Solidarity with our immigrant comrades attacked by the urban guard in Barcelona

By: börek - June 24th, 2020  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku

Monday June 29th 2020, Solidarity with our immigrant comrades attacked by the urban guard in Barcelona. Voku & Takeaway, from 7pm till 9pm. No reservation.

On May 17th, in the city of Barcelona, two immigrant comrades were detained and assaulted by the local police. The events occurred in the context of the lock down, where they were attacked by the urban guard for being on the street. Faced with not only physical but also verbal aggression, with xenophobic expressions, one of our comrades tried to defend. As a result of that they are both accused of aggravated assault on officers.
The situation is further complicated since one of them, in addition to a possible prison sentence, can face deportation order.
It goes without saying that their economic situation is difficult because they are immigrants and find themselves without papers. For this reason we are in search of economic contributions to be able to face the legal expenses.

Any help can be sent to the account:
ES66 1465 0280 0617 2931 5924
In name of Florian.

Expect food to be handed out on the Steve Bikoplein, or simply a take away at the door, depending of the weather conditions and the kitchen crew. Join us and the Transvaalbuurt on the square to share some food, meet the community and play some basketball. Your donations are welcome. Starting from 19:00 untill 21:00, vegan, no reservation.

Volkseten Vegazulu is a people’s kitchens existing since the very beginning of Joe’s Garage, June 2005. All benefits go to social & political struggles. Joe’s Garage is a space run by volunteers. Without a collective effort, without your active participation, we’re remaining closed. Get in touch in you feel like giving a hand. We’re always looking for cooks. Any help is welcome in the kitchen. Experience not required. If you want to know which days are still available, mail us.

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Nee tegen de nieuwe politie wet! No to the new police law!

By: börek - June 21st, 2020  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku

The people raise their fists in the air, the government gives them the finger. No to the new police law!

All throughout the country, we are protecting police violence and meanwhile, the government is trying to force upon us a stronger police law, a law not only providing the police of more weapons (taser and rubber bullets) but also lowering standards, for using these, combined with the already given more authorities, less strict instruction of usage, results in harder to prosecute cops in case of violence.

Ignored by mass media, the state pushes expanding monopoly of violence thru the agenda very actively, just at that moment we are demonstrating against racism and police violence.

The law “Geweldaanwending Opsporingsambtenaar” (assault by an investigating officer) states that the use of violence, which is punishable for any other person, is part of the work of the police and thus that they should not be prosecuted for this. It means basically when someone was killed by the police, it’s not going to be called a murder but misconduct, and a ‘blue court’ will provide for this and the maximum jail time would become 3 years.

With the broader and more unclear police code of conduct, it will be harder to infringe these rules, and it will be easier to use violence against us, which may lead to impunity. As for the taser, illegally implemented by the minister thru an extraordinary bundel of lies about violence against police, will have an enormous impact on our safety with its weak code of conduct, low level of accountability, and proven more frequent (mis)use.

Approved by the house of representatives (Tweede Kamer), the law is ordinarily first to be approved by the members of Staten-Generaal, before it would then be voted for by the senate (Eerste Kamer). And whilst the Staten-Generaal sees no proof or urge for this law, the minister of justice tries to push the law thru without approval of the Staten-Generaal by making it urgent. Let’s say a big NO to this!

Meanwhile, when we scream for the justice of police violence, not only the government is willing to give police more power, also BOA’s (the ones who are even too stupid for the police academy) are protesting for more weapons. And it will even happen!

Yet, no headlines again about this law. Well, we’ll not be quiet. We won’t allow our next generations to be forced to swallow these demeaning acts. We do not want to deal with this current form proactive policing, proved to lead towards ethnic profiling. Proper monitoring of proactive policing and really acting upon discrimination is a request!

Let’s not let the contrary happen! Inform yourself, inform others, in the times that the so called democracy is under heat by measurements taken by false information, in times that protests can be cancelled by court, that the big media fully ignores a forceful law which effects all of us.

