Intersquat

Meeting for intersquat exchange Fr, noon, R94

Callout

Update

 


Meeting for intersquat exchange Fr 11th, noon, R94


There is a coordination meeting for the intersquat exchange during the days on friday, 11th of may, at 12:00 in Rigaer 94.

From the Call: „We want to offer the space for an exchange on our tactics and techniques, discussions and information within the Chaos and Discussion days at Rigaerstrasse […] Evictions, Repression, Surveillance, Prisons, the maggots using and supporting oppressive structures are everywhere let’s get together to support each other and smash the ball not just into their court but through its heart.“


Intersquat update

We heard that people are talking about this exchange and some are excited about it, but besides a few thematically related talks there hasn’t been much direct feedback and we have not yet been able to coordinate and organize much in advance.

But the city is ripe and the topic is once again in peoples focus. What better time to come together, talk, evaluate and let some locks click!?

For further discussion we have started an incomplete collection of articles, reports etc, please feel free to send us more!
We hope to possibly incite an exchange of positions now, so we can find the ideas and questions we have on our minds coming over our lips during the days.

If you can hold a practical workshop or would like to co-/organize a discussion on squatting in the anti-authoritarian and anarchist movement and the use as a political tool to further our struggles, or anything else you see fit, you can send a message to rigaerstrasse@riseup.net, so that a good time can be blocked for it. There will be free time slots for more spontaneous organization aswell, a squatters assembly for coordination in the beginning of the days can be organized.

 

 


 

 

Incomplete collection of articles, reports etc

#besetzen campaign – WE WILL SQUAT in german

Hiermit informieren wir darüber, dass wir als selbstbestimmte Berliner*innen die Unvernunft von Leerstand in einer Stadt mit Wohnungsnot, Armut und Verdrängung nicht länger hinnehmen und uns in Zukunft Häuser nehmen werden. Wir fordern alle auf, ihre insgeheimen Träume vom profitfreien Wohnen wahr werden zu lassen. Wir fordern dazu auf, sich mit den Aktiven und den Nachbar*innen zu solidarisieren und die Logik von Miete und Wohneigentum abzulehnen.

Wir haben nichts zu verlieren, als unsere nächste Mieterhöhung.

Die Stadt der Reichen

Wir stellen uns gegen die Stadt der Reichen. In der Stadt der Reichen ist jede Wohnung, jeder Platz, jeder Park und auch die Moral auf diejenigen zugeschnitten, die den höchsten Preis bezahlen können. Die meisten Berliner*innen – so auch wir – sind aber nicht reich. Ganz im Gegenteil: Berlin hat von allen Bundesländern in Deutschland den höchsten Anstieg von Armut zu verzeichnen. Das hat unmittelbar mit dem „System Miete“ zu tun, dass Geld sehr effektiv von unten nach oben verteilt. Wir richten uns gegen die herrschenden, autoritären Bestrebungen in Wirtschaft und Politik, noch jeden Quadratzentimeter verwerten zu wollen. Diesen Alptraum verhindern zu wollen, hat nichts mit dem Groll auf Besserverdienende zu tun. Uns ist es schlicht zuwider, dass soziale Teilhabe vom Einkommen und der sozialen, wie kulturellen Herkunft abhängig ist. Arme, Obdachlose, Geflüchtete, Alte haben in der Stadt der Reichen keinen Platz.

Deshalb kämpfen wir für…

…Die Stadt von unten

Sie existiert bereits in vielen Köpfen und in Ansätzen schon in Kiezversammlungen, Kollektiven, solidarischen Ökonomien oder Nachbarschaftszentren. Hier wird entgegen der kapitalistischen Logik auf Probleme eingegangen und die Bedürfnisse ins Zentrum gestellt. Wir stehen ein für das Recht sich den Wohnort selbst auszusuchen und ihn gemeinsam mit der Nachbarschaft lebenswert zu gestalten. Sich zusammensetzen und widersetzen bedeutet aktiv für seine Bedürfnisse einzustehen und ist die soziale Alternative zu einer teuren Stadt, in der wir soviel arbeiten müssen, dass die Wohnung lediglich dem Schlaf dient und das Zusammenkommen mit Nachbar*innen und die Gestaltung des eigenen Kiezes in Zukunft unmöglich wird. Die Optionen Wegziehen oder Selbstverwertung bis zur sozialen Isolation sind die Wahl zwischen Pest und Cholera. Sich hingegen den solidarischen Konzepten von Stadt anzunehmen und für sie zu streiten, bedeutet sich noch nicht mit der Gentrifizierung abgefunden zu haben. Die Stadt von unten muss erkämpft werden, auch gegen die Gesetze, die den Eigentümer*innen und Chefs dienen.

Darum Besetzen!

Während wir keine Räume mehr für unkommerzielles Zusammenleben finden und gleichzeitig 1-Zimmerwohnungen für 700€ angeboten werden, stehen nebenan Grundstücke und Häuser aus spekulativen Gründen leer. Die Politik könnte Spekulant*innen enteignen. Aber warum sollte sie es tun, wo sie doch in der Verdrängung von armen Menschen eher die Verbesserung von Sozialstatistiken sieht, als die tragischen Geschichten dahinter? Das Instrument der Enteignung genau den Parteien zu überlassen, die diese Stadt bereits verkauft haben, ist für uns keine Option.

