Amsterdam: Take back Mokum! Hotel Marnix squatted during ADEV

By: fawda - October 16th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

During the ADEV (Amsterdam Danst Ergens Voor) demonstration on 16 October 2021, former Hotel Marnix was squatted on Marnixstraat 382. Statement from Pak Mokum Terug! action group :

Amsterdam is in crisis. Housing is unaffordable. People with low and middle incomes are being chased out of the city. There is no room for young people. The commercialization of the center has attracted masses of tourists who make the city unlivable, while property owners, investors and large companies enrich themselves endlessly. There is no room for alternative culture. Amsterdam is losing its soul.

We, the collective Pak Mokum Terug! (Get Mokum Back!) are young Amsterdammers who have had enough. We no longer want to accept the trend that our city can only be inhabited by the rich. That economic and commercial interests are all-important. That we cannot shape our city, its culture, the way we live, ourselves. Therefore we claim the city, we claim the space for the people of Amsterdam, we take back Mokum. [Read More]

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Lyon: for immediate and permanent rehousing of those evicted from the Feyzin squat

By: fawda - September 21st, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Press release following the occupation of the Clémenceau gymnasium on Thursday 16 September, feedback on the course of the occupation and the negotiations with the prefecture.

On Thursday 16 September at 7:30 am, the eviction without prior notice of the Feyzin squat was allowed by a huge police force. It seems that neither the prefecture, nor the DDCS, nor the Ofii, nor the Metropolis, nor the Salvation Army, considered it necessary to warn the inhabitants of an operation which seemed to have been planned for weeks. Many people had, the day before, left the squat after the information had leaked, for fear of the police intervention. They were therefore not taken into account in the accommodation system (despite social diagnoses which normally lead to care even in the absence of the inhabitants at the time of the eviction). The figures given by the prefecture and the press are therefore largely underestimated. Out of 120 to 150 people counted in the squat, only about 50 people were taken by bus to the Chabal barracks, an accommodation center in Saint Priest known for its undignified reception conditions. If 14 people “refused” the offer of accommodation, it is because it was conditioned to an assisted voluntary return, which simply consists in accepting to be deported. Do we have to remind the prefecture once again that these people are here to stay and that neither their presence nor their right to unconditional accommodation is negotiable? At the end of this operation, and without counting the people who have been lost, at least thirty people, alone or with their families, found themselves on the street that day. [Read More]

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Lyon: occupation of the Clémenceau gymnasium for immediate and permanent rehousing of those evicted from the Feyzin squat

By: fawda - September 16th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

This morning, Thursday 16 September, around 7:30 am, without prior notice, more than 20 vans of the national and municipal police, CRS units, PAF (Border Police), accompanied by representatives of the prefecture, the town hall, DDETS/DDCS, Ofii and the Salvation Army, deployed a huge operation to evict the Feyzin squat, the former Georges Brassens school. Since February 2020, the place was sheltering 100 to 200 people, families and isolated people, and was under pressure, threats and lawsuits from the owner, the multinational Total.

No one, neither residents, nor supporters, nor associations, had been officially warned of the intervention. Most of the inhabitants were not able to recover all their belongings. Would it be more important for the institutions responsible for providing unconditional housing for everyone to protect Total’s image from yet another scandal than to respect the residents and their right to housing? [Read More]

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Amsterdam: squat action attempt on Gravenstraat and police brutality

By: fawda - September 14th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Today 12 september there was an attempt to squat Gravenstraat 26-28 on the day of the Housing Protest. Thousands of people took the streets to demonstrate against the so-called housing crisis – the shortage and exploitation in the housing market, the lack of affordable housing and the disproportionate increase in rents.

The police used excessive force to beat us away from the place that was to become our new home. From the moment we arrived at the demonstration, certain activists were excessively watched by the police and even arrested for wearing an anti-Nazi symbol. From the beginning, the police were out to repress and arrest activists. Police brutality escalated as soon as we arrived at Dam Square. We were beaten up, dragged out of the crowd by silent cops, and some of us were even beaten to the ground and walked over by cops until we were bloody. The police deliberately chose to escalate and we even heard them say that they deliberately “went full on”. [Read More]

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Bern: Worbstrasse 104 and 108 squatted

By: fawda - September 13th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

We are a creative and mixed collective. We all share the desire for free space, self-organized culture and living space. We have already contacted the municipality of Muri.

The two listed houses have unfortunately been empty for some time since the municipality of Muri stopped offering emergency housing. Now the bourgeois city of Bern is supposed to buy the houses. The city already owns many properties and only the planned small farm store would be accessible to the general public.

The two houses are part of the Schürmattsareal, which is to be developed. In the guideline plan of the development of the Schürmatt, it says: “To promote the quality of the open space” a “central meeting point and event location” should be created in addition to a “play and recreation area”. We would like to contribute many ideas and possibilities to this with our occupation. For this purpose we want to create a space for discussions and new ideas. [Read More]

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Susa Valley: former customs squatted in Claviere, statement against all borders

By: fawda - July 31st, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Today 31 july 2021, we have occupied Claviere’s ex customs, the Dagona Occupata. The building place that represented both border’s control and repression, and free circulation of products and tourists, now becomes a self-organized refuge, a space for political organization and direct solidarity, free and open to everyone.
We decided to occupy again to maintain a presence on the border and as a response to the previous evictions of Chez Jesus in Claviere (october 2018) and the Casa Cantoniera in Oulx (march 2021).
Following the last eviction, we came back to Claviere with a permanent camping, this is the place where people on the move are being pushed back during their journey by the repressive dispositives/forces of both the italian and french state. [Read More]

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Uithuizen: Villa Tocama squatted

By: fawda - July 27th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Uithuizen, the Netherlands – Since last weekend Villa Tocama is inhabited again. Concerned citizens have occupied the historical building on the Dingeweg 3 in Uithuizen, also the land around it.

