Still not loving Ymere

Ymere_geld_poster_Monday 14 December 2015, Still not loving Ymere. Info and discussion about Ymere. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

Beginning of November, Ymere is discovering squatters have occupied empty apartments in the Transvaal neighborhood. Posters “Ymere informeer” appeared on the walls. Ymere removed them as soon as possible, horrified their image could be damaged. It only took a few days for the mayor to send riot cops and evict the squatters. On November 22nd, one apartment is resquatted, a public statement is made. The squat is speed evicted in 24 hours, people arrested in the building released without charges.
Ymere is still busy with the Tugela, soon will come the Eenhoorngebied, and so on. Gentrification goes on, neighborhoods from Amsterdam are slowly but surely cleaned. One may even use “social deportation”, or “social cleansing” when it comes to relocate a part of the population somewhere else. Anti-squat companies are just one step in the whole process.
The way the city is reacting to protect Ymere tells us a lot about the future of social housing in the neighborhood. Hubert Möllenkamp, former Rochdale director, has been sentenced to 2,5 years jail. How long can we expect Ymere to be protected by Van der Laan? During this time, the social housing waiting list is getting longer

Text from the Ymere poster:

Ymere informeer. Meld je nu aan voor tijdelijke huur bij Ymere. Minimale huurrechten?

  • Van sociale contracten naar permanente onzekerheid
    Sinds 2010 is Ymere bezig met renovatie, sloop en nieuwbouw aan de Tugelaweg. Sociale huur woningen moeten plaats maken voor vrije sector huurwoningen en koopwoningen. Nog een deel van Amsterdam wordt hierdoor onbetaalbaar voor Amsterdammers.
    Gelukkig heeft Ymere een oplossing voor mensen die de hoge huren niet kunnen veroorloven: de permanente onzekerheid van anti-kraak en tijdelijke huur.
    Ook aan de Tugelaweg heeft Ymere tijdelijke huurders gevestigd; tijdelijke huurders, die hier al jaren in onzekerheid verkeren, om vervolgens te horen dat ze binnen twee weken moeten ver huizen.
    Bij woningcorporatie Ymere kan je erop vertrouwen dat winst boven huurrecht wordt gesteld. Want… geld, geld, geld.
  • Van €350 sociale huur naar €550 tijdelijke huur
    Bij Ymere nemen wij het principe van geld en winst heel serieus. Daarom nemen wij geen genoegen met het gebrek aan huurbescherming van de tijdelijke huurders. Om onze winst te maximaliseren, verhuren we de huizen aan de Tugelaweg voor soms wel meer dan anderhalf maal de oorspronkelijke huur prijs.
    Dus wil jij ook minimale huurrechten en een torenhoge huur? Meld je nu aan voor tijdelijke huur bij Ymere.

[…Lees verder]

Info night Squatting in the UK after the ban

20150622_infonight_Squatting_in_UK_after_the_banMonday June 22nd 22015, Info night Squatting in the UK after the ban. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm, then info night with a speaker from London.

In 2012 the UK government enacted a law to criminalise squatting in residential buildings despite 95% of responses to its ‘consultation’ opposing any further legislation. The squatting scene has died in almost all cities in England and Wales apart from London, where the movement has only a fraction of the numbers it used to. Squatters are now forced to live in non residential buildings which are often unfit for human habitation. The number of people sleeping rough has increased as London is undergoing a phase of transformation, with inner London becoming unaffordable for lower income people. As property prices rise, there are less empty properties to squat in and owners are able to hire private firms to carry out very fast and often violent evictions. The aim of this talk is to describe the legal situation and challenges to it, and how this has changed the squatting movement into something smaller but much more political and radical. […Lees verder]

Benefit for the family Y.

Benefit_for_the_family_YThursday May 7th 2015, Benefit for the family Y. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. From 9pm till 10pm, Babboo in concert.

