London: Police Station is squatted! Join the resistance!

By: fawda - February 13th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

London squatters are organising an anarchist social centre in a notorious secure police station in central London. It is leading to a week of action for GAF, Green Anti-capitalist Front, from 24th February to 2nd March. Come and help with this once-in-a-generation opportunity to perfect barricading and organise towards the COP26 and more! We look forward to welcoming you to this liberated space for global resistance in a centre of international capitalism.

Green Radical Anticapitalist Social Space (GRASS) in Paddington

Was nice to meet Oli (and Rich!) from JOE.co.uk the other day! The GRASS (Green Radical Anticapitalist Social Space) was originally formulated as the result of a public assembly to come up with ideas to tackle capitalism in ways that not only ‘stick it to the man’, but demonstrate that it’s entirely practical and possible to build a new society. A society based on fairness, compassion, co-ordination and communal working and living. The sort of society where no one will be without a home or a chance to live a fulfilling life. [Read More]

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London: Paddington Green Police Station occupation in anticipation of our week of action

By: fawda - February 9th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

On the night of February 7th, a group of activists from the Green Anti-Capitalist Front, alongside squatters and other activists, occupied the abandoned High security police station at Paddington Green. The intention is to hold the space and turn it into a community centre, the activities of which will culminate in a week of action against capitalism.
This is motivated by the belief that capitalism by its very nature will continue to destroy our planet and ultimately our civilisation. We chose this building because the police have time and again shown that they will gladly break their own laws to suppress any challenge to the entrenched, unjust, systems our society is based on.
Only by moving beyond the inherent oppression of capitalism to a system based on co-operation and communality, can we hope to survive in any meaningful way to the end of this century.
During the week of action the space will host workshops, skill shares, socials, planning sessions and a wide variety of other informative and entertaining events while also acting as a base from which to launch actions to reclaim our public space from corporations and government, and strike at the very heart of capital. We will show the mega rich and powerful that we will not stand for their greed and corruption. [Read More]

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Brighton: Direct action to prevent deaths on the streets

By: sisulscz - February 7th, 2020  Filed under: essay, Interviews

A squatted night shelter in Brighton is housing homeless people. The Canary visited the squat and spoke to residents about the project.

Back in December 2019, people in Brighton called an emergency meeting to discuss how to act in solidarity with those facing life on the streets. The initiative was taken by Brighton’s Queer AF anti-fascist alliance and other grassroots groups.

Soon, activists took control of an empty Kodak shop on Brighton’s London Road and began using it to house rough sleepers. This week, the group squatted another unused building: the old Poundstretcher building on London Road.
[Read More]

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Brighton: Don’t despair, organise! DIY Kodak Collective squatted night shelter

By: fawda - January 14th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

London Road in Brighton is a clear example of the austerity crisis in Britain. The road is lined with closed businesses and people in every doorway. On Christmas Eve, a group of community activists opened the doors to a squatted night shelter with a sign that read “Room at the Inn”, inviting rough sleepers to get warm over the Christmas week. The DIY Kodak Collective, named after the photography shop that used to be there, is still holding the shelter weeks later – as well as space for people to sleep, there are daily communal meals, a place to create art and a free shop. The building has become somewhere safe, warm and creative for homeless people to escape the winter weather, socialise and sleep, and, as it is a DIY shelter, people are able to exercise their own autonomy when it comes to using the space.
[Read More]

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Brighton: Squatted Night Shelter

By: sisulscz - December 28th, 2019  Filed under: Communique

As Brighton becomes more glamorous and sparkles in the shop windows cost like gold, the city is only managing to house the rich and the privileged. There are too many buildings on our streets which have been left empty, dilapidating and neglected by selfish landlords who are apparently blind to the hundreds of people sleeping in bags outside of these doorsteps. Brighton has the second worst amount of homeless to London, and the council cannot seem to do anything about it.
We have scrubbed up + loved up one of these empty buildings to make an emergency shelter for people who would otherwise sleep outside. There is room for 10 people to stay at night and downstairs there is a soup kitchen!
Please spread the word about the space to friends seeking shelter.
Any donations will be accepted gratefully, and here are some photos of the accommodation.

Facebook – DIY Kodak Collective: Squatted Night 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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Finland: New squat Kattila under threat of eviction

By: fawda - December 15th, 2019  Filed under: Communique, News

A small, cozy wooden house was squatted on 13 December in kivihaka, Helsinki, Finland on the corner of roads Hämeenlinnanväylä (E12) and Hakamäentie.

