Field Notes

From Amsterdam Wiki

The entrance door is a little intimidating because it is cold and gray. I saw a couple people enter right as I was approaching the building. It seemed like one guy was answering the bell for another. There was no useful information on the bulletin board outside about the Overtoom itself. I’ll have to come back with someone later.

· Leidsestraat 43

It doesn’t seem to exist. There are some hoe and other retail stores around, but no squat.

Later on the 28th, I went on youtube and watched the eviction of this squat.

July 29, 2007

10pm

Movie Night

Vrankrijk

Spuistraat 216

· Shirley and I walked over to Vrankrijk to see a movie. According the myspace page, they were showing the movie: “It was Our City” at Vrankrijk at 10pm. We finally got there about 9:55pm. It’s over by the Amsterdam Historical Museum. We were confused as to how to get in because there are no windows on the ground floor. I pushed a button what I thought would let us in to the space. A man wearing a shirt with no sleeves and a cool hat, not a cap, greeted us. I asked about the movie night, and he said that they were having difficulties with the screen and projector so it’s going to be showing on a TV set. Then he said that it wouldn’t be shown until it got dark. He pointed to the bar and said that there were drinks. Since Shirley didn’t really drink, we sat at a table and talked while waiting for the movie. The bell kept ringing and the bartender kept getting the door. The bartender was the one who answered the door. It was very dark inside. There was loud punk music playing in the background. People were speaking in Dutch and only Dutch. It smelled like cigarettes because there wasn’t much ventilation in the bar. The room was really decorated with dark colors on the floor, walls, and ceiling. The wall was covered with posters and writings including “9/11 was an inside job”. There was a cool painting/sculpture on the wall of a person using a slingshot. The bar had a rail on the top. It was covered with Christmas lights and barbed wire. Once the movie started, a bunch of people gathered in chairs around the TV set. The TV was on a keg, on a table. The people were a little intimidating because they were all wearing black and leather. The movie was good and funny. It talked about the history of squatting and included a lot of interviews of people involved in events that were included. The funny part was that many stories were clashing. According to the movie, the squatting movement started as peaceful, then violent, than intra violent, and now is the present. After the movie Shirley and I walked home. My clothes have never reeked of smoke more in my life.

August 4, 2007

Joe’s Garage

Weggeefwinkel

· The building is situated in a neighborhood that is very ethnically diverse. There are a couple fruit stands close by. There is a sign on the side of the building that says, “Gen mensis illegaal”, which means “no one is illegal” in Dutch according to Babelfish from Altavista.com. There is a symbol of the N in a circle in the window as well.

· The store was very small, but very similar to second hand shops in the US, except nothing had prices. There was a small table to display non-clothing items. There were a couple racks for shirts and then some clothes in boxes. There were also some bookshelves. There was a bar, where a guy stood. It’s where my tea came from during the interview. The backyard was a small courtyard. They were removing some plastic chairs and bricks because another squat was building up and needed them. There were a couple tables in the yard, one severely cracked. There was a cat that had a cool pathway up the side of the house. Many people came in during the interview to talk to my interviewee. They all spoke in Dutch except for one girl.

August 5, 2007

Museumplein

Food not Bombs

5:30

They didn’t show up. I’ll try to email them to set up an interview. Maybe the information that I found online was old.

August 6, 2007

Entrepotdok 98

8pm

I went with Alex to the address. We couldn’t find it because it went up to 97 and then continued again at 110. I thought there was a 98 on another street that would be the correct address, so I buzzed it. The man who answered said that it wasn’t there. Afterward, I looked online that the squat Kalenderpanden was evicted in 2000. It’s very hard to tell what is the most updated information online. Note to self, triple check that an establishment is not evicted.