Aus diesen Gründen werden wir unser Schicksal selbst in die Hand nehmen. Wir werden uns dieses Frühjahr die Räume, die wir brauchen, selbst aneignen. Wir werden Häuser besetzen und uns einige Quadratmeter nehmen, um sie somit der Spekulation und der Logik des Eigentums zu entziehen. Wir gehen damit einen logischen Schritt hin zu einer selbstbestimmten Stadt von unten und hin zu einer Bevölkerung, die ihre Kieze und sozialen Räume selbst gestaltet.

International Convergence at the 14th F.O.U. in Paris June 2018 in english and french

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the FOU, the Festival of Useful Openings, the Paris Intersquat network invites you to an international get-together from June 4th to 10th. An opportunity to come together among squatters from the whole world in a self-organized and free space. For now the location will be kept secret, all we can say is, it will be in Paris!

The FOU has usually been quite an artistic event, with most squats in the network opening their doors and putting on events individually; for the ten years of FOU, we are doing it a little differently. Especially in light of the current state of the world, we would like to focus this year’s convergence more specifically on the battle against capitalism and its oppressive mechanisms, and emphasize techniques of resistance, and how we choose to move forward to walk our talk and create the world we want to see in the wake of the imminent destruction of this outdated and toxic system.

The festival will last for one week, with a participative program of expositions, round tables, discussions, talks and presentations, projections, concerts and performances.

This is an open call for active participation by our international network! We want to create a free space where we can share, learn, and exchange ideas. To learn more about how you squat in your country, what battle are you engaged in, how do you fight and resist and create a better world?

You are warmly encouraged to send an email to progfou18@riseup.net so we can include your propositions in the program, and we will also definitely have open spaces and times for spontaneous improvisation during the week of the festival.

Comrades are welcome to come in advance to help us prepare the festival or stay longer to create a better world with us! We will arrange accomodation for participants coming from far, the more the merrier!

FOU stands for Festival des Ouvertures Utiles – Festival of Useful Openings.

FOU also means crazy, mad, freak or nutter.

Last year teaser:

The privatization of our world is an offensive that steals the rights and resources from all people, who are the hands that make this world and its implanted system turn. Enslaved in the machine, they have hijacked the minds of the masses, inculcated in fear and entrenched in the use of gadgets and media to distract and numb. The constructed forms of discrimination, such as gender, skin color, sexuality preferences, money and socioeconomic status, which are the tools of separation of the society of fear and spectacle, must be acknowledged and thusly dismantled, accepted and deconstructed by becoming sensitive to how they affect each and every one of us. Repression is present in various forms in our daily lives, and we hope to create a safe space where we can come to deeper understanding of the types of struggles experienced by our comrades in all walks of life.

We are deeply inspired by the INTERSQUAT festivals, which have happened in various locations all around the world, and to celebrate ten years of Intersquat festival in Paris, we invite you to join us to make moves to deepen the understanding and connections between our global struggles for equality and freedom. The pressure continues to rise, the global political scene is more horrendous and more ridiculous than we could imagine, and our resistance must match the depth of our discontent with the direction in which we are heading. We need to guard our autonomous and free spaces, which are threatened constantly with laws and state violence. The elite show their fear by demonstration of force, and we will show our strength in efficient planning and action to create our vision of our free and shared world.

Gentrification and the rising prices in the cities pushes the marginalized to the outskirts; the movements to defend and protect those affected by systemized injustice often struggle for financial and societal support, or are blatantly criminalized, and thus the state squashes all modes of resistance. In the name of profit, tons of food is wasted and people go hungry, buildings are left empty and people are left on the street in unreasonable weather conditions; in the name of the illusion of the monetary system, most people trade all their time and energy and thusly have lost the connection to the power in the collective! This is a convergence of the global struggles of women and men, children and elderly, able-bodied and handicapped, in the cities and villages, and beyond, the oceans and marine life, the coasts, the forests, the mountains and its resources, the waters, the marshlands, all endangered natural spaces which are threatened by the endless expansion of the cities.

This is a heart-felt call for coming together! Let us envision and develop alternatives and methods of self-organizing and self-governance!
During the festival, there will be an exposition focused on Squats and also the convergence of global struggles; we invite you to participate by presenting information about your squat, our how you squat in your country, what are the laws and/or the difficulties you face?

Other questions we could ask to provoke questions, or to focus on in various expositions or spectacles:

  • What techniques of resistance can we develop to create the world we want to see?
  • How do we educate and engage the younger generations in our battle against the systems of oppression?
  • How does the State oppress or support the evolution of the society?
  • How can we better network and self-organize?
  • How can we reach strong solidarity?
  • How do we embody solidarity in our individual lives?
  • How can we fight against the patriarchal and mysogynist programming ingrained in our own minds and in our collective spaces?
  • How do we negotiate the need for leadership without entering into oppressive rigid hierarchies?

There are endless questions we can pose to ourselves, so this is just a small starting point, and the discussion and the festival grows with YOU!
The discussion of free spaces and our collective and individual struggles is super complex! There will be open spaces for spontaneous meetings and discussions for whatever relevant topics rise up 🙂
We are very excited to share with you! Bring your ideas, your passion, and your fire! 😉

In Solidarity and Love, Paris INTERSQUAT!
Progfou18@riseup.net

This text was largely inspired by the one written for the 2010 Berlin intersquat festival. Thanks to the authors!

http://paris.intersquat.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/FOU.jpg

FOU

An evaluation 25 years after the eviction of Mainzer Straße in german

Unfortunately – maybe in one move – the memory of the autonomous housing struggles started fading with the buying of the houses. It hasnt been publicly documented for example how the conflict between negotiators and non-negotiators unrolled. One thing is clear ,

form the moment of the legalisation of the houses a process of disintegration must have started that left the Street in its politically derelict state in 2015.

