presented by Disruption Network Lab.
How can we counter the disruptive impact of financial speculation in the real estate market? In our community meetup, we invite you to join us for a warm-up to our first conference of the year, EVICTED BY GREED: Global Finance, Housing and Resistance. Three Berlin-based initiatives will talk on how they work on collective responses to the ever-increasing disruption of the housing market by speculators and real estate investors, with a focus on the upcoming Housing Action Day on 28 March.
ABOUT
Berlin vs. Amazon
... is a a coalition of activists, local initiatives, tech workers and artists who want to mobilize against Amazon and the so-called Amazon Tower, Berlin’s tallest building which is scheduled to be completeled in 2023 on the Warschauer Bridge. When Amazon comes to Freidrichshain, the neighborhood will see a demographic shift, with tech firms disrupting the neighborhood staples: small businesses, schools, community initiatives and cultural centers. In Silicon Valley, the consequences of laissez faire capitalism are apparent. The recent victories in New York City and Kreuzberg show that we are not simply at the mercy of real estate, but that we can successfully push back against tech giants through grassroots coalitions.
Kotti & Co
... is a Berlin-based tenant initiative that formed at Kottbusser Tor in Kreuzberg in 2011 to fight against rising rents in their social housing buildings, which force more and more neighbours to move out. In 2012 Kotti & co occupied the square in front of the social housing at Kottbusser Tor (Kotti) with a self-built wooden house (Gecekondu – Turkish for "built overnight"): since then they have been protesting against the displacement of tenants with low incomes from the city centre and the high rents of Berlin's social housing. Beside being a tenant initiative, Kotti & co is a project of diversity – bringing together a wide rage of different people, who would usually live a typical urban life next to each other but not connecting with each other.
Kunstblock and beyond
... is an association of art and culture producers who joined the Bündnis gegen Verdrängung und Mietenwahnsinn in 2018 to show their solidarity against segregation, gentrification and the sell-out of the city. Art is not outside, but often a part of the city’s upgrading. Kunstblock and beyond explicitly resists any appropriation and instrumentalisation of artists, art institutions and cultural funding for city marketing or enhancement in the service of the profits of the real estate and tourism industry. They uncover art-commercial-marketing strategies, stimulate debates and make resistance to displacement visible in artistic actions and public relations.