news from berlin and elsewhre

action days

2008-04-11T10:37:00.001-07:00

2008-03-23T07:37:00.000-07:00

Appeal for signing the support for the autonomous, free and in self-managing use of
former Rog factory!

Rog factory, Thursday, 20th of March 22.30 Mayor of city of Ljubljana Zoran
Jankoviæ decides to make an unexpected visit. He notifies the people in Rog that
he will order the evacuation and sealing of Rog. Upon being asked what the reason
for his decision was he said that the users broke the agreement with The City
Council of the City of Ljubljana (MOL) which claimed that no one was to reside in
the factory. The reason for his decision was supposed to be the hosting of
»Brothers of liberty«, a German medieval craftsman guild, which is holding a
congress this weekend in Rog. It is an old association, whose graduates acquire a
trade certificate after they contribute to the public benefit in various cities
for several months with their work and are welcome everywhere in Europe because of
their noble mission. As hosting such a collective is in accordance with the
mission of openness of Rog, the Mayor's demand that Rog denies them the
hospitality is simply impossible.
Rog will build no walls for the »Brothers of liberty«. It will not instigate
Security or police against them. The world of walls, security services ,
exclusions and discrimination is the world of Mayor Jankoviæ. Rog is a different
world. Many have finally found a place in it where they can express themselves
freely. Many have found in it the dignity and value of their life. Everything,
that the world of Major Jankoviæ wants to deny them. A rich programme, an
exceptional ammount of events and an incredible social engagement of Rog is a
testimony to all this, which can all be seen on the websites www.tovarna.org and
www.njetwork.org.
Mayor Jankoviæ's assault on Rog is simultaneously symbolic and real. The formal
reason for this outburst of self-will and authoritarianism is hosting the
»Brothers of liberty«. The real reason however is the hatred towards all forms of
creative existence that are actively rejecting the subordination to the authority
of »The City Council of the City of Ljubljana » - a company, in which a handful of
arbitrary and authoritarian Moguls is trampling the freedom of expression, human
dignity and diversity. It is about the methodical destroying of those rare
possibilities of autonomous and self-defined activities of individuals and groups
that reject to do just what the hegemonic model of organised social life expects
them to do. For the managerial ideology of the municipal authorities the sole
existance of such possibilities of different creativeness is already
problematical.
Therefor it is important, that you support the free, self-managing and autonomous
use of Rog. Oppose the destruction of one of the rare places in which different
forms of collective activity and life are possible. With your signing and other
forms of support you will be sending out a message that this city, this society
and this world needs places like Rog.
We ask you to send your messages of support for Rog to the Mayor's email and fax
number.
You can sign this petition at http://www.njetwork.org/spip.php?article67.
Jankovic's contacts are mail: zoran.jankovic@ljubljana.si, fax: 013061214. Please
add this information in the text and send it out.
Temporary users of Rog
Ljubljana, 21. March 2008.

autonomous spaces meeting mannheim

2008-01-15T08:40:00.001-08:00

2007-10-11T10:52:00.001-07:00

2007-10-03T06:26:00.000-07:00

1) Call for days of decentralized actions in defense of squatted &
   autonomous spaces in Europe, April 2008;

2) Invitation to a preparation meeting in "Les Tanneries" (Dijon,
   France), November 2007;

                              Call
                              ----

« On Friday the 4th and Saturday the 5th of April 2008, we call for
two days of demonstration, direct action, public information,
street-party, squatting... in defence of free spaces and for an
anti-capitalist popular culture.

Through these two days, we want to help create more visibility of
autonomous spaces and squats as a european/global political movement.
We want to develop interconnections and solidarity between squats and
autonomous spaces. We want to keep linking our spaces with new people
and new struggles, and support the creation of autonomous spaces in
places where there has not been a history of this kind of action. We
want to build, step by step, our ability to overcome the wave of
repression falling on us.

We call for decentralised and autonomous actions of all kinds,
depending on what people feel to be the most appropriate to their
local context. You'll find below the political content we wish to
give to these two days. »

The rest of the call can be read on http://april2008.squat.net/. It is
not a final text, but a way to introduce and discuss the project. It
was first proposed by a group of people involved with various autonomous
spaces around Europe. This summer, we travelled with it and introduced
it to various collectives. Given the present dynamic of resistance
around autonomous spaces in Europe, it seems that the word is spreading
quite quickly and enthousiastically.


                    preparation meeting
                    -------------------

The success of this call now depends upon our capacity to create a
bigger international working group. The whole event will happen without
any "central commitee", and will be made of a various autonomous
decentralised actions. Still, we think it is important to have a
physical meeting, in order to exchange ideas and strategies, discuss the
contents of the call, see how to create common information tools around
that project, how to connect and help the various local initiatives.

