They had stocked the kitchen with food, hauled in crate-loads of belongings and even brought their tortoiseshell cat.
But the two-month long rent-free bliss enjoyed by a group of squatters at Millers Point ended abruptly on Tuesday, as the state government pushed ahead with its plan to empty the harbourside suburb of vulnerable residents.
[Read More]
31 July 2014
Australia: A known squat in the territory known as Sydney has been evicted
Some courageous occupiers and supporters made the decision to barricade and defend as much as they could a space full of history, dreams and resistance.
The autonomous, liberated social centre known as the Hat Factory has for over at least 12 years hosted hundreds of events and people in its quarters – encouraging creativity, mutual aid, rebelliousness and respect. [Read More]
Solidarity actions with Villa Amalias recently happened in different Greek cities, and in Goa (India) and Sydney (Australia):
– Athens: Paint bomb attack against the old city hall, in solidarity with Villa Amalias squat
On the night of December 24th, comrades wanted to add a bit of colour to the miserable Christmas decoration that the mayor of Athens, Giorgos Kaminis, had reserved for the city. We wanted to show him that the lousy political dealings on the repression against Villa Amalias squat will not be left unanswered. He will pay the corresponding price for his choice to cover the back of the prime minister, Antonis Samaras, who wanted to prove that he is equally fascist to the far-right part of his voting audience, which slips off to the Golden Dawn party by now. [Read More]
Squattocracy is Housing Democracy. When there’s a gap between affordability and need Squattocracy fulfils that need.
A succession of failed Government policies ostensibly to address homelessness and culminating with the current failure “The Road Home”: Government programs are widely viewed with derision as opportunistic Government / NGO constructs to monetise the marginalised.
[Read More]
Found on Indymedia-Australia:
Some Sydney anarchists celebrate NYE by dropping 18 banners from 5 empty buildings in the CBD
Black Rose books – January 5th, 2012
On New Years Eve while the city streets were packed with drunken revelers and riot cops, a group of anarchist dropped 18 banners from five empty buildings in centre of Sydney. Sound-systems were also set up in two of the buildings with an anti-police hip hop/punk/dubstep mix which blasted out onto the streets. Anarchist slogans and symbols were sprayed on the windows in the buildings and on buses and banks in the streets below.
One of the locations from which we dropped 4 banners and set up a sound-system was a 7 story office building, chosen in solidarity with comrades in the Occupy Sydney movement who had recently squatted the space for a week in an attempt to build a social centre. [Read More]
Next saturday, January 14th, from 4:00pm to 5:00pm, let’s go to Occupy Sydney’s free school, there’s gonna be a workshop about squatting movements in Europe!
Location:
Occupy Sydney
Martin Place
CBD, Sydney
(In the case of heavy rain on Saturday, we will relocate some of Free School to the Visual Arts Space at 43/51 Cowper Wharf Rd. Walk through the Domain from Martin Place.)
The workshop is about squatting movements in Europe, focusing on the diversity of squats we can find in France and in Spain, taking different examples like the squats open in Barcelona in 2010 during the general strike and some other examples in France. A few words will be told about the intersquat solidarity in Europe and about the international website squat.net.
Some tips will be given about how to find and open and empty space. And afterwards, a discussion will happen, making links/relations between what happens in Europe and what happens in Sydney/Australia.
For 3 months some homeless students, anarchists & workers had been squatting the massive 3 story St Michael’s Cathedral in Darlington, Sydney and had plans to turn it into a social centre and accessible accommodation. The occupiers had been able to build a properly functioning kitchen for community dinners, had rigged the electricity to provide lighting and fixed many of the rooms to create a liveable space out of a building that had been empty for some 7 years or so. [Read More]
The people who brought you the Midnight Star are back with ‘The Balloon Factory’. This Social Centre is now open in Newtown for parties, meetings,forums etc. Reclaimed space: Use it or Lose it! A new social centre has been successfully opened in Newtown, for YOU to use!
