collected reports

april2008.squat.net 11.Apr.2008 23:08

 http://april2008.squat.net collect reports from all the actions taken place across europe and beyond, you can add your own report easy to the breaking news:

collected reports:  http://april2008.squat.net/reports
breaking news:  http://april2008.squat.net/news

Fresh autonomous space in Nijmegen

j. 12.Apr.2008 16:05

On friday a group of 50 people squatted an old postoffice building in the center of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. It's owned by the municipality of Nijmegen and there are no serious plans until at least late 2009. Although there is no official statement from the municipality, the police and the press suggest that the building will be will be evicted. Meanwhile activities continue: this weekend there is an expo and give-away-shop.

[pictures][videos]

update nijmegen

j. 12.Apr.2008 19:56

sorry, the links to pics and videos don't seem to work:
Photos:  http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2008/04/51608.shtml
Videos:  http://www.bataforum.nl/algemeen/update-actiedagen-vrije-ruimte-filmpjes.html

The latest news is: eviction is announced by the police for sunday morning. People are preparing to defend the building and call for solidarity: bring materials, tools, and the spirit of resistance...

First summary from the actions in Austria

squatters united 12.Apr.2008 23:29

Collected reports (in english) and fotos of the April 2008 actions from Graz, Innsbruck, Linz, Salzburg and Vienna. The activities will continue during the next days, there are still new squatted spaces in Linz, Graz and Vienna.

April 11:  https://at.indymedia.org/node/9901#april11reports
April 12:  https://at.indymedia.org/node/9901#april12reports

Feature (en): https://at.indymedia.org/node/9901
Feature (de):  https://at.indymedia.org/node/9845
Newsticker (de):  https://at.indymedia.org/node/9913

Actions in A

AIMC 14.Apr.2008 10:37

A Reclaim the Streets party took place in Wellington outside 128 Abel Smith Street, a radical social centre which was raided only 6 months ago on 15th October in the so-called 'anti-terror' raids. The party was a great success, although the police showed up several times and some sound gear was confiscated.
Report, Photos and Video:  http://indymedia.org.nz/feature/display/71793

update of the actions on the actiondays in germany

15th of april 15.Apr.2008 01:58

Following actions where hold in various cities in germany for the international actiondays on autonomous spaces:

Erfurt:
(Thursday) Misleading leaflets about a street party confused the police and allowed 150 people to demonstrate in the city in front of the. Stopped by the police but continued

Oldenburg:
(Saturday) Radio Ballet participating 60 people. In the commercial center of the city.

Bremen:
(Saturday) 100 activists at 16.00 built up into the middle of the market place a living room including sofas and a table soccer.

Rostock:
(Friday) Some people occupied the children's playground sitting on lawn chairs. Police checked participants' IDs and Radioballett

Berlin:
(Friday) Pirate radio "squatted" 95.2 FM, broadcasting local information and international streams. - 30 people protested towards the home of the caretaker of the Rigaerstrasse 94 building, Olive Rohn, beautifying his house and garden. - spontaneous

Electro party around Nordbahnhof. (Saturday) 2pm Street Party in Rigaerstrasse & Liebigrasse, music, food and drinks, table soccer sofas etc. Police pushed the party out of the street at 8pm. - Spontaneous radical bike ride cycled around the Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer Berg, blocking for some time 6 main junctions and distributing leaflets. -

Competition for throwing bottle lids as far as possible made a record for 29,5 meters.

Dortmund:(
Saturday) spontaneous demo requesting the creation of free and autonomous spaces. "Dominique" anti-repression demo at the Freitreppen, with 200 people.

Mannheim:
Steetparty with over 200 people at the harbour.  http://de.indymedia.org/2008/04/213433.shtml

Heidelberg
11th: There was a nice and powerful demonstration with over 150 persons in spite of a lot of rain.  http://de.indymedia.org/2008/04/213061.shtml
On sunday there was a picknick in the city and afterwards a radioballett

Bochum
In the night of the 12th of april there was a "Dance into the freespace"-Party with around 100 persons in a temporary squatted empty house.

Köln
„Reclaim the Streets“-Party in the innercity, where around 1000(!) people changes turned the city into a party zone for six hours, various small actions in the streets and great athmosphere  http://de.indymedia.org/2008/04/213317.shtml  http://de.indymedia.org/2008/04/213274.shtml

Karlsruhe
Radioballett

Stuttgart
Monsterwalk through the city on friday and demonstration on saturday

Dresden
Banners on empty houses, demonstration with around 300 people and soundsystems, Radioballett for free spaces

Magdeburg
2 Fake-Squats and Critical Mass  http://de.indymedia.org/2008/04/213398.shtml

Buchholz
i.d.N. Small autonoumous camp with the motto „Freiraum Manie Fest“ to call for the international action days 4th and 5th of april  http://de.indymedia.org/2008/04/213078.shtml

Erlangen
11.th of april spontanous „Reclaim Your City“ Party with circa 50 persons in the trainstation im Bahnhof von Erlangen statt!

