squating in the netherlands

[Sasha]

nice item from russia today about the current goverment plans to make squating illegal in the netherlands: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhCbpS2VAhU

info on how to squat in the netherlands: http://www.kraak-forum.nl/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=3222

[Wanted Man]

Good video. Several parties here want to introduce a squatting ban. Also, tomorrow there is supposedly going to be an eviction wave in Amsterdam, meaning that several squats will be cleared out at the same time. :(

[Sprinkles]

While squatting is a perfectly good critique on the use of public space; especially in the face of an alarming lack of affordable living space for working class people, even though the construction of luxury houses, unneeded office buildings and industrial terrains that remain vacant on completion is widespread. It also has the negative side-effect that Dutch anarchism is sometimes a bit of an introverted social subculture instead of a movement that appeals to people outside of it's periphery.

But for what it's worth I hope squatting remains legal, hope it turns out alright for you.

[Palmares]

While squatting is a perfectly good critique on the use of public space; especially in the face of an alarming lack of affordable living space for working class people, even though the construction of luxury houses, unneeded office buildings and industrial terrains that remain vacant on completion is widespread. It also has the negative side-effect that Dutch anarchism is sometimes a bit of an introverted social subculture instead of a movement that appeals to people outside of it's periphery.

But for what it's worth I hope squatting remains legal, hope it turns out alright for you.

Just to point out the obvious, there a multiplicity of factors that come to create this situation. But yes, in the Netherlands like various other European countries the squatting movement is made synonymous with the autonome.

[Sprinkles]

Just to point out the obvious, there a multiplicity of factors that come to create this situation.

The main reason is that squatting is a lifestylist activity. It's extremely detached from the everyday experience of the working class. Not everyone can live in a squat and the people who do work hard to pay the rent in order to legally attain a residence will regard the subsequent activity of squatters as either frivolous or somewhat self-interested. Personally I don't really think it's that effective as either a political statement or a political movement.

Nonetheless I'm perfectly fine with them doing whatever they like. As long as they enjoy themselves. :D

[jaffe]

The main reason is that squatting is a lifestylist activity. It's extremely detached from the everyday experience of the working class. Not everyone can live in a squat and the people who do work hard to pay the rent in order to legally attain a residence will regard the subsequent activity of squatters as either frivolous or somewhat self-interested. Personally I don't really think it's that effective as either a political statement or a political movement.

Nonetheless I'm perfectly fine with them doing whatever they like. As long as they enjoy themselves. :D

In the Netherland there are a lot of houses/buildings that aren't used. Well at the same time there is a lot of question for housing. criminals speculate with houses and housing organisations kick people out who rent it for a cheap prise, demolish it and rebuild expensive houses instead to sell it. Squatting is a good weapon against speculation and some times helps people who are getting bullied into eviction. I agree with you that some squatters are to lifestylist but that sure doesn't count for all squatters.

[Sprinkles]

In the Netherland there are a lot of houses/buildings that aren't used. Well at the same time there is a lot of question for housing. criminals speculate with houses and housing organisations kick people out who rent it for a cheap prise, demolish it and rebuild expensive houses instead to sell it. Squatting is a good weapon against speculation and some times helps people who are getting bullied into eviction. I agree with you that some squatters are to lifestylist but that sure doesn't count for all squatters.

Sure, I said as much in my first post. Squatting is a useful social critique about the use of space, but as a political tactic it only offers individuals a solution, like when it "some times helps people who are getting bullied into eviction." But it isn't capable of solving the overarching problems for the large majority of people regarding the inflation of housing prices, which are like you mentioned caused due to speculation.

Which is why squatting is lifestylist; it offers a solution to the individual in the form of a change in lifestyle. The "anti-squatting" initiatives where the building owners provide cheap housing for students and the like in empty abandoned office buildings in order to avoid their property being turned into a squat, can as easily be claimed to be political since although they have a different intent, they ultimately have the same outcome; they might house some individuals but it leaves the overall problem intact.

