Groningen (Netherlands) – Kraaienest squat in Groningen lost the appeal and had to be out within three days. A quick end to a six-month period that was more than worth it. But we’ve only started.
Kraaienest at the Spilsluizen in Groningen has been evicted. On Tuesday morning, 5 July 2022, the verdict of the Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court in the appeal proceedings was announced. We had to leave within three days with the threat of a fine of 10,000 euros for every day we stayed (plus 4500 euros in legal costs). The reason was that Stichting Valquest had sold the property to the real estate company LMJD B.V. before we came to live there, even though the real estate company had not yet explicitly announced its concrete plans. He wanted to start renovating immediately, so that “there would be no more actual vacancy”. When we won the preliminary relief proceedings in January, the court in preliminary relief proceedings found that there was no urgent interest to evict, and that our living interests temporarily outweighed ours. Now a ruling has been given against this decision. What interests are we talking about? The only interest for the real estate speculators like Joshua Camera and all those other capitalists who would have a vested interest in this is to make money that they already have enough. That is not an interest, that is profiting on the backs of others. Our interests are our lives and the struggle for justice. This capitalist logic of property has almost put us on the street. We already knew that the courts protect private property, so we are not surprised. It does not make us any less angry. [Read More]
Groningen: Kraaienest lives!
Groningen: Kraaienest court case, solidarity demonstration in Leeuwarden
Tuesday may 31st at 10:00 we will have our court case in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. We want to invite all our friends, fellow squatters, comrades and supporters to a demonstration in front of the court at Zaailand 102. After the court case we are organizing a concert night (punk, techno and more!) for our supporters and friends in Kraaienest. So extra reason for all the Randstad friends to travel to the north!
On january 28 we won our court case that was requested by Stichting Valquest. That was and is an important victory for the squatting movement! They now went into higher appeal, still for a speed eviction.
There is clearly no urgency to evict homeless young people who are trying to create an accessible social space in a gentrifying world. We know squatting is direct action against capitalist property values, and the courts protect those again and again. Is monetary value and real estate more important for them than improving lives in a concrete way? Still, in the Wet Kraken en Leegstand there is an attempt to prevent illegitimate vacancy, which would be the case in the Heerenhuis. Joshua Camera (under his strawman companies) wants to speculate to make even more money, like the logic of capitalism demands. We prefigure a world without exploitation and oppression. [Read More]
Groningen: Kraaienest stays! Squatters win court case!
After the squatters of the Kraaienest in Groningen won the court case on friday 28 january, Stichting Valquest will now probably appeal. The landlord with hundreds of properties can do without the 2.8 million building, but wants to prevent a home for homeless students and a social center in the former Heerenhuis, and prefers to exploit even more people with luxury apartments and high rents. Squatting goes on!
We, a group of homeless international students and others who need a home, squatted the Heerenhuis at Spilsluizen in Groningen. In the past, the house functioned as a christian youth organisation, and it hosted two different restaurants with meeting and event rooms. At the beginning of the pandemic the famous real estate owner Joshua Camera, under the name Stichting Valquest, bought the building. Shortly after that the restaurant Heerenhuis quit, and the huge building has been empty for 2 years until we moved in. Camera is known in Groningen and beyond, for demanding too high rent, illegal management costs and intimidation. In 2019 he won the Rood Huisjesmelker van het jaar, and his shady reputation was confirmed by the media (Boos, Sikkom and SBS6). [Read More]
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