London: Practical Squatters Evening at a local squat!

By: fawda - August 14th, 2024  Filed under: News

By squatters for squatters!

Join us for evenings of practical squatting knowledge, skillshares, and meeting squatters new and old. Whether you’re looking to join a crew, looking for more people to join your crew, or just coming along to skill up, we hope that Practical Squatters Evenings can provide something for everyone, and bring together people in the squat scene in London.

After a recent meeting, the Practical Squatters Network has decided on some changes to make the network and monthly sessions more useful to people looking to know more about squatting or to share and improve their skills in many of the aspects of squatting life.

The Practical Squatters Network has been operating for countless years running regular sessions to introduce people to squatting, and to help those already squatting to meet others and share skills. The frequency of meetups along with the content has changed over years according to the changing landscape of squatting in the UK, but currently runs once a month on the 3rd Monday. It fluctuates between being hosted at Decentre, above Freedom Bookshop, and on alternate months in a local squat. [Read More]

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London: “Why we squatted Gordon Ramsay’s pub”

By: sisulscz - April 15th, 2024  Filed under: Announcement, News
chairs and tables inside squat

Freedom News received this statement from the Camden Art Cafe squatters who have liberated Gordon Ramsay’s York and Albany Hotel restaurant in Camden, London:

We are occupying the York and Albany Hotel in Camden as the collective Camden Art Cafe. We aim to open our doors regularly to anyone and everyone, particularly the people of Camden who have been victims of gentrification and parasitic projects like HS2 [squat!net Stop HS2 archives]. We provide free food, drinks, and a space to display their art without the ridiculous red-tape galleries that require people to jump over. We believe all of us and our art deserves dignity.
[Read More]

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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]

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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]

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London: The Met shows its true nature…yet again

By: fawda - June 26th, 2023  Filed under: News

The Metropolitan Police deployed its riot cops recently in a disturbing show of force. A group of homeless people calling themselves the Autonomous Winter Shelter (AWS) occupied the disused Sisters of Mercy convent in Shadwell, Tower Hamlets, London in November 2022.

The owner sent a complaint to the Met in December. They subsequently carried out an investigation. In April 2023 they sent a letter to the squatters requesting that they leave the building.

They then visited the site on many occasions but were denied entry. Forty people were living at the ex-convent.

On June 1st they showed up in force with a large number of cops in riot gear. 29 people were dragged out of the building, with no time to collect their belongings, whilst others fled when they saw the riot cops. A crowd which gathered in support were threatened with raised batons by the riot thugs. [Read More]

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London: Violent eviction of Autonomous Winter Shelter

By: fawda - June 10th, 2023  Filed under: Communique, News

Statement from the Autonomous Winter Shelter crew:

Following the violent eviction on 1st June 2023 by the Metropolitan Police, the Autonomous Winter Shelter collective, based in Shadwell, is taking a break from its public-facing activities after an incredibly busy seven months. We are all dealing with the consequences of this eviction differently, and some of us need time to recover both physically and mentally.

We are enormously grateful to everyone who was also a part of the project, supporting and defending it. There will be new, unseen opportunities to continue our work, and at the very least, to support people close to us, who we’ve met along the way. Everybody evicted has already been rehoused or found alternative accommodation. We need to keep showing up for each other when faced with the devastating consequences of inequality and injustice. As long as buildings lie empty and people require shelter, the need for all of us to take autonomy over our living situation will remain. [Read More]

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London: The Autonomous Cafe & Bookshop returns

By: sisulscz - December 16th, 2022  Filed under: Communique

The Autonomous Cafe & Bookshop is re-opening this Wednesday [Dec 14] at 88 Hardinge Street, Shadwell. It will continue to provide liberated coffee and food on a pay-what-you-can basis, and serve as a warm bank for the increasing numbers of people unable to access heating. Doors will open from 2pm, and there will be an open mic from 6pm onward, with all funds raised shared among those working at the cafe, and used to contribute to the project.

“People are fucking dying. In times of crisis, environmental, economic or otherwise, there’s a choice to be made. We reject the servile passivity which brought us to this point. We hope you’ll join us in doing the same, in expressing your own solidarity and resilience.
[Read More]

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London: autonomous bookshop & cafe to open on Westminster Bridge Road

By: fawda - November 9th, 2022  Filed under: News

[update: court case Autonomous Cafe & Bookshop on november 25th]

Winter is coming, and that means the autonomous shelter season is upon us once again. Last year a St. Mungo’s hostel in Gray’s Inn Road was occupied from December to April, before exploding into a small network of interlinked shelters across Central and East London. The Autonomous Shelters Network is already back in action in solidarity with the houseless community at an undisclosed number of locations across the city.

This Wednesday will see the opening of the Autonomous Cafe & Bookshop in a former ‘necropolis station’ at 121 Westminster Bridge Road as part of the Autonomous Winter Shelter Network. It will be serving liberated coffee for pay-what-you-can from 2pm, with an open mike from 6 till 8pm. All money raised will be profitshared amongst people working in the cafe, or donated to helping finance the project. [Read More]

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London: Settling into area 51!

By: sisulscz - October 24th, 2022  Filed under: Communique

Monday and Tuesday have been spent tentatively awaiting first contact which still hasn’t happened and slowly but surely we’re setting up some basic infrastructure like a kitchen area and a tool area!

Before getting in here we made a compass for this place and sanctuary was one of the main ideas that it started pointing to. It’s hard to move at this slower pace and it often hard to move at this tempo, consciously slowing things down.
[Read More]

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London: “Fuck the bosses:” evictions exceeded by new occupations by Autonomous Shelter Network

By: fawda - April 15th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

The eviction of the winter shelter on Gray’s Inn Road on April 7th and 2 other longer-lasting squats in London have lead to approximately 5 more locations being opened and brought back into use by houseless and precarious persons to provide food, clothes and shelter within our community. The disused buildings were occupied and activated by mixed collectives of former rough sleepers, anarchists from the NFA Queer Punx, Amsterdam-based Anarcha-Feminist Group, and members of Resist Anti-Trespass.

The buildings form part of the Autonomous Shelter Network – a mutual aid, mutual respect association dedicated to direct housing and the provision of food and necessities. It is an affiliation of non-hierarchical, horizontally organised groups that are self-organised by community members without the state, business or charities. The locations and exact number of residences has not been disclosed to protect the residents privacy. The shelters are self-organised by residents who determine set and organisational style amongst themselves, with one shelter’s motto being “fuck the bosses”. [Read More]

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London: “Don’t worry, we’re autonomous”. Winter shelter evicted

By: fawda - April 7th, 2022  Filed under: Communique, News

Around 30 people have been evicted from an autonomously organised shelter in North London. At 9am on Thursday 7th April agents of the National Eviction Team and notorious eviction magnate Andrew Marsh, smashed their way through barricades to enforce a High Court writ despite repeated attempts by the occupiers to enter into dialogue with the property’s owners, OneHousing, to negotiate a peaceful and orderly handover.

The former St. Mungo’s hostel on Grey’s Inn Road has housed a community of vulnerable adults since it was squatted in December last year, including a woman six months pregnant with twins and many people who the care system has categorically failed to support through the winter. The eviction comes only days after the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol for London was activated, with freezing temperatures predicted for later in the week. There are no planning permission requests logged with Camden council for the property, and it will now most likely remain empty until its inevitable conversion into unaffordable housing. [Read More]

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London: Autonomous Winter Shelter evicted

By: sisulscz - April 7th, 2022  Filed under: Announcement

The Autonomous Winter Shelter [previously on S!N] was evicted April 7.

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