‘Thanks to my voluntary job I’m in close contact with the family Y. This is a Moroccan family with parents who are living in for about 20 years in the Netherlands. They have four young children. I come over to their place once a week to eat a nice meal and assist their kids in schoolwork. Lately they where forced to move from their beloved little house in Bos en Lommer. This was because of a project of the Amsterdam municipality which aims at the creation of divers neighborhoods. The plan sounds very nice but in practice it’s a bit disappointing. The poorer families are the once who have to move further to the out skirts of the city, leaving space for the high-income class. The family Y. didn’t want to leave their flat, despite of the fact that it was pretty ugly and to small. They were used and attached to it. Furthermore, their cost were low. Moving out would mean a lot of stress and high cost. But the building was going to be torned down anyhow, as planned. Two weeks ago they were moved. They are living in a modern new building with more space than they had before. Unfortunately they don’t have any money left to buy new furniture and the house looks empty and impersonal. With this fund raising I hope I can support them a bit to make their new house feel a bit more like home.’ […Lees verder]

Film & Info Night: ‘SÍ SE PUEDE. Seven Days at PAH Barcelona’ by Comando Video

20150222_Joes_Garage_Film_Info_Night_Si_se_puede_Seven_Days_at_BarcelonaSunday February 22nd 2015, Film & Info Night -‘SÍ SE PUEDE. Seven Days at PAH Barcelona’ by Comando Video (52 minutes, 2014, in Spanish with English Subtitles). Doors open at 8pm. Free admission.

The PAH -The Platform for People Affected by Mortgages– is a citizen’s movement for the right to housing. It emerged in 2009 in Barcelona (Spain) and today has more than 200 nodes across Spain. The PAH offers an alternative outlook on housing policies to the one offered by local and national governments making this social movement a key opponent of their housing policies, which have only impoverished people while continuing to commodify houses.

The documentary ‘SÍ SE PUEDE. Seven days at PAH Barcelona’ is an account of the day to day of Barcelona‘s Platform for People Affected by Mortgages. Following various participants it illustrates what a usual week looks like and its tireless activities. This documentary places cameras at the heart of the PAH to visualize, not only the post-housing bubble drama, but also the huge and often invisible work behind this social movement. It shows the process of transformation and empowerment of those who join its ranks.

We will see the documentary first and our comrades from the PAH Barcelona will give us information. Then there will be a discussion about housing crisis and struggle in Spain and beyond.

PAH Barcelona (Plataforma d’Afectats per la Hipoteca) http://pahbarcelona.org/

Czech squatting weekend in Amsterdam. Klinika soli night with food, presentation

20150220_Klinika_Soli_nightCzech squatting weekend in Amsterdam, February 20th – 22nd 2015. Klinika on tour!
Friday 20.02.2015 Klinika soli night with food, presentation, discussion & more @ Squatted autonomous space Joe’s Garage https://joesgarage.nl/

19:00 Soli dinner (some Czech traditional dish in the vegan style)
20:00 Presentation
21:00 Discussion, maybe some movie about current squatting theme in Czech Republic and maybe some acoustic concert

Some members of Czech squatting movement are coming to Amsterdam to present and discuss about the actual breakthrough in the squatting movement in Czech Republic. On Saturday, November 29th, an abandoned building of a former clinic in Prague district of Žižkov was occupied by a group of activists. Cleaning works, reconstruction and program started immediately. Despite widespread support, including neighbors, politicians, artists, journalists etc., the owner of the house – Office for Government Representation in Property Affairs – withdrawed from negotiations. Regarding to some sources, the “anti-extremist” department of Czech police played an important role in this decision.

Autonomní sociální centrum Klinika (Autonomous Social Centre Klinika /Clinic http://451.cz/klinika/ ) was evicted December 9th after ten days of struggle and hundreds of people participating. Spontaneous demonstrations immediately took place in front and inside of Žižkov city hall and in office of the owner. After a few days, one thousand people demonstrated in support of the autonomous center. The building is now being guarded, but the struggle isn’t over yet. Žižkov councilors agreed that they will start negotiations with the state. The public support of squatting is now the highest in Czech history. The ministers of interior, finance and social affairs publicly admitted the possibility of decriminalization of squatting. We, as a group supporting a project of social centre, are calling for international support! A pressure on Czech state can help us to create a historical success. Every city needs it’s clinic!

