Yesterday mayor Eberhard van der Laan, and police commissioner Leen Schaap of Amsterdam declared war against squatters in Amsterdam. They announced that they will be evicting roughly 200 of the 300 squats in Amsterdam, using the new law to ban squatting. Police commissioner Leen Schaap actually stated that his hands are itching to get started.
Most of you will know that squatting is legal in Amsterdam, and most of you also know that this situation will drastically change on the 1st of October when the new law will be enforced. Right wing populist manipulators have taken the power in the Netherlands. Of course these people want to protect their status quo and their friends who speculate and make huge profits on basic needs as housing, and the squatting movement poses them a big threat by bringing their money making schemes into daylight.
So they banned it. And whereas at first they pretended that nothing would really change, because they would still not evict a building only for it to be standing empty afterwards, they now retaliate their statement a few days before the law comes into use. Besides being another proof of the hypocritical behavior of most politicians, this is not the way to find a constructive peaceful solution between the police-force and the squatters.
Our response is, as usual, to take it with a good deal of irony and a hint of nonchalance. But really we should be conspiring against them as hard as they are conspiring against us. They have created a European (economic) union, maybe it’s time to show them that not only the politicians in Europe are united, but so are the squatters, anarchists and artists. It’s time to show them that not everybody is happy to live in a rented square, and some us have actually freed ourselves from the claws of the system. The revolution can start any moment, all we need is enough people united in solidarity, for an existence full of colour and freedom of movement.
Join our action centre in the former fire station , celebrate our criminality with us on the eve and demonstrate with us on the Spui in Amsterdam on the 1st of October, in Nijmegen on the 2nd of October, and beyond. The time for change is now!