using space four
mujinga oct09 2 35 space“ – a gallery putting on exhibi - sizeable swathe of said young peo - tions and performances wherever it ple, but fellow !WOWOW! member can beg and borrow space – is called Gareth Pugh has achieved even more „The Centre of the Universe“. While fame as a fashion designer. Stone re - Discontents modesty may be in short supply, hu - counts a group of models arriving for mour is not. Stone laughs at the proj - a fitting only to be told by a policeman ect having a „musical director“ and as that they‘d got the wrong building be - for his title, „I haven‘t thought of one cause „only homeless people live SWOMP - Amsterdam 4 ostentatious enough to give myself there“. There aren‘t many fashion de - yet. But as much as it’s tongue in signers feted by Vogue who live in cheek it’s also a recognition of the squats. So is there something odd fact that we‘re serious about what about seeing his friend’s designs on In the news 9 we‘re doing.“ Beyonce and co? „I think it’s amazing, that’s exactly what he wanted to This seriousness also informs his rea - achieve and he’s worked tirelessly to SquatMeetUp Report - Bristol 10 sons for squatting. Amid the romantic do it. I think this idea of defining an zeal is a more political motivation – underground as something which a the desire for „art to be able to exist in minority of people can appreciate is its own context, without the primary quite an elitist idea anyway.“ The shape left by its absence 14 aim of commodifying its output. Squatting is a necessity for an artist And despite hosting a weekly salon, trying to find ways to work without and the preponderance of „all my ab - commercial constraints.“ Many would stract rhetoric“, Stone is anything but Kraakverbod fotoreport 20 feel that a life free of commercial con - elitist. Inclusivity and an enthusiasm straints is a luxury rather than a ne - for collaboration come bound up in cessity but Stone is quick to point out the idea of optimism, to which he has that he and his friends never claimed so sincerely wedded himself that Squatting in Lund, Sweden 24 benefits. „Everybody was just finding Norman Rosenthal declared he had a way in the city to survive. People coined a fresh „-ism“. would make 20 quid a week doing a But as Stone acknowledges, every Takeover of foreclosed homes 28 DJ gig or something and we‘d use su - new generation has its idealism. permarket bins for food. I have no „There is that phrase ‚youthful opti - problem with artists selling work but I mism‘, but I think we need to work to think it’s a really important message find ways to extend the life of it. The Artist squatters 29 to send out to young people – that we truth is, anybody can change the can take creativity back into our world.“ He pauses. „It’s important! It’s hands rather than having it sold back heroic!“ and then he bursts into The using space series is available online at zinelibrary.info and mujinga.net to us at a higher price.“ laughter. Check squatworld.blogsport.de for more squatting news stories online Stone is something of a hero to a Source - The Guardian Find more info at squat.net, indymedia and your local social centre...
34 3 S.W.O.M.P.
On July 11, 2008, a group of people from It is the fourth time activists have squat - worked in the Bickleigh for a year with the idea of it, but also with get - the Pijp squatting group and Groenfront! ted a piece of land in the Pijp and by far after she left her job in PR to start the ting to London and being part of a dy - Amsterdam squatted a vacant lot at the most successful action. They are gallery. „For people for whom it isn‘t a namic group of young people doing Rustenbergerstraat 438-440. A school protesting against unnecessary demoli - means to an end, there is always a things. It’s that romantic idea of hav - had previously stood on the land and was tion and speculation as well as taking ac - romance to a building for which there ing a space that is your own that you demolished against the wishes of the tion in support of local neighbourhoods is no fee. But my time there was no can kind of do anything with.“ neighbourhood, probably to prevent it for a sustainable future. more or less romantic than any other being squatted. There are currently no I was there for the squat action and also building I‘ve lived in.“ And most other After graduating from Camberwell plans for the site, which has a tree which visited again in April [2009] when I buildings don‘t come with bucket College of Art, Stone and his friends is protected by permits. Previous land happened to be in the area. It was really showers, or indeed, room entrances squatted their first building, a Co-op squats had been evicted quite brutally by cool to see the changes and get inspired via cramped cupboards. „It conserves flagship store from the 1930s in south police so this time the activists were by the spring energy - seems like the heat,“ explains Dowler, firmly shutting London. The space may not have prepared - they were in large numbers, Netherlands is a bit ahead of the UK in the door behind him as we squeeze been his own in any formal sense but had the support of local residents and terms of seasons, so everything in the into the main living space on the first he and his friends certainly did „kind made sure their caravans were well garden was already sprouting. floor. He describes himself as „a bit of of anything“ with it. Four empty floors, secured in the ground! a dictator“ yet, strangely, the rigid including a huge old ballroom, were After one month, the project declared Here follows an interview with someone house rules and hierarchy grant a filled with exhibitions, screenings, per - itself a free state and the residents living at SWOMP... certain amount of mental freedom. formances and, of course, some large pledged to live in a carbon neutral fash - Knowing who’s doing the washing-up parties. These have taken on a bit of ion on the site. Instead of waiting for Q: First off, I read somewhere on the internet that day, he explains, gives everyone a mythic quality, particularly the one local government to decide what to do that you are not squatting, but rather wild more space to think about their art. where George W Bush’s niece, Lau - with the land they decided to take action camping “illegally”. That's not true is it? ren Bush, turned up with security themselves! Permaculture gardens were Surely you have squatted the piece of land, !WOWOW!