Berlin: Køpiplatz resquatted. We are here to reclaim what is ours

By: fawda - April 15th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

This was not just a piece of land to us. It was our home, it was family, it was a our place to welcome people from all over the world, to learn and support each other, where we could grow and connect. In the most simple and wonderful way, it was our community and our life. But now our family have been split up; and more than anything we want to be back together.

6 months have passed since the bullshit eviction of Køpiplatz and some things still haven’t changed; the ground still stays empty, except a couple of hired goons to watch over it, but now it is filled with the wreckage of what was once our homes and lives.

The offer we received from the state and Howoge was not designed to support us, but rather a ‘Catch 22′ that would split us up in a variety of unacceptable ways, including an offer to remove 70 percent and leave a slither of land only able to accommodate a couple of trailers. These offers were refused. As a wagenplatz we are all or nothing and we are still a family despite now being forced apart and scattered across Berlin, and we are still searching for a place to be back together. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8 resquatted and a second time evicted

By: fawda - March 7th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

On Saturday 5 March, three houses, Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8 (WP8) in Amsterdam, JC van Hattumweg 3 in Amstelveen, and the Red Door in Utrecht were announced as resquatted. WP8 was evicted a second time the same evening, with 9 arrests. Monday morning, JC van Hattumweg was back in the hands of the owner.
The 9 people arrested at WP8 will be taken to court on Wednesday. The public prosecutor wants their further detention for 14 days and the examining magistrate has to decide whether that’s appropriate. The hearings will not be public and no time is known. Autonomous soli actions are highly appreciated!

Statement from Autonomous Student Struggle – Waldeck Pyrmontlaan resquatted! 5 March 2022

3 days ago, we re-squatted the building on the Waldeck Pyrmontlaan in Amsterdam. Today we announce it publicly. We have been living here again since last Thursday. Today 3 buildings have been re-squatted. We stand in solidarity with our comrades from Elektra Flinta who re-squatted a building in Utrecht and our comrades from the Anarcha Feminist Group Amsterdam who re-squatted the squat in Amstelveen [1]. This action is a response to the evictions done by the police and to create a broader housing struggle. In the past we stated the importance of creating a culture of resistance, today we show that repression will be met with a collective response. For every eviction, new places will be squatted, evictions will be resisted. [Read More]

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Ghent: Will the Pand be sold to the highest bidder?

By: fawda - January 11th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Once…
Twice…
Three times squatted against privatisation!

On 19 December 2021, two weeks after the last eviction, we resquatted the heart of Ghent (Belgium)! Out of political necessity, because once again the voice of the people is ignored and the city and its puppets want to sell the Caermersklooster to the highest bidder.

For more than forty years, the building has symbolised the struggle of ordinary inhabitants of Ghent for the preservation of their public property and right to live in dignity. Opposite them is the interest of private investors and speculators, mainly interested in buying up heritage in order to make a profit. Even more than that, the building embodies the power of the people if they make their voices heard loud enough. In 1980, thousands of inhabitants of Ghent, squatters and sympathisers, took to the streets against the sale of the Pand to the private tourist sector. They won the battle and for more than 25 years the Caermersklooster was used for social housing. [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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Utrecht: Building on the Archimedeslaan resquatted

By: fawda - October 3rd, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

On October 1, 2021, exactly 11 years after the Kraken en Leegstand (squatting and vacancy) law came into force, the buildings on the Archimedeslaan 16 were resquatted. The squatters protested against the continuing vacancy of the former student housing. Although the law should prevent vacancy, the vacancy rate has only increased since then. This while squatting and the squatting movement have been criminalized and prosecuted.

The squatters want to show that squatting is still a legitimate option in addressing and fighting the housing crisis and homelessness. Indeed, squatting still serves as an effective tool against speculators and housing corporations who use houses as tools to make a profit. The squatters wonder why, in times of a real housing crisis, the development of houses is delegated to profit-oriented organizations. [Read More]

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Gros-de-Vaud: armed offensive of the owners against the resquatted Auberge d’Etagnières

By: fawda - July 9th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

Since Saturday, a collective has been occupying the old hostel and pizzeria in Etagnières in the Gros-de-Vaud region. The owner and his henchmen came, armed, in order to evict us.

“We will kill you”.

This Thursday 8 july at 15:00, the owner accompanied by a dozen acolytes armed with pickaxes, sledgehammers, a giant bolt cutter and a grinder attacked the Auberge d’Etagnières, which we have been occupying since Saturday, with the firm intention of evicting us and doing us harm. “We are going to kill you” they repeated several times. The owner and his men broke some of the windows on the first floor and broke down the front door. Barricaded urgently on the top floor, we repeatedly reminded them of the numerous violations of Swiss law they were committing, encouraged them to file a complaint and to go through legal channels. The police had already noticed our presence on Monday evening and warned the owner of the squatting procedures. Instead of complying with the legal framework by filing a complaint, he decided to take justice into his own hands. In this country, the minority of landlords think they are above the law, since it is of course forbidden for the landlord to take justice into his own hands, although we are protected by the law of the lease. [Read More]

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Athens: Theater Embros resquatted

