[Squat!net]

We are a group of people from different countries and different political backgrounds who are fighting for the right to housing for everyone, whatever their origin. We announce that we have been occupying (now for more than 48 hours), empty and abandoned public buildings in different parts of the town of Calais, and intend to continue these occupations and maintain them as “legal squats” for as long as possible:

Why here and why now? There are more than 4,000 buildings empty in Calais, which represents 9 % of homes (500 of these are the property of a single, large, housing association- the major ‘social’ landlord in the city), and yet against this backdrop more than 500 people are on the streets, out of sight of any dignified solution and used only as sound bites by politicians who proport to offer assistance and in reality offering nothing. To address this situation they (the town hall/authorities) have turned Calais into a ghost town . [Read More]

Update 25-02 11pm: Both people charged with Section 144 and bailed for plea hearing next month in Highbury Corner Magistrates Court.

Update 25/02 12pm: Police broke in to arrest two people on suspicion of Section 144 LASPO (see  video).

Update 24/02 5pm: Police have showed up and said “Oh it’s a protest, happy days” and within two minutes all four cop cars left.

Article from 23-02 12pm: Camden Housing Action Group is occupying council property on Southampton road to protest against its selling off to private developers.

[Read More]

UPDATE 8AM Monday 24/2:

Local Calais media are reporting the demonstration of around 50 racists continued through Sunday. The fire brigade were called after a group of men were spotted nearby by neighbours with jerrycans of petrol to prepare more molotov cocktails. [Read More]

Saturday’s news from the inhabitants of 122 Rue Émile Dumont in Coulogn (suburb of Calais)

“We’re writing to you again with the latest news from the front. Our aggressors have reached a new level of violence. On Saturday 22, we were attacked by intensive volleys of stones from two in the afternoon until half past midnight. Around 4.30 pm, one man who had threatened on the facebook page of ‘Sauvons Calais’ (‘Save Calais’) to kill some migrants and throw them into the canal threw a rock, from 6 metres away, which hit the neck of a friend who had gone outside to talk with some of the neighbours. When we went outside to eat in the garden, we received a rain of some 20 stones in just a few seconds. As the numerous attacks on the roof and the windows went on, the crowd shouted encouragement every time a stone hit its target. [Read More]

Over 500 protesters expected to confront London Mayor Boris Johnson’s Question Time on Wednesday

The Met have announced plans to make ‘rough sleeping’ a crime in 6 London boroughs. Operation Encompass will be in effect in Camden, Islington, Lambeth, Southwark and Westminster, alongside Croydon.

We are opposed to this latest attack on Homeless people and will protest at City Hall to tell Boris Johnson and the Greater London Authority (GLA) to call off this hideous campaign criminalising some of the most vulnerable people in our city. Already there have been arrests of people whose only crime is to be homeless due to the lack of Shelter spaces and suitable accomodation. [Read More]

Residence of Forchers housing estate in Barnstaple, North Devon have occupied their pub The Borough Arms which is due to be knocked down to make way for flats as part of a “regeneration” scheme.

The locals have taken their building back and hope to save it from from the re-development as they highlight a lack of local facilities.

The occupation, which has been underway for a week has been met with positive media attention, click here for mainstream media video full report . [Read More]

A squatter staged a rooftop protest and a bailiff was arrested after a stand-off in Richmond on Wednesday afternoon.

The bailiff, a 30-year-old man, was arrested after letting himself into the commercial building, 127-133 Sheen Road, by putting his hand through a letterbox to undo a latch.

The arrest came after the road was closed in both directions, causing major traffic problems, after a squatter locked himself on the roof of the three-storey building, threatening to jump unless people left. [Read More]

Tomorrow, Friday 21st Feb, fascists have called a day and evening demonstration outside a new squat in Coulogne. This is the accumulation of five days of heavy fascist activity in the Calais area.

In the last few months a racist anti-migrant group, ‘Sauvons Calais’ have mobilised in Calais to ‘defend Calais from migrants’. Last week people squatted a farm house in Coulogne and since Sunday evening groups of up to 50 fascists and angry neighbours have had almost a constant presence outside the building.

The fascist’s actions this week have ranged from shouting insults at the people inside, throwing rocks, fireworks and standing there for hours on end. At 7am on Tuesday morning three fascists, who had been out drinking all night tried to break into the squat with a sledge hammer. Two of them were arrested. Members of the demonstration have also been recorded making death threats against migrants. [Read More]

Translation of article from fr.squat.net:

The spark launched by the Mayor of Calais with his call to denounce squats on facebook last October by the Save Calais page, and the handshake of two assistants to the mayor of Calais over their anti-migrant protesters in November, shows that this attack is invited to Coulogne.

Activists of Save Calais rallied in front of a recently opened Coulogne squat, a previously empty house. A banner  presenting themselves as residents, with ‘alarm bells’ sounding to the real residents – in an attempt to sow the seed of fear of an invasion of migrants. [Read More]

From August, 27th till 31st we will make Squatting a topic again. Let’s exchange experiences together, lets discuss, roam the streets and start some action.

Reasons for squatting are numerous and various: To protest against unaffordable and rising rent, to prevent a building from being teared down, out of the need of new, self-organised and uncomercial spaces, for living, as ateliers, workshops, cultural centres and many many more.
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Squatters have taken over a leisure centre that has been left empty for two years, pledging to turn it into a place for the community.

A group of 14 people have taken up residency in the Mornington Sports Centre, in Arlington Road, which has been vacant since being sold off by the council.

The building was due to be turned into private homes, but developers have been slowed down by wrangling over planning permission.  [Read More]

On Friday, the 7th February in the early evening, police evicted the “silent squat” in Neklanova street in Prague 2, used exclusively for housing. The house owned by an Italian company who have cleared the house besides one tenant who welcomed the ‘squatters’. During the intervention, which was without unjustified violence by the security forces, sixteen people were arrested, including several onlookers who came to support the squatters.

[Read More]