/The Centre of the guards in tow: „a nightmare“ says set up and solar panels were installed. the kadastral object? Universe Stone, „it was one of our bigger par - Local squat cafes are doing benefits in A: Well legally the law doesn't say any - ties – 1,500 people, massive sound support of the project. In September an thing about squatting land without build - Matthew Stone and members of system, half the people in fancy open day was held with speakers and dis - ings on it, only on building itself. So last !WOWOW! an artist collective based dress, just very friendly and silly, but cussions. Links have been made with the time they said something about illegally in Dalston, east London we spent the whole night running Transition Town movement, which in the camping at the previous SWOMP action, „Squatter“ must rank among the odd - around fulfilling the requests of the Netherlands appears to have a more but now we have some jurisdiction from est answers to „what do you want to police who took a sudden interest in radical spin than in England. They built a a judge that said land can be squatted as be when you grow up?“ but for the safety of people at our party.“ He straw bale house. Once a month they have well. Land squatting, land occupying, what - Matthew Stone, an artist at the centre admits that as far as the group’s repu - a Sunday afternoon when anyone is wel - ever, it’s our temporary autonomous of the !WOWOW! collective, it’s an tation goes, parties have tended to come to visit the space and look around. zone. unconventional childhood dream eclipse the art. His photographs of that’s been energetically lived out. club kids on comedowns, all dreamy „When I found out about it as a kid I gazes and entangled limbs, have S.W.O.M.P. = Slimme Woonwagenbewoners Op Mooie Plekjes remember being really worried that it done little to dampen this image. = Ingenious wagon-dwellers living on beautiful Spots would be illegal by the time I was able However, the latest project is heavier to do it,“ he says. „I was obsessed on the seriousness. This „nomadic art
4 33 half-covered in childish paintings of the national press, declares herself Q: So the garden was looking great when I The black currants are delicious, as well birds and a poem about freedom. indebted to 78 Lyndhurst Way, both visited in April - now I imagine a lot of things as the red berries, strawberries. Broccoli One artist, as Francis recounts with a an address and the name of the squat are growing - care to share what's exciting and different cabbages are growing. chuckle, found himself showing his that sprung up there. The house is you in the garden currently? We are trying to experiment with combi - graffiti in the very same cell that he‘d now a scrubbed, newly painted build - nation planting. I'm particularly fond of a once been held in for the same crime. ing awaiting a wealthy owner, but A: Well you can take a look at these guild they call "the three sisters", which Appropriately, their latest show is somewhere in between utter dilapida - photos of the gardens now. was already for ages being grown by in - themed around justice. tion and its current incarnation it was digenous cultures in America. The basic At 40, Francis may be older than the home to a prodigiously productive idea is that you grow corn, beans and average squatter but having experi - group of artists. While living and pumpkins together. The beans climb up enced the recession in the 1990s, his working there they embarked on an the corn (instead of bamboo sticks) and sympathies are very much with his exhaustive process of renovation, the corn, that needs a lot of nitrogen for younger counterparts. „I imagine transforming it into a white-walled its fast growth in height, is thus helped by they‘re quite disillusioned to have gallery space which from November the beans, that fix nitrogen in the soil. The come out on this downturn. I think a 2006 to June 2007 hosted six shows pumpkins at last grow between them, lot of people are looking for alterna - – all while the threat of eviction was covering the ground with their big leaves tives. The skips are full of materials imminent. „There was always the pos - and thus protecting the soil from dehy - for artists to use and people are more sibility that the curtain would fall and it drating and repressing extensive weeds. aware of the wasteful nature of soci - would all be over,“ says Barry. „But Instead of corn, sunflowers can be used. ety these days.“ we just got on with what we could do Having a sunflower here and there in while we could. I knew that it was tak - your garden help controlling aphids since Hannah Barry Gallery/LyndhurstWa y ing us forward somewhere.“ they prefer sitting on your sunflower. The pumpkins in their turn could also be The Hannah Barry Gallery in Peck - In 2007 the curtain did fall. Planning courgettes or cucumbers. ham are a group of young artists who permission was granted for the prop - make work and curate shows, pho - erty but, minutes down the road, the Q: How is it going with your neighbours, the tographed in their gallery space in artists found an empty Victorian pub, ones immediately around you (who can look south London. (L-R) Christopher the Bickleigh, and took up residence. out of their window and see you) and those Green, Hannah Barry, James Capper, Here, one of the artists, Bobby in the Pijp area more generally? Oliver Griffin, Sven Mndner, Bobby Dowler, 25, pays the owner £5 a A: Up till now we got a lot of positive re - Dowler and Benjamin Walther. month in a caretaking agreement sim - actions as with any other squatting action Owning your own gallery at the age of ilar to the one-painting-a-month deal here, but maybe a bit more because were 25 is remarkable enough. But when he had with the owner of Lyndhurst so visible. We didn't get any involvement that gallery owes its existence to a Way. Asceticism is an unlikely thing to from the neighbourhood though, on open rat-infested squat in Peckham, the find in a squat, or indeed an old pub, days and stuff people from the neighbour - achievement seems all the more in - but Barry describes Dowler’s life in hood were under-represented. Now we credible. Hannah Barry, whose recent the Bickleigh as „very strange, calm“ started giving basic practical workshops; shows at a huge former glue factory and „organised, frugal, and without composting, toilet building, soon we'll sent mutters of excitement through things“. Barry initially lived and build a clay oven, and we will spin wool
