JNC Squats Resist Double Eviction

The two occu­pied social cen­tres oper­at­ing under the Jus­tice Not Cri­sis ban­ner dis­cov­ered on Mon­day that they were both to be evict­ed on the same day — Tues­day 21 April. This was not to be, thanks to a spir­it­ed resis­tance from the squat­ters and sup­port­ers. To suc­cess­ful­ly defend one squat can be con­sid­ered for­tu­nate; to defend two in one morn­ing begins to seem mirac­u­lous. It just goes to show that the pow­ers that be are far from infal­li­ble, and that sol­id peace­ful direct action can bring major ben­e­fits for the com­mu­ni­ty. The squats how­ev­er remain on high evic­tion alert, and request all sup­port­ers to mobilise. Come down, even if for an hour, and help keep these facil­i­ties open for work­ers, for the envi­ron­ment and for the com­mu­ni­ty.
Notice of a Tues­day evic­tion for the Social Jus­tice Cen­tre at 318 Per­shore Road was giv­en some days in advance. This was how­ev­er thrown into doubt after the legal own­ers, War­wick­shire Crick­et Club, sud­den­ly found them­selves with­out a promised loan of £20 mil­lion from Birm­ing­ham’s coun­cil lead­ers [see: http://www.birminghampost.net/news/west-midlands-news/2009/04/17/council-s-20m-funding-offer-for-edgbaston-cricket-ground-blocked-65233–23404529] and spec­u­la­tion was rife that they may wish to open nego­ti­a­tions with the squat­ters to rent the build­ing after los­ing such major finance. The Cen­tre hous­es sev­er­al home­less peo­ple, many were rough sleep­ers, and suc­cess­ful­ly man­aged, with oth­ers, by a per­son who was for­mer­ly sleep­ing rough on Brum­mie streets. It also hous­es part of the Birm­ing­ham Peo­ple’s Library, a long run­ning ini­tia­tive giv­en new life by the squat, as well as pro­vid­ing a venue for var­i­ous social and cul­tur­al activ­i­ties includ­ing advice for ben­e­fit claimants.
The squat­ted for­mer Beech­wood Hotel and con­ser­va­tion area at 201 Bris­tol Road, mean­while, lost its legal defence against a pos­ses­sion order by the pri­vate own­ers, Manor Coast Ltd (Pro­pri­etor: Mr Kang) in the High Court on April 17th. This squat, as well as pro­vid­ing a sim­i­lar facil­i­ty to the Social Jus­tice Cen­tre, also has a con­scious eco­log­i­cal focus. This is because the exten­sive grounds form part of a nature con­ser­va­tion area, which seems irrel­e­vant to the own­ers and for­mer man­agers. Mr Kang him­self was con­vict­ed of ille­gal­ly remov­ing trees with­in it; there has also been dump­ing and burn­ing of tox­ic waste on site. Sus­pi­cion is rife that Mr Kang is using a strat­e­gy famil­iar to landown­ers who find them­selves sad­dled with incon­ve­nient reg­u­la­tions in the pub­lic good — delib­er­ate run­ning down of the land so that it will lose its pro­tect­ed sta­tus. The own­ers will then be free to ‘devel­op’ the site in the inter­ests of Cap­i­tal and big busi­ness while destroy­ing these impor­tant facil­i­ties. The occu­piers are keen to turn this sit­u­a­tion around and restore the grounds to prop­er eco­log­i­cal man­age­ment, and are work­ing with local stake­hold­ers to this end. In the mean­time, prac­ti­cal steps tak­en include the plant­i­ng of a veg­etable plot. There is a per­ma­cul­ture day planned for this Sat­ur­day 25th April dur­ing which fur­ther prac­ti­cal steps are to be tak­en as well as shar­ing skills in these areas, and all are wel­come.
On Mon­day notice was received that both squats were to be evict­ed the fol­low­ing morn­ing. The deci­sion made to defend these build­ings, sup­port­ers were mobilised and defences put in place. Bailiffs turned up first at 318 Per­shore Road, at 9am and, after an hour or so of faff, moved peo­ple away from the front door and pro­ceed­ed to break down the door and bar­ri­cade, ignor­ing the lone squat­ter on the roof. Police in atten­dance con­firmed that he was not caus­ing a breach of the peace, even pre­vent­ing him from com­ing down from the roof on health and safe­ty grounds. It soon became appar­ent that with­out remov­ing him, the Crick­et Club had not legal­ly tak­en pos­ses­sion of the build­ing and after leav­ing the build­ing was reoc­cu­pied by the squat­ters.
At Bris­tol Road, the same bailiffs attend­ed at 11am with Mr Kang and a lock­smith, and police. Here they were faced with up to eight peo­ple on the roof, and more inside the build­ing. After 90 min­utes of more faff, police left fol­lowed swift­ly by bailiffs. Last to leave was the lock­smith who had not even got out of his vehi­cle through­out.
After this some­what unex­pect­ed dou­ble vic­to­ry, the occu­piers while jubi­lant remain on high evic­tion alert and request all sup­port­ers to come down to help defend the build­ing from fur­ther attacks. It is a beau­ti­ful build­ing and grounds and well worth keep­ing open. Mean­while, the occu­piers con­tin­ue their request to nego­ti­ate some civ­il arrange­ment with the legal own­ers so that the work can con­tin­ue.
Jus­tice Not Cri­sis com­ment­ed:
“This is a major vic­to­ry for home­less peo­ple, res­i­dents and land con­ser­va­tion and we are obvi­ous­ly delight­ed with the result. We are also con­cerned that despite our requests we have had no com­mu­ni­ca­tion with either WCCC or Mr Kang regard­ing our wish to rent the prop­er­ty and man­age them prop­er­ly pay­ing rent to the respec­tive own­ers. We will con­tin­ue to attempt nego­ti­a­tions and hope to resolve the mat­ter with­out caus­ing the own­ers any more costs in instruct­ing bailiffs.”

See indy­media for forth­com­ing video of this event.