[Squat!net]

On October 30th, at around 10am, anti-riot squadrons stormed the streets surrounding Exarchia square and violently evicted the housing squat on Spyridonos Trikoupi street. According to the initial information, approximately ten people were taken to the Exarchia police station, while the ‘legal’ owners of the building have not (yet) filed a lawsuit against the detained squatters.

Update, 18.00 (GMT+2): The ‘landlords’ filed a lawsuit against the squatters. All detainees will be held at the police station until tomorrow, 31/10, when they are expected to appear before prosecutor. [Contra Info]

The ZAD is an aeroport protest site in the west of France about 15 miles north of Nantes. The aeroport project was first proposed over forty years ago and has faced constant local resistance ever since. The project is in the hands of the multinational company Vinci, who also provide us with such « services » as prisons, motorways and nuclear power stations. It is the particular pet project of Jean Marc Ayrault, the former mayor of Nantes and current Prime Minister of France. In 2009 the area hosted a climate camp, since when the empty houses, fields and forests have been gradually filling up with people disgusted enough by the idea of this project to stay and resist. The reasons for staying are as diverse as the people but the occupiers are united by an idea that fighting capitalism is not just theoretical but something to live in practice every day. [Read More]

In this autumn of 2012, the opposition to the Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport project is entering a delicate phase. The response which it may elicit from outside the area directly affected will be the deciding factor for the future of this battle.

To create a Deferred Development Zone, ZAD, (land set aside for major development), to compulsory purchase and demolish homes and then to certify the project as a ‘d’utilité publique’, DUP, (declaration of public interest) before even starting the initial survey work, constitutes a grand scam under the guise of Democratic Policy All this has already been done. [Read More]

On Friday, October 5th, 2012, in a day of solidarity with displaced squatters in Bogotá, approximately 25 people gathered from 12.00 to 2.30pm in front of a squatted residential building at the corner of 47th street and 7th avenue, in order to publicly denounce the appalling housing situation in Colombia and to factually support more than twenty people already displaced from their homes in other locations.
[Read More]

UK Indymedia – Statement by Delta squat about the events of eviction
Sunday, September 16th, 2012

A BRIEF CHRONICLE
On September 12th at 6.30 in the morning various different police departments were mobilized for the eviction of Delta squat. EKAM special suppressive antiterrorist units and MAT anti-riot police squadrons bashed into the rooms where the comrades were sleeping, and threw them on the floor when they had already been handcuffed. During this whole operation the comrades suffered both verbal and physical violence. One of them was held so he could be present during the cops’ search of the building though they had his head facing the wall, so he couldn’t see anything. Later on, he declined to sign the search and confiscation report. Some time later all ten arrested comrades were taken to the police headquarters in Thessaloniki.
[Read More]

Press release sent October 17th at 23:30

We live here, we’ll stay here!

After two days of resistance and solidarity, only seven houses and one plot were evicted at the ZAD, a threatened area meant to make place to an airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes. Everywhere police forces met determinated opponents, inhabitants refusing to leave their houses, their roofs. Demonstrations. direct actions took place around several locations, roads we barricaded, activists keeping joining the ZAD area, etc…

Since hours, opponents are defending several plots, the Far West, the Sabot, a cultivable land back in use since May 2011. Right now, the Sabot in drowned under a cloud of tear gas, with a drumming samba band. Outside the ZAD, many solidarity actions took place, such a demonstration in front of the main state building in Nantes tonight.

Contrary to what was announced by the highest state representative of the region tuesday morning, the area is far from being empty. Around 20 houses remain occupied, this is even not including house owners, renters and farmers still living in the area. The pressure and acts from the police, such as the destruction by fire from one wood hut, without checking if it was still occupied, won’t silent dissent. [Read More]

Events happening in the ZAD, in Notre Dames des Landes, near Nantes, can be followed minute to minute on the ZAD website. Barricades are still holding on after 2 days of a huge military style operation in an attempt to evict the ZAD inhabitants. The french state is mobilizing an incredible amount of police and military forces. The ZAD is calling for decentralized actions everywhere, now!

English and french eviction time line:
- time line Tuesday October 16th
- time line Wednesday October 17th
- time line Thursday October 18th

Found on the ZAD website: Contrary to what was announced by the prefect tuesday morning, the operation has not yet ended. And we don’t consider that everything “went fine”. [Read More]

When one door closes, another door opens. Well, that’s hardly ever the case, but who gives a shit anyway? Certainly not the Amsterdam squatter who didn’t hold a key to any front door in the first place.

The Dutch squatting ban has fueled countless discussions over the past two years. Squatters have been around in The Netherlands as the front runners of social action since the early 1960s. As part of a broader political force, the squatting movement in Amsterdam in particular was a direct response to the tremendous housing shortage the city still faces to this date, characterised by high rents and a large number of vacant or abandoned properties. [Read More]

Several sources let us believe that evictions are imminent. We got wind of a first wave of evictions on Tuesday the 16th of October at dawn. We received precise informations about where troops will be staying, the planned route to access the area, the number of personnel involved (500 gendarmes). This first wave should concern houses that are already evictable and also the cabins. This should be followed by a second wave about ten days later, regarding this time tree-houses and three houses, La Sècherie, les Rosiers, la Saulce where the baillif chose this august to bring forward the date from when they’re evictable, moving it from november 15th to october 27th.
For the last few weeks teams of police have been around the ZAD gathering information in preparation, like measuring the height of the tree-houses. Police teams are currently patrolling, including some with parisian number plates. Traffic controls have been increased on and around the ZAD. Last Tuesday (October 09th ) the last squat in Grandchamps was evicted with the help of impressive police deployment. [Read More]

On Wednesday October 10, 2012 people who are “homeless, have recently been evicted, and foreclosed-on, the dispossessed, and their allies took to the streets in San Francisco protesting and marching to express their frustration with the current homeless situation and numbers both here in San Francisco and in the whole United States. Here in San Francisco it is believed that at least 10,000 people are homeless, and there are at least 35,000 vacant “housing units,” city wide. It is also believed that there at least “3.5 million homeless people in the United States, and that at least 1 million are children, but only 112,000 nationwide are chronically homeless.”
[Read More]

A good article from the Voice of America website!?

Protest groups in Spain have helped families that were kicked out of their homes by banks find shelter in repossessed, empty apartment buildings. Police moved in quickly in most cases, but in Seville about 30 families are going on six months of illegal occupation.
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This is an open letter to everyone, who has been excited, disappointed, confused, concerned, etc about what is happening with the physical space that will become the Cuts Cafe. My name is Peter, I am a member of the space team who have been working day and night for the past two weeks in order to try and find a building that meets the criteria of size, accessibility, location, and security. In the last fourteen days we have scouted around forty buildings in areas such as Elephant and Castle, The City of London, Holborn, and Mayfair; opened and internally expected around 10, and fully squatted and prepared 2; most of us have slept less than 4 hours in every 24.
[Read More]