ABSTRACT
How do squatters’ movements make a difference in urban politics? Their singularity in European cities has often been interpreted according to three major notions: ‘autonomy’, ‘the right to the city’ and ‘urban commons’. However, few contributions have clarified the theoretical, historical and political significance of these approaches. In particular, autonomism has been identified as one of the main ideological sources of the recent global justice and anti-austerity movements after being widely diffused among European squatters for more than four decades. In this chapter I examine the political background of autonomism as a distinct—though not often explicitly and sharply defined—identity among radical movements in Europe, in general and the squatters, in particular. Instead of departing from the demarcation between autonomous and institutional left, I stress the social dimensions of autonomy that stem from the multiple and ‘immediatist’ struggles in which squatters were involved over different historical periods. By revisiting relevant events and discourses of the autonomist tradition linked to squatting in Italy, Germany and Spain, its main traits and some contradictions are presented. Although political contexts indicate different emphases in each case, some common origins and transnational exchanges justify an underlying convergence. I contend that ‘social autonomy’ is mainly based on the self-managed nature of squats and the political aggregation they engender. In addition, it crucially incorporates the efforts of squatters to connect their criticisms of capitalist dynamics with their liberated urban spaces and the critical concerns raised by autonomous feminism.
