Alert: Kukutza III social center evicted after six hours of police violence

[Scroll down for updates please]

Between 5 and 5:30am tonight police forces occupied and forcibly evicted the most long lived social center (gaztetxe) in Bilbao. 

Kukutza III (pictured) was occupied 13 years ago, after two short-lived attempts (hence the "III" ordinal), in the popular neighborhood of Errekaldeberri, under the shadow of the Pagasarri mountain. The building, an abandoned industrial bloc was ideal for the purposes of the organized youth of the neighborhood: to develop social and cultural activities, from a tea salon to a super-cheap vegetarian restaurant, from dance to theater, from music to self-defense...

After the municipal elections, the rather far-right (ultra-catholic ultra-conservative) mayor Azkuna pointed his finger at the building. It is owned by a private speculator and fraud-involved company, which hopes to demolish it and build apartments. The judge blessed all the farce. 

In the middle of the night police took the building not entirely by surprise and evicted it. At the moment we know of no arrests but demolition will probably follow soon destroying a social reality outside the promoted corporative Bilbao of the ugly and sad bourgeoisie.

Source: Branka[eu] (link 1, link 2).

PS- In this lip dub video, the people of the gaztetxe showed us the building and the activities developed in it:

 

Update: Sare Antifaxista[es] reports of "incidents" since 6 am (no details provided).

Police with armored vehicles attacked the gatztetxe before dawn

Update: Berria[eu] reports that 50 people resist eviction inside the gaztetxe, including a pregnant woman and several minors. Meanwhile people have gathered around the social center.

Update (10:20am): Gara[es] titles police sows chaos in Errekalde while trying to evict the social center.

Apparently police could only access the building after breaching a hole with one of their armored vehicles (small tanks). They have also included a helicopter in this aggression (all that will be paid from our pockets, mind you). 

Several people resists on the roof of the building with banners with a banner that reads Kukutza gaztetxea ikutu bez! (do not touch Kukutza gaztetxea!) 

Riot police has charged often through the streets of the popular neighbohood, causing several injured and executing four arrests.

The attempted eviction can be watched by UStream (actually just one lateral street, that at the moment of writing this seems quiet). 

The disgraceful episode can also be followed by Twitter and at Kukutza's site (in Spanish and Basque).

It seems that a demo has been called for 5pm.

Update (10:40): Twitter (mins ago) reports police charging against a press conference[eu/es] in the street. 25 arrested along the morning.

Even police acknowledges now that eviction will be impossible before evening. Will it be outright impossible? Kukutza and this city deserves a popular victory against the bourgeois far right.

Who are the violent ones?

More details from the press conference (10:20, posted here at 11:20): the attorney of the social center was beaten three times and then retained in a tavern (it is unclear if he was arrested after all).

Police have thrown tear gas against the terrace, after breaking in the rooms where people was resisting peacefully they have attacked them with rubber bullets and tear gas.

It is believed that some 50 people may have been arrested and brutally beaten by the riot police.

Excavators and bulldozers are already at the social center to demolish it.

The Neighbors' Association denounced the owners, linked to corruption in Cantabria, the town hall and the ultra-violent attitude of the police, which they compared with the dark decades  fascism.

It has been rather surprising for all that nonviolent resistance has been met with this police ultraviolence... but this is the Basque Country, the so-called Basque Government has been appointed from Madrid by means of fraudulent elections and the complicity of the local corrupt-to-the-marrow Christian Fundamentalists (PNV).

Update (11:30): Gara[es] confirms that the social center has finally been evicted. The body count is of dozens of injured and maybe 50 arrested.

It may not have finished, a twit mentioned that people wanted to reoccupy while the building still stands.

Other tweets mention that the demolition is imminent.

from El Correo

from Deia

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