The space has been decorated by wall artists and will host meetings, parties, film nights, dumpster cafe and more. It is a political space for use by community groups who are unable to afford the high rents charged by commercial venues. [Read More]
On Saturday 7 December 2002 the Midnight Star Social Centre was evicted. Around 25 OSG riot police forced their way in just after 7a.m, searched those inside for knives etc, tried to take down names, and gave them just a few minutes to get out. Within hours, the owners had enclosed the site with barbwire fencing and were refusing to allow people in to get their equipment. There were no injuries and no arrests were made.
The Midnight Star had been occupied since February 2002. From the outset, the Social Centre was an experiment in autonomous direct action – it was a non-residential space focused on creating a space outside the control of the state and market. The Midnight Star was an important space for gigs – many doof, punk, hip-hop, and jazz benefit gigs were held there, introducing many people to the possibilities of occupied and autonomous spaces. A pirate cinema – oPeRaTiNg tHeAtRe – screened unusual and rare films and served free food every week, including Hindi films for the local Indian community. A number of different people and crews with computer skills set-up a computer workspace/infoshop with discarded and donated computer equipment. The Midnight Star was also the meeting space for a number of different groups – from local wireless technology networking groups to copwatch and other autonomous/activists crews. [Read More]
Midnight Star Social Centre
55-57 Parramatta Rd
Homebush
phone: 0415 882 901
dokta_x [at] yahoo [dot] com [dot] au
This is an urgent message to all: PLEASE come to the Midnight Star 55-57 Parramatta Rd Homebush. This Centre has been in occupation since early February and has been in constant use by the community for – free film nights, children’s theatre, meeting space, fundraisers, band nights, punk gigs, activist film screenings, library space and more!!!! There has now been an attempt to LOCK US OUT by the owner or police (not sure which). IT IS NOW IN OCCUPATION!!!!! This beautiful reclaimed community space must be saved for use by the community.
Some social centres in Europe have existed for 20 or more years and are a central organising point for free cultural and political activities. This is a pivotal point for the Star. If we can make it through the next short while, we may have a social centre for a very long time as the Council is obviously against this development. In a recent Land and Environment Court hearing, the Court decided against allowing development to proceed at the Midnight Star. Developers had applied to build 272 apartments including a 12 storey building! The Council spent $150,000 trying to stop this development. There are suspicions that the Midnight Star has come to owner or police attention due to the recent calls to use the Star as an organising point for May Day activities.
JOIN US IN OCCUPATION OF THIS SPACE
when you come to the midnight star, please bring;
1. food
2. torches
3. candles
4. other things such as sleeping gear, your mobile phone, useful tools, bottles of water (not needed at present but required in preparation)
To go in: use the doorbell on the left hand side wall along the external corridor, as you approach from parramatta rd.
http://scan.cat.org.au
dokta
On the 10th feb. 2002, SCAN (the social centre autonomous network) occupied an old theatre vacant for years, called the Grand Midnight Star on 55-57 Paramatta Road in Homebush. The occupation began at 8am with barricading of all entrances and other security systems being put in place. > The social centre is now open for workshops, meetings, forums, film nights, conferences, performance, gigs and other social and political activity. [Read More]
On November 4 a group of 30 or so squatters occupied an empty church-owned building (the Trocadero) as part of their campaign to set up squatted social centres in Sydney. Later that evening police and fire brigade broke through the barricades and evicted the squat.
The building had been occupied @ 8am that morning by 30 members of a new squatgroup called SCAN [Social Centre Autonomus Network]. SCAN – who had been meeting and planning the occupation – aimed to transform the building into a squatted social centre with spaces for political organizing, infoshop, cinema, doof/band space, artspace, copwatch, food not bombs kitchen, and Neighbours alerted police soon after the occupation began. Police twice tried unsucessfully to access the building. Later that night, however, the police returned with the fire brigade under the direction of the local conservative church. They used hydraulic cutters and axes to smash through the front doors and enter the building. No-one was arrested in the eviction though church members did try to deliver a sermon to everytone on the importance of private property. [Read More]
