London: Space Pirates Squatfest

During the weekend of 24-27th September 2021, a building in Central London will be opened to the public, hosting the first in a series of events organised by The Space Pirates. Ahoy World is an invitation and guide to this first event. There are three main parts: A Retrospective, a section on transformative patterns, and an introduction to Space Pirates. The retrospective section includes squats whose focus is on mutual aid and direct action where the intention is to be – at least partly – open to the public. Transformative Patterns looks at models and theories around conscientious organising. Lastly, there is an introduction to The Space Pirates. If you’d like to get involved, soon or in the future, either by attending or hosting, please get in touch asap 411516.squat.net.

Long before we’ve got a court summons, the Space Pirates Squatfest weekend will be over.

Hopefully,

kinda!

Source

UK: New squatters handbook out now!

It’s arrived! Squatters Handbook 14.5! Available from Freedom bookshop [London] and all good squats! Your handy guide to the class war and autonomous struggle in England and Wales!
Please share far and wide..

Berlin: eviction of Køpi Wagenplatz, 15 October

Dear comrades!

We have now received the date for the eviction of Køpi Wagenplatz. On 15 October 2021, at 10:00 AM!
Therefore, we call for action weeks from now on, on one hand to push the topic of the planned eviction massively in the public and to mobilize, on the other hand this should once again give the opportunity to network, to discuss, to learn and to organize.
The action weeks should take place from now until the planned eviction as long and continuously as possible.
For this we need your support!
If you want to organize an info- or discussion event, a workshop or open skill sharing, please write us the dates and publish them yourself on Stressfaktor and other event pages.
Banners can be put up anytime and anywhere, posters and stickers can be put up, flyers can be distributed and soli photos can be published. A drink in your bar/pub could temporarily be called ‘Køpiplatz bleibt!’ or whatever you can think of, just do it! Also writing solo statements and spreading our info + events, articles and statements help us out!
If you have space in your location for such an event, but don’t want to or can’t organize anything yourself, you are also welcome to contact us in order to be able to refer other groups without rooms if necessary.
Also groups with event ideas but no location are welcome to contact us. [Read More]

Lyon: for immediate and permanent rehousing of those evicted from the Feyzin squat

Press release following the occupation of the Clémenceau gymnasium on Thursday 16 September, feedback on the course of the occupation and the negotiations with the prefecture.

On Thursday 16 September at 7:30 am, the eviction without prior notice of the Feyzin squat was allowed by a huge police force. It seems that neither the prefecture, nor the DDCS, nor the Ofii, nor the Metropolis, nor the Salvation Army, considered it necessary to warn the inhabitants of an operation which seemed to have been planned for weeks. Many people had, the day before, left the squat after the information had leaked, for fear of the police intervention. They were therefore not taken into account in the accommodation system (despite social diagnoses which normally lead to care even in the absence of the inhabitants at the time of the eviction). The figures given by the prefecture and the press are therefore largely underestimated. Out of 120 to 150 people counted in the squat, only about 50 people were taken by bus to the Chabal barracks, an accommodation center in Saint Priest known for its undignified reception conditions. If 14 people “refused” the offer of accommodation, it is because it was conditioned to an assisted voluntary return, which simply consists in accepting to be deported. Do we have to remind the prefecture once again that these people are here to stay and that neither their presence nor their right to unconditional accommodation is negotiable? At the end of this operation, and without counting the people who have been lost, at least thirty people, alone or with their families, found themselves on the street that day. [Read More]

Notre-Dame-des-Landes (France): The Mohawked Salamanders Burn Down the Salamander’s School – Why We Attacked the Zad

“I simply didn’t see where the inevitable reformism was coming from this time, discreetly but surely, from those who speak of insurrection and autonomy by the thousands of copies.”
Quote from “The movement is dead… Long live reform”, November 2017.

The Zad was our pirate ship, the mother of all Zads. It emerged in a time with no way out and it was as if the world became a little more bearable. Like a brief glimmer of light, a possibility breaking through the thick, sticky fog of our future. For those of us who lead full and busy lives, off the beaten track, it was the knowledge that there would always be a place to welcome us if we were on the run. A place where the state would never come for us. A place where we would always find allies to feed us, to clothe us, to hide us in the folds of its hedges.

And this very state, which crushes us, kills us, hunts us, was given the Zad three years ago by a handful of opportunists. Those who, only yesterday, claimed this territory as being in “secession”.

This despicable betrayal, which took place behind the backs of those who confronted the police on the barricades, cannot be forgotten. Even less so when the local Comintern has come up with a project for an École des tritons [salamanders'(1) school], to celebrate the three year anniversary of what they call victory.

Rebuilding on the Planchettes(2) then? How can we not exult in rage at this umpteenth provocation? How can we not cry vengeance for the devastated East? [Read More]

Lyon: occupation of the Clémenceau gymnasium for immediate and permanent rehousing of those evicted from the Feyzin squat

This morning, Thursday 16 September, around 7:30 am, without prior notice, more than 20 vans of the national and municipal police, CRS units, PAF (Border Police), accompanied by representatives of the prefecture, the town hall, DDETS/DDCS, Ofii and the Salvation Army, deployed a huge operation to evict the Feyzin squat, the former Georges Brassens school. Since February 2020, the place was sheltering 100 to 200 people, families and isolated people, and was under pressure, threats and lawsuits from the owner, the multinational Total.

