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On the Eve of Our Repression: Communiqué on The Squatting Struggle in Oakland 2/10/13

Mon, 02/11/2013 - 09:18 -- Anonymous (not verified)

In our time squatting we've learned unconventional methods of survival. A blurring of means and ends. Not least of these is the ability to adapt, to disappear from one circumstances and hold our ground in others. To understand the difference between defensive and offensive actions.

And once again, the need for action and for offense rises in our hearts. The calls for passivity and obedience ring hollower each day, as building by building our autonomous experiments collapse at the intervention of the Police or the County Pigs. We are forced to look at the escalating repression of squatters and autonomous spaces from within the situation, as new partisans in a social war of evolving terrain.

*The Stayaway has received notice to vacate for Wednesday, February 13th at 6:00am,

*The Hot Mess/RCA Compound (Oakland's Squatted social center) teeters at the outer limit of ability to delay eviction in court, with a final judgement ruled against them on February 8th. Both spaces could face raids on or before Valentine's Day.

The forces of Capital and Order have been chopping the Bay up like a pie, each slice more lucrative than the next. Hot Mess/RCA stands as a bulwark of autonomy amidst a West Oakland landscape that is rapidly transforming into posh condos and shops for the petit-bourgoise of San Francisco's commuter class. An anonymous communiqué from BayofRage published last year spells out the plans for The MacArthur Transit Village, and in a broader sense, the MacArthur Corridor, of which Hot Mess/RCA occupies an important point on:

“Once constructed, the Transit Village will be more a part of San Francisco than of Oakland. The transit village is designed as a commuter enclave. Without ever stepping into the surrounding north Oakland neighbourhoods, yuppies can live near BART, travel to and from work and, on their Friday nights, visit the upscale restaurants on Telegraph. This is not to say that the Transit Village will have a neutral effect on surrounding areas.... there is talk of revitalizing an ailing neighbourhood or, worse, reducing the existing neighbourhood to a blank canvas on which developers can capitalize on a “booming real-estate market.”...the construction on the Transit Village can be anticipated to bring an increased security presence, a fresh assault on graffiti and street art, and scores of new residents sympathetic to the police and unaware of the neighbourhood in which they live.”

- “Oakland is for Burning? Beyond a Critique of Gentrifcation” Bayofrage.com

The Stayaway is an intervention on a different aspect of Capital's restructuring project- the Foreclosure Crisis. This four unit apartment building in the Highland neighbourhood was foreclosed on by Bank of America and left squalid and vacant for years. Bank of America left the house to rot, but in November 2011, squatters were invited by an adjacent neighbor to restore the building, and they methodically scaled back the ivy and blackberry vines that were threatening to swallow the entire property.

The Stayaway is only one among the tens of thousands of foreclosures that have swept across in Oakland since 2008. The majority of these foreclosures were on families of color, especially Black and Latino residents of West and East Oakland. In 2011 and 2012, over 40% of foreclosed property sales were to Real Estate Investment groups, not families or individuals with planned tenancy.

This glut in foreclosures has led to countless stories of blighted and vacant properties forgotten by their Mega-Bank owners, who found themselves unable to juggle the thousands of homes they were now responsible for maintaining. The Stayaway has frustrated Bank of America tirelessly in their efforts to resist eviction, having already fended off the Sheriffs successfully in September of 2012 through a combination of barricades, thorough planning, and the presence of over 40+ supporters upon the Sheriffs 8am arrival.

But the eviction notices have come anew, and that is why on the eve of coming repression we find it necessary to define the terrain of our struggle, to elaborate a discourse on autonomous spaces that is simultaneously more than a How-to-Build-The-Barricades manual and more than a screechy list of our grievances and injuries. We are not a militant vanguard , nor are we liberal Citizens clamouring for our rights. We are a counter-power, organized outside of the logic of rental agreements and mortgage payment, landlord and property value. Our ability to hold and maintain space rests not our lines of credit, or valid immigration documents, or building our home-additions up to code: instead our social fabric is woven from a will-full rejection of all of these things.

We'll examine the evident:

Capital and the State have begun a massive restructuring and up-scaling of the Greater Oakland area, that is inherently hostile to our project of growing autonomous spaces.

This re-organization by its nature will seek to eradicate autonomous spaces by swallowing them back into Order and Society. Every formerly Autonomous space will be tamed by re-imposing the social relationships of the Landlord, the Leaseholder, the Tenant, and the Home-Owner.