August 7, 2007

Community Center

I went to the Centruum community center near the main University of Amsterdam buildings. I was expecting some basketball courts and maybe a dance studio. No. It was pretty much an office. So women were there. One asked me if I would like any help. I said that I’m researching squatting. She asked me for an address. Well, I didn’t know. I said that I’m researching the squatting movement, and I posed a hypothetical question as if I were to squat a space. She said that I would need to look for empty spaces, and then come here. She showed me this cabinet full of binders of the status of properties. I was amazed that this resource was so accessible. I asked what else the center does for the community. She said that they inform the people about what’s going on in the city council. If the people dislike something, they will help to communicate with city council. This concept is so basic, yet I just thought this place had a different function.

August 7, 2007

Java Island

I’m really not sure what it’s called but it’s NE of the NEMO. You have to cross the railroad tracks and go over an arched bridge. It’s all highly developed fancy apartment buildings surrounded by water. Again, my batteries were dead so no pictures sadly

August 7, 2007

Squat hour

3e Oosterpark 64

8:30pm

I came for an interview. What I found was a group of some amazing people. I talked to many just getting to know them and about the situation with their building. There room had a WC, a bar, a kitchen, some tables, and lots of pretty plants.

August 8, 2007

Overtoom 301

3:00pm

Wow! I entered through the street entrance. I followed a pathway leading up to a huge building surrounded by bikes. I was supposed to meet for an interview on the 2nd floor café, so I go up one flight of stairs. I found the print shop, and ask them about the person I’m going to interview. I need to remember that the 2nd floor is two floors up. So I went another floor up to the café. There were about three people in the room. There were some interesting pieces of art on the ceiling and on the walls. There was a tusk that’s also a lamp. Anyways, it was a really nice interview. Afterwards, he gave me a tour of the OT301. So we went to his studio, the band rehearsal space, the concert space, and everything. It was really great except that my batteries were dead for my camera.

August 8, 2007

Movie Night

PS 28

9:30pm

Well after our group dinner, I wanted to walk to PS 28 to see if I could catch part of the documentary what was playing. The restaurant that we were at was on Utrechtstraat so I decided just to walk from there. It took me awhile, and the doors and front window were closed up. I could hear a movie from within. I turned the knob, but it wouldn’t move. So after knocking a few times, I just sat against the wall. This guy some up on his bike, locked up, and just pushed the door in. I felt so stupid because I had been sitting there for probably 10 minutes. There was a nice projection screen set up. There were a couple of tables and chairs, a nice painting on the side. There were probably nine or ten people in there. The documentary was set in the early 1990s. It consisted of interviews of people squatting, people not squatting about squatting, and there were awesome drum jam sessions. Afterward, I talked to a guy from North Carolina a bit who was very friendly and nice. At the bar, I asked if they know it a person was home so that I could get a copy of the documentary. It was really funny because the bartender told me to ring the bell for upstairs. I said that I’m really not used to inner-city apartment buildings, and people who were at the bar were all laughing at me. I asked them what was so funny. They said that it’s a bell, you can’t mess up that. From that point it turned from them laughing at me to them laughing with me. I started joking about it and about some stupid things I’ve done since I’ve gotten off the plane. Apparently they can relate. I wish I could present myself in a way where I’m all intelligent, informed, focused, and well put together. However, until that day comes, I’m just going to be honest and genuine with people. So…I rang the bell, and no response. I went back into the squat bar and talked with a person who worked on the documentary, a young lad from Finland, the person from North Carolina, and a person that helps out with the squatting hour. We talked about squatting. I feel like I talk about squatting all the time. Do people ever get sick of talking about squatting with me? I hope not, but for a change we also talked about the sewage system, the canal system, what may lie beneath, and boathouses.

August 12, 2007

Documentary and discussion

“Table, Bed, Chair”

PS 28

From rough notes

These are very rough so I apologize. From the images in the movie some slogans came up: housing is a right. Apparently, actual squats take place on Sundays. When you squat, you have a breaker open the door. Around him/her will be a circle of people to protect them from the police. You don’t want to be caught breaking an entry. There’s also a phone tree for emergencies. I need to look up article 138. The police in the movie did not intervene. Instead, the officer gave the squatter some advice to talk to a Visalia accident lawyer. ME stands for riot police. When police evict a house, they spray a Christmas tree in the window to show that all is safe and clear.