32 5 and knit it, make seed bombs and do po - that it is necessary but not really my path. infrastructure in another room. Every - of buildings had stood empty since litical infonights with movies in between. For example they are organising a 'leave one was just really happy to be 2005, which seems shockingly waste - The turn-up for practical stuff seems to your car at home day' every month in Lewes there.“ ful for a space at the heart of the city. be higher but we hope to through that near where I live, but why not aim a bit we can increase involvement in the more higher and leave your car at home more political activities. Like building a than once a month? community garden on an empty lot as a A: Well it hasn't taken a more radical step tierra y libertad action, during the summit yet, as is it is in its initial stage. But for indigenous people in south america, in considering that a lot of the projects in support of activist over there. (see: Holland that are taking on intiatives are a http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2009/05/5971 lot with their feet in the squatters/activist 9.shtml) scene. Hopefully the transition town con - cept really won't function as blueprint, like Hopkins insists it is not. I think that after years of 'car free' days (a tradition since the seventies) silly things like that will not cross the mind of anyboy seri - ously working on change. I don't know if i believe in the transition town as a concept to change the world, control climate change, attain an equi - table distribution of land, resources and food, and aproach more direct-democ - racy through an ever involved and locally based self governing neighbourhood. It's a Artspace Lifespace Jono, a street artist, who returned to nice vision, and for me as far away as my From outside, the boarded-up Bristol inspired by the squat culture of own slightly different anarchist views on Bridewell police station and fire sta - Berlin, agrees: „There are so many things, but still. I do believe in building up tion in Bristol’s town centre look ut - properties in Bristol that are empty. knowledge, skills and wisdom about terly lifeless: my cab driver repeatedly Doing this brings a vibe to the city other ways of living. Ways to be able to asks whether I‘m sure I don‘t want the and it’s a great thing.“ survive together with as much fellow in - other police station, the functioning As Doug Francis, who founded the habitants of the earth when the shit hits one. Yet once inside the complex, the group in 1992, observes, the build - the fan. cells and offices are thrumming with ings have proved strangely suitable to Q: What's your take on the Transition Town When the system collapses, what is the activity. At the beginning of last year a the group’s various creative pur - movement? I'm interested in it of course, it's alternative, do we still need to work that squatting group called Artspace Life - poses; in particular, the old cells in a step in the right direction, but my feeling out, and rally for it, convince people? Or space took over the site, renamed it the police station provide a series of (shared by a lot of grassroots activists in the are there already solid communities, liv - „The Island“ and have been busily mini-galleries for various street artists UK I think, for example check this critique in ing and working together in new ways transforming it into a community arts to exhibit in. Especially striking is a Schnews - http://tinyurl.com/schnewstt) is present... centre ever since. This huge complex white-tiled cell whose walls are now
6 31 multimillion-pound mansions in May - evicted, and moved to live and work Then there is another motivation to be Q: I saw recently on Indymedia some fotos fair. The „posh“ seemed to refer as in another property in south London involved as activists. of course i don't taken of an amphibious vehicle from the much to the grand residences they whose whereabouts is „undisclosed“: want to compromise in defense of Dutch Army standing outside SWOMP were occupying as to their own back - it may be legal, but few landlords are mother earth. And also i don't like the [http://tinyurl.com/indymomp]. Was this serious grounds, which were very much in the sympathetic to squatting and most act way of not judging persons or institute, harrasment or a chance encounter? Have you mould of the archetypal „bo-bo“ or fast to get rid of uninvited guests. Not and super inclusiveness. But the more actually had much interest from the “authori - „bourgeois bohemian“. Is a spell of that this particular group should give reason to get involved in an early stage ties” concerning your free state status? fashionable squalor set to become a them cause for concern – a „leave no and make sure that we are a part of this. A: Hmm we don't know, we guess it was rite of passage for graduates? trace“ policy was firmly enforced for As an activist i don't want to alienate my - chance but at the same time you can see any rooms with period features and self from my surroundings, and thus i in - on the fotos that their teargas grenade The Da! Collective Steph stresses that „it’s always about volve myself in these surroundings. Think launcher was uncovered at our side of the the space that you‘re in, as far as global act local isn’t going to work if we car but not at the other side. It might be The grand facades of Mayfair’s man - what we do. You‘ve got to be sensi - are not willing to place ourselves in the both it might be none. For the rest we sions are an incongruous setting for tive to that.“ middle of society. So i choose to apart haven't had any contact with authorities the two scruffy 20-somethings show - from working on the destruction of old apart from the day after our declaration of ing me around. Steph, whose only At the Clarges Mews property they systems at the same time work on new independence: the neighbourhood cop luggage is a copy of The Picture of called their project „The Temporary ways of organising, living and interacting came to congratulate us with our new Dorian Gray, is wearing yellow boots, School of Thought“. The name in - with and on this earth. freestate... patterned tights and one of the purple vokes the anarchist tradition of the jackets worn by free paper distribu - „free school“ – a network of people Q: I'm sure most people reading this can Q: Following on from that, what is your life ex - tors. The stitching on its back has sharing knowledge – yet also seems imagine how you are living as a sustainable pectancy? How have you dealt with the fact been neatly modified to read „the lon - to include a wry acknowledgement of project eg solar panels for electricity, com - that you might get evicted with a few weeks' donraper“. „Yeah, one day I‘ll set up a the grandiose ambition of establishing post toilet, bicycles to get around etc etc but notice? publication of the same name – an a „school“ in the artistic sense. But do you have any top tips or clever site-spe - A: Yes we are dealing with it from the be - antidote to the raping of minds that th - rather than an artistic manifesto, this cific solutions so you can mention? Maybe ginning, we knew we just try to build our elondonpaper does.