Darmstadt
different small and kreativ actions as prying infront of kamaras, water-battles and theater about police violence in the city, a walk in the city to make it nicer and a bicycle-flash-mob

- 12th of april: spontanous party as startpoint of a kampagne for a new autonomous center in Darmstadt with 200 participants  http://de.indymedia.org/2008/04/213319.shtml

Münster
Free-spaces-bycycle-ralley through the city with differnt stations, where participants made the surveillance-cameras visible, painted banners, crossdressing into a big store and more  http://de.indymedia.org/2008/04/213295.shtml

Leipzig-Grünau
Friday: barbecue infront of a house in the Alten Salzstraße, which people fight to open it as a new autonomous center.
Saturday: Demonstration for a new autonomous center with 300 participants which ended again at the "new AJZ" with music and food  http://de.indymedia.org/2008/04/213231.shtml

Stuttgart
Streetparty with music, art and information about the actiondays with around 100 participants and main shopping mall was changed into a living room for one our

Nürnberg
Underground-Metro-Party with 40 persons, carpets where put on the ground and hammocks in the air


Amazing to see the response to the actiondays in germany and all the other countries where beautiful actions took place.

See you at the next international Squatting and Autonomous Spaces Meeting in the last week of may near berlin...
Warm greetings

Check it out

Jack Bart 30.Apr.2008 01:27

Global summary of april2008-related actions throughout the world

some folks from the april2008 crew 03.May.2008 11:04

Foreword

Last year, a call to decentralized actions in support of squats and autonomous spaces was issued, proposing to join forces in April, 2008, for a few days of direct actions, public demonstrations, building occupations, open celebrations of our struggles and counter-cultures… in a desire to bridge our energies, and use a common determination fighting our local situations.

The initiative was met with enthusiasm: up to 130 people took part in the coordination meeting that was held in Dijon late November, and the call was translated in 18 different languages. Thankfully, it appeared that we were quite many, those feeling that the diminution of “liberated spaces” locally was to be met with international solidarity, and that this struggle was not about isolated spaces, but about a movement without borders, crucial to anticapitalist and anti-authoritarian practices.

Moreover, the april2008 mobilisation has been an occasion to relaunch some “national” intersquat regroupings and gatherings, as in Germany or in the UK. So, yes, we did expect a handful of actions to make this April month special, both for us and for private property. Still, we must admit to be quite amazed at how successful the initiative turned out to be: events and actions were reported in at least 95 cities, scattered over 26 countries; mostly located in Europe, but also across continents, with reports coming from New Zealand or the US, Israel or Russia!

A great diversity of tactics were used, ranging from banner drops to sabotage actions, along with street theatre, exhibitions, food not bombs, parties and discussions. However, the april2008 week-end was predominantly filled with demonstrations, Reclaim The Streets and squatting actions! More than 30 new squats were opened, quite often in cities which lacked a squatted social centre, and/or where antisquat policies had previously made it harsh to occupy empty buildings. While some of them have been evicted already, some are still here fortunately!

While it has been absolutely great to see so many actions coincide and “make squatting a threat again” ;) over a week-end, the most thrilling bit might be yet to come, with the imminent perspective of a european “interspace”, bringing together various squats & autonomous places to push the april2008 dynamic further, to build longer term connexions, hopefully, and shape new perspectives out of our commongrounds. More info on this Berlin late May event on  http://interspace.blogsport.de

Let’s hope that april2008 was nothing but a step in a broader process; it’s up to us all to make it so! This said, greetings and solidarity to everyone who contributed to these action days, proving that yes, indeed:

« We are everywhere! »

some folks from the april2008 crew

* * *

What follows is a summary of actions that took place within the april2008 framework. It is by no way exhaustive, as a number of actions were unfortunately not directly reported to us, and were found by crawling Indymedia networks. No doubt we’ll still learn about stuff that happened in the upcoming days; in any case, you are encouraged to check out the april2008 campaign website  http://april2008.squat.net for more information, updates and translations!

Though they are summed up in a few lines only below, detailed reports, together with photos and/or videos are available for a number of the listed initiatives on the april2008 website. If you were part of an initiative that should be documented more thoroughly, please send us your materials to get them published: april2008-www at squat dot net

Please note that help is needed to translate this summary to as many languages as possible, so that the april2008 initiative gets a chance to inspire non-english speakers too. Please share your language skills by joining the april2008-translation team and its mailing-list:  https://squat.net/mailman/listinfo/april2008-translation

You can find the Summary here:  http://april2008.squat.net/summary/