Mieke, Jan, Jolanda, Frank, Karin, and Joost were young and needed a place to live. One squatted a building for herself and her son, another squatted for others who didn’t dare, or organized housing actions. But squatting was not just a reaction to boarded-up houses and a severe housing shortage. Squatting in the Indische Buurt was a social struggle, conducted nonviolently and in cooperation with the neighborhood.
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These were socially conscious young people who not only resisted, but also committed themselves to the neighborhood. Jolanda and Karin set up language classes for illiterate Moroccan women, while Jan organized neighborhood actions and Mieke sparked the movement that led to a full-scale occupation of the Women’s Center on Borneostraat. The Indische Buurt was seen as a playground with space. These (former) residents took advantage of that space. They set up a neighborhood store, organized squatters’ consultation hours, and, in collaboration with tenants’ associations and social workers, ensured that Gerard Bakker, the major slumlord of the time, was driven out of the neighborhood. The right to housing outweighed property rights. How do we view this in our neighborhood today? The stories in this exhibition invite you to reflect on this.
© photographer: Tom Demeyer