Thus, we're calling for an international preparation & coordination
meeting on November 24th & 25th 2007, in the autonomous space "Les
Tanneries", located in Dijon, France. It is a squatted social centre in
a post-industrial environment, occupied since 1998. Thanks to years of
struggle against the city council owning the buildings, the project has
reached a certain degree of stability. It hosts a collective house, a
gig room, a hacklab, a free shop, an infoshop, a collective garden, a
library...

We hope that many of you will be able to join. Please tell us a bit in
advance if you're planning to come, so that we get an idea of the number
of people we have to accomodate and plan food for. You're very welcome
to pass this invitation to squats and autonomous spaces that you know.
The call can be downloaded as a flyer from http://april2008.squat.net/.
Furthermore, any help with translations in whatever languages is very
welcome.

2007-05-31T10:01:00.000-07:00

rigaer strasse 84 oficial call out

Fire inside Rigaer Str.84 – Berlin

On the 28th April 2007 a fire destroyed the living place for 48 people,a
space for international guests, public cooking space, cinema, free space
for politcal groups, concert space, and a bar.

We, the inhabitants, had to watch the roof and parts of the womens floor
burn for hours. Luckily no one got hurt in our project or the neighboring
house(Proskauerstraße 10), where the fire also spread. The shock of the
situation is still very strong, and it takes a lot of concentration to
have the energy to look to the future.

History of the house

Rigaerstraße 84 was squatted in 1990 and was legalized through rent
contracts in 1991. In 1997, shortly after the first attempt to renovate
the house, which could not happen due to resistence from the inhabitents,
the roof of the entire corner (rigaerstraße 84 and proskauerstraße 10)
burned. According to the reports from the fire investigators, the fire was
intentional. In addition to the roof the 4th floor flats were damaged by
fire and water. The other floors were minimally damaged. Both houses were
closed for a while by the police.

Shortly after the fire and failed renovation attempt, the house was sold
to the current owners under dubious circumstances.

On november 2006, a new renovation plan came to us. In response to that,
we offered to buy the house from the current owners. They told us that,
due to tax laws, they did not want to sell to us.

At the time of the latest fire there were 48 people living in the R84.

Right now there is no offical report from the police of the fire, but for
us it looks this way:

The fire was first noticed by the inhabitants of the back house at 4:30am.
The fire started in a locked, uninhabited room that had not been used for
a long time. At this time we could not see other seperate fires. As we
tried to fight the fire with fire extinguishers and hoses, people ran
around the houses waking the others up, and called the fire department.
Even before the fire department and police arrived, there were civil
(plain clothed) cops in the house, forcing people to get out without
grabbing essential belongings.

The fire department arrived at 4:45am and started, in staircase and later
with ladder trucks, to fight the fire. There were 10 fire trucks blocking
the street, yet majority of the time, only one of the firetrucks was
used...

In not much time, the entire rooftop of R84 caught on flames and the fire
began to spread across the rooftop of Proskauerstr. 10. Around the same
time, the 4th fl. of R84 (which was the women's floor), began to catch
aflame.

At this point, as far as anybody standing outside could tell, the process
of extinguishing the fire was concentrated mostly on the normal rented
flats of Proskauerstr.10, ignoring the blazing flame on the R84 side for
what seemed to be hours.

A few of the firefighters, who were asked how the fire started and spread
so quickly, responded that they were quite sure that some kind of
accelerant was used in the arsenal. Some hours later, after most of the
fire was extinguished, the entire rooftop, most of the attic and a good
portion of the 4th floor was mostly just a skeleton of what once ws our
home. The rest of the house, due to the extinguishing process, was
destroyed and declared too dangerous to enter and no longer habitable.

While the building was still aflame, passerbys stopped on the sidewalk and
gauked at the ruins.Amongst these „passerbys“, 5 people, recognized as
Nazis, heckled the victims of this event. They were decidedly driven away.

On the same day, the building police closed access to both buildings.
While we,the inhabitants from R84 house project, were denied the right to
sit across the street of their burning home and to have breakfast in
mourning, the neighboring house (Pros.10) inhabitants were allowed to
retrieve personal belongings and effects, All day, we were not allowed to
re-enter our home to retrieve important documents, money, or even clean
socks. The police said that our house was more endangered of potentially
collapsing upon us....