Activist Jan on the reasons for occupying Villa Tocama:
”The property has been bought by the Woonbedrijf Aardbevingsgebied Groningen Foundation (SWAG). Swag is 100 percent owned by the Dutch state and is financed by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and is used as a purchasing tool for the various buyout programs. According to their own website, they act in the public interest and without a profit motive, have a specific focus on the liveability in the area and manage the acquired properties to prevent vacancy, deterioration, squatting and vandalism. Unfortunately, it remains with this general vision, because practice shows a very different picture.”

Currently, the foundation owns 35 properties. Of those properties, 3 are used as temporary housing and 8 are in use through vacancy management (anti-squat). Of the remaining 24 properties, no use, destination or future vision can be found in the foundation’s overviews. [Read More]

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London: The Serious Annoyance continue to trespass despite judgement

By: fawda - July 22nd, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Freedom Newspaper received the following communique from squatters occupying the former Camberwell police station in South London. The group, known as the Serious Annoyance, lost the legal battle to remain in possession of the property on Tuesday July 20th but remain in occupation in defiance of the granting of an interim possession order (IPO). This high court judgement criminalises anyone remaining in the property from 2.30pm on Wednesday onwards, meaning that the occupiers face arrest and potentially up to six months imprisonment for failing to leave. They have been in occupation since July 9th, when they released this initial statement and are calling for people to support by sharing their story and being present on the street outside pending the threatened eviction.

The police station occupation is part of the resurgent militant squatting movement that has coalesced from a mixture of anarchists, environmental protesters and travellers against the proposed new anti-trespass laws being brought forward by the UK government. The new laws are seen as an outright attack on those from nomadic cultures, as well as against the burgeoning anti-HS2 protest movement. A former police station was occupied earlier this year in response to the Sarah Everard murder, as well as last year in Paddington Green, and previously back in 2014. [Read More]

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Gros-de-Vaud: armed offensive of the owners against the resquatted Auberge d’Etagnières

By: fawda - July 9th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Since Saturday, a collective has been occupying the old hostel and pizzeria in Etagnières in the Gros-de-Vaud region. The owner and his henchmen came, armed, in order to evict us.

“We will kill you”.

This Thursday 8 july at 15:00, the owner accompanied by a dozen acolytes armed with pickaxes, sledgehammers, a giant bolt cutter and a grinder attacked the Auberge d’Etagnières, which we have been occupying since Saturday, with the firm intention of evicting us and doing us harm. “We are going to kill you” they repeated several times. The owner and his men broke some of the windows on the first floor and broke down the front door. Barricaded urgently on the top floor, we repeatedly reminded them of the numerous violations of Swiss law they were committing, encouraged them to file a complaint and to go through legal channels. The police had already noticed our presence on Monday evening and warned the owner of the squatting procedures. Instead of complying with the legal framework by filing a complaint, he decided to take justice into his own hands. In this country, the minority of landlords think they are above the law, since it is of course forbidden for the landlord to take justice into his own hands, although we are protected by the law of the lease. [Read More]

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London: Squatters take Camberwell Cop Shop (2.0)

By: xxx - July 9th, 2021  Filed under: News

The Serious Annoyance has returned to occupy the empty Camberwell Police Station, Camberwell Church St SE5, as we continue in our fight to #killthebill and highlight the destructive role of the police.

This week, the draconian PCSC Bill passed its third reading in the commons as the state continues to enforce the expansion of police powers that do nothing but increase the ruling class’s ability to repress us. We know the cops don’t protect us – their resources aren’t focused on catching so-called “criminals”, but on protecting the wealth and power of the capitalist class. We also know that no demand to defund the police is enough – the bastard Tories have already been defunding the police for years! As all these empty cop shops prove… Instead we must build a world which abolishes the police by organsing our own communities and making the cops completely unnecessary.We do not and we will not accept increased police powers which effectively ban protest and criminalise trespass, something which amounts to the ethnic cleansing of the GRT community in the UK by making a travelling life impossible. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Anarcha-Feminist Group Squat a building on Kinkerstraat 16, Medusa Squat & Social Centre

By: fawda - July 1st, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Today we announce our new squat on the Kinkerstraat 16.

We have been living on the Kinkerstraat 16 for about a week now. After many tries it seems that we have now managed to avoid a speed eviction and we might actually be able to stay for some time- though all squats are temporary and under neo-liberal, late capitalism, precarity has become the norm, something that does not just apply for squats. The time to get organised, to built alternative structures that are directly opposed to and in conflict with the structures of the state – is now! We call on all Flint* people who agree with our manifesto and who have a willingness to participate to join us. This space belongs to all that struggle against capitalism, the state and the patriarchy. For us that dream of a world where we can all be free and equal, without hierarchies and cages. If you have an idea for an event, want to use to space to organise in, or want to help out, please get in touch by writing an email. [Read More]

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Ghent: opening of the Blauwhuis

By: fawda - June 19th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Since this morning, the Blauwhuis in Nazareth (Belgium) is open. The farmstead and the land around it belong to the Ghent public patrimony and are sold on the private market. The squatting of the Blauwhuis is an indictment of the privatization of our public housing and land, especially when we see how many people do not have access to (decent) housing and nutritious meals. We give the homes to those who need them and the land to the farmers without land, so that food from the Ghent countryside comes to the city again.
For sustainable agriculture, a sustainable investment policy, food sovereignty and sustainable coexistence.

Against the privatization of public property, against the concept of ‘not growing = dead flourishing’, against hunger and against the housing shortage, against profit maximization at the expense of the citizens of Ghent [Read More]

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