Tanks and snipers in Amsterdam: 40 years after the squatters’ riots

Image courtesy https://hart.amsterdam/nl/page/230085/de-kroningsrellen

The tanks rolled through the streets of Amsterdam and dozens of people were injured but, surprisingly, no one was killed. Today, exactly forty years ago, Amsterdam was the scene of the biggest battle between squatters and police that the city would ever see.

A squatted building near Vondelpark became the scene of an explosion of violence on 3 March 1980, in a war that had been raging for ten years between squatters and the police. Dozens of people were injured in cleaning up barricades erected by squatters – in which tanks and armoured vehicles were deployed – but the squatters did not wanted to leave.

Never again would a confrontation between squatters and police go so violently. The action in Vondelstraat is therefore seen as a turning point in the history of the Amsterdam squatters’ movement.

Image courtesy https://hart.amsterdam/nl/page/230085/de-kroningsrellen