London: Former Royal Mint building occupied

By: dolph-l - December 30th, 2015  Filed under: News

Update from approximately 2pm: Royal Mint still occupied but security are preventing people from entering.. Support needed! We should set up tents etc outside asap!

Yesterday [December 28th] squatters occupied a former Royal Mint building in Tower Hill in protest against homelessness, empty buildings and the ongoing criminalisation of squatting.

The building on Royal Mint Court was converted into offices in 1980, when the Royal Mint completed its move to Llantrisant in Wales. At its height, the building symbolised the monetary power of the City of London and, as its occupiers point out, has become to represent the vast inequality it once had a part in producing. [Read More]

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London: Call-out for court solidarity with those arrested at Sweets Way eviction

By: dolph-l - December 14th, 2015  Filed under: News, Press release

JOIN US TO STAND UP AGAINST SOCIAL CLEANSING AND THE CRIMINALISATION OF PEACEFUL PROTEST!

Friday, December 18, 1pm
Willesdon Magistrates Court, (448 High Road, London, NW10 2DZ)

On 23 and 24 of September, the Sweets Way estate was evicted by dozens of High Court bailiffs and 7 vans of London Met police. Nearly a hundred occupiers of dozens of homes were turfed out, as was Mostafa, the last original resident of the estate. Supporters peacefully attempted to stop Mostafa’s eviction, many of whom were arrested. Fifteen now face criminal charges for obstructing High Court Enforcement Officers. [Read More]

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London: Against Apolitical Squatting, communique by Squatters and Homeless Autonomy

By: fawda - November 14th, 2015  Filed under: Communique, News

Coming to Terms

In Camden, an eight-month squat is evicted by pigs and three are arrested under Section 144, the 2012 ban on residential squatting. A man in a SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SQUAT t-shirt waits for NELSN to forward a text. Two arrive from a council-estate squat further north. Builders begin to secure the building. Against Section 144, against increasing precarity and repression, broken self-identity and fractured organisation, London squatting seems to have begun a coming-to-terms.

Attempts to surround the fragility of the squat scene with nostalgia have come thick and fast: Remember the Squatters’ Union; remember unrestricted residential squatting; remember squatters’ rights. As ever this nostalgia is a thinly disguised dose of forgetfulness: Squatting has always meant struggle; and no mourning for a golden age can deny the permanence of our struggles and the permanent need to politicise them. [Read More]

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London: Scumoween squat party turns into a riot

By: dolph-l - November 3rd, 2015  Filed under: News

Last night (31 October) there was rioting in Lambeth, central South London, after cops tried to block hundreds of ravers from getting into the Scumoween halloween free party. Riot cops attacked the party-goers with dogs and baton charges, and the people fought back with whatever weapons came to hand. According to the police, this included fireworks, gas canisters, and a “suspected petrol bomb”. One thing Londoners will still fight for is the “right to party”.

Scumoween famously kicked off back in 2010 when the Met tried to shut down that year’s rave in Holborn. Clashes at free parties in central London are pretty regular these days, as the state tries to maintain our city centre as a sterile corporate zone, all profit no fun. [Read More]

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London: Sweets Way Resists, In Support Of Supporting Each Other

By: fawda - October 23rd, 2015  Filed under: Communique, News

In the last week we celebrated the release of the two Sweets Way protesters who have been held on remand since the evictions at Sweets Way on the 23rd and 24th of September. That the magistrates granted bail without the requirement for the two protesters to give their names or any other details is a victory and testament to the moral grounds for resistance against the eviction of the estate.

The campaign has been a tough one for all involved, and it would be wrong to say it has been a picture-perfect example of political resistance the whole time. The campaign is a constantly-evolving thing, and we have all done our best to move with the times as circumstances have changed. With many different groups with different agendas coming to Sweets Way, particularly in the final couple of months, it became difficult to maintain the original image that was portrayed all the way back in February. Certainly there were displays of behaviour that did not sit well with people involved in the campaign or with outside supporters and spectators. [Read More]

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London: Noise demo in solidarity with the Sweets Way prisoners this Saturday – cancelled

By: dolph-l - October 15th, 2015  Filed under: News

Update from Sweets Way Resists 15/10/15: “We can announce that today the 2 protesters were granted bail, and they retain their anonymity! We will therefore not be attending HMP Wormwood Scrubs on Saturday…”

Let’s make some noise for our friends and defenders of the Sweets Way Estate!

