South London Squatter's Network DINNER!

SLS Network's answer to Scum Dine with Me of North London..

A regular Dinner/Meeting/Party at different squats in South London.
The next one is on Thursday 1st December at 7pm,
81 County Street SE1 4AD (Elephant&Castle)
The venue for the one after that will be decided there.

YUM

Bristol: Maggs & Allen office attacked

17th November, from Bristol Indymedia:

"At approximately 2 am this morning, the office of Maggs & Allen estate agent in Henleaze, Bristol was attacked with hammers. The windows of their shop front were totally annihilated.

This action was taken in solidarity with The Factory, and dedicated to all autonomous spaces in Bristol past and present.

Against property speculation, the gentrification of our communities and the evictions of our homes and social spaces.

(A)"

THE ADVENTURES OF CAMELOT SCAMELOT

(cut and paste...)

Bristol Squattastic Meeting

If you agree with the popular sentiment at the moment of 'fuck the fucking fuckers' we have the meeting for you!

Bristol Squattastic are next meeting on Friday 25th November at Kebele, 14 Robertson Road, Easton @ 6pm.

Bring plans and ideas for defending our squats!

Tories In Squatting Crackdown

Posted on Occupied Times, http://theoccupiedtimes.co.uk/?p=796

Westminster’s war on squatters will hit protest camps next, housing activists have warned.

Members of Squatters’ Action For Secure Homes issued a call for solidarity this week after 15 appeared in Westminster Magistrates Court charged with unlawful assembly for their part in an overnight protest outside Parliament.

The activists’ lawyer Raj Chada said last week he had won a two-week adjournment to lobby Crown prosecutors to drop the case, since the charges stem from legislation which has technically been repealed.

The Serious Organised Crime and Policing Act bars “unauthorised” demonstrations within a square kilometre of Parliament — but the government’s Police Reform Act, which has been passed but not yet come into force, scales down the scope of the ban to protests in Parliament Square directly outside the House.

Mr Chada appeared confident of an acquittal, saying the Crown had until 23 November to decide.

But spokesman Rueben Taylor warned the vilification of squatters and the Occupy movement was “intimately connected.”

“We are being ruled by a government who believes that property is more important than people, and is passing violent and draconian laws to silence those who are losing out.

“Certain Tories have also made it clear that if they would like nothing better than to extend these laws against squatting to cover other types of properties, and thereby to criminalise occupation as a form of protest – in universities, workplaces, and public places.”

Meanwhile the current proposals were “just a test”.

“If they are allowed to get away with it, we will undoubtedly see even more repressive laws being pushed through in the coming months,” he warned.

The charges stem from a 150-strong campout near the Houses of Parliament earlier this month after justice secretary Ken Clarke rammed through an amendment criminalising squatting in residential buildings.

Police ordered the demonstrators to disperse, then kettled around 50 protesters who refused to leave.

The amendment – tacked on just six days before it was passed and before publication of the government’s consultation report – threatens homeless people in residential buildings with fines of up to £5,000 and up to a year behind bars.

Around 35,000 people in Britain will lose their home between now and Christmas, according to estimates from housing charity Shelter — an average one person every two minutes.

Win! Grow Heathrow

Court case adjourned again. The judge took into account our human rights arguments and adjourned the case to the higher authority of Central London County Court where a two day hearing will take place in a few months time. This means we’re here at least until the new year!

After months of negotiations the landowner decided to take us to court and try to remove the community project. John McDonnell MP came to court to speak as a witness to highlight the benefits the project provides as a community resource and how he is strongly against any possible future eviction. However he wasn’t even called upon to speak as the judge made his ruling after only an hour and half.

Speaking outside court Grow Heathrow member Rachel Greene said:

“This ruling today is unheard of for squatting cases. It shows the importance of community spaces as the government violently cuts public services and criminalises squatting. In Sipson we will keep fighting to put derelict spaces back into use to the benefit of community life.”

UPDATES

EVICTIONS RESISTED IN HACKNEY!

Squatters and supporters have successfully resisted the eviction of three different squats in Hackney over the past few weeks. First time round everyone then took to the streets, paying a visit to the hackney housing hq, and then onto Tesco's who own one of the squats being threatened with eviction. It was great. read more stuff about it here http://london.indymedia.org/articles/10787 and here http://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2011/11/hackney-squatters-fight-off-eviction-for-third-time/

Factory Squat Bristol Evicted

The Factory Social Centre in Bristol was evicted first thing this morning by bailifs and police.
Two arrests were made of people inside the building.  It was over by 9 a.m.

