The Elephant & Castle social centre was evicted at 4am today. High Court bailiffs and cops kicked out about 20 squatters (some “in just their underwear” according to the gutter press).
The pub was squatted a month ago and has now been made an asset of community value so any change of use will need to be granted planning permission.
London: Elephant & Castle Social Centre evicted
Their Law: The New Energies of UK Squats, Social Centres and Eviction Resistance in the Fight Against Expropriation
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]
London: Elephant & Castle pub squatted
[From press] The Elephant & Castle pub at the corner of Newington Causeway and New Kent Road has been occupied by squatters.
[Read More]
London: Regeneration Is Violence
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.
Radar Online Agenda
