dutch anti-squat laws goes in effect comming friday, tensions rise

[Sasha]

OK, so the rightwing anti-squat law is comming in effect comming friday. At first it seemed that at least for existing squats not much will change but today the mayor and policechiefs from amsterdam (the city with the highest amount of squats) said they want to evict 200 of the estimated 300 squats in the coming months.
Meanwhile yesterday several buildings got squatted including the gigantic former firebrigade HQ that was empty since december last year.
This fridayeving there will be an demonstration in amsterdam, saturday there is an call for an nationwide demo in the city of nijmegen.
War talk is heard plenty in the squatscene but the question will be if we will be able to take this outside of the hardcore and also manage to draw in other youth. If so this could escalte pretty soon into ungdumshuset (denmark) like proportions wich will put big strain on the greenleft-socialdem-liberalconservative city coalition. Hopefully the greens and social-dems will then dump the liberalconcervatives in favour of the liberalprogresives.

In combination with the the severe austarity cuts propossed by the atempted goverment coalition of liberalconservatives-christiandems-extremeright (wilders) this could either brew in an perfect storm of big social unrest or you wont see me for a few months because they will lock us up and trow away the key.

one thing is for certain, the long sleep we where lulled in by the former goverments and econmic prosperity is finished.

it will keep you informed o how things are developing.

[Antifa94]

FUCKKKKKKKKK this is horrid.

Hopefully we'll see resistance a la Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen.

[Ele'ill]

Free City Rebellion!

[Ele'ill]

OK, so the rightwing anti-squat law is comming in effect comming friday. At first it seemed that at least for existing squats not much will change but today the mayor and policechiefs from amsterdam (the city with the highest amount of squats) said they want to evict 200 of the estimated 300 squats in the coming months.
Meanwhile yesterday several buildings got squatted including the gigantic former firebrigade HQ that was empty since december last year.
This fridayeving there will be an demonstration in amsterdam, saturday there is an call for an nationwide demo in the city of nijmegen.
War talk is heard plenty in the squatscene but the question will be if we will be able to take this outside of the hardcore and also manage to draw in other youth. If so this could escalte pretty soon into ungdumshuset (denmark) like proportions wich will put big strain on the greenleft-socialdem-liberalconservative city coalition. Hopefully the greens and social-dems will then dump the liberalconcervatives in favour of the liberalprogresives.

In combination with the the severe austarity cuts propossed by the atempted goverment coalition of liberalconservatives-christiandems-extremeright (wilders) this could either brew in an perfect storm of big social unrest or you wont see me for a few months because they will lock us up and trow away the key.

one thing is for certain, the long sleep we where lulled in by the former goverments and econmic prosperity is finished.

it will keep you informed o how things are developing.


I hope this response doesn't take away from the seriousness of the matter but I really really wish I was there.

What are the options for solidarity actions?

[Red Commissar]

What shoddy way is the government trying to humanize this decision? Or are they bypassing that all together?

[Ele'ill]

Something that avoids facts like 'lul itz not ther propurty'

[Sasha]

I hope this response doesn't take away from the seriousness of the matter but I really really wish I was there.

What are the options for solidarity actions?


anything is apriciated, actions at consulates, bannerdrops etc etc.
if your city counsel has an official friendship tie with an dutch city that might be an good way in.

[Sasha]

update; so indeed the local green-left is shocked and calls for restraint. the media picked up on the war talk and is in an frenzie. Litle has to happen for stuff to explode.
since its an lomng time since we had an major event the question will be how many people we will be able to mobelise andhow far they are willing to go.

[Ele'ill]

Be fierce.

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs44/f/2009/125/7/1/Courage_Wolf_8_by_Nossek.jpg

[Eastside Revolt]

Legalized squatting is one way in which states have recuperated the struggle for autonomous spaces. Particularily in the Netherlands it was really allowed to become part of the legitimate democratic discourse. This new atmosphere of repression however could radicalize many of the more liberal pro-state elements in that struggle.

All in all I see this as possibly being more of a postive than a negative.

[Delenda Carthago]

are the squats any extroversive towards the rest of the society?Is their voice heard within that social dialog?