Let us unite, raise our voices and demand a stop to this police law proposal and make sure that they say NO!
https://stoppolitiegeweldnu.noblogs.org/

Monday June 22nd 2020, Nee tegen nieuwe politiewet! Benefit for campaign against new police law. Vegan Takeaway Voku, from 7pm till 9pm. No reservation.

Expect food to be handed out on the Steve Bikoplein, or simply a take away at the door, depending of the weather conditions and the kitchen crew. Join us and the Transvaalbuurt on the square to share some food, meet the community and play some basketball. Your donations are welcome. Starting from 19:00 untill 21:00, vegan, no reservation.
Volkseten Vegazulu is a people’s kitchens existing since the very beginning of Joe’s Garage, June 2005. All benefits go to social & political struggles. Joe’s Garage is a space run by volunteers. Without a collective effort, without your active participation, we’re remaining closed. Get in touch in you feel like giving a hand. We’re always looking for cooks. Any help is welcome in the kitchen. Experience not required. If you want to know which days are still available, mail us.

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Benefit for legal fund. Vegan Pizza Take to the square

By: börek - June 4th, 2020  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku

Monday June 8th 2020, Benefit for legal fund. Vegan Pizza to take to the Steve Bikoplein, the square next door, from 7pm till 9pm. No reservation.
The anti-authoritarian collective Ajo Negro is cooking at Joe’s Garage. The benefit will go to support squatting legal costs in Amsterdam.

Ajo Negro is an anti-authoritarian collective that cooks to support events and projects of social transformation. It is run by volunteers based on a libertarian perspective. Encouraging human and non-human freedom. We are an active kitchen that criticise capitalism and welfarism. We choose vegan as a nourish option and as a political decision. We help each other in a horizontal way, considering that the collective effort is more fruitful that the individual one.

Volkseten Vegazulu is a people’s kitchens existing since the very beginning of Joe’s Garage, June 2005. All benefits go to social & political struggles. Joe’s Garage is a space run by volunteers. Without a collective effort, without your active participation, we’re remaining closed. Get in touch in you feel like giving a hand. We’re always looking for cooks. Any help is welcome in the kitchen. Experience not required. If you want to know which days are still available, mail us.

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Squatter’s Legal Defense Fund benefit. Steve Bikoplein Volkseten Vegazulu and basketball game

By: börek - June 3rd, 2020  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku

Thursday June 4th 2020, join us and the Transvaalbuurt on the square, the Steve Bikoplein, to share some food, meet the community and play some basketball. Your donations are welcome to support the Squatter’s Legal Defense Fund. The Steve Bikoplein is big enough not to step on each others. Food is served between 19:00 and 21:00. No reservation for the food. Bad weather won’t stop us providing food. In case of rain, we’ll serve the food to take away from the square or from Joe’s Garage.

Even if squatting became a criminal offense in the Netherlands in October 2010, people have still been squatting empty houses, office buildings, derelict factories, abandoned terrains all around the country. As politicians, mayors come and go, the housing shortage hasn’t been solved but worsen. We’re witnessing a continuous housing crisis, a lack of affordable living space, on which the media has no interest in reporting the roots of the problem, too busy seeking sensation exhibiting a bunch of black hooded squatters. Real estate has been given free hands by politicians, councils don’t even have the will nor the capacity to act against landlords keeping buildings vacant, anti-squat is a flourishing business as ever, perpetuating precarious living conditions, while social housing corporations are more concerned about their property portfolio than social housing itself.
Will the Amsterdam city council take action against owners of these Airbnb apartments which magically appeared to rent on the free market during the covid-19 crisis? It might be only good intentions, once again. Soon, Amsterdam will be packed again with tourists in need of a place to stay.
End of 2019, Halsema announced an intensification of the repression against squatters, too busy she is profiling herself within the political landscape, just like she does when appearing smiling at a demonstration on the Dam square.
Repression against squatters is nothing new. It is visible all around the Netherlands. Mayors are applying a zero tolerance policy as squatters and other housing activists keep up the fight. Support and donate to the Squatter’s Legal Defense Fund, come along and participate.