Whats clear too, is that the line shall not be drawn between those with rent contracts and those without. In Rigaerstrasse for example, most of the politically active people profit from the cheap rentalcontracts from the time of the negotiators. It is questionable anyhow whether we should cement in the lines drawn between different groups of people, by defining criteria for the ideal inhabitants of the Kiez. IT would be much better to define common goals and put all our energy into reaching them. Concrete Proposals [..] have been made: build up dirty corners that slow down the revaluation of the area. Networking and organization of the neighbourhood. But also: collective living. and: No more evictions, block rent raises, no police.

 
Housing struggles and the neoliberal city order in german

This drastic change from a crisis-ridden fordist societal order and a coming, but still not hegemonial neoliberalization is the context in which the urban sturggles and within them the squatting movement of the 1980s developed – and it’s what marked their difference from previous and following struggles.

The beginning Revolt of 81 was not just supported by the student dominated alternative movement and the heterogenous Neighbourhood movement. A third current joined the first Berlin squatting wave, a youth movement that vented their anger, frustration and lack of perpectives but also their demands for selforganized spaces for a way of life diverging from the bourgeois norm.
With their perception of not having a chance at achieving any change in the political institutions and in a dialogue with the responsable politicians, this new youth movement joined the neighbourhood movement and the alternative movement.
This last movement formed through the experience of the failed attemps of intervention in society of the 1970s. The TUNIX Congress 1978 was the starting signal for the retreat from mainstream society and the structure of concrete projects of alternative economies and collective ways of life.

The careful restructuring of the city almost exclusively concerned Kreuzberg and acted as a political-practical greasing in the city and a symbolic fig-leaf for the continuation of the demolition- and new-development- politics – now an omen for the neoliberalization of housing policy and the renunciation of social housing.

The squatting movement payed for its own achievements [legalizations] – which where only achievements of a part of the squatting movement- first and foremost with the price of its rapid demobilization. From 1984 the year of the last legalization and the last eviction the movement practically reached a standstill until the onset of the second squatting wave in the eastern part of the city in 1989.

 
London G20 – Housing and Autonomous Spaces Block

TEAR DOWN THE WALLS! RAISE THE ROOFS!

On April the 2nd the world’s leaders are meeting in London for the G20 summit. In the wake of the banking crisis, they are meeting to try to salvage a tottering system, which is aimed at growth for its own sake, at the expense of our living standards and the environment. However, this strategy seems to be failing and the system cannot achieve the rates of growth necessary for its very functioning and continued survival, relying on credit to stave off its collapse.

The bailiff knocking on your door

is a not-so-distant cousin of the cartel forcing peasants off common land elsewhere!

As a result of the relentless pursuit of at any cost, production moves to where wages are lowest and more and more areas of everyday life become fair game for enclosure and privatisation. All over the world we have been witnessing a property boom at the expense and exclusion of many communities; it has produced gated communities and privatised public spaces, constant surveillance, disintegrating communities as well as collective forms of action.

Where there are empty properties, we must occupy. Where there are agribusiness monopolies, we must organize to till the soil ourselves Where there are bailiffs we must erect barricades
Each act of resistance to enclosure is a rallying cry Each occupation is a fresh assault on the borders of capital

Squatting in the 21.century – Berlin in german

Legalisation (at times) only offers temporary security ,

this is illustrated by the examples of Rosenthaler 68, Brunnen 183 , Liebig14 and Linienhof on kleine Rosenthaler Straße 9 and Tacheles, which all started as squats then through negotiations and round tables got legalised just to end up with their contracts cancelled and an eviction after the owner changed

‚elderly‘ occupiers of Stille Straße : We also wanted to set a sign against the closing of many social, cultural, education and recreational facilites for older and younger people : We dont want to leave behind a country, where a music lesson for kids, a visit to the library or a gymnastics course for older people become products. That everything is only valued in money – and a person that can not yet or not anymore perform and afford this, degenerates into a cost factor
The occupation of Stille Strasse shows that resistance is not only possible, but can be a success.
And the not so typical occupiers definitely used classic symbolics and forms of expression, hanging banners and poster and clearly referring to the squatting movement[..]

 
Why we are occupying the construction site of a prison -Nantes

The subject of deviance and how to deal with it should be brought into question. The state puts the responsibility on individuals and punishes them. But it is the social, interpersonal and economic relations which create a person,

and it is these conditions which we want to question. How can we think about solving problems by imprisoning, destroying or torturing certain individuals? This is a circular logic which perpetuates violence and feeds its growth. Prisons systemise punishment, they exist to create fear and preserve the existing order.

“Delinquency” is often just the manifestation of anger and opposition to the established order. Many convictions are the direct result of police violence and harrassment, as reactions of self-defence or protection become turned around by the courts into actions of “outrage and rebelllion”.

