News from squat.net

Amsterdam: Vossiusstraat 16 under threat – Removal of Russian oligarch Arkady Volozh from the sanctions list

The Russian oligarch and founder of Yandex, Arkady Volozh, the owner of the squatted building Vossiusstraat 16, was removed from the European sanctions list on the 12th of March 2024. This is likely to lead to a new court case and the eviction of the squat.

This statement begins with a legal overview of the Vossiusstraat 16 case, and then summarises the changes that led to Volozh’s removal from the sanctions list. Finally, we present reasons why his removal from the list should not have taken place.

General context

In October 2022, Vossiusstraat 16 in Amsterdam was squatted. This action took place in the context of the continually worsening housing crisis in Amsterdam, where prices keep increasing, making it tremendously difficult for anyone with a regular salary to find housing, and nearly impossible to live anywhere close to the centre when most work and social activity takes place. Since October, Vossiusstraat 16 has housed many people that spent some time there and otherwise would have been without a home at all. This statement was written by the current residents of Vossiusstraat 16. The two people who were involved in the two court cases about the building in fact no longer live in the building, yet are still being sued, as Volozh has attempted to fight this court case in the highest court.

The squatting of Vossiusstraat 16 was, and continues to be, a statement against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Indeed, the owner of the building is a Russian oligarch, Arkady Volozh, the co-founder and former CEO of the Russian search engine Yandex. In 2022 Volozh was put on the European sanctions list because Yandex was promoting Russian state narratives about the war in Ukraine and was accused of removing search results related to Russia’s involvement.

Being on the sanctions list has meant that Volozh has been restricted from travelling to the European Union. In addition, his economic assets have been frozen and he has been prevented from spending or earning money in the EU.

The freezing of his assets also meant that the renovations of Vossiusstraat 16, which were taking place in 2022, could not continue. However, even several months after the sanctions had been passed, construction was still taking place. In October 2022, the NRC published an article revealing that renovations were still going on, showing that the sanctions were not being properly enforced. Shortly after, the building was squatted.

The court cases

In November 2022 a first court case took place, which the squatters won. This was followed by an appeal procedure in April 2023, where the judges also ruled in favor of the squatters, again due to Volozh being on the sanctions list.

During the first court case, the lawyers defending the squatters argued that the renovations were illegal under the conditions of the sanctions as they would lead to an increase in the value of Volozh’s assets. The lawyers also argued that the building could not be evicted as the eviction would result in emptiness, something Amsterdam has traditionally been against due to the ongoing housing crisis – although, under Mayor Halsema, this approach has rarely been upheld in practice.

The lawyer representing Volozh and the contractor who was leading the renovations argued that the renovation contract could be fulfilled as it had been signed before the sanctions were imposed, and argued that the building was intended to be used by Volozh’s family, who are not sanctioned.

The court concluded that even though construction would be a reason to evict under normal conditions, the sanctions require the renovations to end as they would indeed increase the value of Volozh’s assets. The court also concluded that the house was intended for renting after the renovations were complete and was not for private use as Volozh’s lawyer claimed.

The verdict of the appeal, in April 2023, confirmed these decisions. If you want to know more about the court cases you can read the verdicts.

The hypocritical statement against Russia’s war in Ukraine

In August 2023, Arkady Volozh issued a statement declaring: “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is barbaric, and I am categorically against it.” He then acknowledged having a “share of responsibility for the country’s actions”. This statement is part of a wider strategy to distance himself from Russia and get himself removed from the sanctions list.

While Volozh renounced his position as CEO of Yandex as soon as he was placed on the sanctions list, he still owns shares in the company and has continued to develop Yandex’s international sector.

Like many oligarchs, Volozh has been collecting passports. He attained a Maltese golden passport, a passport you can buy without having to actually be a resident, and since 2014, he gained an Israeli passport. He currently lives in Tel Aviv and on his personal website Volozh describes himself as a Kazhak-born Israeli.

