Sasha
25th May 2010, 17:43
Anarchist perspective on the squatting ban
A collective - 25.05.2010 15:08
There have been many discussions in and of indymedia about how to deal with the upcoming squatting ban. There seems to be a lot of diversity between those who see squatting as simply a housing-thing and those who see it as a means of political struggle.
We as an anarchist collective have the following view and call out.
This text is in English because we as anarchists are internationalists without borders. (And this way the giant, violent hordes of barbaric Italian and Polish squatters that the media keeps writing about can also read along!)
Firstly, we find it very disturbing that the indymedia-editors have removed a posting by a certain self-proclaimed Michael Bakunin. Even if you do not agree with his or her or their statements indymedia should be a website where freedom of speech is not in danger because conservative propagandists like GeenStijl are trying to make money out of it.
Secondly, we are disturbed by the lack of analysis on the squatting issue from the side of the anarchists. There have already been a few postings by conformists and those whose see squatting as a solution to housing-problem. They proclaim that the almighty eighties was when it all happened and that since then the squatting scene has been bankrupted by the so-called dirty, violent element within the squatting scene. It should be rather simple for people to give retort, but with a few exceptions there is a big lack of proper feedback.
We will try to give some.
If we like it or not the squatting scene is a subculture in the eyes of the mainstream media and public. The enormous diversity of the squatting scene is usually put into one pigeonhole. We do not agree that it is a homogenic scene, but it is important to note that squatting is an alternative way of living. It is not a third option next to buying or renting a house. It is the complete opposite. And for 90% the squatting scene does sprout a variety of counter-culture groups that you will not so easily find anywhere else in society. Punk, tekno and goa-parties, artists living spaces, anti-capitalists, antifascists, refugee-supporters, anti-psychiatry activists and many other subversive groups and individuals have rooted themselves in the squatting scene. Without squats many of the above mentioned initiatives would not have been realised.
We think that the problem today is that a large group of the squatting scene is not politically active and/or aware. They see squatting as a legal State approved way of living and are very angry that they now will be officially called criminals. They seem to be blaming the political active part of the squatting scene.
In countries around us squatting has always been illegal and has been largely dominated by the anarchist struggle against capitalism and the State. From the anarchist point of view it is ridiculous to want the approvement of the State for living the way you want to live. This fear of illegal versus legal is laughable. When has the State and the media-infused society seen squatters as a normal part of society anyway? Smelly, stinky, dirty, violent, lazy, workshy, foreign(why is that bad?), dog and flee infested parasites of society. The last 15 years the squatting scene has tried over and over again to look good in the media. To show society that "We" are just normal people with normal problems and needs but we just live alternatively. There have even been squatters who have publically denounced "those others" for ruining the image of the squatting scene by fighting against evictions masked up and in black. Your worst enemy being your neighbour.
The reason why there is a squatting ban today is not because of the very rare moments of squatters fighting back against the evictions in the last 15 years. The holy eighties were much more violent. The reason squatting is made illegal is because political parties like the CDA and VVD finally think they have the majority in the political country together with the PVV to get rid of non-conformist elements in society. Refugees, illegals, squatters and many others are now the target of conservative white society. Parties like the PvdA and Groenlinks no longer have leftist views in the way that we would like to see them as they hope to gain more and more votes by becoming centrist.
As anarchists we have never had any faith in the State or representative democracy. It is capitalism and the hierarchy of power that rules the State. The only reason to have anything to do with the State is to fight them by any means possible. Even if they make a law tomorrow to make squatting legal again it will (and has never) not stop them from evicting us or attacking us at demonstrations. The State was, is and always will be the enemy.
We as a collective think that by the State making squatting illegal again it might even rid us of the parasitical element that has infested the squatting scene.
Like those who have been immobilizing us for years with their calls for non-violence and conformist policies. Never have they respected the anarchist way of dealing with the State and police in a non-conformist way. Every demonstration has been gutted by them. A lot of squatting actions and evictions have been sterilized by those who did not want to upset the State and it's powers. Afraid of their jobs, positions in society and "the way society sees us!". It is they who have bankrupted the squatting scene with their Polder-way of trying to be friends with the State that has never wanted to be friends with us. It has always been an unfair balance between them and us. To be a force of reckoning you must have some leverage. Especially because of the conformists and lobbyist we have lost the leverage. For fuck sake we invite the Wijkagent to come and check for us to see if a house is really empty! From the first moment on we leave the State to decide if what we are doing is right!
