Barcelona: El Kubo, La Ruina and Estudi 9 social centers defend themselves against three simultaneous evictions

By: fawda - November 30th, 2023  Filed under: News

The courts of Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Barcelona have aligned themselves with the Catalan police to proceed today, November 30, with the construction work of three buildings belonging to Sareb and an investment company based in Luxembourg.

In a joint statement issued by El Kubo y La Ruina from Barcelona’s Bonanova and by Estudi 9 from the old town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, it is announced that this Thursday, November 30, “our houses are trenches”… They consider that the suspension of the previous eviction date of the Colomense building was an “attempt to divide our struggle”, but they advance that “it will be expensive for them, we know how to play our own strategies”. [Read More]

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Barcelona: La Ruïna and el Kubo will not die

By: fawda - November 24th, 2023  Filed under: Communique, News

We will turn our house into a battlefield, el Kubo and the Ruïna will not fall. See you on November 30 at 5:30 a.m. in Uri Caballero square, Vallcarca metro station in Barcelona. If el Kubo and La Ruïna fall, the neighborhood will burn down. OKUPA Y RESISTE!

Statement made in February 2023, La Ruïna and el Kubo threatened with eviction:

Our squats are trenches.
Here we go, on March 23 they are going to try to evict us. In 2016, an office building was squatted for the first time in the Sant Gervasi neighbourhood and we called it El Kubo. The Kubo has been the home and place of passage of more than a hundred people in the more than 6 years that it has been in existence. This has been the home and trench of many people. It has been an oasis of resistance in the bourgeois quarter of Barcelona for many years and this has not been easy. “Squat and resist” defines the history of the Kubo very well. During all these years we have faced two evictions and the constant siege of extreme right-wing groups, capitalist press and political parties. And despite the hostilities we have reoccupied and resisted this house all this time. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: two houses owned by Blackstone squatted during the ADEV demo

By: fawda - October 22nd, 2023  Filed under: Communique, News, Press release

No free spaces without a free Palestine

Amsterdam, October 21st – We have squatted these 2 buildings (Prinsengracht 804 et 806), despite the city’s (and the police’s) best attempts to make it very difficult, because we believe that ADEV(Amsterdam Danst Ergens Voor – Amsterdam dances for something)’s call to ‘disown stupid property’ is a call to action.

These buildings, owned and left empty by a massive american investment firm called Blackstone, some (though not all) of whose crimes you can read on the banner, are definitely, by all definitions, stupid property. But we want to stress that, in a capitalist system that puts corporate giants over human life and dignity, ALL PROPERTY IS STUPID AND ALL PROPERTY IS THEFT. [Read More]

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Ghent: Speculators building squatted in the Lange Steenstraat

By: fawda - July 27th, 2023  Filed under: Communique, News

Since July the 12th, the building in the Lange Steenstraat 6 is back in use. We, a group of young and socially engaged people, have moved in.

In many places in Ghent there are empty buildings. At the same time, there is a housing crisis: high and rising rents, unaffordable housing. By using the building, we avoid the deterioration of the building and we have a roof over our heads.

We stay in the property to no longer be on the street and by taking care the building, we also take care care for others. The building will be a temporary cultural centre. We will organize activities such as: people’s kitchens, movie nights, exhibitions, open space for circus and theater… [Read More]

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Netherlands: Vogelvrij Newsletter #2

By: duiven - July 8th, 2023  Filed under: News


Vogelvrij brings you a bunch of news from squats all around the Netherlands. There is always space for more news in the newsletter, so mail us your updates or publish them on a open publishing platform such as Indymedia.nl, or send your statements to Squat.net, and announce your events on Radar.squat.net. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Court case Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 302, demonstration

By: fawda - November 30th, 2022  Filed under: News

Thursday 1st December 2022, demonstration, 18:00, Het Monument, Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 302.

Right now, we are housing four people. If we are evicted, they are without a home, and the Monument would be left empty yet again. Once again, Slumlord Hagedoorn would get get his eviction, while he leaves property empty all over the country. The past has shown that the authorities tend to side with property against the right to housing. Nevertheless, we’re ready to fight. We demand housing justice and an end to vacancy for financial speculation! Thursday, after our court case, we’re organising a MEGA demo. If we win, we celebrate the Monument. If we don’t, we’ll show that we’re not leaving quietly. Join our demo!!!!! [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Housing justice now! Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 302 squatted

By: fawda - October 23rd, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Sunday 23 october, rolling out a giant banner, squatters’ collective Mokum Kraakt announced that it has squatted four days ago Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 302. House peace is set, preventing the police to immediately evict. Here their public statement:

The city is cracking at the seams. The housing crisis is far from over. On top of that the energy and inflation crises are causing daily life as such to be unaffordable. At the same time, real estate investors, landlords and speculators are being pampered while mass tourism and gentrification are wrecking the liveability of the city.

The people of Amsterdam are succumbing under capital’s dead weight. Mokum is succumbing under the lack of space for young people, working people, poor people, refugees and old people. Mokum is succumbing under the stranglehold of the rich and the proprietors and the slow suffocation of alternative culture.

