On Sunday 19 July, in the middle of the night and after much planning, a group of around 15 members of the Southwark and Lewisham community including LESOCO (Lewisham and Southwark College) students, occupied the Camberwell campus of LESOCO to resist its closure. They locked the gates and barred the doors, claiming the space for the community and wrenching it from the claws of managers, bureaucrats and the market. The plan was to use the campus for community education and organising and to stop management from clearing the building out by the end of the month. They damaged nothing. They wanted the building kept for further education.
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London: Lewisham and Southwark College occupied, evicted
London: Elephant & Castle Social Centre evicted
The Elephant & Castle social centre was evicted at 4am today. High Court bailiffs and cops kicked out about 20 squatters (some “in just their underwear” according to the gutter press).
The pub was squatted a month ago and has now been made an asset of community value so any change of use will need to be granted planning permission.
Amstelveen (NL): Island squatted
Twenty squatters have been there a week on the Amsteleiland, which is on the edge of Amstelveen and Ouderkek aan de Amstel.Two years ago the people living on the island had to leave to make way for a ‘millionaire’s enclave’ which has never appeared. Developer Marco Krol bought the island in 2009 and planned to build swanky villas, but the plans went awry.
The squatters are planning a BBQ for the neighbourhood.
Source
London: Waiting For Eviction And Them Dirty Bailiffs
We may not have otherwise have said – but up until now that is – for the last 8 or so weeks we have been occupying (squatting) 2 commercial properties in the two adjoining North London Boroughs of first Islington and at this time of writing Camden.
The crew moved from Central London following a number of evictions, 41 to be precise, some high profile and others not so.
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Amsterdam: Short explanation of all ADM court cases (in 2015)
In the most recent court-case (the so-called “kort geding”) the owners demanded urgent eviction of the ADM. Verdict July 13th 2015 [ADM won!]
The so called ‘evidence’ of the owners entailed 2 rental contracts: One was lacking a signature (concerns small part of the ADM land) and the other was lacking a date (concerns ADM water).
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Barcelona: 3 CanVies Defenders declared Innocent of Attack on Police
VICTORY. The sentence condemning three young defenders of Can Vies to 3.5 years in prison has been revoked #EfecteCanVies (en español abajo)
Now the Provincial Court of Barcelona has had to revoke the sentence and absolve them of all charges.
The police wanted revenge after losing the amazing 4 day resistance and street battles against the eviction and wanted to lock up 84 arrested. These three were accused by police witnesses of throwing bottles from a rooftop , later the alternative paper ‘Directa’ proved the identification was absurd as there was no vision from where the police were. [Read More]
Dublin: Mutual Aid at the Bolt Occupied Hostel
“Mutual aid is arguably as ancient as human culture; an intrinsic part of the small, communal societies universal to humanity’s ancient past. From the dawn of humanity, until far beyond the Invention of agriculture, humans were foragers, exchanging labor and resources for the benefit of groups and individuals alike.” – Wikipedia
Since the establishment of the Bolt Hostel just over a week ago, there have been many people that have arrived at the door to donate furniture, cloths, bed linin, volunteering their time, labour and skills. There has been a communal kitchen area/ TV area created, all by the donations of fridges, microwave, washing machine, cooker, table and chairs, sofa, TV and DVD player by people. [Read More]
London: Occupy Democracy charges dismissed in court
12 peaceful protesters have charges dropped in first two trials.
Judge rules tarpaulin not a structure designed or adapted for sleeping.
£1,945,279 spent in policing operation between mid-October and mid-February.
Police criticised for labelling Occupy Movement ‘Domestic Extremists.’
Judicial Review against Mayor’s decision to close Parliament Square Gardens in run-up to election continues.
Charges against 12 Occupy Democracy [1] protesters were dropped yesterday in the first two trials relating to the peaceful pro-democracy group’s occupation of Parliament Square in October 2014. Charges included refusing to comply with a direction to leave and for being in possession of a prohibited article, namely tarpaulin. A further trial relating to charges of aggravated trespass was dropped previously.
From the 17th October 2014 Occupy Democracy held a ten-day occupation outside the Houses of Parliament to highlight the deficit in our democracy. During that time protesters faced increasingly oppressive and violent tactics from the Metropolitan Police aiming to suppress the protest. These tactics included kettling, intimidation, confiscation of property, inflicting pain through use of pressure points and pulling protesters across the ground.[2] [Read More]
Dublin: End of Grangegorman squat
Despite the call for resistance, the Grangegorman squat (AKA SquatCity) has ended in silence. In June 2015, keys were handed to the Gardai, with no fuss.
Their Law: The New Energies of UK Squats, Social Centres and Eviction Resistance in the Fight Against Expropriation
For anyone old enough to remember themselves as a teenager during the nineties, with fond memories of piercing their own ears (multiple times) whilst listening to the second album of The Prodigy ‘Music for a Jilted Generation’ [self-piercing nostalgia optional], they will recognise ‘Their Law’ as the musical response to the criminalisation of rave culture’s collective enjoyment of ‘repetitive beats’ directly legislated in Section 63(1)(b) of the Criminal Justice Act and Public Order Act 1994. The metallic screams and staples pulsate into an abrupt “fuck them and their law” where the Braintree boys quarterise their angry sentiment against enclosing law, the voice of a radical resistance felt in lower frequency bass, vibration, body, the tribe, the people — rave terms.
I think of Their Law when I think of the energy and metabolism of many communities now fighting the heartbreaking effects of unabated private property acquisition in the UK, of the fierce passions contesting the market-obsessed policies enacted through unapologetic and unconcerned legislative processes that are entirely ignorant of the difficulties people are facing on a day-to-day basis just to be. [Read More]
The prison squatters of Kosovo
The rusted gate creaks open as a handful of Roma women step into the shadowy entranceway of the former Dubrava Correctional Centre. The soles of their shoes slide across the dank floor as they walk through tangled corridors and between moldy, crumbling walls. The women’s eyes are hollow, their expressions are somber. Children’s wails and coughs echo through the halls of the facility, a place whose former inhabitants experienced decades of abuse.
The Centre, Kosovo’s largest detention facility, had inmates until the end of the war in 1999, when the property was returned to the municipality of Istog, in the country’s northwest. Local authorities promised to turn the center into a home for returning Albanians and Roma, thousands of whom were displaced during the Kosovo war. The promise was never kept, but Roma families began squatting here fifteen years ago and never left.
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London: Time to defend Sweetstopia!
CAN YOU COME VISIT THIS WEEK?
Shortly after we began our occupation of the estate (news here and here and here), some other occupiers emerged on the scene. At first we had some tensions, but gradually we have come to see eye-to-eye on the need to keep our homes from being destroyed, in spite of any differences.
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Radar Online Agenda