SQUATTASTIC 12

1 YURR ANIVOWSARY. YALL INVITTED!  PLES TELL ALL UR SQUATTEY MATES AND FAMBLY. BRING UR BIG BAD CRU FIX UP A BIK,,,, NORF SOUTHH EAST AND WEST ... SATEYDAY DECEMBER 10 ... WILL START AFTER DAHRK, SOMEWHER.


IF U CANT BIKE NO MATTER DO A CHEK POINT . MAILE: SQUATTASTIC@GMAIL.COM WITH IDEAS AND KUESTIONS, OR IF YU CRU WANT TO RUN CHEK POINT


THANKYU FUR TIME, BYE NOW. X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X 

SQUATTERS LEGAL NETWORK

With the stage set for the criminalisation of squatting in 'residential buildings' there has been discussion of the need for some sort of legal support network for squatters if we are to face custodial sentences and heavy fines, both to support the people in our communities and a means to encourage people to continue to squat.

At the last squattastic we discussed the need for a group that can provide squatters with;

-legal information and advice
-legal observers when resisting evictions/on demos
-bust cards
-arrestee support
-help getting legal representation
-help with fines
-prisoner support if they end up inside

-give advice/co-ordinate pressing charges at illegal evictions and suing the police when they slip up
-and a bunch of stuff we haven't thought of yet...

There are many groups that you're all probably are of or even involved in that already provide these things but are already working at capacity and it's essential, especially now, that squatters begin to organise to do all this for themselves and each other.

If you're interested in establishing a Squatters Legal Network come along to the Autonomy Club meeting room, above Freedom Books down Angel Alley (84b Whitechapel High St.) at 7pm on Tuesday 15th November. 

Members of Green and Black Cross, the Advisory Service for Squatters, the Legal Defence and Monitoring Group and London Anarchist Black Cross will give brief run-downs of what their groups do and how they do it, followed by an open discussion and planning of how we can establish a Squatters Legal Network and support the groups already doing this work.

Hope to see you there.

Persons Unkown

SOUTH SIDE SQUATTERS!!!

Out of the squats and onto the streets; some thoughts on the events of Monday night

Around 400 or so squatters turned out in London on Monday night to oppose the governments proposals to criminalise squatting. More than half were on bikes and met for critical mass at waterloo, but almost 200 also made it on foot to meet at High Street Kensington.

We all had about four days to pull something together and get out there, and the fact that so many people did, well it says a lot. we all give a shit.

SQUASH called the action, and although not all squatters have necessarily been involved with engaging with the government on its own terms, a lot of squatters still recognise the validity of what the squash people have been doing as one particular tactic(their piece on SHIFT chats about this more). So squash called it but of course it took all of us coming out in one big mass of pissed-off-ness to make it into something.

Anyway. Monday. There was a bit of a fuck up. The house that we discovered we were to be sleeping outside of, that is Crispin Blunt's (the under secretary of state for justice, and the megatron scuzbag who's brought in the stupid amendment) was haktuly no longer his - it belonged to his wife who'd left him and was no doubt quite a lot less of a scuzbag. We weren't up for staying there so we went to Parsons Green and joined up with critical mass. There were still 300 or something of us and we all managed to decide to go to Westminster, where we had a sort of picnic and then the police started throwing their toys out the pram and willy nilly arresting people.

The question i want to raise, that we all should be thinkin about way more laterally then we've managed to so far, is one of organisation. Different ways of organising clashed on Monday and some squatters were left feeling disempowered and frustrated at being led way out to the arse end of fulham for pumpkin soup and jazz hands on Parsons Green. It would be easy for this to become another point at which we divide, for us all to go home and say fuck it, our differences are irreconcilable, each one thinking the other is a moron. THIS CAN NOT HAPPEN (those in power are way more moronic). We will literally not survive if we fall apart like that, and if this means we need to now find new ways of organising, that more fits how we live and communicate as squatters, that is fucking great. 

