GENTRIFICATION STRIKES AGAIN: VIJZELSTRAAT 5

     The central area of Amsterdam has, for a long time, been a judicial battlefield on which a war against ‘Vrijplaatsen’ (“Free Spaces”) & Squats is being waged by a wide coalition of Business & Political interests. Kalenderpanden, Cineak, Vrankrijk – as well as Fort Van Sjakoo, recently – are just some of the spaces which have been targeted by the money-driven notion of ‘city-planning’, and in the next years (or even months) other alternative spaces are sure to follow.
One of the spaces currently under threat of eviction is the ‘Woon-werk plaats’ (Living and working space) in Vijzelstraat 5, a house bought and sold between speculators for years, with a long history of squattings, evictions and re-squattings starting in 1993.
     Together with two other neighboring squats, Vijzelstraat 5 was last evicted on the 16th of June, 1998, to make place for the monstrous cinema complex “Pathé!”. The two neighboring houses were demolished entirely, while half of Vijzelstraat 5 was destroyed, rendering it practically unlivable.
     Three years later, it was squatted once more on the 15th of January, 2001, and began functioning as the CIA (Counter-Information Agency) Infocafe after 3 months of extensive renovations (a complete new sewage, water & electricity infrastructure, a whole new back-wall, and more…).
     Located in the heart of an area entirely designed & populated by Consumerism and Tourism, the CIA Infocafe offers an autonomous space for meetings, free tea, cheap vegan food, video infonights and a wide range of printed information that mainstream media either ignores or suppresses.
     Now, the current owner Van Zijl (who, in accordance with the city’s policies, prefers to let houses rot vacant for the sake of speculative money rather than them being utilized positively to benefit real people and communities), is planning to demolish Vijzelstraat 5 in order to build several stories of office-space; for the sake of the usual interests, at the expense of the usual people.
     We believe that, as a living and working space (a combination which, perhaps, we should try to create more often in the Squatting movement), Vijzelstraat 5 should not be handed-over so easily into the hands of Speculative Business and its guard-dogs the Police Force.