[meow]

good luck. i hope that you have much success fighting evictions and pushing to repeal this anti worker law.

[Sasha]

are the squats any extroversive towards the rest of the society?Is their voice heard within that social dialog?

they are, the give away shops, the avantgarde art, the cheap restaurants are much apriciated and in combination with renter struggles we are an quite influential bunch but like eastside revolt said here:


Legalized squatting is one way in which states have recuperated the struggle for autonomous spaces. Particularily in the Netherlands it was really allowed to become part of the legitimate democratic discourse. This new atmosphere of repression however could radicalize many of the more liberal pro-state elements in that struggle.

All in all I see this as possibly being more of a postive than a negative.

the scene was dying out, too many people where lulled into only carring about saving their legal subcultural playgrounds. its shitty for those for who the choice is squatting or sleeping under a bridge but for the politicsed part of the movement it might be an gods gift, an place to make an last stand and maybe revitalise some strugle.
i'm afraid that unless the economy would have collaps completly we would have petert out anyway in the next decade anyway

[Ele'ill]

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=2010nl-squats

[Sasha]

during the first demonstration (the local one in amsterdam tonight) it came to an short but heavy clash with the riotpolice.
at the end of the quite millitant demo, with several hundred squatters, some empty luxurious apartments got squatted.
a few 100 meters further the cops on horseback charged and about 300 demonstrators stated fighting back with rocks, botles and bikes.

i'll keep you updated on how things develop and how the way bigger demonstration in nijmegen tomorow will turn out.

[bricolage]

fuck man, sounds like its getting heavy. hope things work out.

[Sasha]

i just heard there are burning baricades in the city and teargas is deployed, shit is really hitting the fan

[Sasha]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlX4xrOPF80

foottage from the demo, just before the squat action

[Sasha]

seems most people left the confrotations because of too much cops and people getting arrested. but this will for sure flare up again soon.

[Sasha]

http://www.at5.nl/imgcache/3/3a46c4b6c4ff6a085792cd57a8e68155.jpg

[Sasha]

some footage of the beginning of the confrontation:
http://www.at5.nl/artikelen/49306/krakersprotest-op-het-spui-begonnen

[Sasha]

picture report: http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2010/10/69874.shtml

[Sasha]

riotporn: http://www.at5.nl/artikelen/49319/extra-uitzending-at5-nieuws-om-22-55-uur

[Sasha]