This angle of self-presentation is misleading given that Volozh lived in Russia most of his life and developed his entire business in Russia, and is well-connected to the Russian ruling class. It is well known that Israel commonly grants passports to Russian billionaires, but it is outrageous to see that it is possible for anyone to gain more legitimacy in the eyes of the West by becoming a citizen of a genocide-committing apartheid regime.

For more details, read our previous statement.

The deal

On February 5th, Yandex announced in a press release that a deal had been made between Yandex’s Netherlands-based parent company and a consortium of Russian investors. The main-money making part of Yandex will remain Russian and the international part will be based in the Netherlands. Volozh will keep hold of some of these international assets. In order to finalize this deal, the Russian investors will pay 475 billion rubles (€4.7 billion) to Yandex’s current shareholders, including Arkady Volozh.

The new owners

The investors include some well-known Russian financiers, such as the oil company Lukoil and a former top manager of Gazprom. The Russian independent newspaper The Bell points out that none of the investors are under Western sanctions and suspects that some of them are acting as intermediaries for sanctioned individuals. They base this suspicion upon the network of connections linking people who have shown interest in taking over Yandex’s Russian business over the past year and those involved in the current deal. This includes investors who were representing the interests of Russian businessman Yury Kovalchuk, a close associate and friend of Putin. However, all these investors fell under Western sanctions and could not join the deal anymore. Instead, two of Kovalchuk’s long-time associates and investors got involved.

The Bell finishes its article by explaining that it is still difficult to see whose interests are being represented in this deal, but that it is clear that it is bringing Yandex closer to the Kremlin. These changes are important to keep track of as the war in Ukraine has shown us what an important role a search engine and tech company can play in filtering access to information and shaping opinions.

The delisting

On the 21st of February, Reuters published an article announcing that Volozh would get removed from the sanctions list on the 15th of March. In fact, he was removed three days earlier, on March 12th. The EU has not issued an explanation on why the delisting has taken place. We can only assume that it is linked to him stepping down from his position as CEO of Yandex, as well as his statement criticizing the war.

However, this choice by the European Union makes it seem like one “anti-war” statement is enough to erase years of collaboration with the Russian government and the development of technologies which aim at increasing population control. When the war started, he was CEO of Yandex, a company that censored news of the war and promoted the official position of the Kremlin. He only left his position once he got sanctioned. This shows that he did not resign as a CEO for some moral reason, but only because of economic interests, both his and Yandex’s.

His years as CEO of Yandex, and his actions at the beginning of the war in that position, are enough to justify being put on the sanctions list. His recent statements and the changes within the company do not erase these years of political collaboration with the Kremlin and do not diminish his responsibility concerning the way Yandex has been and is still supporting war propaganda. His role as CEO for over two decades has strongly shaped the way the company is working and the narratives it is promoting. We therefore condemn the delisting of Volozh and find it shocking that one single statement against the war and stepping down from your position as CEO is enough to clear your image in the eyes of the West.

And how is all this related to the squatters in Amsterdam?

The past two court cases have been won based on the fact that Volozh was on the sanctions list. His removal from the sanctions list is therefore very bad news for the squatters as he is expected to start a new court case against them very soon.

More news to come, so stay alert!

Vossiusstraat 16
1071AB Amsterdam, Netherlands
vossiusstraat16 [at] riseup [dot] net
https://squ.at/r/91hd

Sources:
Yandex press release: https://ir.yandex/press-releases?year=2024&id=05-02-2024
Council implementing regulation by the EU: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2024/849/oj
Russian independent newspaper The Bell : https://en.thebell.io/yandex-gets-a-new-set-of-owners/
Russian-English independent newspaper Meduza: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2024/02/05/yandex-parent-company-announces-5-2-billion-deal-to-sell-russian-assets
Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/yandex-co-founder-arkady-volozh-be-removed-eu-russian-sanctions-list-sources-say-2024-02-21/
Verdict of the first court case: https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2022:6687&showbutton=true&keyword=Amsterdam%2Bkraken&idx=3
Verdict of the appeal: https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2023:1058&showbutton=true&keyword=Amsterdam%2Bkraken&idx=4

Some squats in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/NL/squated/squat
Groups (social center, collective, squat) in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/NL
Events in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/NL

Indymedia https://indymedia.nl/node/54515

Dear property guardians …

Print out and post.

