Amsterdam: Refugees demonstrating at Liberation Day, May 5ht

By: fawda - May 7th, 2014  Filed under: News
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Refugees of action group WE ARE HERE protesting in Amsterdam to fight for freedom. Many people without papers are detained in detention centers or living in the streets. They don’t know how it is to be free and liberated. For us it is no Liberation Day. We are struggling to survive the repressive policy by politicians of the Dutch government like Teeven and the mayor of Amsterdam Van der Laan who don’t even acknowledge our basic human rights. We are locked up behind bars or forced to survive on nothing.

This is a day of freedom. Refugees of WE ARE HERE needs the same freedom as you have.
Until all are free no one is free! We want our rights. We want permission to stay! [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Joe’s Garage, May news

By: Hlulome - May 6th, 2014  Filed under: News
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Eight weeks to go for the Valreep. Mayor van der Laan was getting too impatient to evict the Valreep, social centre squatted since 24 july 2011. At the end of April, after yet another proposal by the squatters to legalise the building, the eviction letter was delivered not by some random cop but by Leen Schaap himself, the nostalgic police chief, commanding police forces during every eviction in Amsterdam. Schaap did not hesitate to climb the fences to make his way to the Valreep. “How do you feel about this?” dares he to ask while handing the letter. Idealen ontruim niet! (You can’t evict ideals!) announces the Valreep website. [Read More]

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Nijmegen (Netherlands): solidarity action

By: fawda - April 29th, 2014  Filed under: Communique, News

Solidarity action with all the arrested during the eviction of the squatted house on Tweede Walstraat 3 in Nijmegen on 27th of April!

There is always someone, somewhere, having a feeling that screaming out loud the words of solidarity sometimes just isn’t enough. This time, this feeling of unrest was present in Nijmegen. Embraced by the dark of the night, in the very first hours of 29th of April, we entered a police parking lot. As a result of this trespassing 5 cop cars and vans got their tires slashed. As long as the police continues abusing their power… Well actually, as long as the police exists, we will see it as suiting to try and destroy everything that makes their activities possible. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Vluchtmarkt, call out for support and update on the owners’ response

By: fawda - April 18th, 2014  Filed under: News
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On Sunday, April 13th, the ‘We Are Here‘ group occupied three empty spaces on Ten Katestraat 49, 61 and 63 in Amsterdam: ‘De VluchtMarkt’. The project will house a group of undocumented women who have been without shelter since last week. The neighbourhood and local politicians have shown their support, because they prefer to see the properties in good use rather than empty.

Ten Katestraat 61 and 63 used to be social houses owned by Rochdale, who started the demolition process to convert them into luxury apartments. Due to the financial crisis the renovation project has not been completed and, as is the case with many other Rochdale properties, the houses have been empty for years. The buildings are part of a larger block of houses including 53, 55 and 57 which, in the past had been squatted and evicted twice, and at the moment are still empty and rotting. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Joe’s Garage, April news

By: Hlulome - April 3rd, 2014  Filed under: News
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Despite the continuous efforts by the government to keep squatted spaces under the threat of repression and eviction, new autonomous and creative projects keep on emerging in Amsterdam. On March the 1st, the buildings on the Vechtstraat 1, 5, 7 were squatted.

A new social centre, De Strijd, on Vechtstraat 7, opened just two weeks after the occupation. The ongoing workshops (language classes, martial arts), vegan kitchen, and give away shop immediately transformed these buildings from objects of real estate speculation into spaces for the experimentation of radical politics. The support of the neighbours and the large participation of many groups of activists show the vital importance of creating autonomous and collective sites of struggle to contrast the political desertification of the city. [Read More]

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Netherlands: Camelot is using people in need of housing as ‘real estate pawns’ and as ‘out-sourced dwellers’ that only serve to facilitate speculation

By: fawda - March 12th, 2014  Filed under: News
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Accusation of Camelot Europe by Bond Precaire Woonvormen

Camelot Europe is an international vacant property management company, that started in the Netherlands. Their business is vacant property management services to provide real estate clients with a ‘cost effective, high quality and flexible solution’ to protect vacant properties against vandalism and such. Camelot provides these services in the UK, Ireland, Scotland, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium and is now attending Mipim 2014.

Its ‘services’ to the real estate sector are in fact a way to maximise profit from vacant properties by exploiting people in need of a house. Camelot was one of the first Ductch ‘antisquat’ companies that came up with the idea of having people in need of housing live in empty buildings as ‘property protectors’ on temporary flex-contracts and without any tenants rights. These dwellers can be kicked out of their house on a two weeks notice, are deprived of privacy as Camelot will randomly inspect their premises to see if they ‘behave properly’, and are forced to agree to a set of conditions that constrain their freedom of behaviour and mobility. [Read More]

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Amsterdam Metropolitan Area has no place on Mipim

By: fawda - March 12th, 2014  Filed under: News

Accusal of Amsterdam Metropolitan Area by speculation research collective SPOK

The Mipim is celebrating its 25th birthday this year. As all previous years, a lot of Dutch companies and local governments will be present, the latter also paying € 1600,- for an entrance fee probably paid for from our taxes. One of the local Dutch authorities present for the Mipim festivities, that really should have stayed at home to work on solving the serious housing shortages in its area, is the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.

