ADM was a squat in the Port of Amsterdam, to the west of the city next to the North Sea Canal. The squat lasted from 1997 until its eviction in early 2019.

Venue: ADM
Town: Amsterdam, NL

ADM was a squat in the Port of Amsterdam, to the west of the city next to the North Sea Canal. The squat lasted from 1997 until its eviction in early 2019. Around 130 people lived on the terrain of 45 hectares in buildings, on boats and in vehicles. ADM (de Amsterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij) was the name of the Amsterdam drydock company which had previously occupied the site before going bankrupt in 1985. The ADM terrain was first squatted in the mid 1980s and amongst other things was used as a music studio (ADM's Koeienverhuur). It was evicted in early 1993 since the owner allegedly had urgent plans for the terrain. The ownership was then transferred several times before ending up with Chidda Vastgoed BV and Amstelimmo BV, two companies owned by Bertus Lūske, the notorious speculator, who paid 27 million guilders for the parcel. Since by 1997 nothing at all was happening on the terrain, it was resquatted by a group of 100 people, some of whom had lived there already. The date of the resquat was October 12, 1997. On January 21, 1998, thugs hired by Lūske (the owner) came to the terrain and threatened people. They returned on March 3, banging on windows with iron bars. They then came back a third time on April 25, in the very early morning and began to demolish the building with an excavator machine. The confrontation was filmed. In a stroke of good fortune, none of the people sleeping in the building were harmed. The police were called and eventually defused the situation. In 1999, a court gave Lūske 240 hours of community service for attempted manslaughter and he was ordered to pay 1000 guilders to four ADM residents in damages. Lūske was eventually assassinated in 2003 by unknown associates in the Amsterdam criminal underworld. He was shot outside a restaurant in front of his family. As well as being a place for people to live and work, ADM acted as an infoshop and social centre organising many events. To take September 2013 as an example, there was a barnight e