Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, Budapest, Dublin, Düsseldorf, Geneva, Lisbon, Lorient, Malaga, Milan, Paris, Poznan, Rouen, Rome, Toulouse and Warsaw will take action on Saturday 19 October 2013 for the right to housing and the right to city.

The European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and the City consists of diverse groups, organizations and social movements that met in Germany and Greece in 2013. They firmly believe that housing in Europe and urban development should be based on people's needs and rights, not on profit. In the Netherlands, the Bond Precaire Woonvorm is involved. Because in the Netherlands, too, public housing is being demolished, sharp rent increases, the sale of the social housing stock to commercial investors and the erosion of tenancy law through constructions such as anti-squat.

The European coalition has declared Saturday 19 October as the European Day of Action for the Right to Housing and the Right to the City. Action groups are meeting in these cities to put an end to the misery caused by speculation, privatization and austerity measures. There are campaigns for lower rents, an end to evictions - in particular the evictions initiated by real estate speculators, the government and the Troika, the realization of sufficient social housing, and an end to the overwhelming debt burden that has been deliberately imposed on ordinary citizens and the public system. Global financial markets and profit-driven transnational corporations currently control large areas of land, buildings and housing in many European countries. The clearest example of the pressurized situation in which Europe finds itself is in Spain. Over the past five years, some 300,000 families and individuals have been evicted from their homes, while nearly three million homes in Spain are vacant. Banks and financial institutions are getting their way, while the lives of millions of people are being destroyed. This must stop now!

As part of the European Day of Action, the Bond Precaire Woonvorm and the social political center Op de Valreep are organizing a public discussion on Friday evening 18 October about the precarisation of housing, the demolition of public housing, the displacement of free cultural spaces and the right to the city. Location: On the Valreep, Polderweg 620, Amsterdam. Time: 20:00 discussion introduced by four speakers, 22:00 party on the occasion of the three-year anniversary of the Bond Precaire Woonvorm. On Saturday 19 October at 14:00 from Op de Valreep (Polderweg 620) a large demonstration for the preservation of this place for the neighborhood and for a social and free Amsterdam.

More information: www. valreep.org
Statement and the demands of the European Day of Action: www. housing-action.tk
facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Oct-19th-European-Day-of-Action-for-Housing-
Rights/1402919649939067
Twitter: #HousingforPeople and #19o
Video: http://vimeo.com/76972729