We get it. You’re looking for cheap rent in an expensive world. A way to keep a roof over your head while having time and money to pursue your goals and desires. And hey, maybe you get to live in some quirky buildings and situations!

This is a letter to you all. To explain why we disagree with Property Guardianship and to propose something else.

Property Guardianship came about as an idea in the Netherlands in the ’90s. A company called Camelot started advertising their services as anti-squatter security services, using people living in buildings as protection from people … living in buildings.

Essentially, Camelot and the other companies that subsequently sprung up found a way to make an absolute killing out of a grey area of law. They charged owners for security and charged the guardians again for the privilege of living in a building with none of the rights afforded to renters. People were subject to moves with only 24 hours’ notice and given none of the freedom or privacy that the fee they paid should have entitled them to.

Things have moved on a little in 30 years, but while some things have changed, others remain the same. While your guardian contract now might offer a four-week notice period, this is still half the eight-week mandatory period for someone with a rental agreement, or lease. Non-exclusive use of the space means intrusion by the company or property owners without due notice, and you’ve probably had to sneak guests in because it goes against the terms of your agreement. And, of course, the rules usually require you to say if you intend to be away for more than a few days because, let’s face it, their only interest is the security of the building and their income.

Another firm, Dotdotdot, even requires people to “volunteer” 16 hours of community service a month to access their properties to appear “ethical” off the back of free labour!

But more than this, more than some of the issues you face day-to-day as a guardian, Property Guardianship is a political issue.

Realising how easy it is to circumvent housing regulations, some properties are now being renovated to the minimum level that allows them to place guardians instead of bringing them up to a decent standard.

Consent for this type of housing denies some of the most precariously housed people in society the basic conditions they should be entitled to for what they pay. It allows Property Guardian companies to ignore health and safety regulations and profit from people’s lack of alternative options. It is a false answer to the housing crisis.

Tellingly, Camelot started to shut down in 2017 when a court decided that a guardian should be considered to have a tenancy. Rather than risk this happening across all their services, the firm was liquidated in 2019.

Courts suggested YOU should be entitled to the same rights as a tenant, and the company shut down in opposition to that. What does that tell you about how these companies think of you?

As anarchists, we’re not here to argue for more regulation, but while the government violently protects private property, it’s not like we can just take back these buildings…

A proposal to anyone living as a property guardian or who might be thinking about it:

Consider that, like so many things in today’s world, what is convenient might be damaging for others, whether that’s homeless people left outside because of the security you are paying to provide for the owner of an empty building or the surrendering of renters’ rights that is normalised as guardian companies are left unregulated to take advantage of yourself and others in your position.

At the very least, take these bastards to task and don’t let them exploit you more than they already are. Some guardians have gone through the courts to fight for their rights, and new cases are brought every year.

And if you want to look further, why not squatting? Take charge of your life, and take a building! Have autonomy over how you live. Explore living without the fear of a “head guardian” snitching on you. Paint the wall because it makes you feel better, for fuck’s sake!

So many buildings that would be on the radar for squatting are occupied by guardians. These companies make life more difficult for homeless people so they can line their pockets with middle-man money.

Visit the Advisory Service for Squatters; attend a Practical Squatters Evening; maybe you’ll find like-minded people, and it will be the beginning of something beautiful.

And hey, if it’s not for you? Perhaps when you’re made to leave your guardianship building, you might help the keys find their way into the hands of those who need them.

This article first appeared in the Winter 2023-4 issue of Freedom Anarchist Journal

Dear property guardians …

Tbilissi (Georgia): The Georgian eviction resistance urgently needs our support!