Announcing the exact location for actions in advance is obviously problematic if you want to avoid them being pigged out, but neither is it ideal if this has to come at the price of people's ability to choose what they want to do and how they want to participate. But this is not some enormous unbridgeable gulf, we need  and have to get around it. No doubt as squatters we are more than capable of finding a bunch of solutions that we can work with. Lets not just sit and slag each other off over ash trays in our own squats, we can move things forward. A lot of the time we don't even bother telling each other what we don't like about our different approaches, but we need to be having those conversations, we need to make the effort to get out and meet each other, have some arguments and get the ball rolling... 

nuff love, nuff respect  

there is a comment section, roll with it

From Seth Toboccman's 'War in The Neighbourhood', that focusses around Tompkins Square in 1980s Lower East Side New York, and the various squatter and homelessness movements it was home to:

when i was lookin for pictures of thomkins square, a bunch of stupid dog pictures came up cos apparantly now it is home to the annual halloween doggy parade or something. so err ...here u go.  for the lulz (but scuze me while i sick myself a bit)

SOLIDARITY FROM PRAGUE!!!

The Factory received the following message from comrades in Prague, Czech Republic:

hey!

yesterday we made a little action in prague to support the struggle
against the criminalisation of squatting in UK and to send our love and solidarity to our friends and comrades from Orange Fence and The Factory. Our attempt to occupy the british embassy failed but we at least managed to block the front door with our banner and spread some english/czech flyers:We are here today to show our solidarity with the English squatter’s movement which is now facing a wave of repression and as well the government efforts to criminalise it.

The UK parliament is planning on Tuesday 1st of November to take the first step towards the criminalization of squatting, voting a clause that makes squatting in residential building a criminal offence, with up to 51 weeks of imprisonment. In the mean time anarchist squats like The Factory in Bristol and The Orange Fence in London are already under treatment of eviction and they are currently fighting to resist that abuse:

“We will always lose in their courts. We will always lose in their
elections, their wars, their boardrooms and all their other games.
The only people who win in these settings are the people who already have money and power.
We’re not going to win our freedom fighting rigged battles within their system.
We will win together, outside of and against that system: in the streets; in the squares; in the occupied spaces.”

Criminalization of squatting doesn’t mean end of autonomous spaces. It will not suffocate our desire of self-organization and it will not even stop us from liberating houses from the capitalist machine.

We want and we need homes not shopping malls, banks and posh hotels. Here in Czech Republic, in UK and everywhere else.

HANDS OFF THE FACTORY, ORANGE FENCE AND ALL THE OTHER SQUATS!

2 EVICTIONS - 1 RESISTANCE

Friday 4th November

The storm is coming... Are we gonna ride it?

Join us to resist 2x evictions in one morning, starting at 8:30am, 184 Well Street, and moving swiftly on to 320 Mare Street for 9:45am.

Bring Banners, tea and music, spread the word. THEIR LAWS, NOT OURS!
STILL WE SQUAT, STILL WE RESIST.

ACAB.

NO HOUSING NO PEACE

Show your Support in Court! Friday 11 November 9:45am, Westminster Magistrates Court - 181 Marylebone Road, NW1 5BR

yep we're all still here, it's been traumatic, but we're definately still here. jus need to emphasise how important our networks are, we really need to be there for each other from now on cos the next while is probably gonna be pretty shit. in the face of so much unbelievable bullshit its so fuckin important. coming out of police custody  to find a bunch of ur friends and other squatters there eclipses all the crap from the previous day or so, we really really really need to make sure we get out onto the streets to be there for each other in the coming months. there are a bunch of evictions coming up that r gonna be resisted, lets try and show them that we aint gonna take this lying down. 

Brighton March for Squatting

November 5th, 12pm, Victoria Gardens

The UK Government is trying to criminalise squatting in residential buildings despite 95% of responses to their own 'consultation' being opposed to any change in law.

There are enough empty buildings in the UK to house every destitute person in this country. It is criminal that people are forced to sleep in the cold whilst thousands of properties are unused and left to deteriorate.
Criminalising the homeless is no solution to a housing crisis, it will only marginalise homeless people further.

HOUSING SHOULD BE A RIGHT NOT A PRIVILEGE

March with us against the change in law on Saturday 5th November.
Meet at Victoria Gardens at 12pm, bring your instruments, your friends, and your best friend squatdogs!

For more info see..
http://www.squashcampaign.org/
https://network23.org/snob/2011/10/28/s-n-o-b-statement-regarding-clarke’s-anti-squatting-amendmen

t-to-the-legal-aid-bill/
Or follow
https://twitter.com/snobaha

See you on the streets!