London: Sweets Way Community House Under Threat

By: sisulscz - August 18th, 2015  Filed under: Communique

Sweets Way Resists, one of London’s loudest housing protests, has come under threat, after residents were issued with a possession claim on the campaign’s base, 76 Oakleigh Road North.

The Community House, as number 76 is known, has been a meeting point for evicted families and their supporters for nearly six months. But it is more than that. The Community House is a place of refuge, where parents, and their children, can feel at home amidst a time of great turmoil in their lives. We need your help to prevent this refuge being taken away from the people who so desperately need it.
[Read More]

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London: Bailiffs sent away! Mostafa still at Sweets Way!

By: fawda - August 11th, 2015  Filed under: Communique, News

On Monday, people kept a family from being evicted and pushed a council to reverse the decision that would have left them homeless. But we need to keep up the pressure to keep Mostafa and the family safe.

On Sunday night, many of us didn’t go to sleep. Bailiffs were due at 46 Sweets Way and because we had seen what Mostafa and his family had gone through, and we had seen them failed over and over again by the various systems that are meant to protect them, we knew we needed to prepare with them to stay in their home. [Read More]

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London: All out for Sweets Way!

By: fawda - August 7th, 2015  Filed under: Communique, News

In the last 48 hours, everything has ramped up at Sweets Way for what is likely to be a major confrontation between those who believe in the right to housing and community, and those who would see London cleansed of all but the wealthiest.

Annington has sent in contractors, Cuddy, to prepare the estate for demolition. Fences have begun to be erected around large swathes of the estate and contractors and security guards have begun to more actively intimidate us.

Yesterday two bailiffs, with two policemen in tow, attempted to deliver court orders to occupiers. However, through a strong showing of people power, we sent them away, peacefully preventing the delivery of the notices.

Meanwhile, Mostafa and his family – the last remaining household on Sweets Way – have been told by Barnet Council’s solicitors that High Court bailiffs will be coming to evict the family on Monday morning. [Read More]

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London: Grow Heathrow, 24 hours to save green belt land from development

By: fawda - August 5th, 2015  Filed under: News

Lewdown Holdings have submitted a planning application for the Sipson Garden Centre site, the land where a large portion of the community project Grow Heathrow is located. Hillingdon Council’s planning department will be accepting comments on the application from the public until August 6th (TOMORROW!).

The link to the application on the council’s website is here:

http://planning.hillingdon.gov.uk/OcellaWeb/planningDetails?reference=67666/APP/2015/2413&from=planningSearch

Please write to the council why you think this over-development of Green Belt land is a bad idea: Click on the link above and then click on the ‘enter comment’ button

Quick! Only 24 hours to make a comment. Below are some suggested reasons you could use in your statement: [Read More]

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London: Sweets Way D.I.O. Regeneration, proving that we can Do It Ourselves

By: fawda - August 3rd, 2015  Filed under: News

As of last Thursday, Sweets Way Resists had succeeded in regenerating 1/142nd of the Sweets Way estate. We did so in just six days and for about £370, using a lot of volunteer labour and a mix of found and donated materials. We hope that the People’s Regeneration Show Home will encourage others around London and beyond to come together and reclaim – and when necessary rebuild – homes where they are, rather than leaving them in the hands of those who simply see them as investments.

Beyond inspiring others with a little taste of what regular people are capable of doing to a smashed up building, we also showed that we can do Annington’s job – regeneration – better than they can. We’ve shown that the story of private development offering the only route to quality affordable homes is a convenient myth that facilitates the decimation of socially-rented housing stock, for the benefit of private profits. There IS another way. [Read More]

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London: Help us rebuild the People’s Regeneration Show Home!

