Squat news from Amsterdam (Holland)

EVICTION WAVE HITS AMSTERDAM: SQUATTERS CHOOSE ATTACK INSTEAD OF DEFENSE.

This Tuesday the 22nd of March, the city of Amsterdam witnessed a huge eviction-wave.

It was the first big series of evictions after the new anti-squat law in Holland. The formerly quite tolerant attitude in Holland towards squatting has been replaced by a zero-tolerance approach to anyone taking housing rights into their own hands.

Instead of evicting squatted houses one by one, the Amsterdam police has a tradition of evicting in so-called “eviction waves”. An eviction wave generally consists of a high number of riot police, specialised teams for breaking open doors and barricades, police dogs, armoured water-cannon trucks and sometimes a helicopter. This time the usual circus was even joined by military police.

Starting early in the morning, this policeforce crossed the city and evicted a number of pre-announced squats. Instead of focusing on defense of squats to be evicted, this time a call-out was made for de-centralised autonomous actions.

The night before the eviction wave was an chaotic one for the pigs.
 Even though they were massively present in the streets during the whole night before the eviction wave, individuals attacked and vandalised several state and corporate targets.

A police van was set on fire, banks attacked and cash machines smashed. Futhermore, a car belonging to a big housing corporation was burned to the ground. Squatting and anti-authoritarian graffiti was left all over the city.
Six arrests were made during the night. One person was arrested when s/he refused to leave the squat and stayed
inside.

Ten houses were evicted after a full day of police activity. The costs of an eviction-wave are estimated at 700,000 euro.

Squatting in Amsterdam will continue and everybody knows it.