Europe
In many European countries, there are squatted houses used as residences and also larger squatted projects where people pursue social and cultural activities. Examples of the latter include an old leper hospital outside Barcelona called Can Masdeu and a former military barracks called Metelkova in Slovenia. Squats can be run on anarchist or communist principles, for example, Fabrika Yfanet, Villa Amalia in Greece, Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus in Austria (has legal status) or Blitz in Norway (has legal status). Young people squat buildings to use as concert venues for alternative types of music such as punk and hardcore. The eviction of one such place, Ungdomshuset, in March 2007 received international news coverage. Others have been legalised.
In Italy, there is Bussana Vecchia, a ghost town in Liguria which was abandoned in 1887 following an earthquake and subsequently squatted in the 1960s. In France, there is Collectif la vieille Valette, a self-supporting squat village which has been active since 1991.
Denmark
Christiania is an independent community of almost 900 people founded in 1971 on the site of an abandoned military zone. In Copenhagen, as in other European cities such as Berlin and Amsterdam, the squatter movement was large in the 1980s. It was a social movement, providing housing and alternative culture. A flashpoint came in 1986 with the Battle of Ryesgade. Another flashpoint came in 2007 when Ungdomshuset was evicted. While not technically a squat until 14 December 2006, it was a social center used by squatters and people involved in alternative culture more generally.
France
Squatting is broadly an economic issue in France, particularly in Paris, one of the costliest cities in Europe. But whereas migrants without papers try not to draw the attention of the police, alternative and artist's squats break the news from the 1980s onwards. In the 1980s, Art-Cloche (from "clochard", i.e. tramp - founded by Jean Starck and Nicolas Pawlowski) promoted "artistic occupation", organising festivals and creating a fake museum.
In the 1990s, a wider movement comes from eastern Europe: young European artists settle in East-Berlin's abandoned buildings after the fall of the Wall. A few years later, back in their own countries, and notably in France, they began to occupy all kinds of places, from state-owned sites ("Lycee Diderot", where 300 artists worked for 2 years in so-called "Pole Pi", dismantled by police in 1998), to institutional properties (Galerie Matignon, almost next door to Prime Minister's Hotel Matignon, and wealthy art galleries).
Around 2000, the artist's squats movement was exposed in the medias, and quite popular (as they chose to occupy empty public-owned buildings mainly, at a time when middle-class Parisians could not afford sky-rocketing prices for renting a decent flat). "L'electron libre", a gorgeously-ornamented building (in a raving psychedelic style) located in the core of the city (59 rue de Rivoli), and owned by a French Bank, was in 2001 the third most visited place for contemporary art (40,000 visitors a year, according to the French Ministry for Culture). Closed a few years ago, it was bought back by the socialist town council and reopened in 2010. Another famous place (les Frigos) was legalized and integrated into the cultural politics of the town council.
These cases illustrate the quest of most of artist's squat for agreements with buildings owners, be it for a few years ("bail precaire" i.e. "temporary lease"). A handful of mayors in France chose to experiment this form of support to living art (one of the best known is La Belle-de-Mai in Marseille), and Paris is coming to it, cautiously. The move may be too slow: in June 2010, Court ordered the eviction of Paris older artist's squat, a renowned place for close-to-free concerts (5,000 groups in 10 years, from all countries), and where the state-owned Culture TV-channel ARTE itself went to record live sessions: and there was nothing the mayor could do, the tenant being a private investor.
Germany
In the 1970s, squatting in West German cities led to "a self-confident urban counterculture with its own infrastructure of newspapers, self-managed collectives and housing cooperatives, feminist groups, and so on, which was prepared to intervene in local and broader politics". The Autonomen movement protected squats against eviction and participated in radical direct action. After the German reunification, many buildings were vacated due to the demise of former state-run enterprises and migration to the western parts of Germany, some of which were then occupied by squatters. In Berlin, the now-legalised squats are in desirable areas such as Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg. Before the reunification, squats in Berlin were mostly located in former West Berlin's borough of Kreuzberg. The squats were mainly for residential and social use. Squatting became known by the term instandbesetzen, from instandsetzen ("renovating") and besetzen ("occupying").
Despite being illegal, squats exist in many of the larger cities. Examples are Au in Frankfurt and Hafenstra?e and Rote Flora in Hamburg, though the last open squat of Berlin, Brunnenstra?e183, was evicted in November 2009.
