There are altogether less squats now than in the '80s, due to hassle through new laws which have resulted in quicker and easier evictions. A lot of squats only exist for a few months. The problem with this is that it's harder to create gig venues, cafes, shops and other facilities. At the end of the '80s and the beginning of this decade a lot of the projects and infrastructure of the squatters' movement disappeared or chose some legalized form to continue their activities. Some of the initiatives now make use of state-subsidized jobs, employing each other on workfare schemes.
Squatters are idealistic, but also pragmatic, or perhaps 'strategic' is a better word here.
In order to survive you have to use the various possibilities the system unintentionally offers you. The squatters' movement did so between 1976 and 1984, at least in Amsterdam. Within this movement, a few thousand people are on the move. A lot of people are disappointed that there isn't a shared utopia anymore, no expectation of a better future. Well, if this is true, then perhaps the movement isn't 'left' anymore.