This week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, three foreclosure evictions of entire families were supposed to take place in Tbilisi, Georgia. On Tuesday January 23rd, a huge number of people showed up to stop the eviction but also an unexpected amount of cops who were extremely violent against the protestors. 18 people were arrested, two of them are now facing trial and up to 3-6 years in jail. Others have been fined to an average of 2000 GEL (approx. 700 €) which is a lot of money in Georgia. What’s new is that the story was widely spread in the media, and due to this on Wednesday there was even more resistance and the bailiff was blocked from entering the building. The eviction on Friday was stopped by our comrades, who had already managed to suspend this eviction in December 2023.

You can donate money for repression and legal costs. There’s a Georgian account for collecting money:
Bank of Georgia : #GE13BG0000000740090400 / Mariam Naneishvili

Please share and help us to spread the news! Also, you can follow მაუწყებელი • Mautskebeli

Organise solidarity actions

#StopEvictions everywhere!

Amsterdam: Mokum Kraakt squats former windows in the Red Light District

Mokum Kraakt squats on the Dollebegijnensteeg in the Red Light District in solidarity with the sex workers and against the arrival of the erotic center. During a protest against the planned erotic centre, squatting collective Mokum Kraakt announced it has squatted a number of former sex work windows in De Wallen, Amsterdam’s red light district.

The squatters say the windows were squatted in solidarity with sex workers who fight against plans for an erotic centre on the outskirts of the city. Sex work has been a part of De Wallen for over 400 years and sex workers have clearly and repeatedly said they want to stay in the city centre. The people living close to the location of the prospective location of the erotic centre are also against it. And still, mayor Halsema is pushing through her plans.

According Mokum Kraakt, the planned erotic centre is in fact an erotic prison, in which the state has total control over who can and can’t sell, or buy, sex. In this, we see only the latest state attempt to control sex workers and restrict people’s right to sex and sexuality. Also, closing windows in De Wallen would force a part of the sex workers active there now into illegality, where exploitation and coercion are much more prevalent.

Although the municipality presents closing windows as a way to reduce mass tourism in the area, research shows that limiting sex work would barely have an impact on the number of tourists that flock to De Wallen. We previously occupied an empty hotel close to Leidse square to protest Amsterdam’s tourism policy and we say the municipality itself is to blame for out-of-control tourism. The municipality was never against mass tourism, and isn’t now. The real aim is for a different kind of tourist to come to the city, a richer kind. In the meantime, the city becomes more and more unaffordable for its citizens, sex workers are stigmatised and pushed away, and the large numbers of tourists stay as they are.

The former sex work windows have been vacant for nearly two years, and are owned by Stadsgoed NV, the real estate company responsible for introducing the maligned waffle shops to Amsterdam’s city centre. In the squat, we will create a meeting place for sex workers to organise. We demand more sex and less Halsema. We are against pushing out sex workers and against a prudish city. What’s fundamental for us is that inhabitants and workers decide what the neighbourhood looks like, instead of the municipality changing things unrecognisably from the top down. If it’s up to the mayor, De Wallen will become a sanitised shopping mall for the moneyed class. We don’t accept that and that’s why we will sabotage every step that’s taken towards the erotic centre.

Mokum Kraakt
Amsterdam, Netherlands
mokumkraakt [at] riseup [dot] net
https://squ.at/r/8g9h
https://mokumkraakt.nl/

Some squats in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/NL/squated/squat
Groups (social center, collective, squat) in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/NL
Events in the Netherlands: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/NL

Barcelona: the police install a camera to spy on a squat in the district of Gràcia

A camera hidden in a dark box on the roof of a restaurant monitored the activity of a squat house in the Gràcia district of Barcelona, at least since December 22 when it was detected. As disseminated by the group Ègida -Defensa Collectiva Anarquista, the video surveillance team focused directly on the door of the squat, which is why they rule out that it is the restaurant’s security system.

Neighborhood witnesses have told La Directa that during the last weeks they had observed the presence of “strange” individuals and vehicles parked with people inside the house all day: “I saw them in front of the house, I am convinced that they were plainclothes policemen,” says a neighbor. One of the managers of the restaurant, where the state security forces had placed the camera, told this media outlet that they have “nothing to say”.