Squatting can also take place for campaigning purposes, such as the Anatopia project, which protested against a Mercedes-Benz test track.
Greece
Greece has a long tradition of anarchist squats, the oldest one being Villa Amalias and Lelas Karagianni from late 80's. Also squatted in Athens are Patision & Skaramaga, Zaimi, Anw Katw, Pikpa, Strouga and others. An example of a more modern squat is Prapopoulou squat, which is well known internationally. There are seven anarchist squatted buildings in Thessaloniki, notably Fabrika Yfanet, an 19.000 m2 area and over 100 years old textile factory, other squats are Terra Incognita, Delta, Sxolio, Orfanotrofio etc. There are also squats in Patras, Chania, Volos, Heraklio, Ioannina, Mitilini, Corfu. Also there are a lot of squats in university buildings.
Many anarchist squats in Greece have an abandoned garden nearby which the occupants often re-purpose as a free garden to grow organic vegetables.
Most anarchist or autonomist squats in Greece maintain a blog or website to post their news, and they often also have an internet forum and e-mail address. Community-oriented squats often organize music gigs or movie screenings, usually announced on Athens Indymedia or Kinimatorama.net in addition to the squat's blog. A few squats experiment with DIY renewable energy generation, such as wind turbines, but most of them are depended on the main grid or have no power (there have been attempts by the power and water companies to cut their access to these resources). Sometimes anarchist or autonomist academics or writers of international fame are invited to give talks at squats, and very often free food is served to the community. Usually every squat's blog also lists links to the blogs of most other squats.
Most politically-oriented squats in Greece hold regular (usually weekly) open meetings where everyone is allowed to attend and see how work at the squat is organized and how the responsibilities are shared among the squat's team. Anarchist and autonomist squats in Greece engage with the local community by hosting cultural events, political talks, printing posters and announcements, or going out to the local community's square and holding events there, such as movie screenings, music gigs, talks, or offering free food, books, clothes, or children's toys.
Anarchist and autonomist squats in Greece and people visiting them often face state persecution, including arrests or police attacks, in addition to violent attacks by the far-right.
A steki (Greek for place) is a place very similar to an anarchist or autonomist squat without being really squatted, usually being a small rented apartment or building.
Iceland
Iceland on the other hand does not have a long tradition of squatting but homeless people have been occupying abandoned houses for the same reasons as in other countries. The number of homeless people in Iceland is not high so it has not received much attention since slums do not exist. The first political squat was done on Vatnsstigur 4 in Reykjavik on the 9th of April 2009, 6 months after a complete economic collapse due to bankers that bought all the banks 4 years earlier. This was done by a group of people stating that "capitalism allows banks to own a house and leave them intentionally empty so that they will rot on their own and be replaced with a shopping center, using money that didn't exist and left the debt to the people that many did not participate in the loan-spree advocated by the banks before depression." "We will not tolerate that the rich are getting richer and the society getting less cultural." In 5 days the house was shaped up, a free-store opened, paper and music publishing had started and all with support from the neighbours that were excited to get some "life in the street". The house was gutted by between 50-60 riot police officers 5 days later and arrested the 15 people after they had barricaded themselves inside and resisted for over 2 hours. People associated with the independent media were also arrested. In the following weeks the free shop was reopened several times, the first time it was reopened was on the 6th of May, 2009 in solidarity with the Rozbrat squat in Poland.
The second squat was founded by a group of graffiti artists that put up an art-exhibition on the 7th of July, 2009.
A new squat is in progress in an abandoned house in Vesturgata 51 Reykjavik. There are plans underway to make the house an open social space. The squat is also a protest of the recent increase in evictions. There has not been a police response to the squat yet.
Italy
In Italy, squatting has no legal basis, but there are many squats used as social centres. The first occupations of abandoned buildings began in 1968 with the left-wing movements Lotta Continua and Potere Operaio. Out of the breakup of these two movements was born Autonomia Operaia, which was composed of a Marxist-Leninist and Maoist wing and also an anarchist and more libertarian one. These squats had Marxist-Leninist (but also Stalinist and Maoist) ideals and come from the left wing of Autonomia. The militants of the Italian armed struggle (the New Red Brigades) were connected to these squats.