We all need space to live and be in. Space to sleep, cook, meet each other, perform mutual projects, study and develop ourselves, organize events, create new and to have fun. These kinds of spaces are not distributed fairly in hierarchically organized society. When some let their “owned” buildings sit empty, others are without communal spaces or even homes. Besides this, there are numerous places that are not safe if you’re something else than a white cis-hetero male or even open at all for poor people. This feels unfair and pisses us off. Something must be done! [Read More]

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Athens: From Theory to Practice – An Initial Response – 15 buildings liberated

By: sisulscz - December 6th, 2019  Filed under: Communique

The entire state machinery of the Mitsotakis government, spearheaded by its repressive forces, is opposed to anything that challenges its impositions of normality. It uses the doctrine of “law and order” and the rhetoric of zero tolerance as a veil to cover and distract from its endless inconsistencies. It feeds its constituents the rhetoric of nation, security, legitimacy, and development while adopting models of polarization and paradigms of bygone eras. The purpose is clear: the attempted eradication of the structures of struggle and the destruction of the revolutionary movement, which stands against its development plans and any model of so-called urban gentrification. At the same time, there is a systematic effort to massively displace populations that do not “fit” into the increasing needs of capital and the bosses of the metropolis. The effort to create an ideal consumer environment of both a passive and easily controlled population that serves the private interest is high on their agenda. On the one hand, airbnb, entertainment hotspots, shop windows, and hotels aim at the spectacle-ization of neighborhoods and the profitability of the few, while, on the other hand, cameras, drones, enforcement of all kinds, and the ceding of control of every [public and private] space to the police state for consumer control, surveillance, and commerce.
[Read More]

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Bologna (Italy): former Sani barracks squatted by XM24

By: fawda - November 15th, 2019  Filed under: Communique, News

Give in to those who would like us to be extinct, exiled or forgotten: we may have little sense, but our imagination is infinite! Today XM24 reopens a place closed and abandoned for decades. What was once the Sani barracks begins a new life as a place of self-management, solidarity and aggregation. We are opposed to the abandonment of public spaces, regaining possession of the spaces we need to live and breathe.
For 17 years XM24 has produced sociality and self-managed culture in Via Fioravanti 24. A Self-managed public space that has also been the starting point of social struggles that have crossed Bologna and the entire country. A place where many activities have been able to escape the logic of profit, a place of human and political experimentation. [Read More]

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Zürich (Switzerland): Voices from the occupied Juch

By: fawda - November 14th, 2019  Filed under: Communique, News

We, and all of us who have entered this space in the last few weeks, have seen what this was and must never be again: a prison. What is clear to all of us is that no one who has seen this space can allow it to be used again for the administration and imprisonment of people. It is inhumane that traumatised people who have fled in the Juch should again be crammed together and monitored.

The SVP says about this occupation at the local council meeting on 6 november 2019: “Apparently some people enjoy more privileges and are not equal before the law, according to the motto: for a few instead of for all”. We say: exactly, talking about tolerance, what about people who are categorized, imprisoned and administered. This state is so far for a few instead of for all – the camps in which people in exile are imprisoned are clear proof of this. The problem isn’t that the repression against a few people who are appropriating space isn’t big enough, the problem is that this system grants some rights that it denies others. The distinction is based solely on where the persons were born. [Read More]

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Reading (UK): closed down pub re-opens as Kobanî House social space

By: fawda - October 31st, 2019  Filed under: Communique, News

The closed Red Lion pub in Reading was reopened and renamed ‘Kobanî House’ in solidarity with Rojava. The pub, located at Southampton Street, is currently occupied by a group of people and will be run as a social and political space.

One of the occupiers said: “In solidarity with the Kurdish Freedom Movement we decided to open this building to temporarily create an educational and social space for people to learn about the revolution. We have been tidying up and hope to make Kobane House a welcoming place for anyone to visit.”

The Turkish invasion of North-East Syria, a region known as Rojava, began on 9th October 2019 and is a violation of international laws. There are serious concerns that Turkey intends to ehnically cleanse the area. Earlier in October, there were reports that white phosphorous, an internationally banned chemical weapon, had been used against civilians in the region, after images and videos of badly burned, screaming in agony, children have emerged. [Read More]

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Zürich (Switzerland): Juchhof squatted

By: fawda - October 31st, 2019  Filed under: Communique, News

Dear humans,

We occupied an empty area today to open up a free space.
Why are we doing this?
On the one hand, superfluous money always creates new spaces that are only accessible to a few.
On the other hand, even those parts of society that think they have something to offer investors play directly into their hands. Building cooperatives are nothing more than huge heaps of capital, and are not a suitable means against the fight against real estate speculation. Intermediate use companies such as Projekt Interim are instrumentalized to prevent occupations and at the same time financially exploit already percarious people. They are nothing more than a new way of regulating the space they monitor and control.

The situation looks bleak, but time and again people fight for and win real freedom. This is what we are doing today. We are not leaving Zurich to the rich without a fight. Together we want to create a place where every person feels welcome, a place where it is easy to join in. As of today, this space stands for freedom and equality. It is a zone for encounters and a foundation for another direction. This place stands for the fight for freedom. [Read More]

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