Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Operation C(l)o(w)nfusion near Schoolstraat - Amsterdamned

Operation C(l)o(w)nfusion near Schoolstraat - Amsterdamned

There's a new anti-squatting law. There's news about that new anti-squatting law. Good news. Then you have a mayor in Amsterdam who love to change squats into empty places only used by people without rights ('anti-squat'). Then there is the good news they made a law which doesn't work and the bad news a few squats should be evicted. C(l)o(w)nfusion all over the place!

Nederlandse vertaling volgt / Dutch translation will follow.

Ohhh, it was so early: marching Amsterdam Rebel Clowns arrived on Tuesday, Nov. 9th, 06.45 in the Schoolstraat expecting hundreds of squatters and other people supporting. It was dark, rainy and that street was almost empty. Only a few camera crews. It took a few minutes and then we heard a megaphone of the police telling we should leave immediately - otherwise violence should be used...

Guess it was a complete misunderstanding: as Rebel Clown Army we already secured the situation. We also have a nice megaphone and answered: "Everything is under control! - you should go home now!"

The strange thing was: although we thought we were helping them, they didn't listen. No, they didn't! Could you imagine? Loads of uniformed blue colleagues entered the Schoolstraat.
Allright: then go ahead! The only ting we could do to support them was now marching to the corner with the Overtoom. There we had to manage the situation with many people protesting.

We had loads of work to do: standing in line, being bored, some marching and regulating traffic - especially many blue vans. Also waving goodbye to undercover police.

Anyway: also for us it looked like an average day of our colleagues. We had just one serious problem: "What should we tell mum when we should go home?"
Tell her how empty a day feels when you're helping to make places empty? For sure not a good story!

To be honoust: the only positive thing of today was we heard some great rhythms of a very nice samba band! Wowww!

For a next time it should be better if that mayor (what's his name?) should allow us, uniformed people, to do something useful. Yeahhh, let's hope next time we could tell mum a really good story when we come home - you know, that place called home, sweet home!



PS when we're talking about home, we mean places which are used to live or to use as a social or cultural center. That kind of places. Not empty places: real houses used by real people!


Pictures and film will follow

- E-Mail: rebelact@ddh.nl Website: http://www.rebelact.nl

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