[Squat!net]

END OF COURT PROCESS BETWEEN AC MOLOTOV AND IT’S OWNER

Autonomna Cona Molotov is a squat in Ljubljana, which it’s owner – Slovenian Railway Company (SRC) wanted to illegaly evict at 7.11.02. They used private security company and we were kept 2 weeks in the house.

The place itself is very easy to evict, becasue it’s one floor house, so we took the legal way – court. We got the lawyer from NGO Mirovni Institut and PIC. They also covered the expenses on the court. The goal was to charge the police, G7 (security company) and SRC. But as we all know, court takes lots of money. As we lost media popularity, we also lost our financial supporters. They deceided to pay only until new year. This would mean, we would have to defend ourselfs alone on the court and would have to pay enormous expenses of the court. And better not to mention that the lawyer was working only for money, he didn’t even answer the phone for us.

So, we deceided to stop the court process and to make an agreement with SRC. We signed the contract which says we have to go out until 7.11.03 and have permission to conect water and electricity again. We demanded they cover the expenses of water conection, because they cut off the pipes during the eviction, but they refused. It is also not sure, we will go out at 7.11.03, because we can agin use the court, write compaints and the process will be establish again. With that, we can keep the house for some time again.Anyway, we are looking for new house, because of inner problems and pressure from outside. We want to get rid of the name Molotov, which is used in media as every alternative organization, movement etc., even as terrorist organization (in Italy, before protests in Firence). We hope to move in new house after winter, if not…see you at next eviction at 7.11.03!!!

www.acmolotov.org

March 15, 2003, marks the seventh year of this international day of protest and solidarity against police brutality. It first began in 1997 as an initiative of the Black Flag collective in Switzerland along with the help of ‘le Collective Opposé à la Brutalité Policière’ (COBP-Montreal).

Since its first year, the International Day Against Police Brutality (IDAPB) has been a success. This date was chosen because on March 15th, two children, aged 11 and 12, were beaten by the Swiss police.

This day is also an opportunity to create and strengthen an indispensable international solidarity against the ever-increasing collaboration amongst global police forces. The IDAPB is one step in ending the isolation of groups and individuals who, engaged in this struggle, are subjected to daily repression.

The police, the right arm of the State, abuse their power on a daily basis and exercise violence with total impunity. Within the police brotherhood, the complicity of silence eradicates the possibility of one police officer’s innocence. Everywhere they continuously violate the very laws that they are supposed to uphold. The police check I.D. without reason, ticket, harass, steal, spy, beat, deport, arrest, imprison, torture and kill. Their primary targets are “the undesirables of society”: the poor, the homeless, Indigenous peoples, people of colour, immigrants and persons with irregular status (“illegal immigrants” and people working under-the-table), sex workers, activists and student activists, the marginalised, organised workers, queer, gender-based and feminist activists and people who question and don’t accept the legitimacy of the authorities.

In response to the breadth and depth of anti-capitalist globalization demonstrations opposing the fortress of capitalism, the widening gap between the rich and the poor, the deepening of poverty, the generalised misery and deterioration of living conditions, governments invest in their police forces, in order to maintain, at whatever cost, law and order for ‘social peace’.

The reactionary security craze following the September 11 events in the U.S. gave free reign to world governments to create new fascist anti-terrorist and racist anti-immigration laws. Systematic surveillance of all means of communication, tougher border controls (if not their closure) and total discretionary powers to all police forces directly affect all “undesirables” (the ‘dangerous’ class).

Facing a global police state, we have the responsibility to act and support all victims of State force. We urgently invite you to participate in the International Day Against Police Brutality (IDAPB). Until now, this event has taken place in several forms: street theatre, murals, publications, demonstrations, conferences, postering, workshops, exhibitions, radio and television shows and other cultural events. Some groups have organised more than one activity while others have formed coalitions. All collectives or individuals decide on what type of action, depending on the political climate of their country, the energy and willingness of people to organise an event, the resources available, etc. The key thing is the imagination and the creativity of the people involved.

POLICE = LEGAL TERROR!
DOWN WITH POLICE STATES EVERYWHERE!
ORGANISE THE INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY!

Some suggestions and needs:
* If you can’t organise for March 15th, try to organise as close to the date as possible.
* If you can’t or don’t want to participate, please spread and forward this message.
* We need more languages, so any translation of the message is very much appreciated. Could you please send the translations to the below email addresses, so that we can publish them on our websites.
* If you organise anything, can you please let us know, in order to strengthen solidarity and to be able to build a publication about this worldwide event.
* For questions, commentaries, or to find out more about COBP-Montréal and COPB-Vancouver please contact us and visit our websites.