[Palmares]

The main reason is that squatting is a lifestylist activity. It's extremely detached from the everyday experience of the working class. Not everyone can live in a squat and the people who do work hard to pay the rent in order to legally attain a residence will regard the subsequent activity of squatters as either frivolous or somewhat self-interested. Personally I don't really think it's that effective as either a political statement or a political movement.

Indeed squatting has transformed into a practice that is not so practical for most - such as the working class. You have to have the time to look for squats, have another squat or wherever to stay if you get evicted, time to fix the house, time to occupy the house (as in some places legal require someone be inside at all times, in theory), etc.

In it's beginning, in England for example, squatting actually became legal because working class people who were without homes took it upon themselves to occupy abandoned buildings. And there were political statements too of course.


In 1649 at Saint George's Hill, Walton-on-Thames (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walton-on-Thames) in Surrey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrey), Gerrard Winstanley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrard_Winstanley) and others calling themselves The True Levellers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggers) occupied disused 'common land (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_land)' and cultivated it collectively in the hope that their actions would inspire other poor people to follow their lead. Gerrard Winstanley stated that "the poorest man hath as true a title and just right to the land as the richest man".[33] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squatting#cite_note-autogenerated2-32) While the True Levellers, later more commonly known as the Diggers, were not perhaps the first squatters in England their story illustrates the heritage of squatting as a form of radical direct action.
More recently there was a huge squatting movement involving ex-servicemen and their families following World War II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II). This involved thousands of people occupying sites as diverse as former military bases (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_base) and luxury apartment blocks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_block) in West London (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_London).[33] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squatting#cite_note-autogenerated2-32) ...


However I can't say that has much connection to the current situation, in rich white western countries.


But, so long as the squatting scene doesn't remain too insular, there is potential for some sort of political engagement. And thus, a squatted space that does actually engage with its community politically, is as relevant to the overall struggle as any radical space, be it an infoshop, or a radical cafe, or whatever.


Unfortunately having these spaces engage with simply the rest of the squatting scene is not quite community in my opinion.

[Mather]

As with any form of activism, and squatting is not unique in this, there are benefits and drawbacks to it.

Cthenthar has already pointed out that squatting has a long history behind it. The era of the English Civil War, the Levellers made good use of squatting as a early form of 'propaganda by deed', in the hope that other people would follow their example.

In the aftermath of the Second World War in the late 1940s, especially in London where the bombing was at it's greatest, many people took to squatting for two reasons; one beacuse it offered the only means of accomodation for people who lost their homes during the war and the other reason was to apply pressure for a nationwide programme of building social housing and for people not to return to the pre-war era of inner city slums and housing insecurity. This era was the height of the squatting movement in Britain, with most of the squatters being just normal people and working class people looking for a place to live, you had families, married couples, people with kids and the elderly doing it, it was no sub-cultural 'ghetto' and was well organised and enjoyed widespread public support.

I would also like to point out that on a global scale, squatting is more widespread in the developing/thrid world countries than it is in the developed/first world countries.

If you look at the example of Brazil's Landless Workers Movement (MST) in reclaiming unsed rural land in Brazil, the land occupations in Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia and Mexico, you will see that many poor rural workers have used squatting as a very useful tool in mobilising huge layers of society to political action and with such tactics have built a programme of immediate demands around such activities.

I have been a squatter myself, from 2006 to 2007, in many places around London.

Having been in a few squats and having visisted other squats I can say that yes, there is a lifestylist element in the squatting scene. I can also say that a lifestylist and/or 'hippy' element exists on the anti-war marches I have been on or in mobilisations around issues like fighting climate change. During the many anti-war marches I went to, you had the usual assortment of socialist, communist and anarchist groups there, but I also saw 'New Age' hippy types there two, 'praying' for world peace and anti-war marches can attract these types, as well as the liberal pacifists and rather strange followers of conspiracy theories, like the 9/11 conspiracy nuts who believe that 9/11 was the work of freemasons/jews/aliens/lizards or some other shadowy network.

Just beacuse the anti-war marches attract these oddjobs and nuts does not mean we should avoid anti-war marches as a form of political action.