August 13, 2007

Joe’s Garage

Volkseten Vegazulu

7:30pm

I went into the space not knowing what to expect. I’ve never been to a people’s kitchen before. I just knew it was food. I came in a people told me to get a bowl of soup. It came from a big pot where people served themselves. I don’t know what it was; I’m not a culinary expert like my step dad was, but it was good. I sat down at the bar with my soup and started talking to this nice gentleman. He was from an apartment a couple streets over. He’s been coming to the people’s kitchen every week for about two years. When my plate came out, I was extremely surprised. I haven’t really eaten that much in a while. The plate was maybe 1.5’ in diameter. There were lots of greens including radishes and bean sprouts. There were potatoes, a mix of corn and other things, and a couple patties with seeds in it. I believe it was vegan, but it was most definitely vegetarian. It took me about an hour to finish it all, which is a bit longer than it usually takes me to eat things. I met with some other people after paying for my meal in the kitchen. The cook was saying how there’s a limit of 30 people because he was the only one cooking. I helped take some scraps from the backyard to the curb to be thrown out, and then headed home. I was still full until dinner time the next day.

August 14, 2007

Housing Department

Jodenbreestraat 25

Afternoon

Every sign or wording on a wall was in Dutch. Do I seem stupid when I mishear words because of the differences in accents? The lady at the reception desk gave me a number and told me to go to the first floor. I thought she said first door. Upstairs I waited in the lobby for a couple minutes. I was called in and I talked to this lady at desk number 2. She was very nice and willing to explain the system of getting an apartment. She gave me an English version pamphlet on what to do. She said that would take about 8-9 years to get a house. There are different statuses in the program. I would be a starter. There are also transferees and urgent statuses. There is a problem in Amsterdam because buildings are being torn down. Zuidoost is a faster solution. I would only have to wait about three or four years for an apartment there. She mentioned that she knows a couple that have been waiting for 12 years for an apartment. She also gave me a list of private owners. I asked about what people do when working here, but not able to find housing because it takes awhile. She said that she didn’t know but that it might be best to find a room in someone’s house. A big problem has been the increased amount of people with urgent status. Because there have been a lot of tearing down houses and rebuilding them, more people are moved out of their spaces. This makes the wait for everyone longer. She did not mention squatting.

August 14, 2007

City Hall

Waterlooplein

Afternoon

I was in search of some laws: renter’s rights and occupying a space after it’s been vacant for over a year. The man at the information desk gave me an address to the statistics department. I went there and it was hard to speak with the woman because she didn’t understand much English and I definitely don’t know Dutch. She pointed me to across the hall in the economie department. A gentleman listened to what I was looking for, got on the phone and Internet, but at the end was not able to help me. He told me about the 12-month rule, but didn’t know where it was from.

August 14, 2007

‘t Blijvertje

Antisquat BBQ

Some notes taken

I went to ‘t Blijvertje with Ann and three students from the crash course program who were really interested in squatting to this event. We spent a lot of time talking about things because they had lots of questions. Here are just some things that I had picked up from conversations.

There’s an eviction day every three or four months. ‘t Blijvertje was about to bypass the last round of evictions because of many reasons including have a good lawyer and it was unclear with politicians. One thing they did to prevent eviction was to write a booklet of why the authorities shouldn’t evict them. They also phoned politicians to get their support. They wanted to promote the building as a monument because it’s from the 17th century. The movement of squatting is probably mostly male. The age varies; it’s very widespread. This range could many be due to the 80s squatting history.

