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: 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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Dear property guardians …

By: sisulscz - March 4th, 2024  Filed under: Communique, essay

Print out and post.

We get it. You’re looking for cheap rent in an expensive world. A way to keep a roof over your head while having time and money to pursue your goals and desires. And hey, maybe you get to live in some quirky buildings and situations!

This is a letter to you all. To explain why we disagree with Property Guardianship and to propose something else.

Property Guardianship came about as an idea in the Netherlands in the ’90s. A company called Camelot started advertising their services as anti-squatter security services, using people living in buildings as protection from people … living in buildings.
[Read More]

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UK: From The Inbox. On Queer Housing

By: fawda - July 12th, 2023  Filed under: Communique, News

Articulating these ideas began as a rant about why building houses in middle-of-nowhere-green-space is fucking stupid. The UK has a privatised, unreliable, unaffordable and inaccessible public transport system and a road network that spits on pedestrians, cyclists and anyone not on four wheels. Its bad for people and for planet, but profiteering companies will build “homes” regardless of the inaccessibility of their locations and the impact they have on the pre-existing environment. They’ll board up and tear down flats in already urbanised areas, tell us there’s not enough homes and get a fat cheque from the state to build some wanky new ones. Their justification for urban sprawl and natures receding tree line is that there aren’t enough homes.

We have spent several long years protesting against new roads and HS2, with some downtime getting particularly angry about housing developments. And it seems we aren’t the only people with fire in our bellies! We are inspired by the resistance Generation Rent has shown landlords throughout the pandemic, by the resilience of fellow squatters, by boaters fighting the CRT’s boat cull, and by folks organising under the Housing Rebellion banner. We are just beginning to have the words to describe how big the housing crisis is, and how our experiences as queers and as squatters can inform the radical solutions we need. [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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Brighton: Court update

By: sisulscz - November 21st, 2022  Filed under: Communique

Deputy district dickhead (and judge) “Hang ’em” Mills last week gave an enthralling lesson in British justice to supporters of the Squat the Slope occupation, which was in court in Brighton to fight an IPO (the fast track possession claim). The squat has been there for almost a month, fighting a fantastic struggle against the university’s megalomaniac plans to turn all students into consumerbots.
[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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Hebden Bridge (UK): Final stretch for disinfo squat

By: sisulscz - October 25th, 2022  Filed under: Communique

Today concluded our month long legal battle with the alleged landlords, Royd’s Ices. We settled with 14 days from today until our eviction, and zero legal fees against us. This was the best result we could’ve possibly hoped for, considering having the case adjourned once before.
We’d like to thank all the people that turned up to support us, as well as district judge Alex Foster, who was incredibly sympathetic in his approach, and even expressed his personal distain for the housing crisis in Hebden Bridge, and praised the ‘honourable’ and ’noble’ project we’ve created!
During this 14 day period, we will try to run as many events as we can, starting with our open mic Tuesday (tomorrow) evening, and continuing until the very end.
Come eviction, we will have been squatting for 110 days, having built a wonderful community following, and having held an uncountable number of events, and considerably less windows 😉.
Landowners be warned, you best lock your doors. Disinfo will be back again x

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Sheffield, UK: Students are occupying The Diamond to protest the uni working with arms companies

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

A group of University of Sheffield students have occupied The Diamond in protest of the university’s partnership with Rolls Royce, Boeing and BAE Systems.

Sheffield Action Group has taken responsibility for the occupation following a tweet they published this morning. The group has called for “no war criminals on campus or in careers fairs.”
[Read More]

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Brighton, UK: Park Village Social Centre

By: sisulscz - October 19th, 2022  Filed under: Press release

As a result of the inadequacies of Sussex University, we – the supporters of the Squat the Slope occupation have taken it upon ourselves to begin creating the spaces that we wish to see on our own campus, and we invite all students, staff and university workers to join us! We have squatted the Park Village Social Centre – one of the many buildings doomed to demolition in the construction of West Slope, and we have opened the space as a radical and inclusive learning centre for all. All week we will be hosting radical workshops and events (for more info, find us on Instagram @squattheslope), and welcoming everyone to participate, hosting events and creating the change that they want to see on campus! Moreover, we intend to construct our own model for a student assembly, in order to present this framework to the Sussex University management, in line with our 3rd demand. Presented with the failings of the University management in this era of climate breakdown and social crises, we believe the future of Sussex campus must be taken into student hands.

All power to the students!
[Read More]

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