Anarchist Squat in Mexico State, Casa Naranja, Closes its Doors

The anarchist squat in Mexico state, Casa Naranja, has been forced to close its doors and abandon its space. This communique comes from the compas of Casa Naranja as they reflect on the history and future of the space, and the more general absurdity of private property.

In capitalism, property is one of the principal pillars that sustains the ruling class. Historically it has executed the greatest injustices, like the massive dispossession of people, genocide, the annihilation of wildlife, the assassination and incarceration of militants. However, what we consider to be the most dangerous, is that property has been fixed into our minds, making us believe that we can own the land as property, and that obtaining a physical space for the development of life will depend on the monetary capacity of each individual. It is here where the irony becomes the absurd, paying for what was originally taken from us. Accepting and naturalizing this concept of property, we have been converted into agents that reproduce the same vileness on a smaller scale. We believe that we are free to possess everything that has a price and also everything that doesn’t, running through everything to fulfill our desire for possession. Thus, we see the need for sabotage and expropriation, the defense of natural resources, the recuperation of property for recreation and collective development.

July 26th, 2019, marks the end of the political process of the Casa Naranja squat. With this, we protest with great pain that we have been overcome by bureaucracy and the alliance of “property owners” with the state. We want to say that the squat for us was always a tool and not an end of the anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist struggle. We know the characteristics of these spaces, their ephemerality, their illegality. However, we know the transformation will continue due to the mobility of the beings that lived there.

We have rejected a legal process to determine who are the owners or who could be the owners, just as we have avoided their proposal to fight putting our lives on the line.

With the same intensity that this hits us, we walk with smiles on our faces because we have not collected physical belongings, but rather teachings, friendships, networks and affection.

These lines are not meant to make ourselves out as victims, to demand justice, nor to create the heroic idea of Casa Naranja. We recognize the political, theoretical and practical contradictions, as well as the violence that we exercised in certain moments toward comrades. It is necessary to mention that we do not intend to redeem ourselves nor will we hold on to Christian guilt. We furthermore will not try to hide some of the vile deeds of people that have at times converged at the space.

The house is one more building within the urban landscape. It came to life as a social center for those that helped liberate it. For thirteen years, it confronted internal and external battles, participated in social struggles and solidarity activities for prisoners, produced libertarian theory and practice, as well as organized meetings and activities. It was a space to connect organizing work being carried out in different latitudes. We use this text to infinitely thank the people that helped the existence of this project. To all those that showed their solidarity in moments of contingency, to those who put their bodies and minds to work to build the space, to all the collectives and individuals throughout the globe that lived there.

Closing this chapter, we encourage and support whatever proposal to carry out sabotage against property, whether it be illegal, anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian or anarchist.