Viva ADM

Speech about the ADM situation at the Jetlag (experimental circus- and music) festival on July 22 2018:

Just great that you are all here
In a time wherein gentrification and commercialisation are preached by administrators and companies
Not only as an all-embracing credo
But even worse, every time is used as a methodology for the design of our city, our culture and our society

The public space has been sold to greed and commerce Renting is unaffordable
Social housing is prehistoric
People are kicked out or forced to move
Social and cultural initiatives are expelled from the city Hardly any squats are left
And the last Cultural Free Spaces like ADM
Are threatened to be pulverised

I hereby appeal to opposition
Opposition against the sale of the city!
For a city without wilfulness loses her attraction
And degenerates into humdrum
Come and resist against the exclusion of our culture!

And today I am living 20 years and 282 days at the ADM one of the last principle, struggling zones of opportunities which has succeeded to stand up to this date now
On the basis of cultural and politically relevant social ideals

But when it comes to Amsterdam’s Board of the municipal council, this will end
They want to consent to the plans of the alleged owner
Even before an independent research has been undertaken whether these plans are possible at all
And even before investigating what the financial and economic interests are for the future of Amsterdam

And if the Amsterdam’ Board persists in its statement then ADM is really declared dead
And then it can be evicted from Xmas onward

We do not want to be chased!
We want to be appreciated for our culture!
We want to save Amsterdam for a blunder of enormous size!

Because Amsterdam will then donate 100 million euros to the malicious owner
On top of that Amsterdam also loses 400 million euros
Because she does not buy the entire terrain to solve future space problems in the city

But especially Amsterdam loses the ADM community
And loses an unprecedented invention-location
For creators and inspirational doers, thinkers and free spirits in which money does not play a primary role

People,
Who are bringing life into soulless urban landscapes
With their own life philosophy and another way of viewing

People,
Whose spirit and mindsets are a great cultural heritage that has to be preserved.
Not just in history books
But also in reality of now and the future

For decades places like theaters, galleries and social centers are a structural part of the cultural spectrum
So are squats and Cultural Free Spaces
Only the first ones are recognised by everybody and have a permanent place of manifestation
While the latter have been declared illegal and are constantly chased out
This has to stop!

We do not want attenuation of the city
We want a city in which everyone can work and live on his or her own way
Where there is always affordable space
Where there is cooperation and color or age do not matter,
wWhere everyone happily adds dynamism
But where gentrification is ruled out principally

We claim our permanent place in society
We say fuck off with the norm
Because the norm is the gentrification worm

For 20 years ADM has been fighting
For maximum movement space for the individual
Against corruption and capitalism
Against human disgracefulness and corporate greed
Against liberal municipal policy, inequality and exclusion
And for freedom in the mind
And for freedom in doing and acting
And for freedom in shaping your own space
And with that ADM is a rule-free nobodies everymansland

And with that,
With that ADM is a symbol
A symbol for the freedom of everybody in Amsterdam and beyond

But the struggle for that freedom hasn’t been over yet
Because the counter forces are greater than ever
And our fight is also your fight

A struggle that can not only be executed by the ADM-rs themselves anymore
A struggle that also affects you and all of Amsterdam

Join in to keep pearls of freedom like ADM
And especially to build new ones

Not only ADM is under threat of eviction,
It’s our culture that’s under threat of extinction

Reclaim free-space
Viva ADM!