Volkseten Vegazulu is a people’s kitchens existing since the very beginning of Joe’s Garage, June 2005. All benefits go to social & political struggles. Joe’s Garage is a space run by volunteers. Without a collective effort, without your active participation, we’re remaining closed. Get in touch in you feel like giving a hand. We’re always looking for cooks. Any help is welcome in the kitchen. Experience not required. If you want to know which days are still available, mail us.

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Squatter’s Legal Defense Fund Voku

By: börek - May 28th, 2020  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku

Thursday May 28th 2020, Squatter’s Legal Defense Fund Voku, Vegan Takeaway Voku. Pick up food from 7pm till 8:30pm. See you on the Steve Bikoplein.

Squatter’s Legal Defence Fund Voku

Tonight’s voku (People’s Kitchen) is to raise money for the squatter’s legal defense fund. The fund provides money to people who incur legal costs while squatting buildings in Amsterdam. Typically, this money is used to pay for court cases brought against squatters by owners or the state, but it can also be used to pay fines for people who are charged with squatting or other related charges. These costs can run into the thousands, so every little helps.

Recent Developments in Amsterdam

Over the last few weeks, the city has evicted several squats, despite the precautionary measures introduced by the government to stem the spread of the corona virus (apparently we are not ‘all’ in it together!). What is more, the evictions seem to have happened in spite of the city’s much touted ‘no evictions for emptiness’ policy.

Earlier this month, squatters residing in a building next to Sarphatipark were evicted even though the owner could not demonstrate that they had any concrete plans for the building during the court case. This is something we have seen time and time again over the last couple of years and raises, once again, the question of whether the ‘no evictions for emptiness’ policy is really still in effect. Owned by the van Zijl family, Sarphatipark 87 in de Pijp was squatted on March 8th 2020 and is again left vacant. A poster from an anti-squat company is hanging behind a window.

Another group was evicted from the Eerste Helmersstraat 80 in Oud-Weston on Sunday May 24th after only two days inside a building. When the inhabitants were arrested, the owner Stadgenoot hadn’t file a complain yet. The police, the city took their own initiative to evict a squat and the inhabitants had no a chance to defend themselves in court, and were charged with squatting. These charges will be fought and to do this the individuals involved will need the financial support that the legal defense fund can provide in order to pay for lawyers and court costs.

You can also keep up to date with squatting in Amsterdam on the Joe’s website: https://joesgarage.nl/

Thank you for supporting the legal defense fund.

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Benefit for No Border Kitchen Lesvos

By: börek - May 21st, 2020  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku

Thursday May 21st 2020, No Border Kitchen Lesvos Benefit, Volkseten Vegazulu, Take Away People’s kitchen, vegan food, no reservation necessary (or possible!). Falafel with salad n’ sides! Pick up food from 7pm till 8:30pm. See you on the Steve Bikoplein.

Today’s meal is a benefit for No Border Kitchen Lesvos. This is what they do:
A message from Lesvos to Amsterdam.
Lesvos, Greece. A beautiful Island. The Biggest Prison in Europe.
No Border Kitchen is a horizontal and self-organised collective with and for the people on the move on the Greek Island of Lesvos. Since 2015, we have been providing basic needs to the people that are left behind at the walls of Fortress Europe. We provide support mainly in two ways. We provide cooked food every day to about 300 people in the Mytillni area. This is mostly aimed at people that are either forced to stay in the streets or are living in squats, rented houses or somewhere slightly outside of the city. Then there is the food-boxes. A food-box contains dry food, oil and fresh vegetables and is meant to support people that are living in Mytillini and pay rent but get no state support. We want to provide these things to make it more accessible for people to live outside of the refugee camp, Moria. With the donations we have been receiving recently we have been able to upgrade the food-boxes with hygiene items and some other things that were to expansive before, like coffee, spices and better quality vegetables.
A silent war is being waged in the Aegean and the Central Med. A new cold war, with migrants as the nuclear weapons of the 21st century. Since November of last year, with the announcement of amendments to the Greek migration & asylum laws, we have been bracing for the start of 2020.

