[Squat!net]

Yesterday, the Somali group of We Are Here won the court case against the State of the Netherlands with regard to their stay at Florijn 8-11 in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. The authorities ordered the immediate eviction of the ‘Vluchtlumumba’, which they started to inhabit on 9 April 2017. However, their request to stay until the end of the Ramadan has been granted by the Court of Amsterdam.

The group consists of 20 men who have been in the Netherlands for a long time. Some of them have been here for up to 20 years, without the possibility to go back, or to lead a normal life in The Netherlands. After being evicted from a previous building last year, they were on the street for four months. As many of them have various health problems and as they needed more time to find another place, the group decided not to leave the building as ordered, but demanded to be allowed to stay until 3 July. [Read More]

Last summer the Squat Orfanotrofio in Thessaloniki was evicted and demolished by the Greek government. One commerade faces repressions now for the squating alone, standing at court for all of us, on the trial on the 31.05.2017. We call for solidarity.

The story begins with the squatting of the Orfanotrofeio in December 2015. Thousands of migrants have been declared illegal overnight and are stuck on Greek territory. Within a months they were also displaced from Idomeni, an massive self-made and to a great extent self-managed settlement near the border with the Rep of Macedonia. They were moved to isolated camps throughout the country, under the surveillance of the army and the NGOs.

Those of us who had been visiting Idomeni frequently during the summer of 2015 had seen a wall being built in front of our eyes, people practically living in the mud, being beaten up by the police, giving birth in offhand tents, burning anything they could find from the ruble for some heat in the freezing cold, being moved around from town to town and from camp to camp, in buses that would just show up and then disappear, being constantly stopped for pointless checks in the middle of nowhere on their way to the border. If when they made it to the border, they were often pushed back to Athens, where many of them fell into the hands of smugglers and even organ harvesting mafias. [Read More]

In the morning of Wednesday the 5th of April, the police, led by an OPKE unit, evicted a house in Ano Poli, Thessaloniki. Under the threat of fire-weapons, 13 people were arrested and brought to the police station in Monastiriou. The cops refused to let the arrested use their right to contact a lawyer and get translators for 5 hours. 9 people that came to in solidarity were also brought to the “megaron” and kept 3 hours for identity control. One of them now faces the charge of resistance after the pigs beat him up.

During the day, 2 people had to be transferred to the hospital : one with a severe head-wound after the treatment he received in the police station (the physical and psychological violence of the cops following him even in the walls of the hospital) ; the other because of his health, the pigs refusing for hours to take in consideration his signed appointment with a doctor for this precise day, and for hours refusing giving their prescribed medication to him and another person.

After 32 hours, only 12 people were set free before the trial, one being kept imprisoned for having no paper. He may stay in up to six month for this only, and is also accused, like the others, of both squatting and damaging private property. The asylum process in Greece is still so insufficient that thousands of people are not able to obtain a “legal status” and have therefore no possibilities to get access to accommodation or other forms of support. Living in a squat is often the only option they have. [Read More]

Chidda admits, Koole Maritime is not intending building a shipyard.

The ADM terrain in the port of Amsterdam has been disused since 1977. From that time, the land was ‘owned’ by various speculators, who however still had to deal with a limitation that the municipality had included in the Act of Ownership, when they gifted the then ADM shipyard in 1970; “the terrain is destined for a company, which aims to build and repair ships.” The Supreme Court ruled earlier that this destination restriction (the ‘perpetual clause’) is still in place. The current ‘owner’, Chidda Vastgoed BV, argued for some time that they had found a company that would indeed plan to launch a genuine shipyard on the terrain. In the appeal court-case of the ‘Bodemprocedure’ (=> in-depth court case), which took place Tuesday (March 28th. 2017), Chidda was forced to admit that it is not about a shipyard, but “a displacement of the current activities.” The company in question, Koole Maritime BV, is known for, among others, asbestos removal, waste treatment and excavation works.

That real estate company Chidda BV insisted this long that it indeed was about a shipyard, has to do with the fact that they’re attempting already for about two years to remove the more than 200 residents, who settled in the area in the past 40 years, through various procedures. However, in order to accomplish this, the real estate company must have a “demonstrable and law respecting interest in the matter”, according to the judges in the three previous court cases. For the ADM terrain it means that there must be serious plans presented for a shipyard. These plans were proven again and again below par. Last Tuesday it became finally clear why. [Read More]

This video was shot on the morning of the Apollo House injunction hearing at the High Court, 21st December. As well as footage from outside the courts on our way there we had earlier visited the sites of other occupied buildings evicted in the last 20 months. We discovered all of them were still vacant and in most cases no visible work at all had been done on them.

Apollo house is a NAMA building occupied to provide emergency accommodation for homeless people. 35-40 people have been accommodated there over the last couple of nights. As expected the judge granted the injunction, it will come into operation on January 11th.