But Mokum fights back. We no longer accept that our city is for the rich only. That the economic and commercial interests of real estate owners are unassailable. That we can no longer give shape to our own city, its culture, the way that we live. And that living space is wasted on vacancy and neglect when most Amsterdammers may soon not be able to afford their flats, their energy or their food. [Read More]

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Wassenaar: Ivicke remains – empty

By: fawda - September 3rd, 2022  Filed under: News

Wassenaar (Netherlands) – The inhabitants of Huize Ívicke on Rust en Vreugdlaan (avenue of rest and joy) in Wassenaar have left. The monumental country house, which they returned to meaningful use in July 2018 after years of vacancy, is once again free as a bird. What will happen to the fairy-tale mansion and the surrounding estate in the coming years, no one knows. If it were up to slum king Ronnie van de Putte, the villa would rather be on fire yesterday than today in order to ultimately make as much profit with the estate as possible.

As friends of this autonomous residential community, which has allowed the abandoned estate to flourish in an impressive way in 4 years, we are very concerned about the future of Ívicke. Although the property – with its many rooms – was built 110 years ago as a residential home, the municipality of Wassenaar has fought tooth and nail to ensure that it may no longer be inhabited by anyone. Now – in accordance with the zoning plan – an office is to be built, but which company and when? Van de Putte seems to be the last one to worry about this question. And that is worrisome, because several of his hovels have already mysteriously gone up in flames. Not for nothing has the municipality now placed fences and cameras around Ívicke. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Film afternoon about housing struggle in Oost

By: fawda - July 17th, 2022  Filed under: News

Film afternoon about housing struggle in Oost at Joe’s Garage from 16:00 till 18:00 on 20 july 2022.

On the basis of footage of residents’ actions by the Squatter Group East (Kraakgroep Oost) and the Tenants’ Association East (Huurdersvereniging Oost), we will discuss many years of resistance against this still ongoing attack on affordable housing.
The program also includes a new film about Frans Ondunk, chairman of the Tenants’ Association East, but also known as the Sheriff of East, who fired at landlords on a daily basis.
Throughout the history of Amsterdam East, the squatting movement and the local tenants’ association have propagated the same message with regularity. The property owners whose properties were squatted were often the same as those of the properties in which tenants were terrorized. [Read More]

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Wassenaar: Ivicktion called off—but for how long?

By: fawda - May 25th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Wassenaar (Netherlands) – On the 24th of May, Ivicke had a second “voorlopige voorziening” (VoVo)* hearing, to request a suspension of eviction until the higher appeal in our case against the municipality, who want to evict us on the grounds that according to the zoning plan our home should be an office.

We already had a first VoVo about this in February. That one we lost, but the judge gave us until the 28th of May before we had to leave. In the meantime, we actually won a civil court case against the owner, because the judge agreed that his plans for Ivicke are nonsense. Our lawyers then managed to get this new hearing because of that change of circumstances.

In the documents they submitted for this case, the municipality revealed that they already had the whole eviction planned for the 31st of May, coordinated with the cops and everything. With the added threat that, if they can’t evict then, the cops wouldn’t have time anymore before September because of the festival season, trying to pressure the judge into a fast ruling. Luckily, the judge started the case by making clear that they can get an eviction on the 31st out of their heads: he needs time for his decision, and he also recognises that we will need time to move if it’s negative. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Mokum Kraakt squats on the Kinkerstraat

By: fawda - March 16th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Statement from Mokum Kraakt on 13 March 2022 after the squatting of Kinkerstraat 304 ground floor.

We are action group Mokum Kraakt. We are a mix of Hotel Mokum, Kinderen van Mokum and other squatters: young and old, experienced and new, but we’re all angry, full of love for Amsterdam and ready to fight for our city. Since 10th of march we are settled on Kinkerstraat, in one of the many empty shops in Amsterdam. Because Amsterdam belongs to its residents, not to big capital. We demand radical change. We demand accessible, livable and affordable housing. We demand a just and free city.

Underneath the clean and smooth streets, the city is collapsing. It’s almost invisible how the foundation of a lively city is beginning to burst under a layer of monoculture. In the cracks that Mokum Squats, spaces for counterculture are forming themselves. Spaces to experiment, to meet and to live. [Read More]

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Wassenaar: Villa Ivicke eviction in 3 months – Let’s use this time well!

By: fawda - March 2nd, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Wassenaar (Netherlands) – On Monday, we received the verdict in the interim measure court case against the notorious real estate speculator and owner of Ivicke, Ronnie van de Putte aka the Slum Lord, and the municipality of Wassenaar.

The judge denied our request to postpone our eviction until we’ve had a chance to appeal against the ruling of December’s court case. Despite claiming to recognize our interest in having a roof over our heads, and the lack of urgency of both the owner and the municipality to evict, the judge decided we have to leave Ivicke in 3 months.

This verdict is totally contradictory, and justified with reference to bullshit “theoretical” assumptions about the owner and municipality’s interests and intentions. [Read More]

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