Since Friday afternoon 9 october, the Dete as well as the street directly in front of the house are occupied by squatters and sympathisers. During the weekend there was a street party, together with the neighbors, there were music, people’s kitchen, games and a lot of solidarity (spontaneously with about 50 people).
On Monday, in the early morning hours came the information that the government wanted to clear out the occupation. On site, the cops requested to remove the barricades and to clear the street. The barricades were reinforced, cops seemed to be completely overwhelmed and did not try to clear the street despite the announcement.
Thanks to the cooperation and efforts of many people, which seemed to have come out of nowhere, it was possible to set a great example. There are night watchers, a live ticker, a legal team, people’s kitchens, people are always on site, sofas, tables were brought, fire places, barricades are holding strong. [Read More]
Bremen: news about the Dete occupation
Winterthur: Zensur, a new occupation for a social centre
We occupied the building on Talackerstrasse 99 this Friday evening. After it has been vacant for more than 3 years, we want to bring life to the former Sulzer office building and establish a social and cultural center.
The building is currently “owned” by Implenia, which is a driving force in the development of Winterthur into a “City of the Rich” with major projects such as LokStadt and the gentrification process of Hegi.
With the ZENSUR we want to create a space that enables people to implement projects without a lot of money. So that everyone can afford to be creative, do sports, show films and organize discussions. Every person should be able to contribute to the ZENSUR with his or her suggestions and skills to fulfill and realize their wishes and ideas collectively. [Read More]
Paris: Squat Le Marbré, a new space to bring our struggles to life in Montreuil
Squat Le Marbré made itself known following the visit of the cops and the property manager on September 16 2020. Many people responded to the call for support that day and the following ones, and it was too much fun. Following a collective opening of the buildings and because we want this place to be self-organized, decisions will be made in a regular open general assembly of the place. We want to fight against all forms of authority and formal or informal hierarchies, both outside and inside the place. For us this means fighting all forms of domination and oppression.
This occupation is based on a refusal: the one of having to work and struggle to pay rent in the south part of Montreuil that is constantly gentrifying, whether to live or to organize. This space is part of a struggle against the capitalist valorization of the neighborhood, which always ends up pushing the poor away to make way for the richest and their small, uneventful meadow. No meadow, no precariousness!
Le Marbré wants to be a non-market place. Reflections have been initiated on the practice: operating at a free price, favoring moments of sociability without consumerism… [Read More]
Mexico City: Occupation of national human rights commission
Mexican women have occupied the headquarters of the national human rights commission (CNDH) in the capital Mexico City. They have promised to stay until the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Amlo) recognises the rights of women instead of allowing the high levels of sexual violence and murder to continue. Eleven women are killed every day in Mexico and 98% of murders go unsolved. Predictably, Amlo focused more on the hilarious vandalism going on than the activists’ concerns. Inside the buildings slogans have been painted and various paintings have been improved. Pictures taken by the only tolerated press photographer Andrea Murcia (Inst@usagii_ko) have lit up the internet. She has known the occupiers from the beginning and therefore is trusted by them.
An adulterated portrait of Francisco I. Madero (pictured, 33rd president of Mexico) has received the most attention online. As well it should, it looks great now, gotta love the ACAB. The original artist doesn’t like to collaborate it seems, saying “The most outrageous thing is that they believe that losing respect for the characters who made our Mexican history will solve the lack of the kind of government that we all deserve.” In response, Yesenia Zamudio on of the occupiers said “If he doesn’t agree with us painting the painting, I don’t agree with that my daughter was murdered and that for five years nobody has helped me.” [Quotes]
[Read More]
Paris: Call for support for a new squat in Montreuil
A new squatted space, Le Marbré opens in Montreuil at 1 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau and is already threatened with eviction. The so-called owner passed by this morning together with the cops and he wants the eviction to be carried out as soon as possible. “If we evict them fast enough they won’t have time to bring back reinforcements.”
In these buildings that have been abandoned for 4 years, in addition to spaces that are inhabited, we will set up spaces for political organization for autonomous collectives that are not linked to parties, unions or associations that already have so much space to act. We want this place to be used for meetings and assemblies, workshops, spaces for sharing and free of charge (solidarity canteens and grocery stores, infoshop, library…). The idea is that any individual, informal group, or collective that fights against the State, capitalism, patriarchy, racism, psychophobia and the different forms of oppression could invest this space.
Our presence is also part of a desire to fight against the gentrification of the neighborhood. The so-called landlord practices real estate speculation and has plans to build housing that will benefit his wallet and encourage gentrification. [Read More]
Barcelona: Massana school occupation
The abandoned Massana School, has been occupied for a soup kitchen and emergency accommodation. The action has been vindicated by the Housing Union and the Raval Mutual Support Network. The occupation which was made public at the end of a protest procession that started at 8 pm on June 23rd in Plaza Salvador Seguí, was attended by about 250 people.
This occupation is not the only one that has existed in the old Massana School. In the spring of 2018, a group of immigrants had occupied to denounce the job insecurity experienced by the group and to demand solutions from the administrations.
The groups denounce the state of a building “abandoned for years by the institutions” and declared that it will become the “base of operations of the popular movement of the Raval”.
“We warn the institutions that we intend to stay, and that for every step they take against us, we will take three,” they said in a statement read minutes after the occupation was made public. The intention of the occupation is to provide a place in the Mutual Support Network, the Housing Union and the Popular Food Network.
Excerpted from Iberia: Hundreds of Mutual Aid networks as Covid Collapses Capitalism
Leipzig: Ludwigstraße 71 squatted
Press release – occupation Ludwigstraße 71, August 22nd 2020
The occupation of Ludwigstraße 71 has survived the first night. Activists are still staying in the apartment building. According to the LVZ the owner should come to Leipzig on Wednesday and be ready to talk to the activists. Until then the house is under police observation.
