Utrecht: Squat on Croeselaan revealed during the Woonprotest demo

By: fawda - November 21st, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

On Friday 19 November, an empty house on the Croeselaan was squatted. The squatters announced this during the Utrecht Housing Protest on Sunday 21 November. The squatting of the house is part of the national housing protest that speaks out against the current housing crisis. The squatters demand immediate action and do not want to wait for the empty promises of political parties and housing corporations.

During the demonstration, the squatters invited the demonstrators on the Jaarbeursplein to come and have coffee and tea at the new squat. The property on the Croeselaan had been vacant for a long time, while the blocks of social housing next to it are scheduled for demolition.

The squatters find it appalling that local political parties advocate the demolition of social housing, while further down the street, properties are unnecessarily empty. At the same time, there is an unprecedented housing crisis, which means that people in need of a house are on waiting lists, miss out on a house because investors outbid them and, if they do manage to get a house, have to work their asses off to pay the rent. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Ringdijk 8 resquatted

By: fawda - November 13th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Since some days now we, the Anarcha Feminist Group Amsterdam, have been residing at Ringdijk 8. We have decided to expropriate this building because we think it is disgusting that houses are being kept empty for years while we are in a housing crisis, many people are living in precarity and homelessness has doubled in the last 10 years.

In previous actions we have targeted big speculators such as Blackstone, squatted buildings in solidarity with sexworkers being pushed out of our city and against the greenwashing and promition colonialsers and gentrification done by NV Zeedijk in the red light district.

Today we take an autonomous action as part of the ongoing housing demonstrations. Just marching and hoping the government will listen to us is not enough, actually the government listened to the demands made by the housing movement and their answer has been loud and clear: no measure taken to solve the problem, but instead they sent cops to silent us, mutilating our bodies, making blacklists and arresting us.

We need to confront injustices directly whenever and wherever we see them. Today we target the housing cooperation Eigen Haard. This building, owned by Eigen Haard, has been squatted before and has now been empty and left to rot again for a long time. [Read More]

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Glasgow: Former homeless services unit reopened to house climate justice campaigners

By: sisulscz - November 6th, 2021  Filed under: Communique

Baile Hoose is the occupation of part of the former Hamish Allan Centre and asylum seeker’s night shelter, a Glasgow City Council property in Tradeston.

We’re a former homeless services unit in central Glasgow that’s been reopened to house climate justice campaigners visiting the city for the COP29 summit.
[Read More]

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London: Report back from School of Trespass

By: sisulscz - November 6th, 2021  Filed under: Communique

Thank you to everyone who joined us on the 16th and 17th October, for joyful Weekend of Resistance!

A squatted building was used to host talks, workshops, foodshares and art. By inviting people to trespass with us, we wanted to show the creative power of trespass. Because one of the features of the PCSC bill is the further criminalisation of trespass. The explicit target of the government is GRT communities who ready face prejudice and oppression. And who can tell how else this anti-trespass legislation will be applied and interpreted? Squatting, rough sleeping, hiking outside of the beaten track, living in a van or a boat, organising free parties, all these practices will be made more difficult. Any form of protest will be repressed with equal brutality and intolerance, another target of the Bill.
[Read More]

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Wendover (UK): Anti HS2 campaigners hold out underground

By: sisulscz - November 6th, 2021  Filed under: Communique

The eviction of the Wendover Active Resistance camp has now entered its third week. All aboveground defences were obliterated in the first week, but a team of hardy tunnellers still hangs on, and in fact they’re aiming to be there until Christmas at least. One Freedom reporter visited the site recently and said “It looked like the climactic sequence of Fantastic Mr Fox, dozens of men in hi-viz with machines and floodlights digging after a stubborn adversary”.

The site is fenced off, but surface-dwelling activists are determined to show solidarity to their comrades in the underground. A small camp has been set up opposite (directions here) to let people visit and show their support. The main camp was called W.A.R (Wendover Active Resistance), so this new offshoot has been christened P.E.A.C.E, (Piss Easily Allover Capitalism)*, and despite the offputting title will be supplying tea and coffee.
[Read More]

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Rubí (Spain): Eviction of the Mirlo squatted orchard and retaliation

By: xxx - October 24th, 2021  Filed under: News

On Thursday, October 14th, the community orchard el Miro, a squatted plot of land in Rubí city centre [20km away from Barcelona], was evicted. It was the second attempt, after the cops desisted to evict it in july, when some 60 people stood up to defend the place. It had been squatted for five years; the land was farmed, concerts, talks & other events were often held there. The owners, DomoMarina SL -a company owned by Elena Massot- wants to build luxury flats on the former orchard, with the Ana María Martínez’s complicity. Martínez is Rubí’s mayor, of the PSC (catalan socialist party). [Read More]

Ghent: statement from ‘t Pand! Demonstration 25 October

By: fawda - October 18th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

More than 1800 citizens want us to intervene at the city council, but we were gagged. The city does not call itself responsible for the housing crisis. We received the mandate from these 1800 citizens to ask the city council to speak out against the privatization of ‘t Pand.

We do not intend to remain silent. If participation and democracy are not empty concepts, we must make our voices heard now. Come with us to the City Council. Together we will take the floor and ask:
– Address the housing crisis: no privatization of the property and commons in general
– Through co-creation and participation, provide a public interpretation for ‘t Pand
– Investigate other financing options for commons than the sale of public heritage.

