first photos from #occupyamsterdam

great demo in Amsterdam today. More than 4000 people

On the way to Brussels

The shortest way of the tour and the nicest weather- even though we are slow we'll get far! We started with bikes equipped with more posters, messages freshly stencilled on shirts: Solidary Economy; Squatting makes the march to Brussels only possible; Food Sovereignty Now!; The Revolution has just started ; No Borders!; listen to the people, listen free radios, People of the world rise up and take the streets, The bikes decorated with skipped flowers we biked on an old Roman road to Antwerpen, sun was with us and one guy on the market gave us fruits to support the cause- again postive reactions to our explications and flyers.

Arriving to Antwerp with sunset and full mooon we met our injured bikemates at the station to have assemply in the cold: We'll do some moving actions tomorrow in Brussels!

On the long way to the squat that hosts us tonight we passed different worlds: initiation ritual of young students to corporal associations the weirdest: People of the world, free yourself of wanting to be oppressed! Finally arriving we were received with a lot of healthy skip food- thanks brothers! Tomorrow they come with us to Brussels by bike! It is amazing that our groups gets larger day by day! from all places we pass!

MARCH TO BRUSSELS TODAY IN DEN HAAG

After welcoming the cyclists that arrived all the way from Groningen, today the march to Brussels is leaving from Amsterdam and will arrive to Den Haag. Meet them at the Plein from 15:00 onwards! 

Here the list of cities they will be passing through this week:

11.10. Amsterdam - The Hague, 60 km, 4 hours 

12.10. The Hague - Breda, 75 km, 6h 

13.10. Breda - Antwerp, 50 km, 4h 

14.10. Antwerp - Brussels, 45 km, 4h 

15.10. Demonstration in Brussels.

 

15th OCTOBER ACTION DAY. BUS TO BRUSSELS FROM AMSTERDAM AND DEN HAAG

Info: bustobrusselsnl@hotmail.com

Hello people!

As you know the 15th of October is the World Action day.

Brussels is going to be one of the hot points because marchers from Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, USA, Poland, England, Netherlands, Cuba, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Tunisia are gathering in Brussels, organizing Assemblies to coordinate the movement internationally.

The 15th we will all march together non-violently towards the European Parliament to demonstrate that our voices cannot be silenced anymore.

We are shipping a bus from Amsterdam, stopping in Den Haag, to Brussels. We will start Friday 14th between 17-18 p.m. and we will be back Sunday 16th.

For more info and reservations email to: bustobrusselsnl@hotmail.com

Join us in this historical day! Spread the word!

15-O >>>>>> we will occupy Amsterdam: We are 99%. Everything for everyone. History starts now

On October 15th people from all over the world will take to the streets and squares. From America to Asia, from Africa to Europe, people are rising up to claim their rights and demand a true democracy. Now it is time for all of us to join in a global non violent protest. The ruling powers work for the benefit of just a few, ignoring the will of the vast majority and the human and environmental price we all have to pay. This intolerable situation must end. United in one voice, we will let politicians, and the financial elites they serve, know it is up to us, the people, to decide our future. We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers who do not represent us. On October 15th, we will meet on the streets to initiate the global change we want. We will peacefully demonstrate, talk and organize until we make it happen. It’s time for us to unite. It’s time for them to listen.

Take the square-NL have decided to occupy Amsterdam in collaboration with organizers from the event: www.occupyamsterdam.org. It is a peaceful action from citizens, not specific parties, unions... You are welcome

Here the hashtags to follow in twitter: #15ONL  #globalchange  #occupyamsterdam

Call for 15-O Bike March to Brussels

Countrywide assembly of all open assemblies of The Netherlands

When: Sunday, 2nd of October from 14'00 to 17'00.
Where: Social Center “De Valreep”. Polderweg 620, Amsterdam (http://valreep.wordpress.com/)

The last 3 years, no matter where we live, our lives are strongly influenced by the crisis. This crisis broke out in 2008 and transformed itself to a sovereign-debt crisis particularly in the EU-periphery. This crisis was not created by the people. The bankers and the financial institutions with the support of the governments are responsible for it.

Today the people are asked to pay this crisis by European-wide austerity measures. This recipe has been implemented repeatedly in the past by the IMF and always resulted in increasing the inequalities, the unemployment and the poverty among the people.

In this background, in the last 5 months, an alternative movement in the squares of many countries has emerged. This movement was the genuine reaction of the people against the way that the governments have chosen to deal with the crisis. People have started to gather in public spaces and occupy the squares to protest against the policies of the governments. The most optimistic element of this movement was that people stopped being passive and began to discuss about their lives and their problems making efforts to define a better society. This better society can only materialize with the collective struggle of the people. The ‘Take the Square’ movement that was based on the principles of real democracy, contributed at this.

Particularly in the Netherlands, since last May, open assemblies are taking place in several cities. These assemblies, are part of the ‘Take the Square’ movement and have organized actions of various scale with a twofold aim: firstly, the aim is to show their solidarity to the Spanish and Greek people that initiated this movement in Europe but are also the primary victims of austerity measures that are coordinated by the EU. Secondly, the aim is to react against the unjustified budget cuts that are implemented in the Netherlands that is a rich country that has been mildly affected by the crisis.

Since the beginning of the assemblies in the Netherlands, the necessity of coordination and communications among the assemblies in the Netherlands was more than obvious. Following the worldwide or pan-European actions for occupying the squares every Sunday is clearly not enough. A deeper and permanent coordination is necessary in order to increase the political awareness of the movement in the Netherlands and to achieve our goals.
For all these reasons we call for a countrywide assembly of all the local assemblies in the Netherlands on October 2nd in Amsterdam. It will be the first general and countrywide assembly and as such, we think that this is a very important event. The presence of all of us, the ‘everyday’ man and woman who participated in the ‘Take the Square’ movement, is more than necessary! For this reason, we invite everybody to join and participate in the ‘Assembly of Assemblies’.

Safeguarding the rule that the “agenda” of this assembly is open to be completed with topics that every participant may suggest, we propose some initial issues that we would like discuss and decide upon in this assembly:

1. Review and evaluation of local assemblies.
2. Ways of improving the coordination of our struggle mainly at the country level.
3. Organizing the protest in 15th October in Brussels
4. Other future actions and events.
5. Creating a new pan-Dutch countrywide website of all the open assemblies.

We invite you all in Amsterdam, 2nd of October 2011, 14.00, at the newly created social center “De Valreep” for the “Assembly of the Open Assemblies”