Solidarity with the struggle of the political prisoners in Turkey! X Ray Cat Trio gig

X_Ray_Cat_Trio_TourMonday April 25th 2016, Solidarity with the struggle of the political prisoners in Turkey! X Ray Cat Trio gig. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

After visiting us twice before, X Ray Cat Trio once again comes to entertain us at Joe’s Garage!
This amazing vampire surf band makes you wanna move your feet!

https://xraycattrio.bandcamp.com/

Backseat Mafia: “This (X-Ray Cat Trio) is lo-fi and stripped back surf with a Latin edge, think Link Wray shooting tequila with a Mariachi band in a dive bar late into the evening.”

Food: 19:00 (benefit for political prisoners in Turkey)
Band: 21:00 (strict!)

[…Lees verder]

Concert with Gus Ring. Volkseten Vegazulu

Thursday April 14th 2016, Concert with Gus Ring. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. Music from 9pm till 10pm!

Gus Ring (Sweden)- Inspired by the alternative rockband scene and the simplicity of singer-songwriters, Gus Ring creates his own mix of acoustic folk and lo-fi dreampop.
To keep the music as honest, pure and close to heart as possible, Gus writes, plays, records and mixes everything himself in his closet studio. […Lees verder]

Benefit against state repression in Madrid (And the rest of the world!)

20160303_Benefit_against_state_repression_in_Madrid_with Almudena_y_DavideThursday March 3rd 2016, Benefit against state repression in Madrid (And the rest of the world!). Concert with Almudena y Davide

19:00 Door opens, Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.
At 21:00 short talk about why this benefit and some bizarre state repression examples in Spain from the last months.
21:30 Acoustic Concert: Almudena y Davide (voice and guitar) Popular folk songs about revolution and love from Spain and Latin America. https://soundcloud.com/almudena-y-davide

The money we collect this evening will go to the suport group of Javier, see below for more info:

Two years in jail and € 7,500 for recording racist police round-up

On March 17th 2012, Javier, a member of the 15-M movement and the CNT Union, was arrested while filming a racist round-up in Lavapiés, Madrid.

In the coming weeks we will know the exact date of the trial, scheduled for the spring, in which the state prosecutor and the private attorney of one of the officers who assaulted him during his detention charge our comrade with resisting arrest and assault & battery, crimes punishable with two years in prison and civil penalty of more than €7,500.

The events for which he will go to trial occurred almost four years ago, when a spontaneous demonstration of neighbors tried to publicly denounce the umpteenth racist police raid in the streets of Lavapiés. Peaceful demonstrations like this had already occurred several times in that neighborhood and other quarters with high migrant populations such as Carabanchel, showing that residents had grown weary of the constant police harassment of migrant workers, who suffer identity checks on a daily basis merely for having a dark skin color. Although successive Spanish governments have been reproached for these raids by organizations which are far from revolutionary, such as the EU, the UN, and Amnesty International, they are still occurring every day in the public spaces of our city, with the active collaboration of the Madrid municipal police and private security agents on the subway, commuter trains, etc. They intend to fill the quota for people without residence permits which the Spanish Interior Ministry requires of police department to satisfy their goal of human bodies in their cells, their Immigrant Detention Centers and on their deportation flights, and at the same time, to incite to hatred and divide the native and foreign sections of the working class.

March 17, 2012 was a turning point in escalating repression against neighborhood anti-racist self-organization. An unprecedented police deployment and the subsequent police set-up of our comrade Javier tried to put an end to these spontaneous and peaceful demonstrations of solidarity which were marked by chants of “No human being is illegal!”. The authorities want to put an end to the emerging solidarity movement against the scourge of ethnic identity checks and subsequent arrests (kidnapping) of neighbors whose only “crime” was to be migrants, poor and to have lost or failed to complete the administrative process to establish their legal residence in our neighborhoods.

The Assembly of Lavapies is taking the opportunity of this new political trial to appeal for solidarity with our comrade and to renew the fight against racist police controls and raids. Watch out for updated information on the trial and support grassroots organizing, without leaders. Don’t let the police continue to undermine coexistence in our neighborhoods with their racist practices.

