wohnzimmer gestalten bauernhaus

when you look at the society where we live in you realize that they naturally force you - i mean the system forces you - to work, to pay the rent.. in order to pay the rent you have to work... and to pay the taxes. and when you come with alternative way how to live then it is something unacceptable

and they are even able to imprison you for it. â§249a of the czech law code article 1 and 2 illegal interference into the right of flat, house or non-residential space: 1. who illegally occupies or uses house, flat or on-residential space would be imprisoned for up two years or fined 2. one who inhibits legitimate person from using house, flat or non-residential space

would receives the same punishment squatting is very subversive in itself because it questions one of the base saintship of capitalism which is the right for privat ownership. it questions the right to own something and gives priority to the right to use it, so squating is anti-capitalistic in it’s very nature. squating means occupying and using of long-term empty houses without the permision

from their owners. occupied places are usually not being used just for living but also for wider social, cultural and political activities. the aim of all collectives that squatted in prague was a creation of alternative social-culture center that would give space for non-commercial activities. in a city full of clubs and bars the large part of (not only) youth is missing

the space for self-realization free of dictatorship of money, advertisement and sponsorship. in the same time it is more and more difficult to find affordable place for living. on the other hand there is a lot of houses that are empty for years slowly becoming ruins. some of them because they are just subject of speculation some are letting to break intentionally

as their owner wants to destroy for example listed building and build officies of luxury hotel instead. since the beggining of 90’ more than a dozen houses were occupied like this in prague. the last remaining squat in prague was evicted at june, 30 2009. let’s have a look at the history of a few of them... i moved in after we were evicted from the zenklovka. it was in january.

we than moved to the ladronka where we realized that it is not the biggest place and that it is not big enough for all of us and that we want to continue squatting. so we were looking for a new house all around prague and we found milada. we occupied it on mayday 1998. i lived over there, where you see window bay

under the balcony... that room with nice windows.. blue windows, yes... i lived one floor above... i had the only room with balcony... ...i had storey there and stuff... ...it was nice room... we were evicted from zenklovka in the end of january and since that we were looking for a new house

all around prague. we were thinking about pros and cons football match at milada, 1998 this house was interesting for us but was in a bad condition we decided not to take it when we saw it for the first time. it changed when we learned that it is not listed in real estate registry.

we were looking for a house where we could stay for a longer time period. so it meant house with a building ban or other kind of law problem. and the one that belongs to state or a city as we didn’t want to squat private owned house again. that’s a woodhouse, isn’t it? what? that’s a woodhouse, right?

it was in a better condition back in our times. but when you see those posters or that sign it is clear that is has some history and something was going on there even though that this reminds me my attempt to run an infoshop when i was always sitting there alone for two hours drinking coffee and nobody had ever come. right.. but it is a piece of life...

...a piece of history. it is difficult to show anything to you when it is in this condition... but i remember doing loads of wood on that staircases... and they have been destroyed by it... you think they have been destroyed by it? winters were really tough overhere... but it was really good in that sence

that while in summer we were scattered all around the europe or wherever, nevermind. but in winter we came back to the house and as we burnt in stove it had magnificent atmosphere. people were gathering in rooms together chatting and drinking... winter was really great because of that... but every morning there was cold again, anyway...

while i’ve been there dozens of gigs took place also some exhibitions, lectures, workshops when we talk about culture. in the same time some gatherings were taking place for example before the first major neo-nazis demo in 1999 that was their first attempt to go back into the streets in years there was a discussion of about 50 people about how to face it up.

milada had been open but i don’t now if it was open even to the general public. when i was there actions were aimed mainly to subcultures - punk, grind, tekkno and so on. no open actions for general public took place such as author's reading or exhibition. also there wasn’t working community nor the functional collective. or at least that’s how i see it.