In many towns, collectives have been formed to oppose the construction and very existance of prisons. In Nantes, around the question of minors, there already exists a collective against the EPM which has organised information campaigns and a demonstration to the site.
To complement this, it seems necessary to us to use direct action in our struggles against incarceration. To squat the future work site is a concrete action to hinder the start of work. Occupying the trees means putting ourselves in the way of the machines and forces the State into a costly eviction process. With these offensive types of action, we want to make a show of force against the State.

Occupation of London Anti-G20 Convergence Space

Anti-Squat practices in Amsterdam

Recently a number of squats have been evicted only to be filled with anti-squat. At first the evictions came about due to a 429 decision, or a flimsy and/or vague renting contract. The house won’t be used and anti-squat got put in.

Recently it seems that, now that evicting on 429 has been put on hold some judges are open to rule to evict on even more dubious grounds like in this case, and other cases on an anti-squat contract. We oppose this because the buildings are not put to proper use but become almost empty again with the minimal occupation by only a few anti-squatters, while if they remained squatted, many more people could live in and make use of the space. Also it seems almost as if the courts consider an anti squat contract to be considered use. This is why we wanted to organize a discussion/brainstorm evening to formulate plans relating to this fucked up practice, addressing not only the real estate owners, but also the juridical system, and the politicians, whose actions and decisions seem only to favour the anti-squat business. We also want to use this evening to formulate ideas, plans, and campaigns, against the anti-squat agencies

Lund Mass Squatting Callout

We are trying to invite the entire population of Lund to join us in taking back the city from the politicians that let houses stand empty and degrade

while people don’t even have a roof over their heads, and the few owning property keep building luxury houses at expensive prices.

We demand a self governed house, after our house was taken from us by the city council. We demand that all charges against the squatters are dropped! Being homeless is not a crime!

Report from Lund ‚165‘ Squatting Fest

For many years in Sweden, squatting houses has been something not attempted very often,

a lot because of the no-tolerance laws and practice by the Swedish state. The attempts during the last 15-20 years met heavy sentences and the interest in squatting sank to a low level. After the eviction of Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen many were inspired by the resistance and the movement that arose around the fight for a youth house, and the idea started to seem more real again. During the international squat days of action in April 2008 several houses were squatted in many Swedish cities, purposely during a limited time to make public activities.

The article reports from the mass squatting action called out for a weekend in may and describes the tactics

NL illegalization of squatting

Kraakverbod the new law forbidding squatting in the Netherlands.
What does this mean in practice?

The Dutch parliament suggests using hard repression during the first six months from the moment of implementing the law. By doing so, the parliament expects to scare away the majority of squatters and their supporters

, and separate the supposed ‘soft core’ from the so-called ‘hardcore’ squatters. They are counting on these ‘hardcore squatters’ being a very small group that can then be easily controlled by goverment force. After this first half a year the parliament expects a total ‘extinction’ of squatting.
It’s important to also pay attention to security issues. Squatting being classified as a crime gives the police and prosecution a whole new set of repression tools, like telephone tapping, longer custody time before court cases and so on.

[..]As for future squatting actions, our strategies need to be completely rethought and changed according to the new reality we are about to face.

The fun is over, it’s time to fight!

400couverts – coordinated support actions

Grenoble local council, owner of the place, intends to evict and raze the 400 Couverts alley in order to set up an important housing project: the erection of 12 social-housing parts.

Evicting people who managed to organize their spaces of living independently in order to furnish accommodation to more or less the same number with standardized housing is part of a bureaucratic scheme aiming for social control reinforcement over dwellers. It is part of a systematic annihilation of spaces of invention and criticism. In a city liable to spend millions on the building of a stadium or on an upper-class art centre, it seems that squatters are not preventing the councils to enforce their social projects. We are fighting for this experiment to go on.

For a couple of years, France has seen the development of many independent political squats, where are being lead alternative collective life experiments and public political activities of various sorts.

These spots usually host anti-capitalist and pro-anarchist actions and events, “free-zones” where goods and material are exchanged, squatted vegetable plots, cyber cafes. These are places where alternative hardware and software is developed, information, books and brochures printed and brought out within “Infokiosques”, where people work on counter-medicine, recycling, bicycles, mechanics, wood and metal craft, serigraphy, home-made building, sunflower-oil recycling for vehicles, organic seeds exchange, single-sex groups for feminist, queer or transgender reflection, street meals, free restaurants, bars, concerts, film-projections and drama.

They differ from a type of “artistic squatting” (to be found particularly in Paris) in the sense that they do not cooperate with local authorities and explicitly question private property, State organization, profit and power relations, and develop autonomous zones linked to various other social struggles.

The article has a list of direct actions in support with 400 couverts

Threat of 400 Couverts and interview after eviction

Rural Squatting days in Monars and a report

Paris: Occupation of Standard&Poor’s against the G8

While the financial crisis hits a nearly bancrupt Europe, things have yet to change. The problem remains the same: Faced with private financial crisis, the only proposed solution is a policy of public austerity.

It ensures that the cost of economic irresponsibility is assumed by the majority of the population, including the most vulnerable. Globalizing austerity for the people, expanding the playground of multinationals, thus the project of the G8 and G20 could be summarized. In response to this logic, at the time when the powerful gather at the G8 meeting in Deauville, we decided to occupy the Standard & Poor’s rating agency.

This occupation means to point the finger at what we oppose every day: an economic system and policies that favour multinationals, banks and financial institutions at the expense of the people. Globalizing austerity and wars, causing environmental destruction and creating individualism and the destruction of social ties.
[..]

