Bristol: Squat Repression

By: fawda - June 6th, 2021  Filed under: News

This is a statement from some squatters in Bristol, who had 4 squats, including 40a Space, Salvation Army mutual aid/social centres and Wonky Arrow Books, a radical library.


In the past days, we’ve had our buildings forcibly closed with anti-social behaviour orders, and we’ve been raided by hundreds of riot police. We’ve been beaten, pepper-sprayed, arrested, and sectioned.

This is an escalation– it hasn’t been like this in the UK in years. Not that this is new. No, we see this as part of a long and brutal history of the repression of marginalised communities, and anyone who shows resistance or alternatives.

The police and state media will try and paint this as the result of us being ‘anti-social’ – but isn’t it the police who hurt and intimidate us? Who break down the doors; who criminalize and target poor people, people of colour, travelling communities, people who live differently? It is the state and the police that are truly anti-social, at the core of the troubles we face in our lives.

This is an attempt to intimidate us, to repress mobilization in Bristol (especially around Kill the Bill) and to break down a community that is challenging the police and what they represent. We know that real community makes police obsolete.

Against police repression, in defence of squats and social centres everywhere, and in solidarity with all prisoners and those targeted by the state! [Read More]

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Bristol: ‘Burn Baby Burn!’

By: fawda - March 22nd, 2021  Filed under: Communique, News

The chant goes up into the air as the flames of the cop van rise higher and higher, burning away a pressure that has been building for far too long.
The cop station’s windows are kicked in to the roaring joy of the crowd, its raining rocks from above on the riot cops from youths who’ve occupied part of its roof. Repeated attacks on the cop lines are visibly putting the fear into them. Bottles rain down on the cop dog unit’s failed attempt to assault the mob from behind. Riot shields and batons liberated from the cops are used to fight back, a piece of their own medicine. Others are caring for people sprayed with mace, while sound systems ring out. Another cop car is burning round the corner, this is like nothing we have seen before…

This is the scene in Bristol in 2021, 10 years since the Stokes Croft & August riots in 2011. The riot that erupted last night was a continuation of our combative memories, but from seeing so many new young uncontrollables it is the beginning of a new wave. Nothing much has changed on this prison island since 2011, if anything the conditions that led to those days are still with us, more repressive than ever. We’re being pushed over the edge, as the system of control demands either lick the boot or have our way of life extinguished. [Read More]

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Bristol: Overkill on Gloucester Road, occupation evicted

By: fawda - March 11th, 2021  Filed under: News

A massive bailiff operation backed by police ended the occupation of a landmark building in Bristol yesterday after two months of operation.

The former Randstad office on Gloucester Road was raided after the Pigeonshit Collective dropped a large public banner and announced the space was to be used as a mutual aid centre, to help people left in difficulties by the long series of Covid crises and lockdowns.

Sixteen riot vans disgorged dozens of police at the eviction, which saw large crowds of locals turn out in support of the project, though they were ultimately unable to turn the bailiffs away as the building was secured for the owners, who had left it to rot for the previous seven years. [Read More]

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Bristol: Gloucester Road centre evicted

By: sisulscz - March 11th, 2021  Filed under: Communique

Today police in Bristol have violently evicted a squatted social centre, making some occupants homeless and subjecting everyone to risk of covid-19, all in the name of building more luxury flats on Gloucester Rd. And the pigs here very much standing on guard for the bailiffs as they try to clear a building that had been empty for years and was serving as homeless accommodation. #ACAB #ABAB

…

We arrived in the morning watching the gradual police build-up and joining the outstanding resistance to this illegal eviction. Some of us returned in the afternoon to show support and solidarity.16 riot vans, at least 6 area cars,and endless police. Disproportionate response.