“ She is part of a group seems to have formed around your water supply? showcase for climate neutral living as quick group of artists who found themselves humbler desires – above all the de - A: Our water supply is just an old fash - as possible even though they will easily in a media storm when they moved sire to live in some kind of creative ioned hand-driven ground-water-pump. evict us bulldozer it. The first few months into a Grade II-listed mansion on community. The school itself was cer - Also the hand-washing machine is worth we were constantly occupying 24/7, now Grosvenor Square. The attention in - tainly a community-minded enter - mentioning. It’s a little barrel that you can we live there as in any other house that tensified when they moved down the prise, even if Mayfair’s wealthy turn by hand. You can wash up to four could be evicted at any moment. road to a building on Clarges Mews denizens weren‘t among those visit - kilos with it. It takes two times three worth even more millions. „Papers ing. With an eclectic timetable of minutes of turning to wash it, then rinse Q: I know last winter was pretty cold at were tracking down people’s families, classes (labyrinth-building and French and dry it. For one person it means doing SWOMP - are you better prepared for next there were character assassinations book-binding included) it was open – the laundry twice a week (your under - the one? …“ says Thomas, a tall, unshaven and free – to anyone. „It was amaz - wear, t shirts and socks, pants and A: Yep the straw bale house is completely man in his twenties. ing,“ Steph says. „There‘d be the sweaters can be washed less often) it finished and equipped with a wood burner Soon after the property’s location was charleston going on in one room and costs you about two times 20 minutes a we can also cook on. If we will last that identified in the press, the group was then a really intense discussion about week. long that is.
30 7 THE ARTISTS WHO ARE time. Fewer still can afford the luxury of a vast exhibition space they can do HOT TO SQUAT ... what they want with. Straitened times call for ever greater resourcefulness. In a semi-derelict building in Lambeth, They also – luckily for artists if not the south London, amid collapsed sofas former occupants – mean more and empty wine bottles, a group of empty buildings than ever. According squatters in their 20s are playing a to England’s Empty Homes Agency, word-association game. It started off 784,495 are unoccupied, and the with „laws“ and is followed round the number rises each day. Taking their circle with „breaking“, „entering“ and cue from similar movements in Berlin then „exiting“. Accidentally or other - and Amsterdam, artists in this country wise, here is the common perception are realising that squatting provides of squatting in four words. But squat - not just freedom from paying rent but ting itself is not a crime in England also extraordinary creative freedom. (unlike Scotland), and this group’s The chance to make large-scale presence – making films, building work, to put on frequent, artist-cu - sculptures and busily renovating as rated exhibitions and to form collabo - they paint walls as well as canvases – rative relationships based on sharing is completely legal, albeit very much a a space, has made squatting more secret from the building’s owner. „I than simply a housing solution. don‘t feel we should apologise for being here. We‘re opportunists,“ says In some cases, the squatters even Ed, a mustachioed 26-year-old who have the backing of local authorities. works in video. „I‘m damned if I‘m Wandsworth, in south London, is one going to work six days a week to pay of several councils encouraging for a studio space.“ artists to make good use of the „slack space“ of shops left empty by the re - He is not alone. Over the past few cession by offering them grants, and years an „art squat“ subculture has a similar scheme is under way in been quietly growing in the UK to in - Dursley, Gloucestershire where artists SWOMP - A free state in Amsterdoom clude not just opportunists like Ed, but use empty shops as galleries. How - creative and ambitious groups for ever, such a broad-minded approach whom the decision to squat – for to squatting is still the exception. The working or living or both – comes as start of the year saw a sustained much from an idealistic, DIY ethos as spluttering of media outrage over the it does from financial expediency. Few „posh squatters“ – a young art young artists can afford to pay rent on collective who hoisted their anarchist housing and studio space at the same flags and took up residence in two
8 29 SQUATTERS TAKE OVER Investigators explained the group FORECLOSED HOMES claims to be part of „The Marrakush Science Temple Church.