A difference about this squat versus others is that they eat meat. Another neighborhood protest that got evicted in March is called Bakkerblokken. I need to look that up. Here are the two main arguments that were in the booklet. First, this is a neighborhood protest, not a squatting action. The local leaders of the section of the city wanted to promote participation of the neighborhood a goal. This action has been a participation of the neighborhood. Second, they sued the state; this statement probably compares to appealing the decision of eviction. When they did so, they were able to avoid eviction so far because you can’t evict until a judge makes a decision on the appeal. Afterward, they dropped the case because it’s a lot of money.

Currently, there are about 20 tenants living in the complex with 5 or 6 active. People keep leaving daily, which is not smart. The people staying longer are offered better deals.

Renter’s rights probably translates to de Huurwet. It developed during the 1980s. With this situation, the neighborhood protest started in 2001. There are a lot of antisquatters who have moved in. In total there are 92 apartments affected by the plans for demolition.

Within the last six months, four squat bars have been established, all for the protection of the building.

What is interesting is the association between tenants, squatters, and antisquatters. There’s a lot of breaking of stereotypes.

‘t Blijvertje used to be a dump. It as closed by the municipal health services. It was really dirty, but they fixed up.

The furniture in the room either was made, donated, or found on the street. One of the only expenses has been to pay for a lawyer. Within the situation, four apartments have been squatted.

August 14, 2007

Finding Dutch Law

Online at ([1])

Compliments of Alex Gwozda

Wetboek van Strafrecht (Sr)

Artikel 429sexies | Sr, Boek 3, Titel 2

1.

  Hij die een door hem wederrechtelijk in gebruik genomen woning of gebouw, waarvan het gebruik door de rechthebbende niet meer dan twaalf maanden voorafgaande aan die wederrechtelijke ingebruikname is beëindigd, op vordering van of vanwege de rechthebbende niet aanstonds ontruimt, wordt gestraft met hechtenis van ten hoogste vier maanden of geldboete van de derde categorie.

2.

  Met dezelfde straf wordt gestraft hij die, vertoevende in een wederrechtelijk in gebruik genomen woning of gebouw, waarvan het gebruik door de rechthebbende niet meer dan twaalf maanden voorafgaande aan die wederrechtelijke ingebruikname is beëindigd, zich op de vordering van of vanwege de rechthebbende niet aanstonds verwijdert.

August 16, 2007

Interview 4

August 17, 2007

Concertgebouw Lobby

6:00pm

Informal talk

Antisquat convo

I was waiting for rush tickets to the symphony tonight, and I ran into a nice fellow. We started talking about stuff in general, and then it got down to my research. I was saying how I’ve never met anyone who was an antisquatter. It just so happened that he used to be one. According to him, many people enjoy antisquatting. He didn’t have a good experience though. He lived as an antisquatter for about five months with a friend. The house was gorgeous and huge, but the landlord was the worst person ever to deal with. He never showed up on time for any appointments. Right before this person I met left for a holiday, he received a letter saying that he had to move out by meeting somewhere at a certain time. He was fed up so he simply stuffed his things into boxes and left the key. He and his friend had to pay 400 euros per month each for the apartment. He currently lives in a room of a house illegally. Illegally? I asked him. Apparently a person who lets out room to others must register, so it is seen as an illegal act. I asked him if he had considered squatting. He responded as saying that it was just not his thing. He has a lot of cds and such. He said he didn’t want to be kicked out by the cops. I told him that they at least have to give you some notice, and I said that it’s probably a similar situation as antisquatting where you have to move out whenever the owner wants you out. He still didn’t think it was a good idea. Instead of having to rely on flaky landlords to repair things or to not be able to improve the building, why not squat. You can fix things yourself, you can make our own decisions, and you don’t have to pay a ridiculous amount of money.

August 18, 2007

Amsterdam Historical Museum

12:00pm

These are Captions from the Amsterdam Historical Museum.

