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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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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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.As renovation also includes plumbing service you can also read this plumber’s reviews before getting renovation services.

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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