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.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Amsterdam’s New Policy: No Eviction for Emptiness…

By: börek - May 13th, 2020  Filed under: Nieuws

[nederlands] [français]

As a squatter in Amsterdam, looking back on the past year is painful. 2019 dealt heavy blows to a movement that didn’t seem capable of much more than taking the beating. The city has lost its largest squats and despite numerous squatting actions, hardly any new buildings have survived the end of the year. What’s more, politicians tried to introduce a law at national level to further criminalise squatters while the media reported time and time again how afflicted property owners are being deceived repeatedly by squatters. To top it all off, the mayor concludes the year with a report on a new policy designed to implement a more rigorous approach to squatting.
There’s not much left to say beyond 2019 having been a rather grim year, making it difficult to paint a hopeful picture for squatting in Amsterdam in 2020.

We look back on a year in which we, above all, lost a lot. […Lees verder]

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Amsterdam’s New Policy: No Eviction for Emptiness…

By: börek - May 13th, 2020  Filed under: Nieuws

[nederlands] [français]

As a squatter in Amsterdam, looking back on the past year is painful. 2019 dealt heavy blows to a movement that didn’t seem capable of much more than taking the beating. The city has lost its largest squats and despite numerous squatting actions, hardly any new buildings have survived the end of the year. What’s more, politicians tried to introduce a law at national level to further criminalise squatters while the media reported time and time again how afflicted property owners are being deceived repeatedly by squatters. To top it all off, the mayor concludes the year with a report on a new policy designed to implement a more rigorous approach to squatting.
There’s not much left to say beyond 2019 having been a rather grim year, making it difficult to paint a hopeful picture for squatting in Amsterdam in 2020.

We look back on a year in which we, above all, lost a lot. […Lees verder]

Tags: , , , , ,

La nouvelle politique d’Amsterdam : Pas d’expulsion pour du vide…

By: börek - May 13th, 2020  Filed under: Nieuws

[english] [nederlands]

En tant que squatteur à Amsterdam, il est douloureux de faire le bilan de l’année écoulée. L’année 2019 a porté un coup dur à un mouvement qui ne semblait pas capable de faire mieux que de prendre la raclée. La ville a perdu ses plus grands squats et malgré de nombreuses ouvertures, presque aucun nouveau squat n’a survécu à la fin de l’année. De plus, les politicienn-e-s ont essayé d’introduire une loi au niveau national pour criminaliser davantage les squatters, tandis que les médias ont rapporté à maintes reprises comment les propriétaires affligés sont trompés à répétition par les squatters. Pour couronner le tout, le maire conclut l’année avec un rapport sur une nouvelle politique visant à mettre en place une approche plus rigide sur les squats.
Il ne reste pas grand-chose à dire au-delà de 2019, année plutôt sombre, ce qui rend difficile de brosser un tableau optimiste des squats à Amsterdam en 2020.

Nous nous souvenons d’une année au cours de laquelle nous avons beaucoup perdu. […Lees verder]

Tags: , , , , ,

JaKra! #1

By: börek - June 3rd, 2019  Filed under: Nieuws

[english]

Joe’s Garage is nog één van de weinige gekraakte social-politieke centra in Amsterdam, samen met Bajesdorp, nabij het Amstelstation, het ADM in het Westelijk Havengebied (ontruimd op 7 januari 2018) en de Monbeile Eenheid in Amsterdam Noord (verlaten op 1 februari 2019). Al ruim 13 jaar is Joe’s Garage acteif in de Transvaalbuurt, in Amsterdam Oost. In februari 2001 werden de bovenetage van Pretoriusstraat 28 gekraakt. In Juni 2005 was de begane grond, een voormalige tabakszaak, open als een sociaal centrum – Joe’s Garage was geboren! In die tijd waren waren er trouwens meerdere panden in de straat (en aan het tussenliggende Steve Bikoplein) gekraakt. In September 2005 werd Pretoriusstraat 43 gekraakt, aan de overkant van Joe’s. Drie jaar later, in october 2008, word Pretoriusstraat 28 ontruimd. Op precies dezelfde dag heropende Joe’s Garage op de begane grond van Pretoriusstraat 43. de Juridische situatie rondom Pretoriusstraat 43 is no altijd hetzelfde zoals beschreven in het Witboek Kraken uit 2005 [1].

