Hi folks,

At the beginning of April, a small but determined group of hackers found a big
unused space in the heart of Lille, a french city located at the crossroads of
Brussels, Paris, London and Amsterdam, and the 4th biggest urban agglomeration
in France. Following the Grace Hopper Pattern, they have formed a collective
called Les Hauts Lieux, requisitioned the place and have opened a hackerspace
called le Localhost, putting the place back to use after nearly 3 years of
disuse. Many other projects have joined the effort, like a coworking space or a
collective restaurant based on organic food and fair-trade.

On June 2nd, the police and the landlords found out the space was occupied. On
June 5th, a handful of members from the collective and the Droit Au Logement
Association (association helping and defending people without decent housing)
met the heads of Zara France (which is renting the space), to discuss the
future course of the actions. So far, Zara executives promised to involve les
Hauts Lieux onto the projects for the 3 000 sq. meters, if the space was
emptied by June 10th, 12:00pm.

Les Hauts Lieux is clearly at a disadvantage here, facing a huge corporate road
roller, having nothing but a promise to hang onto, and now without a place to
gather, work and share. We need every bit of support we can get, to show to
Zara France that we are not just a handful of hippies glued to their computers,
to show officials that people all around the world trust our goals, abilities
and determination. Publish this call on your weblogs, relay it on other mailing
lists, tweet it, so that the Zara heads can see the true dimension of what they
are dealing with.

le Localhost website:
http://www.le-localhost.org/wiki/index.php/Accueil

Online petition to support les Hauts Lieux:

http://www.mesopinions.com/Soutien-au-projet-des-Hauts-Lieux-petition-petitions-a109331c3c91cabe3c488e9a9bfaca40.html

Press review (only fr-FR, sorry folks):

http://nord-pas-de-calais-picardie.france3.fr/info/nord-pas-de-calais/un-squat-alternatif-pres-de-la-grand-place-63394395.html
http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2010/06/03/97001-20100603FILWWW00672-lille-un-squat-au-dessus-d-un-magasin.php
http://www.nordeclair.fr/Actualite/Depeches/2010/06/02/lille-requisition-dal-police.shtml
http://www.nordeclair.fr/Locales/Lille/2010/06/03/eurodif-requisitionne-pour-un-autre-aven.shtml
http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/Locales/Lille/actualite/Secteur_Lille/2010/06/03/article_un-collectif-alternatif-requisitionne-un.shtml
http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/Audio-Video/Audio/2010/06/03/article_audio-deja-des-tas-de-cultures-qui-se-melangent.shtml
http://revolf.free.fr/france3npdc_requisition_dal_20100603.mpg
http://www.lille-21eme-siecle.fr/index.php?2010/06/03/319-telescopage
http://lille.lesverts.fr/soutien-au-collectif-Les-Hauts
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdjpva_un-centre-commercial-abandonne-recu_newsundefined
http://lille.ville.orange.fr/direct/index.html?direct/listeactu/100603161454.dla7mfdj
http://pdf.20minutes.fr.s3-external-3.amazonaws.com/20100604_LIL.pdf
http://84.14.254.45:8080/erez4/editions/lille/Lille.pdf