IndyMedia - Vrij Media Centrum Nederland

Waar: Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Wanneer: 15/01/2022 - 19:56

In the last few months many have been taking action as part of a broader housing struggle. The recent housing demonstrations have revealed that we are massive in numbers, and that there is a urgent need for affordable housing, but the political system is incapable of real and meaningful change.

There is a growing awareness that this struggle needs to be anti-capitalist. A respect for a diversity of tactics is essential in this fight. Housing struggle is class war. We continue this fight here, by collectively taking back a space from those in power. All the wealth in the world is created by the workers, today we take back what is ours, lets bring back the commons.

We have squatted Waldeck Pyrmontlaan 8, and we will use it as a home for houseless students and a political space for Autonomous Student Struggle. In this space, we want to share knowledge that doesn't rely on opressive power structures and to actively organise against capitalism and the state, for a free world where everyone can live meaningful and fulfilling lives. We are not free until everyone is free.

The housing 'crisis' doesn't exist,scarcity of housing is a myth -the problem is the unequal distribution of wealth. The problem is capitalism. When we squat, we don't ask politicians to secure our housing needs: we do it ourselves! Rent is theft, all housing should be free, we want a world without private property.

Many of us are left without a roof above our heads and many more struggle to pay continously rising rent. Social housing is being sold off into private ownership, to investors who are given free range to do as they please. The lack of affordable housing means being excluded from life in the city and denied a basic right to housing. We will make no demands to politicians, they have nothing to offer us.
We have to speak to our oppressors from a position of power, not beg them to throw us some crumbs. The city belongs to all that live in it and we have to take it back however we can.

We defy their laws and squat despite of criminalisation, we might be met with repression- but it is when we act freely despite what is legally allowed that we realise what is possible. If we don't try we have already lost. We are many and they are few. Let's let our actions speak for us, let's show that we can build structures outside of and against the state that give practical meaning to peoples lives.

Our actions must serve to extend the networks of solidarity, to contribute to the construction of a society based on mutual aid, to destroy all authority.It is in these moments that we get together and experience our collective power, that we can imagine what could be possible. It is these moments that allow us to dream.

ASS