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 is again left vacant. A poster from an anti-squat company is hanging behind a window.

A few weeks later, another group were evicted after only two days inside the building, without a chance to defend themselves in court, and 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 find out more about the case of the Eerste Helmersstraat 80, property from Stadgenoot on Indymedia. The inhabitants of the flat were arrested on Sunday May 24th that the owner Stadgenoot hadn’t file a complain yet.

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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Nieuw Amsterdams Beleid: Geen ontruiming voor leegstand…

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

[english] [français]

Als kraker in Amsterdam is het pijnlijk terugkijken op het afgelopen jaar. 2019 deelde harde klappen uit aan een beweging die niet veel meer leek te kunnen doen dan incasseren. De stad heeft haar grootste kraakpanden verloren en ondanks vele kraakacties zijn er nauwelijks nieuwe panden die het tot het eind van het jaar hebben gered. Verder probeerden politici op nationaal niveau een wet door te voeren om krakers nog verder te criminaliseren, berichtte de media keer op keer over hoe arme pandeigenaren steeds weer gedupeerd worden door deze groeperingen, en als klap op de vuurpijl sluit de burgemeester het jaar af met het bericht over een nieuw kraakbeleid dat is ontworpen om de hele boel keihard aan te gaan pakken.
Van begin tot eind lijkt er niet veel meer te zeggen dan dat 2019 een behoorlijk troosteloos jaar was en het moeilijk zal zijn een hoopvol beeld te schetsen voor kraken in Amsterdam in 2020.

We kijken terug op een jaar waarin we vooral veel verloren hebben. […Lees verder]

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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]

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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]

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Benefit voku for renovations costs of squatted villa Ivicke in Wassenaar

By: börek - December 1st, 2019  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku

Monday December 2nd 2019, Benefit voku for renovations costs of squatted villa Ivicke in Wassenaar, Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

This time we invite you to enjoy a lovely vegan dinner at Joe’s Garage to help us raise money for the costs of renovating the squatted monumental villa in Wassenaar, which we squatted in July 2018.

Up till now, we have funded all of the work we have done to the building ourselves or through donations raised during events at Ivicke. But this was not enough to cover the big job we did in September to winter-proof the house.

We fixed the gutters and roof leaks, which was necessary to prevent further, likely irreversible damage to the house. For this, we had to hire two scaffolds, which cost us over 800 euros alone. On top of this, we also had to buy the necessary materials.

This came at a time when our ability to raise funds through events has been limited by restrictions placed on us by the municipality following the attention we received by hosting the No Border Camp, which is why we are asking for your donations.

Since the very beginning we have done an immense amount of work to fix and maintain the building for living and hosting a variety of social events. Yet we are constantly under the threat of eviction from the municipality and the owner – a well-known speculant Ronnie van de Putte.

Thanks to your donations we can continue our work and put on other events, and counter the agenda of politicians, media and the owner to have us evicted!

more about ivicke; https://radar.squat.net/en/wassenaar/huize-ivicke

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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Benefit for Oops…Amstel45 legal costs

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

Monday 18th and Thursday 7th November 18th 2019, Benefit for Oops…Amstel45 legal costs. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

Sunday, 22-09-19 we successfully squatted the building at Amstel 45. The owner of this building is the biggest real-estate owner of Amsterdam and an speculator. There have been buildings owned by Veldhuijzen squatted before, Amstelkade 20 (2016), Admiraal de Ruijterweg 76 (2008). Johannes Cornelis Martinus Veldhuijzen is the owner of 512 properties in Amsterdam, he has more buildings on his name than Prince Bernhard van Oranje Nassau! (see for details the Parool article mentioned below). We know the building has been empty for 2 years and currently there is a building stop, which means the owner is prohibited to work on the building any further and he also doesn’t have any plans for the building at this moment.
We are against vacancy, leaving buildings empty and left to rot, and we squat because of vacancy! During the first week of occupation, we didn’t have any contact with the owner. Wednesday the 26 of September, we received the court papers for a fast civil procedure. His story had a lot of inconsistency and no concrete plans and because of this and the new squatting law that is coming, we decided it’s a good time to fight back! We went to court on the 1st of October and now we are waiting for the verdict, the 15th of October. The owner himself did not show up in court and he still has shown no willingness to communicate with us in any way. Will keep you guys updated!

Updates the verdict came 16/10/19 evening with an order to leave 19/10/19 morning, after an conversation betwen our lawyer and the owner we got 2days extra and the house was evicted 21/10/19. The verdict also include the legal cost 2029.79e (court case, lawyer of the owner, publication), and the owner demand us to pay everything until 21/10/19.

Dit zijn de grootste spelers op de Amsterdamse vastgoedmarkt – Het Parool, 4 november 2017 https://www.parool.nl/nieuws/dit-zijn-de-grootste-spelers-op-de-amsterdamse-vastgoedmarkt~b5fea4c9/
Wethouder Ivens pleit voor woonplicht in strijd tegen vastgoedmagnaten – At5, 5 november 2017 https://www.at5.nl/artikelen/174940/wethouder-ivens-pleit-voor-woonplicht-in-strijd-tegen-vastgoedmagnaten

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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Benefit for legal fund

By: börek - October 1st, 2019  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku

Monday October 7th 2019, Benefit for legal fund. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

We are a cooking group that cooks for supporting squatters resistance. This year a lot of old and new squats got evicted in the city of Amsterdam. At this moment people need to move often and can not stay long in one place. The squatters try to avoid losing there place by starting a court case against the eviction. We want to help squatters by cooking for the legal support. We are a group of people in the city cooking vegan food , trying to uphold a zero waste policy.

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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Info Night on the New Squatting Law

By: börek - September 1st, 2019  Filed under: Infoavond, Volkseten/Voku

Wet of Geen Wet
Kranken gaat door!
Oppose the Proposal – Info Night on the New Squatting Amendment

Come to Joe’s Garage on 23rd September to eat a vegan meal and learn about the new squatting law and how it will affect squatting in Amsterdam and the Netherlands.

As you might have heard, some bastards politicians are scheming to change the squatting law, allowing them to pursue criminal eviction within 3 days by changing the legal procedures. This new law is called the Wet Handhaving Kraakverbod.

This is yet another attempt to protect the interests of rich and corrupt property owners at the expense of those fighting for fair housing rights for all. The law further criminalises squatters and making it more difficult for them to defend themselves in a court of law.

In 2010, the state tried to completely eradicate squatting by making it illegal. Now, a decade later, they still have to come up with pathetic ways to make our lives more difficult, because we are still here!
We did not let them win back then, we will show them we still won’t give up now!
Wet of geen wet..

Stay informed! Follow updates on this law proposal (and get united to resist it):

Check the following websites for more information:

www.internetconsultatie.nl/kraakverbod

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