Violent protests after Dutch outlaw squatting
By TOBY STERLING (AP) – 1 hour ago
AMSTERDAM — More than 100 people protesting the outlawing of squatting at unused buildings in the Netherlands clashed with police in Amsterdam's historic center late Friday, throwing stones, setting fires and erecting barricades.
Squatting is the latest pillar of the country's liberal institutions — such as legal prostitution and cafes that openly sell marijuana — to be abolished or curtailed as the Dutch become more conservative and rethink the boundaries of their famed tolerance.
In Amsterdam, the epicenter of the movement known in Dutch as "kraken," or "breaking," several hundred squatters had demonstrated peacefully during the day against the new law that makes their way of life punishable by up to one year in prison.
By nightfall, some began throwing rocks at police and vandalizing cars. Police attempted to disperse large groups on two streets by carrying out charges.
By mid-evening an Associated Press eyewitness saw squatters using metal fences and piles of bicycles to block one of the city's bridges amid a haze of tear gas. An AP photographer saw police using bulldozers and water cannons in an attempt to clear the streets lining the city's ancient canals of such barricades and to quench small fires set in piles of rubbish.
A local television station published a photo of one protester being escorted away by a police officer while bleeding from a head wound. Police on the scene declined to comment on the number of arrests.
"Of course we're going to resist: resisting is part of what we do," said a young English-speaking woman at a "squat," or occupied building, next to the Amstel River, ahead of Friday's protest. She identified herself only as Lilo.
Most squatters decline to give their full names both for philosophical reasons and to avoid trouble with police or immigration authorities.
A study published this year by Amsterdam's Free University estimated the number of squatters at roughly 1,500 in the Dutch capital, a city of 750,000. Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan says he plans to gradually empty the city's remaining 200 squats.
"Here and there squatting definitely causes problems for a neighborhood," he said, but until now it has been seen mostly as a civil dispute between owners and occupants.
Beginning Friday, building owners can argue that squatters are breaking the law, the mayor said. That would "bring us to take action, where in the past we might not have done anything."
City officials said no major evictions are expected Friday, however.
Amsterdam and other Dutch cities remain unusually liberal, even by European standards, but they have gradually moved away from their free-for-all attitudes. Prostitution is legal but has become more regulated, and Amsterdam has shuttered one-third of its brothels. The number of marijuana cafes is declining amid new restrictions to distance them from schools.
Squatting gained public sympathy after World War II during a time of severe housing shortages and anger at real estate speculators. A Supreme Court ruling in 1971 found that entering an unused building is not trespassing. The thinking was that it was humane, or at least pragmatic, not to evict poor or homeless people living in a building that was not being used.
Yet that view changed as the Netherlands grew more prosperous and more sympathetic to business — and today the sentiment often runs against the squatters' antiestablishment world view.
"Once squatting was maybe a romantic thing for people to do, but now they have children and jobs. Things have changed," said Amsterdam city councilman Frank van Dalen.
These days most squatters are migrants from eastern and southern Europe "who want a cheap place to live," he said.
Van Dalen is a member of the pro-business VVD party, which has been a vocal opponent of both squatting and immigration. The VVD will lead the next Dutch coalition government, which may take office as early as next week. Backed by the anti-Islam Freedom Party of populist politician Geert Wilders, the new administration is likely to further tighten restrictions on immigration — particularly from Muslim countries.
At the squatted building on the Amstel, a former fire department office, the squatters — most from other countries — argue against the perception that they just want a parasitic lifestyle.
"The people who are willing to come to a foreign city, with no place to live — to me these are very valuable people, brave people," says Marek Griks, a Polish man who drives a cab part-time and lives at a different squat with his daughter.
He says squatters bring a positive and creative impulse to Amsterdam.
A man from eastern Europe with dreadlocks known as "Muppet" says squatting will continue long after the ban. In his six years in Amsterdam, he has stayed as little as 16 hours in one squat and as long as 2 1/2 years in another.
"I think everything is going to change. It's going to become more of a political struggle again. Not about living for free," he said.
Historically, squatting has provided an alternative to mainstream Dutch lifestyles and has acted as a wellspring for leftist activism. It reached a peak on April 30, 1980, the day of Queen Beatrix's accession to the throne. Thousands of squatters and sympathizers fought riot police throughout Amsterdam, trying to disrupt her coronation. Their motto: "No housing, no crowning."
The economic boom of the 1990s saw an expansion of construction and signaled the beginning of the movement's end. For the past decade, Amsterdam has been emptying squatted buildings at an ever-accelerating pace.
Property owners have also found their own ways to combat squatting, letting "anti-squatters" move into buildings they planned to leave empty in exchange for extremely low rents and ironclad guarantees to leave when asked.
Still, affordable housing remains a huge problem. Van Dalen says the city now plans to convert unused office buildings into low-rent housing. Asked if that wasn't what squatters have always demanded, he said no.
"There's a crucial difference between low-rent and free," he noted.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.



source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hc1Wpqq78J-I0aaoefoEtwN-AsOQD9IJ4I3O0?docId=D9IJ4I3O0

[Sasha]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AmpWee9jtA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDgkWxOCqf0

[Sasha]

(compared to the bloody murder screaming media here) very decent item BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11458225

[Delenda Carthago]

PlX4xrOPF80

foottage from the demo, just before the squat action
A.Beautifull place.Nothing like Athens.

B.Is this big for your standards?

C.Wtf is the cop doing on 2.00?

[Sasha]

A.Beautifull place.Nothing like Athens.

yeah, it quite pretty here, and the only reason any of it except the canals is still satnding is thanks to the earlier generations of squatters



B.Is this big for your standards?10 years, let alone 20 years ago not, now, espacily with people willing to fight back yes.
we had way bigger demo's recently against the wars etc but they where completly boring and useless reformist circle jerks.
a 1000 people at an radical demo with 300 people full going for an fight, yes thats unheard of in the last decade.