By: fawda - May 26th, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

A very large and enthusiastic meeting of Embros on Sunday 23 May decided to continue the defense of the Free Self-Managed Theater. The attempt of the police and the Public Property Company to reseal the Embros on the morning of Monday 24 May was met by the lawyers of the movement and the people of the struggle, the united solidarity forces and the works were stopped. We start today Monday 24 May and every day from 5 pm a week of Art and Freedom in front of the building and collective works to repair the damages caused by the eviction.
On Saturday 29 May, we call for a nationwide Day of Action of artists, neighbourhood assemblies and social centers in every corner of the country to defend not only Embros but all liberated spaces. The power of self-organization can stop the destruction of our neighborhoods and nature threatened by the tide of exploitation and the insolence of obscenity.
The weekly program of events starts now! It will be enriched daily with new entries. We invite art groups to present their ideas and work during the day outside the building. [Read More]

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Montreuil: Le Marbré evicted and resquatted the next day

By: fawda - March 1st, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

On Saturday, February 27th, le Marbré was surrounded and invaded by a hundred cops around 2pm. Le Marbré is a space for housing and political organization, located at 39 rue des Deux Communes, in Montreuil, squatted since September 2020. On that day, a canteen was organized there by the public assembly against the Administrative Detention Centers (CRA) of Ile-de-France, in order to support the people incarcerated in Meaux following the fire at the CRA of Mesnil-Amelot on January 20th.

Everything was going well until, around 2pm, a first cop car stopped in front of the entrance. Several people then entered the place and the doors were closed; very quickly, the cops called for reinforcements and more than a hundred cops from 93 and 94 departments surrounded the place. A few dozen people quickly arrived in support, but were pushed back quite easily under the threat of gas, batons and flashballs. At that point, one person was arrested in rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau and taken on board for “insult and rebellion”. [Read More]

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Valencia (Spain): CSOA Horta evicted and reoccupied

By: sisulscz - December 15th, 2020  Filed under: Communique

Yesterday morning, CSOA Horta, an 8 year-old squat in Valencia’s Benimaclet district, was evicted illegally & unexpectedly. Αfter the huge mobilization by solidarians & neighbors the cops left the area & the social center was re-occupied 2 hours later.

Solidarity is our weapon!

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Amsterdam: Het Schip, Queer Feminist Squat opened

By: fawda - November 7th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

About two weeks ago a house in de Kinkerbuurt was re-squatted. The building was left empty for over a year after the previous occupiers were asked to leave, as supposedly it was to be demolished and replaced with four luxury apartments. The resquatting was done silently and after a few days the cops recognised the occupiers domestic peace. (It’s the 3rd time within 5 years Jan Hanzenstraat 115 is squatted).

A message from the occupiers:
We are against the state, patriarchy, police violence, capitalism and all forms of hierarchy and oppression. We will defend ourselves, and our right to exist and live the way we want. Gentrification is a direct attack on our communities, our livelihood and our freedom to be in the city. We are queer, feminist, antifascist and we are tired of this shit. Our free spaces are under attack everywhere and we will not stand by quietly watching their destruction. The time to occupy, resist and strike is now. The pandemic has had a disproportionately negative effect on working class people, womxn, Queer and BAME folks and other marginalised groups. We will not let ourselves be the collateral damage of this crisis. We take care of us. We stand in solidarity with womxn and queer people everywhere, fighting capitalism and patriarchy. Solidarity to our neighbours from Liebig 34. Our movement is international, it cannot be evicted by the state or contained within national borders. [Read More]

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Amsterdam: Keizersgracht 318 resquatted

By: fawda - July 12th, 2020  Filed under: News

Since thursday (july 9th) a building was squatted in Amsterdam, on the Keizersgracht number 318. This sunday afternoon the squatters made their presence known. A statement from the squatters:

Since some time we are living in the building at the Keizersgracht number 318. Today we make our presence known. The building has been vacant for years. In 2015 it was also squatted. Back then it got evicted pretty quickly, because the owner claimed to still use it. Looking at the state of the building, that wasn’t very apparent. Later, in 2017, the owner got caught illegally demolishing the monumental interior of this building. The municipality decided to put a building stop on the building. It was prohibited for the owner to do anything else with the building, before the monumental interior was rebuild to its original state.
Now, 3 years later, nothing has changed. The building is still empty, nothing has been restored, and the decay continues.
All this while the homelessness numbers in Amsterdam are rising, the rents are skyrocketing, the waiting lists for social rent are getting close to 20 years and hotel after hotel is being build.
For us, reason enough to start using this building, we want to have a house! [Read More]

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Athens: Solidarity action for Dervenion 56. An international call for solidarity

By: fawda - July 4th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

On friday 26 june, in Exarchia, the Greek state evicted and sealed Dervenion 56 and the building at Dervenion 52. An immediate gathering of solidarity was held on Exarcheia square for several hours. In the evening of the same day, a solidarity march was held with the participation of 300 people. The march ended at the Dervenion squat, barricades were set up around the perimeter and then comrades broke the concrete blocks of shame. Police never came and after some hours the protesters left. Riot cops made again an operation the next morning, building again a concrete wall in front of the squat’s door. According to information, in the following days, various solidarity actions followed, a demonstration took place on the main shopping street of Athens, Ermou, where slogans were shouted, and apparently some people attacked multinational clothing companies in Ermou in the occupied -by the police-, center of Athens. Even the rich yuppie nephew of the Prime Minister, the mayor of Athens, Costas Bakogiannis, could not escape the anger caused by the evictions. The pioneer of violent gentrification and his bodyguards were attacked with coffees and other items by dozens of people at a local religious festival. In the following days a march was held again at Exarcheia where comrades demolished the walls of the sealed migrants’ squats at Themistokleous 58 and Spirou Trikoupi 15. All these days, texts of solidarity were written and banners were put in various locations in Greece. [Read More]

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