Athens (Greece): About the eviction of Bouboulinas 42

On May 2019, Bouboulinas 42 squat began as an answer to the operation of the state (governed by SYRIZA) to evict a series of squats, mostly migrant housing ones and throw hundreds of migrants to the streets or transfer them to concentration camps. It was an answer that came from occupied Gini, which said “we, locals, migrants, solidarians, squatters, realize that our answer must be given in common. That is why we decided to occupy the building of Gini in Polytechnio, as an immediate response to the evictions and to organize the resistance against the repression, the defense of the squats, the neighborhood and our lives.”

From then until its eviction, Bouboulinas squat became the house for hundreds of people that are constantly prosecuted, incarcerated and tortured by the Greek state. The same people who are stripped off of any right to exist, are stigmatized as criminals and scum by the media and a national body hungry for human meat and a cheap labor force. Bouboulinas 42 squat was and is the realization of the desire for a better life and the struggle for freedom and equality beyond nations, religions and gender differences. [Read More]

Zürich (Switzerland): Voices from the occupied Juch

We, and all of us who have entered this space in the last few weeks, have seen what this was and must never be again: a prison. What is clear to all of us is that no one who has seen this space can allow it to be used again for the administration and imprisonment of people. It is inhumane that traumatised people who have fled in the Juch should again be crammed together and monitored.

The SVP says about this occupation at the local council meeting on 6 november 2019: “Apparently some people enjoy more privileges and are not equal before the law, according to the motto: for a few instead of for all”. We say: exactly, talking about tolerance, what about people who are categorized, imprisoned and administered. This state is so far for a few instead of for all – the camps in which people in exile are imprisoned are clear proof of this. The problem isn’t that the repression against a few people who are appropriating space isn’t big enough, the problem is that this system grants some rights that it denies others. The distinction is based solely on where the persons were born. [Read More]

Marseille (France): Demo against the deadly housing crisis

Call for a demo on November 9th, 15AM, Notre Dame du Mont, Collective El Manba and Saint-Just. Everybody in the street against the bad accomodation !

On Saturday, November 9, we will march in memory of the 8 people killed in the collapses of Aubagne Street and Zineb Redouane, murdered by the police. These deaths are not accidents but the result of an urban policy of speculation and profit, which drives out the most vulnerable populations of the city centre.

In Marseille, as elsewhere, the State and its subcontractors in the asylum system (OFII, PADA, 115…) are evading their legal obligations and denying the migrants the housing they are entitled to. Within institutional accommodation, the major funders (ADOMA, Sara Logisol, Forum Réfugiés, Groupe SOS, 3F) zealously apply the State’s directives and support all policies of control, surveillance and deprivation of liberty. [Read More]

Greece: First they take Exarcheia…

Recent evictions of several squats, some housing refugees and migrants, mark the beginning of a new chapter of repression and dissent in Greece. In the autonomous Athens neighborhood of Exarcheia on the morning of Monday, August 26, hundreds of masked riot cops with tear gas at hand cordoned off an entire block. Overhead, helicopters circled the scene.

No one would be blamed for thinking a civil war, or worse, was about to erupt. But no, the Greek state led by the new conservative government was mobilizing its full repressive armada to evacuate several squats occupied by refugees and migrants. Theorist Akis Gavriilidis weighed in:

This affair is a scandalous waste of public funds, for a result that is not only zero but negative in every respect: moral, legal, practical, economic and whatever you can imagine. To detain dozens of refugees — including children — who have committed no crime, to evict them from places where they have lived a dignified life they have helped to shape themselves, with the only prospect of being imprisoned in a hell where they live in much worse conditions, forced to passivity and inactivity. [Read More]

Athens: Reoccupation of Bouboulinas 42. Call to solidarity gathering

Solidarity Gathering now in front of the reoccupied building on Bouboulinas 42

Since February ‘19, an operation has begun of mass evacuation of squats, beginning with the migrant housing squat Arachovis 44 in Exarchia. On 11/4 at 6 in the morning an army of cops evacuate the housing squats Azadi and New Babylon, from where 120 people are detained. Only a week later on 18/4 another operation takes place to evacuate the migrant housing squat Clandestina and Cyclope.

We understand this attack on all fronts against the squats and self-organized structures, with Exarchia at its centre, as an attack that serves the media profile of state and government, so as to appear as guarantor of security, law and order, and of the interestes of bosses and ladlords. The operations against the housing squats were accompanied by house raids in places for which the cops had information about drug dealing, so that all this may be presented as an operation against drugs. The result of these operations is that many of the squat residents are now imprisoned in the hellholes of the state, while the rest are left homeless.

This operation is taking place at a time with very specific characteristics. The total isolation and trap that migrants experience in greec -and in exarchia those who don’t have papers- sooner or later will fuel social eruptions. Either in the form of Eidomenis and Diavata, that is of the violent assertion that the borders be abolished, or in the form of self-organized struggles, such as housing squats. At the same time, the intensification of contradictions is reinforced by the big heads of the e.u.: the evictions of families from the homes provided by ngos is imminent, since the big capital considers that its high time these people enter the labour market, ideal flesh for the slave trade of capitalism. [Read More]

Athens: Solidarity action for the evicted squats

In the morning hours of April 19th we attacked with fire the Ministry of Culture in Exarchia. This attack was pitched, because Clandestina, the squat housing migrants, which was evicted in the morning of 18 april, is owned by the Ministry of Culture. That same morning the anarchofeminist squat Cyclopi was evicted as well. A few days ago, squats housing migrants such as Azadi, New Babylon and Arachovis 44 (with single men) were also evicted.