The next day, a few different local Berliner newspapers stated that the
fire was started due to a malfunctioning marijuana plantation, which we
were supposedly growing in our attic. They got their information from a
quite unbalanced, disgruntled neighbor, who has been quite aggressive
towards us in the past. Needless to say, this information is false, and
we, as a household, were never given the possibility to give our statement
on this matter to the press. They never asked. Guess the Marijuana story
was more juicier than the truth. Lies in the media? Go figure!

We find this spread of false information unjust and unfair, and have
already spoken with our lawyer to put force on the local media to take
back these bogus accusations and let our voice be heard.

On Tues afternoon, we,the ex-inhabitants organized an infocenter in the
bar next door, Fischladen. This is the collection place for donated
materials. In the same time, we were in mediation with the police and
bldg. inspectors to allow us to retrieve our smoldering and wet
belongings. Also, we tried to arrange a meeting with our local Mayor Dr.
Franz Schulz,which couldn't take place,since he wasn't there...

Later that afternoon, the owner from R84 agreed to allow us access to the
house for a few hours the next day. In the evening, there was a public
meeting where supporters came to get detailed info, ask questions and
exchange ideas.

On Wed, 30.May, we finally had access to our house from 10am til 1pm to
retrieve our belongings which were not destroyed by water and fire damage.
Many friends, neighbors and concerned individuals helped us make the move
quick and productive. A big thank you to all of you!!

In the afternoon, some of us were able to finally meet with the local
Mayor. We asked for his support in our demands for an immediate housing
alternative for us, as a house collective. In the evening, another group
of ex-inhabitants visited a local office of the left wing party, which is
a strong presence in this area.

Alternative open spaces are endagered everywhere,not just in Berlin alone.
Since the eviction of of York 59, the threat against „Schwarze
Kanal“,Brunnenstraße 183,Rigaerstr.94, K0pi and many others, the burning
of R84 is at present the most devastating.

The city structuring plans of Neo-liberal ideology leaves no place for
alternative self-managed open/free space. Especially dirty ones like ours.

We were astoundished by the amount of solidarity actions that already
started in the first hours of the fire. All coming from friends,
strangers, neighbors and other house projects, in forms of colthing, food,
financial support, etc.. Even local businesses had offered to help us out
in any way they could possible. This help came out not just from Berlin.
Copenhagen, Amsterdam,Dijon, Barcelona, have all given us moral and/or
finacial support.

Since our core infrastructor has been destroyed by water and fire, and are
left without housing and the loss of belongings, we are completely
dependant on outside help for our lawyer and processing costs.

We are demanding a political solution that enables us to continue living
out our dreams and ideas of a free, self-organized community. Its
important to keep on living/organizing together and to contribute to the
subcultural way of life.

THEREFORE WE DEMAND OPEN SPACE!!!! Either back in our old house, after
renovations, or an acceptable replacement and also for the time inbetween.

We won't tolerate that the politicians remain silent of the loss of such
an important international house project, which housed 48 people, all of
which are homeless now. Alternative lifestyles are an unseparatable part
of Berlin and we will fight together for the right of our houses! We do
NOT want to be forced into an escalating situation!

In our point of view, its the duty of those politically responsible to
find an agreeable solution for the berlin house projects.

ONE STRUGGLE—ONE FIGHT: WE STAY TOGETHER!!!!!!

VIVA LA R84!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tanneries poster 3