By: sisulscz - July 24th, 2015  Filed under: Communique

New occupation and community-led refurbishment will highlight that ‘regeneration’ doesn’t need to be another word for ‘social cleansing.’ Come down now and help make it happen! [Previous stories here]

Good morning London! As most of you started your work days today, dozens of us began to repair the damage inflicted by Annington Properties to one of their buildings – one of our homes – on the Sweets Way Estate.
[Read More]

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London: Lewisham and Southwark College occupied, evicted

By: sisulscz - July 24th, 2015  Filed under: Communique

On Sunday 19 July, in the middle of the night and after much planning, a group of around 15 members of the Southwark and Lewisham community including LESOCO (Lewisham and Southwark College) students, occupied the Camberwell campus of LESOCO to resist its closure. They locked the gates and barred the doors, claiming the space for the community and wrenching it from the claws of managers, bureaucrats and the market. The plan was to use the campus for community education and organising and to stop management from clearing the building out by the end of the month. They damaged nothing. They wanted the building kept for further education.
[Read More]

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London: Elephant & Castle Social Centre evicted

By: sisulscz - July 23rd, 2015  Filed under: News

The Elephant & Castle social centre was evicted at 4am today. High Court bailiffs and cops kicked out about 20 squatters (some “in just their underwear” according to the gutter press).
The pub was squatted a month ago and has now been made an asset of community value so any change of use will need to be granted planning permission.

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London: Waiting For Eviction And Them Dirty Bailiffs

By: sisulscz - July 23rd, 2015  Filed under: Communique

We may not have otherwise have said – but up until now that is – for the last 8 or so weeks we have been occupying (squatting) 2 commercial properties in the two adjoining North London Boroughs of first Islington and at this time of writing Camden.

The crew moved from Central London following a number of evictions, 41 to be precise, some high profile and others not so.
[Read More]

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Their Law: The New Energies of UK Squats, Social Centres and Eviction Resistance in the Fight Against Expropriation

By: fawda - July 13th, 2015  Filed under: essay

For anyone old enough to remember themselves as a teenager during the nineties, with fond memories of piercing their own ears (multiple times) whilst listening to the second album of The Prodigy ‘Music for a Jilted Generation’ [self-​piercing nostalgia optional], they will recognise ‘Their Law’ as the musical response to the criminalisation of rave culture’s collective enjoyment of ‘repetitive beats’ directly legislated in Section 63(1)(b) of the Criminal Justice Act and Public Order Act 1994. The metallic screams and staples pulsate into an abrupt “fuck them and their law” where the Braintree boys quarterise their angry sentiment against enclosing law, the voice of a radical resistance felt in lower frequency bass, vibration, body, the tribe, the people — rave terms.

I think of Their Law when I think of the energy and metabolism of many communities now fighting the heartbreaking effects of unabated private property acquisition in the UK, of the fierce passions contesting the market-​obsessed policies enacted through unapologetic and unconcerned legislative processes that are entirely ignorant of the difficulties people are facing on a day-​to-​day basis just to be. [Read More]

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London: Time to defend Sweetstopia!

By: sisulscz - July 12th, 2015  Filed under: Communique

CAN YOU COME VISIT THIS WEEK?

Shortly after we began our occupation of the estate (news here and here and here), some other occupiers emerged on the scene. At first we had some tensions, but gradually we have come to see eye-to-eye on the need to keep our homes from being destroyed, in spite of any differences.
[Read More]

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London: Sweets Way Resists, our occupation turned 4 months old today…

By: fawda - July 9th, 2015  Filed under: News

Today marks 4 months since our occupation began. It seemed like a good time to go down memory lane and have a look at how it all started…
Firstly however we would like to thank amazing Focus E15 Mothers, Barnet Housing Action Group, Our West Hendon, and all the other extraordinary selfless individuals. Their commitment to help people, and pure spirit made it all happen, and they were there through tears and laughter. We would never be able to thank them enough- they are truly inspirational.
We would also like to thank YOU ALL for your amazing support and heartwarming messages.
We are all so grateful for your ongoing support. Please continue to do so, after all, we all need homes… [Read More]

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