“ The group „For Sale“ signs hang in the yard of apparently claimed that because of the big, new home on Fillmore Street ancient treaties, they had rights to the in the news in Hollywood, just steps from North property. When the man buying the Lake and the intracoastal. The home home saw them there, they ordered is in foreclosure and has a buyer. But him off the property, saying he was DEFROCKED PRIEST SQUATTING Last December a church tribuna it also had a squatter. trespassing. Police were called, but IN VICARAGE GIVEN REPRIEVE found the father-of-three was guilty of by the time officers arrived, the four „conduct unbecoming to the office „It just looked like people were mov - squatters had cleared out. and work of a clerk in holy orders“, ing in,“ said neighbor Donna Rion. A judge has denied the Church of but despite the ruling Okechi has Rion watched four people move „With all these foreclosures, there England the power to evict a de - failed to leave his accommodation boxes into the home. Police say one seems to be a lot of crazy stuff going frocked cleric who is squatting in a and is instead seeking reinstatement. of them was Darren Rucker, who now on,“ said real estate attorney vicarage. He did not attend yesterday’s hearing goes by the name Zamir Muham - Giovanni Nicosia, who told CBS4 and has not commented since being madan El. According to neighbors, News that getting squatters out of va - At Birmingham county court yester - barred from office. the accused squatters not only moved cant homes is not always easy. It can day, district judge Simon Bull ad - in, but changed the locks, too. be expensive and time consuming. journed the hearing after questioning While neither bishop was present in He knows first hand. „In one of my whether the church had rights over court, a diocesan spokesman said What sent off warning bells for Rion rentals, I found someone was living the property. there was disappointment at the was when she saw them pull a chain there. It turns out it was like a home - delay. „We want to move swiftly to - across the driveway. „It was just a less person, who just moved in.“ After „It may be of inconvenience to the ward the appointment of a new vicar chain,“ she said „and then it had a no two months and several court hear - claimants, but if there are squatters in and we need the vicarage to house trespassing sign with a picture of a ings, he was finally able to evict the my neighbours‘ garden and my neigh - the vicar,“ he said. temple on it. „When I went and read squatter. bours are not around, I don‘t have the it,“ she continued, „it said all this stuff In the Hollywood case, they were right to take possession,“ he said. „In law, the vicarage belongs to the in - about the temple and aboriginal rights lucky; the group left just as quickly as cumbent, the vicar. In this case, there and I didn‘t understand what it was.“ it came. Two bishops from the diocese of isn‘t a vicar to own it and so the judge Lichfield were hoping to be granted wants to ensure that, before he gives the power to evict the Rev Patrick possession of the property to the Okechi, who was sacked from his bishops, the bishops do actually have position as vicar of the Church of the the right for that. Good Shepherd with St John in West Bromwich after it emerged he had „We have been given some time to do been involved in an extra-marital more legal research and we will do affair. that, and at the next hearing we‘ll hopefully get the possession.“ Source - The Guardian
28 9 the ladder car, evicting the occupiers After getting identified and taken in who were taken away one by one buses tothe cop station in Lund, all and put into a school bus that drove except a few were let go after being off and left many outside of town. charged with illegal entry. The others SquatMeetUp Many were under the legally punish - were kept in cells one day more able age of 15. The two houses were together with the 7 arrested from the connected through a tunnel system first day. As we left Bristol on Monday evening, However, in terms of what I came running all around the area and some Later that evening there was one we tuned into the local radio news to down to do (I'm framing it in these moved around and between the more attempt to squat a house but hear one Jake Eisenstein, squatter, terms to ensure that it is clear that I houses during the evictions. the cops were prepared and they explaining why we had taken a £3 am only speaking as one participant), One person broke a leg getting out were removed. 90 people were ar - million mansion over the weekend for the meeting didn't really work. I but managed to escape the police. rested or taken into custody during a national squatters’ convention. He wanted to discuss setting up more the weekend and the liberal press laid out the reasons why in a time of print publications from and about the A group of special cops climbed up was of course desperate and out - economic depression we must take squat scene, and further I wanted to the ladders to the roof where the raged, trying to claim that the insides back the empty spaces and put them express and harden my nebulous occupants of the first house were of the houses had been wrecked and to community use both for housing thoughts about building a UK squat sitting while holding on to each other that the demonstrations were violent. and social activities. It all made sense movement. Both these things were in chains. After an hour the occupants and there was no spin added by the difficult to do in an atmosphere where were violently forced down one at The group that took the initiative con - news. Certainly this is indeed a good drunkenness was rife and there was a time through a hole down to the sider the weekend as a huge suc - time to kick off a new wave of squat - no fixed schedule. attic. Pepper-spray and arm bars cess. With 2 houses squatted and 4 ting as levels of emptiness increase I would be well up for having a squat - were used on those that resisted the attempts the goal of the weekend was and dissatisfaction breeds more ters' social meeting where we just removal and several were beaten on achieved: to squat houses in a mass radical politics. But I can't say this meet up and get fucked, that's also a the way through the attic. action. meeting really made a good start on really important bit of getting to know that ... the sense was more of a each other and building solidarity. I chance missed rather than an inspir - discussed this with some people be - ing beginning. fore the meet and the feedback was that it would end up being a munter - Don't get me wrong, the Bristol crew fest, which is kind of what happened took on a big job and pulled it off anyways. People should do what they pretty well. The cooking crew sorted want to do unless it impinges on out excellent meals three times a day someone else's rights - this is for me with a lot of stuff skipped. The loca - a fundamental belief and if that tion, a swanky mansion house in the makes me an anarchist, or an autono - poshest part of Bristol was taken, mist, or whatever then all well and held and handed back without major good, the label will stick. If people incident. The mainstream press was want to drink, snort and smoke their dealt with and presented quite a way through life, well, fine I say, they favourable view of the action. should go right ahead.
