On the 9th January 2016 a squatting action took place in the center of Amsterdam. WH7 Wijde Heisteeg 7, a 6 story building in a pretty bad shape. This action was done for two reasons, the presentation of the squatting manual and as a living/social space.
The building was chosen for being a famous example of emptiness for speculation. It is owned by P. W. Hagedoorn, A well know speculator from the city who was also involved with the Spinhuis eviction.
The house was previously squatted in 2007 till 2011. Then was evicted to remain empty for five more years till it was squatted again.
The project hosted numerous people as well a social space with a free shop and different activities. It also worked together with the neighbours and Vereniging Vrienden van de Amsterdamse Binnenstad to fight against the owner and his new project. He wanted to make a renovation that was met with opposition of both groups for different reasons. [Read More]
Amsterdam: Wijde Heisteeg 7 call out
Calais: “We will not let ourselves be taken away!”
Statement from Housing for All Calais
Since Friday 4 February, we have been occupying a building in Rue d’Ajaccio, which has been uninhabited for a year. This occupation took place within the framework of the commemoraction, an international day of mobilization initiated by the families and relatives of people who have died at the border, to denounce the murderous migration policies of the UK, France and the EU.
In Calais, about 1500 people are living on the streets in unacceptable living conditions. Displaced people occupy wastelands and have no access to basic services: housing, sanitation, water, food and medical care. The state imposes conditions of extreme precariousness and invisibility through illegal evictions every 48 hours, the theft of personal belongings by the police, the illegal dismantling of living sites without the possibility of defense in front of a judge, and recurrent police violence. The French and British governments, alongside Natacha Bouchard and all their other friends, have deliberately turned a political issue into a humanitarian crisis, keeping people who want to cross the border in a context of survival. [Read More]
Calais: Communiqué from Housing for All Calais
Housing is a right, even in Calais.
We are a group of people from different countries fighting for everyone’s right to dignified and safe housing. We are currently occupying, for over 48 hours, some of the many buildings in the city of Calais that sit empty and wasted while people sleep on the streets.
We occupy these spaces hoping to break the vicious cycle of state and police violence and dehumanisation that continues in Calais and across the world to enforce national borders. We aim to create an open space free from state violence and discrimination, where someone’s administrative status has no impact on their ability to have their basic needs met, experience solidarity, and live in dignity. [Read More]
Thessaloniki: gathering in solidarity with those arrested during the eviction of the new occupation
In the early morning of Wednesday 12 January at 05:45 am, once again, masked security guards approach the space occupied on Monday 10 in solidarity with the eviction of the occupation of the sketi at the biological building, which took place on new year’s eve, while at the same time police vans are lined up in the streets around the university campus and riot cops invade the campus. The squat was guarded by comrades, who defended it with dignity. The known garbage of repression, with their known murderous intentions, sought to drown the occupiers with tear gas and by using stun grenades in a space where they did not even know what materials were left over from the former use of the space as a pharmaceutical laboratory. Of course we have no doubt that ridiculous and misleading narratives will be played out by the state and the media about the materials that were already in the space and the destruction that the cops themselves caused in their rage when they invaded the space, smashing windows and walls. Besides, it seems that the cops’ sledgehammers have the magical property of making the spaces usable for the university and student community… [Read More]
Thessaloniki (Greece): Eviction of Biologica squat & Call for solidarity week, 10-17 January 2022
The state, cops and university lackies decided on 31 December 2021 to realize an eviction that has already been announced the previous months. After unofficial threats for an upcoming eviction of the Biologica squat during the previous years, in September a project agreement was signed and assigned to a contractor, with the aim of “remodeling” and “utilizing” the spaces on the ground floor of the Biology building where the squat used to be. In the plans, of course, they included the squatted area with the intention of demolishing the surrounding walls and turning it into a secretariat room and a waiting room. In New Year’s Eve as in the long gone 1992 – at that time they built the door of the squat – the university campus is surrounded by police forces while underground cops are moving towards the area of the squat. They invaded our liberated ground and after conducting a thorough search, while destroying anything that was in the squat, they took pictures of their “grand” findings and they gave the space to the workers to finish off the first stage of their plan, the demolition of the walls. [Read More]
Toulouse: call-out for solidarity with the squat on Fronton Avenue
In September, an unoccupied house in Toulouse‘s Minimes district is squatted and, following legal proceedings, the occupants benefit from the winter truce (recently extended from March 31 to June 1 as part of the health crisis). These two months of extension alone trigger an update of the anti-squat media and political wave of recent months.
On February 7, the newspaper La Dépêche, published a miserable article on the “so-called” situation of Roland, a former employee of the same newspaper… The affair invaded social networks and media in the days that followed, leading to the massive presence of journalists, always there to defend the owners, possessors and other dominants.
Each time, it’s the same rhetoric, the same bogus story: old people who would be put out on the street by squatters. For them, the fable is attractive: it is the landlords who would be in misery and it is the squatters who would be at the origin of the evils of old age. Behind this fable, which plays on pathos, are clear objectives: to support the intensification of repression against squats by promoting new laws reinforcing the rights of landlords (ASAP law and other proposals to parliament). But no one is fooled: if some elderly people cannot afford the EPHAD (housing establishments for dependent elderly people) and others occupy empty houses, it is because the states and capitalism organize and maintain the misery of billions of people, elderly or not. [Read More]
Italy: Solidarity with Nuovo Cinema Palazzo
A [machine translated] statement from Ex Asilo Filangieri (Naples) in support of the recently evicted Nuovo Cinema Palazzo in Rome:
The Nuovo Cinema Palazzo has for years been one of the most important expressions of solidarity, hospitality, mutualism and real democracy. A fundamental place for his neighborhood and for the whole city, the demonstration that the speculation of a few can be contrasted with the aggregation and joy of the community.
