The Binnenkadijk 478 apartment has been squatted in protest against the vacancy of rental properties in the middle of a housing crisis and has been occupied since Tuesday 21 March. The house is located in the Entrepotdok complex and the owner is the housing corporation de Alliantie. The residents of the complex are fighting against the Alliance’s plan to sell 140 apartments in the complex, an outrageous proposal that will reduce the social housing stock in Amsterdam and destroy a truly unique socialist project.
We have squatted the apartment to take direct action against the unjustified vacancy since the previous residents were evicted in September last year. We believe that no perfectly habitable apartments should be left vacant while so many, including ourselves, have to struggle to find affordable housing. [Read More]
Amsterdam: Binnenkadijk 478 squatted
Amsterdam: Woestduinstraat 72 HS Squatted – Social housing is Not For Sale!
For several days now, we have been occupying and living in Woestduinstraat 72 HS. Since the 25th of march we announced the occupation by means of a protest.
This social housing property has been vacant for a year awaiting sale. This action is a protest against the sale of social housing and the subsequent sell-out of the city, by housing corporations and the municipality. Lieven de Key has put this house on the market in a dilapidated state for a staggering 475,000. The house is on the ground floor and would have made a good home for seniors or those with mobility problems. But it is clear that Lieven de Key does not give a fuck about the residents of the city and cares more about gentrification and profit.
Since the 1990s, profit maximization has been the main goal of housing cooperatives. While housing cooperatives claim to build more social housing outside the center with the proceeds from sales, the overall share of social housing in Amsterdam is decreasing. Social housing associations are contributing to gentrification and original residents have to make way for people with more money. Housing is not being built for the working class and the social housing that remains is often neglected and left in a bad state. [Read More]
Amsterdam: Evictions continue, Squatting will too!
Another illegal eviction. Saturday afternoon we announced a new squat on Zeeburgerpad 22. Not much later we were forced to pack our bags and leave again. Thanks to the presence of a large number of friends outside, people inside managed to get away safely without getting arrested. But of course, no one is safe if they’re sleeping in the streets, so we’ll be back.
On the 18th of February, we made it public that we squatted Zeeburgerpad 22. Many people showed up to show support and protect the occupation.
We had already been inside for a week and had evidence of this. But as some of the members of our collective are in a vulnerable position we decided to force contact with the owner/ police by dropping a banner & speaking to the neighbours. It wasn’t the first time this place has been squatted, it was squatted in 2013 and again in 2018.
After the last eviction in 2021, some renovations took place but apart from that nothing much happened, the place remained empty. The daughter of the owner and Pablo ( the neighbour and owner of the company next door) showed up and provided us with some much-needed entertainment. [Read More]
Amsterdam: Statement about the illegal eviction at Noorderdwarsstraat 9
On the 24th of January, a squat in the center of Amsterdam got revealed by Autonomous Shelter, a squatted appartment on Noorderdwarsstraat 9. The same morning it got illegaly evicted.
This appartment had been empty since four to six years, according to the neighbors. The neighbours were all supportive, bringing us tea and chatting with us. The beginning of the action went really calmly. We provided cops with documents showing that we had been living there since the 21st of February, and neighbors told us they could indeed confirm our house peace if the cops asked them.
After over an hour of waiting we suddenly got the message that they would evict us and that we had 5 min to leave. 5 police vans appeared and suddenly 30 cops were standing in the small street. When we asked why they wanted to evict us they first stated “because squatting is illegal”. Only after, one of them told us it was for heterdaad, meaning that they claimed to have caught us in the act.
This is total bullshit as all our documents and the statements from the neighbors showed that we had house peace. [Read More]
Ghent: The Pandemisten occupy ‘t Vredeshuis!
Peace, love and a little revolution.
Since January 2023 we occupy ‘t Vredeshuis!
The government tries to sell our public places without us noticing.
But the Pandemisten are back from never gone! We take direct action and fight against the privatization of our city!
‘t Vredeshuis was a place for international solidarity with a lot of organisations involved. We continue with this mission from bottom up and work together with organisations like Rojava Congres Gent, Woman life freedom, …
The biggest changes in the world came out of small initiatives from big dreamers. We take back ‘t Vredeshuis and welcome everyone to fight
together for what is ours: THE CITY!
Come join this new social-cultural centre! there’s a lot of space for a lot of projects!
Friday 20 january, reception, grand opening: https://squ.at/r/96ld [Read More]
Amsterdam: first squat action of the year, Spui 11
Yesterday, a new building was announced as squatted, a small manifestation was held on the Spui and flyers were distributed to the public. Police have been on site and said they were not planning to evict. The building housed the music store Hampe and Berkel for 179 years, last year they closed due to the corona crisis. The property will house people who would otherwise be homeless.
Some squats in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/NL/squated/squat
Groups (social center, collective, squat) in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/NL
Events in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/NL
Amsterdam: building from russian oligarch squatted
Today we are announcing our new home at Vossiusstraat 16. The police just arrived! Come and support.
