Time for some news, summer has been quite busy at Joe’s Garage and around. The one year squatted office building on the Arent Krijtsstraat 1 in Diemen is gone, back to the owner, with a fence around it but not much of a future. On June 30th, after seven years of emptiness, the Cruquiusweg 117 was squatted, making place for a new project, De Binderij, bringing some new life to this spooky Cruquiusgebied. Numerous anti-squatted buildings are rotting away in this desolate neighbourhood, symbolising more than ever the failure of local politicians in developing a neighbourhood or just keeping life going on. On July 2nd, the City of Amsterdam launched its second eviction wave of the year, unleashing its dogs to evict nine squats. Swammerdamstraat 12 was evicted for the fourth time. The greedy owner did not wait long to demolish it, infuriating still more neighbours. Thanks to the mayor, an extra sand yard has appeared! Squats on the Czaar Peterstraat, the Simon Stevinstraat 25 (Willem Beukels Alternatief), the Cornelis Drebbelstraat 35 (LaRage) and the Bessemerstraat 23 (El Taller social center) were also evicted.
Cruquiusweg 117
“From Rochdale, you can squat everything”
The local media, in need of sensation, again questioned if squatting was dead. An answer came a few days later, from the streets. During the week-end from July 7th, 26 houses were squatted on the Lorentzlaan and the Pasteurstraat in Watergraafsmeer. Owned by Rochdale, one of the most corrupt housing corporation in the Netherlands, these houses are promised to demolition.
On July 20th, the Valreep squat was celebrating two years existence, with a massive Legalisation Manifestation, attracting more than a bunch of squatters but also a neighbourhood. A day later, Roomtuintje Oostbos and Pieter Vlamingstraat 98 were also celebrating their first anniversary.
Lorentzlaan Watergraafsmeer
The empty office building on Karspeldreef 2 in the Bijlmer, Amsterdam South-East was squatted on August 24th. All the upper floors are empty, there’s not a few paper boxes on the ground floor that will save Rochdale from the squatters. Here again, a neighbourhood full of empty office buildings.
What did you miss at Joe’s Garage during the summer? A discussion about Feminism ending up being the big bad F* word, two Cut & Paste parties, two singer songwriters sessions (with Leah Song, Shireen, Dangle Manatee, Ken Parsons, Sam from Sin Sin Collective and Sina Khani), a few movie nights (Performance, Barbarella, Who’ll Stop the Rain, Bloody Sunday, Trash, The Raven, Waltz with Bashir, The Firemen’s Ball), the Autoclave crew from Dijon, preparing their next festival at the Tanneries, the squatters from Paris suburbs, Bagnolet,
Roomtuintje Oostbos & Pieter Vlamingstraat 98
presenting their squatted social center, the Transfo and talking about squatting in France, the “Genova 2001 is not over” benefit for the activists convicted after the G8 protests, two info nights and benefits for our comrades fighting against the State in Turkey and Brazil.
The coming weeks at Joe’s Garage, you’ll get the Valreep organising an info night, ‘Get legalised or get evicted‘. On the film program, we’ll get to see The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema, Midnight Cowboy, Black Block and Billy Jack. The Thursday Vegazulu voku is back after a summer break. Two events are now taking place once a month on fridays, the Cut & Paste Party and the Singer Songwriters. And not to forget, Saturday September 7th, next to the main jail, Bajesdorp will celebrate ten years of rebellion with their music and theatre festival.
Bajesdorp 10 years festival
You are discovering Joe’s Garage for the first time? Welcome to an autonomous squatted political social center, a meeting place in the Transvaal neighbourhood for squatters and non squatters, subsidy free, entirely run by volunteers. This is what we have been doing these last years. New faces, new projects are very welcome, bring your ideas, get involved. Thanks a lot to all our volunteers! If you want to be aware of any event happening at Joe’s Garage, your may import Joe’s iCalendar feed in your own calendar.
