INVASION CIVICA

FOCUS: structure for active citizenship
Framing of resistance

OUR ROLE: initiator

PROCESS: participatory
performance:
organization via media / social media
concert by local group batuca
temporary buildings with 'the net' and ribbons.


RESULTAAT:
- processed into film by participants.
- topic news
- topic of political debate

The system of legalizing 'invasiones (occupied land owned by the state) not only helps the poor migrants. Also rich people are pecking community land and claim it for their own use and eventually own it. What can you, as a citizen, do about it? We organize local opposition.

A local restaurant owner is trying to pick communal land. A beautiful green area on the cliff overlooking the sea. Very suitable for the construction of an apartment block. We suggest that this invasion has to be countered. Comments are lukewarm. Is resistance possible? How? On what grounds?

We ask for a citizens invasion: an Invasion Civica. That clicks. Suddenly it seems to make sense to object.

For one afternoon, we claim the piece for a picnic with music. The restaurant owner is' not amused' and calls the special riot police. Who want to be clear to us. But, they withdraw after long deliberation and through intervention by a local councilor. It is still public space. We dance on.
Two weeks later, we organize a public poetry reading. Police appear again but are less persistent.

This kind of action has not happened yet. Everyone is excited. The protest is an item on the local news. "Invasion Civica" exists as a form of resistance. The issue of invasion for personal gain is on the agenda.

After a month, the restaurant owner fenced off the area. Further investigation reveals that he is not the owner, as he claims. The country is the churches. Activists are now considering legal action. One activist has been writing to the pope.