This action is part of a European framework for decentralized actions against the G8.

Currently, 33 cities in 6 countries have already publicly announced their protests

Barcelona may day 2011

NDDL a land occupation to make an autonomous village

We are a hundred, we just occupied the land in order to make a autonomous village, to overcome the fight against G8 we gathered together to start to build up a concrete moment of alternatives and struggles.

It’s been a while that we think about the idea to change the way of protest against G8 summits, against pressure, the expected appointment, police traps and event hopping.
By preparing this long term “Camp” which we want to call village, here on La ZAD (Zone to defend) we want to expand this mobilization, take our time for reflection and exchange, linking the global and local struggle…. Our rage is intact: our energy too!

This open space serves as a laboratory of ideas, a rebel zone, a pirate island, a World apart the rotten one began to rise and there’s everything to accommodate everyone who wants to experiemnt this with us. Medical areas, kitchens, kids space, Cultural activities and many space to debate, practice and exchange. Our aim is to funcion horizontally, everything will be on donation.
It’s not a holiday camp ! We got the envie to talk politics, to build networks in order to support the alternative life we dream of, to destroy their world, their airports. But it does not mean that we will be unhappy to welcome everyone who’s into subversive Art, storytellers and poets, musicians and painters…

We expected many things, debates, workshops, it will probably not happen as we expect and preview and that’s good like that! There are still many open opportunities to come and animate a debate, workshop or a action training. We count on you to join us… and surprise!

NDDL No G20 and report from No G camp

Vienna Epicenter Squat – center of a coming movement

A squat is a direct act of re- appropriation. What has been taken from the people in an endless and unjust accumulation of wealth by an economic structure

that is based on wage-labor and capital, is being taken back by the people to serve a public use. It is this reclamation of the commons that we put our hope in, rather than in any state or NGO that do lobbying for saving the planet. We will take life back into our hands, step by step, house by house, factory by factory, square by square.

Orfanotrofio

In a period of crisis, while the bosses attack against even wider parts of society, having the maximization of their profits as main target, in a period when even more people are led to poverty and misery,

and the unemployed and homeless rise in bigger numbers every day, the State and the Church start their ‘charity’ engine. While the Church is constantly multiplying its holy profits, through the management of an immense land property, and while many buildings belonging to the Church and the State remain empty, a few ones judge and decide that the only appropriate building for charity is the one that happens to be squatted by people from the anti-authoritarian movement, in order to house and manage their needs.

Sharing and learning from each other is one of our most important aims. We gather food together, most of it we get for free, from what supermarkets throw away or what people donate to us. We share the infrastructure that we build up, so each one of us needs to buy only much less. This can free ourselves from wage labor to some degree, so we have more time for living our lifes, which naturally includes for us the need to build up a movement to overcome the existing economic and political structures. We see the occupation of this building not only as an act to liberate ourselves, but as an attempt to facilitate the liberation of others, of everyone.

Squatting of houses is one of the most important acts towards building a new society. Rent is one of the inventions which strangle us the most. Even for a small flat we spend often half our total income, and it goes directly into the pockets of those who already have way enough, while even before we get our wage, someone else subtracts a big chunk of it as their profit. As long as that is the case, we will hardly be able to overcome this economic order. Of course squatting is just a part of what we need to do, but it’s a fundamental one.

We feel connected with all the other people around the world that struggle for a better, a different life, for a post-capitalist, post-patriarchal, post-authoritarian, post-racist society where we share in respect and dignity for the well-being of all.

Kavala Hangout about 2012 attack

NYC adverse possession and 11 buildings for 11$

“The agreement is a pragmatic solution to a long-standing issue on the Lower East Side,” Abrams said. “The expectation is that these buildings will be decent and affordable living spaces for residents in the neighborhood.”

Squatters ? poor families, runaway anarchist teen-agers, or housing advocates ? began moving into the abandoned buildings after the city took them in foreclosure proceedings, often fixing plumbing and structural problems.

In 1995, the city mobilized more than 150 police officers, firefighters and emergency medical workers and used helicopters and an armored personnel carrier to execute eviction orders for many of the buildings. The evictions took all day and some people were injured.

The squatters countered in court that their presence was legal. Because they had openly occupied the buildings for more than 10 years, they said, they owned the buildings under the doctrine of “adverse possession.”

A judge agreed, and barred the city from kicking squatters out.

Switzerland Intersquat 2012 in german

Zerstört den Staat statt Häuser.

In der squat- Bewegung – wie auch in vielen anderen kämpferischen Bewegungen- gibt es eine gewisse Solidartiät.

Wir unterstützen andere bei der Besetzung des Hauses am Anfang; wir helfen dabei, es zu verteidigen und unterhalten; bei einer Räumung leisten wir gemeinsam Widerstand. Wir demonstrieren solidarisch mit einem Haus in Gefahr, wir organisieren uns um bei Repression gemeinsam stark zu sein.

Von Lausanne nach Luzern, übers Tessin nach Bern und Thun haben sich verschiedene Leute zusammen getan, um ihrer Lust, ein gemeinsames Projekt zu entwerfen und damit eine neue Dynamik, eine gemeinsame interregionale Squat Bewegung zu entwickeln, Ausdruck zu verleihen.
[..]

update article on Swiss Intersquat after big police intervention in german

HKI action days 2008

Sevilla eviction resistance

It took teams of policemen and fire-fighters nearly 38 hours to remove two squatters from an underground refuge at the end of a tunnel underneath the Casas Viejas building

in the Macarena district close to Sevilla city centre that has been earmarked for conversion into residential properties and a community centre.

