HISTORY OF SQUATTING IN THE UK

From Aaron's reports (@aaronlakoff)

Jim is a resident of London, England, and a long-time organizer with the Advisory Service for Squatters, A.S.S. Here he speaks about the history of squatting in the UK, going as far back as the 1300's. This interview looks at squatting's relationship to the anarchist movement in the UK, the changing legal framework around squatting, and squatting within a framework of other social movements in the country.

The Advisory Service For Squatters is a collective of unpaid workers who have beenrunning a daily advice service for squatters and homeless people since 1975. It grewout of the former Family Squatters Advisory Service, which was founded in the late 1960's. ASS publishes The squatters Handbook, the twelfth edition of which is the current one, and has sold in excess of 150,000 copies since 1976. ASS offers advice on how to squat, legal help to squatters and helps fight evictions and challenge police abuse of the homeless.


READ THE INTERVIEW HERE
or just listen to the interview via radio4all.net

Images via the UK Squating Archive

THE FIVE RING CIRCUS OPENS ITS GATES

via Irish Blog

Five Ring Circus: the London 2012 experience @ Infoshop

AUGUST 2011 REVOLT : ANARCHY IN THE UK

‘August 2011 Revolt: Anarchy in the UK’ contains a rough chronology of events during the rebellion, and action communiques during the period from anarchist groups aiming to deepen and extend the conflict, as well as a couple of essays written after the main events analysing the nature of the revolt and prospects for the future.

CONTENTS:

No Future, Just Vengeance…………………………..1
An Incomplete Chronology of Events……………..14
Report of Demo at Brixton Prison, 21 August……41
Letter from fugitive anarchist Badger……………..45
The Struggle Against the Existent Continues…….49
DON’T PANIC::DON’T TALK anarchist poster……..62

PDF download (in Black & White)

Thousands have been locked up since the insurrection, police chase many others, and the state seemingly have social consensus from the mass of citizens for a more fascist Britain, but the fresh blast of freedom has filled our lungs and state terror won’t stop us.

ACAB

- Dark Matter Publications

LONDON RIOTS 2011 BY ALEC EMPIRE

Blog post on Eat Your Heart Out by Alec Empire on the ongoing London riots. 

Read it here.. 

CROSSBONES SOUNDSYSTEM

CROSSBONES SOUND SYSTEM

Hardcore label from the U.K. pushing the doomcore sound pioneered by the likes of Marc Acardipane and run by the guys from the Crossbones Sound System based in London. Releases are distributed worldwide exclusively through Phuture Rave (also owned by Crossbones). @discogs @fakebook

Doomcore in once sentence is "taking the nightmarish vibe of a squat party K-hole and putting it to music". A sludgy kick drum, extensive and imaginative horror sampling, real occult imagery and extremely lo-fi production value are the hallmarks, and make for a genuinely unsettling experience. excerpt datatransmissionIn the late '90s the Bones crew took part in many underground free parties in London squats and across the UK. They quit the scene when ketamine and crack took over the squat raves.. Must have been hard to give up something that beautiful all because people forgot it is about the music.. not the drugs. Sadly enough that is not the first time that has happen..

CROSSBONES @ Steart Beach Party

"RAVE FRONTIER" - documentary featuring the crew

Here is a quote from a fellow blogger Simon R.

"If i was living in London I'd hop along to this event, if only to check out legendary East London acieeed-crypt The Dungeons. Plus Crossbones, this phuture tekno squat-rave sound system/record label I mentioned months ago, are just about the UK's sole solitary squad of PCP-aligned doomtroopers. Opportunities to experience Mover-style gloomcore through a big system in the midst of a headstrong throng of drug-fucked darkrave zombie-warriors stomping til the crack of dawn and beyond do not come along too often these days, I would go if I were you!" source blissblog

Grab the complete BONES series here (HF) 

p.s. major thanks again to my good friend The Taxidermist to get me hooked on doomcore!

LONDON FREE PARTIES CAPTURED

Beautiful pictures taken on various locations few years ago on London free parties. They each capture a moment I can link to my own experience.. that makes them special. I know most of you out there will also be able to find a moment in your life that is similar to one of these pictures.

all pictures above by Luis

LONDON PIRATE FREQUENCIES

Before internet radio ..heck, before the whole darn internet ..perhaps the only weapon an ordinary person had against the dull rage of mainstream mass media lay in abandoned buildings, broken rooftop locks, and homemade antennae. These are the tools of pirate radio, the vibrant culture covered in this documentary by our pals at VBS for Palladium Boots and helmed by pirate legend Matt Mason.

Back in the 60s, when “pirate” was more closely aligned with scimitars and eyepatches than BitTorrent and DVDs, the granddaddies of London’s underground radio scene took the pirate connotations somewhat literally: they blasted rock music from abandoned postwar military sea forts (and fought off attacks – and welcomed groupies – in the process).

by VBS.TV

Forget the movie The Boat That Rocked (Pirate Radio in the U.S.) if you saw it. If you didn't.. don't. This is the real deal.

ROA @ LONDON II

"ROA never ceases to amaze...This is his biggest wall yet, and took him (only) 8 hours to complete."

Unurth

ROA - LONDON EXHIBITION

Solo Exhibition at Pure Evil Gallery 8th APRIL – 2nd MAY 2010

ROA’s eagerly anticipated UK solo debut opens in London this spring to exhibit his unique portrayal of large scale urban wildlife, disquietly cohabiting city streets, hand painted in his distinctive black and white style.

ROA started painting abandoned buildings and warehouses in the isolated industrial outskirts of his hometown – Ghent, Belgium. Fixating on the animals he found there; the wildlife became the central subject matter of his work, inspired by their clever ability to adapt into scavengers in order to survive. He used the dilapidated, coarse interiors and exteriors of the unyielding landscape as a canvas to portray his large-scale creatures.

Pure Evil Gallery is proud and extremely excited to present a new body of original artwork by ROA this spring, complete with street works in the local area. Look out for a new ROA city fox appearing on a street near you.
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 I recognize the lockerdoors from somewhere :)

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 More info here

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Videoreport of the expo can be watched here

RECLAIM THE STREETS

Bonus features include a 4 minute musical documentary featuring images taken from the ’97 parties organized by Desert Storm in Sheffield, Bristol and Oxford. Musical and ecological activists, Reclaim The Streets (RTS) take the philosophy of the reappropriation of public space through cultural resistance to another level. They swept across the UK with street parties in Manchester, York and Oxford, and also appeared in cities like Tel-Aviv, Sydney, and Helsinki, among others.

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(updated 08/07/2013)