Squat.

          Squatting is not a pastime, it is not a event perpetrated by casual criminals, it is a process forced on ordinary people in a society that has no regard for the right of people to have a place to stay. Squatting is a product of an inhuman system that allows rich speculators to leave property empty some times for years on end, in search of greater profit, while  people desperately seek a place to live. The fact that the state will always come down hard on the squatter rather than the property speculator, who in all probability lives in luxury, is proof, if you need it, where the state's priorities lie. The housing shortage will never be solved as long as we perpetuate this system of state/corporate profit before people. A housing shortage keeps prices high allowing property speculators, banks and mortgage brokers to pile their ill gotten gains high in some off shore tax haven bank account.  You would be a fool and extremely naive if you expect the present system to solve the housing shortage Decent housing for all will only arrive after we demolish the present system of state/corporate capitalism. 

The following from Enough is Enough:

 Image: Demonstration against housing crisis in Amsterdam on September 12, 2021. Image by Indymedia NL.

     Originally published by Woonprotest Twitter account. Translated by Riot Turtle.
         Yesterday (September 12, 2021, Enough 14) we had a great protest and a powerful march. But we have to dwell on something else: after the march, people tried to squat a building near Dam Square which has been empty for a long time. The riot police prevented that from happening and in the process the police used excessive force. Among other things, a person who was already fully enclosed was hit on the head with a steel baton. We are deeply shocked and condemn this police violence. Our support goes out to the people who were injured, suffered trauma or ended up in jail.
        Let it be clear: we are pro squatting, we said that on stage, we said that in the media and so we are still saying that now. Squatting should be decriminalized because it is part of the fundamental housing right. Indeed, squatting plays an important role in the fight against parasitic investors who leave many good residential properties empty. The real problem is the prioritization of the interests of speculators who do not care about our housing and our right to have a place to live. Squatting is the result of inhuman mismanagement.
       We are also working behind the scenes to take concrete action on this and to do something about it because this is unacceptable.
       Again, our deep thanks to all the people who were there, who couldn’t be there but support us and are part of the movement and everyone who supported us. This has to be a tipping point. This is the beginning of a new movement. 

Woonprotest, September 13, 2021.
 

Further reading: Attempted squatting action on Graven Street and police brutality [Amsterdam, Netherlands]

       Addition by Enough 14: All arrestees from Sunday were released again.

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The Shackles Of State Laws.

        This short video highlights the true nature of the state. What individuals do in the spirit of humanity and co-operation, reaching out to those in dire need, offering and helping to create shelter and assistance, so the refugees can get on with their lives and become integrated in communities, is what the state is attacking in country after country. In Exarcheia, in Athens, the Greek state has launched a full scale and savage war against these very projects. Projects that would in actual fact save the state money, but dogma and ideology dictate that the state and/or its corporate bedfellows must control  all that happens within its proclaimed phony borders. No real rational approach, no humanity, just the rule of its shackling laws, created to ensure the continuation of its power and authority. Freedom and the state are incompatible.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk

Cloned Cities For The Wealthy.

       This piece originally published in Squat-Net, but could equally apply to any modern city, as capitalism clones city after city in the interest of profit. Cities are now places for speculators to gamble their ill-gotten gains in the hope of ever increasing profits, and a place for the wealthy to flaunt their expensive toys and mingle in expensive restaurants. The ordinary, the poor, are pushed to the perimeter to make do as best they can, most of them now superfluous to the systems requirements. However, some are doing as we should all do, fighting back.

From Squat Net:

      Amsterdam: Today, October 17, the Mobiele Eenheid, a collective of involved Amsterdammers, occupied the old Gedempt Hamerkanaal 86. The building has been empty for over a year without any concrete plans for use in the near future. We plan to transform this badly maintained building into a non-commercial social center; a space by and for people to come together, exchange ideas and skills, work collectively and actively influence the developments in the city.
     We oppose the current developments in the city. Over the last 5 years the average price of a house in Amsterdam has gone up by more than 80%. Due to high rent many inhabitants have been pushed out (of their homes) and the city. Many are forced to give up their tenancy rights and live in anti-squats, currently a conventional alternative to renting, even though it enables real estate speculation. In addition, gentrification and tourism are changing Amsterdam. Space for people with a small wallet or non-profit initiatives have basically disappeared. The last free-spaces are currently under threat. Amsterdam is increasingly becoming an expensive, predictable, individualistic and exclusive city, whereas we want to live in a city that is diverse and inclusive.
       This is why we are opening up this space for the benefit of the local community and the residents of Amsterdam. Together we can create a stronger sense of community and a voice against current developments. Through a program with political debate, music, art and communal projects, we want to connect and involve anyone that wants to be a part of the city’s community and potentially participate in its development. Squatting unused property for public benefit has a long tradition in our city and we will continue.
      We run this place collectively and voluntarily. You are very welcome to pass by during one of our events, or to join and help out!

