Manchester: Persons Unknown Festival blasts back into action

By: sisulscz - May 20th, 2022  Filed under: Communique

From May 13th to 16th the Persons Unknown Festival returned, after a three-year break, to the same venue used for its inauguration back in 2019. For three days the disused swimming baths and leisure centre in Chorlton, Manchester, was transformed once again into a hub of art, activity and anarchism that is rapidly rising to become a serious contender to take Temporary Autonomous Arts‘ crown as the most ambitious event in the UK squat scene calendar.

PuF was facilitated by the Manchester squat community and ran in partnership with grassroots activist organisations from across the country, with the aim to support and promote a diverse range of campaigns through workshops, art, and live music.
[Read More]

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Manchester, UK: Persons Unknown Festival

By: sisulscz - April 20th, 2022  Filed under: Communique

Please share and invite friends! And get in touch if you are interested 😜! [link in image]

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Manchester: Winter Shelter update

By: sisulscz - December 26th, 2020  Filed under: Communique

Well, time to check in with you all.

As you have probably gathered there is no shelter this winter. It became an impossible situation. We are continuing to distribute clothing etc to Outreach, and recently furniture and household goods to 1st Homer’s. Bless all involved and it’s been lovely to meet you. X

We kitted out the squat lot with fridge freezer, beds, bedding, pots, pans, plates, cups, food, dog beds and blankets, clothing, towels, toiletries, everything to give them a good start.

Hopefully they will remain safe from eviction for the winter. It was not possible to engage further with them. We hope they get the help they so obviously need.

MERRY CHRISTMAS ❤
Manchester Winter Shelter

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Manchester: New shelter squatted

By: sisulscz - December 24th, 2019  Filed under: Announcement, Communique

Update from Manchester Winter Shelter: We have secured a new space that we hope to keep over the xmas period. We are now open for homeless folk.

If you are part of a homeless organisation/ outreach or hosting a xmas dinner please point people with no where to stay to us if they need it. We need people with cars who are available to collect people. Please message us if this is something you’re able to help with.

*We are still not able to take any donations due to the huge amount we have recieved*
Many, many thanks.
[Read More]

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Manchester: Winter Shelter

By: sisulscz - December 19th, 2019  Filed under: Communique

In Manchester, a squatted winter shelter has been set up for the Xmas period. Organising on Facebook under the name ‘Manchester Winter Shelter’ the project is now on its second building having lost the first one in court on Tuesday (17th) but that’s not stopping them!
[Read More]

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London: Squatter’s Digest, to our friends, and former room-mates

By: fawda - September 2nd, 2019  Filed under: News

Summer is waning, holidays have been had, and so we all go back to the grindstone — and by grindstone I mean opening new squats. So let’s start by taking a look at who needs to open a new building.

Location, Location, Location (That’s A Squat Crew Moving Thrice In A Month)

In London, the Church, home to an endless number of benefit parties over the last year, finally met its demise at the hands of the bailiffs just a few weeks ago, leaving a particular void in terms of readily-available squats that are able to host such events (of course it does not escape me how a building can be fairly easily opened just a couple of days in advance of such festivities, but it does entail a whole lot more work). All and sundry are invited to fill this gap, such things are needed as at least one planned fundraiser was scuppered by this eviction.

In a similar area of south-east London, the Charity Shop squat on Deptford High St was re-opened temporarily. Used previously to great effect by the previous crew to organise local action in the neighbourhood, unfortunately the new crew have not been given much time as the owner seems to have gotten his shit together and gone immediately for an Interim Possession Order. [Read More]

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London: Squatter’s Digest, Festivals and Frontlines

By: fawda - June 23rd, 2019  Filed under: News

As the riot police continued to batter the last of our barricades, blasting through the structural brickwork of the back entrance to our squat I knew it was time to go. I tried to lug my bookshelf down the stairs to safety, but sadly was forced to leave it behind as I was dragged past the lines of helmets and shields to await my fate in the outside world. Sorry for the delay, but welcome back to Squatter’s Digest. Stick around as I try to rattle off all the comings and goings in the squat world over the last couple of months.