in those two years we were there we did around 200 public actions. in the beggining there were mainly punk and hc gigs then we started to do tekkno parties during the winter and since the last autumn we started to trying to do it more variously milada eviction attempt, 1998 we tried to cut themselves off the subculture roots and to do a program that could reach farer,

program opened to wider spectrum of people than it was in the beggining. various thematic parties took place, screenings, workshops, theater plays etc. when i saw shots from the eviction i was really surprised. i also saw the tv program about 1998 eviction attemp and realised the big difference in intensity and brutality of the action.

eviction of milada, 2009 the only thing that is comparable is destruction of the house and of our personal property. that went in the same intensity. whatever they could destroyed they destroyed. when we managed to defend the house we stood in emergency state as we thought they’d try it again. so we tighted rope into that window overthere

and in order to get into the house you had to climbed. it was like that for about two weeks... ...so every time i went home i climbed... inside the evicted milada we made this barricade overnight when we heard the rumour we are going to be evicted next day. it was last autumn. we’d had an iron prepared and then we just fulfilled it with concrete.

and then we welded it together with hinges. finally it was of no use as they put ladder on balcony and went inside through window in this room... milada is still empty and falling into disrepair till today it all started back in 1997... ...is that right? i’m not sure actually... we were young, going to ladronka -

- one of the squat i always sympathized with and still consider it to be the best and best organised squat in prague till today. and various people were meeting there, people from scene and symhathizers of squating and the topic of the future of squating rised up there. the question whether a new house would be occupied. there was a bunch of people that wanted to solve their housing problem by this way

or wanted to live in a squat because they want to try community living. so a working group was composed and started to search for a house. whole list of building suitable for this was made. two of that were picked up later as the best suitable for occupation because of law reasons and it’s condition as well as locality.

we occupied zenklovka. it hadn’t last for long, unfortunatelly. however it was genius project and i could sincerely say i spent the best time of my life there. zenklovka was the first squat i moved in. it was in 1997. we occupied it in august in about 12 people.

our aim was to build a tea-room downstairs and a space for exhibitions. and we wanted to make a space for living upstairs. the house had a private owner. we tried to do an agreement with him for a while to no avail, but it was probably mainly our mistake. however we did the basic repair work in first 14 days it means we cleaned all the mess in rooms and stairs... ...clay from backyard etc.

basically we did this basic stuff. there was no electricity and water in the house. we were bringing water from hydrant across the road and were using candles. after 14 days mr. suchanek came to the house in the morning of some working day. he had been visited by police before probably by anti-extremist department and i think that as usual they told him

that junkies occupied his house. he and police made pressure on us in order to make us leave the house. they made an ultimatum that we should leave the house till eight o’clock otherwise we would be evicted by police. what was great was support from people from ladronka who helped us to defend zenklovka by advice as well as by physicall support.

because mr. suchanek really came back with police and tried to kick us off the house. we made barricade on stairs and went to the roof. part of the people ran away on roofs part was catched and part stayed on the roof. it was 14 days after the occupation when we were evicted. in about two days we re-occupied it. thanks to the personal experience with mr. suchanek

we probably proved to him that we are not junkies and that it is possible to make an agreement with us, set some time period and let us use the house for it. so we agreed we could live here till the end of january 97. there was a tea-room already in operation people could come and learn about us as we had some literature, magazines and books. also discussions and lectures took place. we only did a few cultural actions here,

one accoustic gig in backyard, ran a tea-room. few lectures took place, one about underground and literature... ...mr. vodrazka had a lecture about chaos... after the eviction of zenklovka there was plan b and that was the second best house suitable for occupation. and that was milada. a lot of people from zenklovka moved there. the idea of occupation was rising up during 1992

when there was a need among prague’s anarchist to have a place for meeting up, doing gigs... in general to have a space for our political and cultural activities. the only sympathizing place was 007 club but that was limited and not suitable for meetings, duscussions, screenings etc. so in the second half of 92’ the idea rised up and we started to search for the place. the first attempt took place in march 1992 when the empty house in plzenska street was occupied.

it was a short-term one, it lasted just for a few weeks... we were three people living there. one of the first articles about ladronka in press it somehow disapeared, we were kicked out by police... but the need of autonomous space as a background for our activities was still present so we were searching another houses. two were picked up. pictures from ladronka

one of them was ladronka, the second was house at krejcarek so we were considering it, learning about ownership etc. finally we unanimously choosed ladronka. we all liked the house when we were there for the first time... ...it was empty, opened, really nice house in nice environment... ...in addition it belonged to the city-council that didn’t care about it which was another point for us. during the summer preparations took place... ...discussion about who is going to live there...

