We are occupying the York and Albany Hotel in Camden as the collective Camden Art Cafe. We aim to open our doors regularly to anyone and everyone, particularly the people of Camden who have been victims of gentrification and parasitic projects like HS2. We provide free food, drinks, and a space to display their art without the ridiculous red-tape galleries that require people to jump over. We believe all of us and our art deserves dignity.
Camden is a borough with one of the biggest wealth disparities in London, so it seems only fitting that £13 million properties that most locals would never be able to afford to visit should be opened up to all. The York and Albany is an iconic building in Camden since its opening in the 1820s; it has withstood wars and bombs, and despite what the media says, it will withstand the potentially short but hopefully long stay we squatters have here. At a time when Camden market has been bought out by a billionaire and many longstanding local businesses are being evicted from their units, it’s even more important that we all band together in all the forms of resistance that we know and can.
We extend our particular solidarity to the Palestinian people and the longstanding residents of Drummond Street and the surrounding estates who have had their whole lives upturned by HS2.
The anarchist-squatter group that temporarily liberated a Belgravia mansion owned by Oleg Deripaska on March 14th, 2022 have released the following statement:
We Are Anarchists. We Occupy this property in protest against Putin and his world. This mansion is owned by a Russian Oligarch, Complicit in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Do we need to remind you why Putin Sucks? The invasion of Ukraine is only the latest episode in a long series, from the support of Assad in Syria to the neo-nazi Wanger militia assistanting dictatorship, concentration camps for LGBT+ people, ecosides, brutal wealth inequality, far right troll farms and so on.
By Occupying this mansion, We want to show solidarity for the people on Ukraine but also for the people of Russia who never agreed to this madness. We want to show our sympathy to the brave protesters who have been in the belly of the beast, and suffer unjust imprisonment for staying up to Putin.
Finally a few words for the elites here in the UK, who have been Putins Minions for years. You received bribes, you managed Oligarch’s property, you even adopted Putin’s authoritarian attitude to protest and decent. FUCK YOU TOO.
This mansion will serve as a refugee support, for people of Ukraine and people of all nations and ethnicity.
There were over 2688 people recorded to be sleeping rough in London on any one night in 2020.
The temperature at night will be cold enough to cause hypothermia for 23 days this month. That’s 23 days where there’s a real possibility that someone sleeping on the street may not wake up.
It doesn’t have to be like this.
With rough sleeper increases of up to 150% in some London boroughs last year, homelessness remains a problem that cannot be brushed under the rug. This number has climbed 52% over the past decade alone – it will continue to rise and we are doing something because we know this doesn’t need to keep happening.
People shouldn’t be forced to freeze to death on the streets of a country that has chosen to forget them. Rising rent costs and continuous lack of compassion from the services set up to help has enabled a widespread blind eye for those in situations like these – it’s time we worked from the ground up. None of us should be one missed paycheck away from homelessness – and none of us should be sleeping rough in the middle of winter. We must show solidarity with our own communities.
We are occupying the former St. Mungo’s Hostel on Gray’s Inn Road in protest against the austerity measures that have enabled the continuous neglect of those sleeping rough. As houseless people, no longer will we sit and wait to freeze to death on the streets. We are sick of sombre spaces and half-assed hostels. Instead, we are taking direct action – organising to assist each other in times of crisis.
We aim to provide a safe and warm space for people to stay, create, and take care of themselves and others within a community environment. It is not enough to provide what people need to survive – we aim to cultivate a space where it is possible for people to thrive.
Our ethos is simple – mutual respect, mutual aid. Our spaces are open to all, though abuse of any kind is not welcomed. Ours is a space of community support and community prosperity.
Over the course of the past year, we have seen this government make some questionable decisions regarding aid for houseless people. The promotion of Whitechapel Mission, alongside a tannoy announcement reminding passengers not to give directly to the homeless was publicly apologised for by Priti Patel, yet it remains in circulation. People who wish to help are encouraged to keep their assistance always one step removed from those who need it – allowing those in power to virtue signal their sympathy, while ignoring the issue at hand.
Direct action is the only way forward. We can demonstrate our solidarity with those in need if we try. Stand with us as we tackle the housing crisis head on, through mutual aid and mutual respect.
“The Serious Annoyance has returned to occupy the empty Camberwell Police Station as we continue in our fight to #KillTheBill, #ResistAntiTrespass and highlight the destructive role of the police force. We fight against these bills in a show of solidarity with all those the police do not protect, and to state that we do not, and will not accept increased police powers that effectively ban protest and criminalise trespass – effectively rendering a travelling life impossible, and intentionally erasing GRT (Gypsy/Roma/Traveller) culture and heritage. In occupying this cop shop, we choose to collectively stand against this injustice.