So we were finally evicted from our squat in East London, overwhelmed by the riot squad, local bobbies, and high court bailiffs. Two of our number were arrested, although have since been released. In the words of the rossers themselves “apparently it’s okay to assault the police these days” (you can taste the bitter sarcasm with which such words were offered). It may be just coincidence, but it does feel like there has been a push by councils in east London (particularly Newham and Tower Hamlets) to rid the borough of squats. In fact at the time of writing there were no less than four squats either going through court or due to be evicted in the week. [Read More]

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London: Squatter’s Digest: Grow Heathrow halved, ciao to Asilo

By: fawda - February 28th, 2019  Filed under: News

I do have a pretty good excuse for being a little late in writing this month’s column, namely being arrested and remanded for a squatting-related offence (of which I am not guilty for the record, as I will be testifying at trial later in the year).
At least I’m not all talk and no walk huh.

A couple of nights in the cells isn’t so bad though – let’s start this round-up with some hard-hitting news from abroad. The Fraguas case in Spain. For those not aware of the situation, since 2013 a group of squatters calling themselves the Association of Rural Repopulation of Sierra Norte, more commonly Fraguas Revive, occupied an abandoned village in Guadalajara near Madrid. The intention was to breathe life back into the village that was left empty since the expropriation by the Franco regime, and to provide space for people to imagine and act out utopias of the future through self-organisation and sustainability. [Read More]

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London: Squatter’s Digest: That’s a wrap

By: fawda - December 15th, 2018  Filed under: News

Welcome to the second, and final edition of Squatters Digest (for 2018). You made it, faithful readers.

In a shock headline, squatting in the UK continues. Evictions still take place every month, but due to the huge number of empty properties in the country, people are still finding ways to self-house. These properties sit vacant while people struggle with rents, and with capitalism. Sometimes people die, and still these buildings remain empty. As the temperatures look to drop below zero in the next couple of days, and I sit here with a horrible cold, I am reminded that it is coming up 6 years since the death of Daniel Gauntlett, a man who froze to death outside a building in Kent, too afraid to enter for fear of being prosecuted for the crime of squatting in a residential building, the infamous Section 144 LASPO law brought in back in 2012 that so many people with an interest in squatting will know all too well. [Read More]

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UK: ‘Be the change you wish to see’ – Manchester’s squatters are doing just that

By: fawda - January 29th, 2018  Filed under: News, video

The idea that ownership breeds value is essentially true. However, it is not true in the Thatcherite sense, where ownership is the means to the end of an individualistic anti-society. It is true if you develop an area which’s express purpose is to be the collective property of those who inhabit it or utilise it, then you create a system of value and engagement you cannot achieve through a space engineered to profit from its visitors.

The examples of The Addy and The Wonder How They Got Inn (formerly The Wonder Inn) highlight the increasing need for autonomous community spaces in a city which has suffered greatly from the degradation, defunding and closure of public services. Precisely because of this there is a need for community-owned spaces not under the auspices of local government or private ownership in the main because these institutions are transient. While the state is capable of good governance in providing a range of services for its people, the reality of the situation we find ourselves in currently demands a different, more active attitude. [Read More]

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Manchester: Cornerhouse 2 evicted

By: sisulscz - January 17th, 2018  Filed under: Communique

At 4am this morning [jan15], police and bailiffs raided and evicted the Town Hall squat, the Corner House 2. At that time, there were 10 people living in the squat, and a further 10 rough sleepers sheltering in their night shelter. All these individuals have now been made homeless again, down the to actions of the police and bailiffs. [Read More]

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Manchester: Lessons of Cornerhouse

By: fawda - November 21st, 2017  Filed under: Communique, News

The Cornerhouse is a former theatre in Manchester squatted from January to August 2017 by self-organised homeless people linked to the Manchester Activist Network. This is their story.

As the final pieces of our belongings, donations and clothes were brought out of the infamous Cornerhouse it was time for Manchester Activist Network to reflect back on six months of occupation. From the Loose Space festival and surviving three eviction attempts, to the rough sleepers we housed and three other squats opened over that time, this had been a busy, and at times stressful but productive period that none of us will ever forget.

The biggest thing that came out of the Cornerhouse was a reaffirmation of the need for solidarity when we are faced with big issues. In order to fully tackle rough sleeping and stop the rise in homelessness we all need to be prepared to give a little of ourselves. Not money, but from inside of us. We need constructive dialogues, we need to drop the egos, forget about the “company line,” reflect on what we put our energies into and how we can change as individuals. Only then can we better the systemic problem that is homelessness. [Read More]

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