Report on March's National Squat meeting in Bristol

[Gerrard Winstanley]

Rather a damning report - 

Report on National Squat Meeting 13-15th March, 2009, Bristol

A Report from the National Squat Meeting, held in Bristol, 13th-15th March, 2009.
http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/690195

SQUATTERS POURED INTO MOULD

`Activist structures appear to be highly vulnerable to manipulation by individuals with a preset agenda that rest on creating and leading a `consensus' to an already decided outcome and trajectory. The main feature of these models is usually noticeable in their inflexibility, emphasis on production/'efficiency' and focus on `getting shit done'. This is done under a facade of collective decision making and `inclusion'. These forms of `non-hierarchical consensus decision making' are just as vulnerable to passive/aggressive power dynamics as other forms of organisation. The power dynamic is suppressed but it is diffused into the very form of the structure itself, establishing `permitted' limits of action and dialogue on the `participants'.' – 325 magazine #6, p.5

I attended the national Squat Meeting in Bristol on March 13-15. A £3 million `mansion' was temporarily occupied, a building left to turn to mould for 2+ years while awaiting planning permission for development into luxury apartments in the extremely fancy and insular Clifton `village' area. The owner and builders turned up before the gathering started, and were reassured with promises by `the squatters' to move out on the Monday following the event, as the builders were said to be due to start work (it was felt by `the negotiators' that the workers' livelihoods should not be unnecessarily affected). The owner's security kept an eye throughout on who was coming and going, supposedly under the pretence that the builders' tools were in the building (which they had the opportunity to take but chose not to; and when the squat crew left on Monday no one was searched anyway).

>From what I was able to find out, publicity for the event had been very limited in Bristol itself, due to fears that local squatters would use the opportunity of having a `free space' to try and have a party in town (which has been largely impossible in recent years due to police repression), curious reasoning assuming an inability to hold down a space with direction and purpose. The current economic situation has slowed and even halted much building work, so this could be a good time to promote squatting for much needed housing, as rents, deposits, and the cost of living continue to rise disproportionately (the poor get screwed still further), and more buildings become left unused. Why are there not more squats? In Bristol, there have been – as in other towns – flurries of illegal evictions as gentrification continues, though in some instances deals have been made with owners of both buildings and (traveller) sites. In the battle to retake access to space, resources, decision-making etc, taking a space and making an agreement with the owners and police might be the pragmatic option, yet doesn't constitute much hope or send a clear message of total resistance.

No contact was made with local housing/homeless groups or individuals, so this event was very much an ingrowth of the UK squat/activist ghetto. In other countries, such as, for example, Greece and Mexico, activists/revolutionaries/anarchists (call them what you will), have only succeeded in going beyond a self-contained `alternative' scene or an isolated vanguard by adapting to local circumstances and ditching ideological pretensions, in order to attack the State/corporate world continuously. This has resulted in a groundswell of community and solidarity.

Aside from an excellent talk on lock-picking (the tools and guides are available on the internet, get practicing!), a discussion on networking (within pre-existing `activist' networks), and a resisting evictions skill share, the level of discussion floundered on the shores of the lowest common denominator (not helped by drunk/anaesthetised `participants'). It seemed that voices were being silenced and ideas at odds with those of the facilitor(s) of the already long discussions held in a large group were being rapidly bypassed in order to reach decisions that seemed to have been pre-decided. Most of anything interesting happened informally, outside the hastily invented timetable of discussions and `workshops' (the latter not light engineering - that had already been mostly completed by the time the Gathering started).

In these times when the Global Market seems to teetering on the brink, while simultaneously the military and politicians are initiating new forms of repression and technological control, I left this Squatters Gathering feeling that an opportunity had been missed by the participants to further direct action and resistance, and still unsure as to what the remit of the weekend had been.

Inspirationcore:
`From Autonomous Space Towards Liberated Space: Some Points for Discussion and Debate', 325 magazine #6, pp. 15-16
`Thoughts On Our Meetings Together', 325 magazine #6, pp. 17-18
325 magazine: available in sorted squats/info centres, or online at: http//:325collective.com

BOX: In many spaces in the U.K supposedly oriented toward action and DIY ethics (and throughout society in general), drink and drugs have created an atmosphere which marginalises sobriety, and promotes a false sense of group coherence (lifestyle politics). Becoming-resistant requires a clear head and decisive, continuous action. In the early stages of deprogramming (and very occasionally further down the line), `drugs' can function as a springboard of inspiration and connection with an `outside', but with training these experiments don't need to be endlessly repeated until our bodies and minds have been consumed, inhabited, and left ruined: `To bring the use of [these] drugs into perspective I would suggest that academies be established where young people will learn to get really high ... High as the Zen master is high when his arrow hits a target in the dark... High as the karate master is high when he smashes a brick with his fist... High... Weightless... In space. This is the space age. Time to look beyond this rundown radioactive cop-rotten planet. Time to look beyond this animal body. Remember that anything that can be done chemically can be done in other ways' – William Burroughs, `Academy 23' in `The Job'.

[* Originally published in the March edition of Rupture magazine, a free, London-based, zine on free parties and related culture. To be put on the list send email to rupture at headfuk.net]