The uncovered camera, which allows external control of the images, is a Dahua CA-HZ2030T and has been connected to the power grid and a Telefónica distribution box for real-time transmission of the recording. Through a statment published on Indymedia, signed by Ègid, they made public photographs from the camera and denounced the fact that “the state and private companies, in this case Dahua, profit at the expense of our limited sense of freedom, creating common enemies.”

In the text where they denounce the facts, they recall that the inhabitants of the squatted house under the spotlight were arrested on August 23, following May Day 2023. As detailed by the press service of the Mossos at the time, the detainees were accused of “damaging establishments with blunt objects” that day. Specifically, these would be ATMs and the headquarters of Zara, Primark and Starbucks in the center of Barcelona, among others. The Central Research Unit of Violent Extremism of the Mossos d’Esquadra was in charge of carrying out the operation. Those affected say that since then “the presence of members of the secret police has been seen in the vicinity of the building”.

Video surveillance of the Kasa de la Muntanya

It is not the first time that the anarchist and squatter movement has been spied on in Barcelona, nor specifically in the district of Gràcia. In July 2013, the installation of a chimney that did not draw smoke from the roof of the Turó del Cargol school with a hidden object inside raised suspicions. The object turned out to be a video surveillance camera that focused on the interior courtyard of the CSO Kasa de la Montaña enclosure, in the La Salut neighborhood.

A few weeks later, a group of workers went up to remove the device, to reassemble it, days later, inside a false ventilation tube on the roof of the Hospital de la Esperanza. Facing directly on the façade and the entrances to the social center, the new perspective allowed the camera to record at all times who entered and left the building. Eventually, a group of activists dismantled the spy system.

Directory of squats in Barcelona: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/city/barcelona/country/XC/squated/squat
Directory of squats in Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XC/squated/squat
Directory of groups (social centers, collectives, squats) in Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/XC
Events in Catalonia: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/XC

author: Gemma Garcia, La Directa

Belo Horizonte (Brazil): “Casa Encantada” book project

Hello comrades, how are you all doing? I wish everyone a happy new year filled with struggle, solidarity, and a lot of revolutionary construction.

I’m writing to friends and accomplices from various parts of the globe, whom I met during tours and conspiracies, those I visited or who visited our squat Kasa Invisível, and also who corresponded and cooperated with us at some point, to announce our campaign on the FireFund platform to launch my next book “Casa Encantada”, which documents 20 autonomous squats in our city, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. With this campaign, I hope to translate it into four languages and undertake a tour to release it in Brazil and Europe in 2024. The campaign is flexible, but I’m hoping to achieve the total amount to be able to print and cross the ocean for this tour and speak in different social centers and communities.

On this first day of January, known as the day of “Universal Brotherhood and Peace”, it’s better remembered by us revolutionaries who dream of the end of capitalism and all forms of oppression as the day of the outbreak of the Haitian anti-colonial struggle in 1804, the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the Zapatista Uprising of 1994, and the declaration of autonomy of the revolutionary cantons of Afrîn, Jazira, and Kobanî in Rojava! It is on this day that we have chosen to spread the word about this campaign among our closest comrades and accomplices. The closing date is the famous March 18, the anniversary of the Paris Commune.

Please visit the link below to learn more about the project and how to support it. If you can donate any amount, please do so. But don’t forget to share it with other individuals and collectives who might be interested in supporting. Feel free to post and spread it within your networks. Also, in the future, please write to me if you’d like to help organize a talk between April and May in Europe.

Thank you very much! See you on the road!

Support the project: https://www.firefund.net/casaencantada

Contact me at: comofas@@@riseup.net

Brooklyn (NY): Skull Squat defense ongoing

For the past week, squatters and friends have defended Skull Squat in Brooklyn from shady developers and their goons attempting to break-in, lock out residents, and demolish the building. After forcing entry three days in a row with hammers and angle grinders, the developers have been turned away for the past two days by dozens of punks, anarchists, neighbors, and friends. The building has been squatted for six months by six black, brown, and white transgender anarchists.

