Why here and why now?

There are more than 4,000 buildings empty in Calais, which represents 9 %
of homes (500 of these are the property of a single, large, housing
association- the major ‘social’ landlord in the city), and yet against
this backdrop more than 500 people are on the streets, out of sight of any
dignified solution and used only as sound bites by politicians who proport
to offer assistance and in reality offering nothing. To address this
situation they (the town hall/authorities) have turned Calais into a ghost
town .

Who can claim to have walked in the streets of this city and not passed at
least one house with bricked up windows, doors barricaded, the cellar
sealed? Why leave places empty and people outside in the cold? Why spend
money to condemn access to buildings rather than using them to help a
precarious population?

To answer these questions that the public authorities have chosen to
avoid, (for several years now) a group of individuals have set out to find
collective solutions by giving life to abandoned buildings and the
homeless a roof over their heads. Until now, the authorities have
responded with repressive tactics that have resulted in multiple illegal
evictions based on the perversion of legal procedures, manipulation of
witnesses during neighborhood investigations, and the alteration of
evidence.

In Calais , the discourse on the right to housing is taken hostage by the
various levels of power that have continued to use the migration situation
to stir up fears and fantasies about the issue of squats. In recent months
this political manipulations has been incarnated in the call for the
denunciation and exposure of squats; spearheaded by UMP mayor of Calais
Natacha Bouchart (who in reality has no real political prospects for this
city) an attitude has been established that suggests that squats and their
alleged inhabitants are the origin of all the ills of the city. This
poisonous atmosphere has allowed the racist/xenophobic collective “Save
Calais” (whose founder is a neo-Nazi with a swastika tattoo) to germinate;
their establishment occurring some what coincidentally just two days after
Boucharts call for action on “the problem of migrant squats”

Remember further that two of the town halls main representatives ,
Philippe Mignonnet and Emmanuel Agius (who both work under Bouchart) came
out to welcome ‘save calais’ to the city and to support the groups
“sit-in”on Thursday, Nov. 7 outside the town hall despite the fact that
organizers and participants did not hide their racism (including for
example some discriminatory remarks that migrants “are harmful, three
quarters of them are potential aggressors) and displayed clear affiliation
with the Front National.

“Save Calais” has since extended their ‘stigmatization of squats campaign’
with a sickening xenophobic discourse, and hardline violence against
people trying to find shelter. This group has become the operational arm
of the mayors call to denounce squats in Calais, and has set up a system
for tracking migrants and others living in squats, to identify buildings
being used for shelter, and to organize actions against these people and
their homes. Where it was almost impossible before to stay in Calais when
you were homeless (particularly homeless and undocumented) without
becoming a victim of abuses by the authorities, it is now also a struggle
to avoid being the victim of nazi attacks.


Fascist Extremists, members of “Save Calais”, and manipulated residents
have effectively been besieging a small farmhouse on the outskirts of
Calais ( which was squatted by a couple of people in need of a home)
issuing death threats, throwing stones and Molotov cocktails, following
and attempting to violently attack individuals going about their daily
business, and consistently attempting to burn the house down- making life
impossible for residence of the house attempting to carve out a semblance
of a normal life. Today in Calais (and the surrounding area) being a
squatter is taking the risk of being lynched , under the impassive eyes of
police inaction and the defiant ignorance of the sub-prefect and prefect
1.

We can not let the arbitrary violence of a minority, hitherto unpunished,
prevent us from having access to shelter and defending the need of decent
housing for everyone regardless of their origins. We refuse the
trivialization of these methods and the inaction of state officials, we
will not sit back and do nothing, or see these events become an entrenched
norm.

It would be great to have more people coming to Calais to help support and
sustain our occupations, especially since we think the police are likely
to try and ignore our strong evidence of legal rights as they have
consistently done in the past.



Stop the rot, Squat the Lot.

1- The roles of prefect and sub prefect are something similar to district
judge, combined with the powers of a council official and the CPS (crown
prosecution service) in that they can take decisions on police action;
whether to intervene in certain political matters etc.