It has always been a point of reference for all of us,
Its evacuation is a real crime.
With these words we want to express maximum solidarity and closeness.
Bristol: Picton Lane site resists eviction
Last week Freedom reported that the Picton Lane site in Bristol was facing eviction after having been given a notice to leave. The notice was not a court order and was delivered only a day into the lockdown 2.0. Picton Lane site is a home to a number travellers & friends.
The current government lockdown guidelines state that evictions mustn’t happen unless it is a case of “emergency”. There is no emergency on Picton Lane: the owner of the site has been applying, unsuccessfully, for a planning permission since 2017, and the decision to evict people from here during the covid pandemic is more than inexplicable.
Below, we publish a short report from Picton Lane residents, who resisted the illegal eviction attempt with the support from others.
Awake most of the night, we were pleasantly surprised to see supporters begin arriving as early as 5am. However, the bailiffs were not so keen. Even police reacted quicker, with a few officers coming down at around 7.10am. [Read More]
Bristol: urgent call for support to resist site eviction
Freedom received the following call-out from the people living in the Picton Lane site in Bristol. If you are able, support them tomorrow, 9th November, in resisting illegal eviction. Pass it on.
We are a group of travellers & friends currently residing on a site in Picton Lane, Montpelier, Bristol, in caravans. Just one day into the second lockdown, we were given a notice to leave by tomorrow morning, 7am by Andrew Wilson & Co bailiffs. The notice was NOT a court order and even included a spelling mistake.
The owner of the land we are on has been applying for permission to build apartment & offices there for years, with applications going back to 2017. We are sure these would not be affordable flats and locals oppose them. All of these applications have been rejected. The land has been staying empty for years, excluding another group of vehicle dwellers who were evicted about 18 months ago.
The current government lockdown guidelines state that evictions mustn’t happen unless it is a case of “emergency”. We don’t think this situation is an emergency at all. No planning permission has been accepted and we have just started a second lockdown. Criminal cases fall under “emergency” in these guidelines, however, this is a civil matter.
We seek support on the day, 7am and earlier, as we expect the bailiffs to be aggressive. We feel we must resist and that our demands should be met: 1. To have contact with the owner 2. To be allowed to remain until the end of lockdown and 3. If an eviction must happen, we want it to be done via proper means aka via a court order. [Read More]
Nantes: New squat on rue Babonneau. You can’t lockdown people outside!
Every evening during the meal distributions the volunteers of l’Autre Cantine (the Other Canteen) meet single men, families with babies and children who have no accommodation. They are out in the cold, often in the rain with wet clothes and wet mattresses. In September they even saw their belongings being thrown in the garbage by the municipal police. They ask us where to sleep and if the state will shelter them.
Since last March we have been in a sanitary crisis due to Covid-19 and have been locked again for 4 days. But them, how can they lock them outside? Why don’t the State and the town hall plan anything? Neither masks, nor shelter, it is once again the most precarious who are voluntarily forgotten.
It is inconceivable for us to see a hundred people on the street, it is a heartbreak to which no one can remain insensitive. This is why we support the new occupation of an empty building, 2 Rue Babonneau!
L’Autre Cantine promises material aid (clothing, mattresses, blankets, food) to the building’s occupants until the state takes over. [Read More]
Nantes: what future for the Maison du Peuple?
After a year of hard work, the Maison du Peuple was able to meet its challenge: a place open to all, capable of accommodating those who needed it unconditionally. Hundreds of people, families with children in difficulty have found a place to rebuild (education for children, unconditional support by the State, etc.). But also to offer a meeting and gathering place to the inhabitants of the city, to set up solidarity actions, to let artistic and sports talents (painting, visual arts, music, dance, etc.) flourish. And yet, this place of life and mutual aid is now threatened with eviction.
There are many reasons for this: the Maison du Peuple is a squat and does not, moreover, meet the safety standards that would allow it to be a permanent place of accommodation. It does not matter that the Maison du Peuple was able to safely accommodate homeless people at the time of confinement: it must close! Supported by various associations of all faiths, the leaseholders found themselves obliged to disassociate themselves from the silence of the public authorities. The work that would have made it possible to rehabilitate the premises was not undertaken despite repeated requests. [Read More]
Athens: Call for international solidarity for a trial on September 18
On September 18, the trial against two comrades from Berlin and two comrades from Athens will take place in Evelpidon Court in Athens. On November 26, 2017, the four persons were arrested during the eviction of Gare Squat, in the Athens district of Exarcheia. Among other charges, they are accused of trespassing, attempted serious bodily harm, refusal of forensic identification and possession of explosive materials and explosive bombs. This eviction was the first of three in which the four comrades were detained for 4 days. They were released on conditions or bail and now, almost three years later, have to appear in court. [Read More]
Radar Online Agenda