10 27 crowd. The breakout group ran out to Sunday 17/5 It's their choice after all, moreover room, not drunks who like the sound a park and got to the goal for the ------their fairly rational reaction to this of their own voice. I discussed this white block – an old abandoned ob - At 1400 the second day’s demo mess we are in. But I know (and am with a friend who said I was talking servatory, and a ladder was put up started leaving the center with some hoping to meet more) people who about fascism. That's not fascism. and a window that was smashed in. 300 people. After about half of the think there are other ways forward, Fascism is telling other people what One person got into the house and a way the news was announced in the who want to build up the structures of to do and imprisoning them when second was on the way in as the civil speaker wagon that a house had oppositional culture in this country. they refuse. Why is this similar? I'm cops dragged the person out (who cut been occupied in a southern part of The squat scene is and certainly talking about the personal freedom to upan arm on the glass). town and cheering the demo started should be one place to encounter choose what you wanna do, whether In the confusion 2 cops fell into a hole running in that direction. At the house, such people. But it seems like in Eng - that be meeting up or getting pissed. I by the side of the house and one of located in the middle of a park area land, as opposed to the Netherlands, could go on but hopefully you get my them broke his foot climbing up. It the cops had just started surrounding or France, or Spain, the munters out - point. turnedout to be the leader cop of the the house and about 30 occupiers number the activists. eviction of „Smultronstället“, Per had barricaded the rest of the house These thoughts are offered as Grahn- a well known ugly face in and taken to the roof. As the demo Whilst there some good workshops, constructive criticisms and I hope will Lund who was caught on camera as it reached the park it split up and like lockpicking and networking, there be taken as such. I know we have to all happened and a video was put on started running into smaller groups was no schedule set before the meet - work with what we have not from youtube. 26 people were arrested, that managed to pass past the ing; the plan to set the schedule on utopian standpoints, I know some and the main demo was called off for cop lines to get close to the house. Friday night evaporated, a schedule space invaders share my concerns so the day. The police was busy trying to hold was set Saturday morning and then maybe we can learn from the experi - a ring around the house but couldn‘t lunched out pretty much immediately. ence, although it seems that several Most people gathered in the prevent one big group that got into We lost crucial time because there is mistakes were simply repeats of bar of a student union called Små - the empty house next to the already some vague notion of consensus things which happened at the last lands Nation to get food and rest. squatted one and with about 60 which seems to be that everyone has meet in Leeds. The thing is though, it Somehours later a reclaim the streets people they closed up and made bar - to be there to decide things. That's wouldn’t actually take much effort to was held outside the cop station in ricades. not consensus, that's the tyranny of turn things around. And this is a pretty support of the arrested people from structurelessness, a problem plaguing basic first step in getting more organ - that day. The mobile party continued After about an hour of stress with the the activist groups trying to escape ised. If we want truly want to build a back to Smålands Nation where there pigs that tried to defend and destructive hierarchies for decades better world, we are going to have to was a nice party with the sound extend the restricted area around the already. A few people should have get off our arses and put in some system playing in the street with foot - houses, two cop vans drove up to met up to set the schedule Friday work. ball and small fires on the street. the houses with built in ladders. night after soliciting suggestions for To end on a positive note, it was Horses and dogs were used to try workshops at the infostall (as was wicked to have a guided tour of a fire During the night a house was secretly chase off the supporters amongst the done). Then we should have had a engine (yes you did read that right) squatted by about 60 people. It trees, but they had little success. One schedule and stuck to it. I don't care if and lots of good personal connections had earlier been used as a mental person was bitten by a dog, several less people would have come, I want were made. hospital for young people and after where removed by the police and 30 to meet (and discuss issues with) Stand by for a zine about UK squat the barricades were made they spent were arrested. The pigs eventually people who are motivated enough to culture! note - in the end this didn’t actually the night in the house. entered into the second house using get up out of bed and make it to the happen coz i only got one submission...
