Between Local Roots and Transnational Networks: The Case of the Squatter Barricades of 1980 and 1981 in Amsterdam and Nijmegen

During the 1980s, the squatting of houses and buildings by youths and activists in Western Europe took a leap and sometimes escalated into riots and building barricades. Using the Amsterdam and Nijmegen barricades of 1980/1981 as a case study, this paper analyzes how transnational networks influenced squatter conflicts. It argues that transnational contacts and political transfer within social movements are never straightforward processes. Rather than investigating which individuals were connected to whom, this paper therefore asks how squatters in different cities formed networks, how squatters and contemporaries envisioned these networks and what roles they assigned to them.