On May 29th, 2015, an eviction order was served to La Idea, a squatted social center near the Dimond District of Oakland. In two weeks, the Alameda County Sheriff will put the house on its list of upcoming evictions and will dispatch an armored personnel carrier and several armed men to the house to clear everyone out at gunpoint. In this regard, La Idea is not exceptional and thousands of people have been evicted in the same manner all over Oakland. It is simply the normal functioning of capitalism.
Paris: A JCDecaux van up in smoke in solidarity with Operation Piñata prisoners, Mónica and Francisco
In the early morning of May 27th, it smelt of burning by Télégraphe [metro station]. A JCDecaux van went up in smoke. They enrich themselves with the gentrification of cities and exploitation of convicts.
Solidarity with comrades imprisoned during the Operation Piñata in Spain. Solidarity with Mónica and Francisco.
[Translated by Squat!net from Nantes Indymedia]
USA: Anti-gentrfication direct action in Philadelphia and Oregon
Sabotage of OCF Gentrification in South Philly – April 28th
We wrecked the locks and windows of two empty OCF Realty properties near 20th and Reed in South Philadelphia. We did this because we are tired of living in a system that constructs houses for the rich, while poor and working class people get nothing but more police, more jails, more budget-cuts, more misery. Following the lead of the rebels of Ferguson and Baltimore, this is our small way of fighting back: causing economic damage to the property and capital of the rich. These tactics are not only possible, they are practical. We hope others join us in carrying out more actions over time.
The Radical Action Network [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: Sweets Way calls for support against evictions
Barnet Housing Action Group are a group campaigning around housing issues in The Borough of Barnet, North London. We have been working with the Our West Hendon campaign for the past year and have recently joined the Focus E15 Mums in occupying a house on the Sweets Way Estate in the North of the borough in protest against the evictions which have taken place there by Annington Homes Ltd, the owners of the houses and land.
West Hendon is a council estate alongside a reservoir and conservation area known as ‘the Welsh Harp’. The estate comprises of a mix of 650 properties some secure tenancies, some private, some temporary non-secure tenants and also leaseholders. All of these homes are going to be bulldozed and replaced with 2000 luxury apartments – 214 of which – the non luxury of course – will be council flats.
[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.
London: Southwark Council smashing up homes
This is a video someone made on Thursday evening (5 February) when the police and Southwark Council came and smashed up 8 homes and welded them up to prevent the occupation spreading.
You can hear loud banging and breaking of glass inside the flats that are blocked off by police. This is them smashing the toilets and sinks, and the windows, to make the homes uninhabitable. Here is a picture of a bathroom after being smashed by the council.
There are around 18,000 people on the Southwark council housing waiting list. [Read More]
London: Aylesbury Estate Occupation – Statement of support for our occupation from local tenants and leaseholder groups
Southwark Council, a bunch of Labour party career crooks who disregard their tenants’ clear wishes and smash up empty homes on a cold winter’s night, claims that our occupation has no support from residents. The reality is there is real strong solidarity between occupiers and long-time residents, as we saw last night when dozens of people turned out to help defend the buildings under attack.
Today a number of local residents’ groups have emphasised the point with the statement below.
Message for Southwark Council: your cowardly attack last night helped bring us together and make us even stronger!
Tenants, leaseholders, squatters, homeless people … wherever we stand on the sick “housing ladder”, we are coming together and fighting. Stop social cleansing of our city. Homes for all. Solidarity.
Statement on the occupation and housing action on Aylesbury Estate ( Friday 6th February):
Numerous Southwark housing campaigns and other local activists warmly welcome the ongoing occupation of a number of empty homes on the Aylesbury Estate. The current occupation of Chartridge block on the Aylesbury Estate has brought a much-needed spark of inspiration to local residents and housing campaigners. [Read More]
London: Aylesbury Estate empty flats revitalised
Aylesbury Estate Occupation: 77 – 105 Chartridge, Westmoreland Road, SE17. Map here.
You probably heard but people have opened up a few of the decanted and empty flats in Chartridge House on Aylesbury Estate in Walworth. The occupation came at the end of the March for Homes on Saturday 31st January which ended at City Hall at Tower Bridge. About 150 people marched back to the Aylesbury and helped support the flats that had been opened up earlier on. Right now (Monday night), the occupiers have released a statement of why they are doing this and have set up a website to keep people informed.
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]
Radar Online Agenda
