Another squated social centre evicted

by Swaanhilde Wed Jun 20, 2007 19:38

The Opus Dei centre in Belgium on the Naamstraat has a divisive history . there is as always
an irish connection with the money and the problem with 'standing'. The social context
problems lead to two things that do not get into the newspapers except in moments of
desperation:- violence and family breakdown.
In 1996 The cycle of violence which was exhibitied by the incompetence of the police began in the
Marc Dutroux scandal, when the men of the police were accused of aiding and abetting the deaths
of the two girls who were imprisoned in Dutroux's basement. 350,000 people did the silent
marches. Belgium is a kingdom and the Irish College has an education and exhibition centre.
Many Irish come over but many do not see or feel the underbelly of crisis which is exhibited
in the railway stations and in the lack of purge of the people of standing and money who have
denied the families of victims their justices. Your president was here and she probably
unintentionally rubbed shoulders with some of the people from the judiciary who have never charged
Dutroux for all the crimes against the kids. The train stations have little photos of disappeared
kids.There are new photos on a monthly basis, we hide the facts of family breakdown while the
judiciary hide the ones who feed off it. The social centres are a good idea because the kids
have each other and its very wrong to do away with places where they are safe together.
Leuven is not only a medieval town it was the home of the college which regularly sent
Catholic martyrs to England during Queen Elizabeth I's reign and most of them were
disembowelled, so you can see it has a dark history. In French terms the town is called
Louvain, and Leuven in Flemish. As long as we hide the reality of what is happening in
the kingdom of belgium and allow the kids not to be safe these things will continue to happen
and it seems to suit many people to have these problems in our lovely town.
I say to the kids please be careful and stick together because they are not safe on their own
especially because we refuse to look at these problems and no matter how good it all is
for us, the town has problems that it will not face.

350,000 people in white

by Swanni Thu Jun 21, 2007 09:55

There is on coverage on the local indymedias in Belgium. There is no indymedia for Leuven
anyway. Most of the headlining issues are G8. It is interesting to see that there are 5-6
links to the regions in such a small country.The channels and threads are mainly in Flemish.

by verjaardag Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:05

No real up dates at the moment, the movement in leuven has never been very good with spreading info outside their city.
But there is a demo planed for friday evening in Leuven city centre. It will be intresting to see what happens.

by verjaardag Sat Jun 23, 2007 12:49

On Friday 250 people demonstrated on the streets of Leuven. It passed peacefully, probably due the huge amount of riot police, the police helicopter, fire brigade and ambulance. Which were on the streets.
A building owned by opus dei was attacked with paint bombs. and stickers were put around the city.
see link below:-

by kraker2 Sat Jun 23, 2007 18:48

Leuven in short-- The past week there were three days on a row fireattacks on (garbage)containers, two cars and a digger in the centre of Leuven. Political slogans were sprayed all over town. The cops, though without a prove, linked the both together and to the eviction from the squat on monday. At the same moment, they saw these attacks as a freeguide to change the citycentre on fridaynight in a copcity and forbid any demo or gathering from people (cfr. Walking with four or more). Furthermore they forced the pubs on the big market to close and take their outside sitting equipment inside, and closed off the whole square. Reinforcements in civil and normal cops came into town and from 16.00 on people got arrested.
Some cars which were on there way to the demo were holded and the people preventive arrested. Also people who arrived by train got arrested when they stepped out and looked a bit alternative (so lot of people who didnt know nothing about a demo where also trapped and handcuffed). Although the preventive hunt in the city centre 300 squatters gathered at the demopoint and started a fast demo through the inner city. An opus dei house was attacked with paint and from then on the cops started to try the demo outside the city centre. People were chased through the city, the front of the demo got attacked when they tried to brake through, pepperspray and physical violence was used for the first time, some people got arrested here...
Then the demo got somehow splitted up more and more and a the biggest part was chase up the motorway around Leuven. As the mainstreampress allready stopped being around, they saw there change and did some big agressive attacks on the protestors and 50 were arrested, some bleeding from the copattack.
The rest of the demo withdraw to the other squat at vaartkom which was then, later, surrounded by 300 riotcops and were ordered to leave the house. Which nobody did offcourse, in the city centre people still were arrested on behalf of their looks.
In total 100 people were arrested (minors not included) and held for 10 hours without any food (water and sugar). Their is also a rumour that 3, squatfriendly, lawyers would have been arrested preventively on friday afternoon, to withold juridicial support. Dont have confirmation for that though....Updates and pix see indymedia.be

by Legal Sat Jun 23, 2007 20:26

-Use your tech-

The thing with this kind of bullying by a state authority on behalf of a moneyed group like
opus Dei is that they think they can walk on you. They cannot.

Record everything.
Make complaints.
Don't be afraid of them
Get the shots out onto the net.
Hook up with other groups.

The pushing down of people in order to profit from misery has the same hall marks in
most of the countries were this type of facist repression is becoming usual. Many people
who engage in protest against ghettoisation and profit have to learn their human rights.
Its hard but achievable, the more people who know about it the better for you.

Start a thread and upload the shots here with a bit of history of the seven years squat.
The authorities failure to defend your rights.
The ability of the same authorities to brutalise people who have become disenfranchised
by people who seek to put profit first.

Shame them for what they do to the citizens of Leuven, people are listening and
watching, many of the Irish have relatives and friends in Belgium.
I'd like to see the shots up, not just a link. Ye are a spit away from the EU
headquarters in Brussels, make noise!

Let people know that the EU turn their backs to the kids of Belgium by ignoring their
brutalisation at the hands of those who care only about money whilst advocating
religious conservative values.

by Stella Artois Sat Jun 23, 2007 21:22

Het Leuvens Instituut Voor Ierland in Europa

http://www.louvaininstitute.com/history.asp

You will note that the institute of Leuven, a Flemish speaking town- has retained
the old French styling in its Web Mail address!

The Villa Squatti Dei images of eviction would be welcome here given our very, very
strong connection to the medieval Catholic institution, which Mary Mc Aleese visited
recently. Images of the cops brutalising kids on behalf of Opus Dei would also
be welcome, Opus Dei and the 'Louvain institute' share many connections of
the educational and artistic variety.
I hope the lawyers connected to the houses are ok and that you have retained all digital.
please put up the shots for us to see the vast difference between PR driven projects and
the treatment of kids who might be perceived to be both powerless and on the wrong side
of the fence. The brutalisation of the poor is nothing new- but shame them for doing it.

by squatter from leuven Sun Jun 24, 2007 21:31

We heard the news of this solidarity action when we'er trapped in another squat after the manifestation. We fled in the squat with around 50 people after the demonstration was bruttally ended by the police, then they surrounded us their en kept us trept.

It was really nice to hear about this, it realy gave us a good feeling, nice action, thank you

by Kel Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:05

Thanx Irish friends, for your solidarity! xxxxxxxx

by rapaz Sun Nov 18, 2007 17:23 capitancobaya at hotmail dot com

Hello
I write from spain, (malaga) i´m searching some information about squated social centres in leuven. I would like to contac with someone there because I´m going to Leuven in february for 6 months and I very interesting in collaborate with you.
Here in malaga we have a new squated social centre since mars 2007 called " la casa invisible" you can search it at indymedia estrecho:
http://estrecho.indymedia.org
so please, if you live in leuven or you are in contac with them you could contac me at capitancobaya@hotmail.com
and sorry for my terrible english.