are also visible here. Everyone in the Netherlands remembers the images of the hundreds of people who had to spend the night in front of the gate of the registration centre in Ter Apel. Other degrading situations are taking place in the emergency shelters in the area and the rest of the country. [Read More]

Utrecht: Croeselaan squatted. We do not accept temporary rentals!

On the 13th of august around 13:00, 4 houses have been squatted on the Croeselaan in Utrecht (Netherlands) where the municipality decided on destroying a lot of houses to make space for a fancy park and an office building. To do this they let around 12 to 13 houses stand empty for months now. While GroenLinks was part of the organisers of the last Woonprotest in Utrecht they also had the deciding vote for destroying these houses. During the housingprotest the houses were occupied and about an hour later housepeace was declared. A big thank you to the people who came out and supported the new squats!

Statement from Croeselaan squatters on Saturday 19 august 2023: We do not accept temporary rentals! [Read More]

Amstelveen: Halt to housing construction at Krakenburg

News! A line has definitely been drawn through the 4,000 houses that were to be built on the 2.3 hectares of Krakenburg, at Laan van Kronenburg 12 in Amstelveen.
Despite the extreme housing shortage, the Ministry of Infrastructure thinks that these houses “can be built elsewhere”, and Schiphol gets all the space it needs to continue polluting.
People are now sleeping on the streets, and many are struggling to pay sky-high rents, especially in times of increasing gentrification. We refuse to wait for slow bureaucracy and so-called “solutions” from above.
Therefore, 2 months ago we took the law into our own hands, and instead of more years of no housing, the piece of land is now being actively occupied. With this open space, we want to show that things really can be different. We want to be there for the neighborhood, to share and to show that you can create many things with few resources, and we also want to prove that you can live with nature instead of against it. [Read More]

Amsterdam: Entertainment centre on Jan van Galenstraat squatted

We squatted Jan van Galenstraat 24, to prevent its demolition and to repurpose this building as a place for immediate housing and an autonomous social center.

The people that profit from capitalism enrich themselves in times of disaster. Right now we are in a housing crisis where people are forced to live on the street because the housing market is being used as a tool to exploit people and make private investors richer every day. The municipality and developers left a perfectly fine building empty for 7 years, and now they want to destroy the building to build unaffordable yuppie flats. This new neighborhood they want to build, the Marktkwartier, is going to be unaffordable for most and will drive up prices for the rest of the neighborhood. We are fed up with the municipality’s overly expensive housing plans for the city and want to actively fight against these bullshit gentrification projects that are based on wasting common resources for private profit. We need houses right now and we won’t rely on any government or investor to provide us with the bare minimum. we’re not gonna wait for affordable housing to magically appear. we take what we need, by squatting this building we instantly create a home and a space that benefits the neighborhood instead of tearing it apart. [Read More]