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Government: ‘There will be no evictions during the pandemic’. Meanwhile on Gloucester Rd in Bristol, dozens of cops, many in riot gear, are evicting a social centre that has been home to many.
[Read More]

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Bristol: Picton Lane site resists eviction

By: fawda - November 11th, 2020  Filed under: News

Last week Freedom reported that the Picton Lane site in Bristol was facing eviction after having been given a notice to leave. The notice was not a court order and was delivered only a day into the lockdown 2.0. Picton Lane site is a home to a number travellers & friends.

The current government lockdown guidelines state that evictions mustn’t happen unless it is a case of “emergency”. There is no emergency on Picton Lane: the owner of the site has been applying, unsuccessfully, for a planning permission since 2017, and the decision to evict people from here during the covid pandemic is more than inexplicable.

Below, we publish a short report from Picton Lane residents, who resisted the illegal eviction attempt with the support from others.

Awake most of the night, we were pleasantly surprised to see supporters begin arriving as early as 5am. However, the bailiffs were not so keen. Even police reacted quicker, with a few officers coming down at around 7.10am. [Read More]

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Bristol: urgent call for support to resist site eviction

By: fawda - November 8th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

Freedom received the following call-out from the people living in the Picton Lane site in Bristol. If you are able, support them tomorrow, 9th November, in resisting illegal eviction. Pass it on.
We are a group of travellers & friends currently residing on a site in Picton Lane, Montpelier, Bristol, in caravans. Just one day into the second lockdown, we were given a notice to leave by tomorrow morning, 7am by Andrew Wilson & Co bailiffs. The notice was NOT a court order and even included a spelling mistake.
The owner of the land we are on has been applying for permission to build apartment & offices there for years, with applications going back to 2017. We are sure these would not be affordable flats and locals oppose them. All of these applications have been rejected. The land has been staying empty for years, excluding another group of vehicle dwellers who were evicted about 18 months ago.
The current government lockdown guidelines state that evictions mustn’t happen unless it is a case of “emergency”. We don’t think this situation is an emergency at all. No planning permission has been accepted and we have just started a second lockdown. Criminal cases fall under “emergency” in these guidelines, however, this is a civil matter.
We seek support on the day, 7am and earlier, as we expect the bailiffs to be aggressive. We feel we must resist and that our demands should be met: 1. To have contact with the owner 2. To be allowed to remain until the end of lockdown and 3. If an eviction must happen, we want it to be done via proper means aka via a court order. [Read More]

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UK: Notes for New Squatters

By: fawda - August 24th, 2020  Filed under: News

The government’s U-turn on evictions is merely a temporary reprieve — and today Freedom is publishing this newly updated Advisory Service for Squatters guide, which will only get more relevant as the year wears on.

Squatting means occupying empty buildings, or land, without permission. Normally, it means homeless people finding somewhere to live, for a while at least, but what people do with the space they occupy is up to them. The following is a very basic guide. For more information or if you have any problems contact the Advisory Service for Squatters (ASS).

Non-residential squatting is still legal

Squatting in non-residential buildings, or where there has been an agreement, is still a civil matter. To resolve it the owner has to take you to court. The owners have legal ways and procedures to have squatters evicted and cannot legally use force or threats. Section 6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977 makes it an offence to force entry to a building which is occupied, and this includes squats. This will no longer help against the police if they are enforcing the new law against squatters in residential properties, but is otherwise still valid. This is explained in the Legal Warnings, which squatters have either on display or ready to show people. [Read More]

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Bristol: Glenfrome Road eviction resistance report

By: fawda - June 16th, 2020  Filed under: News

This is a report from participants in the successful eviction resistance in Bristol on 13th June.

Soon after 6 in the morning around 30 bailiffs from GRC turned up at a site in St Werburgh’s with a JCB to do the dirty work of making people homeless. The people squatting the land and over 100 friends and supporters had other ideas. Here’s how it went.

Now as we all know, all bailiffs are total scum, but GRC bailiffs have a reputation for being the worst of the worst. They have repeatedly shown how they enjoy hurting people and mixing work with pleasure. There are undoubtedly far right thugs in their ranks, enthusiastically honouring the age old tradition of fascists doing the dirty work for the bosses and landlords.