Our motive for the past few weeks has been to create a community oriented and community inspired space – one that relies not on money, but on mutual aid and solidarity. Our Open Art Space, a graphic art focused free-paint day, lead to some incredible murals and impactful messages strewn across our space. These were joyfully received by the local community, many of whom we invited inside to see the space for our F*ck The Cops exhibition. There, we handed out zines, ran workshops & distributed resources to those around us to inform the local community about the Kill The Bill and Resist Anti Trespass movements, and the bills they counter. The outpouring of support from the locals was immense – we were provided food and drinks from Church St restaurants and takeaways, received many a passing honk of support, and were kindly gifted a care package from one of the local off licenses.
On the 8 th of July, ThamesWater shut our water supply off. We spent almost a fortnight without access to running water, which has hit us especially hard during the heatwave of the recent days. A comrade of ours wound up with heatstroke last Saturday as a result and had to be treated by paramedics out in the scorching sun.
This severing of our water supply is in direct breach of the Human Rights Act 1998 – it was not detailed in the possession order, and ThamesWater, upon receipt of our address, refused to send someone out. We are incredibly grateful to all those who have assisted the space in any way, shape or form – however small or big, everyone’s contributions have helped to show that it is possible to create a space that does not rely on money, but on community as a means of security.
The Serious Annoyance has returned to occupy the empty Camberwell Police Station, Camberwell Church St SE5, as we continue in our fight to #killthebill and highlight the destructive role of the police.
This week, the draconian PCSC Bill passed its third reading in the commons as the state continues to enforce the expansion of police powers that do nothing but increase the ruling class’s ability to repress us. We know the cops don’t protect us – their resources aren’t focused on catching so-called “criminals”, but on protecting the wealth and power of the capitalist class. We also know that no demand to defund the police is enough – the bastard Tories have already been defunding the police for years! As all these empty cop shops prove… Instead we must build a world which abolishes the police by organsing our own communities and making the cops completely unnecessary.
We do not and we will not accept increased police powers which effectively ban protest and criminalise trespass, something which amounts to the ethnic cleansing of the GRT community in the UK by making a travelling life impossible.
Despite the increasingly violent and extreme attacks from the state against those of us who resist the growing police state, from the brutal eviction of the Clapham NotACopShop to the harassment of our comrades in Bristol and the vicious prison sentences being proposed for the brave militants allegedly involved in the Bristol Riots, we will continue to fight against the Bill and its criminalisation of trespass and our democratic rights.
Not only do we continue to resist this Bill to the final possible moment, but we will continue to organise ourselves to break the system that needs it: a system falling deeper and deeper into a crisis it can only try to solve with more cops, more surveillance, more laws, that strip away our freedom and dignity in order to protect the wealth and power of the ruling class. We refuse to live in their world of ‘total policing’, guarded everywhere by the servants of an evil regime of persecution of women, Black and Brown people, queer people, the working class and every other oppressed group.
In occupying this cop shop, we collectively stand against this injustice. We will be offering workshops and events that resist this fascist state. We hope that this will be space to find one another, to forge affinities, to tell stories, to inspire, provoke, plot. Watch out for workshops and discussions, for harnessing our ideas, for identifying our enemy, always towards total liberation from this authoritarian society.
Together we are strong and we will take what we deserve.
Fuck your laws, fight forever. In love, rage and solidarity, The Occupiers xx
This a statement from some squatters in Bristol, who had 4 squats, including 40a Space and Salvation Army mutual aid/social centres and Wonky Arrow Books, a radical library.
In the past days we’ve had our buildings forcibly closed with anti-social behaviour orders, and we’ve been raided by hundreds of riot police. We’ve been beaten, pepper-sprayed, arrested, and sectioned.
This is an escalation– it hasn’t been like this in the UK in years. Not that this is new. No, we see this as part of a long and brutal history of the repression of marginalised communities, and anyone who shows resistance or alternatives.
The police and state media will try and paint this as the result of us being ‘anti-social’ – but isn’t it the police who hurt and intimidate us? Who break down the doors; who criminalize and target poor people, people of colour, travelling communities, people who live differently? It is the state and the police that are truly anti-social, at the core of the troubles we face in our lives.
This is an attempt to intimidate us, to repress mobilization in Bristol (especially around Kill the Bill) and to break down a community who are challenging the police and what they represent. We know that real community makes police obsolete.
Against police repression, in defence of squats and social centres everywhere, and in solidarity with all prisoners and those targeted by the state!
Social Centers Get ASBO
A few days ago at Wonky Arrow Books squat, plain clothes police started filming a woman getting changed in her bedroom, from the private courtyard behind the house. We told them to go away, and in response they attempted to make arrests, but instead beat up and seriously pepper sprayed 4 of our comrades. Who are the anti-social ones? Who make our lives unsafe?