The developers, two persistent and violent Israeli-American brothers, do not own the building. They forced long-term residents out years ago, allowed the building to deteriorate, and are hoping to reclaim it once it is foreclosed upon. They convinced the police of their claim to “management” with dubious work permits, who allowed them to break in and hurt those trying to defend the squat. Both their purported lease and permits have been found invalid by several civil authorities.

An affordable housing cooperative owns the three-story rowhouse and abandoned it years ago. It’s in a neighborhood we aren’t supposed to be able to afford. But we found it, did a little work, and live here. And we aren’t leaving it without a fight.

By defending our home, we directly confront the development machine that wants to take this building, raze it, and build another condo. The underfunded city agencies tasked with preserving affordable housing have long neglected to protect the building, so we’re doing it ourselves.

Last week, squatters at Skull woke up to construction workers in their living room. The equally startled workers called one of the developers, who called the pigs. Officers who showed up determined we are residents – and thus, that this is a matter for civil court – and turned away the developer and his workers.

Several days later, the other brother arrived with a new crew of goons. They shoved and kicked squatters and forced their way into the first floor, which they locked up. The pigs determined they had a right to be on that floor and stood by as they assaulted us with pipes and hammers. After they left we removed their locks and reinforced the building but on the very next day they again forced their way in. As the police again watched on, they demolished the first floor with sledgehammers and attempted to break water and sewage pipes in the basement. After they left we took the whole building back again, and spent all night strategizing and constructing barricades.

The following day, over sixty friends and supporters turned out on rapid response after break-in attempts resumed.

Today, they again tried to breach the front door with angle grinders and after a few moments they gave up and moved on to grind the lock off the bulkhead hatch to the basement. In the forty-year lineage of New York squatters, they were met with piss jugs emptied on them from the window. They gave up trying to force entry.

As I’m writing this friends from the local info-shop are laughing and talking around a grill and folding tables of food and drinks. Yesterday, squatters from a neighboring city played cards on the sidewalk before quickly linking arms to defend the doors from arriving goons. Old friends and squatmates have reconnected on the barricades and new connections have formed between comrades across subcultures and generations.

Tonight is the winter solstice. The goons had not yet left as the sun set. Tomorrow the sun will rise and the days will get longer and Skull Squat will still be here and will be for much longer.

Groups in the US: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/US
Events in the US: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/US

Ile-Saint-Denis: the Malvassé squat under eviction threat since mid-december

We are about twenty people who have been living in Malva since May 2022, a squatted building on Île Saint-Denis, at 62 avenue Jean Jaurès. The Malvassé has been under eviction threat since December 15, 2023 following a procedure that does not grant us any delay and abolishes the winter truce. (December 18, 2023 – the winter truce would be granted, “the owner having withdrawn his request to cancel the truce”).
Our place of residence is currently squatted, among others, by vulnerable people, families with children attending school in the same commune and in Saint-Denis. The neighbouring lots are also squatted by about sixty other very precarious people, including a dozen families with children, who also attend school on the Ile-Saint-Denis.
Le Malvassé, in addition to being a place of residence, is also a place of organization, solidarity and encounter. Since we have been squatting the building, we have set up regular and free food distributions in the neighborhood and legal and administrative assistances. We have also temporarily welcomed people fleeing war, LGBTQ+ people on migration and families with children, to compensate for the saturation of institutional emergency accommodation arrangements. This place of housing, mutual aid and solidarity, is a space that allows many people suffering the full force of the economic, social and political crisis, not to give in to despair in the face of administrative setbacks, the shortage of housing and work.
After several attempts at illegal evictions and a danger order issued by the town hall at the beginning of November, the court today confirms this political relentlessness with an eviction decision that was announced more than a week ago in the municipal newspaper. This eviction without delay and without winter truce in the middle of December is one example among many others of the consequences of the “cleaning” of the “neighborhoods” of the Olympic Village that is rampant in Ile-de-France. It is also in line with the gentrification policies that the inhabitants of working-class neighborhoods have been subjected to for many years. The city of Ile-Saint-Denis is no exception to this rule.
Instead of a building squatted by precarious and vulnerable people, excluded from accommodation structures and the common law system, the owner wants “the creation of business premises for artists, liberal professions, craftsmen or small businesses”. Similarly, for security reasons and with the idea of extending an “eco-district” destined to become a showcase for world tourism during the Olympics, the towers of the “Marcel Paul” district will be emptied of their inhabitants, with no guarantee of social housing adapted to their needs.
These processes of urban segregation and the repressive legal arsenal provided by the Kasbarian law, accelerate the exclusion and criminalization of poorly housed, precarious tenants or squatters.
We alert the authorities concerned to the irresponsibility of an eviction in the middle of winter. This brutal homelessness would constitute an imminent danger to the safety, health and integrity of the inhabitants.
We demand from the Commune of the Île Saint-Denis, the Prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis, and the owner of the buildings:
– the maintenance of the inhabitants of Malvassé and neighbouring families in their places of residence for the duration of the winter truce.
– suitable alternative housing solutions for all residents, especially those in extremely vulnerable and precarious situations.