Just because mobilisations around climate change attracts somes rather unpleasant primitivists and anti-human/anti-speciest nutjobs, does not mean we should ignore the important issue of our environment and it's future.

Just because squatting does attract some lifestylists and drop outs to it's scene, again does not mean that we should ignore squatting as both as a form of political action and as a form of immediate relief for those who literally have no home to live in and who have to make the choice of either squatting or living on the streets.

Any political movement that works for radical social change, be it anarchist, socialist, communist, squatting, environmental, anti-war etc... will attract a small but visible minority who are there for their own reasons and it may be the case we would prefer it if their presence was not there. But to simply pull out of an activity like squatting, which is part of the wider issue of housing and land rights and security for all people, woud not make any sense at all. Just as it would not make any sense to pull out of the anti-war marches or to pull out of mobilisations around climate change.

Actually what is needed, is for all housing/tenants rights activists and land activists to link up with the non-lifestylist, more politically inclined squatters and to place the issue of squatting as a major political issue, alongside the other issues of housing rights, such as defending council/social housing, protecting people from repossesion, standing with tenants in their disputes with landlords, stopping the sell offs of council/social housing to make way for 'gentrification' and private housing developments, campaigns against dodgy estate agents and property developers and speculators.

With the coming recession and the current crisis in the global economy/financial system and the collapse of the housing markets in many countries, things like unemployment, homelessness and repossesions will see a sharp upward turn.

Now more than ever will issues such as squatting become evermore relevant to those at the bottom end of society in order for them to resist the attack on their lives by the capitalist system and to work around issues which bear a direct effect on their day to day lives.

Below is a link that will be useful to British squatters, the Advisory Service for Squatters (ASS):

http://www.squatter.org.uk/

They have offices based in London and are very helpful/useful in providing information for squatters, be they first timers or experienced, in getting into empty buildings, repairing squats and cleaning them up, resiting landlords attempts to evict squatters and dealing with the forces of the state (police, courts, judges and lawyers).

If any Revleft posters in Britain wish to know more about squatting, are thinking of squatting or just want to chat about it, PM me and we can take it from there.:cool:

[gorillafuck]

Good video. Several parties here want to introduce a squatting ban. Also, tomorrow there is supposedly going to be an eviction wave in Amsterdam, meaning that several squats will be cleared out at the same time. :(
That's terrible:crying:

[Hostage]

Good video. Several parties here want to introduce a squatting ban. Also, tomorrow there is supposedly going to be an eviction wave in Amsterdam, meaning that several squats will be cleared out at the same time. :(

Did it actually take place?

[Sasha]

yeah, some popular neighbourhood social centres were part of the list. The ressistance was a nice display of difrent tactics:
At the first place 36 people locked themselfs inside and let tyhem selfs be dragged out and arrested. the seccond house was heavely baricaded, an inside crew resisted with stuff being trown from the roof and then dissapeared into thin air when the police after an couple of hours rammed holes in the front with an bulldozer. (these squaters were mates of mine) The last place squated by the youth factions of several leftist/green political partys left the house volunterly but filled the house with baloons first.
Pictures and dutch reports here: http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2008/10/55092.shtml

[gorillafuck]

I can't read that, are there any articles in english?

[Sasha]

well by change, two houses got re-squated today on the same square that saw the more millitant evection last month and they made an english statement: http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2008/11/55483.shtml

and here (http://www.kraak-forum.nl/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=3222)you can find the (amsterdam) dutch squater manual in dutch, english, spanish, italian, polish and chech

very complete book about the history of the dutch/amsterdam squat movement: http://www.squat.net/archiv/cracking/index.html

more books, articels and brochurs in both german and english on squating in and outside the netherlands: http://www.squat.net/archiv/index.html

huge archive of Squat-related movies, documentaries, video documents of all kind (som in dutch but some not, and a lot of squating evections give spectacular footage even if you cant understand wats been said): http://video.squat.net/

that should keep you occupied (pun intended ;) ) for a couple of days

[gorillafuck]

Thanks