Hello friends
Here is the latest message from the occupied 121 Centre in Brixton. London.
We have now been in occupation, behind barricades, for 54 days but are expecting an eviction to happen at any time. The case was sneakily moved up from the jurisdiction of the County Court to the High Court last week so now the stakes are a little bit higher.
In the past 9 weeks we have maintained a continuous 24 hour occupation of the 121 Centre with free meals some days, video nights, a roller disco, a vegan cafe on Friday 19th with music from Steve Cope and Alex and other sundry entertainments and practical activity. We have also maintained an external battle for 121 with a short-lived occupation of the Leader of Lambeth Council’s office, fucked off the cops and bailiffs with barricades streets, held two puppet shows in the High Street, maintained a scurrilous weekly newspaper, the SOUTH LONDON STRESS that gets distributed on Sat mornings in Brixton and locally and held a great Street Drink-In to defy the new council/police ban on drinking alcohol in the Brixton area.
* This Friday, 26th March [1999], there is another Vegan Caff at the 121 from 8pm onwards. All welcome. Entertainers and performers are invited for impromptu and spontaneous playing to the crowd.
HOWEVER…
It has to be said that we are wearing down. The initial support was great (thank you all) but recently, to be honest, it’s been shit. This is as much to do with us, as with anyone else because there has been to few of us to keep up with all the work. The first few weeks were very intense with a million things to do every minute. It’s impossible for anyone to keep up that level of activity over a long period of time. There have been problems having enough people around in the day time to just be inside the Centre. Somedays, some of us have been stuck inside the building all day and night unable to leave. Simple things like keeping up with phone messages, looking out for the bailliffs and police, daily cooking, maintaining barricades, updating phonetrees, producing the South London Stress etc etc take up a lot of mental energy. We also have outside lives too (and some of us have jobs to attend to aswell!). It’s becoming impossible for us to keep the Centre open.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT NOW.
If you’ve phoned recently and not got a really great and coherent answer – we apologise. Our internal meetings have stopped happening so communication even amongst ourselves in messy. But hey, don’t take this all the wrong way..we are still here, still waiting for the fuckers to have a go.
HELP US BE A PAIN IN THE ARSE –
The 121 Centre has been squatted for 18 years. It means a lot to a lot of people all over the world and to us too. We have maintained an anarchist community space for all those years and we don’t want to leave the place without being a major pain in the ass to the Council, Copppers and Bailliffs.
To this end – this is how we need your help:
* Please, please, please come to the Centre. It’s open from 9am until 10pm everyday. We have a rota broken down into 3-hour shifts all through the day (9am-12, 12pm-3pm, 3pm-6pm, 6pm-10pm). Phone up and pledge a three hour (or more) shift. This is the biggest single thing you can do to help us. You can even stay and sleep here for as many days as you want. It’s not a 24-hour wild party but it’s a living, breathing site of resistance. Honestly we need your body here!
* Bring yourself and some friends and organise something for people to do at 121. The Centre is a free space for all sorts of activity, performance, cafes, entertainment etc. We needs tons more events and activities to encourage people to hang out at the 121. Ideas are infinite but here’s some clues – cook a simple communal meal for people, think up an afternoon tea and biscuits discussion about anything, come and paint the outside of the building with lovely pictures or fix papier mache sculptures to it, come on subvert the ugly adverts on the side of 121, sing songs, have jam sessions, show videos, have any sort of workshop you like- we have space for all sorts, hold a slumber party, a striptease show, a reading by poets and writers, come and DJ one night for the masses, put on puppet shows, bring Internet down for people to play with (we will pay for phone calls), teach people new skills…the list goes on. We have facility in the weekly newspaper and by leafleting to rouse up a crowd for your activity.
* We need simple things for rota people to do when there isn’t any events on here. This means books, mags, newspapers, food, games, treats etc. We have emptied the entire contents of 121 to somewhere else so there isn’t much day-to-day 121 stuff to be getting on with. We are finding that it can befairly dull sitting in a dark barricaded building all day !
Okay, enough requests…we hope that something happens from this message..Times are getting tighter. Let’s make the eviction of 121 something to remember it by. It’s not everyday an internationally famous squat centre goes under.
Mutual Aid. Respect and Anarchy.
The 121 * 121 Railton Road * Brixton * London SE24 * 0171-274-6655 * e-mail (for response to this message – 121 [at] element [dot] dircon [dot] co [dot] uk)
Thanks
[squat!net]
