#3 Kraken Gaat Door! Squatting Continues!

Wednesday 7th July
19.00-21.00
The Garage, Jacob Catsstraat 43B, 3035PC Rotterdam

This session was an emergency gathering in The Garage, a squatted [kraak] living and social space in the North of Rotterdam. The Garage is threatened with imminent eviction [update:the group have moved out]. In solidarity we brought AGS to their space and focussed on the role of squatting in Anti-gentrification struggles, focussing on housing as a right and not as a commodity. How does the ever-increasing criminalisation of squatting [kraak] in the Netherlands feed into processes of gentrification? How can squatting [kraak] be defined as de-growth? We collective read SQUAT THE CRISIS! and spoke with members of The Garage about their projects and current situation. From The Garage, a self-organised community kitchen called Rotterdamse Rats cooks free meals and serves the food on the Pijnackerplein every sunday using food waste. Several people also depend on space for living, who now need to find new accommodation immediately.

We discussed the ongoing control of such anarchist projects through limited options for semi-stable spaces to operate. For example, Stad in de Maak can be helpful with offering space that they manage on behalf of Havenstader to such groups at the Rats, but on which conditions? And does this stay true to the groups anarchist ethics? What does it mean for space in the city to be managed and controlled as such?

How does the increased policing of squatting affect squatters these days? How does the ‘memory’ of squatting in the Netherlands and the residue that this leaves within practices and policies now affect current possibilities to occupy space?

Is the actual action of squatting a counter to gentrification? Should squats remain political in order to resist it? We went over this question a few times and ended partly at this: squatting primarily is a functional way for people who can’t afford housing to have a place to live. In the current system, how can we assist the safety of squatters, especially those who may be undocumented and precarious? Someone told stories of how they were involved in squatting in the 70’s with Suriname communities, radical actions done out of necessity.

We thought a bit about anti-anti-kraak… how to raise consciousness about the fact that anti-kraak is about being against squatting…how did the term lose its meaning, or how did we forget? Original anti-kraak was about taking the lifestyle of squatting and making it depoliticised, rich kids using empty spaces to party. Now artists often need to rent studios in anti-kraak as their is such a limited amount of work space. How can people renting in anti-kraak act in solidarity with squatters?

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Thanks to local bakery Jeroen Bakt Brood for the tasty freebies!

#2 How to build roots despite displacement: Gentrification strategies and tactics for community building

Wednesday 23rd June
19.00-21.00 @ Bollenpandje (Rosier Faassenstraat 22)

In the first session we tried to map out a consensual definition of gentrification based on the actors, factors, signifiers and actions relating to its processes and how it is being perceived.

In the second session where we started exploring the different stages of gentrification and how they are manifested in different neighbourhoods. Based on the context of Bollenpandje in Delfshaven we heard a first hand experience of the struggle to maintain community building while facing the precarity of displacement and expanded on ways to strengthen neighbourhood bonds via cultural and gardening practices.

Tonny from Bollenpandje described how the space, much like her previous project Zelfregiehuis is an anti-kraak and only temporary. The project at Zelfregiehuis had to leave last year after the building was sold, despite much protest from the neighbourhood to protect the self-organised cultural initiative. The Bollenpandje exists in a very public site which means a lot of people pass by, stop, talk and exchange (quite literally exchanging plants). We spoke about these types of open spaces, places to hang out and meet people where you feel welcome without having to spend money. Bollenpandje also did a huge action to fill BoTu with many biological flower bulbs for pollinating insects…solidarity between humans and non-humans!

In the neighbourhood something called ABCD (asset based community development) is gaining more traction. At its crux, it focusses on the assets of a community rather than what it is lacking. As Bospolder Tussendijken is seen to be an economically deprived area, considering its richness in ways other than money is pretty radical.

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#1 Who/What/How?

Wednesday 9th June 2021
19.00-21.00 @ VARIA (Gouwstraat 3)

The starting moment to build a grassroots curriculum for and by cultural workers, neighbours, students and residents to collectively learn, unlearn and develop strategies to resist gentrification within our communities.

Our curriculum unfolds, grows and develops through our gatherings. We acknowledge the complexities and intersecting struggles that are layered within the term ‘gentrification’ and whilst we do not want to oversimplify, we would like to find clear tactics to resist it.

We all have something to share and something to learn. We brought our concerns, questions, stories and experiences to start mapping our complicity and entanglement in the process of gentrification.

Trying to build a collective definition of gentrification led us into a web of struggles and resistance. How does gentrification work? Is it reversible? What to do about our own complicity? How to find the resistance energising? How to take collective action?

At the end, a neighbour came to speak to us. She questioned who we were, why we don’t speak Dutch and why we are trying to bring her neighbourhood ‘culture’ when she has culture already. It raised questions of how art projects and spaces can connect more to neighbours and neighbourhoods and value culture that already exists and thrives. How do we resist being an island, how do we become more radically hospitable?

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