2007-05-21T08:34:00.001-07:00

tanneries soli posters 2

2007-05-21T08:32:00.001-07:00

autonomous spaces soli demo in berlin

2007-05-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

tanneries soli poster

2007-05-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

2007-05-01T05:16:00.000-07:00

Auction of Köpi by order of the court

Since the 8th of February 2007 it has been planned that K?pi and the
trailer park next to it are to be auctioned off to the highest bidder
on Tuesday the 8th of May this year. Yesterday (23.04.07) we at K?pi
only found this out by accident. While we were celebrating the 17th
birthday of K?pi, investors and speculators already knew that the K?pi
and the plot next to it where the trailer park is located are again
coming up for sale. The bid for the K?pi is starting at 1.670.000
Euro. The trailer park ground is to be split into 3 parts and sold
for a total of 1.815.000.
This is the third attempt at trying to sell the K?pi by auction. The
two previous attempts failed. Responsible for the auction is the
Commerzbank. They made the application for an auction by order of the
court to District Court Tiergarten.
The Tax Office Mitte is responsible for the adjoining land where the
trailer park is situated. The time and dates for auctioning the house
and the adjoining pieces of land were intentionally made for the same
day.
Profiteers of Business
At the same time, Ute Peters from the company Franell Consulting GmbH,
which is located at Bayerischer Platz 2 in 10779 Berlin, is offering
the K?pi for sale. This comes on the company's own initiative and
their pure greed for profit. The appraisal of the K?pi can be seen
personally but is, for "safety reasons", not published. Nevertheless
Mrs. Peters got information about the appraisal, which she must have
obtained illegally.
Keeping the information about the auction secret was planned from the
start by the District Court. Those responsible feared, not without
grounds, that the auction would not go off smoothly if the date was
known to the occupants.
The ominous appraisal was this time written by an engineer by the name
of Erwin B. Stenkewitz. He has falsely written in the appraisal that
the house is squatted when there are contracts. Also, the illusory
value of 1.670.000 Euro was made up by him. If you have questions,
you can visit him at Dahemstr. 25, 12527 Berlin.
Losers of Business
The Berlin cops are shitting themselves thinking of the recent events
in Copenhagen. In some newspaper reports it is also mentioned that
they see it as fatal that the auction's date is so near to the 1st of
May - even though it should be well-known to them that it doesn't
matter when the K?pi and the neighbouring plot are going to be
auctioned. The feared "high mobilisation potential" and the expected
material damage in case of the auction can be expected at any time.
Eternal Winners
The K?pi stands for a non-hierarchical and non-commercial connection
between culture and politics. For 17 years, many large events have
taken place in K?pi and through its unique character, the house has
become internationally well-known.
Activists and visitors to the K?pi are not only from Berlin and other
towns in Germany but also from many countries around Europe and the
rest of the world.
We are not willing to let them take our free spaces and are going to
fight them with all means at our disposal to keep them.
Enough is Enough!
The number of incidents over the last couple of months, such as the
building of the nursing home right next to K?pi, the raid on some
public rooms on the premises, the spying on K?pi from the Verdi
building across the road, has now reached a critical stage with the
planned auction on the 8th of May.
Potential customers, speculators and investors should be warned:
buying the house could be more expensive than calculated because K?pi
remains a capital risk!
That's why we call for:
Demo: Saturday, 05.05.2007, 15:00, Breitscheidplatz (S-/U-Bhf
Zoologischer Garten)
Rally: Tuesday, 08.05.2007, 7:00, Amtsgericht (District Court)
Berlin-Mitte, Littenstr. 12-17. (S-/U-Bhf Jannowitzbr?cke).
Dont forget that K?pi will be part of the "Free Spaces" bloc on the
18:00 demo from Lausitzer Platz on May 1st.
All our friends from around the world are invited to come to Berlin
and join these demonstrations or make solidarity actions in their own
areas!
They've sold the whole city - K?pi stay ours!
K?pi is, and stays, risk capital!!!
Further information to follow.
Look out for announcements.
K?pi web-site: http://koepi.squat.net/

2007-04-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

Let's defend the autonomous space "Les Tanneries"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Let's defend the autonomous space "Les Tanneries"



After nearly 9 years of existence, the squatted autonomous space "Les
Tanneries" (in Dijon, France) is being threatened by a private medical
pole, secretely planned by the city council.

Without any public consultation, but with the typical secrecy that goes
with electoral periods when it comes to hot topics, the "socialist" city
council of Dijon is taking decisions that could lead to the end of the
autonomous space "Les Tanneries", a self-managed political, social,
cultural centre that was squatted in 1998, and has since become an
important node for anarchist organizing and radical activism throughout
France and Europe. Needless to mention that we won't let the council carry
out their plans!

We knew since the beginning that we would have to maintain a permanent
vigilence, despise the no-eviction agreement we obtained from the council
in 2002, after years of fighting. Early March 2007, after hearing
insistant rumours about threatening projects, we got in touch with the
council, asking for explanations. In spite of repeated queries by mail and
telephone, we were denied any answer. Two days ago, we got the
confirmation, from a trustworthy but unofficial source, that the city
council had sent a written proposal to the Â«Â GnÃ©rale de SantÃ©Â Â»,
offering the whole piece of land where our space is located, for the
construction of a 25 acres wide private medical pole by 2009.

While public healthcare services are being threatened by neo-liberal
strategies of privatising in Europe, will the Dijon city council encourage
a "two gears" health system?

Does it want to contribute to the monopoly of the biggest european private
health transnational (1.741 billion euros of profit in 2006, controled by
Vivendi to 10% and american pension funds) by offering a ground that is
close to the city centre, almost in front of the public hospital? The
«Generale de Sante» would thus seize this great occasion to close its
proximity hospitals, rather than renovating them.

Despite its propaganda for "participative democracy", the city council
hasn't asked us, nor anyone else from the neighbourhood, before concluding
the deal which not only threatens us, but will also decide upon the future
of a whole part of town.

