London: Police Station is squatted! Join the resistance!

By: fawda - February 13th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

London squatters are organising an anarchist social centre in a notorious secure police station in central London. It is leading to a week of action for GAF, Green Anti-capitalist Front, from 24th February to 2nd March. Come and help with this once-in-a-generation opportunity to perfect barricading and organise towards the COP26 and more! We look forward to welcoming you to this liberated space for global resistance in a centre of international capitalism.

Green Radical Anticapitalist Social Space (GRASS) in Paddington

Was nice to meet Oli (and Rich!) from JOE.co.uk the other day! The GRASS (Green Radical Anticapitalist Social Space) was originally formulated as the result of a public assembly to come up with ideas to tackle capitalism in ways that not only ‘stick it to the man’, but demonstrate that it’s entirely practical and possible to build a new society. A society based on fairness, compassion, co-ordination and communal working and living. The sort of society where no one will be without a home or a chance to live a fulfilling life. [Read More]

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London: Paddington Green Police Station occupation in anticipation of our week of action

By: fawda - February 9th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

On the night of February 7th, a group of activists from the Green Anti-Capitalist Front, alongside squatters and other activists, occupied the abandoned High security police station at Paddington Green. The intention is to hold the space and turn it into a community centre, the activities of which will culminate in a week of action against capitalism.
This is motivated by the belief that capitalism by its very nature will continue to destroy our planet and ultimately our civilisation. We chose this building because the police have time and again shown that they will gladly break their own laws to suppress any challenge to the entrenched, unjust, systems our society is based on.
Only by moving beyond the inherent oppression of capitalism to a system based on co-operation and communality, can we hope to survive in any meaningful way to the end of this century.
During the week of action the space will host workshops, skill shares, socials, planning sessions and a wide variety of other informative and entertaining events while also acting as a base from which to launch actions to reclaim our public space from corporations and government, and strike at the very heart of capital. We will show the mega rich and powerful that we will not stand for their greed and corruption. [Read More]

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Brighton: Direct action to prevent deaths on the streets

By: sisulscz - February 7th, 2020  Filed under: essay, Interviews

A squatted night shelter in Brighton is housing homeless people. The Canary visited the squat and spoke to residents about the project.

Back in December 2019, people in Brighton called an emergency meeting to discuss how to act in solidarity with those facing life on the streets. The initiative was taken by Brighton’s Queer AF anti-fascist alliance and other grassroots groups.

Soon, activists took control of an empty Kodak shop on Brighton’s London Road and began using it to house rough sleepers. This week, the group squatted another unused building: the old Poundstretcher building on London Road.
[Read More]

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Brighton: Don’t despair, organise! DIY Kodak Collective squatted night shelter

By: fawda - January 14th, 2020  Filed under: Communique, News

London Road in Brighton is a clear example of the austerity crisis in Britain. The road is lined with closed businesses and people in every doorway. On Christmas Eve, a group of community activists opened the doors to a squatted night shelter with a sign that read “Room at the Inn”, inviting rough sleepers to get warm over the Christmas week. The DIY Kodak Collective, named after the photography shop that used to be there, is still holding the shelter weeks later – as well as space for people to sleep, there are daily communal meals, a place to create art and a free shop. The building has become somewhere safe, warm and creative for homeless people to escape the winter weather, socialise and sleep, and, as it is a DIY shelter, people are able to exercise their own autonomy when it comes to using the space.
[Read More]

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Manchester: New shelter squatted

By: sisulscz - December 24th, 2019  Filed under: Announcement, Communique

Update from Manchester Winter Shelter: We have secured a new space that we hope to keep over the xmas period. We are now open for homeless folk.

If you are part of a homeless organisation/ outreach or hosting a xmas dinner please point people with no where to stay to us if they need it. We need people with cars who are available to collect people. Please message us if this is something you’re able to help with.

*We are still not able to take any donations due to the huge amount we have recieved*
Many, many thanks.
[Read More]

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Manchester: Winter Shelter

By: sisulscz - December 19th, 2019  Filed under: Communique

In Manchester, a squatted winter shelter has been set up for the Xmas period. Organising on Facebook under the name ‘Manchester Winter Shelter’ the project is now on its second building having lost the first one in court on Tuesday (17th) but that’s not stopping them!
[Read More]

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Brighton: As council seals arches, where do the people go?

By: sisulscz - December 19th, 2019  Filed under: News

On Thursday 12th and Friday 13th several arches and shelters above Madeira Drive, at Black Rock, spaces which had housed a community of people over the summer were sealed off with metal grilles — the question has to be where are those people now? [UPDATE the grilles were taken down again a week later]

This summer I was really shocked by the number of homeless people in Brighton. It was much higher than it used to be. Despite a controversial official survey which said numbers had dropped by half, the evidence from my own eyes was that I saw many more homeless people on my way into town than in previous years. There are also many people living in the parks and on the beach. There have been encampments all over town, for example Hove Lawns. Now it’s getting colder, the camps are disappearing and so are the people. Where have they gone? Each person sleeping rough has their own reasons for doing so, maybe some have chosen to move on because of the weather, but what about the others?
[Read More]

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UK: The Social Centre Bulletin. Fash Attack Pie ‘n’ Mash

