Swomp4 direct environmental action in Amsterdam

Swomp4 direct action in the Rusten­burg­er­straat in Ams­ter­dam squats piece of land and starts urban regen­er­a­tion per­ma­cul­ture project.

On Fri­day July 11 a group of squat­ters occu­pied this piece of land in the Rusten­burg­er­straat in de Pijp in Ams­ter­dam. Tech­ni­cal­ly they are wild campers, as the law in Hol­land only allows you to squat a build­ing that has been emp­ty for one year. With­in three days they already had run­ning water and had start­ed to plant veg­eta­bles and devel­op an urban per­ma­cul­ture project. This is direct action at its very best. The land was going to waste in the heart of the city, and these guys are try­ing their utmost to turn the sandy waste­land into a green oasis. This com­ing Sat­ur­day they are plan­ning a per­ma­cul­ture work­shop. Yes­ter­day it was inspir­ing talk­ing to them and lis­ten­ing to their plans. Their heart is in the right place and they care about how we use land in cities, the hous­ing sit­u­a­tion in a city that is becom­ing gen­tri­fied, and the envi­ron­men­tal issues of the day. Instead of hav­ing meet­ings and mak­ing plans, these guys took direct action to do some­thing pos­i­tive and show the local com­mu­ni­ty what is pos­si­ble in the field of urban regen­er­a­tion. So far most of the neigh­bors have react­ed in a pos­i­tive way. The campers are in a gold­fish bowl, and I admire their courage and deter­mi­na­tion. Some of them are old friends that I have known from protest actions in the past. These are peo­ple who stand by you when the going gets tough. So I wish them all the luck in the world and I’ll be back to take more pic­tures and get more news in the days ahead. Swomp4 is a cool action, for nature, the com­mu­ni­ty, and the future.