The inhabitants of Malvassé (December 2023)
62 avenue Jean Jaurès,
93450 l’île Saint-Denis, France
https://squ.at/r/a5nl

Refugees related groups in France https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/FR/topic/sans-papiers
Some squats in and around Paris: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/city/paris/country/FR/squated/squat
Some squats in France: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/FR/squated/squat
Groups (collectives, social centres, squats) in France: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/FR
Events in France: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/FR

Athens: demonstration in defense of Ano Kato Patission

Demonstration in defense of Ano Kato Patission, after the successful resquat of the steki on 9 december 2023. Sunday 17 december, at 12.00 pm. Pre-gathering at Steki Ano Kato Patission, Naxos 75.

Last summer, while Greece was experiencing the violent signs of the climate crisis (fires, floods), magnified by the unpreparedness of the relevant state mechanisms, the government adopted a classic recipe for decoordination for disasters: the eviction of occupied spaces.
At the same time that the state proves in practice that it is incapable of dealing with our problems, it is trying to gain some legitimacy in the eyes of the world by selling security and order.
But with tenacity and militancy, three of the evicted squats of the summer are once again in the hands of the community. After Zizania in Victoria and Evagelismos in Heraklion, Crete, it is the turn of Stekiou Ano Kato Patission to get its space back, to revive a debris building.
The contribution of occupied spaces to the transformation of society proves important, especially in cases where they do not function as an end in themselves of some ideological hegemony but transform the here and now of the entire neighborhoods where they are located.
By proposing and prefiguring another way of social organization, they recreate public space and change the architecture of cities.
In addition, they create social bonds of companionship and free coexistence of individuals. Perhaps, on the occasion of the particular case of squats and self-organized social spaces in general, we can talk about the contemporary problems of cities that seem to surpass us: individual immobility, the epidemic of loneliness, political weakening, environmental degradation, the commercialization of cities and neighborhoods
That is why on Sunday, December 17, at 12 noon, we support the neighborhood march to defend the occupation in Patissia. Instead of letting empty buildings fall into disrepair, we open them up to the whole society!

Αυτοδιαχειριζόμενο Στέκι Άνω Κάτω Πατησίων
Steki Ano Kato Patission, Naxou 75, Athènes, Grèce
anokato [at] espiv [dot] net
https://squ.at/r/9q0t

Des squats en Grèce: https://radar.squat.net/fr/groups/country/GR/squated/squat
Des groupes (centres sociaux, collectifs, squats) en Grèce: https://radar.squat.net/fr/groups/country/GR
Des événements en Grèce: https://radar.squat.net/fr/events/country/GR

