OWS and squatting.

[Os Cangaceiros]

I've read that some people tried occupying a building during Occupy Oakland. I think this (squatting and occupying indoor spaces) is a good tactic for the whole OWS thing. For one, it's an excellent way for OWS to weave itself into the social fabric, like with labor struggles, except in this case it's struggle related to the homeless (Occupy Atlanta has been involved in this, defending a homeless shelter). A lot of people consider it an outrage that countless bank-owned pieces of private and commercial real estate sit vacant while people are homeless. Banks aren't exactly the most sympathetic characters in today's world...I wouldn't think that watching videos of people being drug out into the street just so a house can sit vacant and drag down real estate values would play very well in the public eye.

A couple of articles I've read on this subject have gotten me thinking about it. What do other people think?

[Jimmie Higgins]

Yes, this is one thing I'd love to see OWS movements begin to take on. They can do emergency eviction responce and help people re-occupy their homes, they can take over buildings and create community centers and/or housing for homeless out of them.

I think the key to this being a next thing for the movement is involving many numbers of people in the process - it will be like having a moving party with 2,000 friends. If people take over abandoned property, make a clear statement about why they are doing it and why the banks/gentrifiers are just going to sit on the property, and come in, "improve the property", teach the new tenants about squatter-rights etc, then it could be quite effective in both a kind of Black Panther Breakfast Program way (help people and expose the local government as callous and indifferent to people's needs) as well as have a propagandistic message about property for use vs. property for profits.

Organize folks, winter's a-comin'!

[ellipsis]

Declaration of Solidarity with Neighborhood Reclamations (http://www.occupyoakland.org/2011/11/declaration-of-solidarity-with-neighborhood-reclamations-103111/)

November 6, 2011
Passed on 10/31/11
Occupy Oakland, in solidarity with the Occupy movement and with the local community, has established the principle of claiming for open use the open space that has been kept from us. We are committed to helping this practice continue and grow. Here in Oakland, thousands of buildings owned by city, banks, and corporations stand idle and abandoned. At the same time social services such as child and healthcare, education, libraries and community spaces are being defunded and eliminated.
Occupy Oakland supports the efforts of people in all Oakland neighborhoods to reclaim abandoned properties for use to meet their own immediate needs. Such spaces are already being occupied and squatted unofficially by the dispossessed, the marginalized, by many of the very people who have joined together here in Oscar Grant Plaza to make this a powerful and diverse movement.
We commit to providing political and material support to neighborhood reclamations, and supporting them in the face of eviction threats or police harassment. In solidarity with the global occupation movement, we encourage the transformation of abandoned spaces into resource centers toward meeting urgent community needs that the current economic system cannot and will not provide.

[ellipsis]

Organize folks, winter's a-comin'!

I wouldn't be surprised if SF and Oakland led the movement in regards to this tactic. :D

[Le Socialiste]

This, coupled with the growing use of class-based tactics (such as Nov. 2nd's general strike), could definitely help steer OO and the broader OWS movement into varying shades of radicalism and militancy. It helps broaden the focus of the demonstrations from anger at Wall St. to vocal, material, and physical solidarity with the disenfranchised, not to mention adding a useful tactic for future struggles. The fact that the general strike in Oakland went ahead with as much enthusiasm and success that it did has served to encourage other Occupy demonstrators to do the same. Dallas is said to be doing one later this month, and who knows? Maybe it will catch on as a useful aspect of the movement as a whole.

This is to say that, given the reality that winter is upon us, the use of abandoned and bank-owned buildings as a strategy for supporting the protests through the wintertime might catch on if it is given a chance to succeed.

[Sasha]

Occupy amsterdam squatted a huge building, part of the former shell hq, yesterday.

[Jimmie Higgins]

The rotunda in Oakland city hall would be a really great spot for holding GAs:lol:

[ellipsis]

Occupy amsterdam squatted a huge building, part of the former shell hq, yesterday.

pictures or it didn't happen!

[Sasha]

https://www.indymedia.nl/node/480

[ellipsis]

information stations about how to find and occupy buildings are being planned for both Occupy SF and oakland. things seem to be quickly moving in that direction.

[ellipsis]

information stations about how to find and occupy buildings are being planned for both Occupy SF and oakland. things seem to be quickly moving in that direction.

Both info tents went up, OO went down with the rest of the tent.

OSF is planning a march on sat Dec 3, the theme of the march is "Housing rights."

If things work out, expect a building occupation on that day.

[DDR]

In Madrid the people from the 15-M, our version of the OWS, squatted an abbandoned hotel and they are using it for housing evicted people.

[ellipsis]

In Madrid the people from the 15-M, our version of the OWS, squatted an abbandoned hotel and they are using it for housing evicted people.

link?

also awesome!

[DDR]

http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2011/10/19/actualidad/1319058611_976398.html (in spanish, sorry.)

[ellipsis]

http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2011/10/19/actualidad/1319058611_976398.html (in spanish, sorry.)

As long as its castellano.

[Sasha]

london: http://www.revleft.com/vb/occupy-london-squat-t164679/index.html
NewYorkCity: http://www.revleft.com/vb/liberated-building-t164568/index.html

[Sasha]

Occupy amsterdam squatted a huge building, part of the former shell hq, yesterday.


https://www.indymedia.nl/node/480

Sigh, that ended well... occupy refused all help by the squat movement, even going so far as to refusing to call it a squat action because of "our history". Now they are getting evicted because it went completely pear shaped, apparently they found some stiff inside who OD'ed, someone else got stabbed, the building is covered in (human) waste, some opportunists made a ton of money throwing techno parties and all copper got nicked.
We with our "history" knew exactly what are the dangers of squatting such big buildings and preventing this kind of shit from happening.
Ah well, those who don't want to learn from history are doomed to repeat it etc.

[Desperado]

Streets > Buildings.... > Workplaces

One hopes.

[ellipsis]

Sigh, that ended well... occupy refused all help by the squat movement, even going so far as to refusing to call it a squat action because of "our history". Now they are getting evicted because it went completely pear shaped, apparently they found some stiff inside who OD'ed, someone else got stabbed, the building is covered in (human) waste, some opportunists made a ton of money throwing techno parties and all copper got nicked.
We with our "history" knew exactly what are the dangers of squatting such big buildings and preventing this kind of shit from happening.
Ah well, those who don't want to learn from history are doomed to repeat it etc.

Yikes! I have had similar frustration doing building occupations with occupy, but try not to get too bent out of shape, people are learning and becoming comfortable with the idea.

[ellipsis]

occupy riverside, California

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/396292_571438191348_22700564_31441650_1850189881_n .jpg