No one, neither residents, nor supporters, nor associations, had been officially warned of the intervention. Most of the inhabitants were not able to recover all their belongings. Would it be more important for the institutions responsible for providing unconditional housing for everyone to protect Total’s image from yet another scandal than to respect the residents and their right to housing? [Read More]

Paris: Call for a rally in front of the 20th district police station after the eviction of a squat

A building located at 124 rue de Belleville, belonging to the city hall of the 20th district and empty for several years, was squatted to make it an anarcha-feminist space as well as a living space for about ten people. The place was evicted this Wednesday and 8 people are in custody.

For a long time, everything has been done so that the district of Belleville and its surroundings are reserved for the rich. Rents are constantly rising, cheap fast food is replaced by trendy bars and restaurants with ever more expensive drinks, migrant workers’ hostels have been transformed into controlled social residences, the authorities are sending more and more cops into the streets to wage war on the poor, etc. [Read More]

Lucerne: Free Spaces Now! Demo 17 september

Even after a summer, the now empty house on Murmattweg sits heavy in our stomachs. We continue to be angry and sad about the tough structures in Lucerne that keep getting in the way of the implementation of self-determined projects and ideas. We stand in solidarity with projects in Lucerne that continue to withstand this pressure, forming important free spaces.

But we don’t want to just quietly accept that more projects will be lost and that the conservative and inflexible attitude of the city government will simply go unanswered. We need places where conventions and hierarchies can be broken. That’s why on September 17 we’re taking to the streets together and loudly, demanding space for education, networking and emancipation.

For more free, self-determined and solidary spaces in Lucerne! [Read More]

Lyon: urgent call for solidarity against the eviction of the Feyzin squat

We have just learned that the cops are planning to evict the Feyzin squat on Thursday 16th at 7am. We are calling for a rally to support the hundreds of residents who have found a home there for a year and a half now.
Since February 2020, the former Georges Brassens school in Feyzin has been home to over 200 residents. The owner of the land and the adjacent refinery, Total, has dragged the squat from trial to trial. After appealing the delay granted in the first instance, Total obtained what it wanted from the Court of Appeal: immediate eviction from the site and cancellation of the delays granted.
However, to date, a large number of residents have no alternative housing. Due to the lack of the necessary accommodation places -there is a shortage of 1000 emergency accommodation places in Lyon- and because of the State’s policy of non-accommodation, many people will end up on the street. [Read More]

Amsterdam: squat action attempt on Gravenstraat and police brutality

Today 12 september there was an attempt to squat Gravenstraat 26-28 on the day of the Housing Protest. Thousands of people took the streets to demonstrate against the so-called housing crisis – the shortage and exploitation in the housing market, the lack of affordable housing and the disproportionate increase in rents.

The police used excessive force to beat us away from the place that was to become our new home. From the moment we arrived at the demonstration, certain activists were excessively watched by the police and even arrested for wearing an anti-Nazi symbol. From the beginning, the police were out to repress and arrest activists. Police brutality escalated as soon as we arrived at Dam Square. We were beaten up, dragged out of the crowd by silent cops, and some of us were even beaten to the ground and walked over by cops until we were bloody. The police deliberately chose to escalate and we even heard them say that they deliberately “went full on”. [Read More]

Bern: Worbstrasse 104 and 108 squatted

We are a creative and mixed collective. We all share the desire for free space, self-organized culture and living space. We have already contacted the municipality of Muri.

The two listed houses have unfortunately been empty for some time since the municipality of Muri stopped offering emergency housing. Now the bourgeois city of Bern is supposed to buy the houses. The city already owns many properties and only the planned small farm store would be accessible to the general public.

The two houses are part of the Schürmattsareal, which is to be developed. In the guideline plan of the development of the Schürmatt, it says: “To promote the quality of the open space” a “central meeting point and event location” should be created in addition to a “play and recreation area”. We would like to contribute many ideas and possibilities to this with our occupation. For this purpose we want to create a space for discussions and new ideas. [Read More]

Amsterdam: Joe’s Garage, sweet sixteen and still angry!

Joe’s Garage was squatted 16 years ago. The squatting group East has been active in the Transvaal neighborhood for about 20 years, starting with the squatting of Pretoriussstraat 28 in 2001. We are open to the neighborhood on a weekly basis, with the give away shop, the squatting assistance, movie nights and the people’s kitchen.
In addition to our activities as a squatting group with other squats such as Het Blijvertje and de Valreep, we’ve also supported initiatives in East such as Bajesdorp in the Amstel district, the Nieuwland in the Dapper neighbourhood and soon the Nieuwe Meent on the Archimedesplantsoen, in which buildings were acquired in collective ownership and combining activities for and in the neighbourhood.

Despite all this, in Amsterdam East and the Transvaal neighbourhood, social housing and other affordable housing is under great pressure from speculation in the housing market, with more and more people finding themselves financially struggling. Increasing uncertainty of your housing because of precarity and affordability make people desperate.

Good affordable and secure housing is not a luxury item, but a necessity for everyone! [Read More]