26 11 made. The plan was for 3 main blocks roof. About 20 people were caught in different colors to squat one house and held by civil cops in the yard but each. The locations of the houses some managed to escape through the were to be kept secret until the same back door of a restaurant, back to the day and it was agreed to keep to a street. line of confrontative non-violence and not to negotiate with neither Out in the street the cops started to police nor politicians. close off the entrance to the yard and make lines to keep the other Saturday 16/5: blocks out. Smoke and firecrackers ------were thrown against the horses which A few hundred people started gather - gave the cops problems to control ing at the main square in Lund around them. Meanwhile on the other side of 14:00. There where bands playing, the corner the red block blocked the speeches, music, food and in general street from the cops and tried to agreat mood. Many wore white over - storm into the yard through another alls and the 4 different blocks had gate with big shields held by 4 peo - their own colors. The aim for people ple, but were blocked by a line of in the 3 blocks dressed in red, cops in the doorway. The attempt to green and white was to attempt to push through the line in the gate squat one house each and the blue was stopped when the cops beat the block was for supporters that wanted ones in the front with pepper spray a low level of confrontation. and truncheon blows to heads and legs. One person was hit unconscious Only about 300 m after the demo and was taken to the hospital with started, it reached the first house the concussion. green block was aiming for. Carrying ladders behind the front banner, After some confusion and as the cops the green broke out to the right in a started to kettle the remaining 2 crossing and started rushing blocks from both sides and after towards the entrance to the yard by some waiting there was a break out the house. Most of them passed a attempt by the white block, now pretty line of horse cops by clapping and mixed up, in the opposite screaming to scare the horses back, direction. One of the bigger shields but were later closed in by the horses. was taken by the pigs but with the In the yard some of them climbed smaller padded shields in a line, up a ladder trying to enter the house around 150 managed to get through through a window, there was some the pig line that started using massive struggle as the cops got up to the amounts of pepper spray against the
12 25 REPORT FROM social democratic rule in the SQUATTING FESTIVAL IN LUND, supposed model society. Lund, a SWEDEN 16-17 MAY small town mainly based around its university, had reached a very difficult Background housing situation especially ------for young people from the area. It was For many years in Sweden, squatting even harder for them to find a houses has been something not flat than for students moving there attempted very often, a lot because of from other towns. They quickly the no-tolerance laws and practice by gained a big and broad support the Swedish state. The attempts among neighbors and the people during the last 15-20 years from town met heavy sentences and the interest with their open and inviting attitude in squatting sank to a low level. and many came by to visit. The After the eviction of Ungdomshuset in local media also portrayed the whole Copenhagen many were inspired by thing surprisingly good. the resistance and the movement that Negotiations were started with the arose around the fight for a youth municipality that hadn‘t dared to house, and the idea started to seem give the eviction order yet as they more real again. During the were blamed for the housing international squat days of action in politics. But after weeks of meetings April 2008 several houses were and promises from the side of the squatted in many Swedish cities, politicians the squat was evicted with - purposely during a limited time to out any notice before. The night makepublic activities. of the eviction a big demonstration was held through the city center and The temporary squattings continued shortly after, two new houses were after the action days and in the squatted, though they were evicted October 2008 a house in Lund was the same day. squatted, later called „smultronstället“ which lasted for Tired of the lies and backstabbing about a month. It was publicly from the local politicians, the squatted and the squatters intended occupiers decided to make a big festi - to live there as long as possible. val to squat new houses in the town As it happened the housing situation center in a mass action, inspired the in Sweden in general was going similar G13 in Copenhagen. So as towards an extreme level compared the 16th of may got closer, people to the comfortable existence most from many other Swedish towns had people took for granted after years of been invited and preparations were
24 13 The Shape left by the Absence:
The Memory and the Hope of Squats and Social Centres
I have just started to read one of the and so powerful, I thought I should most beautifully-written monographs, share it with you in this article. one that is both compelling in its con - So what am I on about? I am on about tent and stunning in its prose. It is a the restless soul that lies dormant after sociological work written by Avery Gor - the violent trauma of colonialism, the don and it deals with the haunting of acceleration of private property, the ex - memory within the very minute com - pansion of capital, and the enclosure of plexes of the social underweavings of the commons. And this soul rekindles life. She takes the image of an elderly itself, re-enters the now planetary mar - lady (Professor in fact), as she traces ket culture and opens out the disappro - back her colonial ancestry. [1] priated space, in its many guises, and Her great-great grandmother was a many forms. As the expansion of capi - slave, and the owner of that very same tal has been so fast, this unhappy ghost slave was her great-great grandfather. stirs in matching fervour as the task of The lady is trying to find her grand - degenerating capitalism’s grasp be - AMSTERDAM mother’s silent presence within her comes all the more pivotal. And yet, past, that which has been muffled by what we see in the crises and balls ups the ancestral owner’s (great-great grand - of the global financial world, of the past father’s) quickened hand. You are prob - year and a half or so, is evidence of a BREDA ably wondering what on earth any of system of organisation that is very In Breda there were three days of events at this has got to do with squats and social much in decline. The memory of the the squatted church (left) and on Friday a nice action with a ‘Housing Need’ office installed centres. Well, for Gordon, this image commons interrupts and disturbs its outside the council buildings (below) allows her to bring into motion the recalcitrant cousin. force of her project, the search for the Not intentionally making this any sort ‘shape described by the absence’, the of ephemeral description of the squat - apparitions that demand their recogni - ting movement and its attached social tion from their unrequited existences centre contingent, but I have been very and manifestations of times gone by. much moved by Avery Gordon’s e This description I thought was so eerie, loquent presentation of the memories
