Ljubljana: Public statement of the assembly of the Rog Factory users

By: fawda - June 8th, 2016  Filed under: Communique

20160606_Avtonomna_Tovarne_ROG_LjubljanaThe question of the Rog Factory is a political question. After Monday’s morning, it is in our interest, as well as in the interest of the municipality of Ljubljana, to calm the situation down. However, in contrast to the municipality, we are in full control of the situation. The Rog Factory is today a de facto autonomous area and we, the people of Rog, are also controlling the entry. Before Monday’s aggression by the security sent by the municipality, the entry was under the control of the security company Valina. After Monday’s brutality, Valina is not welcome in the Rog Factory anymore. We will be protecting the entry by ourselves.

The municipality was the one who provoked the tensions by sending payed violent securities upon us. The mayor is personally choosing the violent means, we are only responding defensively. On Monday we proved that we are successful in doing so. It is of most perversion that the mayor, Zoran Janković, is now avoiding taking responsibility for the acts of his own securities. No one will carry out violence against us and we hope that Mr. Janković knows that. Every arbitrary step taken by the municipality made us stronger, and the farce that they performed on Monday forced us into full action. The movement is alive and well organized; it includes new and organized structures and is composed of more than one hundred individuals. We are prepared for new attempts of interventions into our community and we are convinced that we will ward them off successfully. [Read More]

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Koper (Slovenia): Defend the factory ROG!

By: fawda - June 7th, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News

201606_Autonomous_Factory_ROG_LjubljanaWe all know that the factory Rog is being threatened with demolition by the mayor of Ljubljana, which was planned for June, 14 2016. Today, June, 6, an attack was carried out at 3:15 AM. A bunch of security guards used severe violence on people and the police that was also present there, allowed it. Now there are barricades in front of the main entrance.

A PROTEST AGAINST THE DEMOLITION OF ROG is being called for at Petkovškovo nabrežje (the rear side of the factory).
We urge all those of you who care for autonomous spaces to join us in defending Rog. Your presence will help, so come whenever you have the time, up until June, 14.

Together we will defend ROG!! [Read More]

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Ljubljana: Barricades in Autonomous Factory ROG

By: fawda - June 6th, 2016  Filed under: News, video

Today in the morning (3:30) the city mayor of Ljubljana with security forces and police attacked the autonomous factory ROG that is squatted since 2006. They tried to evict the place and start to demolish the place. People reacted fast and soon after the initial attack few hundred people successfully resisted the violence, eviction and demolition. Barricades were lifted and after few hours security forces and police were pushed out of the factory. The space is since morning again under the control of the people. Different activities are planned for next days since the situation is unclear. [Read More]

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Ljubljana: Call for support for Autonomous Factory ROG

By: fawda - May 19th, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News

The autonomous factory Rog is under threat of being evicted and destroyed by the municipal authorities which are pursuing their project of renovating the area into a centre for creative industries. Municipality plans to demolish 4 buildings at the end of may or beginning of june and then – depending on their financial capabilities – continue with the removal of all additions to the main factory building. For now, only one atelier is under threat of being demolished, but once the construction yard is established, the authorities can easily remove the skate park, a gallery, concert hall, circus space, social centre and other places. The municipality does not possess the financial means for the overall renovation and is pushing with demolition works only because the building permit issued for demolitions will expire on the 14th of june, 2016. We call for support for the autonomous factory Rog as much as you are able. You can help us in various ways: [Read More]

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Slovenia: Reutilization of abandoned industrial buildings

By: fawda - April 7th, 2016  Filed under: essay

Inde_KoperIndustrial archeology

Built structures often outlive their original purpose. In addition to historical buildings such as castles, this also applies to industrial buildings. Abandoned mills, mines, factory halls and warehouses are in most cases doomed to collapse, but sometimes they get saved, refurbished and revived with new content. In Great Britain the evaluation and revitalization of industrial plants started in the fifties, because a lot of the buildings were destroyed during the war. In 1955 the British historian Michael Rix coined the term industrial archeology and the beginnings of revitalization of this architecture date back to this period. Today the Unesco’s list includes a large number of buildings that belong in the category of industrial heritage as evidenced by the agreement on the importance of these historical legacies that bear witness to a time of great social and technological change. However, few qualify as monuments of national importance. [Read More]

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Koper (Slovenia): Creative Platform INDE U.P.I. manifesto

By: fawda - February 4th, 2015  Filed under: Communique, News

Inde_platforma_squat_Koper_SloveniaNOT THE POWER TO RULE, BUT EMPOWERMENT.
THE FUTURE IS HERE AND NOW: COMMUNIQUÉ FROM THE CREATIVE PLATFORM INDE – UPI

From the ruins, we have built new foundations.
From the abandoned spaces, we exorcise old ghosts and return them to life.
From garbage, we will create instruments with which we will drown the sound of monotonous dark and hopeless situation of our time and space.

On the 5h of October 2014, we, a diverse group of people decided that we no longer want to just be part of the problem, but want to become part of a solution. So we spontaneously self-organized and occupied a couple of rooms at the long-abandoned and dilapidated factory INDE Koper. Decades ago this factory walls gave room to different companies employing handicapped people under the guise of social inclusion and integration, but in reality mostly only for the profit of the owners. [Read More]

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Ljubljana: Zadruga Urbana, little urban-agrarian platform

By: fawda - August 1st, 2014  Filed under: News

Zadruga Urbana (Urban Cooperative in English) embodies the idea of an urban-agrarian platform that aims to connect collectives and individuals in order to improve self-sufficiency through direct action. It is based on shared principles of horizontality, autonomy and self-organization. Our vision is to bring together individuals and collectives regardless of previous experience, in a non-hierarchical way, to promote autonomy in local food production and freer access to public land.