We visit 4 other occupations evicted after the same judge granted injunctions over the previous 20 months. All four of those sites are currently vacant and in 3 cases no apparent work has been done. At the largest, Grangegorman all the habitable structures have now been demolished, it had previously housed 30 people. [Read More]

We, the living group of Wijde Heisteeg 7 are facing the court case against our evection. This is a call out for everybody to come and show support on the 8th December at 09:30 at Parnassusweg, for the court case of Wijde Heisteeg 7 against the state. The O.M. decided that we should leave the house, for the very important reason of putting antikraak inside. We kind of disagree with this idea of being on the street just because, so we will go to court. If you want we can meet at 08:45 at Wijde Heisteeg 7 Amsterdam, to go together.

Update 25/12/2016 - Eviction Wijde Heeisteg 7 - On Friday 23rd December, less than 16h after the negative verdict for WH7 the cops and construction worker show up at 8 am and evict the house with the inhabitants and their animals inside. Everyone gets arrested and the dog and cat were put also in the police van and transport to Marnixstraat main police station. the animals could go from police station free after one hour. The 4 arrested were kept in custody for squatting until 10.30 at night. 3 of them were released . The last one because unpaid fines was sent to Zuidoost cellencomplex and then to different prisons in center Holland. Today midday that person also get released, so right now everyone is free.
Kraken gaat door. [Read More]

On wednesday the 27th of july the judge decided about the eviction of 8 squatted buildings in Kanaleneiland. The demand of the squatters has been turned down. Starting from the 15th of September the police is licit to evict the buildings. The reason behind this verdict is not yet clear. However, during the courtcase it did was clear that the owner doesn’t benefit from eviction, as they don’t suffer any damage by the situation. “This is about a principle: the government of and coorperations in Utrecht agreed not to negotiate with squatters.” -the squatters.
The houses have been squatted in April out of protest against urban ‘renewal’ (destruction). The project in this area (kanaleneiland centrum) means 1100 social housing houses ( (: ) have been destroyed so far. They will be replaced by private renting and expensive houses for sale. Only 138 social renting houses have found a place is this… urban renewal. Squatter Rogier: “Urban destruction means the deportation of not-white residents to establish white enclaves.” [Read More]

Wednesday July 13, there is a court case in Utrecht about the squatted houses on Monnetlaan. The buildings were squated in April out of protest against the gentrification of Kanaleneiland. Everyone who has affinity with this story, or is interested in the courtcase, is welcome to witness the courtcase itself. The squatters and supporters will be in front of the courthouse from 8.30, the courtcase itself begins at 9 o’ clock.
Utrecht is finishing a large scale gentrification project that has wiped out 9500 social houses. Kanaleneiland Centrum is one of these projects, where 1100 sociale houses have been demolished. This project is now ending, the squatted have occupied the building which will be the last to be renovated. [Read More]

Since february this year a group of squatters in Maastricht has moved into an old garden center with multiple greenhouses and a house on the premises. Occupying a huge piece of property belonging to a Belgian based supermarket corporation which had been unoccupied for 9 years.

As soon as the owner contacted us after police informing them about our occupation, we handed over our proposition for a user agreement to which they did not agree. When we still didnt leave after they cut the power and gas to the terrain and sending us threats that we should leave within 8days etc. They hired a specialised Dutch lawyer and we we’re summoned in court. In the subpoena they stated that we we’re the cause of lots of noise complaints and garbage on the terrain while the opposite was true. In those 9 years they had visited only once and never cleaned up anything, the terrain was a notorious illegal dumping site. [Read More]

Today, there was the verdict of the court case started by the owner Bewi Vastgoed to ask the eviction of the Autonoom Centrum in Den Haag. The judge rejected the claims of the owner. There is no eviction of the Autonoom Centrum on the Harstenhoekweg in the short term.

Autonoom Centrum Den Haag
Harstenhoekweg 4, 2587SL Den Haag, The Netherlands
https://acdenhaag.wordpress.com
acdenhaag [at] riseup [dot] net

Again shoddy evidence by Chidda Lüske’heirss commit fraud by tree-felling permit

Last Thursday (January 28, 2016) Chidda C. S. again presented proof that was tampered with. Already before, crucial pages from an ecological report were made unreadable in an appeal against the municipally (10 dec 2015) and they withheld this important information in relation to the ecological value of the ADM from the environment department, who had to assess the permit for the felling of the trees and had specifically requested more information. Then Chidda hired another ecological bureau who were instructed to make a new report (19 jan) that suggests to make a summary of the previous report, but leaves out all the relevant conclusions and recommendations and presents completely other conclusions.

This is what the heirs of Lüske did in a court-case, where the residents of the ADM asked the judge to not allow the trees to be felled while the appeal against the permit to fell 470 trees in front of the gate is still going on. [Read More]

Also in in-depth procedure the judge concludes: plans insufficiently specific and realistic. January 7, 2016

Last summer the judge concluded that the plans presented by Chidda c.s. [=> Lüske' heirs] for the ADM-terrain are insufficiently specific (verdict July 13th 2015). The municipally concluded the same on September 15th and again on December 10th 2015.
Now the judge of the in-depth procedure, a thorough procedure where every detail is investigated, draws the same conclusion. [Read More]