Amsterdam: We Are Here people stay in Havenstraat

By: fawda - May 31st, 2014  Filed under: Communique, News
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Most of the members of We Are Here currently living at the former prison in the Havenstraat in Amsterdam had to leave the building past June 1st. Which they didn’t and following to that the city subpoenaed everyone. The case will take place coming Friday, June 13, 13.30h. at the court of Amsterdam, Parnassusweg 220. The lawyer Pim Fischer is preparing for a strong plea for access to human basic necessaries for everyone.

The group of establishers “We Are Here” are decided not leave the government building , Havenstraat. “Here is the place to know our destiny clearly” We signed agreement in vluchtkantoor for two things:
1/ Those of who can lead their life in Nederland must clearly confirmed and told.
2/ Those of who can go back and will go back must be clearly assisted and taken to their country ! [Read More]

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Amsterdam: VluchtMarkt Eviction Notice

By: fawda - May 26th, 2014  Filed under: Communique, News
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8 weeks letter to Ten Katestraat 61-63

A few days after the civil court case initiated by the owner of Ten Katestraat 49, also the squatted buildings on Ten Katestraat 61 and 63, owned by Rochdale, are under threat. The officer of justice Otto van der Bijl has sent the 8 weeks notice, which means that not the owner, but the state itself is taking initiative against the refugees. It is the first time that a ‘We Are Here‘ squat is treated with the criminal law. According to local politicians, Rochdale still seems to have no plans and no permits to renovate the properties, while the people occupying them have spend many weeks re-building the spaces (including toilets, showers, electricity, floors and ceilings) and made them safe and liveable. The group has 1 week to start a proceeding to defend the squats in court. If the case will be lost, also women and babies will be again on the street. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Court Case VluchtMarkt, Ten Katestraat 49

By: fawda - May 21st, 2014  Filed under: Communique, News
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‘We Are Here’ protest in court

Today, May 21st, the owner of Ten Katestraat 49 brought the ‘We are here‘ group to court. The company, Batavia B.V, intends to rent the property to another company, W.M. Honselaar Onroerend Goed B.V.. Their plan is to build yet another hotel, that will ‘contribute’ to the massive gentrification project that is taking place in the Kinkerbuurt. The hotel will be a ‘special concept’, so called ‘City Hub’, where tourists can drop their luggage and their dead bodies after one night party.

The space is currently used by undocumented migrants both for housing and as a social, cultural and political centre, where different groups of people can encounter and mobilise for further political action. Undocumented migrants are criminalised everywhere, in each space of European society. Thus opening a social and political centre was a step further in our struggle, as what is needed is not only a roof for surviving, not only basic human rights, but also the possibility of living a decent life, wich includes the possiblity of socialisation, communication, and recreation. [Read More]

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Haarlem (Netherlands): Antillenweg squatted and evicted

By: fawda - May 14th, 2014  Filed under: Communique, News
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HAARLEM – On the 11th of May Kraapgroep Haarlem occupied multiple buildings on the c in Schalkwijk. It involves nine consecutive appartments on the Belcanto site.

Squatting
On the 11th of May Kraapgroep Haarlem occupied multiple buildings on the Antillenweg in Schalkwijk. It involves nine consecutive appartments on the Belcanto site. All homes are empty for some time awaiting demolition and redevelopment. The Belcanto project has been shut down indefinitely by the housing associations Elan, Pre living and Ymere in April 2013 because they do not have sufficient liquidity to fund the project. Due to the crisis [Read More]

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Amsterdam: The Rise and Death of the Just City of Amsterdam

By: fawda - May 12th, 2014  Filed under: essay
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The Story of Op de Valreep, A Squatted Social Centre in Amsterdam Oost

Urban planning was once – perhaps at its best, defined by Patsy Healey as “managing our coexistence in shared spaces.” Planning for co-existence first and foremost requires recognition of differences and antagonisms in the city. Different publics have different interests as well as different amounts of power in society and decision-making processes. The state apparatus, operating within a context of power and inequality, thus adopts persuasive, co-optative, and sometimes repressive measures to respond to all these different vectors of pressure.
[Read More]

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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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