World Free Spaces Newswire Archive

Yesterday, Bastille Day, a banner was hung along the main parade route reading "The Bastille has fallen, but not Fortress Europe." And every evening Calais No Borders are holding feasts of free food and music for migrants and all-comers in an open space near the town hall.

A convoy of shopping trollies planted up with vegetables and flowers salvaged from a demolished community garden back in May took to the streets of Brighton on Saturday (July 9). Shoppers were encouraged to grow their own and support local independent grocers and boycott Tesco and Sainsburies who are taking over the city centre in a supermarket war.

In the past couple of days, a group of people in Vienna, fed up of the increasing daily repression of life and the lack of free social space, have taken over an abandoned building in the Ottakring part of the city.

New eco-village orientated social media platform being developed- seeking fellow hackivists and geeky campaigners for collaboration / community based on free, equal association, consensus decision making and open source principles... lets take a activist sized bite outta fciabook!

An abandoned shop front in Churchill Square, Brighton’s biggest shopping centre, has been occupied in solidarity with striking public sector workers.

DOWNLOAD THE SHOW
 http://www.archive.org/details/DissidentIslandRadio-June172011-Episode84

(a personal account of what happened on June 15th at Syntagma sq in Athens)

Today, in Syntagma Square, the people have exceeded themselves. Facing the violence of the MAT [=riot police force], of tear gas and molotov cocktails, they responded with drums, dancing and singing.

New zine!

There may be no better proof of the rupture that is brought about by the “movement of the squares” other than its open, participatory, directly democratic way of organising and functioning. Within a single week it has given birth to a political culture of a different type, one that literally overcomes all known models of organising and struggle to date.

Even if the issue of its procedures is incomplete, it comes up again and again and comprises the most important legacy already left to the political and social life of the country. This does not mean there are no issues with disorganisation, inefficiency, delays. Taking into account however the explosive rhythm of its development, the lack of previous experience on the side of those who created it, along with the need to compile, step by step, heterogeneous and different opinions of all participants through open procedures, all this is to be expected. Even if time-consuming, its procedures are flexible and are altered by the day; they are self-criticised, adjusted according to mistakes, comments and suggestions deriving from them being tested in practice.

Barcelona, Spring 2011: Chronology of An Unexpected Event

Communiqué claiming numerous incendiary attacks and planted bomb in solidarity to Social Centre Satama and Roma migrants in Helsinki, Finland and anarchist prisoners worldwide.

One year ago today, six ships carrying nearly 700 human rights defenders, met at sea to commence the last leg of our voyage to Gaza to break Israel’s brutal stranglehold on 1.5 million Palestinians. A few hours later the Israeli military launched a full-scale assault on our civilian convoy, killing nine of our colleagues and injuring over 50 others.

Despite widespread condemnation and an UN-commissioned investigation that found Israel’s acts unlawful, possibly amounting to war crimes, Israel has yet to be held accountable. Families of the victims killed on the Mavi Marmara await justice and millions of Palestinians continue to demand their human rights respected.

In the wake of continued government inaction to stop Israel’s human rights abuses, we, members of global civil society representing dozens of national coalitions and international organizations will launch next month Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human.

More than 20 guerilla gardeners seedbombed the community garden they were evicted from recently in a show of defiance and creativity

Hundreds of people attended a rally and demonstration over the last week in Belgrave Square, opposite the Spanish Embassy in London, in support of‘Democracia Real Ya’ (‘Real Democracy Now’). Numbers peaked on Saturday 21st May at 8pm with around 700 people in attendance.

An eyewitness account of the revolutionary assembly now taking place in Bilbao. No apologies for writing the account in the form of a poem, this is just the way it happened. I read this last night in the assembly (I was very nervous, there were thousands of people there.)

Testimonio de un testigo presencial de la asamblea revolucionario actualmente pasando en Bilbao. No pido disculpas por presentarlo en forma de poesía, así es como ocurrió. Leí esto anoche en la asamblea (estaba muy nervioso, había miles de personas ahí.)

Got any positive, funny or random stories from your squatting experiences?

Reclaim the fields Camp 2011

21.-30. September

in Rosia Montana in Romania

Social Centre Plus 1, the originally occupied Job Centre site on 122 Deptford High St, was finally evicted this morning by a group of bailiff thugs from Locksbury Services backed up by around 10 police officers.

Last weekend, a bigger demonstration in hamburg took place with 4000 to 6000 people for support of Rote Flora squat and against commercialisation of the city.
The media attention was high, as there had been lots of discussions in the last weeks about the Rote Flora squat and also about gentrification in generell.
Another bigger event was taking place last weekend, as several people squatted a house in the district altona, demanding a social centre "autonomes centrum altona bahnhof (acab)" and staying inside the former building of the fiscal authorities.

A busy month on the border watch as activists release "Videos of Shame" to spotlight police repression; the cops hit back with more violence; ... and the struggle continues.