[Squat!net]

On Friday, Project Shelter squatted an empty building next to the Bistro in Berger Straße 307 in Frankfurt-Bornheim (Germany).

The Bistro itself was squatted a year ago and turned into an active political and social place – now the owner announced that the agreement on a short-term usage ends. „We achieved a lot in the bistro, but we still need a self-organized centre. There are enough empty buildings for that in Frankfurt: We just packed our stuff and moved 30 Meters down the road to the next empty building.“ This building is empty for a decade now – and so the condition is really bad. „This happens all over the city: We want to use buildings, instead of letting them rot.“ With the opening of the house and an exhibition, in a creative way the group raises the issues of empty buildings in Frankfurt and the situation of the project. The invitation to the exhibition is at the same time an invitation for a talk between the group, the neighbors and everybody from Frankfurt who is interested. Although there are a lot of empty houses in Frankfurt, many people find it difficult to find a place to stay because of rising rents and the logics of the housing market. [Read More]

A school building that has been empty for 7 years was squatted in Waverveen, Netherlands.

On Sunday June 4th a convoy arrived into the green village of Waverveen to squat a small school, on the Botsholsedwarsweg 13A. Owned by the Gemeente de Ronde Venen, the school named ‘Poldertrots’ has been empty for 7 years.

Sunday:
The cops have been and gone after some mild confusion, so we will wait for the arrival of more authorities or Geemente representatives. [Read More]

The Obsaď a žij collective has been kicked out by riot police from the building squatted on Hybernská 10, in the center of Prague. The building is owned by real estate company ÚZSVM. Video of the eviction is posted on June 10th. Reports of the action were posted on the Klinika blog on June 6th. [Read More]

In Bochum, Germany there is a growing solidarity with the people who squatted an empty building in the Herner Str 131. Police authorities are not so amused. They threaten to evict the building. Activists ask people to be ready for eviction alerts. A demo is planned and decentral solidarity actions are appreciated.

On the 19th of May a group of people squatted an empty building at the Herner Str 131 in Bochum, Germany. The cops came to the house but did not interfere. Over the weekend there was a lot of contact with neighbours and supporters. The activists organised a barbeque party in their garden and lots of people came to discuss the occupation. Apart from places to live, the squatters want to establish a social center in the building.

The tenanst association in Bochum published a support message, saying that more than 7000 apartments are still empty in the German city. They continued their message by saying that people with low wages have more and more problems to find an affordable place to live and that half of the refugees are still living in refugee shelters (lager). The tenants association concluded their message by saying that they wish the owner and the police will not evict the squatters and instead should talk with the squatters. [Read More]

Parallel to the “reclaim the city!” night dance demo an empty building on the Herner street 131 (Herner Straße) in Bochum, Germany was squatted tonight.

In a statement at Linksunten Indymedia the squatters wrote that they want to establish a social center and living space in the building. The first floor of Herner Street 131 will be used for the social center and the floors above will be used by people to live.

Like many buildings in Bochum, the building was empty for years. At the same time the rents in the city go up and there is almost no space for noncommercial cultural and political projects. With this occupation the squatters resist aginst the capitalist exploitation logic, which only allows buildings to be used when its profitable. Instead of this logic we want to use the building self-organized and orientated to the needs of the people.

Although the cops were at the back of the house, the squatters tweeted at 10:40pm tonight that they don’t think that the cops will evict them tonight. There is a great atmosphere there right now. If people want to support they are welcome to come to Bochum. [Read More]

Today 24th April, we squatted Spui 275A and 277, two buildings empty for many years.

We decided to squat the buildings because we find it unacceptable that in times of housing shortages in the Hague many buildings are empty to produce profits with speculation by the owner. A city is there for its citizens and not for gaining profits by capitalist elements. One of the squatters said: “That squatting is being criminalized since 2010 means nothing to us.” He continued by saying: “Squatting might be illegal but for us its a legitimate method of action which produces a direct result, it contests vacantness and provides living space.”