Every eviction of an autonomous space strengthens global capitalism and weakens our ability to organize against it. These evictions reinforce the oppressive social and economic relationships we are seeking to live outside of.

Will-fully Erased

The trajectory of a “Renovated Oakland” in the era of San Francisco's second Tech Boom is as obvious as it is alarming- the creation of infrastructure for an extended commuter metropolis, new surveillance systems with the latest cameras, and the proliferation of Private Security “Ambassadors” who work with business interests and the police to maintain control of the streets. San Francisco will tower over the west coast as a model of The New Tech City, responsible for much of the social infrastructure that increasingly comes to define middle and upper class identity in the era of smart-phone Facebook log-ins and OkCupid dates.

Gentrification and development will march in lock-step through the very streets on which we had once sought reprieve from them.
Social Centers will be demolished to build condos, and squats in foreclosed homes will be evicted by Investment Groups, who will oversee their gutting, remodelling, and finally their marketing for sale.

Much of our shared history of resistance here will be willfully erased, not only by bulldozers and development but in the minds of the new social class arriving that will have neither seen nor care to see the battles for freedom that we've waged here, in recent years and across history, from the Indigenous Ohlone People to the Black Panther Party.

To Draw a Line in the Sand

Against these lapping waves of repression we choose to draw a line in the sand, across our doorstep and before the boots of the fascists. We look at these “Notices to Vacate” from within the situation and understand all the threat of violence that piece of paper implies, the entire Apparatus of State power that throws their weight onto these documents.

We have not forgotten the multiple raids on autonomous spaces here in Oakland and San Francisco.

We have not been deaf to the repression of autonomous spaces close to us in Portland and Seattle.

We have not been blind to the crackdown on squatters in Moscow, Athens, Barcelona, and throughout the world: on the contrary we have watched closely and found recognition of our struggle in yours. They are the same struggle, the same position against the system that is not reducible to ballot-casting or Voting Yes, but a real and tactical position in contested territory of the Social War.

We have exhausted ourselves in the courts of Bourgeois justice, stretching our knowledge of legalese and eviction law to their extent. But the courts were not able to save us; they were not designed to legitimize our struggle. Instead, we return to the defensive position we began in, holding a space and refusing to move.

Our call then is not only for the protection and defence of The Stayaway and the Hotmess/RCA, but for a renewed offensive of cracking houses in the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout the world: One, One Hundred, One Thousand Squats! And if we succumb to eviction, then we would see the boarded windows of our former homes fall to the crowbar and hammer, we would see the fences clipped full of holes and torn down for the continuance of our struggle for new social arrangements in opposition to the system.

LONG LIVE ANARCHY

IN SOLIDARITY WITH SQUATTED SPACES EVERYWHERE

IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE 100 GREEK COMRADES ARRESTED DURING THE RE-OCCUPATION OF VILLA AMALIA IN ATHENS

FOR AN ANARCHIST REVOLUTION AGAINST PROPERTY AND THE STATE

TOWARDS THE BUILDING OF EXARCHIA

- Some Oakland Anarchists

Category: 

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Today (10/2) several activists expressed their solidarity with the campaign for a Black February 2013. Here is the text which was passed out:

“A worldwide campaign in solidarity with liberated spaces is taking place between the 2nd and the 12th of February 2013.

The State bombards liberated spaces with all kinds of attacks and repression, and not only in Greece. Many of our self-organized liberated spaces are being raided or evicted, our infrastructure is often destroyed, and our counter-information media are censored or hindered.

Also along the Rhine it is vastly coming to a boil, be it about the AZ Köln (Autonomous Space Cologne), which is threatened with eviction, or the SJZ in Siegburg, which is being bullied by the local public order force (Ordnungsamt); be it about people from Squat Mainz Group, who are being criminalized because they squatted the Haus Mainusch on Obere Austraße 7 in Mainz, another project under eviction threat, or the criminalization of the LiZ campaign for libertarian centres in Bonn, or the sheer lack of self-organized liberated spaces in the city of Koblenz and its surroundings.

On the one hand, we want to express our solidarity with liberated spaces that are currently threatened worldwide; on the other hand, we wish to set off the avalanche for liberated spaces here, in Koblenz.

