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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Expropriation.

 

      Housing has become one of the many crises in our money orientated society. Our system has always pushed the illusion that we all should have a safe home to live and bring up our families. However for the ordinary people it is becoming obvious that it is indeed an illusion. We have always struggle to keep a roof over our heads, rents have always increased and sometimes shot up. Now however houses are financial assets to large financial institutions, things to be packaged and traded among the financial Mafia. There is no thought to what a house actually is, a place to have a decent life, a safe place to lay your head.

     A housing shortage keeps demand ahead of supply and therefore keeps prices rising, all music to the financier's ears. Rents keep out stripping income, homelessness keeps rising and the financial Mafia keep laughing all the way to the bank, to their luxury yacht, and to their opulent mansion. That's capitalism for you.

     It is encouraging to see that in some places people are taking action against this brutal exploitation of what is a human right, a safe place to lay your head. In Germany there is a movement to break this landlord rule over their lives. Others perhaps could take note and follow suit.

 This from Roar Magazine.

       Berlin’s spatial dynamics and organized working class show how to secure liveable spaces and combat the financial nature of housing: socialize them.

         Over the last few decades, housing in cities around the world has undergone unprecedented financialization and artificial speculation. Investors have never been richer. The worldwide value of the current real estate market is $217 trillion, 36 times worth the value of all the gold ever mined.

Profits from the commodification of the housing market have skyrocketed in step with the enclosure of spaces and the fixing of financial value to them. Living spaces are now complex financial products that can be packaged up into investment funds and swapped by companies across the world.

       As Raquel Rolnik, former special rapporteur to the UN on adequate housing, attests, “In the new political economy, centered around housing as a means of access to wealth, the home becomes a fixed capital asset whose value resides in its expectation of generating more value in the future, depending on the oscillations of the (always assumed) rise of real-estate prices.”

       Berlin has been the epicenter of the emerging struggle against capital, giving birth to a rebellious housing movement. A city-wide referendum is underway to expropriate “mega-landlords” with 3,000 apartments or more. If successful, the campaign could tip the scales away from speculation and essentially decommodify 250,000 apartments. In Berlin, tenants and housing activists are building upon shared struggle to break capital’s control over the home and democratize how and where we live.

Read the full article HERE: 

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