Squatters extend solidarity to the TUC

After Plan A fell through early this morning, we occupied 101 Liverpool Road, a building to our knowledge disused since July. We then discovered that, coincidentally, the TUC were also planning to use the space tomorrow for steward prep work. We made immediate contact and the TUC expressed enthusiasm for working together against the tories. We have offered our full logistical support and have given them the following letter:

After some discussion with --------, we in occupation at 101 Liverpool Road would like first to reassure you that we have every intention to assist and facilitate the TUC stewards' planned use of the building over the next two days. We will work with the stewards so that they can have full access to the building as the need and we'll even make tea and coffee.

Signed,

The Occupiers


The following excerpt was taken from a blogpost on Occupy Manchester, and outlines briefly why its important we work alongside groups like the TUC.

Posted on September 29, 2011

This weekend we are all in Manchester to march against the Conservative Party conference and to occupy part of the city to take a stand against the cuts and policies of a government no one voted in.

Once again, every aspect of our lives is under attack by a Conservative government. Under the smokescreen of crisis and austerity working class people are seeing their wages stagnate, their rents rise and the last scraps of the welfare state being taken from them and sold on.

And, once again, the conservative government is planning to criminalise squatting and with it student, workplace and shopfront occupations. This would criminalise people’s ability to house themselves in the middle of a housing crisis, put the tens of thousands currently squatting out on the streets and on the doorsteps of homeless charities already overworked and underfunded, affect the rights of tenants, and would be a serious assault on the use of occupations as a form of protest.