Wake up! Jump in! Get wild –> Squat the World.”

http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/2013/02/11/koblenz-germany-solidarity-act...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

If by my life or death I can protect you, I will. You have my sword…

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

and my axe!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

and my keyboard!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Why would we want to build Exarchia? Defend the RCA/Hotmess. Let's throw down. However, Oakland is nothing like Exarchia and I'm totally okay with that. I hope y'all are too.
Less ghettoization, more revolt.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

nope, it's a neighbourhood in Athens well-known for being heavily inhabited/frequented by anarchists, antifascists, and antiauthoritarians. It's also where Alexandros Grigoropoulous was murdered by police.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Nope.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

also LOL that oakland is less ghetto than exarchia. I wonder if someone could be less knowledgeable about the lay of the land. fucking twat.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

I think there's a conflation of the term "ghetto" going on here, though I could be wrong.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Or, you know, you could try actually giving the fliers to people, rather than throwing them on the fucking ground like an idiot and hoping people pick them up off the street. What the fuck is wrong with anarchists.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

S.A.D.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

LOL, best laugh all morning. yeah, people love picking pieces of garbage off the ground get the WORD out LOL LOL LOL LOL

Submitted by Thank you for t... (not verified) on

Want to be the Saviors of Oakland? Just throw a lot of scuzzy-ass paper all over the ground! Nobody would live THERE but a bunch of trashpickers anyhow, so they're sure to get the message that Salvation is Imminent.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

If only the public were educated about the issue would things then change. If the masses were educated about housing justice they would be rising to your defense, but since they are not educated about the issue they are unsympathetic/unaware of your cause. What you really need to do is block a Shell station, that would really draw awareness to your cause.

http://bcblackout.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/anarchists-block-shell-station/

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

BROTESTERS

<3

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

but for real, <3 to everyone facing eviction this week and know that you have comrades who would take you in if you ask

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

amen

Submitted by yo mama... (not verified) on

fuck that grandiose PR bullshit.

You are not a part of some glorious revolutionary future.
You are a bunch of WHITE punk rock drug addicts, who are the first wave of occupation.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

::Yawn::
Are you done rambling yet?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

stop making invisible countless people of color who have contributed to spaces like these. you fucking white bread chicken shit mother fucker.

Submitted by CRUD (not verified) on

The investment groups and banks are scum. They're even finding ways around Freddi Mac's "first look initiative" which means, for the first two weeks the house is on the market, it can only be sold to owners who will live in the home. And who the fuck are all these people who can afford 400k for a 4 bedroom house in west oakland? I just put an offer in for a home (I know, home ownership is so bourgeois but I'm almost 40 and fuck rent) and the asking price was 190k. Put an offer in for 210k and it sold for 300k. Small two bedroom Victorian that was gutted.

OP said: "Every eviction of an autonomous space strengthens global capitalism and weakens our ability to organize against it. These evictions reinforce the oppressive social and economic relationships we are seeking to live outside of." Not sure if global capitalism hinges on gentrifying Oakland and I'm also not sure living outside of the system is the path to revolution. Just sayin.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Living outside the system may not be the path to revolution, but it is the path to living outside the system.

Wait, no, it's neither of those things. Actually, now that I think about it, what the fuck are we doing anyway? And why are we doing it?

Submitted by Oh wow...so the... (not verified) on

If you can afford to pay $210K for a gutted house, you're probably better off not buying in West Oakland anyhow. Don't know if you were around for the last wave of flipping, but it was pretty hilarious. A lot of the investors were from out of town and unfamiliar with the terrain. The local realtors were more than happy to show them all the lovely little Victorians (without making much mention of Westside being the heroin hub of the east bay). So some of these people poured fortunes into replacing all the brass and gingerbread, then listing them for a million dollars plus, only to find that guess what? Nobody but a loon was going to pay that kind of money to live in that kind of neighborhood. So then the out-of-towners, who wouldn't be caught dead living in Oakland themselves, were saddled with million-dollar shooting galleries, a few of which mysteriously burned down (and of course, the owners were quick to blame the squatters...better insurance money when you can identify a shabby-looking possible perp).

Whoever bought that house out from under you probably did you one of the biggest favors in your life.

Submitted by Bloom (not verified) on

Not every squatter is a writer, while you may critique the written analysis, and while you're to scared to stand behind or in front of the barricade, these people aren't.
Fuck The Status Quo, Fuck You Wanking AN.org jerkoff trolls.

