[Squat!net]

On Sunday 22 November a building on the Tugelaweg 18A has been re-squatted out of discontent with the current housing policy in Amsterdam. The policy that is being fought is not a recent one. The breaking down of social housing has been going on for years. The privatizing of social housing companies, which have to handle their own finances since the 90s, has created a situation in which affordable housing is considered unprofitable both by the social housing companies and politicians. Social housing companies, whose goal is housing people, are for this reason rejecting social housing instead. Local politics see this happening but do not act. Because of this the situation on the housing market is becoming unsustainable; rents rise and waiting lists become longer and longer. Exactly those people for whom social housing is intended are getting problems because of this. [Read More]

The Homeless Persons Union of Victoria speaks out against the impending demolition and privatisation of yet-another Victorian public housing estate

The Andrews government recently announced that the Markham Avenue public housing estate in Ashburton will be demolished by the end of 2015, and the site will be redeveloped in consultation with the 10 remaining households, the local community, the city of Boroondara, and other stakeholders. The Homeless Persons Union of Victoria takes issue with a number of elements of the government’s proposed plans. We will speak to the issues in this document. Ultimately, we will prosecute the argument that the immanent bulldozing and public-private mix of the Markham Avenue estate is emblematic of how free-market ideology has come to shape government policy, media discourse, and public views of public housing estates and tenants.

Government neglect or planned demolition by proxy?

To begin, the HPUV believes that successive Victorian governments have ignored the ongoing maintenance needs of the Markham Avenue estate, leading the now-Andrews Labor government to argue the case for demolition. We refer the Victorian public to the promised $500,000 slated by the Bracks Labor government in 2006 to fund a program of building works for the estate, including improved ventilation, window repair, and anti-mould painting, all to improve the estate’s living conditions. Despite this promise, Minister for Planning Richard Wynne was quoted in November 2014 saying that the estate’s conditions are ‘Third World’. As a consequence, the HPUV can only surmise that the 2006 works were never undertaken. We believe this illustrates the inertia, inaction and blatant lack of concern Victorian governments have displayed over time towards Victoria’s most vulnerable. [Read More]

For 10 years, Joe’s Garage organizes political action, film and debate evenings, discussions and demonstrations. Everyone is welcome whether it’s for advice in precarious housing, employment and other life issues or for a bowl of soup, a good conversation, nice music or a free raincoat from the Giveaway Shop.

As known, there is a desperate shortage of housing in Amsterdam. That is, we believe, generally not because of a lack of actual buildings but due to shortcomings of housing policy, power struggles in politics and greed in this capitalist capital. None of the 50 shades of the cabinet has ever really been able to solve this urgent problem.
Therefore we squat houses. After all, in hollow promises, one can’t live from pretty words and symbolic politics. [Read More]

Coming to Terms

In Camden, an eight-month squat is evicted by pigs and three are arrested under Section 144, the 2012 ban on residential squatting. A man in a SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SQUAT t-shirt waits for NELSN to forward a text. Two arrive from a council-estate squat further north. Builders begin to secure the building. Against Section 144, against increasing precarity and repression, broken self-identity and fractured organisation, London squatting seems to have begun a coming-to-terms.

Attempts to surround the fragility of the squat scene with nostalgia have come thick and fast: Remember the Squatters’ Union; remember unrestricted residential squatting; remember squatters’ rights. As ever this nostalgia is a thinly disguised dose of forgetfulness: Squatting has always meant struggle; and no mourning for a golden age can deny the permanence of our struggles and the permanent need to politicise them. [Read More]

From Indybay

This is an escalation from a sentiment of resistance to gentrification to a direct attack against it. We join the vandals of fastagent signs, Google Bus blockades, the Midtown Apartments rent strike, and other clandestine offensives with a window smashing attack on condos in the Mission. as we expected, SF’s election season was a charade of democracy. It only showed that while the developer/colonizers feast on our City, not even the crumbs could be saved through legal means. We fight because the issue of our homes and survival is not up to a vote by anyone. survival and resistance are only there for the taking. All that is necessary is the will and the act.

[Read More]

Today at 13:00 the DNU [De Nieuwe Universiteit / The New University] squatted Oude Turf Markt 147, an empty part of an university building of the UvA [Universiteit van Amsterdam / University of Amsterdam]. The building will be a DNU headquarters, where people can meet to plan actions, do administrative work etc. For a movement, a space to organize is of great importance, this is exactly what DNU had in the Maagdenhuis, but unfortunately that did not last. It seems that the building where they are now located will be empty for longer due to the fact that the faculty of Humanities is cutting its budgets on housing and has moved large groups of administration elsewhere. The part that DNU now owns is barricaded and has its own door to the outside, meaning the rest of the building can still be used by UvA personnel.
[Read More]

The crown v’s Easton Woodhead.

Is the life of someone living rough, worth less than someone who isn’t?

HPUV members have been attending the court proceedings to bear witness about the stabbing death of Wayne ‘Mouse’ Perry and to make an informed decision about whether justice has been served through legal processes, not only for Mouse and his family, but also for the broader community of people experiencing homelessness.

HPUV’s position and concerns are highlighted by findings in the 1997 Kipke report, (which were based on data drawn from a survey of 432 people who were experiencing homelessness aged between 13 and 23 years) which demonstrated that people from amongst this group who had been homelessness for 3 years, or longer are 4.7 times more likely than the broader community to be on the receiving end of violent acts, which included being slapped, punched, kicked, burned, beaten up, stabbed and shot. [Read More]

Dear friends:

As a result of the legal battle waged against the VIOME workers collective, the state-appointed trustee is now organising a series of auctions with the aim of liquidating the plot of land on which the VIOME factory is located. A possible sale of the land would create the legal ground for evicting the workers from the factory.
[Read More]

Dear solidarity supporters,

we would like to inform you about the latest developments in the struggle of the workers of VIOME [previously on S!N].

As you know, for four years now we have been fighting for our life and dignity. We, the workers, have chosen to create social alliances. We have rejected the proposals made by various political organizations to have an “exclusive” relationship with our struggle and direct it following narrow partisan criteria. Nevertheless, we have always all accepted invitations to speak and communicate.
[Read More]

Freedom‘s note: Whilst the Million Mask March was shutting down Central London (as well as being kettled and arrested), it appears an autonomous group of anarchists took matters into their own hands and protested the recent actions of the police in a direct way. The below statement has appeared on the 325 website along with a picture of a smashed window and ‘ACAB’ graffiti. This has been confirmed by our correspondent on the ground whose more recent photo is at the bottom of the article. It is encouraging to see actions taking place out of the usual designated protest zones in London and into everyday communities who feel the brunt of police violence. [Read More]

THE SHIP HAS LIFTED THE ANCHOR AWAY “ASSILLO” IS BACK

On the 24th of october we squatted a building in Trento, Italy.

We need places to live differently and and where we can organize ourselves. The demonstration that those are not only our needs is proved by many and many people who joined the experience of the “Assillo” and “Villa Assillo”, places left empty for years that started to live again for months before the police came and evicted us destroying the roofs – because police fear our will to manage our own lives.

[Read More]

With the arrest of two other Hambach Forest activists, the repression wave against the anti­brown­coal movement has reached a new height.

Mr. Blue, who refused to give his identity to the police at his arrest (and still has not given their identity), is imprisoned since the 7th of October. He was arrested while blockading one of the main conveyor belts of the open cast mine Hambach, and through this shutting down the mining activities. Mr. Blue has not been allowed to see the prison doctor since he was imprisoned. [Read More]