# Why support «Les Tanneries» loud and clear?

The council's policies are already threatening the independant theater
"L'Eldorado", as well as the squat called "Le Toboggan". By planning to
shut down "Les Tanneries", it will ostensibly confirm that the so-called
"socialist" party wants France to be a police state without places of
resistance, experimentation and popular culture.

"Les Tanneries" hosts a concert hall for do it yourself bands and
miscellaneous performances, a housing collective and some anarchist
affinity groups, a hacklab for developping free software and running
alternative servers, a free-shop, a space for mecanics and a bike-repair
workshop, rehearsal rooms and silc-screening facilities, a meeting space,
an organic garden, an alternative media center, a squatters' helpdesk, a
library, diverse ecological constructions, dozens of collectives,
associations, local and international networks that use the space to
organise gigs, infonights, actions, skill-shares, meetings and projects...

While public cultural spaces run with the help of huge grants, and private
ones thanks to businesses and sponsors, hundreds of people come weekly to
"Les Tanneries" to create a truly independent culture and indulge into all
kinds of activities for free, or on a "sliding-scale" financial support
basis. So as to preserve its freedom, "Les Tanneries" has always been ran
without any kind of subsidees, nor any employees.

In a country where self-managed structures are almost always repressed and
therefore fragile, "Les Tanneries" is one of the very few long lasting
project of this kind. Hence it has become a ressourceful place and a
crucial part of an autonomous, activist and counter-cultural scene in
Europe.

"Les Tanneries" is about putting radical social views into practice, and
about providing tools for one another to confront their ideas. We try to
cross the borders between our "personnal lives" and the "political world",
and attempt at organizing in formal horizontal fashion, against
authoritarian and hierarchical structures.

We want to build things ourselves and change our lives, by challenging
domination, racism, sexism and homophobia, in the streets, as much as
within our walls. Most importantly, we want to do it now, rather than wait
for whichever D day.

However, "Les Tanneries" doesn't want to be a "nice and friendly"
alternative that wouldn't shove too violently established powers, nor does
it want to be some tolerated folklorical zoo, that would prove the
democratical goodwill of council leaders. We're here to struggle and
change the world, naturally!

Still, we don't fantasize about standing on the fringe of society.
Contrary to the cynical mainstream political norm, experiences such as
ours are showing it is possible to practically challenge capitalism and
authority, far from electoral speeches. Throughout its existence, "Les
Tanneries" has proved that it is not only realistic, but also really
relevant to self-organise without institutions. We also believe we've
shown it was not just the delirious utopy of a bunch of youth that will
change its mind when they grow older.

"Les Tanneries", just like all these places standing against the world
surrounding them, is unique in its kind, and bound to the history of so
many. It sprang out of the dreams, collusions and affinities, encounters
and combativity of hundreds of people. Carved within its walls, are the
joys and angers, the rages and passions, the adventures and emotions of
several generations.

# Our project can't be moved nor destroyed;
# it must stay in the neighbourhood!

Whatever the new city-planning for the neighbourhood might be, we will
struggle to preserve what we've been building here for ten years and
ensure the project as a whole can all carry on. It is perfectlt possible,
considering how much space is available around "Les Tanneries". With a
real political will from the city-hall, suitable technical solutions can
be found.

Thanks to support from the population, and thanks to the series of
pressure actions that were lead throughout 5 years, "Les Tanneries" got an
end to city harassment in 2002. Four years later, we're ready to start
fighting again to defend this place and build a new network of resistance
based upon the contacts, experiences and complicities that were made
throughout the time. Not only is "Les Tanneries" deeply-rooted locally,
but it is also part of a larger community, whose affinities know no
borders. Be it through support actions around the world, or by coming to
"Les Tanneries" to phusically defend the place against eviction, we expect
that extended family to mobilize with us!

Let's hope leaders will keep in mind the long days and nights of
demonstrating and rioting that paralysed the Danish capital those last
weeks, as well as the number of radical actions that happened all over
Europe in support of our friends of Ungdomshuset. Just like theirs, our
struggle is a global fight for self-organised spaces and nodes of
subversion to carry on and extend all over Europe.

We will win, thanks to any kinds of protest initiative you can take... be
it big or small. All types of solidarity actions are encouraged. The least
you can do, right now, is to write to Dijon's city-hall to say that you
wish for "Les Tanneries" to carry on existing where it is. If you want to
be informed of support actions and demonstrations, send us your e-mail or
phone number at tanneries at squat dot net.

We'll defend, we'll resist. Parce qu'on a la rage!

Dijon, March 24th 2007, Espace autogéré des Tanneries,

http://squat.net/tanneries/

tanneries at squat dot net