Athens: Steki Ano Kato Patission resquatted

On saturday december 9, 2023, the Steki Ano Kato Patission was resquatted by 80 comrades. Then 250 people gathered in front to support the reoccupation. This gathering was attacked by cops and people were trapped in apartment buildings, in the adjacent dormitories and in the Steki itself. At the same time, teargas was thrown into cars, cops shouted at people that they would burn them alive, arrests were made, and people were beaten up. The cops also surrounded the Steki, teargas was thrown inside. People defended the Steki and kept it. There are seriously injured comrades, they are taken to the hospital. Around 19 people were arrested. On sunday 10, solidarity rally for those arrested during the Steki Ano-Kato Patission resquat at 11:00, Dikastiria (Evelpidon).
The Ano-Kato resquat took place on the nationwide day of action in solidarity with the squats, with a demonstration at Monastiraki in Athens. The attacks on our squats confirm once again that solidarity, self-organization and unmediated struggle are a formidable enemy for the state. The call out was made by Ano Kato Patission, ASP (Autonomous Polytechnic Steki) and Zizania.
STRUGGLES ARE NOT EMPTIED, IDEAS ARE NOT SEALED
SOLIDARITY WITH SQUATS

Statement from Steki Ano-Kato Patission:

We said that we are not leaving and we mean it

Today we are glad to transform our mottos into action and to have regain with persistence and confidence a fragment of our lives. The garden where we grew up and learned to live have returned to us through this action taken by tens of comrades, friends and solidarians. We are defending our place in the city by retaking this abandoned space for us and the coming generations. We light up the wood stove and the oven, transforming our fire into a message of resistance to the squatting movement. With our fists pointed to the sky we climb to the terrace of our squat, sending our warmest greetings to all those around the world who persist resisting.

We break the vicious cycle of fear reclaiming what is rightfully ours; we may not unconditionally support the civil rights provided by the State, yet we struggle against the law to retake what we consider to be ours within the city. Those things that we have built with our hands and minds, those things that are assumed dead unless capilitalised upon, like the thousands of empty houses and buildings in Athens. We choose to give life to the “dead” property, turning empty spaces into collective places of resistance. We creatively subvert the social context within which we assert value for these spaces: Not for profit making, not for real estate agencies, not for NGOs but in order to cover and transcend our collective needs and desires. We think of it as a laboratory, in which we build our collective relations of struggle, care and welfare, beyond the institution of the family, beyond religion and the State. This is the place where our visions come to life, where we come together imagining new potential worlds, against the normalisation of massacres and borders, against every god and every master.

We think of our political space in Naxou 75 and Krassa street (Koliatsou square in Patissia) as such a laboratory. For the past 27 years it has been the workshop where we express our subversive ideas and actions, against exploitation, oppressions and injustice. Those were 27 years during which this place was freed and open to the neighbourhood; hospitable to every dreamer, excluded proletarian, punks, to the world’s damned, to the crooked, the underground artists, musicians and poets, the freaks, the uncompromised spirits, the addicts and the young. During those 27 years we resisted against this fucked-up society: where racists and cops are violently killing our people, where pushbacks and “shipwrecks” at the boarders and femicides are normalised, where drowning people at the ports and “falling” from scaffolds is the “naturalised” condition forced upon us. During those 27 years we learned the ins and outs of collective living and discovered how to cross the pathways of struggling against power.

During those 27 years we ridicule the world of “private property”: we will be here as long as we have to, even if it means that we’d do it all again. This is our neighbourhood, where we went to school; this is where we firstly met with our friends, where we live and work. Where we formed bonds with our neighbours and where we hated for the first time the violence imposed by the rich. We struggle to take back everything that has been stolen from us. We are not going to let so easily the Papaoikonomou family, those rich inheritors living in the Northern suburbs of the city, whom own tens of properties in Patissia and in various islands, to steal it from us. We are clearly stating that it’s gonna take long until they rip us off. We are constantly spreading in this neighbourhood. We are swirling around the big cypress of the squat.

27 years squatting
27 years Ano Kato Patission
We are not gonna leave.

Αυτοδιαχειριζόμενο Στέκι Άνω Κάτω Πατησίων
Steki Ano Kato Patission, Naxou 75, Athens, Greece
anokato [at] espiv [dot] net
https://squ.at/r/9q0t

Some squats in Greece: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/GR/country/GR/squated/squat
Groups in Greece: https://radar.squat.net/en/groups/country/GR
Events in Greece: https://radar.squat.net/en/events/country/GR