Contacts:
Snail mail:
c/o The Alternative Bookshop
2035 St-Laurent, 2nd floor
Montreal, Quebec
H2X 2T3 E-mail: idapb2003 [at] yahoo [dot] ca Websites:
COBP-Montréal:http://www.tao.ca/~cobp/index.html COPB-Vancouver:http://resist.ca/~copb-van

COBP-Montréal and COPB-Van

Write to the prisoners! There’s two people being kept in prison here in Holland since the 30th of November, for (complicity to) ‘attempted manslaughter’ against a copper. Seven others are waiting to be deported to several different countries and one woman got deported to Australia already. In the night of Friday to Saturday the 30th of November the police raided one squat here in Amsterdam and arrested all the inhabitants. The motive for the raid was some kind of fake fair-gun that some residents found in the trash, which some neighbours saw and called the cops for. The cops didn’t want to talk or negotiate but started immediately to arrest and beat up people, so the squatters spontaneously started to defend their house by throwing stuff out of the windows. Some sympathizers who rushed to the spot got also beaten up and arrested. In the heat of all this a small tv was thrown out of a window on the head of a copper. He didn’t get seriously injured, but two people are now being accused of attempted manslaughter and are facing some longer time in prison. You can morally support them by writing letters in Polish or English. Their adresses are: Alicija Kordasz
P.I. Amerswiel
Copernicusstraat 10
1704 SV Heerhugowaard Marcin Kobos
P.I. Grittenborgh – cel 5007
Postbus 607
7900 AP Hoogeveen Both adresses in Holland of course.

“Warhead Info Service” <soja2 [at] poczta [dot] onet [dot] pl>

PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY

2002 placed huge strains on OCAP’s resources. We had to fight to defend dozens of members and supporters in the courts in the face of intensified (and unsuccessful) efforts to criminalize and destroy our organization.

It has never been our intention, however, to let them divert us from the struggle we are engaged in and, this last year saw our fight back taken to new levels. Every day, we opposed evictions, challenged the denial of social benefits, resisted deportations and fought back against other abuses thrown at people in the war on the poor. We also took the fight for housing to a new level with the months’ long “Pope Squat” that shook up the Tories and pointed the way forward for the upcoming year.

As we go into 2003, we face some very major challenges. Three of our members, Stefan Pilipa, John Clarke and Gaetan Heroux face a three month Jury Trial that starts in January. They have been singled out as ‘leaders’ of a ‘planned riot’ on June 15, 2000 at the Ontario Legislature. Prison terms of up to five years are hanging over them. (We know these OCAP members are not guilty because June 15 was a police riot and the cops don’t take their orders from us). We will approach this trial not just as a legal battle but as a political campaign and will mobilize to defeat this latest round in the criminalization of resistance.

During this next year, we intend to deepen our work in poor neighbourhoods and to organize struggles for housing that will be on a much bigger scale than that of the Pope Squat. Coast to coast housing takeovers are being worked for with OCAP spearheading a major mobilization in Toronto.

We are moving forward with all these struggles with a bank account that is down to next to nothing. Now, we know that we are going to have to carry on our work with resources that are but a tiny fraction of what the other side spends on trying to silence us but, if you could help us keep the phone hooked up and the rent paid, that would be nice. We urgently need a round of financial support to take us into the New Year. Please rush any and all donations to:

OCAP,
517 College Street, unit 234,
Toronto, ON
M6G 4A2

Make checks and money orders out to: Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

If you would like to receive an OCAP calendar (cost $12 with postage) please let us know this when you write and be sure to include a return address.

Thanks,
OCAP

OCAP <ocap [at] tao [dot] ca>

On Saturday 7 December 2002 the Midnight Star Social Centre was evicted. Around 25 OSG riot police forced their way in just after 7a.m, searched those inside for knives etc, tried to take down names, and gave them just a few minutes to get out. Within hours, the owners had enclosed the site with barbwire fencing and were refusing to allow people in to get their equipment. There were no injuries and no arrests were made.

The Midnight Star had been occupied since February 2002. From the outset, the Social Centre was an experiment in autonomous direct action – it was a non-residential space focused on creating a space outside the control of the state and market. The Midnight Star was an important space for gigs – many doof, punk, hip-hop, and jazz benefit gigs were held there, introducing many people to the possibilities of occupied and autonomous spaces. A pirate cinema – oPeRaTiNg tHeAtRe – screened unusual and rare films and served free food every week, including Hindi films for the local Indian community. A number of different people and crews with computer skills set-up a computer workspace/infoshop with discarded and donated computer equipment. The Midnight Star was also the meeting space for a number of different groups – from local wireless technology networking groups to copwatch and other autonomous/activists crews. [Read More]

City Hall from Guarulhos (PT) block the homeless from get their land

The two thousand families from MTST in Osasco was first deceived by the State Government that had promised a slow and pacific removal but it promoted a violent and hasty eviction. Then they had been forbidden by the Municipal Government of Guarulhos (PT) to enter in the land that the State had assigned to them. [Read More]

About two a thousand families who squatted a land in Osasco (near the city of São Paulo) had been evicted this thursday, December 5th. The land, of fifty hectares, was used as rubbish deposit and clandestine cemetary and it is located in a noble region of the city, to the side of a golf field. After months of negotiation, the coordination of the homeless and the government of the state of São Paulo had agreed with a pacific withdrawal, with the removal of the squatters to a land that belongs to the state located in the city of Guarulhos (also near São Paulo). In the last thursday during the morning, the homeless complained of the absence of trucks and buses that would carried them to the land. Tractors had passed over their houses (that they builded in the squatted land) before belongings of the inhabitants could be removed. [Read More]