On Wednesday morning, we got served anti-social behaviour closure notices for the 3 squats on High St – with court for the next morning. No evidence provided, the courts had no information, and it was impossible to get proper legal advice or defence. Court was ridiculous and they wouldn’t adjourn to let us get legal representation. The judges wouldn’t consider us ‘interested parties’ and the police barrister asked them to ‘attach no weight to our evidence’! That said, we know there’s no such thing as a ‘fair trial’ – the law is their game, and we’re shit on their shoes.
In court we spoke about how our social centre and bookshop had provided community and education in a neglected part of town, about to be further gentrified.
We told them how this is part of a broader, politically motivated programme of repression of protesters and those providing alternatives to the system, particularly in vocal opposition to the PCSC Bill.
We pointed out that their allegations of ‘anti-social behaviour’ were just about property and business – not the public, who this is supposed to be about, who of course benefit from our spaces.
We showed that this is an attempt to criminalize a civil matter (we were already engaged in civil legal processes for all the buildings!)
Police Raid Squats and Surrounding Buildings
Early Friday morning, riot police smashed into the squats on High St (which no-one was in) – and then smashed the doors down and raided surrounding shops and flats, to the horror of the people there. We’re deeply sorry that this has happened and we’re trying to rebuild community there.
There was no reason for the police to raid the surroundings, other than intimidation. This is part of how the police try to divide communities and create fear and mistrust.
It is the police that make the neighbourhood around the squats unsafe, and it always has been.
Huge Police raid and Salvation Army Squat
A couple hours later, a huge police operation started at the Salvation Army with probably hundreds of riot police from at least 4 forces around the country and at least 40 vehicles.
We were expecting court bailiffs to evict us – but it turned out the police were raiding us to arrest people under S.17.
They wanted 3 people for the incident outside Wonky Arrow and said they wouldn’t break in if those people came out. There were only 2 of those people inside, who voluntarily surrendered themselves to protect the squat from being smashed. But the cops still smashed their way in. After searching and realizing the 3rd wasn’t there, they randomly arrested another person – a black woman the police have continually profiled and targeted.
Outside, 5 cops grabbed a woman and dragged her across the street, screaming in pain, then threw her to the ground where she lay crying. They ignored her and blocked access to get her medical attention for her pretty serious arm injuries.
In the police station, the police weren’t letting our friends speak to their solicitors (which is a legal right in the UK). After waiting for hours outside the police station, the police told us they had released our comrades – but they hadn’t. We thought they’d disappeared. Eventually we got 2 of our friends back. We found out the 3rd had been taken to a hospital and sectioned under S.136. We are horrified.
In the police station, the police weren’t letting our friends speak to their solicitors (which is a legal right in the UK). After waiting for hours outside the police station, the police told us they had released our comrades – but they hadn’t. We thought they’d disappeared. Eventually we got 2 of our friends back. We found out the 3rd had been taken to a hospital and sectioned under S.136. We are horrified.
On 23rd March, Resist Anti-Trespass (R-AT 🐀) occupied former Vapiano restaurant on Wardour St in Soho, to share joy and free pizza with everyone. They’ve created a beautiful well looked after space in solidarity with anyone protesting PCSC (Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill), and to show what creative and positive action trespass can be.
From Day 1, they received threats from police and withstand several attempts of forced entry and continued hassasment.
On 25th March, under the pretext of fake gas leak, their space was besieged by police from midday till 8pm when the riot police violently entered their home, destroyed it with rage and brutally assaulted 4 people inside by throwing them on the ground, chocking and punching them unconscious to the point where an Ambulance was needed, and people were sent to the hospital.
After nearly 24 hours arrest they were released without bail or charges, pending ‘investigation’.
Squatters and autonomous activists have occupied the former Clapham Common Police Station to demand the withdrawal of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and the end of the femicide recently highlighted by the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met police officer.
As the closest cop shop to where Sarah was last seen, the occupation of this building holds particular importance and meaning at this time. Although the bill has been postponed, we have to keep fighting it to ensure it does not pass. And in the meantime, violence against women continues. We must seize this moment where we find ourselves UNITED in rage, unified in our fight against the ongoing global femicide and to remember people like Sarah, Blessing Olusegun and countless others and to build our fight to end violence against women.
We also seek to bring attention to Section 4 of the Bill which criminalises trespass, a racist move by this Tory government which will affect predominantly travellers and van dwellers but also squatters, protest camps and the homeless. We hope that all those who resist the expansion of police powers in the Tories Bill will also join us in resisting any amended versions of that Bill which retain this racist attack which will make a travelling way of life almost impossible.
Last night, police attempted to intimidate us into leaving the building, stating that they did not care that this was a legally occupied building and that they would turn up in the morning full force to get us out. We called their bluff and continue to enforce our rights as squatters to occupy this empty building in political protest.
We invite all to come and help occupy the space, to discuss and share ideas and create networks of solidarity which will help us to resist this racist, authoritarian Bill, and just to use the space for whatever you need it for as we work to stop this Bill and end femicide!
NFA Anti-Fascists 