The other parasites are those who use squatting simply as a means to live free and party without letting any politics get involved. They use excessive amounts of drugs and alcohol, treat their dogs worse than most people in "normal" society, have no political views about sexism (rape and assault not being uncommon in the Tekno and Punk scene) and have made the squatting scene a closed off space for those who only belong to the crusty party scene. They look very alternative and on the surface they act like it, but they are nothing but another subculture of normal society. They party and take drugs just like many other "normal" people do in the weekends but they just dress differently. There is nothing revolutionary about them. We see them only at demonstrations that have anything to do with squatting and they are absent when it comes to real struggles about racism, sexism, etc. They probably won't read indymedia because there is no agenda on when the next Tekno-party will be.
We do not wish for these subcultures to dissappear. It is their choice. But what we as anarchists should realize is that they are not their to help us, they are their to be in our way. We must circumvent them and not listen to their whining.
It is time for anarchist to realize that the global squatting scene is politically active and motivated. They fight for their houses, they use their squats as places for creating politics. The are staging grounds for demonstrations and actions.
We do not think there is any reason to go to The Hague on the 1st of June. We do not care what the State decides. If we go to the Hague it should be to oust the government for all the reasons it should be ousted, not just because of one of their laws.
We should squat more houses and barricade them. We should show them what making squatting illegal really means. No more nice phonecalls to the Wijkagent so he can check the meters. No more waiting for a year for a building to be empty, no more agreements with the owners if they have no good plans with the buildings, no more nicely waiting to be evicted. No more fluffyness. The State has declared us enemies. Fine. We can live with that. We have always seen the State as our enemy, so it is only fitting that they finally say it openly aswell.
The situation will be more unsure. Squatting will become even more a way of living because the State could be at our doors at any moment. We will not be able to use their courts or their laws anymore. We have no shame about the fact that we did use them before. By any means necessary means by any means necessary. But as they are taking away those means we should adapt instead of falter. That has always been the strength of anarchism. We adapt. Dogma's are for conservatives like capitalists, communists and socialists.
We will not let the State decide our way of living. We must show society that we, like in Greece, can bring anarchy to the streets. Not in the same way as in Greece for we do not have the same amount of people with us. But as a global society of anarchists we are a many-headed monster that can bite the State and capitalism. We are not few! Look at Greece, Ungdomhuset, riots in Berlin and Hamburg, Strassbourg NATO meeting, G8 meetings, no border camps, etc. We are more than a gnat.
So the 1st of June is nothing special. We must do what we always do. And that is squat and fight the State.
source: http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2010/05/67564.shtml
A collective - 25.05.2010 15:08
There have been many discussions in and of indymedia about how to deal with the upcoming squatting ban. There seems to be a lot of diversity between those who see squatting as simply a housing-thing and those who see it as a means of political struggle.
We as an anarchist collective have the following view and call out.
This text is in English because we as anarchists are internationalists without borders. (And this way the giant, violent hordes of barbaric Italian and Polish squatters that the media keeps writing about can also read along!)
Firstly, we find it very disturbing that the indymedia-editors have removed a posting by a certain self-proclaimed Michael Bakunin. Even if you do not agree with his or her or their statements indymedia should be a website where freedom of speech is not in danger because conservative propagandists like GeenStijl are trying to make money out of it.
Secondly, we are disturbed by the lack of analysis on the squatting issue from the side of the anarchists. There have already been a few postings by conformists and those whose see squatting as a solution to housing-problem. They proclaim that the almighty eighties was when it all happened and that since then the squatting scene has been bankrupted by the so-called dirty, violent element within the squatting scene. It should be rather simple for people to give retort, but with a few exceptions there is a big lack of proper feedback.
We will try to give some.
If we like it or not the squatting scene is a subculture in the eyes of the mainstream media and public. The enormous diversity of the squatting scene is usually put into one pigeonhole. We do not agree that it is a homogenic scene, but it is important to note that squatting is an alternative way of living. It is not a third option next to buying or renting a house. It is the complete opposite. And for 90% the squatting scene does sprout a variety of counter-culture groups that you will not so easily find anywhere else in society. Punk, tekno and goa-parties, artists living spaces, anti-capitalists, antifascists, refugee-supporters, anti-psychiatry activists and many other subversive groups and individuals have rooted themselves in the squatting scene. Without squats many of the above mentioned initiatives would not have been realised.
We think that the problem today is that a large group of the squatting scene is not politically active and/or aware. They see squatting as a legal State approved way of living and are very angry that they now will be officially called criminals. They seem to be blaming the political active part of the squatting scene.