Public Housing: In the second half of the nineteenth century, people came to realize that damp overcrowded homes formed a breeding ground for infectous diseases. Urged on by some enlightened individuals, the city authorities gradually got round to dealing with the worse abuses and some basement homes were cleared. Around 1900 the local authority began to supervise and control the living conditions in the city. They took over responsibility for the supply of amenities such as gas, water, and electricity. With the Housing Act of 1901 and the Amsterdam building regulations of 1905 the first housing schemes were set up, while a 1898 ruling concerning long-lease tenures gave the council a considerable voice in allocating building land. In 1915 the council housing department was established. After the First World War Amsterdam became a mecca for anyone considered with social housing: foreign architects and planners visited Amsterdam to learn and admire.

Housing Corporations: More than half the homes in Amsterdam are managed by Housing Corporations. The Association of the Working Classes was founded in 1852. From the money from the better-off this association did up new houses and built a few new complexes. Other associations followed. The rents of these better quality “workers’ dwellings” could hardly be met by working-class families. The Housing Act of 1901 allowed housing corporations to get support from the government for building social housing. This resulted in a wave of new corporations: in 1915 there were 20 in Amsterdam, and by 1925 the number had risen to 54. In the period from 1920 to 1940 a third of all homes were built by housing corporations and the council. The former had a virtual monopoly in the construction of the “garden cities” in West Amsterdam in the 1950s.

Housing: Almost 80% of Amsterdam’s housing was built in the 20th century. In 1900, each person had an average of seven square meters; now they have five times as much. The built-up area of Amsterdam area grew faster than the population. New developments were larger and families smaller. No city in Holland has as many one or two person households in Amsterdam. The council played an important role in public housing; it took responsibility for drafting building requirements and land-use plans and for the distribution of the limited supply of housing. The ever-wider circles around the city center reflect Amsterdam’s housing history in the 20th century. Successive ideas in architecture and housing are recorded in brick and concrete.

The search for a home: Despite incessant construction, housing shortage in Amsterdam has not declined; it has however changed its character. In 1947 the council gained a major say in housing distribution, by instituting a system of proritis of housing need. This had reached dramatic levels, with many young families still living with their parents or in-laws. From 1965 to 1984 the local authority encouraged families to move to Purmurend and Almere to faciliate inner city renewal. Young families in particular were glad to move. More and more new groups have come on the housing market – single people, young people, the elderly, and immigrants. With the rise of divorces more and more homes have become necessary. Meanwhile the squatters’ movement took the law into its own hands, occupying not just empty business premises but also housing-list dwellings. Today Amsterdam is again popular as a place to live. The housing shortage, with only 13 percent of homes being owner-occupied, has however led to rocketing prices.

Squatters’ riots, 1980: In postwar Amsterdam many young people had great difficulty in finding affordable housing. But houses and offices stood empty – and this caused growing resentment. In 1965 for the first time, empty premises were demonstrative squatted. Squatters’ groups provided an alternative method of distributing living space. After an Anti Squat law was passed in 1976 the numbers of evictions of squatters increased. Some of the squatters’ strongholds, which as the large buildings named De Groote Keijser, De Groote Wettering, and Lucky Luijk were forcibly cleared, which led to violent street riots in Amsterdam. The climax came in 1980 when the forces of law and order confronted the squatters, and tanks were used to clear Vondelstraat, at the same time the inauguration ceremony of Princess Beatrix as queen of the Netherlands was seriously disturbed. In the end, the protests had their results: the city council organized systematic purchases of squats, and then converted them to inexpensible housing suitable for young people.

Squatters’ equipment c. 1980: Fierce fighting often took place when the squatters’ major strongholds were cleared. The police used trucheons and tear gas. An important piece of gear for the squatters was the gas mask. They manufactured quite a lot themselves, such as paint bombs and caltrops, used to puncture tyres. Catapults and Molotov cocktails (petrol bombs) are more serious weapons and seldom used.

