Warsaw: Update on arrests, Radykalne Ogrody Działkowe raided

By: dooozie - May 30th, 2016  Filed under: News
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[Correction Radykalne Ogrody Działkowe was raided only, no eviction attempt]

On the night between Sunday the 22nd & Monday the 23rd of May three comrades were detained near the car park of South Warsaw police station. Cops claim to have found an explosive device under a police car. All three comrades were taken into custody at the station and one comrade was severely beaten. The comrades refused to cooperate and denied all accusations of ‘terrorism’ and attempting to bomb the police station. The comrades received support from the anarchist community and 3 squats from Warsaw (Przychodnia, Syrena, Radykalne Ogrody Działkowe) and were provided with legal representation.

The same day police raided Radykalne Ogrody Działkowe squat where one of the arrested comrades lived and search for evidence. According to the “Reclaim The Fields” website: “Cops arrived between 4 and 5AM. They invaded the squat area by cutting fences and demolishing the gate with a forklift. Six undercover police invaded people’s rooms. One friend woke up and found himself surrounded by cops questioning him about his identity. They then proceeded to search the entire squat.”
[Read More]

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Warsaw: Open letter in connection with the arrest of three anarchists

By: R! - May 29th, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News, Press release

On the night of May 23rd, the police in Warsaw arrested three anarchists on charges of an alleged arson attempt of a police vehicle. The three were transferred to a remand prison where they are to be held in custody for three months, awaiting trial. They face up to 8 years in prison. Media frenzy broke out over the arrest in the past few days, with high-ranking politicians and experts on terrorism discussing the matter on TV. Photos and video reruns of the arrested walking with chains around their feet and hands are broadcast on public transportation. The text below is a translation of the statement that was sent out by various groups from the anarchist and wider social justice community in Poland, in response to these arrests.

Open letter in connection with the arrest of three anarchists in Warsaw

The mass media in Poland are releasing increasingly more absurd, one-sided reports about the arrest of three anarchists on Monday, May 23rd. We interpret this as an attempt to intimidate and criminalize social justice movements in Poland.
[Read More]

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Netherlands: The current housing crisis and the repression of squatting

By: dooozie - May 27th, 2016  Filed under: essay, News
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The vacancy crunch: The current housing crisis in the Netherlands and the repression of squatting

Recently, an opportunity to discuss the current housing crisis in the Netherlands was wasted. The government published a report evaluating a law realised in October 2010 which both criminalised squatting and suggested a few paltry measures to combat building vacancy (see “From Convicting to Condoning: Evaluation of the Squatting and Vacancy Act” [Dutch]). The report received a few mentions in the media but was accompanied by no real analysis. Whilst the Minister for Safety and Justice writes in a letter to Parliament that “this assessment does not require policy changes,” a careful look at the statistics produced by the report instead indicates that much more could be done (see “Presentation of report evaluating the Squatting and Vacancy Act” [Dutch]). The number of people needing to be housed is increasing, and the best way to solve this problem is to liberate the empty building stock, putting it back into use through both legislative measures and squatting.
[Read More]

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Barcelona: Third Statement of El Banc

By: dooozie - May 27th, 2016  Filed under: Communique
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We’ll try to enter again
May 27, 2016

Whatever might be said by the City Council about this conflict, it does not take place between private parts, it is a conflict between two ways of living: those who want a common life and to relate through mutual support networks, produced among equals, and those who defend private property – regardless of its use – and the supremacy of some over others.
[Read More]

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Barcelona: Second statement of El Banc

By: dooozie - May 27th, 2016  Filed under: Communique
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[May26] These days are being very intense and this is why we’re having difficulties to spread informations as a collective. Within our capacities, we will add more detail to our version of the facts of these last few days and also our opinion on many aspects of the conflict that is taking place.

First of all, we would like to thank all the people that moved from solidarity to explicit engagement with the project of El Banc Expropiat.
[Read More]

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Barcelona: Statement of El Banc

By: dooozie - May 25th, 2016  Filed under: Communique

WE WILL RETURN TO EL BANC

Yesterday, May 23th, El Banc Expropiat was evicted by the Catalan police, after more than 160 days of resistance (more than 100 during the first campaign, and 87 days this time). The first time, the City Hall secretly decided to pay over 65.000EUR to Manuel Bravo Solano, who owns the bank, in order to avoid another Can Vies before the municipal elections. After this shady deal was exposed, the City Hall justified itself saying that they believed that the Banc had an important “social” role. They then admitted that this rent was being paid to avoid breaking the social peace, because they knew that the eviction of El Banc would imply all sorts of responses. This is what finally happened yesterday. First of all, we would like to thank all the solidarity that we have received, a solidarity which has taken many different forms and that has also meant a form of support to all the other struggles which are currently taking place.
[Read More]

