Located near Helensburgh, Scotland, approximately 30 miles from Glasgow Faslane Peace Camp is to celebrate 22 years of non-violent direct action and resistance against the Faslane Naval Base in Scotland, which is home to much of Britain’s nuclear powered, and nuclear armed submarine fleet. For 22 years the Faslane Peace Camp has been a base for non-violent direct action against the British Nuclear weapons program, as well as an alternative, consensus based, community with close links to the environmental, anti-road, anti-nuclear and may other non-hierachical resistance movements. Beginning with only a couple of tents, the peace camp has crown to include two busses, approximately 12 caravans, tree houses, a geodome, a communal building and meeting room, a composting toilet, and even a fort to fight of evitctions. Although safe at the moment there are rumours that the council may be gearing up for another attempt at eviction. To celebrate its birthday Faslane will be hosting a week of workshops, actions, discussions and celebrations to which all are invited. The night of June 12th there will be a party with a number of local and visiting bands. Hope to see you there!
Vancouver, Canada: New Book on the Woodsquat
“Woodsquat” – a special issue of West Coast Line (240 pages, $12) Info: 604.682.3269 ext. 7567 / free [at] woodsquat [dot] net / http://www.woodsquat.net
Who popped Woodwards on September 14th 2002? Why? What happened on the inside? Who were The Woodwards 54? How did they defend a street encampment for 92 days & nights in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver? Who stayed? Who left? Who ended it? What happened afterwards? Will Vancouver ever be business-as-usual again? Which buildings are next?
Writing & interviews on daily life at the squat. Poems, speeches, statements & reports by residents, witnesses & supporters. Call-outs from affinity groups & support organizations. Police reports & the confidential city government memo planning the quiet final eviction. Reproductions of video stills, posters, flyers, graffiti, linocuts, photographs & an 11-page comic. Critical essays on squatting as a tool, gentrification & social housing, electoral politics, addiction & class war, media distortion, legal strategies, the use of demands, and the ongoing struggle.
London: call to the creation of a female-based squat
THE SHIFTING SISTERHOOD
I am a young woman looking to set up a female based (although not exclusive) squat in London, over the next month.
I am looking for energetic and responsible women to form a practical, active and caring group, in order to empower ourselves individually.
London: new squatted social center provides a number of public activities
Below is the transcript of a message from Allan <allanednei [at] riseup [dot] net>
Hello everyone
Our new squat in London is the winner of the flashiest squatted building ever award. It is in an ex-wine bar and is a great space with lots of room. We are getting a lot of interest from the people living near the squat, especially local kids and youngsters. We have been providing things they have asked for, including cheap schooltime lunches. We are trying to provide a variety of events and make the space as pleasant and welcoming as possible for everyone. The squat is easy to find, 156- 158 Fortess Road, next to Tufnell Park underground station. We have a lot of things happening, here is a summary-
Every day- open for coffees and infoshop lunchtime onwards.
Tuesday – Wombles meeting 7:30pm
Wednesday – social centre meeting 7:00pm Free English class 7:00pm
Friday – Cafe 8:00pm short political films 8:30pm current Hollywood blockbuster 9pm
Thursday – DJ workshop 7:00pm
Saturday- Music night
Sunday- screen printing and tshirt making 2pm
Some special events:
Sunday 11th – Queer cafe 6pm
Monday 12th- installation about refugee camps in Nablus (Palestine)
Thursday 15th – Quiz night 7:30pm
The squat has lost its case in court and may be evicted at the end of April so hurry on down!
To get uptodate info go to http://www.wombles.org.uk
Allan <allanednei [at] riseup [dot] net>
San Francisco: Squatters Demand Government Focus on Housing, not War
Leary of the chaos that consumed Market Street and much of downtown last year, at the dawn of Gulf War II, swarms of police wearing riot helmets and wielding billy clubs were prepared to contain Direct Action to Stop the War’s 7 a.m. gathering at Justin Herman Plaza and subsequent Bechtel Headquarters protest. But when a sub-group that had continued marching up Market turned onto Page Street, the police where caught off-guard. Occupied by keeping people on the sidewalks, distracted police were unable to prevent a group of about 25 squatters’ rights activists from storming through the entrance of an unoccupied building at 47 Page Street. The Autonomous Collective, a local anti-capitalist group, orchestrated the morning-long stand-off in order to draw attention to the affordable housing shortage and rampant homelessness that continue to plague San Francisco.
