From KSU-WEST and KSU/Squattinggroup de PIJP
Dear squatters and sympathizers,
With this letter we want to announce the inspirational fact that from August the 2nd KSU-West and KSU / Squatting group the Pijp are going to merge into one big KSU. We are going to work together as a bigger force to fight for social housing rights, to fight for social rights and freedom overall, to fight against the sale of social housing and gentrification overall. And also to do more, as it is of course not all about squatting houses.
After participating in discussions lately (SOK in Plantage Dok for example) and hearing about how much difference there is between squatters in the city on both the political and personal level, we have decided to do something totally opposite. This is to combine our forces and work together as one KSU at the same table. It’s actually nothing new since both KSU-West and KSU-Pijp often work together organizing squatting and squatting- related actions. Both the Pijp and the neighbourhoods in the west have suffered for years under a huge gentrification operation, forcing low-income renters to move to the outskirts of the city. At the same time the yuppies take over and make our neighbourhoods sterile, boring and expensive. As participants in our KSU’s (West and Pijp), we have created similar ways to deal with this issue and have similar political ideas about the world around us. That is why we decided to start an experiment and work together. Maybe soon KSU-West will speak dutch and KSU-Pijp will start squatting houses that are actually empty.
We are living in very interesting times. We can feel the breath of the squatting ban on our necks and extreme right wing parties are getting more and more popular, not only in the Netherlands but in the whole of Europe. Cops are putting the screws even tighter, imposing their police state. Even though the coming law is not yet active, we’ve already been experiencing its effects for years. There are fewer and fewer squatting actions city wide and general stagnation in the political aspect of squatting. A lot of people are poorly informed about the upcoming law or how to squat a house while it is still legal. People at KSU’s end up playing cards during their information hour rather then being able to offer useful information because there is barely anyone asking for it. People keep saying that it’s getting more and more fucked up. It seems like we are all going to die on the 1st of October and not 2012.
It’s time to turn this negative spiral around and pull out some Aces. The future will show, but the time for talking is over, the time for action is now. We want to focus on Actions!
Practically this means that from the 2nd of august KSU – West and the Pijp will now become one: KSU Zuid-West. The function of the KSU’s will continue as we all know it. From now on the location will be the Molli, where every Monday from 19:00 – 20:00 we are open to “give advice” to people interested in squatting and to help organize their actions. Just like it was before. And of course the Squatting group the Pijp will also stay the same, where we (now with squatting group West) are there to do more actions than just squatting a house once in a while. People can also come to us if they have action-ideas on wider issues. The only difference is that our operation area contains all the districts in Zuid and West of Amsterdam. This makes us the biggest squatting kartel/assistance hour in the city. Therefore we would like to stretch some other issues as well and turn them into action.
Zuid-KSU-West
every monday from 19:00-20:00
MOLLI_v Ostadestraat 55 hs
From KSU-West and KSU/Squattinggroep de Pijp
