[hackerspaces] Abbenay Hackerspace - Call for Support

[Sébastien Bourdeauducq]

The Abbenay hacklab [1] opened early this month in Stockholm [2], where a 
housing crisis is at full blow.

We are set up in a place that was squatted downtown by Kommando Carl Bildt 
since late August, called AK4. The house was empty since June, and there was 
no plans to use it until one year and a half.

Unfortunately, squats are very unusual in Sweden, and the discussions with the 
landlord and the city of Stockholm are extremely difficult, even though many 
newspapers speak positively about AK4. The place currently sets a record for 
the country, with a life time of one month (and counting) while most squats 
usually get raided by the police in a few days.

We are however facing an imminent eviction threat and police pressure has been 
significantly increasing lately - with civil cops coming very often to take 
pictures of the house and sirens waking us up early in the morning.

This call is asking you to contact the landlord to show support to the hacklab 
and the squat. So far, he has been very closed minded. He only proposed that 
we leave the place and talked about an expensive and abusive rental contract. 
It was about a much smaller office, and according to which we would not be 
allowed to sleep in the premises, we would not be allowed to host concerts, 
cafes or parties, etc.

The landlord is Fredrik Winberg; he is the CEO of Cementa AB [3], part of 
HeidelbergCement Global with a revenue of 15 billion euros per year. He also 
runs the Biteam AB company [4].
We do not believe that he or any of his fellows will turn poor should we 
definitely get the house in Stockholm, and we think that his behavior is 
basically motivated by the capitalist idea that the right to stay somewhere 
must always be paid for.

We hereby ask you to contact him to expose your views on squatting and 
hackerspaces in order to give him a more comprehensive view on the subject 
than what he could have had as a capitalist entrepreneur. His contact email is 
fredrik.winberg at cementa.se and he can be reached by phone at
+46 (0)708 25 68 04 (NB: this contact information is available from the WWW).

We do not give a "copy and paste" email to send him, since mail bombing would 
probably not be effective and only increase tensions. Also, please do not be 
aggressive nor engage in any other activity (defacing etc.) which would not 
lead anywhere.

You are also most welcome to join the AK4 Squat Support Group on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=146697601021

Thank you,
The Abbenay Hacklab

PS. We are very grateful for any distribution of this call. Print it, forward 
it, post it on your blog, upload it to your favorite social network, etc.

[1] http://www.abbenay.org/
[2] http://lekernel.net/blog/?p=544
[3] http://www.masterclub.se/konsulter.html (Swedish)
[4] http://www.biteam.com/