We purposefully decided to squat this building, owned by Russian billionaire Arkadiy Volozj. As everyone knows, the Russian army invaded Ukraine this year. This is just the latest in a list of Putin’s crimes, against Ukraine, against LGBT people, in Syria, and many more. With this year’s invasion, the Russian state is finally widely denounced as criminal, genocidal, and as an authoritarian state. Volozj, who founded Russian propaganda site Yandex, has been placed on the sanctions list of the European Union since the invasion, as the EU determined he “is supporting, materially or financially, the Government of the Russian Federation and is responsible for supporting actions or policies which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”.
Yet this house was not frozen until a few weeks ago, because it’s owned through a company on the Virgin Islands. The billionaire’s lawyers contacted the government to inform them of his property here, but the government didn’t send it on to the department responsible for sanctions. Clearly, the Dutch state doesn’t see it as a priority to curb billionaires and oligarchs. National sanctions coordinator Stef Blok claimed that the Dutch housing market just isn’t interesting to Russian oligarchs. That’s obviously bullshit.
About 9000 properties in the Netherlands were bought through companies in tax havens. 6000 houses are owned by companies that through shady constructions are untraceable. In total, they own 10.5 billion euros worth of properties. It’s clear: There is no housing shortage, there is an excess of rich people. [Read More]
Rotterdam: a house in the Pompenburg flat has been squatted
There are new squatters in town! A house in the Pompenburg flat has been squatted by the anarchist collective RATS. It’s squatted in solidarity with the inhabitants of the Pompenburg Flat who are fighting against the demolition of the building.
The building which is home to hundreds of residents in 226 social housing homes was announced to be demolished in 2019 (and residents only found out by the newspaper!) for a 250 meter high tower developed by RED Company in collaboration with social housing corporation Havensteder and gemeente Rotterdam. The building, which was originally not in the redevelopment plans for the Pompenburg area, was campaigned to be demolished by the municipality themselves despite over 80% of the residents against demolition. These plans also call for the eviction and destruction of communal gardens in Park Pompenburg and the various community projects based in Schieblock whom are dear friends of ours, for high rise towers of mostly luxury apartments.
We stand in solidarity with the residents organizing and fighting for the last three years against backroom deals to demolish their homes. Sloop ons niet! [Read More]
Sheffield, UK: Students are occupying The Diamond to protest the uni working with arms companies
A group of University of Sheffield students have occupied The Diamond in protest of the university’s partnership with Rolls Royce, Boeing and BAE Systems.
Sheffield Action Group has taken responsibility for the occupation following a tweet they published this morning. The group has called for “no war criminals on campus or in careers fairs.”
[Read More]
London: Settling into area 51!
Monday and Tuesday have been spent tentatively awaiting first contact which still hasn’t happened and slowly but surely we’re setting up some basic infrastructure like a kitchen area and a tool area!
Before getting in here we made a compass for this place and sanctuary was one of the main ideas that it started pointing to. It’s hard to move at this slower pace and it often hard to move at this tempo, consciously slowing things down.
[Read More]
Amsterdam: Housing justice now! Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 302 squatted
Sunday 23 october, rolling out a giant banner, squatters’ collective Mokum Kraakt announced that it has squatted four days ago Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 302. House peace is set, preventing the police to immediately evict. Here their public statement:
The city is cracking at the seams. The housing crisis is far from over. On top of that the energy and inflation crises are causing daily life as such to be unaffordable. At the same time, real estate investors, landlords and speculators are being pampered while mass tourism and gentrification are wrecking the liveability of the city.
The people of Amsterdam are succumbing under capital’s dead weight. Mokum is succumbing under the lack of space for young people, working people, poor people, refugees and old people. Mokum is succumbing under the stranglehold of the rich and the proprietors and the slow suffocation of alternative culture.
But Mokum fights back. We no longer accept that our city is for the rich only. That the economic and commercial interests of real estate owners are unassailable. That we can no longer give shape to our own city, its culture, the way that we live. And that living space is wasted on vacancy and neglect when most Amsterdammers may soon not be able to afford their flats, their energy or their food. [Read More]
Amsterdam: Squatted hotel Rembrandt evicted
Squatted hotel Rembrandt was evicted on the 15th of October 2022. The eviction happened after only a few days of occupation. According to the court the building was unsafe to reside in. This decision was made in our absence, we were not given the ability to present evidence in our defense and no inspection had taken place.
Even though the biggest part of the building is safe to live in and the stripped part had been closed off, the court decided to evict without a hearing. We wonder if it has something to do with the extremely expensive lawyers of the owner?
The police came by on the 14th of October to announce that we would have to leave, our lawyer confirmed they made this decision and going into high appeal would not call off the eviction. They gave us 3 hours to pack our stuff.
Autonomous Student Struggle (A.S.S.) called for a demonstration in front of the building, to protest against this ridiculous verdict to protect the landlords of the city from homeless students.The police decided not to show themselves until the next morning when they evicted us with their special forces. Resistance ensued in the form of barricades, the occupants could escape before being captured. The owner hired private security to stand in front of the door for the rest of the day. [Read More]
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