Mobiele Eenheid
Gedempt Hamerkanaal 86
1021 KR Amsterdam
info [at] mobiele-eenheid [dot] org
https://mobiele-eenheid.org/

Join Us page https://mobiele-eenheid.org/join-us/

      We see that the commercialisation, gentrification and growing tourism are making of Amsterdam an expensive and exclusive city. Amsterdam is becoming more individualistic, more monotonous and boring. Also, the city is now a playground for tourists and a board game for the rich, who speculate with the spaces of the city, entirely not giving a damn about us, the people who use those spaces, whether to live or to meet.
     We firmly believe that it is not the right of the rich to play with the buildings of the city or to decide what to do with them. Since we also enjoy a lot of having fun with and in the city, we decided to start playing, but we are doing it in our own way: we are starting a non-commercial, self-organised, autonomous, and free space.
     We see that the commercialisation, gentrification and growing tourism are making of Amsterdam an expensive and exclusive city. Amsterdam is becoming more individualistic, more monotonous and boring. Also, the city is now a playground for tourists and a board game for the rich, who speculate with the spaces of the city, entirely not giving a damn about us, the people who use those spaces, whether to live or to meet.

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

Freedom Is Born Through Struggle.

       Those who confront the injustices of this greed driven capitalist system, openly and head on, often pay a high price. For some the price is their life, others it is being locked up in the various states' cages of repression. All deserve our unending solidarity, if our aim is to build a world of fairness for all our people. The state will not relinquish its authoritarian power willing, it will never offer the people freedom, it will not fade away quietly. It will fiercely attempt to crush all and any flowering of freedom and self determination, it can only survive by our subservience, our freedom and justice can only blossom from its ruins.

       The Vrije Bond from Amsterdam, has started an own initative of solidarity, to support the comrade, sentenced to 2 years an 7 months in Hamburg for having participated in the protest against the G20 summit in July.
Money is desperately needed and could be transferred to the following bank account:
VB SOLIDARITEITSFONDS IBAN: NL80INGB0005495473 BIC/Swift: INGBNL2A Key Word : G20

Please spread this information!

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

BANISH THEM TO THE "SCUM VILLAGE"!!!

       I read this article in TheTelegraph and thought perhaps I should try to keep it quiet, as it is the sort of thing that our government of pampered Oxbridge millionaires would jump at. Think how it would fit into their austerity plans, think of the savings to the social spending bill, housing thousands in caravans with little or no facilities or amenities. It would be in keeping with their plans for tougher sentences, (more people in prison for longer terms). If you can't get them into prison to form a cheap pool of labour, then dump them in “scum villages” They already have plans to open up the prisons to more of their corporate friends as a means of a cheap captive labour force, not covered by the normal health and safety regulations and with no union rights. This Dutch plan  would just fit nicely into their "deficit reduction" plans.

      Apartheid comes in many forms and in this corporate world, we are divided into our various groups, to be exclude or included. The most common form of Apartheid in the Western world is what I call “financial Apartheid”. You are exclude from whole speres of society because of your lack of money. With this “scum villages” plan you would be excluded because you behaviour doesn't fit their shape of “normal” and you would be banished to the shany towns dotted around their efficient profit producing labour camps.

Extract from The Telegraph article:

Amsterdam to create 'scum villages'

      Amsterdam is to create "Scum villages" where nuisance neighbours and anti-social tenants will be exiled from the city and rehoused in caravans or containers with "minimal services" under constant police supervision.

       The new punishment housing camps have been dubbed "scum villages" because the plan echoes a proposal from Geert Wilders, the leader of a populist Dutch Right-wing party, for special units to deal with persistent troublemakers. "Repeat offenders should be forcibly removed from their neighbourhood and sent to a village for scum," he suggested last year. "Put all the trash together." Whilst denying that the new projects would be punishment camps for "scum", a spokesman for the city mayor stressed that the special residential units would aim to enforce good behaviour.

Read the full article HERE:

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