Attempted RampArt Eviction Under False Pretence

12 March 2009
Ear­li­er this morn­ing there was a minor fire in the derelict part of the block on Ram­part Street. After the fire had been put out, sev­er­al men knocked on the door at Ram­pARTS, claim­ing to be from the fire brigade. After they had gained entry under this false pre­tense, they were revealed to be agents of the own­er of the build­ing. The pro­ceed­ed to call the police and evict­ed the per­son inside. With­out both­er­ing to ascer­tain that there were no more peo­ple in the house, they start­ed to board up the build­ing, plac­ing secu­ri­ty per­son­nel at the doors. In the mean­time some peo­ple man­aged to climb back into the build­ing, car­ry­ing on with the suc­cess­ful occu­pa­tion. About 30 peo­ple are out­side and are ask­ing for every­one to join them and show their sup­port for this com­mu­ni­ty.

The evic­tion comes 20 days before the G20 hits Lon­don, on a day were one of sev­er­al relat­ed events was announced for ram­pART. The Social Cen­tre had also announced to keep the doors open dur­ing the G20.

++ 15:00 ++

Secu­ri­ty dragged on per­son out of house num­ber 7 and beat him up. Police have with­drawn, but fire­bri­gade is there.

Peo­ple are still inside ram­pART, and are call­ing for sup­port to defend it from being board­ed up.

++ 16:00 ++

Evic­tion has been suc­cess­ful­ly pre­vent­ed.

Secu­ri­ties are still next door, there are few­er peo­ple at ram­pART, and still call­ing for more peo­ple to come, as they want to retain a strong pres­ence.

WE NEED MORE NUMBERS.

Ram­parts has been an amaz­ing com­mu­ni­ty and polit­i­cal activ­i­ty cen­tre for a few years. There was an evic­tion order which ran out after the own­er failed to act for 6 months. nev­er­the­less, today’s events threat­en to take Ram­parts away once again, and for good. we need sup­port NOW.

ram­pART
15 ‑17 Ram­part Street, Lon­don E1 2LA (near Whitechapel, off Com­mer­cial Rd)
rampart[at]mutualaid.org
07050 618445
ram­pART | ram­pART MySpace |