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]
Aylesbury Estate, London: Down with the fences
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.
London: £140,000 Aylesbury Estate fence torn down
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]
Philadelphia, USA: Attack on real estate firm car
We noticed an OCF Realty car parked in a gentrifying neighborhood in West Philadelphia. OCF Realty is actively furthering gentrification in multiple neighborhoods and has been the target of anti-gentrification actions in the past.
We went out one night last week and slashed two of the car’s tires. This took under two minutes.
Slashing tires is a fast and easy way to cause damage to our enemies and create a small disruption in the timeline of gentrification. This will go quickly with a sharp knife stabbed with some pressure into the wall of the tire. Expect a loud, short hiss once the tire is punctured. [Read More]
Besançon, France: Developers repainted against gentrification
Between Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th March 2015, the offices of the property developers SMCI – Pierre&Vie, located on Gambetta street, were stained with black paint.
This is a small response to the disgusting activity in recent years of SMCI in Besançon. With the many projects destined to attract investors and the bourgeois, SMCI is an ideal target for anyone wanting to resist gentrification of working-class neighbourhoods. [Read More]
Lille, France: Paint attacks against gentrification and evictions
On the night of 23th-24th [March] we attacked suddenly with paint the front of the Mayor’s office, the gendarmerie [military police], the formerly occupied Mangouste and the house of hip-hop. We chose these targets to oppose the ‘regeneration’ of poor neighbourhoods and the city policy that evicts the poor, to make these neighbourhoods more profitable for developers.
Le Chti d’Arras, a former event space for several years and of illegally occupied existence (in particular where concerts and other hip-hop events took place) saw itself evicted and replaced by “the house of hip-hop” or “European Centre for Urban Culture”. A good way for the Mayor to recuperate what was already being done without her, to relieve her of all that was subversively done there, and to instead make a commercial-cultural product. [Read More]
London: Statement from Aylesbury Estate Occupation
Since the “March for Homes” demo on 31st January, we have re-opened and occupied a part of the Aylesbury Estate in Southwark, South London.
We are tenants, squatters, and other people who care about how our city is being grabbed by the rich, by developers and corrupt politicians, socially cleansed and sold off for profit.
The Aylesbury Estate is where Tony Blair made his first speech as Prime Minister in 1997, making empty promises about social housing. Since then, for the past 18 years, Southwark Council and their developer friends have come up with one scheme after another. All with the same aim: to dispossess the residents, demolish their homes, and sell the land.
In 2002 Aylesbury tenants fought and won a campaign against demolition and voted down the original scheme in a ballot. But now big areas of the estate are emptied and sealed up awaiting the bulldozers, while residents are “decanted” away from the area.
The same bullshit that we have seen on the nearby Heygate estate, and all across London. [Read More]
London: Aylesbury Estate Occupied
Message from the occupiers: “We are occupying part of the aylesbury estate se1 resisting social cleansing. Join us. Neighbourhood Assembly 3 pm tomorrow sunday. Charteridge house off albany rd.”
Yesterday (Saturday 31 Jan) after the March for Homes demo, a 100-200 strong “squatters bloc” broke off from the main rally and headed South to occupy the Aylesbury Estate in Southwark, South London. Houses on the Charteridge House bloc have been opened and were occupied overnight.
The occupiers are holding an assembly this afternoon and ask for neighbours, squatters, and everyone who wants to, to join them. There are homes here for hundreds, lying empty because of the greed of developers and bribed politicians.
The Aylesbury Estate is one of the largest “social housing”complexes in Europe. It was built in the 1960s-70s with 2700 homes. Because it sits on prime inner London real estate, it is being socially cleansed of its working class inhabitants, in a saga that has gone on for over 15 years now. In 1997, genocidal scumbag Tony Blair came here to make his first speech as prime shitster, promising to invest millions to gentrify the area. But in 2001 tenants campaigned and voted against the first plan to sell the estate to a “charitable” private housing association. [Read More]
Canary Islands: Sabotage & painted slogans in solidarity with the prisoners of Operation Pandora
[Other Pandora solidarity actions in Leipzig, Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris and San Francisco]
In support of our anarchist and feminist compañeras detained recently as part of the so-called “Pandora case”, and making clear our revulsion at this murderous capitalist and heteropatriarchal system, on the 30th of December 2014 from the colony of the Canary Islands we carried out actions of sabotage against ATMs and painted some graffiti in solidarity with the accused. [Read More]
Leipzig: Deutsche Bank stoned in solidarity with anarchists arrested in Operation Pandora
In solidarity with anarchists arrested in Spain, we wrecked the Deutsche Bank branch in Leipzig.
On the 16th December 2014 in Spain, different police forces conducted coordinated raids in 12 apartments, resulting in 11 anarchists arrested. One of the pretexts for why the raids took place was that the accused had destroyed cashpoints. [Read More]
Milan, Italy: Corvetto eviction of the Corvaccio Squat and clashes against eviction and police
Riots are back in the town! Violent clashes erupted in 2 different popular suburbs ”Giambellino” and “Corvetto” against eviction and police militarization (and by Carabinieri too).
On Monday [17th November], in Giambellino eviction of 2 families from flats. Many people has joined the barricades from the popular houses of the area: barricades, clashes, teargas (head height), cops and people injured, cops run to beat people too!
2 people of the neighbourhood were imprisoned (now free!). After this, demonstration of all people started then (in heavy rain) in the suburb of Giambellino. [Read More]
Montreal (Canada): vandalism against gentrification
For several years, the St. Henri neighbourhood has been undergoing many changes: a walk along any part of rue Notre Dame will bring you face to face with the new foodie restaurants, high-end boutiques, art galleries, and “drinkeries” catering to the residents of all the canal-side condos, replacing the dollar stores and flea markets.
Although gentrification of a neighbourhood is more than just new businesses and nice-looking storefronts, we decided to render some of our disgust with gentrification by vandalizing two such examples with fire extinguishers filled with paint. [Read More]
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