As for Exarchia, the strategy of gentrification has already started and the evictions (or the demolitions) of squats, the ban for anti-authoritarian events at Strefi hill, the AirBnB’s that keep popping up, the upcoming metro station in the area, the green economy that is spreading rapidly, the cops that are permanently guarding the area overall, are parts of the visible part of the “invisible” war that has been declared by state and capital.

In the network of the metropolis the most totalitarian human tendencies are expressed through relationships. Only target: the accumulation of capital from every possible production field, from every “innovative” consummation field. And Exarchia couldn’t get away from this plan. The capitalist invasion is war. And this war, besides the consciously- politicized subjects, aims the people that are not considered productive and exploitable, such as migrants without papers, “illegal” street vendors, expropriators and substance users. We, by practically showing our solidarity, take position in this war, choose to stand by to every oppressed person and to remind the state that no attack and no eviction will stay unanswered. [Read More]

Call for Solidarity with the Imprisoned of Operazione Scintilla, Italy

Summary of the recent repressive operation in Italy in connection with the resistance against the Italian migration regime.

On Thursday 7 February 2019, at 4:40 a.m., the eviction of the squat Asilo Occupato in Via Alessandria 12 in Turin, occupied since 1995, began. The eviction was carried out as part of the Operazione Scintilla (Operation Spark). Several hundred Carabinieri in riot gear, police officers and Guardia di finanza with machine guns and plain clothes police not only evicted the house, but also arrested six anarchists. A seventh person is still being searched for.

The charges are serious: formation of a subversive association, incitement to crime and the possession, manufacture and transportation of explosives in a public place. The charges are related to the resistance against the Italian migration regime, namely against the deportation camps/prisons CPR and CIE (Centro per l’Immigrazione e il Rimpatrio, Immigration and Repatriation Centre: Centro di identificazione ed espulsione, Identification and Deportation Centre).

The Asilo was evicted as part of this operation because the state regards it as the logistical and operational base of this subversive, insurrectional association. The eviction of the Asilo was delayed by the squatters for 36 hours because some of them had retreated to the roofs. In the meantime, sympathizers organized wild demos in the city, where there were clashes with the police. The Asilo was made uninhabitable in the last few days (destruction inside, bricked up windows, etc.). [Read More]

Oulx (Italy): a new self-managed shelter is born

Today (December 9, 2018), the Oulx cantonal house (Casa Cantoniera Occupata) was opened, an empty building that has been unused for decades. From today it will be given new life. Against borders and the system that supports and determines them. Against the Salvini Decree and its policy of repression and war against the poor. For a world where everyone and everyone can choose where and how to live.

The situation at the border continues to worsen: the growing militarization, the winter has arrived. The increasingly strong system of control and management that is imposed on all those who, without the piece of paper considered “right”, continue to want to cross this line called the border. The self-managed Chez Jesus Refuge, the occupied space under the church of Claviere, was evicted almost two months ago. Since then, more and more people are getting lost and risking their lives or limbs in the mountains, without information or suitable clothing to face the journey. Without the space and time to get organized, rest, leave again. And under the constant watchful eye of the various police forces that try to prevent contact between those on the road and those in solidarity. This place also wants to be this. A self-managed refuge for those who are passing through, and need more time to organize themselves than the night hours offered by the Salesians. A place to organize against the borders on these mountains as well as against the borders in the city, and the system related to them. [Read More]

Susa Valley: Chez Jesus in Claviere evicted. Call for solidarity

This morning, October 10, very early, the Italian police evicted the squat located in the parish hall of Claviere, where migrants were temporarily sheltered. Among the people present were three undocumented migrants and several supporters. The people were quickly removed from their home. The police broke everything inside the place and then took out all the belongings.

The fifteen supporters who were present inside were rounded up for several hours in the garden. The three undocumented people were taken elsewhere and are reportedly free. After checking their identities and “files”, they were released but charged with illegal occupation in a meeting.

Since this winter, this self-managed place allowed migrants, harassed by the police, to find a place to rest before crossing the mountain. This place was crucial to fight against the racist policy of the French and Italian governments, as they collected testimonies of police violence and they opposed this policy by helping the migrants who passed through (children and adults). They were preparing them to cross the mountain, where too many people die during this crossing. [Read More]

Dijon (France): Large refugee squat evicted

Yesterday (10/7/18) early morning French police, with assistance from border police evicted the XXL Squat in Dijon, where about hundred asylum seekers lived. During the eviction, twenty-four people were detained by the border police. The eviction was enforced despite of the ongoing negotiations with the property owner.

The building have been occupied since August 2016. Apart for providing home to many people, it also hosted a number of projects, including French language classes and legal assistance group, medical and social spaces.
[Read More]

Amsterdam: We Are Here at the Entrada 600 in Duivendrecht

7 july 2018, Amsterdam – Refugee collective We Are Here, who previously stayed in a squat in Amstelveen, took the unoccupied building on the Entrada 600 in Amsterdam-Duivendrecht.

The offices space was empty and unused. Unfortunately, we are forced to get shelter in this way, because otherwise we have to roam the streets. the BBB is overcrowded and has a waiting list and in the Havenstraat only people with a Dublin claim are welcome.
In addition, the Havenstraat is a former prison and that can be felt in the daily controls we must endure. Recently one of our members was arrested because he asked for food because of this diabetes and this was refused. We do not feel safe in such an environment and ask for 24/7 shelter.
There are municipal plans to realize this 24/7 for undocumented people, but that will certainly take until end of the year before it is realized. We would love work and rent a house ourselves.
We intend to live here quietly and build a good relationship with the neighborhood and offices around us. We would like to meet fellow residents who are always welcome to come and have a cup of coffee with us. [Read More]

Amstelveen (NL): We Are Here lose courtcase

The We Are Here group lost in court and can be evicted from their new place in Amstelveen from midday today onwards.

Translation from indymedia