Paris: Eviction from the Saint-Denis Canal migrant camp

Nearly 1,500 migrants were “sheltered” on Wednesday when they were expelled from the Aubervilliers camp north of Paris. The associations fear the reformation of a camp within a few weeks. They denounce the repeated dismantling without any real solution.

The migrant camp located along the Saint-Denis canal in Aubervilliers, in the north of Paris, was evicted on Wednesday 29 July. As early as 6am, a large police presence squared the area, where nearly 1,500 people were settled.

“This operation is the logical continuation of all the operations we have been carrying out for several months,” Paris police prefect Didier Lallement, who was present at the scene, told reporters. “I wanted to evacuate the camps on the outskirts of Paris and make sure that migrants do not gather in the camps for the entire Paris police force and the three neighbouring departments” he added. [Read More]

Paris: At the Saint-Denis canal camp, migrants are “left to die”

This Wednesday, July 29th, the camp of the Saint-Denis canal in Aubervilliers should be dismantled by the authorities announced associations helping migrants. The camp welcomes more than 1200 people in extremely precarious conditions. An eviction which is nothing new, the “sheltering” or “evacuations”, in the words of the authorities, is repeated tirelessly in France. A problem that the authorities refuse to tackle.

Between Aubervilliers and Saint Denis, along the canal, Brahim comes out of his tent crushed by the sun. He explains that he has been there for 3 months, with his wife and his newborn baby. Like the others, he lines up in spite of the heat to get antibacterial hand gel, masks, T-shirts and a bit of shampoo. An aid distributed by the association Utopia 56, Brahim, desperate, searches the five boxes of old clothes lying on the quayside: “this place is not possible for my child” he explains, “it’s just not possible. Is this Europe? France is like Africa?! My life is shattered. “The rule: one health kit, one T-shirt, one pair of pants per person, no more. Everyone has to be able to help themselves. In the end, nearly 150 people take advantage of the distribution, but soon the stocks leave. There are only too big pants left. [Read More]

Paris: Dramatic growth of informal migrant camp at Aubervilliers

In just one month, the number of migrants living in the Aubervilliers camp in the Paris region has more than doubled, from 400 in mid-June to around 1,000 in mid-July. While arrivals are expected to continue over the next few weeks, NGOs denounce the failure of the French reception system.

In the Aubervilliers camp, the number of migrants has more than doubled in just one month. In mid-June, aid groups estimated that there were around 400 people living under the Stains bridge along the Saint-Denis canal in the north of Paris. In mid-July, France Land of Asylum (FTDA) said it counted some 1,000 migrants in the camp.

“And by August, there will be at least 1,500 of them,” predicted FTDA Director General Pierre Henry. “It’s always the same thing, we’ve been going in circles for years,” he said. [Read More]

Montreuil (Paris-banlieue): eviction of l’Écharde

07:25am, Wednesday 27th of March 2019:

Eviction of l’Écharde, 19 rue Garibaldi, in Montreuil (Paris, métro Robespierre). Come now to support the squatters!

Gathering tonight against all evictions, at 07:00pm , at the end of avenue de la Résistance, in Montreuil (métro Croix-de-Chavaux).

Trespass Journal Issue Three

We’re glad to finally present Issue 3 of Trespass Journal!

In this issue, which is online and freely distributed, you’ll find a translation from English to Dutch of a journal article about how a moral panic was generated to enforce the criminalisation of squatting in the Netherlands and a translation to French of a brief text about migration on Idomeni in Greece, near to Macedonia, which was previously published in Trespass 2 in Italian.