Submitted by CRUD (not verified) on

Bloom on Tue said "etc and so on, jerk off trolls etc" Not sure who this comment is directed towards? Living outside the system is a good lifestyle choice if you're so inclined, surviving without being subjected to wage labor, rent and interest loans/credit cards is indeed liberating. I've done it myself and understand the motivation, all I'm saying is it's not a revolutionary strategy to end capitalism. I tend to focus on work place struggle in that regard but I do agree the level of discussion in the comment sections of this site are lacking. Rather "trollish".

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

"Bloom on Tue said "etc and so on, jerk off trolls etc"

Bloom, you so funny!

-A Young-Girl

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

time to go the fuck back to Santa Cruz and get those master's degrees yet? Stop thoughtlessly making a game out of people's means of living.

Submitted by 25 years in Oakland (not verified) on

about the trajectory of a “Renovated Oakland” in the era of San Francisco's second Tech Boom. People with techie money tend not to want to live in Oakland; in general, most of them will want to stay in the city, or maybe go across the GG to Sausalito, Tiburon, or Mill Valley. The Bay Bridge commute can be truly hideous in terms of time and gas money, and the toll is crazy expensive anymore.

And I just shake my head and laugh whenever I hear about the Macarthur Transit Village. Yuh-huh, sure. They may tempt a few gullible newcomers into paying top dollar for that neighborhood, but don't expect yuppies to hang around for very long in them shiny new crackerboxes when there are so many other more spacious, less isolated, less rip-offy options available. If somebody's going to do that lousy commute to SF in the mornings, chances are they're not going to want to do it for the privilege of living in some fortress anywhere near Macarthur Bart.

Submitted by anonymous on

i fear that so much of this rambling is empty crimethinc. rhetoric without actually analyzing the ways yall are trying to connect your struggle to struggles outside of mostly white anarchist scenes in oakland. yea i hear a bit about gentrification but it seems that just dropping banners or making cute propaganda flyers, its all in hope for some romantic spectacle.(and its NOT always white guilt when a white person calls a group of white folks out for racist or classist actions or dynamics within a space. i think thats often times a reactionary cop-out)....and whoever may have a different idea of how resistance plays out, is dead weight. maybe some poc folks live at the space but who is making all the flyers and writing all the propoganda? who has the strongest voice within the space? and who is the first to be heard? you cant just ignore the fact that most of the time(not saying all) these spaces are full of privilege that goes unaddressed. and yes i know everyone needs a place to live, but if yall arent doin the work to address issues of race, class, heterosexism, etc and connect yr struggle to folks in oakland who were there long before you, then how do you expect support? im fully aware of how dangerous words like privilege can be thrown around but is it also that privilege playing out that automaticaly expects support from folks who are struggling in more immediate ways to survive!?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

".and whoever may have a different idea of how resistance plays out, is dead weight."

Explain.

Submitted by Oh, easy one (not verified) on

It's about romanticized illusions of self-importance.

A bunch of young, pissy white people who live everywhere else breeze into Oakland, break a lot of windows without bothering to consider whether they belong to Bank of America or to Mrs. Born and Raised in Oakland, who's finally scraped enough money together to open her little local bakery. Then they move on to slash the tires of Mr. Raising Three Kids, who's working downtown for a whopping $10 an hour. Because fuck it, and fuck those Oakland residents for having windows and cars! They're obviously part of the Oppressive Class, and deserve to have their little shit torn up and broken and trashed. They're fucking Dead Weight, too lame and clueless to be down with the White Kid Version of Struggle and Oppression. Plus, their boo-hooing complicates the issue when we're On TV and have called up all our punker/wannabe-hippy dorm mates to watch us all braving the Hood and being all Street and shit.

Damn it, it's Oakland. Was nothing but a slum anyway! What right do all those whiny niggers have to complain? We're the best thing that's ever hit their crappy little city, so they need to just stay out of the way, quit bitching, read a few books, and thank us for colonizing their neighborhoods. When in hell did THEY go to college, after all? Where are THEIR Doc Martens? Everyone can see we're the Real Hipster Deal. All them damned locals...I mean, they're middle-aged, or Grandpop aged! They're so old and irrelevant...they'll be dead soon anyway, right? So who cares what their uncool working-class asses have to say about Me Me Me I mean Us?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

YAWN.

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