London, UK : Open skillshare: Sat 6 April, 2pm – Taking creative action against high rents and rip-off letting agent fees

By: Rosa - April 4th, 2013  Filed under: News

Are you a private renter?

Do you want to take action against high rents and rip-off letting agent fees?

Saturday 6 April, 2.00-5.30pm – skillshare: come and find out how to get involved

Unite Community Centre, St George’s Town Hall (basement), 236 Cable Street, London E1 0BL (map) – 2 mins from Shadwell station. (Please let us know if you’re a wheelchair user.)

We’re holding a skillshare for anyone, with any level of experience of protests and campaigns. We’ll be exploring what makes creative protest action, and why we might choose to do it. We’ll come up with ideas for action we could take as part of a day of action on 27 April, and work out what it would take to carry out these actions.
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London,UK : SOL evicted – Eileen House sealed off from the public again

By: Rosa - April 4th, 2013  Filed under: News

After 6 amazing weeks of self-organisation, hosting events and supporting communities, Self-organised London was evicted last night by High Court Bailiffs and Cops. At 4am in the morning, they stormed Eileen House, kicking in the front door of our social centre and causing mayhem. Luckily, we were well prepared; no one got arrested and we got our personal things and most of the social centre equipment out of the building. Just a short reminder: Once Boris Johnson finally (!!!) takes a decision, Eileen House is likely to be demolished. The planning application envisages the construction of a 41-storey biggie with 335 flats, NONE of them socially rented, not even 20% of them shared ownership. While SOL was trying to provide a space for the public, for the communities of the Elephant, for London activists, Eileen House is now sealed off and inaccessible to the public, awaiting its demolition.

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Brighton (UK): (Last) Statement from Occupation

By: sisulscz - April 3rd, 2013  Filed under: News

Today we saw how far the University management are willing to go to suppress protest on campus. At 11am this morning bailiffs, accompanied by a staggering number of police, arrived on campus to evict students who have been occupying the Bramber House Conference Centre since February 7th. After the occupiers peacefully left the building chanting and singing, four students were arrested and many others were abused at the hands of the police.
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Thessaloniki: New trial against 6 comrades of Delta squat, that was evicted in September 2012

By: Rosa - April 2nd, 2013  Filed under: News

Delta squat, in Thessaloniki, was violently evicted on the 12th of September 2012. In the subsequent trial-farce, ten arrested comrades received suspended sentences and were ordered to pay fines (7,950 euros in total). One of the arrestees, anarchist immigrant Gustavo Quiroga, remained incarcerated and was even deported to Colombia on the 4th of November. That same month, the Greek State unleashed a new round of prosecutions against 6 of the anarchists that were arrested during the eviction. The 6 comrades are now accused of disturbance of the domestic peace (since 2008), as well as aggravated damages on the building of Delta squat. What’s more, the Alexandreio Technological Education Institute of Thessaloniki, which claims legal ownership of the evicted building, is letting it rot while its administrative board is seeking compensation of 3.5 million euros for alleged damages caused by the squatters.

[Read More]

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Rio de Janeiro (Brazil): Call for international solidarity with the Aldeia Maracanã

By: xxx - April 2nd, 2013  Filed under: News

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

On March 22, 2013 at 03:00, the police surrounded the old Indiginous museum, renamed by the indians Aldeia Maracanã (Maracanã Village), which is adjacent to the Maracanã Stadium, which will host the 2014 World Cup.

Occupied 6 years ago by various indigenous ethnic groups and their families, the occupation of the building was intendeded to build a center of indigenous culture controlled by Indians themselves, and also planned to create a Indigenous Popular University, as well as serving as housing for Indians passing through the city. [Read More]

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UK: 40 top lawyers sign Guardian anti-squatting law repeal letter

By: Rosa - March 28th, 2013  Filed under: News

The letter reads:

It is just over six months since the offence of squatting in a residential building came into force. At the time the offence was proposed, government sources claimed it was necessary as the law “does not support police acting when there are squatters in someone’s home” and that “there are no powers to throw them out”. The signatories to this letter include many of the 160 lawyers who wrote to the Guardian (26 September 2011) pointing out that, as a matter of law, those statements were wrong, as such powers did exist and had done so since the enactment of the Criminal Law Act 1977.

[Read More]

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London, UK: Self-Organised London buzzing with activity

By: Rosa - March 22nd, 2013  Filed under: News

The Self-Organised London (SOL) squatted social centre continues to resist eviction at Elephant and Castle despite a court of their Order awarding its corrupt owners a possession order three weeks ago. In truth, the current occupiers never held any hope in the current State-Capital system to yield any justice to the local community, as the social elite push for more luxury homes for their own in the heart of London. To expect justice from a partnership which projects only to degrade everything public by converting it into a means for profit, which is the inherent desire of the ruling class in a world where the heads of the multinationals are the heads of State, is foolhardy indeed. And, like in Argentina, the majority of the population in the UK continues to live within the consumerist bubble without protesting, while people are being duped into the poverty of slavery by a lying Press which lives by the same axiom as the economists themselves.

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International day of action against eviction and displacement – Protest actions in UK, France, Germany and Spain

By: Rosa - March 19th, 2013  Filed under: News

Today (March 18, 2013 – s!n) at lunchtime, a small but determined protest action took place in front of the Spanish embassy in London to show solidarity with the Mortgage Holders Platform (PAH). People handed out leaflets (attached) to passers-by and embassy staff. Other protest events took place in Edinburgh, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona and lots of other Spanish cities. The action in London was supported by local private tenants groups and Unite Community. The protest in Paris was organized by the “Association of the Right to Housing” (“Association Droit au Logement”, DAL), in Berlin the alliance “Prevent evictions” (“Zwangsraeumungen verhindern”) and “Kotti&Co”, amongst others, followed the call for action.
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Cologne, Germany : You wanna kick us out? We kick you out now!

By: Rosa - March 19th, 2013  Filed under: News

First reactions on the termination of the use contract of Autonomous Centre Cologne (AZ Kalk).

The savings bank Sparkasse KölnBonn has cancelled the use contract with the AZ at the 13th of March 2013, as demanded by the politrix of the city of Cologne. Reactions of concerned and solidary structures were quick to come. Activists made a visit to the town hall and the head office of Sparkasse at Rudolfplatz on the following day. Later in the evening around 200 people made a spontaneous demonstration through the city centre.

[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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Notre-Dame-des-Landes, France: Message of Solidarity from La ZAD

By: Rosa - March 15th, 2013  Filed under: News

Black February: Message of solidarity from some people of the ZAD (Zone A Défendre) and elsewhere in France, an occupied area against an international airport and metropolisation project.

With pleasure, we heard of the reactions of solidarity against the evictions at Athens in December and January: United States, India, England, Canada, Australia, Japan, Chile… and also the numerous actions and demonstrations throughout Greece.

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London: Feminists Evicted from Women’s Library

By: Rosa - March 12th, 2013  Filed under: News

At 3.30pm on 9 March feminist protestors were evicted from their two-day occupation of The Women’s Library [1]. Defiant to the end, women had to be dragged from the soon-to-be-closed building by High Court Bailiffs and Police. Outside they were met with cheers from a one hundred-strong crowd of supporters.

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