As interventions in five languages, we have an analysis of the lack of support to the ZAD in Brittany, plus short pieces about the opening of a new anarchist social centre in the Paris suburbs, community resistance to preserve a park in London, the demolition of a community gym in Athens, an (unsuccessful) eviction threat in Catania, and an eviction in Catalonia. And a report on the resquat of the watertower in Utrecht! There’s plenty more news and analysis on this website.
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Montreuil (Paris-banlieue): opening of l’Écharde

Monday October 1st, 2018, while Jardin d’Alice‘s docile artists were giving back their building’s keys (at 19 rue Garibaldi, in Montreuil), about thirty people came to disrupt their plans, occupying the building. After three years of caretaking, this space was about to be given back to Nexity, French “master” of property business, who is managing the building on behalf of the EPFIF (Public Land Office of the Paris region). While the state is trying to empty the meaning of housing struggles by signing precarious occupancy agreements to artists (like Jardin d’Alice) and zadists, while the left-wing mayors talk about requisitioning to scrounge a few ballot papers, we, like many others, are squatting. [Read More]

Montreuil (Paris, France): About the demonstration “Let’s occupy the houses, destroy the prisons”

Friday, February 16, we met up at 19h at the Croix de Chavaux in Montreuil for a demo against rents, evictions and jail.
Some CRS and plain clothes cops are posted at the end of the pedestrian street. We set ourselves up anyway, some music, a few banners and little by little we are about 250 people. Talks are linked (why this demo, the Bara collective, a short account of the story of A., on the occupation at the University of Paris-8, the Gambetta collective, …). [Read More]

Montreuil/Paris (France): Occupy houses, destroy prisons! Demo next February 16th

Demonstration, Friday February 16th, 2018, at 7pm.
Meeting point at the entrance of the pedestrian street, metro Croix-de-Chavaux, in Montreuil.

Housing problems in Montreuil?

Obviously yeah! Here it’s a pain to find a place to stay when you don’t have the good papers, the good guarantors, the good payslip or problems with the CAF (French social welfare). A pain for those who don’t want to, or can’t, bend themselves to all the conditions asked by the owner, wait for years for social housing, bite the bullet at each financial aid for housing reform. [Read More]

Paris (France): squatter sentenced to 1 year in prison for attempted burglary

On Tuesday 24th October 2017, several comrades tried to enter an empty house to make it their home, but the property was equipped with an alarm system. All the comrades managed to flee except one, who was arrested and detained. The cops launched a burglary investigation, even though the house was unoccupied and the owners themselves later acknowledged that nothing had been taken. [Read More]

Montreuil/Paris (France): Solidarity with the 3 Anarchist Women Prisoners Awaiting Trial for ‘Attempted Burglary’ of an Unoccupied House

Three women were arrested, detained and imprisoned at Fleury-Mérogis Prison, accused of ‘meeting for the purposes of attempted burglary’ after they were seen near an unoccupied house. A rally has been called for them at 18:00hrs in Montreuil.

On the night of Tuesday 14 to Wednesday, November 15, three women were arrested on a street in Montreuil and taken to the police station. A ‘vigilant neighbour’ saw them near an unoccupied house and called the cops. They were then placed in custody for ‘meeting for the purposes of attempted burglary’. They did not say anything during their interrogation and refused to give their fingerprints and photos, which is why they are also accused of ‘refusal of identification’. [Read More]

Saint-Denis (France): Social centre l’Attiéké evicted

Today, at 6:30 am on August 17, 2017, l’Attiéké, the self-organized and inhabited social centre in Saint-Denis [in Paris northern suburbs], was evicted with the help of cops of all kinds, bailiffs, president and manager of the Fédération Française de Triathlon (owner of the building). The inhabitants were able to leave without arrest and recover some stuff. The rest of the belongings left for storage in another city in the Paris region and will likely be recovered in the days to come. [Read More]

Paris: Against states and their borders

This text on the wave of sans-papiers occupations in Paris tells important lessons for those involved in migrant struggles on the strategies used by liberal democratic states to contain them. If we anticipate these moves, how can we pre-empt them? And what strategic targets are based near you?

Original French text in Lucioles #23 with the title ‘Against states and their borders: revolution’; roughly translated by Rabble.
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