The latest plans that are known for the buildings at Spui 275A/277 are that they will be demolished for the construction of a new hotel instead of renovating it for affordable living space in a city with more and more gentrification. Its another sign that the owners are only interested in making profits and interests of society are losing ground. While the average citizen of the Hague is on a waiting list for years to get an apartment which he or she can afford, speculating owners can do what they want to gain their profits. [Read More]

Update: The house is still squatted. There’s a program for this evening from 5pm on:
- at 5pm there’s a lecture from the book “the net knows everything”
- after we are going to cook and eat together
- and a plenary will also take place
Come by! Take your sleeping bags and camping mats with you and stay over night!
We are happy about your solidarity!
Attention: There’s quite a lot of civil police in the streets around! And cop cars are passing the house over and over again!
Take care of each other!

Call for a squat action

Soon we are going to squat a house, to create a room of struggle and to reclaim a piece of our lifes. From this publication in advance we expect, that everyone who recognizes her*himself in the ideas as they are formulated here, develops her*his own initiatives, plan her*his own activities and actions and intensifies the struggles. [Read More]

Squatting collective the Autonomous Nation of Anarchist Libertarians (ANAL) continue to underline exactly how much high-end housing is lying empty while homeless people sleep on the rain-soaked concrete, having spent last night moving into another mansion.
The group wrote: “Facing a police enforced eviction at 4 Grovesnor Gardens, ANAL have decided to relocate AS CLOSE TO THE QUEENS BEDROOM as possible…. Overlooking Wellington barracks, introducing our new squat, 19 Buckingham Gate.”
19 Buckingham Gate, which is just yards away from Buckingham Palace’s gardens, is the third property in a row to have been taken on by the collective, which took over 108 Easton Square in January (where they fended off fascist attackers) and 4 Grosvenor Gardens in February.
The overall site, 18-19 Buckingham Gate, is currently being given a slightly gaudy-looking makeover by developer Simpson Haugh and Partners, with a view to turning it into 14 luxury apartments for the sort of people who can afford to pay (if it’s anything like the neighbours’ place) £2.5 million a pop for the chance to get a good view of the royal behind.
The developer lists the owner as “private,” however if it’s not “18-19 Buckingham Gate Investment Ltd” then coincidences abound.
If ANAL keep up their current rate of mansion occupations they could have collectively squatted in properties worth well over £100m by the end of the year. [Read More]

Today (20/2/17) we liberated an old Swimming Pool! The pool has been squatted before for 10 years after being empty for 7 years, in 2012 it got evicted to build a “Paramedical centre”. This never got build because the owner [J. H. Bakker] went partly bankrupt in 2014, its been empty since then. More pictures below. Source
[Read More]

This morning Oxford residents and local homeless people dropped an enormous banner from the front of the old VW garage on Iffley Road declaring “People need homes, empty spaces need people” as a new petition gains momentum and puts pressure on the owners, Wadham College, to support the plight of homeless people this winter.

The building, which has laid empty for two years, was opened on New Year’s eve providing shelter for rough sleepers in response to the growing homelessness crisis.

A group, which included Oxford University students and alumni entered the building after finding, to their amazement, the front door had been left open. A member of the group, Sandra Philips said,

“We have made a temporary home for some of the homeless and rough sleepers of Oxford because council cuts have forced the closure of night shelters and homeless people are dying on our streets. This building lies empty whilst hundreds are without a home or even a roof over their head. We all have an obligation to do what we can to help this situation, everyone is affected by the housing crisis in some way.” [Read More]

The building, Weteringschans 209, is owned by associates of well know speculators Libra B.V. who are currently also trying to evict the ADM.
We wish everyone happy holidays, and solidarity with all squats and squatters worldwide!
Happy holidays!
Greetings from Amsterdam Oost. [Read More]

Amsterdam, 24 december 2016 – Today, we, a Swahili subgroup of the refugee action collective We Are Here, squatted a building on the Amstelstraat 29-31. We had no other option because we were evicted from our previous location at the Rijswijkstraat.
We have asked the municipality many times to help us with sattisfying our basic needs, such as a simple proper shelter for day and night, but nothing has happened so far. Therefore we have to continue to squat buildings.
We are a small group and want to take good care for the building. We had friendly contact with the owners of our buildings before and we hope to come to a good agreement again. We also welcome all our neighbours to visit us. [Read More]