The end of #Besetzen
From now on there is no approachable structure behind this campaign. Requests regarding Antirep will be answered as long as necessary. Also our Twitter account and Blog website will be further provided with news and content. #Besetzen was a join-in campaign. This idea exists further on. However, the groups that took care of the infrastructure over the last years won’t work together anymore in this context.
Let‘s all stay defiant!
// we were live – watch the recording here //
// Auf deutsch – en español //
… until we no longer have to.” That’s what we have always said. In times of “emergency”, this wording can be expanded to an appeal: “You have to join in!”
COVID-19 is hitting more and more areas of the world and it turns out that the so-called emergency is the rule. For, where people are called by the supposedly necessary and strict father state: “Stay at home!”, not everyone has a home. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the state itself has been pushing up for a long time the numbers of homeless by evicting them. At the same time, the state closes day-care centers that the homeless need for the measly bread of mercy and a little soap and water. In its brazen double standards, the state then exhorts patriarchally, “Pay attention to hygiene!”
“Avoid social contacts!” That’s what the governments demand. But where should refugees retreat to, when they are penned up in camps and deportation prisons at Europe’s external borders and the German periphery? With human rights – such as asylum, freedom of movement and housing – they were also deprived of the opportunity to effectively protect themselves against COVID-19.
The catastrophe in Germany is, that not even the last broken-down remnants of its healthcare system are accessible to everyone. It is a social farce that doctors*, paramedics* and nursing staff, who declared the state of emergency in healthcare long before COVID-19, were ignored. So, they are the least responsible for this emergency situation and therefore deserve our full solidarity. As in Italy, they will soon be forced to make decisions about who can live and who must die. That alone is catastrophic.
For days now, tenants*, social organizations and social democratic parties have been demanding the confiscation of holiday homes and vacancies in order to make them available to the homeless and asylum seekers. While apartments offer the most effective protection against the corona virus, the city of Berlin has created 350 places in a youth hostel and a cold aid facility. Selling that as solidarity is cynical.
In the current situation, the confiscation of empty apartments and buildings is a social duty.
That’s why we will squat and you have to join in!
#besetzen #HousingActionDay2020
Since May 25th we squatted the area at Hauptstraße 2-3 in Rummelsburger Bucht. Extensive infrastructure was built and installed for our living space as well as for the public and communal area WIDER-STRAND. There are many solidarity events at WIDER-STRAND, connecting with our neighbours and other projects in Berlin.
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That is the concept for a social center. We hope to realize this together with a lot of initiatives and people in solidarity.
Read MoreSquatting a house – What does it mean legally?
As a political strategy, squatting has been part of social movements for many years. Once used to gain attention for demands, to claim corporate space and build up open spaces or even to prevent the building of new projects. But what does it mean legally here in Germany and what kind of sentences can occure eventually? Mainly 2 sentences are relevant: trespassings (§ 123 StGB) and property damage (§ 303 StGB)
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All those, who don‘t want to accept the sale-out of the city and whose parctice questions the right to private property, the state encounters with repression. This repression comes not only in form of police violence one is objected to during an eviction, which surely leaves its physical and psychological traces, but also in form of financial pressure by monetary penalties for the crime of trespassing. The attempt to build a city from below is thus stifled from the start.
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On the 20th May 2018, 10 houses were occupied in Berlin and the bordering city Potsdam. Despite positive feedback by neighbours and the public (aka media), all houses were violently evicted the same day. Despite promises concerning housing, the „left“ government had the police evict houses and beat up people. The protection of private property was yet again more valuable than the right to housing or the right to physical integrity. Nonetheless, the occupations were not just right but necessary. More than half of Berlin‘s population finds occupations legitimate. The need for space to housing and living however, remains.
Read MoreToday we occupied the Umspannwerk in Kreuzberg to prevent the planned Google Campus there, to fight against the skyrocketing rents and to open up the space for something better.
Read More10 golden years for concrete, 15 years privatization of urban apartments, 20 years lack of construction of social housing, 29 years Berliner Linie. On the side of the tenants this means: a decade with annual double-digit rent increases. The quality of housing is declining, and the proportion of our wages which go into paying rent is rising. But the burden is not just financial. Displacement creates fear among many and restricts social life
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Assembly for the action days on 4th of July 7pm at Versammlungsraum Mehringhof (Gneisenaustr. 2a)
With the motto „Do some action – reclaim the city“ will be action days in Berlin from 26th – 29th September 2019. On 4th July will be an open assembly to inform you about the current situation of planning and our expectations for the action days. We want to inform you about ways to participate in the infrastructure as well as the actions. Also we would like to discuss the action scenario as it depens on your particpation in the action days. We are happy about people and groups who want to contribuet to our ideas, as well as people and groups who bring their own ideas. The action days invite you to get active!
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