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SQUATTING.
Since October 1991's government talk of impending
new laws to tackle squatting, the squatting
community has been up and down and around the
block trying to mobilize against the changes and
waiting for something concrete to be announced.
At the Conservative party conference last summer
the home secretary momentarily united a
disunited party with a set of 27 proposals to
rectify the state of the UK. Leaving aside
topics such as rising poverty, homelessness, cuts
in social spending and increased taxation on the
poorest section of the populace, he spelled out
the dangers facing UK citizens. The blight of
Britain's shining society was of course,
squatters, travellers, hunt saboteurs, single
mothers, terrorists, pornographers, ticket touts
and child criminals. Henceforth, he promised
more prison building, tougher sentencing and new
offences for possession of items intended for
terrorist purposes (like clocks?) and possession
of information likely to be of use to terrorists
for planning acts of violence (like who's who
book ?). He also ended the right to silence when
arrested whereby you need not say anything during
questioning by the cops. Now it will be
mentioned to the courts that you refused to
speak in the interrogation. You can imagine it.
Cop-'he refused to speak, your honour', judge-'he
said nothing at all, eh?' cop - 'well, except
when he told me to fuck off you filthy
bastard!'.
The Queen's speech on 18th November, where the
old queen reads a list of intended legislation,
did not specifically mention squatting, but
included it as a part of the new Criminal
Justice Bill (which will include the above
mentioned new gems too).
Landlords will still need a possession order from
the civil courts to get an eviction BUT the
court case will be heard Ex Parte, this means
that the squatters will not be given notice of
the hearing or be allowed to attend. As a
squatter, the first you'll hear about it will be
the knock on your door from the landlord or the
cops telling you that a possession order has
been granted and that you have 24 hours to leave
or face arrest and a fine of 5000 or 6 months in
prison. The government has justified the new laws
saying that squatters will be able to get a
hearing after their eviction. We suspect that
squatters will not jump for joy at this. Also,
any Landlord desiring a speedy eviction of
unwanted tenants can simply claim that the
occupiers are squatters as there will be no-one
in the court to dispute this.
At the time of writing (Jan 94) none of these
proposals have been made law so SQUATTING IS
STILL LEGAL despite unscrupulous cops, landlords
and councils who have been trying to convince
squatters otherwise. Squatters Action For Secure
Homes (SQUASH), the group set up to fight against
new laws, say that it is unlikely that this crap
will receive the royal assent (when the Queen
'approves' the law) before May or June 1994.
SQUASH have been lobbying MPs to nominal effect
but have secured sympathetic words fomr the main
liberal housing charities. They have also done
media work like giving interviews on TV and
radio. The networking group (in SQUASH) have
been working on getting out info to Tenants
Associations about how the law could affect
their rights. They have also tried to encourage
groups to set up in areas where there is, at
present, no real squatting group.
Across London, various well established squat
groups have been busy too. In Hackney, an
informational leaflet was done to inform tenants
and licensees on local estates of the proposed
changes. Tottenham are monitoring empty
porperties and prodduced a leaflet. They also
called a public meeting, leafleting 2000 homes
and flyering for the event too. New groups may
be starting in Hammersmith and Tower Hamlets
after initial meetings.
RUTLAND PARK - future shock?
The eviction of the massive squatted Rutland Park
Mansions in Brent in West London in December
could be the shape of things to come after any
changes in the laws on squatting.
Rutland Park Mansions have been occupied for over
ten years after two thirds of the council-owned
building had been left for years to decay.
Declared as 'surplus to it's housing
requirements', the council agreed to sell the
site to Paddington Churches Housing Association
(PCHA) as the latter wanted to link development
to an existing PCHA block in Rutland Park. The
development proposals failed to take into
account the integrity of the Victorian buildings
so the campaign to save the block made a
proposal for a scheme whereby the existing
buildings would stay intact. Much work was being
done to secure refurbishment guarantees as
opposed to demolition but various court
appearances could not stop the eviction. Brent
Council at one point were paying 100 a day to a
security frimr for guards to live in the only
empty flat in the block to prevent it being
squatted.
Despite a great and hearty local campaign, on the
Sunday morning at dawn, 300 riot cops guarded
baillifs who, ignoring friendly offers of tea,
sledgehammered their way through the flats and
set about destrying fittings and breaking
windows.
The police kept journalists out of the area near
the squat saying that they feared for their
safety and that they expected trouble from the
squatters, talking of MOlotovs and booby-traps
too. All this was just a blatant lie with the
sole purpose of justifying the eviction by 300
cops out of sight of th epress. No barricades
were set and no arrests were made. It was
well-known that the Rutland Park squatters were
not out for a violent confrontation. Alongside
the vicious eviction and demolition of Chestnut
tree in Wanstead, less than a week earlier, this
eviction was a sure sign of a new reality for
those who squat to live or occupy to resist.
Talking of which....
Another European capital big squat is gone. The
Wohlgroth in Zurich city centre has been
evicted. Say hello to EC harmonisation.
Home to 120 people, with a bar and cafe and
numerous other totally together activities and
spaces, the Wohlgroth was faced in November with
an offer of an alternative building from the
owners Burhle (an international arms company) and
the local council. An empty factory (also owned
by Burhle) in the Zurich suburbs was offered to
the squatters if they left Wohlgroth without
resistance.
Wohlgroth people took the keys from Burhle and in
front of the media (who's coverage has been
good), handed the keys to 2 theatre groups, and
declined the offer because the place had no
living space and because they don't want the big
office development to go ahead at the Wohlgroth
site. The media coverage becomes more hostile,
now that the 'reasonable' offer had been
refused.
On 20th November, 2000 people demonstrated for
Wohlgroth with the motto "Wohlgroth stays where
it is"; however, 2 days later, 300 cops with
helicopters, anti-terrorist units and firemen
standing by, turned up and the squatters had to
leave the place. The crowd around the building
were pushed by the cops and by water cannon
whilst the cops inside trashed the place.
On 24th November, Taro, a former homeless shelter
closed by the city 2 years before, was squatted
and on the 24th, a quick demo is held against
the eviction resulting in 39 arrestws and an old
man is struck by a stone thrown against the
cops, resulting in massively hostile press
against the Wohlgroth. On the Monday, cops raid
the Taro looking for the stone thrower. Three
more housses are squatted nearby and on
Saturday, 800 people march against the eviction
behind the banner - "What's all this bullshit
about?". As we write, the cops are everywhere in
the area and private cops (protectas) are
protecting Wohlgroth whilst it is destroyed.
Nobody know what will happen to the new squats.
Source: Kasama FAX - 0041-02719012