Sunday September 1st, Movie night: The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (Sophie Fiennes, USA, 2006, 150 minutes, documentary). Door opens at 20:00, film begins at 21:00. The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema takes the viewer on an exhilarating ride through some of the greatest movies ever made. Serving as presenter and guide is the charismatic Slavoj Žižek, the Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst. [Read more]
Swammerdamstraat 12 demolished
Thursday September 5th 2013, Get legalised or get evicted! Valreep Infonight & Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. In the two years that Valreep has been squatted, it has become an important center of activism, creativity, political ideas, neighbourhood connections, cultural activities, gardening, concerts and parties. Since day one the squatters collective made it clear that our intention is to stay and find a legal solution to be able to run this place into the future. Now, the time has come to make it happen. Within the next two months the Valreep gets legalized or most likely will be evicted next spring. [Read more]
Sunday September 15th 2013, Psychedelic Film Night: Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1969, USA, in English). Door opens at 20:00, film begins at 21:00. Dustin Hoffman is Ratso Rizzo, a sleazy small-time conman who dreams of a better life. Jon Voight is Joe Buck, a hunky naive Texan cowboy and gigolo, out searching for love and money amongst the wealthy and love-starved older women of New York. [Read more]
Thursday September 19th 2013, Cardiff Squatters Network Infonight and Presentation about the occupation of the Hambacher forest and call for mobilization! Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. Squatters from Cardiff, Wales http://cardiff.squat.net/ are dropping by for an infonight about squatting in Cardiff over the last few years. Last month, Canton police station was squatted by the Antagonistic Collective Against Boredom (ACAB) and evicted a few weeks later, costing the police thousands of pounds through the courts and use of high court bailiffs. [Read more]
Presentation about the occupation of the Hambacher forest and call for mobilization! The Hambacher forest close to Cologne in Germany is now again occupied since a few weeks, wherefore the resistance movement against the clearing of the forest goes on. The new squatted area is now threatened by eviction, so that support in occupying the forest, infrastructural matters (e.g. cooking), presswork, etc. is needed. Furthermore the Hambacher forest represents a nice place to connect political activism with spending a good time with nice people! [Read more]
Friday September 20th 2013. Monthly music event, Singer Songwriters #4 with Bucket Boyz, Andy Dale Patty, My Sisters Collected Fantasies. Door opens at 7pm, vegan food on donation. Performances end at 10pm. BUCKET BOYZ (NL), knee slapin, crazy anarcho blue-trash from the amsterdam bayou!!!! “Rare Dutch treat The Bucket Boyz, who thrilled with their anarchic take on Tennessee folk.” (The Guardian), ANDY DALE PATTY (UK), americana folk and western balads on voodoo rhythm records, MY SISTERS COLLECTED FANTASIES (D/NL/IT), A band existing from 3 people. Felix comes from Breda, Luca from Berlin and Isadora from Venice. Their inspiration comes from Disney and cowboy movies, classic music, indie pop, Elvis Presley and the early stuff Madonna did. [Read more]
LaRage, Cornelis, Drebbelstraat 35
Sunday September 22nd, Movie night: Black Block (Carlo Bachschmidt, 2011, Italy, 75′, documentary) with info about the 10×100 Campaign. Door opens at 20:00, film and discussion begin at 21:00. In July 2012, 11 years after the protests against the G8 summit in Genoa, 10 people have been convicted for taking part in the demonstrations, the sentences vary from 6-14 years. Following the recent Benefit Voku for the activists convicted after the G8 protests, we are screening the documentary film Black Block from Carlo Bachschmidt. [Read more]
Friday September 27th, Joe’s Collage, Cut & Paste Party, 7pm. We are a group of artists who are making analogue collages. We recycle and use old books, papers and magazines. With the help of a pair of scissors and some glue we can create wonderful artwork. [Read more]
Squatting action Karspeldreef 2, Bijlmer
Sunday September 29th 2013, Movie night, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema by Jeffrey Babcock. Billy Jack (Directed by Tom Laughlin, 1971, 114 minutes, In English). Door opens at 20:00, film begins at 21:00. People are still discussing what’s going in the middle east, but of course the whole issue if whether violence can can be used to create peace has been heatedly debated for the last few thousand years in Western culture. Nowhere in cinema is this question as relevantly and poignantly addressed as in this 70s utra-cult classic. [Read more]
Monday September 30th 2013, Free West Papua Campaign Infonight/Benefit, Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. Jeremy Bally is a man on a mission. He is Pedalling for Papua on a Storytelling Biketour accross 7 countries: Canada, U.S.A, Ireland, U.K., the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand (12.000 km). Like the old troubadours, accompanied by his ukelele/hip-hop base songs, he will bring us stories and testimonies of a little know conflict: the occupation and repression in West Papua by the Indonesian government. [Read more]
Opening times:
Ma/Mo: 19.00 Volkseten Vegazulu, vegan food, no reservations, donations welcome
Di/Tu: 11.00 – 15:00 Office Hours
Di/Tu: 20.00 – 21.30 Kraakspreekuur
Wo/We: 15.00 – 18.00 Lonely Collective Day Cafe
Do/Th: 19.00 Volkseten Vegazulu, vegan food, no reservations, donations welcome
Vr/Fr: 19:00 Joe’s Collage, Cut & Paste Party (once a month)
Vr/Fr: 19:00 Singer Songwriters (once a month)
Za/Sa: 14.00 – 18.00 Weggeefwinkel
Zo/Su: 20.00 Filmavond/Infoavond
Joe’s Garage
Pretoriusstraat 43, Amsterdam
https://joesgarage.nl hosted by Squat!net [http://squat.net]
Some of these pictures are taken from this page Hansfoto