No human being is illegal!
Racists aren’t welcome in our neighborhoods!!

A interview with Javier, in 2012 about the arest and the situation in Lavapies-Madrid (in Spanish) http://migracionyconvivencialavapies.blogspot.com/2012/03/apaleado-y-detenido-por-documentar-una.html […Lees verder]

James Bar Bowen

20160218_JamesBarBowenThursday February 18th 2016, Gig with James Bar Bowen. Benefit for Aid Delivery Mission [http://aiddeliverymission.org/]. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. Music from 9pm till 10pm!

James Bar Bowen (UK), radical acoustic folk-punk singer songwriter, guitarist and story-teller, to make you laugh, cry and rage. His songs and performance are original, relevant, sarcastic, political, optimistic, poetic, multilingual and sometimes even beautiful. https://jamesbarbowen2014.wordpress.com/ […Lees verder]

Benefit for Centro Social Libertario in Cuba

Centro_Social_Libertario_CubaMonday February 8th 2016, Benefit for the new anarchist/libertarian Social Center opening in Cuba. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. Music (Tim Loud & X Ray Cat from Leeds, UK) from 8:30 till 10pm!

The borders are opening after many years, and changes in Cuba predict new possibilities and dangers for the Cuban society. It is essential, therefore, reinforce the work of those that from Cuba defend a critical, anti-capitalist and antiautoritarial system-world , the same machine expressed every day more clearly in the national life.

After more than a decade of social and political activism in the Critical Cuban Observatory and five years as part of the Alfredo Lopez Libertarian Workshop (Tlal) , we have identified as the main difficulty for our performance and expanding for our social impact, the lack of a permanent base, which allows to build community and shape our identity stronger and lasting way.

Who we are?

The TLAL is a specifically anarchist collective, which has hold a systematic activity in recent years, radicalizing their proposals and keeping a strong anchorage in Cuban society and their communities. We have succeeded in a short time to ser the annual Libertarian Spring Meeting in Havana, where we seek to merge thought and anarchist or libertarian action on the island. In addition, we issued a modest printed newspaper, Tierra Nueva!, with some troubles we tried to bring our critical vision to ordinary people, that which is majority and do not have access to Internet in Cuba, as well as promoting libertarian, anarcho-syndicalist, and naturist ideals, present in the country’s history before the insurrectional victory in 1959, and whose impact beats hidden in the interstices of the now a day Cuba.

Moreover, we have embarked in major organizational efforts, along with other comrades in the region. Has been the foundation of the Central American and Caribbean Anarchist Federation network in March 2015 containing a large expansion and development potential. […Lees verder]

Tim Loud & X Ray Cat

Tim_Loud_X_Ray_CatMonday February 8th 2016, Concert with Tim Loud & X Ray Cat. Benefit for Centro Social Libertario in Cuba. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. Music from 8:30 till 10pm!

The Leeds scene is heading back to Joe’s Garage and various squats around the country, this time on an extensive European tour. Tim Loud, 12-string driven, harmonica-blowing, country/blues wailing anti-folk, together with Nic, the guitar player from X-Ray Cat Trio, vampyre surf rock ‘n’ roll band who performed last November with the fantastic duo Zealous Doxy. Backseat Mafia: “This (X-Ray Cat Trio) is lo-fi and stripped back surf with a Latin edge, think Link Wray shooting tequila with a Mariachi band in a dive bar late into the evening.” […Lees verder]

Concert with Cistem Failure. Smash the Freakin Patriarchy Tour 2016

20160125_Cistem_FailureMonday January 25th 2016, Concert with Cistem Failure. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. Music from 9pm till 10pm!

Anarcha feminist folk punk queers from all over the place, fighting the cisheteropatriarchy one banjo at a time… members include Momma Swift and Roverrr.

“We are a travelling Anarchist feminist queer band. We are involved in different political projects/spaces/struggles and try to combine our words with our actions when we can. We play rowdy political banjo folkpunk. We would like to see more non binary peeps, Transfolk, and female asociated people play music, make zines, take the space in male-dominated music scenes that we all deserve to be part of.
On our lists of things to smash in 2015/2016: Patriarchy, Heteronormativity, Prisons, speciesism, The State, Racist dutch Christmas, RWE, unrealistic Beautystandarts, Borders, Bad consent practices, Capitalism…. We cant do this alone though!”