...searching for neccesary stuff and background... and in september 93’ it was occupied. in the beggining 8-10 people lived there. already in september first preparation work started regarding living condition as well as a hall as we wanted to open the place as soon as possible so we could do the activities there that were the reason of occupation. so the aim was to occupy it in order to get the space for our activities. living was secondary thing.

we took ladronka as autonomous cultural space from the very beggining, since the time we did first projects, intensions, studies... we had a ladronka foundation back then, but we had to liquidate it later. total mix of actions took place there the core were gigs, but also exhibitions, festivals... video from ladronka ...tea-room, screenings, info-shop... spectrum of activities was really wide including artist's workshop for a while...

a few hundred actions we'd did there left it's mark in prague cultural scene and more, as ladronka was known and popular internationally as well thanks to all solidarity demos taking place at embassies abroad as well the reach of this culture was wider then just ladronka, prague. majority of program was composed of gigs but also exhibitions, occasional lectures, screenings... ...volkskuche, i.e. cooking for people... it served as a place for meetings of different political groups mainly anarchist's...

ladronka operated very well in the begining. i don't want to specify the period, but the begining was great as it really served as a center where people were meeting each other and it also managed to got some kind of... ...not a prestige, but rather... a reputation that the squat got for outside as well. in 95' when they wanted to evict us demo against eviction of ladronka, 1995 we managed to avoid the eviction

by a campaign and got the name, or rather... ...that we were taken as a power that you have to count in. there was a lot of solidarity actions with ladronka i can't even remember from demos when we for example dropped a mega banner from the oldtown tower at the moment when a big demo was coming. part of it were not only gigs in a number of other clubs but i remember that svihadlo [famous local raggae band] - and now i'm not sure if it was in 95' -

did a music video about ladronka so that was also part of solidarity actions also series of solidarity demos at czech embassies abroad - in warsaw, new york.. in the end ladronka lived only from myth it got in first half of 90'. maybe also because it separated itself of the protests against international monetary fund and world bank... [taking place in september 2000] we could argue, maybe it would got evicted anyway but maybe it just showed that it's not part of the movement

and that nobody would stand up for it. and this is ladronka today... which was manifested later one or two demos took place, but the rage like the one in copenhagen when the ungdomshuset was evicted was missing... eviction of ladronka was controversial in my opinion. i'm saying that because it was evicted in 2000 and it was a little revenge for anti-imf and wb protests. politicians decided to use a media environment

and surfed this wave... come downstairs... be so nice... we are here, number 1935... we need a state police here... they are playing the squaters... the owner is unknown to me... but it is marked as for sale... the most important was that we ever decided

that we meet up and went for it and also after the eviction we were able to continue and that we take it as pushing the limits and trying something new. budanky locality occupied in 1991 evicted in 1992 falling into despair till today owner: city-council of prague 5 cibulka farm

repeatedly occupied for a short-time period and repeatedly evicted by police farmhouse safranka occupied in summer 2002 for a short-time period evicted by municipal police today: luxury residental complex owner back then: prague city-council former spa at albertov occupied for a short-time period in september 2009

immediately evicted by police unused building in the long-term railway station vysehrad block of flats, mozartova street 2 and 4 ghosts here. are you afraid? don't be. you could be the ghost here! wanna me? fight is not over... this movie was created on diy principle

without any sponsorship or grants. all people worked on it voluntarily, i.e. for free. movie is distributed under creative commons licence that allows free distributions and screenings but prohibits using for commercial purposes. informations and art should be free. any use of this movie is prohibited for ministry of interior as well as intelligence services.

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