The disobedience squats (see Tute Bianche and Ya Basta Association), which are much more common in Italy than the other squats, refuse communist ideology and all its ideals (class war, anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism). They are simply inspired by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and part of the ideology of taken the thoughts of Antonio Negri. Then there are antagonist squats which are inspired by the Marxism-Leninism of the 1970s: workerism and autonomism. There are also anarchist squats.
The Italian squats are known as C.S.O.A. (Centro Sociale Occupato Autogestito, "self-governing squatter social centers") and include: Leoncavallo, Cantiere, Cox 18, Cascina Torchiera, La Fucina, Vittoria, Transiti 28, Panetteria Occupata, Bottiglieria Occupata and Villa Vegan Squat in Milan, Telos in Saronno, Officina 99, SKA, Insurgencia, Cinema Astra Occupato and Terra Terra in Naples, Askatasuna, El Paso, Gabrio, Murazzi, la Boccia Squat, Mezcal Squat, Asilo Squat and Barocchio Squat in Turin, Brancaleone, Corto Circuito, Forte Prenestino, La Strada, Acrobax, Spartaco, Torre Maura, Horus, L38 Laurentino Squat, Macchia Rossa and Villaggio Globale in Rome, Buridda, Pinelli, Terra Di Nessuno, Aut Aut 357 and Zapata in Genoa, Rivolta in Mestre, Gramigna and Pedro in Padua, La Chimica in Verona, Bruno in Trento, Dordoni in Cremona, Magazzino 47 in Brescia, Paci Paciana in Bergamo, Barattolo in Pavia, Firenze Sud in Florence, Experia and Auro in Catania, Ex-Karcere in Palermo, Ex-Mattatoio in Perugia, Mario Lupo in Parma, la Scintilla in Modena, Mezza Canaja in Senigallia, Kontatto in Ancona, TNT in Jesi, Godzilla in Livorno, Rebeldia and Newroz in Pisa, Teatro Polivalente, Lazzaretto, XM24, Livello 57 and Crash in Bologna, Cartella in Reggio Calabria, Rialzo in Cosenza, Fiumara in Catanzaro, Cloro Rosso in Taranto and many others.
Many famous Italian Oi!, ska, hardcore punk and rock bands, such as Los Fastidios, Klasse Kriminale, Banda Bassotti, Negazione, Wretched, Raw Power, and Cripple Bastards tour in the areas of these social centers. Recently, several far-right squats have also emerged, the best known being "Casa Pound", with many social centers all around Italy.
Moldova
Squatting in Moldova is pretty new, as it started with Centro 73 in Chisinau in September 2010. This project is working and starts to be know in medias. A second project of squat in Chisinau in the old Turkish embassy (57, Alexei Mateevici street), called Ada Kaleh, was evicted by police in November 2010.
Netherlands
Banned
On June 1, 2010, the squatting ban was accepted by both houses of Parliament. Squatting in the Netherlands became illegal and punishable when a decree was sent out that the law would be enforced from the first of October. In protest, squatters in Amsterdam had occupied a former fire department the week before the law began (returning it to the owners control on 30 September) and a riot occurred on 1 October when the police blocked a protest and led a horse charge upon it. In Nijmegen (on 2 October), there was also a riot.
History
In the past a building could be used legally by someone who needed to squat if it was empty and not in use for twelve months, and the owner had no pressing need to use it (such as a rental contract starting in the next month). The only illegal aspect was forcing an entry, if that was necessary. When a building was squatted, it was normal to send the owner a letter and to invite the police to inspect the squat. The police checked whether the place was indeed lived in by the squatter. In legal terms, this means there must be a bed, a chair, a table and a working lock on the door which the squatter can open and close.
In cities, there was often a kraakspreekuur (squatters' consultation hour), at which people planning to squat could get advice from experienced squatters. In Amsterdam, where the squatting community is still large, there are four kraakspreekuur sessions in different areas of the city, and so-called "wild" squatting (squatting a building without the help of the local group) is not encouraged. Dutch squatters use the term krakers to refer to people who squat houses with the aim of living in them (as opposed to people who break into buildings for the purpose of vandalism or theft).