20150220_Czech_squatting_weekend_in_Amsterdam […Lees verder]

De Vloek Benefit, Solivoku, infonight and live music with Shireen and Sprank

20150209_de_Vloek_benefitMonday February 9th 2015, De Vloek Benefit, Solivoku, infonight and live music with Shireen (crisis-folk) and Sprank (political folk klezmer punk trio), Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. Music from 8:30 till 10pm.

“Hell no, we won’t go! De Vloek moet blijven!” De Vloek, squatted autonomous social center in Scheveningen, [http://devloek.nl/] existing since 2002, is threatened to follow the same fate as De Blauwe Aanslag in 2003. The city of Den Haag who hates squatters and put all its energy to criminalize them, has nonetheless postponed the eviction until the beginning of April 2015. Since the plans of the city to flatten the Vloek came public, actions and demonstrations took over. A symbol of a failure for the city, De Pier, was occupied for few hours last August. From Den Haag till Greece, solidarity banners popped up. Other militant actions took place, spontaneous demonstration, occupation of the city council. The mayor even forbade a demonstration beginning of December. During the Action Days at the end of the year, people took again the streets and a former tax office building owned by the city was squatted and in no time illegally evicted by the riot police, 40 activists were arrested.

infotourvloek

Be on time for the food! On the stage, Shireen and Sprank [https://sprankband.wordpress.com], from 8:30 till 10pm.

[…Lees verder]

Benefit for Feral Crust, autonomous space in Philippines

feralcrust5Monday November 24th 2014, Benefit for Feral Crust, autonomous space in Philippines, Solidarity dinner. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.

The Feral Crust collective is currently establishing its own autonomous space in Manila (Philippines) and badly need any financial solidarity to pursue local activities and political struggles. Friend and anarchist community organizer who runs Balay Tuklasan Likhaan Infoshop generously offered his other space (previously vacant and unused) to establish a community-based autonomous center called Feral Crust.
The Feral Crust space is located in Mabato Road Brgy.Ibayo, Tipas Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines in a squatted public road near industrial factories (cement, steel, livestock etc.). About 33 families squat Mabato Road to become a residential area since 1989. Feral Crust came to Mabato road last March 2014.

’’We teach kids based on self-determination and equality. We try to do it together and express such values. We believe that we can learn just as much from daily routine and interaction among people including kids. The school system does not serve the basic interest and needs of the people; it only trains the entire humanity to become future wage slave and cogs of the machine under capitalism.
Activities we usually do with the kids include gardening, preparing vegetarian meals, making art (drawing, stencils, silk- screen printing, craft-making from scraps and other recyclable materials, etc.), film showing, playing games, writing and reading, taking care of plants and animals, storytelling, playing music, listening to their family situation and problems and counseling responsibility and respect.

In our activities with the kids, we also emphasize the importance of responsible waste management and the role of dumpsters in society. We educate them about the significance of recycling and reducing waste to protect the environment. We discuss the different types of materials that can be recycled and encourage them to properly sort and dispose of recyclables. Additionally, we teach them about the significance of choosing the appropriate dumpster size for specific waste disposal needs. Understanding the capacity and limitations of dumpsters helps instill a sense of responsibility in the children, as they learn to make informed decisions about waste disposal and contribute to creating a sustainable future. By incorporating these lessons into our activities, we aim to foster environmental consciousness and encourage eco-friendly behaviors among the kids. […Lees verder]

Rent Rebels, screening & discussion with activists from Berlin

2.ready.de.stad.is.niet.te.koop

[nederlands beneden]

On the weekend of the 21th and 22nd of November we are welcoming people from Berlin to screen with us the very recent film about the Renter Rebels in the Berlin, a quite popular and diverse movement that emerged in the last couple of years and that struggles against massive gentrification and forced evictions of renters that take place at high pace. That weekend shall serve as space for discussion and exchange with the people from Berlin, about experiences being made in struggle, the urban restructuring that goes on in Berlin, and the self-organisation of all kinds of people to fight against it. Besides of being inspirational the events shall also be a space to come together and exchange ideas and experiences related to the unacceptable housing situation in Amsterdam and necessary housing struggles. Descent housing in its various forms and shapes and the city itself is not for profit but for us, the people, and a basic need of everybody independent of social status. […Lees verder]