Sunday 8 of September, Plantage Middenlaan 64, connected to Plantage Badlaan 9, has been squatted.

This building, classified as a ¨second order¨construction, has been constructed in 1892 and in the beginning it hosted the Association for Helpless Blind.

In 1961 the association left the building and it became the entomology department of the University of Amsterdam until 2011.

According to the Kadaster, this place has been bought by the Kingdom of Morocco in 2011.

The project was to make a Moroccan Cultural Center but nothing happened because of the absence of subsidy.

There has been some misleading attention by the media towards the project, and some statements made to the press by people not connected or participating to the group that runs the project.

We write this announcement in order to specify a few important issues.

First of all, we must make clear that we are not associated with any group or association which determines itself with ethnic or national criteria.

For us, race and nationality are not valid discriminations between people.

We are open for people, groups and projects, that can recognize themselves and their purposes in our project and are looking for space to express themselves in a city where almost everything is run with the expectation of commerce and profit.

Our purpose is to create an open social space of creation and activity in the city, together with a living project, that will function outside the mainstream commercial channels.

For us, the right of housing and use space for create and express is something to claim in a dynamic and self organized effort, not bought or rented.

We do not wish to make any profit from our activities, and expect the same intention from whoever wishes to organize something here or cooperate with us.

We have collectively decided not to communicate our intentions and action through the mainstream media, as we find them manipulative and insincere, as they have already proved themselves, even in the first two days of our existence. Whatever we have to say we will say it ourselves, through announcements like this one, in indymedia and in the streets.

The project is at its very beginning and we are still busy with basic infrastructure issues, and hopefully soon we will be able to organize our living space as well as other activities.

In the next days we will publish our e-mail address, so who wants to contact us for questions, suggestions and comments can do it through it.

Thanks to everyone who is supporting and helping us.

pm64[AT]squat.net

Published on Indymedia Nederland https://www.indymedia.nl/node/19060