Iván Díaz, a 28 year old geography lecturer at Sevilla university, lasted 36 hours, but was finally removed at 7.30pm yesterday evening. His fellow protester, Agustín, who is a builder and carpenter, held out for an an extra hour and a half.

The two men had taken refuge in a small cave at the end of a tunnel built over the last twelve months to resist eviction, and had padlocked themselves to concrete blocks in the wall behind an armour-plated door.

A similar siege in London a few years ago was brought to an end after police decided to dig an alternative tunnel, which took several days.

2012 international call solidariy week against ‚anti-terrorist‘ repression in france

You’ll find below a letter from jail as well as an international call for action and solidarity with 4 people locked up in french jails since a few months.

They are accused of planning terrorist activity (sometimes just because they were going to a demonstration with DIY smoke bombs) or taking part in sabotage actions. They, amongst others, are pointed out as symbolic figures of the «the resurging threat of anarcho-terrorists preparing for armed struggle». The french State is trying to build up this myth as a reaction to ongoing revolts (migrants’, workers’, students’, struggles against jails…). Faced with waves of radical actions, strikes and an anger that it can’t control, the State tries to isolate part of the « movement » and create divisions. This attempt is closely related to the issue of struggles for autonomous spaces, since state officials, police and media have been accusing « political squats » to be « central ressources » of this new « terrorist threat ». We believe we have to build more visibility, better connexions and a stronger squat movement in order to face this offensive. We also need inspiration from what has been done in Italy, Germany, Spain or in other countries in roughly similar contexts.

Solidarity is not only about money and practicalities, it’s also made of acts of resistance and fights against states and capitalism. Solidarity can also be an extension and an intensification of the social struggle.

Hello to all the friends, to all the people who haven’t accepted the situation that we live: the occupation of the streets and towns by the police, evictions, raids, arrests, daily difficulties, dispossession of our lives. This situation that pushes us to give away a big part of our lives to all kind of bosses, to those who decide of our destinies, to the power upon us. When we side with the revolt, we do it for all these reasons. We do it to take back power on our lives, we do it for the freedom of living.

We’ve been arrested on January 19th. Two of us are in jail, while the third is under a judiciary control (he was passing by and was guilty of knowing us). We were carrying a smoke-bomb that we had done by mixing chlorate, sugar and flour. Burnt, this mix releases an important amount of smoke. We wanted to use it at the end of the demonstration that was going that day towards Vincenne’s detention center for migrants. Our aim: to be visible from the locked-in sans-papiers, knowing that the police would try to prevent us from approaching the centre. We also had firecrackers to make noise and bent nails (to burst tyres) that could be put along the road to prevent cars from passing.
..

Call for days of decentralized actions in defense of squatted & autonomous spaces in Europe, April 2008

global summary of April 2008

Last year, a call to decentralized actions in support of squats and autonomous spaces was issued.
A great diversity of tactics were used,

ranging from banner drops to sabotage actions, along with street theatre, exhibitions, food not bombs, parties and discussions. However, the april2008 week-end was predominantly filled with demonstrations, Reclaim The Streets and squatting actions!
The site has a summary of actions that took place within the april2008 framework. It is by no way exhaustive, as a number of actions were unfortunately not directly reported to us, and were found by crawling Indymedia networks.

WBA 2009

Call for 2008 WBA action days

WBA Action month 2009
and
evaluation of WBA actiondays 2009

eviction of Tops&Söhne Erfurt

The zine ‚Fire to the Houseprojects‘ – Comfort is capture

We need to open up spaces of non-ideological and non-identitarian encounter,
material spaces in which convergent hostilities can overlap

without having to pass
through the micro-bureaucratic cultural normalization of radical milieu lifestyles.
Such spaces must be inviting, conflictual, and open-ended in form and function,
allowing a genuine encounter within our neighborhoods and the spaces we traverse
every day. Tearing down fences, building parks in empty lots, seizing abandoned
buildings and using them for actually inviting food distribution (yes, that means
non-vegan), are only a few of the possible ways to build lived dependencies and
attachments with the people around us. We have taken one such space, and we will
take more in the time to come.

Just because there’s no ‘economic crisis’ in Germany doesn’t mean we can’t fight.
We need to start seeing the war that is playing out on the terrain of our own lives.
Cheap food, Hartz IV and legalized squats belong to a menu of counter-insurrectionary tactics whose ultimate effects are pacification and the attenuation of
hostilities. Comfort is capture.

Commentary to the occupation of Berlins Volksbühne

Liebig34 stays

The inhabitants of the Liebig34 try to live free of sexism, patriarchy, racism and all forms of hierarchy. This doesn’t mean a denial towards the fact that all of us were brought up in a normative, capitalist society that conditioned our way of behaving and thinking, but to push forward the desconstruction of established roles and patterns.

