alanwilliamson

What was going on in Amsterdam this morning?

I was staying in Amsterdam for the Holland Open Source Conference and got up early to catch a flight home. On the walk from the hotel to Central Station I stumbled upon this scene shown in the photographs below. They (whoever 'they' are) had two lines of furniture laid out across the whole street and had set alight to them. They all stood around dressed in black, with many of them having their faces covered up. It was a demonstration of something I guess, but while it looked all very violent with many people standing around, they made no threatening gestures, quite happy for me to get in there and do some clicking.

There was no police pressence at this point in the game, so I imagine it had just got started. This was around the 0630 in the morning time frame. I continued walking and noticed some police cars moving to the scene, but there was no sense of urgency about them, no flashing sirens or blue lights. I have kept an eye on the dutch news but nothing has been reported about this. Any one know what was going on?

Comments

Thanks for that Micha, i also found this:

Amsterdam squatters evicted

Amsterdam police have evicted squatters from a building on the Rokin, raiding the premises at about 7am on Tuesday. Squatters resisted by throwing stones and paint bombs and set fire to a barricade placed on the tram tracks. Police arrested three people — one of whom allegedly had a Molotov cocktail — but said the burning barricade posed no great threat. One tram was delayed."

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left by Alan Williamson — Tuesday, 31 May 2005 7:10 PM

The police tried to force people out of a building. Amsterdam has buildings, which are empty for many many months and students then takeover the building. Rental prices are extremely high for students, and alot of students are on a waiting list for rooms to rent. It is "common" that students hijack an empty building to save money, and to live there for as long as possible. But then, the owner of the building wants to sell the building, or do something else with it and the students start to become aggresive. I don't blame them, it is nearly impossible for a student to find a place with a normal rent to in Amsterdam. The owners now this and ofcourse increase rental prices, as long as there are people which pay for the outrageous rental prices.

m. Schopman [micha@mschopman.demon.nl]

left by Anonymous User — Tuesday, 31 May 2005 6:52 PM

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