Camberwell Squatted Centre Evicted 30–08-07

Just to let you know that the Cam­ber­well Squat­ted Cen­tre was evict­ed unex­pect­ed­ly this morn­ing by a van load of High Court bailiffs and 2 van loads of police, who climbed in to the build­ing at 4.30am and sur­prised the occu­pants. Helped by the South­wark Coun­cil scaf­fold­ing which gave them a leg up into the place.

Camberwell squat signJust to let you know that the Cam­ber­well Squat­ted Cen­tre was evict­ed unex­pect­ed­ly this morn­ing by a van load of High Court bailiffs and 2 van loads of police, who climbed in to the build­ing at 4.30am and sur­prised the occu­pants. Helped by the South­wark Coun­cil scaf­fold­ing which gave them a leg up into the place.

They gave us a few hours to move our stuff out, which we did, calm­ly. Refus­ing to be has­sled, sit­ting down now and again to have a rest and a cof­fee under the itchy eyes of the bailiffs. We took out all the res­i­dents stuff plus most of the gear we had put into the place to make it work­able and live­able — the plumb­ing, the locks, cook­ers, plates, pans, stereo etc. Some stuff we had to leave but very lit­tle.

Although we were caught on the hop, we manged to respond prac­ti­cal­ly and calm­ly, not break­ing down or los­ing it… Despite our attach­ment to the build­ing, our invest­ment of hard work and emo­tion, the feel­ings that have grown up through the events we have put on and the col­lec­tive expe­ri­ence we have had keep­ing the Squat Cen­tre going.

SO WHAT NOW?

Imme­di­ate­ly we are call­ing a meet­ing for Fri­day 31st August at 8pm, at 56a Info Shop, 56 Cramp­ton St, Lon­don SE17, to dis­cuss our next move: how we respond to the evic­tion, rehous­ing of res­i­dents, and the pos­si­bil­i­ties for our next move, as a group, a new build­ing?.… We would wel­come any­one who has been involved or attend­ed events to come down and help us plan what hap­pens now. It was your space as well!

Some of the events that have been planned for the next few weeks at the Squat may well hap­pen else­where, but this will be decid­ed at the meet­ing.

The most impor­tant thing to keep in mind here is — this is not the end. One build­ing may have been tak­en back by the prof­i­teer­ing scum who live off our backs… But the ideas, projects, plans, col­lec­tive ways of work­ing togeth­er for our­selves, con­tin­ue, whether it is in a new build­ing, or in oth­er ways… The inspi­ra­tion we have had from meet­ing so many peo­ple, from Cam­ber­well and beyond, will car­ry on and bear fruit in unex­pect­ed places.

BLACK FROG — YOU CAN’T TOUCH US!