Anti-riot squad policeman, 1982 by Karel Gomes: The artist’s aim with this sculpture is to protest against the frequent deployment of the anti-riot squat in around 1980. The policeman is heavily armored, but doesn’t have a face: he is expected to carry out orders without thinking about social issues such as homelessness and the threat of nuclear power. The work is a protest against bad government.

August 18, 2007

Joe’s Garage

Weggeefwinkel

1:30-6:05pm

Volunteering

It was really interesting to change the common used space into a store like setting. We made the display in the window as appealing as possible. Some of the people that came in brought bags of stuff they wanted to get rid of. I was handed a nice sewing machine, and then a guy was took it the next second. After a while, the display table was totally a mess and half of it was gone. I was astonished to see how fast things were going. Someone even brought in a projection screen. I met some interesting people. Many were not living in squats, but were from around the neighborhood. Some had come often, others for the first time. Sometimes a person would as me a question in Dutch, and I would respond in English saying that I didn’t really understand them. They would then talk back in Dutch as if I knew what they were talking about. We had some salsa and then bebop playing in the background for awhile. There was coffee and tea, bread and hummus. It was pretty pleasant, but sometimes there would not be anyone in the space looking for things. In the backyard, a couple of people I recognized from the people’s kitchen on Thursday were painting a mural on the brick wall. They were really excited for the opportunity. After 6pm, we closed up the place. We just put things back into boxes and suitcases, then we stacked them up in a closet closed by a sheet. It was like nothing had happened; everything was normal.

August 19, 2007

‘t Blijvertje

Brainstorm for English speaking Housing Activists

4:30pm

Notes from Meeting

We started of with some introductions. Many people have a large interest in the housing policies of Amsterdam. There was a broad agenda to talk about the English speaking network and the immigrant communities not reached by Dutch. Language has been a barrier because you have to deal with learning it as well as learn about the history, rules, and politics in Dutch. It can be very complex. One person expressed her frustration. She showed up for a meeting in that was supposed to be in English. When it got to the hardcore issues everyone was speaking in Dutch. Some people are very anti- English in discussions. It can be very sensitive. The misunderstandings can get so high with bad translations. One way of seeing a situation is that it’s a protest to gentrification, which is the process of housing of working classes becoming housing of high classes. It’s the abolishment of social housing. The purpose of the meeting was to come up with some concrete actions. We want to spread housing rights knowledge. An idea was a course about housing policy. There is a division between good and bad squatters by the media. One person suggested that the real problem is not a languag barrier, but the illiteracy of foreigners because the ideas are alien. Most people just want to squat and nothing more. Another person said that they really want to fight against the struggle to find housing for the people. Another person mentioned that it was hard for him to understand and get involved with the activism because he didn’t know Dutch. He said that he didn’t like depending on Dutch speakers for information. He wanted to be an independent learner. Another idea was a dictionary of housing concepts and terms. They were thinking of coming up with a general outreach in Dutch and English online, maybe a wiki, on the housing policy. One person suggested a theatrical production. He also suggested to approach Turkish in a different way then people from the US. People from the US are antiglobalists. Turkish have respect for private propery and the state. An online tool would be nice. You could type in “squatting Amsterdam” and be able to find something useful in English as well as Dutch. A person is going to translate his pamplet online. Some others will redo a work about the background information of housing politics. In brainstorming activities, one person said that he didn’t mind organizing a meeting for only a couple of people as long as there is a strong interest in the matter. There’s going to be a discussion group of international squatters to talk about legal matters by talking about experiences. The meeting was very effective and informative. People were able to talk what they wanted to say without being interrupted. People asked for clarification if they didn’t understand something instead of just letting things go.

Field Notes

From Amsterdam Wiki

Contents

July 28, 2007

July 29, 2007

August 4, 2007

August 5, 2007

August 6, 2007

August 7, 2007

August 8, 2007

August 12, 2007

August 13, 2007

August 14, 2007

August 16, 2007

August 17, 2007

August 18, 2007

August 19, 2007

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