London: Stop evicting Brixton!

By: dolph-l - July 13th, 2013  Filed under: News

Rushcroft Road Eviction – this Monday 15th July.
Join the people of the Rushcroft Road to stop Lambeth evicting Brixton.

We are 75 people living in 6 blocks of residential flats in central Brixton who are facing eviction from our homes. Most of us have occupied and squatted the building for decades. One person has been here for 32 years. Generations of families have grown up here.

Lambeth council have let these buildings go into a state of disrepair. We have made these buildings into our homes.

brixkitt

Now there are significant profits to be made they will renovate the buildings and sell them off. In doing so they are destroying a community with deep roots in Brixton. This is part of a wider trend in and around London boroughs where councils socially cleanse, motivated solely by money, pushing out those who have been for many years. [Read More]

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House of Brag Address Announced for the London Queer Social Centre: June 22 – July 6

By: dolph-l - June 21st, 2013  Filed under: News

OUR NEW HOME!

We’re really happy to tell you that the new home for the London Queer Social Centre is …..

63 Sancroft Street, London SE11 5UG – in an abandoned pub called The Duchy Arms. Here’s a map.

We’ve been working away at making it nice, and we think you’ll like it. It’s wheelchair-accessible (though without adapted toilets unfortunately), and has space for all the events we have planned, plus a nice outside area for smoking. We open on Saturday. Be sure to check our full programme of events, and come by and see us. [Read More]

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London: Stop G8 Social Centre Now Open

By: dolph-l - June 8th, 2013  Filed under: News

Come on down and join us to reclaim an empty building in the heart of London’s West End, and turn it into a vibrant social centre for talks, films, food, socialising, information and action. The address is:

40 Beak Street, Soho, W1F 9RQ.

Just off Regent street, in between Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus tube stations. (It’s also right in the centre of the #J11 carnival against capitalism map.)

There is room for people to stay, but please bring your own sleeping bags and bedding. Also note this is NOT a party space (gigs during the week will take place in separate venues), and please respect the safer spaces policy which you can read here.

The building is brilliant but, having been neglected and left empty, it needs some work to make it into a great space for the week. We are right now hard at work repairing, cleaning, and making stuff beautiful. Come along and join in. Also here is a list of stuff we need:

Cordless Drill

Furniture (all kinds)

Carpet / tiles

Sawdust

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The London Queer Social Centre Opening Day

By: dolph-l - June 7th, 2013  Filed under: News

BRAG IS BACK!

We found another beautiful, empty and lonely-looking building. Ze told us to bring all our queer friends and come party with hir forever. We said we’d do 2 weeks, and ze said fine I guess that’ll do.

We’ll tell you where ze is nearer the time obvs.

We’re running from June 22nd to July 6th as an alternative to Pride London, an event that has become increasingly alienating and depoliticised as it has become larger, feeding on funds from ugly banks and corporations.

We run everything for free, spend as little money as possible and make things back from donations.

There’s going to be a full schedule of events coming up over the next couple of weeks, including more instalments of the intersectionality series, queer cinema, street parties, queering anarchism, queers in squatting, Bash Back! street patrols, poetry and a queer literary salon. More things to be confirmed and full programme coming soon. [Read More]

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Calais (France): Illegal eviction of new legal squat

By: dolph-l - April 12th, 2013  Filed under: News

March 28th: At 3pm the cops discovered a new squat. The occupants had put up the legal notice article 423-8 and proof that they had been in the building for more than 48 hours – but the police, as so often, did not care about their own laws. Luckily there were only a few people inside who managed to escape before the police broke an illegal entry. Legally they would have needed a court order to enter, which they never presented. [Read More]

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Self Organised London still alive and kicking!

By: dolph-l - March 16th, 2013  Filed under: News

A brief update on our situation and upcoming events…

As Self-Organised London Social Space, we have now been squatting Eileen House at 80-94 Newington Causeway in Elephant & Castle for three weeks against welfare cuts, gentrification and the privatisation of space.

In response, we aim to provide space for community self-organisation, and have so far hosted events such as; People’s Kitchen, housing action meetings, talks, film screenings, theatre, music, workshops and discussions. It’s now been over two weeks since we lost possession in High Court with bailiffs due at any time, but we are continuing to run the social space from Wednesday to Sunday from 2-10pm.

Coming up this weekend in our event listings we have Spanish-English language exchange nearby and a local ‘workfare sleuth‘ to support on Saturday, with on Sunday the weekly political theatre and tango lessons from Library St London, as well as the new Queer Cinema from London Queer Social Centre. [Read More]

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Memphis (USA): Native squatter refuses to cooperate in court after mansion eviction

By: dolph-l - March 11th, 2013  Filed under: News

Abka Re Bey (aka Tabith Gentry) was arrested early Friday morning (8th March) outside of 600 S. Shady Grove Road in East Memphis, an empty mansion worth more than $3 million that sits on nearly four acres, that she and her family had squatted. She faces charges of aggravated burglary, criminal trespass and theft of property $6,000 or more and was in court Monday morning. Her bond was set at $2 million.