C.Wtf is the cop doing on 2.00?dunno, it was at the end of the demo where the hippies where, propably telling someone not to drink or sommething like that. he wouldnt have been able to walk in like that at the front of the demo.

[Sasha]

the demo in nijmegen also ended in police charges and arrests.
also the Christian-Dems in majority voted for governing with wilders.
this is hopefully going to radicalise a lot of people.

[LETSFIGHTBACK]

Great seeing to people stand up to the police. Last time I saw the people rebel here in Philly, it was for the opposite reason, the people rallied to tear down the fence where low income housing was being built. they said they didn't want poor blacks living in their neighborhood.yeah, it's the U.S.A

Or at the Wachovia center 2 years ago, 10,000 people couldn't get in to see a chicken wing eating contest.it's true.

[Antifa94]

I'm quite sad. They will continue to heroically squat in secret.... this is blatant gentrification.

[Ele'ill]

Great seeing to people stand up to the police. Last time I saw the people rebel here in Philly, it was for the opposite reason, the people rallied to tear down the fence where low income housing was being built. they said they didn't want poor blacks living in their neighborhood.yeah, it's the U.S.A

Or at the Wachovia center 2 years ago, 10,000 people couldn't get in to see a chicken wing eating contest.it's true.

Yeah but philly's sports riot was fun.

There's an anti-war march planned, isn't there? I might be back in my home city to check it out.

[LETSFIGHTBACK]

Yeah but philly's sports riot was fun.

There's an anti-war march planned, isn't there? I might be back in my home city to check it out.

Yes, the 16th on the west side of city hall, 15th & Market st.You'll see me, I'll be one of the ten lol lol lol

[Enragé]

Legality was nice, illegality suits us better.

law or no law, squatting will continue.

[Ele'ill]

I remember a time- or I remember reading of a time- when people were willing to burn down the physical representations of oppression at the risk of being hanged. Where is that spirit today? Are we comfy? The squats get taken- those empty buildings will be transformed into things most likely undesirable and it feels like once the street violence gets pushed past a certain date- people are still angry but nobody really keeps the struggle going. The struggle continues in flash events- here and there- why is it not continuous? (obviously it cannot be)

It's frustrating and to be honest it feels like we're losing ground.

I think it was NPR this morning had a blurb on the rally in DC - for congress- the democrats. This is days before the semi-anual IMF meeting and demonstration. It shows that people are willing to buy into and support someone that has promised the carrot but is at the same time hiring or supporting another dickhead to stab them in the ass. I don't fucking get it- globalize a system then rely on 'democracy' and 'voting' for a handful of basically local issues while the main policies burn the earth.

It's a freedom to exist a certain way. Monoculture means death- we have uncreative- dead souls in all political positions- all the way down to our fucking economic development committees that must meet after their ketamine party and night of huffing wippets to decide that what we need are ten new banks stacked on top of eachother sixty new malls in the same giant airstripesque space and as lewis black put it- a starbucks across the street from a starbucks.


If you're walking or hanging around a starbucks you're ok- if you're walking early or late in your own neighborhood you will have police stop you.


I'm probably going to delete this post but I felt it necessary- especially in light of some other shit that just came up. Fucking ugh.

[Ravachol]

the demo in nijmegen also ended in police charges and arrests.
also the Christian-Dems in majority voted for governing with wilders.
this is hopefully going to radicalise a lot of people.

The Nijmegen demo:

IdP9NitOWjA
FTiv_NU5dN4
0iu-xmbLu-A

The crowd was mixed, a little bit too much hippies and apolitical 'party squatters' near the tail of the demo for my taste but the overall atmosphere and attitude was ok.

[Wanted Man]

Despite being overshadowed by the government formation, the squatting ban has led to plenty of attention. One point of interest is the idea of so-called left-wing city administrations (Amsterdam, Groningen, Nijmegen, etc.) not actively executing the law. They were pretty adamant about that at first, but things have changed quickly. Cities like Amsterdam and Groningen both have relatively new mayors, and the speculation is basically that "Justice" and the police have successfully persuaded/intimidated them to take a more hard-line stance. "Left-wing" local governments don't have much to offer on the long term, but it would have been a strong signal if most of the major cities in the country decided against execution.