On the other side stood people who had found their housing solution, living in vans and trucks on a large piece of disused land which had been empty for a decade or so. Travellers and van dwellers need safe sites and self organised housing makes even more sense during a pandemic. You’d think the same would be true of not evicting people during a dangerous virus outbreak, but when has what’s right ever mattered for the rule of property and the law that protects it? [Read More]

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London: Squatter’s Digest, Greece

By: fawda - July 30th, 2019  Filed under: News

Greece, the home of democracy. And molotov cocktails. They also enjoy regular cocktail nights to raise money for the squats and imprisoned anarchists. It’s one thing to know what is going on inside the UK with regards to squats, but I feel we are severely lacking in communication with squats across Europe, or indeed the world. Hopefully I can bring to you some of the news from some of the squats in Greece along with the usual round-up of news from London and beyond.

Setting The Scene

A quick explanation of how the law works in Greece, from a meeting I had with a lawyer personally involved in one of the local neighbourhood squats. Unlike in the UK, squatting is a criminal rather than civil matter. It is based around a few points in the penal code, such as breaching someone’s right to asylum in their own house, or disturbing the community. However the police cannot act unless a complaint is made by the owner to the state prosecutor, who then instructs the police to enforce it. For public buildings there is a bit of a loophole in the penal code dating back to 1938, and a lot of squats in Greece fall into a kind of “hybrid” category, meaning the prosecutor is less likely to take action unless pushed by the local government. However as of the 1st of July this year, the penalties have gone up in accordance with the introduction of a new penal code. What were simple misdemeanours for resisting can now be classified as heavier breaches of law, and can see a jail-term of 3 years, up from the previous maximum of 1 year. Interestingly this was introduced at the same time as the reduction of a lot of other penalties, prompting outrage from other parties. In any case this was the doing of Syriza, and with the election on July 7th, the conservative New Democracy is back in power, so things can be expected to only get worse (more on this later). [Read More]

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UK: The social centres roundup

By: fawda - September 23rd, 2017  Filed under: News

For all its small size and general impoverishment the libertarian socialist movement actually runs a surprisingly large amount of real estate around Britain, all on non-hierarchical lines, by and for the people of the cities and towns we’re in. Housing co-ops, bookshops, bike collectives, archives, distros, printers and the like are all part of the collective mix. Below, Freedom News briefly rounds up some goings-on at 15 radical social centres and spaces over the last few months. [Read More]

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UK: Bristol Council and Camelot on back foot as property guardians fight for rights

By: fawda - January 24th, 2017  Filed under: News, video

Rat_infestationBristol Council’s decision to dive into the property guardianship game seems to be coming a cropper as several “guardians” have launched legal and direct action challenges demanding something be done about rat-infested and dangerous tenancies in its buildings.
Having closed public services across the city, the council has found itself flush with empty commercial and office properties, which it decided to make a few pennies on by jumping into bed with Camelot property management in 2013. The firm, along with another company Ad Hoc, now rents out much of its portfolio.

Camelot specialises in the gray-area rentals market of property guardianship, getting hard-up people needing a home to fork out anything up to £500 a month, plus deposit of £500-600, to stay in empty non-residential properties with few rights and eviction at a month’s notice. The firm has repeatedly been condemned as trying on dodgy practices, including initially only offering three weeks’ notice (breaching minimum guidelines) and using “pseudo-legal gibberish” to intimidate people they want out. [Read More]

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Bristol: Direct Action against Estate Agents

By: sisulscz - September 1st, 2015  Filed under: Communique

Award giving in recognition of services to landlords and their rights. We proudly presented bricks through windows of CJA estate agents in Southville on the night of 31st August. All windows smashed and the international squatter symbol painted on their wall. Because despite the ban on squatting houses everyone should have a decent home.
[Read More]

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