31 July 2014
Australia: A known squat in the territory known as Sydney has been evicted
Some courageous occupiers and supporters made the decision to barricade and defend as much as they could a space full of history, dreams and resistance.
The autonomous, liberated social centre known as the Hat Factory has for over at least 12 years hosted hundreds of events and people in its quarters – encouraging creativity, mutual aid, rebelliousness and respect.
At the time of its eviction, the Hat Factory was known for is great fundraisers, library, its free shop, where people could come and find free clothes and a whole array of tools and facilities to take care of spaces and each other.
In its beautifully people’s built kitchen, food that otherwise would have been wasted by this fucked up society, was cooked and given away for free, for people’s kitchen and many other events or just to friends that would come over to hang out. It also hosted a variety of gigs, skillshares, discussions and movie screenings. It hosted people from all over the world, as well as those permanently living in Sydney, often when they had nowhere else to stay.
All that was built, all that was created under this banner of total freedom is attacked by the state because of the danger this material representation of our dreams mean for the status quo of the failing ideology of competition, infinite economic growth, selfishness and mistrust.
In a society where we have never been closer physically and never been further away socially; the Hat Factory stood as a bastion of social resistance, because its material existence stated clearly the uncompromising desires of all loving folks.
Our accumulated rage, those that participated in this space and the infinite network of views, efforts and associations around them its what’s dangerous for the state and for capital; no matter how many riot cops they bring, those relationships and qualities can’t be evicted.
See also this article on the mainstream press.