“Last night was the first time I slept in a bed in a month,” said Purple, a homeless youth, from inside the cavernous squat. “It’s really encouraging to see people unite to demand shelter, because this place is a lot better than Golden Gate Park. That crazy place is full of junkies who want to fight all the time. It’s not safe, plus if I can’t afford a place to sleep, how am I supposed to afford a ticket for sleeping outside?”
Squat “Pekarnia”
Squat “Pekarnia” still exists, but now with a new name “Klizma”
After the eviction of squat “Pekarnia” at 7th of November 2003 the house was empty and quiet for some time. Just after the eviction it seemed very possible that cops would kick out also the homeless people from the second floor and close the house. But after the eviction the cops left the house undisturbed, so the third floor was squatted again.
A few months squatters renovated the house again, built new heating systems etc, but anyway it still is fucking cold there, sometimes even colder that on the street. In spite of the temperature down to -20 degrees, the anarchist antifa-group “Punk Revival” hold their weekly meetings in the squat and other people also hang around there daily.
Grenoble, France: urgent call to support a tree-squatting action against the destruction of a park (in order to build a stadium)
Urgent call to support the resistance camp and tree-sit against the destruction of the Paul Mistral Park in Grenoble, France (Grenoble is a city in the east of France, near Lyon, in a river basin at the base of the Alps, which already has a big problem with pollution.)
BACKGROUND OF THE TREE-SIT:
Since November 3 2003, activists have been occupying the trees in Grenoble’s Paul Mistral Park, to prevent the destruction of part of the Park. More than 300 trees of Grenoble\222s “planetary lungs”, including and old, 200-year-old elm tree are slated to disappear, to make room for a giant football stadium. This elitist sports field and walking field represents one public space being privatized…
A protest campaign was launched by the \223SOS Paul Mistral Park\224 association, using lobbying and other traditional political procedures; this campaign was unable to prevent the project. Since it looked like work on the construction project was about to begin, three initial activists were quickly joined by more than twenty others in deciding to turn to direct action and to permanently occupy the terrain to stop the logging machines and bulldozers from coming in. About ten tree-houses, with mattresses and hammocks, living rooms and cooking spaces, linked by hanging bridges to a 20-foot-high platform, now make up a perpetually-evolving village above the ground.
London : Kitsch party at the Butt Plug Bar
***Please circulate widely***
The last instalment of the Butt Plug Bar will take place on Friday, the 23rd of January. Join us for a night of delicious queer entertainment, vegan food, cheap and glamorous bar and dancing till all hours.
Info: the butt plug bar is at the Chinaman squat, 52 Dalston Lane, Hackney, London E8. Doors open 8pm and close at 1am, but the party will go on till we all want to go home.
This time the theme is kitsch, camp and trashy glamour, with cabaret, performance and video projections. A dress-up corner will let us all glam up or down.
Squat action in Umeå, in the north of Sweden
At 31/12 the womens house is squatted in Umeå in north Sweden. The building is threatend with demolition. The police wanted to evict the place but a part of the squatters barricaded themselves in on the upper floor.
When the police returned next day the squatters first told them that they’d be gone the following day. However, the next day they decided to stay and put a note on the door for the police saying they consider the house theirs now. [Read More]
Paris: European Communist Parties vs. Squats, European Social Forum Actions
Here is an english translation of the Indymedia Paris article about communist parties evicting squats, which was originally published in French here.
European Communist Parties vs. Squats : European Social Forum Actions
When the various European Communist Parties evict squats: action in support of the Ernst Kirchweger House, the only large squatted social center in Vienna, and the “La Charade” squat in St.-Martin d’Hères, during the ESF.
[Read More]
Radar Online Agenda
