World Free Spaces Newswire Archive

1 May 2008. In the early evening, a festive Euromayday Parade took the streets of Catalan city of Terrassa in the metropolitan perifery of Barcelona. Its demands for social rights were highlighted by several actions in specific places in town. The parade was lead by a truck, where Chikiprecario and Supervivienda from the viral housing campaign V de Vivienda) entertained the crowd with choreographies, supported by a hip hop crew. Euromayday Terrassa is a node in the EuroMayDay Network, where precarized people in many cities are cooperating to create a political expression against "precarityof work and live".

chickiprecario video | report & pics [es] | chainworkers interview

Heavy police forces raided the recently squatted building of IKA on Wednesday morning; 7 people were brought in front of the Public Prosecutor, while part of the building has already been demolished.

On April the 11th the Tekenschool (part of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam) was squatted by the April 2008 Coordination Group. The building was used for socials and workshops and as a base for Indymedia NL. It was also the meet-up points for the RTS action on Saturday 12th April, which was attended by over 300 people: Video.

During the international action days for squats and autonomous spaces many activities took place in Vienna. After a powerful demonstration on Friday demanding free and autonomous spaces, followed by squatting a new place for the Viennese “Wagenburg”, the second day started with a “Bim Party” during which several tramways were occupied. In the evening dozens of people met to discuss queer-feminist aspects of squatting and their practical implications.

The following is an attempt at a non comprehensive summary of the actions, demonstrations, gatherings and various initiatives that happen during the days of action for squats and autonomous spaces. The summary was created from reports on the IMC UK newswire and english language reports posted to the April2008 website.

Note: A more comprehensive summary now exists on the April2008 website..

As part of the days of action in support of squats and autonomous spaces-
Action at Angel Group- building graffitied, locks glued, 12 company vehicles damaged.

A Reclaim the Streets party took place in Wellington as part of the decentralized days of action for squats and autonomous spaces. After a protest against the Labour Party conference, around 30 people marched through town to Upper Abel Smith Street where a group of people was already setting up for the street party.

A video of pixies reclaiming the public space of Brighton with some banner dropping. To our surprise the pigs didn't show up. The weather was great. The day went well.

Twenty five brave souls motivated themselves to follow the tour de squat in Rotterdam. The weather was fine and spirits were high. We passed the sites of 50 or so squats, some still existing, others from the past.

At the last Monday meeting of the Ungdomshusets, consensus was reached to agreeing to an offer of a new building in Northwest of Copenhagen on Dortheavej 61.

The BlokR action in support of creating a new Youth House in Copenhagen went off without a hitch. About 5000 people joined the demo which took nearly four hours to walk and ended in a massive street party in Nørrebro.

This weeks Indy Global Reports was recorded in the village of Marda, in the middle of the West Bank International activists and environmentalists from across the world, Palestine and Israel came together to join a workshop which was originally to be led by Star Hawk, author and activist.
Star Hawk was denied entry to Israel and deported from Ben-Gurion airport last week. Local activists put out an emergency call for workshop leaders, and the course was able to take place. I went to Marda to speak with the participants and organisers.

Tragic murder of Goth girl Sophie Lancaster and the trial of her killers has sparked campaigns to fight intolerance motivated by prejudice about how people dress and to a popular petition calling for a law to protect against attacks.

In this short article, one member of the nonhierarchical collective which ran the centre would like to address some issues raised by the project. As such it can only be read as one person's viewpoint. It is likely that other people from the collective would see things differently. In some ways we achieved a lot, in others we got caught in the traps common to all such DiY projects. I will describe what we did, discuss the collective, mention what we achieved and assess what we did not. Hopefully others can be inspired by our successes and learn from our failures.

Blok R is intended to increase the pressure on Copenhagen City Council to come up with a new Youth House (one year after the brutal eviction of Ungdomshuset). Various houses have been proposed by the Council but negotiations have become drawn out. Blok R happens on 3rd April, afterwhich all participating groups have agreed to quit negotiations and take the battle to the streets for as long as it takes.

Enjoy this forum for open space debate on current issues of transnationality and International Brigades ongoing.........

Week 2 of Boomchucka Circus 2 Iraq's antics....

Social centre in Christchurch, New Zealand received a 10 day eviction notice.

Create with us a space for debates, libertarian culture and networking in the South of Europe.

Follow up from the various actions and "silent" work in France (in particularly)
and in Europe towards the implementation of the Right to Housing for all and
after that the French government voted on a law that turned the right to housing
justiciable (5 March 2007).

Three French active groups, AITEC, DAL and FAPIL
finalized a document under the platform Europe – Third World Centre (CETIM)
to be presented at the next U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL between the
3rd and the 28th of March.

Attached and below is the full text.

Today 21st FEB, is called a night of solidarity with the homeless at the Place de la république in Paris.
It’s organized by 27 organizations for housing rights and homeless.

Here :
 http://www.dailymotion.com/fr/featured/video/x4d8j5_poudre-aux-yeux_politics
you can watch the movie about the tent action of “Enfants de Don Quichotte" in
Canal Saint Martin, last year (71 minutes)