Now that they seem more inclined to opt for it, this leads to a growing uncertainty. In Groningen, it led to a rumour that they were going to have a big eviction wave on the 1st of October. Obviously, that didn't materialise, but it's a part of intimidation when you're a squatter and there is the idea that they can kick you out of your home at any time. I'm not sure what they're going to do now.

Another interesting aspect is the attempt to create all kinds of divisions. I just read on Indymedia that a press release by the police stated that "the organisers (of the Nijmegen demo -WM) stuck to the agreements (with the police -WM) and distanced themselves from the small group that sought confrontation". I doubt there are many people who have any knowledge who would believe that, but it can always disorient others.

Anyway, it's obvious that the squatters won't take all of this lying down and that they're going to go on as always, and right they are.

[Ravachol]

Despite being overshadowed by the government formation, the squatting ban has led to plenty of attention. One point of interest is the idea of so-called left-wing city administrations (Amsterdam, Groningen, Nijmegen, etc.) not actively executing the law. They were pretty adamant about that at first, but things have changed quickly. Cities like Amsterdam and Groningen both have relatively new mayors, and the speculation is basically that "Justice" and the police have successfully persuaded/intimidated them to take a more hard-line stance. "Left-wing" local governments don't have much to offer on the long term, but it would have been a strong signal if most of the major cities in the country decided against execution.


A big problem with the 'local administration' approach is that it completely relies on the goodwill of the state instead of working-class direct action and re-appropriation. While it's always nice to have a local administration which isn't full-on repressive, the reformist and lobbyist elements in the squatting scene effectively integrate the movement into the logic of Capital and the state by appealing to the goodwill of the state, thus necessarily not forming any kind of threat to it's hegemony or zone outside of it's control, which should be the effective goal of squatting in relation to the (anarcho-)communist project.

Anyway, we've all seen where lobbyism has brought us: nowhere. Despite all the lobbying, forging of ties to the local administration,etc. the squatting ban is there.




Another interesting aspect is the attempt to create all kinds of divisions. I just read on Indymedia that a press release by the police stated that "the organisers (of the Nijmegen demo -WM) stuck to the agreements (with the police -WM) and distanced themselves from the small group that sought confrontation". I doubt there are many people who have any knowledge who would believe that, but it can always disorient others.


I don't know whether that was just the police sowing confusion and disinformation but it could very well come from reformist/lobbyist organizing elements. The point is that lobbyism and negotiation with state and Capital shouldn't be on our agenda anyway.

[Sasha]

update:

yesterday there was an demonstration in the hague about 500 people atended, tomorow the first prominent squats in amsterdam where supposed te be evicted under the new law but in an complete suprise the apeal judge put an bomb under the new law and judged it in conflict with the european declaration of humanity rights.
so all evictions under the new law are porsponed.
the state now propably has to go to the supreme court or make an new law wich will take a considarble time.
one of our lawyers is convinced that if he can take this to the european court he can make squatting legal in the whole of the EU.
i higly doubt that but its nice to dream.
anyway, an spontanius demonstration/celebration tonight drew up to a thousand people.
squatting is back in the spotlight :thumbup1:

[Sasha]

powerfull speech yesterday night in front of cityhall

cqYPmqF--SM

[Widerstand]

one of our lawyers is convinced that if he can take this to the european court he can make squatting legal in the whole of the EU.

Hahahahaha I wish. But I doubt it.

[Sasha]

well, it seems that for now most local goverments are acepting they first need to go to the supreme court so last tuesday only some houses with an already old courtorder got evicted, all evictions under the new law are on hold.
there are still 2 anonymus actvists from utrecht in jail though after an eviction on the new law from before the injuction, they and 6 others will have an courtcase on the 26th.
over the last week there was an big nightly demonstration in amsterdam, a string of hit and run property damage actions against a bank and several anti-squat company's (who put desperate students without renting rights in empty buildings) and an huge campaing by the rightwing press.
tomorow there will be an demonstration trying to pull the strugle broader against the whole austerity demolishment of social housing and for space for all.
last night actvists hung an giant banner from the historic stockexchange in the midle of amsterdam center oposing the central train station. http://indymedia.nl/nl/2010/11/71263.shtml