A call for the self-representations of autonomous projects

The SqEK network of researchers and activists meets in Barcelona, Spain, May 21st to 25th, 2015. We present there an exhibition of posters and information presentations from and about autonomous spaces, from the squatting, occupation and disobedient movements. This show will go on to the USA in September.

We call for posters and presentations to be sent by post (please contact for address), or by digital file so that we can print them out on site.
[Read More]

USA: Anti-gentrfication direct action in Philadelphia and Oregon

Sabotage of OCF Gentrification in South Philly – April 28th

We wrecked the locks and windows of two empty OCF Realty properties near 20th and Reed in South Philadelphia. We did this because we are tired of living in a system that constructs houses for the rich, while poor and working class people get nothing but more police, more jails, more budget-cuts, more misery. Following the lead of the rebels of Ferguson and Baltimore, this is our small way of fighting back: causing economic damage to the property and capital of the rich. These tactics are not only possible, they are practical. We hope others join us in carrying out more actions over time.

The Radical Action Network [Read More]

U$A: A Squatter’s Last Stand at a Condemned Bronx Barn

Note from mainstream press

Mark Stagg, a Westchester County developer, has become one of the busiest builders in the Bronx, with an ability to overcome various obstacles to his many projects.

Last year, he hired Adolfo Carrión Jr., a former Bronx borough president, to join his company, the Stagg Group, to help work with local officials. The developer owns and manages 1,200 units in the Bronx, a combination of market-rate rentals and affordable units, and has plans to add about 2,500 more units.

But one current project has proved frustrating, not because of a zoning snag or community opposition, but because of a colorful, combative 76-year-old man who has been squatting on the property.
[Read More]

Philadelphia, USA: Attack on real estate firm car

We noticed an OCF Realty car parked in a gentrifying neighborhood in West Philadelphia. OCF Realty is actively furthering gentrification in multiple neighborhoods and has been the target of anti-gentrification actions in the past.

We went out one night last week and slashed two of the car’s tires. This took under two minutes.

Slashing tires is a fast and easy way to cause damage to our enemies and create a small disruption in the timeline of gentrification. This will go quickly with a sharp knife stabbed with some pressure into the wall of the tire. Expect a loud, short hiss once the tire is punctured. [Read More]

San Jose: Largest Homeless Camp In US Evicted And Destroyed To Make Way For Tech Billionaires

More than 350 homeless Americans lived in their makeshift village, ‘The Jungle’ in San Jose, California – that is, until police and social services raided the camp, evicting tenants and destroying their self-made homes on Thursday.

Evicted homeless people lined the sidewalk along Story Road, clutching shopping carts filled with their meager possessions as they watched city workers literally rip apart their community. Some wept uncontrollably, as they asked: Where will we go now?
[Read More]

New York City: Lower East Side documentary on the battle of East 13th Street with the NYPD

Lower East Side squatter history remains a fascinating, if not controversial chapter in the book of New York’s life. So much so that there is even a museum dedicated, at least partially, to preserving the cultural significance of the bygone movement – the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space.

One upstart filmmaker hopes to capture the essence of the war between squatters and the city of New York in the last three decades. Anytime, Baby! is the result of that quest, an independent documentary on the subject through the lens of one particular battle that was endemic of the times. That of 545 East 13th Street. [Read More]

San Francisco (USA): Police clear 16 squatters from building

People that had squatted a house that was allegedly worth $2,610,000 were evicted on September 27th. The house was located near the corner of Fulton St and Masonic Ave, close to Golden Gate Park. Here is a report from the mainstream media:

[Read More]

USA: Albany Bulb – A Squat at the End of the World

“It’s fucked up,” says Gio, a resident of the Albany Bulb [previously here]. We’re standing in the middle of what used to be a multi-room home on top of a hill, surrounded by rocks and debris. Not a shelter, not a place where a tent was, but a home. In the last several days, city work crews in the town of Albany, just north of Berkeley, California, have come into the former squatter encampment of several decades and torn down the shelters. The ‘Bulb’ is a former landfill-turned-squatter community, rebel artist enclave, and autonomous zone.

[Read More]

Oakland, CA: Squatted Social Center Catches Fire

Squatted social center known as the RCA, part of the RCA/Hot Mess compound, caught fire early Wednesday morning in Oakland, California. It appears that no one was inside at the time, as Sheriffs were scheduled to evict the property the day earlier, although it is unknown if they did. In lieu of a communique from the squatters, the following is from mainstream media outlet CBS San Francisco:

[Read More]

Seattle (USA): Condo Excavator Sabotaged

About a little over week ago we snuck into a condo development in Seattle and poured a gallon of bleach into the gas tank of an excavator. This was a small but easily reproducible attack against the expansion of gentrification in Seattle. [Read More]

Oakland: “Sketch Pad” Squat Eviction

A west Oakland squat known as “Sketch Pad” was evicted Tuesday by sheriffs.

Oakland: Boat Squatters Face Eviction

In September of 2013, thirty boat squatters floating at the Jack London Aquatic Park were served with eviction notices. They had thirty days to clear out or else their boats would be impounded and scrapped. An ad-hoc committee of the EPA, state police, and OPD formed a campaign to clean up the waterfront. Instead of dealing with the severe pollution of diesel emissions at the port or raising sunken ships, they targeted the boat community. The city of Oakland had decided that the small boat community was too unsavory for the upcoming condo developments to look at from their 18th story windows. The city evicted these squatters from the Jack London Aquatic Park, which is right along the Oak St edge of the 5th Avenue Development Project. Fireworks sat down with one of the evicted boat squatters who told us about boat squatting, the eviction process and its connections to rapid gentrification in Oakland.
[Read More]

Tags: , ,