London: Grow Heathrow’s 6th Birthday, 4-6th March

20160304_transition_heathrow_grow_heathrow_6th_birthdayOn March 1st 2010, Transition Heathrow members swooped on an abandoned market garden site in Sipson; one of the villages to be completely tarmacked to make way for a third runway at Heathrow.

6 years later, and Grow Heathrow is still here.

This weekend we’re celebrating this hub of social activity and resistance against Heathrow’s 3rd runway, and the hundreds of you who have made this happen over 6 years.

Come and celebrate with us!

Friday 4th March

3 – 5pm: The Beauty is in the Struggle: Come along to the Sipson mural. Add your hand prints to the many celebrating the beauty that lies in the struggle of Sipson Village. Outside the Zayani restaurant UB7 0HU.

Open Mic Night: Join us in the evening for vegan cuisine and music. Bring your instruments! [Read More]

“London 2016: the terrain of struggle in our city” – Aylesbury Estate and some seeds of resistance

By Some London Foxes.

This is a small contribution towards mapping the terrain of social conflict in London today.

First, it identifies some big themes in how London is being reshaped, looking at: London’s key role as a “global hub” for international finance capital; how this feeds into patterns of power and development in the city; and the effect on the ground in terms of two kinds of “social cleansing” – cleaning out undesirable people, and sanitising the social environment that remains.

Second, it surveys recent resistance and rebellion to this pattern of control including the short-lived “grassroots housing movement” of last winter, the confrontational Aylesbury Estate occupation, anti-raids mini-riots, and some riotous street parties. [Read More]

London: Former Royal Mint building occupied

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]

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

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]

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

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]

London: Scumoween squat party turns into a riot

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]

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

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]

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

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]

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

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]

London: Report back from anti-gentrification fuck parade

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]

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

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]

Staines: Four seasons wins in court

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]