the contradiction

[Mouse]

what does squatting and travel have in common, really?

I'm getting a lil philosophical I guess but I really see to meaningful connection between to two.

granted, if you are squating, you don't have rent or generally other bills to pay so therefor you're more free to leave and take a trip.

but most travelers I know wouldn't consider themselves true squatters. They don't stick around long enough to squat a place. They just crack empty buildings for the night or sleep in parks and under bridges.

and a lot of squatters I know have never left their hometown for more than a month. Instead they choose to live freely in their given place and MAYBE venture outta town now and then.

So, basically.. what do YOU consider yourself?

I wouldn't call myself a squatter. I'm a traveler, full out. I've slept in squats as a guest. I've crack into empty buildings and crashed there for a night or a few days.. but I have not squatted a place that I tried to make more of a home.


I guess the basic population of this site brought out this debate in my head. being called SQUAT the PLANET, the name invokes permanence and nomadic tendencies at the same time. I know a lot of us here are fence sitters on that subject.. but there's gotta be some of us that are either one of the other.


I don't really know where I'm going with this I just thought it would lead to and interesting debate. Plus I'm sleep deprived and it's 8 a.m. so my mind wonders to strange places.


anyways...blah.

 

[finn]

I'm a squatter who occasionally makes trips. Squatters, after a while, tend to accumilate stuff- and when that happens, it's hard to just leave it, since someone else might move in and claim it if you're gone too long.

If your place burns down/gets gentrified/floods out then traveling suddenly gets very attractive again. Jobs are another factor, since getting a good one means more money to get stuff...

 

[jack ransom]

Its always been a really weird thing to me when people call themselves squatters despite, what you said, really only living in an abandoned building for a few days while they're in town or something. technically I guess its a squat, but it doesn't exist even remotely in the context of a squatting movement, so when people say "fuck yeah I'm a squatter punk" its usually a scumfuck who just wants a roof to drink under cuz no sane person will tolerate their presence in their house. or sometimes its actually a legit squatter saying this, but those are hard to come by on this side of the ocean.

I think your average European squatter would crack the fuck up over what most American "squatters" are doing. but maybe American squatters are just doing the best they can, and are just trying to fucking survive. I consider myself semi-nomadic. I'm not really comfortable calling myself a "traveler kid" cuz I stop and take breaks and settle down. meeting kids who have been riding trains for 5 years straight puts my little trips into serious perspective. I'm an anarchist, I'm a punk. but these things hardly define me and both anarchist scenes and punk scenes can be pretty nauseating.

To me, it seems like the difference between a squat and an abandoned building is what you do with it. whether you're investing in the space and creating community or just crashing is possibly the difference... or maybe its how you live. If you spend most of your life sleeping in unclaimed, abandoned buildings, regardless of what you do with them then yeah, I guess you're a squatter. Its up for debate.

To turn the tables: I was staying in a semi-legal squat and another guest their scoffed "this ain't a fucking squat, I've been in squats where the cops are about to raid any minute, where we have to leave early in the morning and come home late at night -- through the back. this is just a fucking house, there just happens to be no deed". it was exactly the opposite argument you have mouse. its super ignorant thinking, but it seemed worth mentioning. after 2 years of running, said squat was shut down about 2 months ago in classic squat-raid style.

not to get too crimethincy on y'all, but it seems like the ethics of squatting can apply elsewhere. In a world where all land is owned and everything, from potable water to our bodies are for sale, taking anything or living anywhere without permission or payment is a truly subversive act. So maybe the phrase "squat the planet" is about more than just reclaiming buildings but is also about reclaiming our own lives in every way possible. maybe thats what punk, and travel, and thievery, and beating the shit out of cops, and having scandalous sex in public places are about too. The same could be said for dangerous labor unions, writing letters, and skinny dipping after-hours at a public pool. maybe thats why this is all being talked about on a single website? squatting and travel seem to be relevant to lifestyle, while writing love letters, as epic and important as that kind of thing is, really is not something you live, just something you do. I dunno...

 

[maus]

im a squatter who travels. i can also pat my head and rub my tummy.

 

[Poking Victim]

Whether it's under a bridge, in the park or an abandoned motel, it's still squatting.

 

[ogre]

i think freedom is what brings these two things together plus when your travelin without money where ya gonna sleep?

 

[ecovillager12]

I am a squatter who can never get around to traveling. I have a very difficult time leaving Pittsburgh, because I get involved in squat projects that have a sense of permanence and the situation never seems to work for me to hit the road.