Wyers (squat)

When the Government of Amsterdam decided to demolish the complex to make way for a Holiday Inn hotel, a car parking garage and apartments, the squatters made alternative proposals.

Taking up an area of 10,000 m² between Nieuwendijk and Neuwezijds Armsteeg [nl], the buildings housed the Wyers wholesale textile company which sold wool, linen and cotton fabric and items for interior decorating.

In reaction to an increasingly militant wing of the squatters movement in Amsterdam, the Wyers collective promoted hard work and a discourse of compromise with the authorities.

[5] The Wyers complex had previously been ignored for development because of its size; after its occupation the Government of Amsterdam reacted in April 1983 by approving plans to demolish the site and construct a Holiday Inn hotel, apartments and a car park.

The squatters were not invited to the meeting where the decision was made and reacted angrily since a hotel served visitors not residents and a parking garage was intended for cars instead of pedestrians and cyclists.

[3]: 151, 152, 159  The Wyers collective was split between people who wanted to defend the squat as a symbol of self-organisation and others who were happy to relinquish the building and move their projects to a new location.

[3]: 153, 154  The discussion paper "How yes can mean no" (Hoe ja toch nee kan zijn) argued that the movement should surprise the council by agreeing to take their offer, whilst the Wyers collective continued to hope it could stop the demolition and make a deal to legalise the occupation in situ.

[7] On the weekend before the eviction, squatters organised actions across the Netherlands in protest under the name Day of turmoil (Dag van de onrust); people briefly occupied Holiday Inn hotels in Leiden and Utrecht.

[3]: 160, 161  By the mid-1990s, the breeding place (broedplaats) discourse was adopted by the city council as a form of regeneration and some squatted buildings were legalised as live/work spaces, such as NDSM, Nieuw en Meer, Plantage Doklaan and Tetterode.

Occupied brick buildings with people standing outside, photographed from across the street
The squatted Wyers complex in October 1981
Black and white photograph of assorted buildings in the Wyers complex with a banner which reads "Wyers Inn Holiday Uit", a play on words saying "Wyers In, Holiday Inn out!"
The Wyers complex in August 1983
Black and white photograph of an empty bar with sink and beer taps and posters on the wall behind
A bar at the Wyers complex
Colour photograph of a crowd of people, mostly young and white, demonstrating against eviction
Squatters blockading an entrance to the Wyers complex on the day of eviction
Black and white photograph of police and supporters of the squat facing off in front of the main entrance
The eviction of the Wyers complex
Three men stand in front of arm of mechanical digger being used to demolish buildings
The Wyers complex being demolished in late February 1984