By: fawda - November 21st, 2019  Filed under: News

I was going to leave the Bulletin for another couple of weeks but then fascists happened. It’s always fascist innit, they got a thing about social spaces. Kicking off and trying to spoil everyone’s nice time.
On the 9th Nov, down in Deptford in London, a couple of hooligans tried to smash their way into Pie ‘n’ Mash squatted community cafe with the intention of attacking the people inside. Obviously not appreciating the re-appropriation of their bit of rhyming slang (it’s “Antifash Pie ‘n’ Mash” now see :p) nor the signs of any community organising it seems. They’d been seen lurking around the streets of Deptford for a few weeks (even visiting the squat a few times) and had been caught being typical racist trash in the local offy spewing homophobic and racist slurs as the fella behind the counter in the run up to their assault.
Then a couple of Saturdays ago they thought they’d give the social centre a go, putting through the front windows and kicking in the door before bailing as support came down the stairs to see what the noise was about. It’s nothing more than a nasty attempt at intimidation from people who only know threats and violence. [Read More]

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London: Fascist Attack At Pie ‘n’ Mash Squat in Deptford

By: fawda - November 10th, 2019  Filed under: Communique, News

Last night, Saturday the 9th of November, two bonehead hooligans kicked in the front windows of the Pie ‘n’ Mash squatted community cafe in Deptford, London.
After stomping around the streets of Deptford in the last weeks, and even entering the squat twice previously, the two hooligans demanded to be let in, in order to beat up the squatters, and then proceeded to put their steel-toes through the front door before scarpering as support arrived from upstairs.
The boneheads had been seen the night before in the off-licence (liquor store) abusing the owners, calling them taliban and making homophobic jibes, and seem to think they have a free reign of an area that has for many years been a stronghold of multiculturalism and antifascist community. We have since spoken to the shop owners who are excited to be part of organising against these wannabe-nazis, and we will be coordinating with anarchists, antifascists, and neighbourhood groups to keep these scum off our streets. [Read More]

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Reading (UK): closed down pub re-opens as Kobanî House social space

By: fawda - October 31st, 2019  Filed under: Communique, News

The closed Red Lion pub in Reading was reopened and renamed ‘Kobanî House’ in solidarity with Rojava. The pub, located at Southampton Street, is currently occupied by a group of people and will be run as a social and political space.

One of the occupiers said: “In solidarity with the Kurdish Freedom Movement we decided to open this building to temporarily create an educational and social space for people to learn about the revolution. We have been tidying up and hope to make Kobane House a welcoming place for anyone to visit.”

The Turkish invasion of North-East Syria, a region known as Rojava, began on 9th October 2019 and is a violation of international laws. There are serious concerns that Turkey intends to ehnically cleanse the area. Earlier in October, there were reports that white phosphorous, an internationally banned chemical weapon, had been used against civilians in the region, after images and videos of badly burned, screaming in agony, children have emerged. [Read More]

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UK: The Social Centre Bulletin. The Ups and Downs of the Cwtch

By: fawda - October 16th, 2019  Filed under: News

Eight years ago, near enough to the day, a handful of activists and homeless had some plans. The rain was chucking it down as we were stood outside our goal sizing the building up. It had been sitting empty for years, neglected and falling apart, a local icon left to fade. It was a suitable candidate for a pop up social centre, with a dozen large rooms, kitchen space, a welcoming atrium and, like I say, it was bloody pouring it down. Three of the crew would be sleeping on the streets that night, the city centre location was ideal and we were wet. So we jumped the gun. On finding a way in, we left out plans to the wayside and squatted the old Odeon cinema in Manchester and named it the “Cwtch Centre”.

It would be our home for a few hours tho, as after a very exciting urban exploration we discovered that it was asbestos ridden. While we started to gather the crew together, the place echoed with the banging of the police on our fire escape entry. We informed them of our squatters rights, they smashed the huge steel doors out of their frame. I had to kick the doors open to eventually let them in and was greeted with a pistol in my face, several armed men from S019, a couple of TAU vans, dog unit and a night kip in Swindon police station. [Read More]

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UK: Chester’s homeless have had enough!

By: sisulscz - October 6th, 2019  Filed under: Announcement

726 people died on the UK’s streets last year.

Well in excess of 120,000 people applied to their local councils to be recognised as homeless in the hopes of having access to meagre support.

Meanwhile 200,000 houses sit empty. Then there are all the commercial and industrial units lying dormant and decaying.

Chester, like most places during this latest wave of austerity, has seen a sharp rise in homelessness and rough sleeping with a piss poor response from the local council, with services and social support provided in as mild and cost-effective manner possible. During the tail end of last year when the council had an official tally of 17 “street-homeless people”, the local homeless support project “ForFutures”, itself ran on a council contract, would see over a hundred different people request refuge over a couple of months.

Earlier this year, ForFutures opened up a “Homeless Assessment Centre” on the ground floor of a large, empty, and council-owned office block called Hamilton House. Opened to great fanfare, this centre was going to be a one-stop-shop to help manage and limit the swelling crisis of homelessness Chester was facing. It was supposed to be an accessible 24/7 secure space for the most vulnerable in our community, the contact point for the homeless to a council which like the rest of them across the UK constrains its support behind a register of “unintentionally homeless”.
[Read More]

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