There are still many residential squats in Dutch cities. There are also some squats in the countryside such as a squatted village called Ruigoord near Amsterdam and Fort Pannerden near Nijmegen. Fort Pannerden (a military fort built in 1869) was evicted on November 8, 2006, by a massive police operation which used military machinery and cost one million euros. The squatters then re-squatted the fort on November 26 and have since made a deal with the local council which owns the fort. The deal states that the squatters will receive a large piece of land near the fort to start a community in the rural area in between the city of Nijmegen and Arnhem. In exchange, the fort was handed over to local authorities, who will turn it into a museum, with help provided by the squatters that used to live in Fort Pannerden.
The Poortgebouw in Rotterdam
In the past, squats sometimes went through a process of legalisation. This is the case with the Poortgebouw in Rotterdam, which was squatted in 1980. In 1982, the inhabitants agreed to pay rent to the city council. The oRKZ (Oude Rooms-Katholieke Ziekenhuis) in Groningen, squatted in 1979, is an old Roman Catholic hospital, which was declared legal in the 1980s.
Well-known squats include the OT301, Vrankrijk and the Binnenpret in Amsterdam, Anarres in Dordrecht, Het Slaakhuis in Rotterdam and the Landbouwbelang and Villa Vendex in Maastricht. De Blauwe Aanslag in The Hague was evicted in 2003.
Squatting gained a legal basis in the Netherlands in 1971, when the Supreme Court ruled that the concept of domestic peace (huisvrede) (which means a house cannot be entered without the permission of the current user) also applied to squatters. Since then, the owner of the building must take the squatters to court (or take illegal action) in order to evict them. A law was passed in 1994 which made it illegal to squat a building which was empty for less than one year.
There were several moves to ban squatting in the past. In 1978, the Council of Churches launched a protest which scotched the idea. In June 2006, two ministers from the Dutch government (Sybilla Dekker and Piet Hein Donner) proposed a plan to make squatting illegal. Other ministers, such as Alexander Pechtold, were not in favor of this plan. Representatives of the four largest Dutch cities wrote a letter stating that it would not be in their interest to ban squatting. Squatters nationwide made banners and hung them on their squats in protest.
On October 1, 2010, squatting was finally outlawed in The Netherlands after the Squatting Ban Bill was passed into law by both houses of Parliament.
Spain
Famous okupas squat near Parc Guell, overlooking Barcelona-the Bloques Fantasmas close to kasa de la Muntanya
Squatting of empty lots with shanty towns became popular in Spain in the 1960s and 1970s as a result of the shortage of urban accommodation during the rural exodus. Gradually it was substituted by high-rise blocks (often built quickly and poorly). It was revived in the mid-1980s during the La Movida Madrilena, under the name of the okupa (an unofficial spelling applied to ocupacion) movement, when thousands of illegal squatted buildings were legalized. Influenced by the British Levellers, the movement's popularity rose again during the 1990s, once more due to a housing crisis, this time related to the 1992 Summer Olympics and the concomitant urban regeneration. Property speculation and house price inflation continue to catalyze okupa activism.
Related to the anarchist movement, okupas support the ideal of Autogestion and create social centers, such as Patio Maravillas in Madrid, which carry out various grassroots activities. The okupa movement represents a highly politicized form of squatting, so much so that participants often claim they live in squats as a form of political protest first and foremost. The movement is involved in various other social struggles, including the alter-globalization movement. In 1996, during Jose Maria Aznar's presidency, the first specific legislation against squatting was passed and became the prelude to many squat evictions. In the barrio of Lavapies in Madrid, the Eskalera Karakola was a feminist self-managed squat, which was active from 1996 to 2005 and participated in the nextGENDERation network. Other examples are the Escuela Popular de Prosperidad (La Prospe) o Minuesa.
As of 2007, there were approximately 200 occupied houses in Barcelona. At least 45 of these, as Infousurpa, a collective event calendar, mentions, are used as social and cultural centers-so- called "open houses". A number of popular rock groups have come out of this kind of venue, such as Sin Dios, Extremoduro, Kolumna Durruti, Refugio and Platero y Tu in Madrid and Ojos de Brujo and Gadjo in Barcelona.
The Basque Country is another area where a high number of houses are occupied. There are at least 46 squats, or gaztetxes ("youth's houses" in the Basque language). During the 1980s, a house was occupied by squatters in almost every town, and the booming punk movement used them to organize concert tours and expositions. During the last 10 years, at least 15 gaztetxes have closed down, often after protests and clashes with the police. The best known gaztetxe currently is from Gasteiz. Squatting has always been related with the Basque independence movement. In the French Basque Country, there are at least five other squat houses.