Note: Was going to post the whole text here but it was too long, so I used 0bin instead, it's an anoymous paste type site, hope the link works for everybody!
The announced takeover of Deutsche Wohnen by Vonovia has been canceled for the time being.
The press conference and show with which the heads of Deutsche Wohnen, Michael Zahn, and Vonovia, Rolf Buch, and Lord Mayor Michael Müller tried to convince the shareholders on May 25th, was therefore in vain. The reason for this was not that any of those involved suddenly began to think about their social conscience. Too many hedge funds had bet that the takeover would work and that they would get even more money in the event of a later severance offer.
Vonovia's executive floor is still determined to buy up Deutsche Wohnen's housing stock and thus to become by far the largest real estate company in Germany and in Berlin.
Vonovia has managed to earn a top spot on the list of the most hated real estate companies in Berlin's urban population in recent years, despite tough competition from Akelius, CG-Gruppe and co. From compulsory modernizations to overpriced utility bills to the purchase of entire city districts, the group has left little stone unturned in order to further fuel the rent madness at the expense of the broad mass of Berlin's population in the name of profit maximization.
Strictly speaking, Vonovia does not even make its greatest profits with our rent. Vonovia's business strategy is based on financial market investments. The group is taking advantage of the global trend towards rising property prices. They come about because capitalism is still in a huge crisis. Because far too much is being produced around the world, there are no longer any sensible investment opportunities for capitalists. The central banks react to this by granting cheap loans with low interest rates - only to banks and companies, of course, to those who are already rich anyway.
These conditions - low interest rates and a lack of investment opportunities - make real estate interesting for financial investors in the first place. Under “normal” capitalist conditions, hardly anyone would invest in real estate at all because it yields comparatively low returns. In times of crisis like now, however, in a figurative sense, capitalists walk around everywhere with heaps of money in their hands, desperately looking for ways to invest it. This excess capital then flows increasingly into the supposedly safe real estate sector - and wherever a lot of money flows, prices rise, including rent, because the prices are calculated from the expected rental yield.
Vonovia's business model is based on speculation that this trend towards rising property prices and rents will continue. By financing with cheap loans, buying up competing companies and selling unprofitable holdings, the real estate portfolio that Vonovia holds is growing and, at the same time, the bet is constantly increasing in value. In the second half of 2020 alone, for example, the value of the properties held by Vonovia grew by 2.3 to 2.9 billion euros. Of the 11 billion euros in profit posted by the group between 2012 and 2017, a total of 9 billion can be attributed to such increases in value. The fat book profits lead to fat dividends for shareholders. At least as long as the economic crisis continues and no bubble bursts.
The entire structure of the group is dependent on real estate prices and rents continuing to rise. Because, as we stated, as a financial group, it does not sell apartments, but the promise to capitalists with too much capital that rents and apartment prices will continue to rise in the future. The power of real estate companies, especially Vonovia, is therefore on shaky ground. Because capital is a shy deer. At the moment when it becomes apparent that the promise of rising real estate prices and the associated rising rents cannot be realized, the shareholders withdraw their money just as quickly as they threw it on the table. Vonovia has virtually no choice but to constantly increase the rent.
Michael Müller must have known all of this when he publicly humiliated himself on May 25 in the Red City Hall between the company bosses Buch and Zahn. All the social promises and the whole drivel of social responsibility and “rent dimmers” are nothing but window dressing to take the wind out of the sails of the resistance to the sell-off of the city. Müller once again made it unmistakably clear who the state and government are at the service of under capitalism, namely capital and not people.
Instead of trusting the Social Democrats, who have been practicing lies and betrayal for more than a hundred years, everyone who wants a livable city for everyone should try to ensure that a climate that is as hostile to investors as possible is created in Berlin and everywhere.
Through demos, rallies, occupations, house calls, sit-ins, rent strikes, blockades, barricades, burning cars or flying stones, the whole of Berlin can become a risk for capital.
We have made the following contributions:
On the night of August 9th to 10th, we attacked Vonovia's Berlin headquarters in Moabit with fire extinguishers and hammers. “Against Vonovia” now reads meters long on the destroyed panes.
The following night we set fire to company vehicles in Lichtenberg, Friedrichsfelde, Steglitz, Tempelhof and Wedding.
The minibuses belong to the so-called “property managers” and, as others have already extensively described, they are an essential part of Vonovia's “insourcing” strategy to rip off tenants.
