London: Lesnes will not be demolished

By: fawda - April 11th, 2024  Filed under: News

Residents are currently occupying a housing estate and are refusing to leave – marching on the council tonight

Residents from the Lesnes estate will protest at Bexley Council on Thursday 11 April evening to demand support in their campaign against Peabody’s planned demolition of their homes. It comes after residents and campaigners have occupied an empty house and appeal for supporters to join them to protect an estate made up of a lot of social housing.
Save Lesnes from demolition

Lesnes Estate residents and campaigners are occupying an empty home on the Lesnes Estate and are demanding that Peabody executive director and leader of the Thamesmead regeneration scheme, John Lewis, agrees to meet residents in person and listen to their demands:

That empty homes are opened up immediately.
That the entire estate is refurbished, not demolished. [Read More]

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

London: National Day of Housing, occupations at Southwark and Abbey Wood

By: fawda - July 11th, 2023  Filed under: Communique, News

On Saturday the 8th of July housing campaigns across the UK engaged in a series of decentralised actions under the slogan “Housing For Need Not Greed”. The actions of the Housing Rebellion, as it was called, were primarily focused around council estates facing the issue of “regeneration” (read: gentrification), but included neighbourhoods fighting their councils for green space, and putting the spotlight on the fact that the struggle for housing is inescapably tied to the issue of climate change.

Some of us, squatters from the local area, took part in the Southwark march that led us through the corpse of the Heygate Estate, now known as the beyond-hip Elephant Park, where we would be surprised to learn if any original resident of the estate has ever returned, or ever plans to. Southwark Notes has some great information on the displacement of residents despite promises of being able to return during initial consultations. 100 people marched, drums banging, voices raised, banners condemning the council and developers alike. Banners that went beyond a simple understanding of the situation of the Heygate or Aylesbury but to condemn a capitalist understanding of property and that hoped to spur into action those who see possibility beyond reform. In conjunction, the offices of Notting Hill Genesis were paintbombed and graffiti expressing righteous anger adorned the hoardings of the ongoing con(de)struction. [Read More]

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

“London 2016: the terrain of struggle in our city” – Aylesbury Estate and some seeds of resistance

By: dolph-l - January 1st, 2016  Filed under: essay

By Some London Foxes.

This is a small contribution towards mapping the terrain of social conflict in London today.

First, it identifies some big themes in how London is being reshaped, looking at: London’s key role as a “global hub” for international finance capital; how this feeds into patterns of power and development in the city; and the effect on the ground in terms of two kinds of “social cleansing” – cleaning out undesirable people, and sanitising the social environment that remains.

Second, it surveys recent resistance and rebellion to this pattern of control including the short-lived “grassroots housing movement” of last winter, the confrontational Aylesbury Estate occupation, anti-raids mini-riots, and some riotous street parties. [Read More]

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Their Law: The New Energies of UK Squats, Social Centres and Eviction Resistance in the Fight Against Expropriation

By: fawda - July 13th, 2015  Filed under: essay

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]

Tags: , , , , ,

London: Siege of Aylesbury estate security thugs against St James Square ANAL squat

By: dolph-l - April 12th, 2015  Filed under: News

The squatter crew Autonomous Nation of Anarchist Libertarians (A.N.A.L.) have occupied a number of high profile buildings in central London in recent weeks. These have included the former Institute of Directors (corporate fatcat club) HQ, Admiralty Arch (state power icon due to be turned into hotel), and now 24 St James’ Square, a flash office building on one of London’s most expensive squares, empty for ten years. They have been getting big picture splashes in corporate media rags like the Evening Standard and Daily Mail.