Despite the continuing Dutch policies promoting home-ownership, in Amsterdam alone 270.000 people are searching for an affordable house to rent. They cannot afford or are not interested in buying a house. Nor can they rent on the liberalised (expensive) rental housing market in Amsterdam where prices have become extremely high, as one of the results of the home-ownership promotion policies. [Read More]

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Maastricht: Information about the eviction of the Mandril Cultural and Political Centre (MCPC) and its future

By: fawda - February 18th, 2014  Filed under: Communique, News

As some of you might know, the Mandril will soon get evicted – on the 1st of April we (the MCPC and the people who live here) must have left the building.

This is because the area will be renovated and new projects will inhabit these buildings. Our cultural freezone siblings the Hotel the Ossekop needed to be demolished for this, a big part of the Cultuurfront (also a cultural freezone) was also eaten by the bulldozer in a surprising turn of events and so the Mandril too must make space. Our own building will be filled up by the Toneelgroep Maastricht (theatre group), and soon the indie film house Lumiere will be relocated to another empty building on the terrain, next to the Muziekgieterij. [Read More]

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Utrecht: new squat in the city center

By: fawda - February 16th, 2014  Filed under: Communique, News
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This morning a house on the Van Sijpesteijnkade 25 has been squatted. The police has passed by and is deciding if they are going to do something. The building is property of NS, who is buying a lot of buildings around the station for huge development plans. The whole street will be demolished on short terms, but because this building is a monument they integrated it into the new building plans and it wont be demolished. When these plans will take place is still unclear.
The neighborhood has protested the plans to demolish the street. The buildings are beautiful, there is a lot of history in these buildings and they are in good conditions to live in. The plans for the new buildings are dull, grey and not inspiring. The demolition of this street is a shame, but is made possible because the old residents have been replaced years ago for anti-squat. Anti-squatters can be kicked out on short notice. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Joe’s Garage, Newsletter February 2014

By: Hlulome - February 15th, 2014  Filed under: News
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During the last months various squats were opened and closed in Amsterdam and surroundings. Yet, the eviction procedure is becoming easier for the cops. Recently, the police came out with an old trick, the speed- eviction: despite squatting being illegal, squatters still have the right to domestic peace, to get notified 8 weeks in advance, and to be able to start a court case to defend themselves. However, in the last weeks two office buildings in the Amsterdam’s surroundings were evicted by regular cops without any notice, just a few days after the occupation. The squatters were arrested and quickly released without charges.
Evictions without notice and without a court ruling are illegal, as they violate the right to domestic privacy of the inhabitants. The cops know this well, but too often they put themselves ‘above the law’ to serve the interests of private property owners.
To stop the trend of illegal speed-evictions, the Amsterdam squatting groups are about to sue the state, and made a call out to other groups of squatters for collecting cases of speed-eviction. [Read More]

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Netherlands: Court case against speed eviction

By: fawda - February 10th, 2014  Filed under: Communique, News
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The police is threatening squatted buildings in Amsterdam and surroundings with speed-evictions, which means eviction without previous notice nor decision by a judge. One of the tools to reverse this trend is to start a court-case against speed eviction.

On October 1st, 2010 , the new law 138A on ” Squatting and Vacancy ‘ was included in the Penal Code. Although this law defines squatting as a crime, squatters still have the right to domestic peace. This means that the police is not allowed to evict squatted buildings without notice and without a court sentence. Thus speed eviction constitute a violation to this right, violation that is allowed only in situations of emergency. This state of ”emergency” could be applied when the property was still in use at the time it was squatted, in case of dangerous situation or when there is disturbance of public order. Only in these cases the police can decide to evict the squat immediately. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Illegal eviction tomorrow February 4th, Ellermanstraat 31, Duivendrecht

By: fawda - February 3rd, 2014  Filed under: News
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This morning police came by to announce that the recently squatted building at Ellermanstraat 31 in Duivendrecht will be (speed)evicted tomorrow February 4th, 2 o’clock. Since there’s no reason for a speed eviction and eviction for squatting is only allowed after verdict by a judge, this eviction will be illegal. This will be the 2nd illegal eviction in two weeks.
The neighbours at Ellermanstraat 33 can also use help, even though not officially under threat. Both buildings are heavily barricaded and occupied.
So come and join us tomorrow morning at Ellermanstraat 31 from ten on for breakfast, to show we don’t accept this police-state behaviour. AT5 will be there with a camera crew to film everything, bring your own camera too! [Read More]

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