We are not satisfied with the current system of food production and therefore try to raise people’s awareness of options for producing their own food, consuming locally and being autonomous – all through collective gardening. Our venture enables individuals with no land of their own to produce food. It gives them a better overview of some of the possible ways to self-organize, coupled with sensitivity for their local environment. Furthermore we believe it is necessary for a collective movement to take that process into their own hands. [Read More]

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Ljubljana: What is Zadruga Urbana?

By: fawda - March 7th, 2012  Filed under: News

“Zadruga Urbana” is a group of people who came together with the shared dissatisfaction for the current system of food production, who believe in the necessity for a collective movement to take the process into their own hands. We believe that collective gardens raise people’s awareness of producing their own food, consuming locally and being autonomous/productive, enabling individuals without land of their own to produce food with a sensitivity for their local natural environment.

Our group wants to bring people together to learn and promote the ideas to find solutions for change towards a more sustainable life regardless of previous experience. Everyone is welcome to participate in our gardens and network, to learn and share the skills of producing our own food. We aim to use local seeds and to fertilize our crop naturally.

Our vision is to connect individuals and collectives in a horizontal, non-hierarchical way, to promote autonomy in local food production and freer access to public land. We also plan to reclaim/collectivize more locations in urban spaces and organise guerilla gardening. We hold regular lectures and talks on a range of permacultural and environmental topics such as beekeeping, composting and germination which are free to attend. We have a plans to create vegetable and seed bank/market as well as social kitchen with produce which is in line our aims. [Read More]

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Slovenia: Ljubljana Community Gardens & Seed Swap

By: fawda - May 23rd, 2011  Filed under: News

On the second day of our stay in Ljubljana PEDAL jumped on bikes with spades and forks and trowels for a working tour of four community gardens in the city. The group organising and looking after these gardens ‘Zadruga Urbana Collective Vrt’ have just started another garden in the autonomous free space Metelkova where together we built a bike fence and a compost system, and began work on a permaculture design for the land.

As we went in the sunshine to build more beds on an community allotment, our new friends explained that the growing spaces are on land set to be developed in to park space. The people who grow here have not gone through a council to gain a small plot but effectively have squatted the land- choosing an area and simply starting to work the land with little or no problem from authorities. This contrasts our restricted growing spaces in the UK where in some parts of London you are put on a 20-30 year waiting list. [Read More]

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Ljubljana: “We are temporary”, documentary about the Autonomous Factory Rog

By: fawda - June 1st, 2006  Filed under: News, video

Saturday 25th of March 2006 marked the start of the initiative to open the abandoned bicycle factory Rog for temporary use, with the intent to carry out non-profit, non-established activities on its premises. It is not a classic occupation of space, but a temporary alteration of its purposes. The 7000 square meter large factory – owned by the City of Ljubljana (MOL) – has already been left to decay for 15 years. As long as MOL doesn’t develop and begin implementing a clear strategy to solve the problem of these empty premises, we self-initiatively wish to open it to all individuals and groups engaged in the non-profit sector, for the realization of independent production of cultural and social content.
Rog – Smo zacasni / We are temporary is a documentary made by the temporary users of the factory Rog premises. [Read More]

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Ljubljana: collective statement about opening Rog to the public

By: fawda - April 13th, 2006  Filed under: Communique, News

Saturday 25th of March 2006 marked the start of the initiative to open the abandoned bicycle factory Rog for temporary use, with the intent to carry out non-profit, non-established activities on its premises.

It is not a classic occupation of space, but a temporary alteration of its purposes. The 7000 square meter large factory – owned by the City of Ljubljana (hereafter MOL) – has already been left to decay for 15 years. As long as MOL doesn’t develop and begin implementing a clear strategy to solve the problem of these empty premises, we self-initiatively wish to open it to all individuals and groups engaged in the non-profit sector, for the realization of independent production of cultural and social content.

As a non-formal network of individuals we believe that our actions are completely legitimate and well-grounded, although, at the moment, lacking official permission. Our action was stimulated by the City Council with their profit-based mentality, bad management, and incorrect reaction to our initiative. At first, MOL agreed to lend these premises for a series of debates, lectures and exhibitions about the temporarily useless building and its future, but later changed its mind and cancelled the verbal contract half an hour before signing the official agreement. [Read More]

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Ljubljana: AC Molotov evicted, AC Galicija opened!

By: liberation - August 2nd, 2003  Filed under: News

Avtonomna Cona Molotov, squat in Ljubljana, was evicted on 11.7. due to the contract between squatters and it’s owner Railway Company. After last summer’s oppression and attempt of eviction, we had no other choice than leave the house. Other possibility was to fight on the court for which we would need lots of money. So, we sadly left the house some days before 11.7. and had found new location some weeks before eviction. Molotov is being destroyed. About 15 people from AC Molotov collective with some new people squatted a nice house in the district called Prule, about 20 minutes walking from the centre. In Molotov we had lots of inner problems with alcohol, that’s why we started with new collective and new plans. In Molotov, we were making mostly gigs and was not possible to make any other activities.

New house, which we temporary named AC Galicija, will be living squat for 15-20 people with info-shop (anarchist library), place for video projections, juggling practicing, meetings and other activities (name Galicija comes from the illegal printing house used by partisans, which was operating in the cellar of the house in the 2nd world war; the house was also the biggest chair factory in Yugoslavia). AC Galicija has 6 owners, who are fighting on the court for the house. When we squatted the house, police came with one of the owners and said we can stay there until we get demand from the court. [Read More]

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