And a call out for four open days of skillsharing around the practical
aspects of occuping and inhabiting free spaces.
(4-7 of November)
We are having a gathering in the occupied Hambacher Forest to discuss the possibilities for squatting as a way of fighting now and in the future, and how to answer attempts of legalisation and pacification in general.
The squatting movement in so-called Germany lies in ruins. Most of the once squatted houses in this territory are now either evicted or turned into house projects with a legal status. In a lot of cases this has severed their connections with conflictual political struggles, creating a process of pacification.
At the same time a lot of wagon places exist under the banner of
“alternative living”, tolerated by the state as part of a strategy to
integrate specific forms of living together into capitalist society.
This makes it easier for the state to isolate and evict those who refuse to compromise.
The multiplication of forest occupations in Germany over recent years gave squatting some kind of resurgence. But recently we have seen forest occupations forming legal assemblies, which means executing the laws and demands of the state, putting us in a position of policing each other and ourselves.
We understand that deals offered by the state, especially in the context of threats of heavy repression, have their appeal. But we also want to draw attention to the ways in which legalisation inevitably creates hierarchy, robs spaces of their fluidity, makes us more dependant on work and money, and sets off a process of accepting bigger and smaller compromises, which affect the spaces at the foundations and our broader struggles in their totality.
We decided to host this gathering in Hambi at the moment,because the occupation (until now squatted for over a decade) has recently been facing increasing attention from politicians and statists generally, who want to legalise and therefore destroy this struggle in one way or another.
The situation in the German territory was taken as a reference point for these words, just because it is the context we find ourselves in, but we see similar things happening in other places. We would love to host people from far and wide, to share different perspectives on what legalisation means, how to reverse the pacification of our spaces, how we can take new squats and how to resist evictions.
Squatting has always been an essential tool in the fight against the
state, capital and domination – we will not give up this method without a fight, and we extend a warm welcome to all friends and comrades who share this wish.
The program is open for you to propose workshops or whatever else, or just put them on the timetable when you arrive.
And on the same topic: 30.10 discussion in Berlin at Rigaer94
For more information or to contact us: attol@systemli.org
To get more info: legalizationisatrap.noblogs.org