The so-called Bundesschlange, the serpentine building on Joachim-Karnatz-Allee probably houses what comes closest to Vonovia's headquarters in Berlin. At least here at number 45 both the Northeast Area Manager, Sebastian Jung, and the district manager of Vonovia's latest major project in Ziekowkiez, Janna Großklaus, have their offices.
Anyone who believes they can make a profit by making safe and affordable living space a privilege of the upper classes should have many more reasons for sleepless nights than a forced sale at market value, as the initiative wants to own.
Real estate groups like Vonovia, Deutsche Wohnen, Akelius and whatever they are called should be smashed without compensation. The apartments and living space of the people in the city should not be a bargaining chip for the stock deals of large corporations and bigwigs. Not even for the power games of the state politicians and bureaucrats. The houses should belong neither to the state nor to capital, but to those who live in them and who need them, regardless of their budget.
We don't want a sold-out city full of luxury apartments and temples of consumption!
We want solidarity neighborhoods and rebellious neighborhoods - from Spandau to Marzahn, from Tegel to Lichtenrade.
Consideration of the case of the Kansk anarchists continues on a daily basis. The case is being considered by the visiting board of the 1st Eastern District Military Court in the premises of the Kansk City Court.
Recall that three 15-year-old anarchists - Nikita Uvarov, Denis Mikhailenko and Bogdan Andreev - are accused of "undergoing training in order to carry out terrorist activities", as well as in the manufacture and storage of explosives. The persecution of the comrades began after they posted leaflets in support of political prisoners, some of which were pasted on the FSB building. Now they themselves face up to 10 years in prison.
On August 05, 2021, a representative of the prosecutor's office began to read out the accusation. Only the accused, lawyers and legal representatives of the adolescents were admitted to the courtroom. Neither the press nor the public were allowed to attend the hearing. The mother of one of the accused, Denis Mikhailenko, could not get into the courtroom. Earlier, she was stripped of her representative status due to the fact that Denis allegedly used the Internet while under house arrest. Since then, the teenager has been held in a pre-trial detention center, and his interests are represented by an official from the state guardianship.
Belarus: Sabotage in the Pukhovichi (Puchavičy) region
On the morning of 07.08.21, to slow down the movement of freight trains, a “jumper” was installed on the railway tracks in the area of the village of Rybtsy. The jumper gave a signal that the track is busy. The morning train from Minsk to Osipovichi was stopped due to a signal that the track was busy. The train began to slow down even in Sedce, then came to a complete halt in Zazerka, blocking the railway crossing. As a result, the train arrived late, and two freight trains with potassium were canceled after it.
Local cops responded. While they were looking for the jumper on the railway tracks, the partisans unscrewed the wheels in their car. The action was thoroughly prepared; the video cameras were previously destroyed in this area.
This is not the first such sabotage in the area. In December 2020, a partisan stopped the trains from running with a metal wire near the village of Maryino. He disabled the alarm. Due to the incident, an abnormal operation of a red traffic light occurred, the work of the railway was disrupted. Unfortunately, then the person who did this was detained. Footprints in the snow led to his house.
could think of better places to attack, but that's neither here nor there...as for the communique it seems like typical (for want of a better word) "edgelord" kind of analysis, but on the other hand the 'attack' seems to be much ado about nothing, a bit of vandalism and the state very quickly opened a replacement centre, but I guess if their aim was to get a bunch of anarchists from around the world talking about it then they succeeded. :-)
Semi-interesting anarchist sub-reddit about UFOs
The Undercover Anarchists’ Secret Construction Collective
Oakland, USA: Let's Wreck Cars and Save the World
Iran / Greece / Netherlands: Abtin Parsa, a statement of self-criticism and self-punishment
Germany: Attacks against real-estate company VONOVIA in Berlin [German language, English translation in comments]
Russia: The trial of the three 15 year-old anarchists continues in Kansk [Russian language, English translation in comments]
Belarus: Partisans sabotage train line in the Pukhovichi region [Russian language, English translation in comments]
cretin wrote
Reply to Do you want to download [almost] illegal books (Paladin Press books) and not be tracked by Big Brother? by unclejohnnysmith
I'd be interested in checking out PDFs of the old Paladin Books but I'd appreciate not being directed to a far-right website in order to do so.
https://www.radicalrightanalysis.com/tag/8kun/