Sinds 2005 biedt Joe’s Garage 6 dagen per week ruimte aan meerdere vrijwilligersinitiatieven, waaronder een weggeefwinkel, Volkseten Vegazulu (voku), een buurtbios en een kraakspreekuur (KSU Oost). Daarnaast maken verschillende groepen gebruik van de ruimte voor bijvoorbeeld vergadering of infoavonden. Om Joe’s Garage letterlijk en figuurlijk open te kunnen houden is iedereen van harte welkom om me te helpen – met het organiseren van een activiteit bijvoorbeeld, maar ook met koken of afwassen. Een belangrijk uitgangspunt is dat iedereen die er binnenstapt sichzelf ook als delnemer beschouwd; dat we allemaal verantwoordelijkheid nemen en bijdragen aan het creëren van een inclusieve, zelfwerkzame omgeving.

Kraken gaat natuurlijk gewoon door! Hieronder een overzicht van recente kraakacties: […Lees verder]

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Transit Levantkade

By: börek - January 27th, 2019  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 3rd february 2019, Film night: Transit Levantkade by Rosemarie Blank. 1991 | 82 minutes | In Dutch with English subtitles. Doors: 20:00, Film 20:30

This creative documentary captures, in a way, the end of Amsterdam’s wild three decade run of alternative culture. The Berlin wall has fallen, the east-block is no longer a viable possibility, and everything slides into the American de-regulated free-market ideology – and that means that everything that doesn’t make a profit has to be stamped out. Here in Amsterdam that change was more extreme and painful than most other places, simply because Amsterdam was so different than anywhere else.

The Levantekade in Amsterdam’s east harbor was one of the last large-scale alternative spaces to be destroyed. It was a place anyone who didn’t have money could go, a sort of no-man’s land where people could live and create freely. It was a place for those who didn’t fit in. It was a place for the homeless, emigrants and artists and they both created and lived their own alternative culture. Sure, it was rough to live there, but it could also be beautiful for those who valued freedom and had their own vision. This film documents these ‘urban Indians’ and charts the last days before the police came in to remove everyone for the bulldozers. In an act of ritualistic defiance some chose to set fire to their self-made homes, their own creations, rather than leave them to be destroyed by a wrecking-ball. Rosemarie Blank’s film is composed of flickering grainy black and white images which have a rough poetry about them. They depict a dark shadow that is overtaking this playground of the imagination. The mood is a haunting death fugue, and soon these people and the refuge they created, would soon be written off as road-kill for the gentrification and financialization of the city. This film, which digs deep into Amsterdam’s past, is more than anything else an ode to a special way of living… and is especially crucial to see today when even the ADM, leagues outside the city, isn’t allowed to exist as a free space.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net

Tags: , , , , ,

De Sputnik benefit

By: börek - October 1st, 2018  Filed under: Benefiet

Thursday 4 october 2018, De Sputnik benefit. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

This time we are cooking at Joe’s Garage to raise money for the legal costs of De Sputnik, a squatted bar in Amsterdam-Noord, evicted on 26 September.
Since May 2018, De Sputnik had been a living, and a non-commercial social space, which held various (fundraising) events, such as bar nights, vokus and gigs. The owner of the building, the social housing corporation De Key, decided to evict it through a civil court procedure to make way for anti-kraak and, in the future, a potential restaurant, despite initially claiming that the plan for the building and its adjacent area is to demolish it in 2021. The case was lost by the squatters. Believing the case had not been considered properly with regards to the (lack of) evidence presented by De Key for their plans, and to oppose the practice of hiring anti-kraak companies by social housing providers, they decided to go to the higher appeal. Unfortunately, this case was also lost and the squatters had to move out and are being made to pay the costs of both legal procedures.
If you’d like to support the group with your donations or find out more information about the situation of De Sputnik, come and enjoy a delicious vegan meal at Joe’s! […Lees verder]

Tags: , , , ,

Benefit for the struggle against the squat ban in Belgium

By: börek - March 1st, 2018  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku

Monday March 26th 2018, Benefit for the struggle against the squat ban in Belgium. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

To protest against the new squat ban in Belgium, a demonstration took place in Gent on February 15th 2018. During the demonstration, an empty building, De Braempoort was squatted. Het Kraaiennest became the new social center until it got evicted on March 6th after a super fast trial. In total, Van Monck, Het Kraaiennest and 2 others squats have being evicted in Gent since the new law is effective. In Brussels, demonstrations also took place and faced heavy repression. A new demo is announced in Brussels on March 21st.

https://kraaiennest.noblogs.org/
https://squatbelgium.noblogs.org/
https://krakengent.squat.net/ […Lees verder]

Tags: , , , ,