NEWSLETTER NUMBER 2 FROM HET FORT VAN SJAKOO AND ASCII October 2001Hello, Woningbedrijf Amsterdam (Housing Corporation Amsterdam) goes to the judge
More communication with our landlord On September 12th we sent the WBA a new appeal. Divided up into 10 points, we set apart why we can't come to an agreement with their rent increase proposal and how we think we can come to a solution. On September 19th we got a response from the WBA. Out of the ten points in our appeal they accepted none. The WBA's pet subject/obsession remains that all renters of commercial space must pay the market price and that organizations with "social interests" have the possibility to get a subsidy from the government. At the same time the WBA indicates that they don't want to correspond any more with us if we don't fit into their way of thinking. It's not completely coincidental that the WBA gave us an offer of another rental space just before the first day in court. Just as we suspected the WBA could -because it persists in its making no distinction between commercial and non-commercial space-offer us no suitable alternative place. A space was offered us with a surface area 30% of what we have now, and a square meter price, which is 815% higher than what we pay now, is for us unacceptable. "Social rent for social initiatives" remains our motto! The trial On Wednesday October 10th the session (in writing) in the district court took place. The Fort van Sjakoo collective spent a lot of time discussing if we want to use this court case just to win some time. Eventually we decided not to. A judge can only decide what the market value is, while we can only pay a social (rent control) rent. Plus a dragged out court case comes with the risk of a verdict which could have retroactive powers, which could put the future of our initiative in jeopardy. Therefore we've requested to the judge to end the case and to give a verdict. We feel that the WBA has a moral responsibility - after a rental relationship of 12 years - to work with us toward a solution. By going through the court the WBA shows us that they aren't prepared to do this. The result of the trial can only be guessed; we expect the yudge to speak on the 7th of october. To the street
The media We can't complain about the media attention. Soon it became clear that we weren't the only ones facing such a rent increase. A rent increase of more than 900% and the not so tactical attitude of the Woningbedrijf Amsterdam made sure that we quickly became a symbol of a much greater Amsterdam problem: marginalisation caused by commercialisation, through a policy that works purely and only for money. By the above-mentioned Vrije Ruimte (Free Space) group the symbol function has been successfully exploited to try and change the mentality of the Amsterdam city councillors. Although the question now is, if a change in mentality occurs will it be in time to save our bookshop at its present location? We're glad that things have started to heat up. The strategic choices that we'll have to make in our campaign will take this into account. The municipality
Support Dozens of people and organizations in the meantime clearly showed their solidarity with our battle and wrote protest letters to the WBA. While earlier some eighty people from the book and publishing industry sent an open letter knocking the WBA's policy, het Parool (a newspaper) published recently an open letter that was signed by a number of well-known Amsterdamers appealing to the WBA to work with Het Fort van Sjakoo to come to a realistic rent level. It has really motivated us, that hundreds of people have meanwhile become members of our action-mobilization list and have signed the petition in our bookshop. We are afraid, having seen how rigid the WBA is, that we have to move quickly to use this momentum to our advantage. Well that's it for this newsletter. Those who want to know more about the already sent correspondence, the written protest letters, what actions have taken place, articles from the newspapers, etc. can look at our website (which is unfortunately mainly in dutch): http://www.xs4all.nl/~sjakoo/protest/ Or come on in and ask or call. If you have any tips or comments than please contact us and send the WBA, above all, a protest letter, if you haven't already, and let them know what you think about their disgusting intentions. Please send us a copy of your letter by post, fax or e-mail. We will report again soon. We will keep you up to date on what has happened and will be happening. If you want to get onto our e-mailing list surf to: https://squat.net/mailman/listinfo/sjakoo-announce So long from the front SOCIAL RENT FOR SOCIAL PROJECTS!
International Bookshop Het Fort van Sjakoo ASCII Woningbedrijf Amsterdam |
This
is the second newsletter with which we keep you up to date concerning
our landlords' notification of a rent increase from f 580 to f 5140,
or more than 900%. And now again a short summary: The Amsterdam Bookshop
Het Fort van Sjakoo, ASCII the internet workplace and the others who
share our space received at the end of July 2001 a letter from the Woningbedrijf
Amsterdam (WBA) (Housing Corporation Amsterdam) which stated that beginning
Sept 1, 2001 the above mentioned rent increase would go into effect.
Two of our co-workers made a futile attempt at an exploratory discussion
with the WBA. Following that we sent the WBA a tentative letter of appeal
and then in the middle of September we sent them a definitive letter
of appeal. In the meantime we got from expected and unexpected sources
support for our objections. On the 22nd of August we got a letter announcing
that the WBA has started a court case with the district judge.
In
the 
On
Saturday September 22nd The Fort van Sjakoo and ASCII organized a 
The
city council of Amsterdam has in the meantime realized that something's
going wrong with this sort of economic development in the city. After
a motion in the council from Hansje Kalt (Amsterdam Anders) they're
going to investigate the consequences of the market price renting of
commercial space for the city. Although this investigation hasn't yet
been completed, it looks like this development is threatening hundreds
of organizations and initiatives. It appears that not only political
initiatives will be the victims of this policy, but also for example
community centres, health-care centres, etc. The council is aware of
this, but a reaction in the form of concrete actions keeps waiting,
and is being slowed down by the fact that this problem hasn't been taken
into account in next year's budgets. It is now up to the city council
to find a solution. You can say: where there is a will there is a way.
Unfortunately we're not so convinced that the city council is ready
to, or wants to, tackle this problem. So we'll have to put the pressure
on. On September 10th we sent, together with the Latin Amerika Centre
who are in the same position as we are, a statement to the city council
in which we demanded that a moratorium on rent increases be set up until
a policy on this subject has been developed. We also demanded that the
city uses its influence with the WBA to help us reach a solution with
them. The Bewonersraad (tenants council) also sent in the meantime a
statement to the city. On October 4th we heard from the city that the
problem is so big an issue that first a note has to be written by the
alderman/womyn for finance. It looks like, thanks to all the city council
bureaucracy, that the Fort will already be evicted by the time there's
an answer to our demands. 
