The squatting movement as part of an anarchist struggle in Barcelona: an analysis of how the Barcelona squatting movement furthers the local anarchist struggle and how it hinders it.

Squatting is something of a break with Catalunya’s anarcho-syndicalist past, and it’s a tradition that illegalist or insurrectionary anarchists tended to adopt wholesale or uncritically, and that they are now criticizing heavily. In some ways a squatting movement helps to create a political ghetto and to recuperate an anarchist struggle in a simulation of social conflict. At the same time, a well developed network of autonomous spaces leads to some impressive strengths in the movement that anarchists in Barcelona usually can’t appreciate if they haven’t spent time in a country like the US where autonomous spaces are rare.

4:30 PM A discussion about occupations

A recent wave of occupations has been spreading across North America, starting in New York and moving all the way to California and Canada. We will be having a discussion about these events, the logic behind them, and the generalization of the form, including the plausibility of imposing this modality on different localities (the discussion is happening in a squat after all!).

Suggested Reading:

Preoccupied: The Logic of Occupation (Anonymous)
The New School Occupation (Anonymous)
University Occupations: France 1968, Greece 2006, NYC 2008-9
20 Theses on the Subversion of the Metropolis (Plan B Bureau)
Nanterre, Here, Now (Lyotard)

All are available at zine library or elsewhere on the internet.

Feel free to check out http://occupyca.wordpress.com as well ashttp://reoccupied.wordpress.com for more background information.

And at 7:30 PM we are having a film screening of The Chicago Conspiracy

This Spring 2010, a member of Subversive Action Films, the collective that produced the documentary film The Chicago Conspiracy, will be touring the Midwest. The film springs from the student and social movements of post-dictatorship Chile. The collective is excited to share the film with engaged audiences in our area and spark discussions within local movements. In tandem with the film, we are also setting up a photo exhibit of social struggle in Chile.

The Chicago Conspiracy traces the intertwining paths of diverse social movements in Chile—from the students on occupied campuses fighting education privatization, to the history of politically active barrios on the margins of Santiago, to the Mapuche, an indigenous people who, since the arrival of the Spanish, have never ceased resisting the expropriation of their land. Pinochet’s dictatorship from 1973-1990, supported by the US government and economically planned by former students of Milton Friedman at the University of Chicago, provides the backdrop. The film includes powerful interviews with a family who lost three children to the military dictatorship. On March 29, 1985, the first two brothers to be killed, Rafael and Eduardo Vergara, were gunned down by the military dictatorship in a politically active barrio. The anniversary of their murder is now always marked by national protests called the Day of the Youth Combatant, in their memory and to commemorate all the youth killed under the military dictatorship and the current democracy.

Meet at Lowercase, wednesday at noon for lunch, and then we’ll head over to the location shortly thereafter. We’ve received an abundance of seeds, and wood for making beds, so we can use all the hands we can get.

2307 N Springfield Avenue

8PM

We are having samoza quesadillas, french fries, and kool aid.

Hope to see you there!

A REVOLUTIONARY DANCE/JUKE BENIFIT FOR THE LOWERCASE COLLECTIVE’S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND

FEAT. Chicagos own BBU
(BinladenBlowinUP)

www.foccp.com

Friday, March 26th at 2307 N. Springfield
(near the intersection of Fullerton and Pulaski in Logan Square)

$5 at the door

$1 pbrs and mango italian ice

Dancing starts at 9pm!

A few weeks ago we posted a call-out asking for support in lieu of our pending eviction. After receiving many questions concerning logistics and the space itself, we have decided to issue the lowercase call-out part II to clear up any confusion.

As many of you now know, the state is planning to evict the lowercase collective squat in approximately three weeks. The foreclosure and eviction of our home is one of many in this neighborhood and many other neighborhoods. Our resistance is a response to not only the attack on our home, but also to the attack on all people facing eviction as well as the system from which evictions are born.

During the weeks that precede our eviction, we are asking for the help of our friends and the greater radical community. Mutual aid, folks! These are the things we need right now:

-wood + nails
-bricks
-paints
-headlamps
-extension cords
-electricians
-batteries
-sheets (fabric)
-canned food
-storage bins
-ladders
-ornaments (bulb kind)
-muralists & artists
-self-defense classes
-ropes
-netting
-pulleys
-generators
-large amounts of water
-welders
-medic training
-lightbulbs
-mothballs
-trash bags
-medical supplies & straight-edge (alcohol-free) tinctures
-lawyer contacts
-candles & rewindable flash lights
-propane tanks
-propane stoves
-indoor plants, dirt & seeds
-money
-several 10 gallon buckets
-dental floss

Aside from these material needs, we need a physical presence in this space. This will be crucial as the eviction date gets closer. We want to be clear: this is our home and we have policies in place that allow us to maintain our collective as a safe space. They are as follows:

Oppressive behavior: Any language or action perceived to be racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or otherwise oppressive will not be tolerated.

Consent: Our consent policy states that if you have ever been accused of assault, you are not welcome to stay here. Other than that, anything other than an explicit ”yes” means no. “I’m not sure” means no. Silence means no. This applies not only to sex, but also touching, entering someone’s room, etc.

Drugs: Don’t bring them into the space. We don’t want to give the cops a reason to come in.

Vouching: someone who lives at lowercase or someone who is a close friend of ours must be able to vouch for you if you intend to stay here. This is not to exclude folks that want to help out, but we need to know we can trust the people we allow into our house.

Our house is comprised of mostly people of color, and if that makes you uncomfortable you can fuck off.

Alright then! So now you want to stop by- what next? Give us a call, email us, send us a message on facebook/myspace/twitter, whatever. But contact us first! We are sitting by our computers and our phones waiting to hear from you.

Contact us at:
lowercasecollective (at) riseup.net
friends of the lowercase collective facebook group

the landline

phone or any collective members’ cell phone

<A3 The Lowercase Collective

On December 18th, we received an eviction notice for our landlord, who is in all likelihood a fictitious entity. Shortly thereafter, we proved to the state that we ourselves have been responsible for paying the bills for the past years, making repairs, etc. Unfortunately, our attempts were only able to buy us a few more weeks, as the eviction notice for all occupants
came like a cold wind. Despite the machinations of the Federal National Mortgage Association, or any other partial owners, we have no intention of leaving this space without a fight.

Social tension has been percolating throughout our neighborhood for some time now. There is a general hatred of the police, all the more so with the existence of gangs on our street. Within a two-block radius, three other families have already been evicted in the past few months. A month ago, a black man just riding his bicycle was knocked off it by the police, beat up, and left without his bike in front of the watching eyes of the neighborhood. With all of this occurring in the context of our neighbors reproducing capital and themselves on the daily, this situation could prove explosive, as we look to push those tensions to the breaking point.

As the legal situation surrounding the house crystallizes, we will be announcing the time in which we want to invite our friends, in Chicago, the Midwest, and elsewhere, to join us for the most crucial aspect of solidarity: collective action on the day of eviction. We hope to create something truly wild around the very place we eat, sleep, fuck, dream, and share ourselves with each other. We hope for solidarity actions from friends who can’t make it here, but are more hopeful to see your faces.

Defending space in which we live, share, and combat capital is integral to revolutionary movements. Our past has connected us to so many different trajectories, and in the near future, perhaps together through our actions we can give ourselves the time and space to create so many more.