Squatting in the Czech Republic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.jpg)
Squatting (the occupation of unused property without the permission of the owner) became a political phenomenon in the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Squats in Prague included Sochora (an infoshop), Stary Střešovice (a cultural project) and Ladronka (an anarchist self-managed social centre). Milada was occupied in 1998 and following its final eviction in 2009, there was a lull in squatting actions. In the 2010s a new social movement (Obsaď a Žij) squatted houses to highlight the number of derelict properties in Prague and the social centre Klinika was founded in 2014.
After World War II, Czechoslovakia became a communist state. There was no organised squatting movement, only people occupying derelict spaces as a place to live in times of desperation. Private property was protected by article 249a of the Czech Criminal Code, established in 1961.[1]: 34
Post-communism
Following the Velvet Revolution in 1989, squats appeared in cities across Czechoslovakia. In Prague, anarchist and punk activists inspired by squatting movements in Amsterdam and also Berlin occupied derelict houses. In the Holešovice district anarchists squatted a building at Pplk. Sochora street, setting up an infoshop. The squat was attacked several times by neo-Nazis and cleared by police in December 1992, then re-squatted several weeks later; by 1997, the infoshop had achieved legalisation, albeit being settled in a different, smaller building.[2] Other occupations in Prague included Zlatá loď (1990-1994) and Buďánka (1991-1992).[1]: 37
The early 1990s were a golden age for squatting in the Czech Republic, since following the breakdown of state communism there was a period of fluidity before the state reasserted itself.[1]: 37 Ladronka was occupied in 1993 and became a self-managed social centre. It was evicted in the furore following the 2000 anti-globalization protests in Prague.[3] In Střešovice in Prague 6, artists occupied three houses in 1998 and reinstituted the Medák association, putting on cultural events under the name of Stary Střešovice. The district council offered them a lease on one of the houses but the association refused, saying it needed more space. The association was later evicted in 2003.[4] Papirna in Holešovice existed from 1997 until 2004.[5]
On May Day 1998, anarchist activists from Ladronka occupied Milada, a derelict villa in Libeň. A Food Not Bombs collective cooked there and the space was used for meetings and punk gigs. As with Ladronka, the aims of the original collective faded, then in 2007 Milada was reinvigorated by new, younger participants, before being finally cleared in 2009.[6] In the summer of 2002, activists occupied Šafránka in Prague 6. This homestead had been proposed as a replacement for Ladronka in 1997 and then stayed empty. Upon being threatened with eviction the squatters moved to the roof for two weeks.[7]
