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]
Amsterdam: 18 years Pretoriusstraat 43 and Joe’s Garage
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]
Netherlands: Vogelvrij Newsletter #2
Vogelvrij brings you a bunch of news from squats all around the Netherlands. There is always space for more news in the newsletter, so mail us your updates or publish them on a open publishing platform such as Indymedia.nl, or send your statements to Squat.net, and announce your events on Radar.squat.net. [Read More]
Amsterdam: open call in solidarity with Villa Fuerte hearing
In 2010 the squatting ban was introduced. In theory, this law was created to criminalize squatting whilst fighting against houses being empty. In reality, its purpose was to please some politicians and their questionable neoliberal agenda. We see that there is no political will to fight emptiness, the local governments never put any effort into finding the owners that keep their houses empty. This law has only been used to evict squatters and make them homeless, while still many houses are left empty. In June 2022, another new law has been put into practice. It had as its goal to shorten the time span between the announcement of eviction and the moment of the actual eviction. By doing this they take away the rights of the squatters to legally defend themselves. Now after one year of this law existing in Amsterdam, we feel the repression. We are worried about how the hearings are going and how unjust their practice is. The way squatters are being evicted now is not through a court case but through a criminal hearing. The judge commissioner (RC) is the one to decide if the squatters will be evicted or not. To get all the information for the case, the RC invites the officer of justice who is an investigator cop, her name is Petra van Laeren. There is nobody to witness how these hearings go, it is not a public court case so no media or people interested in the case can be there. We, the squatters in Amsterdam, are starting to see that these hearings are a joke of justice. We figured out that there is a connection between the RC and the officer of justice, showing that they know each other better than just from the court. In the hearings, intimidation is going on, cops are waiting in front of the room to take pictures of the squatters. It is the same people taking the same decisions all the time behind closed doors and the decisions are not publicly posted. It is unfair that we have to blindly go to these hearings under their conditions. To not have an audience, no media, nothing is published. It is a blur of what goes on in these office rooms and how the decisions are being made. Justice is out of balance and we are mad about it. [Read More]
Amsterdam: House squatted on Herengracht 377, Villa Fuerte blijft!
Cops came by during the reveal at Herengracht 377. The cops left but still want to come back for a speed eviction tomorrow. Support needed in coming days! After long hours of waiting in the heat, cops said they have legal grounds to speed-evict, but won’t do it because they didn’t have the capacity today (thanks to the people that showed up for support in front of the door). Neighbors said they didn’t see or heard the squatters these past few days, so police want to speed-evict for catching squatters red-handed, but the squatters showed them proofs that they had been staying for several days already. The cops don’t care and said they can come back anytime for speed eviction in the morning or during the day of the 26th. Stay alert and come when you can! Villa Fuerte needs to stay.
Statement Villa Fuerte
Today on Sunday the 25th of June, we announce that we have squatted this house on Herengracht 377 in Amsterdam. This place is owned by Ella Marina Nicolette Habsburg-Lothringen, member of a royal dynasty, who turned it into a Yoga center for her rich friends and that is now left empty. [Read More]
Amsterdam: Squatters Takland occupy adjacent building
Today we have expanded Takland. After we squatted the building at Taksteeg 8 on King’s Day – renamed Housing Day – today it is the turn of the adjacent building Taksteeg 6, which has also been vacant for years. Come and support Takland!
After declaring our independence from the state, they opened the hunt for us. The first time we saw them in court, we won. In doing so, we have ensured that red-handed is once again a means of struggle: the judge forbade eviction in the act if the police do not actually catch the squatter in the act. The second time we saw them in court, they punished us. The judge-commissioner, Eduard Messer, agreed with the owner. The judge and the officer are biased, feel contempt for the people in society hardest hit by the housing crisis, and don’t follow their own rules. Takland should be evicted by Thursday. But Takland is stronger than the state. Takland fights back. [Read More]
Netherlands: what happened in May in some squats
Vogelvrij Newsletter #1
Of course these news are not complete, we just collected the different things we heard about and the information we could find. If there is something you would like to see in our next newsletter or if you notice that we got some information wrong, send us an email! [Read More]
Amsterdam: new place squatted on Tweede Kostverlorenkade
Today on Monday the 29th of May, we announce that we have squatted this apartment on Tweede Kostverlorenkade in Amsterdam. We are a group of people from different ages and places, who resort to squatting because we have no other option.
This place is owned by the social housing company Rochdale, that has been leaving it empty since August. Our action is both a political action and a way to find housing. We squat because it is getting almost impossible to get access to affordable housing in Amsterdam. Today, there are 53 000 less social housing apartments than in 2003. That is why our action is also a political statement. We think it is scandalous that apartments stay empty while people have to sleep in the street and we are against the reduction of social housing opportunities. [Read More]
Delft: Under a Bridge, Rotterdamseweg 364 squatted
So then…
Under a Bridge
The building under the bridge, here at the Rotterdamseweg, has been vacant since 2017. During this period we have never seen any activity happening in the enormous warehouse. Unlike the typical trolls that usually settle under bridges, we are a set of neat students and former students looking for a place to make for ourselves. Over the past few years we have developed the idea of reopening this place to Delft and giving it a purpose again.
The hall under the bridge is not privately owned, but by the province of Zuid-Holland (and therefore a bit by us all). It is meant to be left vacant and finally for demolition. We are open to conversations and will accommodate proper plans for the future. Until that time we’ll take this opportunity to create a lively place for ourselves to reside and for anyone who wishes to join.
Already over a longer period, the situation about housing has been a hot topic. Instead of focussing on an “anti”-tone, the opposing, we want to propagate a narrative that is based around sound that is “in favour of”. Under the slogan “Niet lullen maar poetsen!” [meaning something like: “Don’t blab on, just mop!”], we aim to contribute and assist in finding a solution to the problems as explained below. In a cheerful and constructive manner, we organize this new space in Delft where there is room to live, experiment, meet up and organize. We offer Delft the opportunity to expand her repertoire with the 1500m² under the bridge. In the manner of e.g. cooking or dwelling, lectures or music. Initiative and enthusiasm are welcome Under the Bridge, to appropriate the space and make it a place for us all! [Read More]
Radar Online Agenda