We will gather at ‘t Pand, Lange Steenstraat 16, at 18:00 and then head for our board, the city council. [Read More]

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Wendover (UK): Come join the resistance

By: sisulscz - October 17th, 2021  Filed under: Communique

Wendover Active Resistance camp, part of the ongoing direct action campaign against white elephant and eco-atrocity HS2, was surrounded by around a hundred bailiffs, HS2 security and specialist eviction teams in the early hours of Sunday morning (10th October). The defenders are well dug in but would really appreciate ground support outside the perimeter. The eviction is expected to take at least a fortnight. The site on the A413 ( just outside the village postcode HP22 6PN) was first squatted two years ago. In that time activists have constructed a network of tunnels, treehouses and lock ons. Local opinion is firmly against the HS2, which smashes through this scenic part of the true blue Chilterns, ploughing through local beauty spots and wrecking aquifers.

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Amsterdam: Take back Mokum! Hotel Marnix squatted during ADEV

By: fawda - October 16th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

During the ADEV (Amsterdam Danst Ergens Voor) demonstration on 16 October 2021, former Hotel Marnix was squatted on Marnixstraat 382. Statement from Pak Mokum Terug! action group :

Amsterdam is in crisis. Housing is unaffordable. People with low and middle incomes are being chased out of the city. There is no room for young people. The commercialization of the center has attracted masses of tourists who make the city unlivable, while property owners, investors and large companies enrich themselves endlessly. There is no room for alternative culture. Amsterdam is losing its soul.

We, the collective Pak Mokum Terug! (Get Mokum Back!) are young Amsterdammers who have had enough. We no longer want to accept the trend that our city can only be inhabited by the rich. That economic and commercial interests are all-important. That we cannot shape our city, its culture, the way we live, ourselves. Therefore we claim the city, we claim the space for the people of Amsterdam, we take back Mokum. [Read More]

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London: TAA celebrates 20 years

By: sisulscz - October 16th, 2021  Filed under: Announcement

This weekend the Temporary Autonomous Arts (TAA) festival squatted a row of derelict buildings in North London to celebrate 20 years of creative requisitioning of disused spaces. The event ran over 3 evenings from last Thursday to the wee late hours of Sunday, and was an open space for all artists to participate and display their works, championing a DIY or die, anticapitalist aesthetic and approach. Attended by hundreds, the programme featured spoken word and performative onstage carnage. There were live shows from Agents of Lexicon, Hot Dog Grrrl and the Sesame Seed Buns, anarchopunk poetry from George F, 2-bit rave from Killdren and Kidziku’s fuzz-bass screamo, a cabaret featuring genderfuck drag from Jizmik Hunt and many more, with the overall culture being explicitly queer, trans-allied and anti-TERF. The works of dozens of artists such as the Nave, oneslutriot, caineruable, Born In Dust amongst many successfully transformed a gutted and collapsing row of buildings into an interactive smorgasbord of visual delights for the scores of delighted revellers who attended. The first major squatted event in London post-COVID besides raves and parties, the TAA represents a cross-over point for squatters, artists and others to reunite and reignite their passion for creative destruction and mutual co-operation under the principle of “don’t be a DICK” – give people the benefit of doubt when it comes to their boundaries, respect other people’s opinions”. The atmosphere was one of carnivalistic return with attendees travelling from across the UK and internationally from the autonomous scene of Europe. The corridors were jam-packed with people who often had not seen one another for years at a time, giving the event the feel of a grand reunion of comrades.
[Read More]

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Germany: Call for the defense of Lützerath

By: sisulscz - October 16th, 2021  Filed under: Communique

For more than a year, Aktivist_innen have been living and fighting in Lützerath, a small village right on the edge of the Garzweiler open-pit mine in the Rhineland. What is left of Lützerath is to fall victim to RWE’s capitalist destructive rage this autumn so that the company can continue to burn lignite.

Sounds familiar? It is!
Many of us fought in the Hambach Forest and made sure that it was preserved. Now it is up to us again to put the company and its exploitation logic in its place. If they want to destroy Lützerath this autumn, they are taking on a movement that can no longer be stopped. We are facing the last showdown for coal in the Rhineland!

And for that we need you now!
We have created a place for rebellious life. Here we try to form ourselves without capitalist performance constraints and to put our autonomy into practice. We call this area to be defended “Zone a defendre”, or ZAD, following the example of French battles. Because Lützerath is threatened and is attacked by RWE and police. From October, Tree cutting and clearing machines come here. That’s why we say – let’s defend the ZADRheinland together. We defended the Hambi – we will also defend Lützerath! The 1.5 degree limit runs in front of Lützerath and we will enforce its compliance here. We have already paralyzed power plants, cost RWE millions and shown more than once what we think of a state and system that puts profits above people. We no longer negotiate in the trees or in the hut village, because the climate crisis knows no compromises.

So: pack your climbing harness and tools and prepare for an autumn of resistance. Are you missing the skills? No problem; Lützerath is a place of joint learning, of looking after each other and of further education.

So come here and join us!

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Wendover (UK): Eviction begins on anti HS2 fortress in Buckinghamshire

By: sisulscz - October 13th, 2021  Filed under: Communique

Wendover Active Resistance camp, part of the ongoing direct action campaign against white elephant and eco-atrocity HS2, was surrounded by around a hundred bailiffs, HS2 security and specialist eviction teams in the early hours of Sunday morning (10th October). The defenders are well dug in but would really appreciate ground support outside the perimeter. The eviction is expected to take at least a fortnight.

The site on the A413 ( just outside the village postcode HP22 6PN) was first squatted two years ago. In that time activists have constructed a network of tunnels, treehouses and lock ons. Local opinion is firmly against the HS2, which smashes through this scenic part of the true blue Chilterns, ploughing through local beauty spots and wrecking aquifers.
[Read More]

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