14 23 of domination that you can see jutting Perhaps more fittingly is the role of jaggedly under the shibboleth of time, the disjuncture of its nature, and DEN BOSCH enclosure’s grasp. the opportunities that can be had in its As one of the members of a collective circular and simultaneous dimensions. recently described to me, squats and so - I was told it was quite a job to give a cial centres find themselves (using a history of squatting (after another inter - quote from science fiction writer, James rogation session on my behalf), when Tiptree Jnr) within the ‘chinks of the you’re not dealing with anything near world machine.’ These are the loop the resemblance of linear time! holes and interstices of liminal exis - But because we can feel the cries of tence that we must exploit politically, history within the day-to-day of squat - she explained to me. Getting to the ting, or postmodern-day ‘commoning’, nub of it, I am offering squatting and the past is incorporated into the now, social centres as an example of a and that’s how and why the emotion A house was squatted in the centre of town (above) ‘remainder’ of a previous form of social and passion keeps its hold. A helpful organisation, one based on a belief in guide or two in conceptualising this can the earth ‘as a common treasury for all.’ [2] be found in the works of Walter Ben - This work comes along side that of the jamin and Ernst Bloch. ‘Autonomous Geographies’ project’s Firstly, Benjamin guides us most obvi - ZAANDAM focus on the commons, who have writ - ously through his “Theses on the His - ten about social centres and the reap - tory of Philosophy.” [4] propriation of space at great length, He depicts what he calls the angel of and which you should have a look at. [3] history (Angelus Novus) via the artwork Using the idea of the commons as a of the same name of Paul Klee (1920). Angelus Novus is looking back towards platform, you can see where the role of the past, being blown away by the memory fits in – and so too that of forceful wind of Progress, into the fu - haunting. ture. The past stands for the image of But it’s not all about the memory, it’s injustice and catastrophe, and yet, the not all about some nostalgic ghost that portrayal here is that the most effective each squat is apparently supposed to manner for humankind to understand represent or inhabit. the mistakes of times gone by, there
22 15 must be a grasping of tragedy, one that is unabashed by looking back and learn - ing. Within this, Benjamin understands the dimensions of distance – time and space – as always present, within the past, the present, and the future. So, NIJMEGEN the quest for lost time is the same as the ‘quest for lost futures.’ [5] The present, is saturated with tales of the past, figures of times before, and events that happened, or were to happen. The present is the past, and is the future. There is a dialectic here that Benjamin works with, a concentration of history that is rooted in the binary of the fu - ture and the past, “ … of messianic ex - pectation and remembrance.” [6] So take our figure of the squat, and Here, the depths of space and time where it fits into this Benjaminian (dimensions of distance), allow for each framework. Squats and social centres to greet the other - and the auratic ex - offer us a bottled version of the princi - perience is the meeting of the two. ples of the past, through their evocative Squats and social centres are this aura, existence as and their coming together this chink in the world machine, this of the temporal and the spatial. A squat offering of alternatives, that appear at or a social centre is what Benjamin the human-made boundaries of what might even confer as an ‘auratic mo - we perceive. And through the memory- ment’. Giving the poignancy of an work of the commons. image (like that of Avery Gordon’s), he It’s not all about the past though. Amongst other actions, a uses the metaphor of a shooting star to Squatting pushes forward the margins huge old bar and restaurant describe this auratic phenomena, or the through what Marxist Ernst Bloch called Big Daddy’s was experience of the aura. This spectre of would have called a form of ‘anticipa - successfully squatted, com - the commons in the form of the aura, is tory consciousness’. These unrequited plete with bar and pool tables! the “…unique phenomenon of a dis - pasts and rightly-so belligerent phan - tance however close it may be.” [7] tasms are also the future in the now, the
16 21 ‘NOT YET’ as Bloch would say. [8] the project she is part of. She is allow - Again, my lady from the collective said ing the apparitions of the commons to Het Kraakverbod Komt she functioned as though the future come through, and paving the way for had already happened, which she was at the encounters and the possibilities of pains to make clear was not the same as the future. On October 15, 2009, the Tweede living for the now. I can quote her as So the aura of squats and social centres Kamer voted to ban squatting in the explaining: “Our sense of futurority is rain forth for the future and allow the Netherlands. This means it will most not utopian, but a realism – in the space shape left by the absence to be filled. likely be illegal to squat (with a maxi - there is already a future, one non-hier - This is the hope that the movement. mum prison sentence of one year) by archical and egalitarian in tension with Fill the void, enact the future, and January next year. In response, the past and future of the dominant ensure the commons are revived and squatters organised a national culture of oppression.” discarded of their supernatural form, at demonstartion in Utrecht on Octobver 24 and the following weekend was Back to an image, a reflection or an this very timely moment within the designate Landelijke Kraakactie inkling of what I am talking about. narratives of social organisation. Dagen - National Squat Action Days! Imagine a 25 year old girl, just arrived Here follows a foto report of just some from another country or another town, of the actions. Source - indymedia.nl just settling into her newly found home Notes with her squatter friends in a social cen - tre. She sits and has lunch at a lovely 1 The lady is Patricia Williams, and the recounting old unwanted mahogany table, in the of her past can be found in “The Alchemy of Race and Rights” (1991) sunny newly transformed allotment 2 A quote from Gerard Winstanley, the 17th space that used to be a rubble pile. She century radical preacher of The Diggers discusses with her fellow cohorts the 3 See http://www.autonomousgeographies.org way in which to manage their space, 4 See Benjamin, W. (1999), “Illuminations”, given time to speak and the opportu - London, Pimlico nity to disagree as she sees fit. They 5 Szondi, P. and Mendelsohn, H. (1978), “Hope in collectively concur to continue their the Past: On Walter Benjamin”, 4, Critical Inquiry, 3. 491-506, 501 outreach to the local community, they 6 Szondi, P. and Mendelsohn, H. (1978), “Hope in determine the parameters through the Past: On Walter Benjamin”, 4, Critical Inquiry, which they will do this. Her face illu - 3. 491-506, 504 minated by the midday sun, she com - 7 Mosès, S. (2009), “The Angel of History: mits herself to having her space, as a Rosenzweig, Benjamin, Scholem”, Stanford, public space. Sipping her coffee and Stanford University Press, 78 deftly rolling another cigarette, she un - Yeoldefinch EINDHOVEN derstands the meaning her role has and
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