Report from SquatTastic Bristol

Mon May 9 22:45:44 BST 2011

Report from Squattastic Bristol

http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/704445

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 Monday May 09, 2011 20:36
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 by Taunton Squatters
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On Saturday 7th May 2011 a meeting was held at 
the 
<http://www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org/>Bristol 
Anarchist Bookfair regarding the Squatting Law, 
the upcoming changes, the impact it has on 
Bristol squatters and action to take for the 
future. The meeting, titled 
<http://squattastic.blogspot.com/>Squattastic 
Bristol was an open discussion with both 
squatters and non-squatters concerned of recent 
events in Bristol, Brighton, London and 
elsewhere. Packed into a small room, every point 
raised in the meeting was respected, and many 
ideas were put forward. The meeting raised many 
questions for us all to think about now and in the future:

What is the new law? How does it affect squatters and travellers?
It was explained that the new law is to 
effectively remove 
<http://www.squatter.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=31>Section 
6 of the Criminal Law Act 1977, as amended by 
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. This 
would make squatting a criminal offence of 
trespass, regardless of whether the land or 
building is occupied or not. So far 
<http://www.edms.org.uk/2010-11/1545.htm>only 23 
MPs have supported the EDM and it hasnt progressed beyond this point.

How to deal with police in future evictions?
The main tactic put forward was the Phone Tree 
network, to use during and prior to evictions. 
The Phone Tree works exactly as it suggests, with 
any squatters in the case of an eviction sending 
out texts to any contacts that can get to the 
squat immediately, and can also forward texts to 
their contacts; gaining power in numbers and 
spreading the message in an easy and efficient 
way. Illegal evictions, in Bristol particularly, 
have been successfully resisted by these means, 
with people head-to-toe in black acting as a 
sufficient deterrant to the police and bailiffs.

S.N.O.B (Squatters Network Of Brighton)  gave out their contact number
Following evictions in Brighton, SNOB are now 
working on expanding their phone-tree.

New upcoming Squat for Bridgwater?
A member of S.W.A.N 
(<http://www.facebook.com/pages/South-West-Against-Nuclear/118344338243377>South 
West Anti-Nuclear) mentioned that they are in 
need of a new squatted social centre in 
Bridgwater in the near future. The centre would 
be used as a base for S.W.A.N and further 
promotion for the <http://stophinkley.org/>Stop Hinkley campaign.

The Media and its role in the Squatting Movement
The question was raised at the meeting, should we 
get corporate media on our side and do we need 
them? It was generally agreed that mass media 
will always be a lost cause, which has been 
accepted and dealt with through the use of 
independent forms of media, such as 
<http://www.bristol.indymedia.org/>Bristol 
Indymedia, and we should be focusing on using 
this more to our advantage and promoting squatting as its rightful way of life.

Following recent events, some squatters are 
concerned that irrational violence towards 
police does not help the squatting movement. This 
may be the case, but it was reminded that the 
media will always be biased, and by condemning 
those causing violence only encourages the 
concept of good squatter, bad squatter, which 
is not what most people want. Furthermore it 
lacks understanding as to why squatters feel 
angry and disempowered to act in such a way, 
although tactical criticism should always be 
encouraged. It was also reminded that we should 
be promoting squatting as a principal and human 
right, not because of its good connotations.

Expanding the Squatting Network
The issue was raised at the end of the meeting, 
what exactly is our overall strategy? It was 
suggested that the squatting network is expanded 
to smaller towns/cities that dont have a 
squatting community, but are easily able to gain 
support by doing so. Alternatively the idea was 
to focus on Bristol, Brighton and London, by 
strengthening contacts within these networks, and 
potentially branching out within these cities.

By expanding the network to smaller towns, the 
focus would be taken from Bristol, Brighton and 
London and would symbolise the importance of 
squatting for everyone  not just those in larger 
cities. If the squatting community expands, then 
even more support could be gained for the future, 
although this can be challenging without enough 
numbers to support such projects. Other concerns 
of expanding the network were that it may 
increase negativity towards squatting by any communties already under threat.

Expanding the network seems a likely plan of 
action however, especially towards Somerset, with 
rumours of activity in Glastonbury and future 
plans for 
<http://tauntonsquatters.wordpress.com>Taunton 
and Bridgwater. Additional benefits to these 
rural areas would be the likely support from 
current and ex-travellers, such as in Taunton, 
where a phone-tree is being created between 
squatters, supporters, and the local travelling community.

Related Link: <http://squattastic.blogspot.com>http://squattastic.blogspot.com
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http://www.youtube.com/user/PublicEnquiry/
http://www.thisweek.org.uk/
http://www.911forum.org.uk/
"Capitalism is institutionalised bribery."
_________________
www.abolishwar.org.uk
<http://www.elementary.org.uk>www.elementary.org.uk
www.public-interest.co.uk
www.radio4all.net/index.php/series/Bristol+Broadband+Co-operative
<http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf>http://utangente.free.fr/2003/media2003.pdf 

"The maintenance of secrets acts like a psychic poison which 
alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
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