[..]The Liebig34 is a place where we support each other in the offensive fight against multifaceted and omnipresent alienation and normalization processes of the capitalistic system.
[..]Like a lot of other free spaces in Berlin, the existence of Liebig34 is again threatened!
[..]This struggle is not limited to the scene, but it reflects a complex gentrification process, which affects especially people with lower income. People are forced to leave their neighborhood, being pushed away to the outskirts of cities to be able to afford their rents. Free spaces where people can live regardless of how much money they have are becoming more and more rare. Autonomous house projects are one of the last alternatives to imposed lifestyle in Berlin.
[..]We stay!!!
Feminists, queers and squaters unite!

Smash capitalism and sexism!

Liebig14, Berlin: Reflections on an Eviction – For the Joyful Militants

The struggle against the eviction of Liebig 14 pushed our movements further: new connections were made; solidarities strengthened; at times we broke out of the limits of subcultural identity. We tasted once again the force of collective uprising: not a unified vision nor a consensus on how to act but rather collective singularities; a multiplicity.

Those who worked on building solidarity networks between neighbors smiled at the sight of ATMs others had smashed. Those who took to the streets were later given food and warm drinks in one of Berlin’s free spaces, where we saw the adeptness of those spaces, of our radical infrastructure in mobilizing for a brief moment of urban unrest…we look to the future! And then, as now, it is in this multiplicity, this cacophony of perspectives, voices and acts that we locate our strength and our advantages against the hierarchical organization of the state and capital.

At the same time, in Europe and around the world the capitalist apparatus grows more aggressive in it repression, the brutality of its force a measure of how desperately it tries to uphold a crumbling system.

“Sometimes the rage and despair is very fine, very fragile. The abyss of nihilism awaits every sincere rebel who ceases to be critical, to listen to their heart, stifling their dreams of mutual aid and solidarity, saying that all of this is useless, since no one gives a fuck anymore”

Our capacities to act are disabled when sadness and fear are successfully deployed as part of the states’s matrix of repression. To think and act against the intolerable core of the present means not succumbing to the negativity and refusing that the suicidal nihilism of late capitalism becomes our own.
Against this nihilism we can continue to fight against all forms of oppression, inequality, and authority through a militancy that is joyful.
Militant joy is based on a belief in the world. It is a feeling of intense connection with the world which breaks the senses of alienation; from ourselves from each other, from the spaces we live in and from the creations of our bodies, though which capitalism keeps isolated and enchained. Militant joy seeks the negation of capitalism through affirmation.
When we act as creators of values, socialities and worlds, the destruction of oppressive forces is always already underway. For those who choose to struggle, capitalism resides in the trail of our emancipatory collective aggression.
We can absorb moments of loss and repression such as evictions into our collective revolutionary desires, like lighting bolts to the thunder of our affirmations for other worlds, like soluble fire which lights and then disappears into our burning joyful rage.

Rigaer street party 2015 – signs against the gentrification

(In our youth it is better to squat empty houses than foreign countries“).
Under this motto some young people started squatting houses in Rigaestrasse and in the rest of Friedrichshain in the early 90’s, creating places where they could collectively live, organize and resist.

Particularly in the following years many of the squatted houses were evicted or pressed to sign contracts as a result of the so called „Berliner Line“ (Berliner Linie) which aimed to push people into a capitalistic (consumptive) lifestyle. Even the contracts didn’t prevent houses getting evicted in many cases.
These changes have squeezed out not only the people living in house projects, but also people whose families have lived here in Friedrichshain for centuries, subsequently forcing them to leave their homes and move to the outskirts of the city. But all of this wont happen without us throwing a spanner in the cogs of the capitalist machine so driven by the logic of exploitation. So we take our resistance to the current situation to the streets.

Second night of anti-state violence in Friedrichshain

This Saturday night, May 28, after a film screening, activists started digging a ditch across Liebig Street in Friedrichshain.The goal was to stop police cars and other undesirable traffic on this road, which builds the Dorfplatz at the crossing with Rigaer Street.

The ditch was the pretext for two Riot Police vans to take position on the spot. After a while, they suddenly attacked some neighbours, sitting in front of a house. In the same moment, more two units rushed in the street and tried an assault on houseprojekt Rigaer94. Crazy pigs started beating everybody they could grab. But very fast, neighbours and chaoten began throwing stones against officers.
There are different reasons why residents in this neighbourhood show their rage angainst cops, for sure the gentrification and high police presence make people resisting. The new leftist-socialdemocrat regime of Berlin is going different ways than former government. This might be more dangerous because they try to integrate in cases their predecessor Home Secretary used harder methods. The last days proved, that in this area of Friedrichshain people gather, who know that every government is a murder and rapist and the pigs have not many friends.

CCF – Fuck Nations Squat the World

»If the initial imperceptible signs of disarray are not combated, then chaos and anarchy will soon prevail.» The above sociological interpretation, which posits the essence of a particular theory, upon which a variety of repressive plannings have been formed, is inextricably connected to the way the enemy handles all possible dangers of destabilization since their birth and in their totality, even before they have flesh and bones.

Lately, we‘ve seen that the vindictive treatment of anarchist captives is constantly intensified as various repressive tactics are deployed. Simultaneously, we witness the implementation of a strategy of tension regarding public structures of anarchism (centres-squats) since the attacks against them by state and parastate have multiplied in comparison to previous years. Within the generalized climate of social drought of the last few years, we estimate that an aggressive force is gradually becoming perceivable, which might acquire a greater and more dangerous dimension in the future. A series of moves and campaigns such as Black December bring to the fore the aggressive apex of anarchy and the enemy knows well that they must hurry to strike back before a tendency becomes a wave, as these aggressive apexes must be tackled now at the beginning because it’s certain that these subversive actions and moves will intensify resulting to the greatest possible dismantling of social fabric.
Because in these public structures we all have our first experiences with anarchy. It’s where the first contacts, the first meetings and the initial processes of political maturity within the radical segments of anarchy, happen. Thus, what is harmed, among others, through these attacks, is this first image acquired by all those who begin a flirtation with anarchy.