During the evictions on the Sweets Way Estate 19 people were arrested. 16 of those were in defence of Mostafa, the last remaining tenant. Despite being a passive resistance, they were arrested for obstructing the high court enforcers. We all believe these arrests were unjust, and 2 of the arrestees have asserted their right to remain anonymous. As a result, the state has incarcerated them, holding them on remand while the police take their time investigating their identities. [Read More]

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London: Mamelon Tower squat evicted by riot cops after 6 hour showdown

By: fawda - October 6th, 2015  Filed under: Communique, News

Yesterday (Monday 5 October) TSG riot cops alongside bailiffs came in force to evict the Mamelon Tower squat in Kentish Town, North London, which had been occupied by “Squatters and Homeless Autonomy”. The Met’s finest meatheads met impressive barricades and concerted resistance and it took six hours for them to enter the building. Six people were arrested for “affray”. A noise demo took place yesterday evening outside the police station where they were being held. We will post further updates and calls for solidarity as we get more news. We repost below the statement by SHA on yesterday’s events, and also the statement they published when they first squatted the building. [Read More]

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London: Report back from anti-gentrification fuck parade

By: dolph-l - October 4th, 2015  Filed under: Communique, News

Last Saturday over a thousand people came together at the ‘Fuck Parade’ to resist gentrification and the social cleansing in London’s East End. It was a beautiful expression of feeling put into action.

It kicked off under Shoreditch High Street arches with three or so massive music rigs, fire breathing and buzzing energy. A couple of hundred at first, mostly anarchists, squatters and social housing eviction resistors. The solid bloc continued to grow, as the informal march went through the streets chanting with flares and flash grenades, holding space and blocking roads, picking up more and more local people off the street and out of the estates as it passed. At points the demo was around a thousand people. [Read More]

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Forest of Dean: Callout for support at Yorkley Court Community Farm

By: sisulscz - October 2nd, 2015  Filed under: Communique

This morning (Sept29) two council officials entered the farm (previously on S!N) asking questions about the number of pregnant women and children on-site. We recognise this as a sign that an eviction attempt is likely to happen in the near future.

We are strengthening our defences and preparing ourselves for what may come.

We need support.
[Read More]

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Staines: Four seasons wins in court

By: sisulscz - October 2nd, 2015  Filed under: News

Victory!

Application for Interim Possesion by Surrey County Council rejected!

Four Seasons Community Co-operative is an off-shoot group of (the recently evicted) Runnymede Eco Village residents aka. Diggers2012 , Love Activists and Action Factory Collective.
[Read More]

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UK: Free the Love Bank 5 (Poster & website)

By: dolph-l - September 30th, 2015  Filed under: News, Press release

Five Activists who had occupied Liverpool’s old Bank of England building to provide shelter and feed the city’s homeless people have been jailed for almost 3 months each. They were sentenced on Thursday 17th September 2015 at Liverpool Crown Court.

The Love Activists moved into the unoccupied building in the middle of April 2015 to set up a support centre for Liverpool’s homeless people, incorporating places to sleep, an advice centre and a street kitchen, from where they were evicted in the early hours of 12 May and the homeless activists arrested. The defendants were charged in relation to the occupation of the old bank building in Castle Street, Liverpool city centre, as part of a protest over lack of support for the homeless and government austerity. [Read More]

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London: Sweets Way Resists. Mostafa evicted and prisoner solidarity needed!

By: fawda - September 24th, 2015  Filed under: Communique, News

This morning the violent thugs returned to the estate after yesterday’s brutal Sweetstopia eviction and executed their possession order against Mostafa and his family, the final original residents at Sweets Way. Solidarity actions with those arrested at 6pm.

High Court bailiffs smashed through the window of the room Mostafa was sleeping in, to forcibly remove him from his home today. The eviction leaves the family without a home, unwilling to sign for a property offered by Barnet Homes that he literally can’t get in and out of in his wheelchair. This offer would be enough of an insult, were it not already coming after three years of mistreatment of the family by Barnet Homes. [Read More]

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