On Friday evening (10 April) the St James’ Sq squat came under siege by a mini-army of security guards. The heavies used similar tactics to those seen recently on the Aylesbury Estate and other squat clashes recently: unable to retake the building, they forcibly block entrances and exits to lock down the occupation, keeping out supporters and supplies. [Read More]

Tags: , , , , ,

London: Claim for attack on cop van on the Aylesbury Estate

By: dolph-l - April 6th, 2015  Filed under: Communique

A crack was formed in the prison wall during the eviction eve demo on 2nd April for Chiltern House, a building that has been occupied by squatters in solidarity with residents in the near abandoned Aylesbury estate, which is earmarked for demolition by Southwark council. A whole estate that is now surrounded by a wall & patrolled by private security* which is all part of the the forced but also self imposed prison society. As anarchists we see the Southwark council, just as our friends who are occupying the estate do, as part of the wave of gentrification that is sweeping vast parts of the capital urban hell, moulding the cityscape more to authoritarian control, pushing the excluded further to the outer reaches, out of sight, out of mind as they say! [Read More]

Tags: , , ,

Aylesbury Estate, London: Down with the fences

By: dolph-l - April 4th, 2015  Filed under: Communique

Several hundred people responded to our call-out for an “Eviction Eve solidarity demo”.

Solidarity with the remaining residents, who are still living in the enclosure (aka “First Development Site”), and will be for months to come.

For the past few weeks, the presence of the fences and security guards has made life intolerable for these people.

[Read More]

Tags: , ,

London: £140,000 Aylesbury Estate fence torn down

By: dolph-l - April 4th, 2015  Filed under: News

Today [April 2nd], a rabble of around 150 people tore down sections of the 8ft-tall spiked fence surrounding the Aylesbury occupation and other blocks of flats on the West of the estate (see video).

Today was also the day the court hearing for a possession order to evict the occupation. So predictable is the outcome of the legal process, that no-one bothered to pay Southwark Council’s third possession order any attention. Instead they opted for direct action.

The 700m ‘Aylesbury Alcatraz’ fence was hastily erected as a response to the successive occupations of three blocks of flats on the ‘First Development Site’. First in line to be demolished, this area is now largely depopulated. Yet the remaining tenants have been forced to live in the fortress-like conditions, with a large 24 hour security presence and long detours to a single gate in order to be let in and out. [Read More]

Tags: , , , ,

London: Aylesbury Occupations – 12 story block seized for homeless

By: freedom - March 16th, 2015  Filed under: News

March 15, 2015 – Rabble news

Yesterday (14 March) there was a “March for the Aylesbury” demo, called by “Southwark Defend Council Housing”. At 12 noon on a cold grey day, 150 plus people gathered in Burgess Park on the corner of Old Kent Road and Albany Road. We took the road and marched off through the Aylesbury, past the new yuppy developments springing up around the area, then along the busy Walworth road where there were lots of people out doing their shopping, taking leaflets, shouting greetings and honking horns and some joining in the march. [Read More]

Tags: ,

Aylesbury Estate (London): The Occupation Keeps on Moving!

By: sisulscz - March 5th, 2015  Filed under: Communique, News

Southwark Council now have an Interim Possession Order for 69-76 Chartridge on the Aylesbury Estate. It becomes illegal for anyone to ‘trespass’ in those eight flats after 14.55 tomorrow. The police may turn up at this time to enforce it.

We are now in occupation of the disused council offices at the base of Chiltern house on the corner of Albany Road and Portland Street (SE17). [Read More]

Tags: , , ,

London: Regeneration Is Violence

By: sisulscz - February 25th, 2015  Filed under: essay

Published on Southwark Notes Feb 21 with lots of images

How is it in London in 2015 that people who reside in public housing can be subject to such extremes of subtle and unsubtle violence? When we use the word violence what do we mean? Well for starters we mean the slow burning, long-term violence done to those who are being forced out of their homes in the name of ‘regeneration’ with it’s routine accompanying upheavals, anxieties, stresses and affects on physical and mental ill health.

[Read More]

Tags: , , , ,

London: Squat the lot (Aylesbury Estate)

By: sisulscz - February 23rd, 2015  Filed under: Communique

[Posted on their website Feb 20]

*We wondered where our wages went*

*We wasted most by paying rent*

*Since, we’ve learnt to change our lot*

*So now we’re living in a squat*
[Read More]

Tags: , ,