In countries around us squatting has always been illegal and has been largely dominated by the anarchist struggle against capitalism and the State. From the anarchist point of view it is ridiculous to want the approvement of the State for living the way you want to live. This fear of illegal versus legal is laughable. When has the State and the media-infused society seen squatters as a normal part of society anyway? Smelly, stinky, dirty, violent, lazy, workshy, foreign(why is that bad?), dog and flee infested parasites of society. The last 15 years the squatting scene has tried over and over again to look good in the media. To show society that "We" are just normal people with normal problems and needs but we just live alternatively. There have even been squatters who have publically denounced "those others" for ruining the image of the squatting scene by fighting against evictions masked up and in black. Your worst enemy being your neighbour.
The reason why there is a squatting ban today is not because of the very rare moments of squatters fighting back against the evictions in the last 15 years. The holy eighties were much more violent. The reason squatting is made illegal is because political parties like the CDA and VVD finally think they have the majority in the political country together with the PVV to get rid of non-conformist elements in society. Refugees, illegals, squatters and many others are now the target of conservative white society. Parties like the PvdA and Groenlinks no longer have leftist views in the way that we would like to see them as they hope to gain more and more votes by becoming centrist.
As anarchists we have never had any faith in the State or representative democracy. It is capitalism and the hierarchy of power that rules the State. The only reason to have anything to do with the State is to fight them by any means possible. Even if they make a law tomorrow to make squatting legal again it will (and has never) not stop them from evicting us or attacking us at demonstrations. The State was, is and always will be the enemy.
We as a collective think that by the State making squatting illegal again it might even rid us of the parasitical element that has infested the squatting scene.
Like those who have been immobilizing us for years with their calls for non-violence and conformist policies. Never have they respected the anarchist way of dealing with the State and police in a non-conformist way. Every demonstration has been gutted by them. A lot of squatting actions and evictions have been sterilized by those who did not want to upset the State and it's powers. Afraid of their jobs, positions in society and "the way society sees us!". It is they who have bankrupted the squatting scene with their Polder-way of trying to be friends with the State that has never wanted to be friends with us. It has always been an unfair balance between them and us. To be a force of reckoning you must have some leverage. Especially because of the conformists and lobbyist we have lost the leverage. For fuck sake we invite the Wijkagent to come and check for us to see if a house is really empty! From the first moment on we leave the State to decide if what we are doing is right!
The other parasites are those who use squatting simply as a means to live free and party without letting any politics get involved. They use excessive amounts of drugs and alcohol, treat their dogs worse than most people in "normal" society, have no political views about sexism (rape and assault not being uncommon in the Tekno and Punk scene) and have made the squatting scene a closed off space for those who only belong to the crusty party scene. They look very alternative and on the surface they act like it, but they are nothing but another subculture of normal society. They party and take drugs just like many other "normal" people do in the weekends but they just dress differently. There is nothing revolutionary about them. We see them only at demonstrations that have anything to do with squatting and they are absent when it comes to real struggles about racism, sexism, etc. They probably won't read indymedia because there is no agenda on when the next Tekno-party will be.
We do not wish for these subcultures to dissappear. It is their choice. But what we as anarchists should realize is that they are not their to help us, they are their to be in our way. We must circumvent them and not listen to their whining.
It is time for anarchist to realize that the global squatting scene is politically active and motivated. They fight for their houses, they use their squats as places for creating politics. The are staging grounds for demonstrations and actions.
We do not think there is any reason to go to The Hague on the 1st of June. We do not care what the State decides. If we go to the Hague it should be to oust the government for all the reasons it should be ousted, not just because of one of their laws.
We should squat more houses and barricade them. We should show them what making squatting illegal really means. No more nice phonecalls to the Wijkagent so he can check the meters. No more waiting for a year for a building to be empty, no more agreements with the owners if they have no good plans with the buildings, no more nicely waiting to be evicted. No more fluffyness. The State has declared us enemies. Fine. We can live with that. We have always seen the State as our enemy, so it is only fitting that they finally say it openly aswell.
The situation will be more unsure. Squatting will become even more a way of living because the State could be at our doors at any moment. We will not be able to use their courts or their laws anymore. We have no shame about the fact that we did use them before. By any means necessary means by any means necessary. But as they are taking away those means we should adapt instead of falter. That has always been the strength of anarchism. We adapt. Dogma's are for conservatives like capitalists, communists and socialists.
We will not let the State decide our way of living. We must show society that we, like in Greece, can bring anarchy to the streets. Not in the same way as in Greece for we do not have the same amount of people with us. But as a global society of anarchists we are a many-headed monster that can bite the State and capitalism. We are not few! Look at Greece, Ungdomhuset, riots in Berlin and Hamburg, Strassbourg NATO meeting, G8 meetings, no border camps, etc. We are more than a gnat.
So the 1st of June is nothing special. We must do what we always do. And that is squat and fight the State.
source: http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2010/05/67564.shtml