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Barcelona: El Banc Day 2 – Brief Re-occupation

By: freedom - May 25th, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News

cops stop reoccupationEphemeral re-squat before heavy police charges in a second night of protestscops stop reoccupation
On Tuesday evening a new series of demos converged on the evicted autonomous social center, the ‘Expropriated Bank’ in Barcelona’s Gracia barrio. A group of protesters opened the welded steel plates and re-occupied amid wild cheering, just before the Riot Police commenced a series of brutal charges, that resulted in 19 injured. Fresh demonstrations are called for tonight, Day 3.On the evening of Tuesday, May 24, there were demonstrations and rallies in several districts of Barcelona, in a second day of fighting the eviction from the freed space in Gràcia. Among others, there have been meet-ups in Sarrià, Sants, Raval and Manresa. A concentration in Sants of 200 people joined the group of protesters and continued towards the Gracia district.

In several streets of Gracia there were spontaneous pot and pan banging sessions by neighbours amid cries of rejection against the performance of the Catalan riot police
At Gracia, about 400 people concentrated in the Plaza of the Revolution and moved down the Torrent de l’Olla towards the ex Expropriated Bank anarchist social center. [Read More]

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Barcelona: 15 injured in riots against eviction of the expropriated bank

By: freedom - May 24th, 2016  Filed under: News

seeding mutual aidThe ‘Expropriated Bank’, a self-managed occupied social center in the beautiful Gracia barrio of Barcelona, has finally fallen. Symbol of resistance to repression and austerity , colleagues called for the occupation of 1000 more banks.

Seeding Mutual Aid against Capitalism

The eviction was not an easy task, it took police more than eight hours, using metal cutters, etc., to extricate the last heroes. The police struggled all day to get them out of a barrel of cement, itself inside a safe, inside the basement with metal barricades.

Meanwhile, reinforcements gathered and marched from several pre-organized points in the city until by 9.00 pm at least 2000 filled the narrow streets, but the entire front of the Bank had been welded shut with iron plates.

An army of very aggressive riot police, masked and without ID plates and with a helicopter, moved into the crowds of young people. Only for good luck no one was killed. [Read More]

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Barcelona: El Banc Expropriat evicted

By: dooozie - May 23rd, 2016  Filed under: News
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Today El Banc Expropriat in Gracia, Barcelona, has been evicted, in an operation lasting ten hours. A demonstration has been called for tonight.

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Ljubljana: Call for support for Autonomous Factory ROG

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

rog_ljubljanaThe 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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Greece: Exarchia Calling

By: fawda - May 10th, 2016  Filed under: Communique, News

This statement is based on our personal and shared collective experience of the current situation of anarchist struggle in Greece, Athens and Exarchia. We did not neither had the time to consult and agree with the older Greek crowd of anarchists and radicals, and is only our sentiment as mostly international people with little experience and limited knowledge of the dynamics within the militant crowds.

We are an ad hoc collective of international squatters in Exarchia who just opened a new occupation in a lofty house at 119 Zoodorou Pigis, three weeks ago, pitted together by the necessity of developing a place where to live and organize, with the desire to spread anarchy against a ruthless State at the very entrance of Fortress Europe, and its armies of civil and uniformed minions. This squat ’til now has been an awesome adventure filled with creative energies and has helped several anarcho street travelers as well as refugees to have a stay, be a stake up against society and in the process build ties with new people, something that had become nearly impossible these days in Athens due to not just State repression but also the internal politics of the well-known squats and the demotivation/demobilization of many anarchists in Exarchia. [Read More]

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Belo Horizonte (Brazil): The feminist squat Tina Martins threatened with eviction

By: s0crates - May 9th, 2016  Filed under: News
Tina Martins

 

On March 8th, the feminist movement Olga Benário squatted an empty building in the center of Belo Horizonte, with the hope of turning it into a crisis shelter for female victims of violence. Since then, the building is occupied as a place of living for dozens of women, and holds every day gatherings, assemblies, culturals and political events. It also works as a self-managed crisis shelter: a psychological and medical reception center for more or less 200 women who are homeless or victims of violence.

[Read More]

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