Consistent with our desire to honour our brothers and sisters who lost their lives in the battle against power, we propose the campaign Fuck Nations, Squat the World to function at the same time as a reminder of our dead brother Mauricio Morales who died during an explosion in Santiago, Chile, 7 years ago, on the 22nd of May. Mauricio, was an anarchist whose consistency in action and way of life proved that there are no conflicting forms of struggle within an authentic anarchist polymorphy. The fact that he participated in a squat did not prevent him from being a bomber at the same time, nor did it prevent him from attempting an action of aggressive solidarity that aimed at blowing up a school of torturer wardens

Now is the time to act in our daily lives, along with those close to us, for the destruction of a prison-society and the destruction of every social effort to reform this disgusting system of death.

Solidarity must never be a meaningless slogan but on the contrary, it must be a daily action of conflict against power. And with the continuous support towards our captive brothers and sisters in this war until death.»

With the memory of the dead always among us
For the Insurrectionary Conjunction of Theory and Practice
We wholeheartedly support the Fuck Nations – Squat the World campaign

Fuck Nations Squat the World – Report from the Nordkiez, Berlin

The discussion about squats as focal points of lawlessness and coordinated anarchist action are held everywhere across the world.

Our story is that of an area of constant unrest, which has been a place of autonomous struggle for the last 26 years. We continue writing this history by declaring that the episode of the „Dangerzone“ is over, it is time to move forward in our struggles against the state, capital and the entire apparatus of domination and exploitation which surrounds us.

The indignation has faded. Instead, the conciousness of the ongoing social war has been growing. This tendency has to spread. The theoretical knowledge, grown in practice, has to become the base of the upcoming events. So do the new connections, the heightened attention and the confidence of the ones fighting. The next episode will be judged by how good it works in transforming these resources into permanent attacks. The aims are already clear.

„Concerning the claims about “focal points of lawlessness”, we wish to point out for those that are still clinging to the systemic dipole of legal – illegal, we are and we will continue to be advocates of illegality. We are against all those who are trying to present squats as mere places of gathering and harmless alternative entertainment.“

The projects / squats should play an active role in enlargening these focal points of lawlessness in their surroundings. Focal points of lawlessness have to be understood as a concept against the persistent state of emergency that is used against the poor, homeless, criminalized and other fighters.

Connected to the fight for focal points of lawlessness but more concrete, is the will of many here to fight the states policy of making the neighborhood more expensive. The spokesman of the police was right when he said that only gentrification could pacify the neighborhood.

One Struggle One Fight -Fight and defend autonomous freespaces

If we are not to be forced to live as prisoners of war in the barracks of capital, then we must pay attention to our common struggle and fight as one – wherever we are.

House squatted, burning cars and barricades…

Our squatting action is part of a line of actions which are directed towards the keeping of autonomous freespaces

and against a restructuring of the city Berlin, oriented exclusively towards the capitalist logic of usability.[..]
Get active against displacement, commercialization, privatizing and city restructuring!
The houses belong to the ones who live in them!

Besieged Teppichfabrik in Berlin

We want to live together here and fight for a space which is forthright for our utopia. In this city, where the transformation from our collective lifetimes dream into a reality of total capitalistic exploitation, our demand is not fitting in their concept.

And that is exactly the reason why we will continue our struggle. It was clear to us that we would face antagonism, also when we showed that the 24 hour eviction policie not always applies. For us its more than just about a building. Its about to dream and fight for another reality. For us its about opening free spaces in which we have the possibility to develope a pugnaciously community.

 

 


 

 

Intersquat Block at the chaos and discussion days

You’re invited to an Intersquat Block at the Chaos and Discussion days in May in Berlin. We want to offer the space for an exchange on our tactics and techniques, discussions and information within the Chaos and Discussion days at Rigaerstrasse.

Structurally we don’t plan on this being an equal replacement for the past Intersquat meetings, unless you want to make it such. We do think this is a good opportunity to connect the general discussions on the sense and future of urban struggles with questions that come up when considering squatting as more than a tool to satisfy basic housing needs. We hope for a discussion on the importance of squatting for other liberatory struggles, houses as political tools, questions on working within and with neighbourhoods and more.

Evictions, Repression, Surveillance, Prisons, the maggots using and supporting oppressive structures are everywhere let’s get together to support each other and smash the ball not just into their court but through its heart.

If you personally or as a group are interested, have workshops, stuff to discuss, an info event or anything else in mind for the intersquat block or the whole weekend, just write us rigaerstrasse@riseup.net , PGP-Key-ID 0x3971B260E4B15B69

To arrange sleeping places you can write to sleepingchaos@riseup.net with PGP-Key-ID 0xA9DE538A73306A20

Rigaerstraße Assembly

Feel free to send this message on to groups, people and houses you know! And please send us your PGP-Key if you have one

10.5. – 13.5. 2018 Berlin