She took the building last week and drew a red flag with green star in the middle on a poster board, while erecting another sign claiming Moorish American National Republic rights and included statements “pertaining to sovereign citizen rhetoric and beliefs,” according to a police report. Moorish American’s are descendants of ancient Moabites in Africa and are the original inhabitants of North America who were enslaved by European colonists. [Read More]

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Bristol (UK): Overnight rooftop protest averts eviction of Braggs Lane squat

By: dolph-l - March 7th, 2013  Filed under: News

The squat at Bragg’s Lane / West Street in Old Market, Bristol, was on the night of Monday 4th besieged by cops as part of an illegal aviction attempt. After an overnight rooftop protest and negoitation, possession was then regained by 6pm the following day.

See below the updates from ‘braggs lane rooftop climbing club’ from Tuesday 5th for more information on their inspiring eviction resistance:

1pm: thank you for the warm food an drinks, tent and blankets, we wouldn’t have made it through the night without them.
we’re still on roof, have had sporadic visits from police but they wont approach as they deem our position too dangerous.

first chance they get the police will arrest us, probably on suspicion of criminal damage. we have the building though and would like people to occupy it. [Read More]

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London (UK): Eileen House opened by Self-Organised London as new social space

By: dolph-l - February 21st, 2013  Filed under: News
Self-Organised London Social Space opened in squatted office building near Elephant and Castle

Eileen House on 80-94 Newington Causeway, a 1960s office building, has now been empty for years. Its redevelopment has been subject to a protracted and contested debate between Southwark Council, Oakmayne developers, local residents, the famous nightclub “Ministry of Sound” (located opposite Eileen House) and – the mayor of London.
After numerous months of haggling and bureaucratic warfare, it’s time to reclaim Eileen house for the public and the interests of the Elephant’s residents!
On Tuesday night, a number of social centre collectives squatted Eileen House as a direct action against gentrification. As a selforganised London Social Space, we want to propose & exchange ideas for radical alternatives, serving the needs of the many vibrant and organic communities around E&C! [Read More]
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London (UK): Fight gentrification! Reclaim regeneration! For self-organised spaces…

By: dolph-l - February 12th, 2013  Filed under: News

The Elephant & Castle area in South London, one of the last remaining central locations that is still inhabited by some less well-off communities, has seen massive changes in the past years. Pioneers of regeneration have “discovered” the area as an “ultra hot-spot” for investment, and the local authorities are eager to serve their needs. This leaves the diverse and organic communities around E&C confronted with soaring rents, demolition of social housing and displacement – in short, gentrification has kicked in.

We, a group of social centre collectives, together with many other local initiatives, refuse to accept rip-off housing and social cleansing! Instead of luxury flats and fancy office towers, we propose a radical and free space for community self-organisation! [Read More]

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Brighton (UK): Solidarity action with the recent wave of attacks on squats in Greece

By: dolph-l - January 17th, 2013  Filed under: Communique

Communique originally sent to Act For Freedom Now:

In the early hours of January 16th 2013 we found a suitable canvas to express our rage and solidarity with the recent wave of attacks on anarchist/autonomous spaces in Greece.

On the pristine white wall of the Halifax bank on London Road (central Brighton) we painted “Solidarity with squats in greece” in large green letters, accompanied by A.C.A.B, a large squatter symbol and circled A in black paint. This is only a small expression of our desire to strike back in what are difficult and oppressive times for all of us. Unfortunately we do not have any pictures of our art. [Read More]

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Athens: Police raid Greece’s oldest anarchist squat. Lelas Karagianni re-occupied

By: dolph-l - January 15th, 2013  Filed under: News

On January 15th, at about 12.00pm, cops raided Greece’s oldest anarchist squat, Lelas Karagianni 37. Solidarians and neighbours gathered at Amerikis square and then outside the squat, trying to prevent the eviction. There were several comrades on the rooftop of the building chanting slogans, who were caught by the police. Also, two solidarians were beaten by cops on the street and detained as well. Heavy repressive forces were deployed downtown, plus a police helicopter.

Soon thereafter, more people were assembled near the evicted squat. A gathering was called for 15.00pm outside the police headquarters on Alexandras Avenue, in solidarity with the 14 squatters who were arrested from inside Lelas Karagianni, and a discussion was announced for 19.00pm in the Athens Polytechnic (entrance from Stournari street).

All of the arrested comrades were released at about 17.00pm, cops left the vicinity of the squat, and Lelas Karagianni 37 was reoccupied! [Read More]

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