Tag Archives: Occupations

The politics of occupation: The metamorphosis of subjectivities

2016 marks the fifth anniversary of a wave of occupations of public spaces that began emblematically in Tahrir Square in Cairo.  Much can be said about such radical politics, and we have tried in our modest to comprehend these events. … Continue reading

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The illusions of political representation

As many of the streets of Hong Kong remain occupied, the movement unmasks the nature of the power that it contests. If a guarantee of formal representative democracy was the stated motive for the protest, it has already become, as … Continue reading

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Claiming property as use: House okupations in Madrid

The occupation of empty, bank owned houses in spain, under the name of Obra Social, appeared in the wake of the creation 15M neighbourhood assemblies and parallel movements that came together initially to address the mass evictions in the country, … Continue reading

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Scenes from the class war in spain: okupation and resistance

Social movements form around problems. We don’t mean this in a simple functionalist fashion, as if there is a pre-existent problem which then produces a social movement that, in turn, forces the state or capital to respond and solve the … Continue reading

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Can Vies: The resonances of an okupation

…we need to abandon the view of autonomy that fantasizes uncontaminated enclaves of emancipation. Stavros Stavrides For over a week, thousands protested the eviction and partial destruction of the Can Vies Self-managed Social Centre in Barcelona, in the Centre’s neighbourhood … Continue reading

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The rebellion/resistance of okupied social centres: Centre Social Autogestionat Can Vies

An okupied social centre is a form of direct action against State-Capital. It is a refusal of the sacrosanctity of private property and of the authority which oversees its protection. It is a making common that which is held privately … Continue reading

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A Madrid May: resistance, escraches, occupations – the struggle for a commons

In February, 2013, a 47 year old woman walked into a bank in Almassora, Castellón, poured inflammable liquid over herself, and then set herself afire, screaming as she did so: “Look at what you have done to me! You have … Continue reading

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Recuperation as eviction, resistance as occupation

“Spain shows again that it has regained the confidence of the markets.” (Le Monde 04/05/2014)  The interest rate on the spanish debt, at ten years, has dropped below 3%, Madrid’s stock market registers an increase in value of 25.58% over … Continue reading

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Occupy everthing!

To the question “What is property?”, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon famously answered, “It is theft”.  That it could be taken for a right was already a conceptual confusion, for unlike liberty, equality, integrity of person, the “right” to property was not unqualified.  … Continue reading

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A Madrid October: The struggle against eviction – Resistance and occupation

After days of gathering to resist the announced eviction of an apartment block in Girona, the Salt block, owned by the SAREB, spain's bad bank, and occupied by the PAH on the 22 of March of this year, in the … Continue reading

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