“We would be pleased if the owner would also contact us directly”, says Kaya from Leipzig Besetzen. Since the beginning of the occupation, the group emphasized its willingness to conduct negotiations on an equal basis and presented a utilization concept.
“We expect restraint from the police,” agrees Sasha, also from Leipzig Besetzen. The day before, there had been an increased police presence in the neighboring streets. In the meantime, police officers tried to gain access to the building from Mariannenstraße. To do this, the police blocked the front doors of adjacent residential buildings when residents left them. Additionally there were harassment of passers-by by police officers. [Read More]
Montpellier: Families evicted, buildings occupied!
On July 10 2020, in front of associations, collectives, squatters and unions, while the préfet was reassuring about the squats situation during the summer, and was only talking about the “problematic” situation of the former Institut Bouisson Bertrand, he was actually preparing evictions for the 23rd. Evictions that affected two buildings in the city centre, putting around 50 vulnerable people and families on the street, and others in detention in CRA. The generous solution provided: 3 nights in a hotel and a return to the violence of the tent in the street.
Knowing the CV of the current préfet of the Hérault, Jacques Witkowski, we had not believed in his promise of the 10th, and therefore decided to squat this building owned by the council which had remained empty and walled up for too long, since 15 July, in order to rehouse the people that Jacques put outside during the heat wave, and during the biggest health crisis we have experienced since the beginning of the century, thus directly endangering the people concerned and the population of Montpellier. [Read More]
Zürich: new wagenplatz taken
Today 31 july, we have taken the space between Bernerstrasse, Aargauerstrasse and Depotweg to create a wagenplatz here. A home is now being created here, a non-commercial place where we want to live in a self-determined way. We also want to give a strong signal against the expulsion of the middle and low-income earners from the quarters and the city centre, which is actively driven by the city.
Zurich West now resembles a Lego landscape consisting of overpriced apartments, hotel complexes and office buildings. Living in the city is becoming increasingly expensive, affordable housing is scarce. The city of Zurich is actively driving this development, as was made clear with the example of the Juch eviction to make space for trucks to turn around.
We are not fundamentally against parking lots and trucks, but we do revive them! [Read More]
Zürich: Juch resists! New occupations
This evening June 20th, Grimselstrasse 18 and 20, Saumackerstrasse 67 and 69 have been squatted. The squatters* took these spaces in response to the Juch eviction on 23rd May.
If you evict one space, we* will open a new one!
Exactly one month ago today, the Social Department of the City of Zurich filed a criminal complaint and subsequently had the Juch area evicted by a large contingent of the Zurich City Police. This is only because the neighboring stadium construction site of HRS Real Estate seems to need more space to turn its trucks around and thus expand its empire as quickly and profitably as possible on behalf of the city. Marco Cortesi (spokesperson for the Zurich city police) also stressed in an interview in front of the freshly evicted area that the main thing now was to immediately make the area uninhabitable and then guard it with private security forces. Even the left-wing parties of the city of Zurich complain that it is extremely questionable and inappropriate to destroy residential and cultural spaces for a building site installation, and wrote in a jointly published media release: “For us it is clear: the demolition of buildings for the use of an area as parking space is unacceptable. Although no meaningful use was promised and a shady deal between the city of Zurich and HRS was settled without any transparency, the squatters* had to leave the Juch area. It cannot be said often enough: This is outrageous from the city of Zurich! We are furious! [Read More]
Dijon: Land occupation on Avenue de Langres
Statement from the June 17 Collective – Land occupation in Dijon as part of the June 17 appeal against the repeated intoxication of the world!
Today wednesday June 17th 2020, despite the rain, we were nearly four hundred people to demonstrate from the Place de la République to the abandoned plot located at 63 avenue de Langres. Armed with spades and pitchforks, the participants were able to clear the land to make gardens, set up new meeting and breathing spaces in the heart of the neighbourhood, plant vegetables, debate the common future on this land and beyond, or share a meal.
This land is threatened by a real estate project carried by the council which, with a great deal of “greenwashing” communication, is trying to impose yet another useless urban plan. According to the INSEE, there are more than 6000 vacant homes in the commune of Dijon alone. Except for the municipality – which wants to grow at all costs to establish its status as a “metropolis” – for whom is it a priority to have more new housing? [Read More]
Strasbourg: La Pigeonne, feminist and queer squat
Why are we squatting?
We, women and queer people, feminists, precarious, exiled and marginalised on several levels, are occupying a building in Strasbourg that has been abandoned for several years. Since February 27th 2020, La Pigeonne has become a squat for housing and organization in a selected mix (without cisgender men*).
As women and queers, we are targets of physical, sexual, economic, social and administrative violence. We suffer more poverty and precariousness. We claim our unconditional right to have a roof over our heads. We find it aberrant to be on the street, to lack care or food while the wealthy one are wasting and continue to enrich themselves. Precariousness has never been a choice for anyone. It is the result of a political, organized and reaffirmed will of the dominant to maintain an exploitable class. Neither the institutions nor the bosses want our autonomy. On the contrary, they participate daily in our precariousness.
Therefore, our priorities are to protect ourselves, to build solidarity among ourselves, to denounce together a patriarchal society and an economic system that sacrifices the most vulnerable. For a social transformation and the emancipation of all women and queer people, we favour initiatives made by us and for us.
In the face of the incompetence of the state, the violence of its institutions, and its sexist, queerphobic and racist police repression that is increasingly violent and systematic, we organize ourselves. We are occupying the space we are being denied. [Read More]
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