And so far, it has been not been great. Starting from February there has been an increase in xenophobic groups attacking migrants, activists and volunteers. After a period of increased threats and violence, the Covid-19 measures started. This put a temporary stop to the violence but made continuing our day to day activities rather difficult. However, we were able to find a way to continue our work. With the implementation of the amendment to the Greek migration & asylum laws we are entering a new era of racism and oppression against people on the move. They aim to deport a greater group of people with maximum efficiency. Already on the sea border the amount of illegal acts has also increased. Under cover of night, boats that try to reach Greece via sea have their engines disabled and are being set adrift towards Turkish waters by the Hellenic Coast Guard.
This will send a message to all the people that want to try to get to Europe.
The message is: “If you try to get here, you will be held in a camp isolated from the rest of the world with nothing and if you are not recognised as a ‘legitimate’ refugee we will send you right back where you came from”.
The idea that migrants are so radically different from us is false. National identities are made up. And they are made so that it appears as though we have more in common with millionaires or career politicians than with people who risk everything seeking the same thing most of the people in the world want: Safety.
No Border Kitchen Lesvos https://noborderkitchenlesvos.noblogs.org/

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What’s going on in Chile? Sunday 1srt March

By: moxi - February 27th, 2020  Filed under: Benefiet, Filmavond, Infoavond, Poster archive

Anarchist Group Amsterdam and Joe’s Garage collective are organizing two events in Amsterdam in solidarity with protests in Chile.

Chile is one of the wealthiest and unequal countries in Latin America at the same time. 1% of the population in Chile controls 26.5% of the country’s wealth, while 50% of low-income households access 2.1%.
Despite this fact, in October 2019 the Chilean government decided to increase public transport fares by 4% ignoring its social significance. It led to the protests and the biggest civil unrest having occurred in Chile since the end of Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship. People’s demands quickly grew from keeping public transport fares to more broad anti-neoliberal claims. The government replied with Excessive use of force. As of 26 October, 19 people have died, nearly 2,500 have been injured, and 2,840 have been arrested. Human rights organizations have received several reports of violations conducted against protesters, including torture, sexual abuse, and rape. According to Amnesty International, “the intention of the Chilean security forces is clear: to injure demonstrators in order to discourage protest.”. In fact, they didn’t succeed and protests are still happening until the present day.

To learn more about events happening in Chile and express your solidarity please come to our events:

Saturday, February 22, 18:00, Bollox, Eerste Schinkel­straat 14-16, Amsterdam – info talk from Chile/Belgian collective
Sunday, March 1, Joe’s Garage, Pretoriusstraat 43, Amsterdam – food and movie night

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Benefit voku for Apatris, Greek anarchist newspaper

By: börek - December 12th, 2019  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku

Monday December 23rd 2019, Benefit voku for Apatris, Greek anarchist newspaper. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

The street newspaper APATRIS (https://apatris.info/) began in 2009 from Heraklion (Crete) and for a year was distributed only locally. In 2010, comrades from other places in Crete began to collaborate with the project. Since then, Apatris has been issued as a Pancreatan anarchist newspaper. You can find it everywhere around Greece and further in various social centres around Europe, Joe’s Garage included!

Joe’s Garage is always looking for cooks. Any help is welcome in the kitchen. Experience not required. If you want to know which days are still available in the schedule, mail us and book yourself the night. You can, of course, also participate by rolling up your sleeves and doing the dishes.

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