Smash the Freakin Patriarchy Tour 2016: 25/1 Joe’s Garage – 26/1 Bajesdorp – 27/1 Utrecht, 29/1 AZ Wuppertal, 2/2 Brussel. 3/2 Ghent, 4/2 Paris…. https://cistemfailure.noblogs.org/ […Lees verder]

Prisoner support in Chile. Benefit voku and music with Rebet guitarS

20160104_Prisoner_support_in_ChileMonday January 4th 2016, Prisoner support in Chile, Benefit voku. Rebetiko music with ‘Rebet guitarS’ and ‘Rebet guitaR’. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

Joseba‘ is a comrade from Chile, currently under house arrest until his trial beginning of 2016. He was arrested on 2014 under charges of transporting an incendiary device. He was accused, under false testimonies, of participating in a firebomb attack. Due to personal finances, the case was given to a public defender from the state. Thanks to this lawyer’s irresponsibility and disinterest in the case, necessary legal procedures were never completed and during a routine probation visit, Joseba was arrested a few months ago and put in jail. The state wanted to keep him in preventative imprisonment until his trial in 2016, but thanks to the pressure generated by friends and comrades they were able to change his preventative imprisonment for house arrest.

Earlier in February of 2015, the Chilean state modified the arms control law to classify molotov cocktails as the same as a firearm, increasing the penalties for their use or transportation. In July, 5 students were arrested for a 2014 molotov attack against a station of the PDI (Policía de Investigaciones). During the September 11 demonstrations in memory of Chile’s brutal 17 year long military dictatorship, two students were arrested and charged with transporting an incendiary device. While Joseba‘s case came before the approval of this new repressive legislation, it is obvious that the Chilean state is trying to make an example of cases involving molotov cocktails in order to damper the anarchist and social struggles in this country, making it especially important to support comrades while the state equips itself with ever more repressive laws.

When Joseba‘s trial comes, he will be facing a sentence of up to 5 years and one day. In order to hire a private and sympathetic lawyer for his case, we need to raise money that is impossible for him to raise on his own while under house arrest. Because of this, we are asking for solidarity and monetary support from any and all anti-prison comrades. Thank you!

‘Rebet guitaR’ – Charis Konstantinou
Rebetiko, the music crossroad between middle east and west from the early 1900’s. Songs about love, joy and sorrow. A musical sub-culture, a music of the lower classes.
“The womb of rebetiko was the jail and the hash den. It was there that the early rebetes created their songs. They sang in quiet, harsh voices, unforced, one after the other, each singer adding a verse which often bore no relation to the previous verse, and a song often went on for hours. There was no refrain, and the melody was simple and easy.” Ilias Petropoulos
Rebet guitar, focuses on the early Rebetiko with one guitar, finger-pick style.

‘Rebet guitarS’ – Jaap Faber and Charis Konstantinou.
A guitar duet, will present the music of the legendary “Kostis”, the most enigmatic of all greek rebetika artists. 12+1 songs of truly unique guitar duets and black-humor lyrics chronicling the hash dens, prison culture and pickpockets of old Athens. Recorded in 1930-31 on 78 rpm records, under a pseudonym for export to the greeks living in America, research has uncovered the musician, journalist and cartoonist Kostas Bezos as the figure lurking behind the Kostis name, with ties to the famous singer and producer Tetos Demetriades.


Rebet guitar-“Ντερτιλήδικο” @ Molli, Amsterdam, April 2015.

Volkseten Vegazulu is a people’s kitchen, every monday, 7pm, vegan food for 4€ or donation. All benefits go for social & political struggles. No reservation.

We’re always looking for cooks. Any help is welcome in the kitchen. Experience not required. Enjoying it is a must. If you want to know which days are still available in the schedule, send an email to joe [at] squat [dot] net and book yourself the night. You can, of course, also participate by rolling up your sleeves and doing the dishes.