Southwark council and police smash up 8 empty homes trying to stop occupation spreading

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On a freezing cold night, in a city of rocketing homelessness, Southwark Council and police smashed up 8 empty council homes.

Around 4.45 PM police and workers attacked one of the buildings we had reclaimed. It was not the main part of the occupation, but the building immediately adjoining. Cops blocked off the walkways while council workers smashed their way into the houses.

News had spread quickly and 60 or more people soon gathered outside the occupation to support those inside. Some people tried to block more council workers from entering the building with their tools. Though it was too late to stop them wreaking havoc on the block they had targeted. They used tools including angle grinders and other power tools. From outside, we could hear plenty of banging, smashing and other noises. They smashed the windows, then welded up the doors of the houses.

But, perhaps because of the strong show of solidarity, or perhaps because this was just a test run for the real thing, the vandals did not try to force their way into the main building. It seems they are content for now to try and make the next one uninhabitable. The idea, we imagine, is to stop the occupation from spreading further.

There are hundreds more empty houses on the estate. Are they planning to come back tomorrow and the next days to destroy them all bit by bit?

This was the first “communication” we have had from Southwark Council. It’s not very surprising to get this kind of message from an organisation that for years has blatantly ignored Aylesbury residents’ clear opposition to the sell-off and demolition scheme.

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ADDED on 7TH FEBRUARY:
link to film made the other night –

18 comments

  5. trina28276

    surely if squatting a residential building as part of a protest is legal then shouldnt legal proceedures have to be followed in order to evict the squatting protesters?? surly this is not the legal proceedure to do this? mind you not the first time our law upholders have participated in illegal evictions of homeless people who have come to depend on squatting for survival.

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  6. mars bilters

    I lived in a perfectly good street that this babilon system deemed slums and decided it should be demolished. The council bribed owners to sell and over a 4 year period my street became a slum coz of council policy. I became the only resident in a shuttered up desoloted ghost street. It was now deemed a drug area and as such i n i was subject to a police search for the crime of walking down my street. They housing association after threats n intimidation finally moved me in to a bigger home on which i now pay bedroom tax. It seems like there is a deliberate eugenic like policy to make the vulnerable homeless, to starve and create suffering for the under classes . . . They dont need to build concentration camps anymore . . They can commit genocide with economic and social policies. Austerity is just another word for poverty . . As Nelson Mandela said poverty and apartheid are man made. Will this democratic babilonian politrick system ever benefit the majority and not jus the few? The rich get richer while the poor become homeless and starve. How how the people yearn for change. If only we could replace thus corrupt babiloon system with a better one based on hempathy, compassion and sharing without resent.

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  12. paulglendenning

    I am sure that with solidarity and collectivity, this could be done (present corrupt system being replaced.) The establishment are painfully aware of this, which is why so much time and effort is invested in the time honoured game of preventing people from finding a common interest – and by association, identifying a genuine common enemy (as opposed to the false ones they throw out to the masses via the media, such as asylum seekers etc).

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  15. Rudi Vaclav Affolter

    Exactly. Why were they empty? Are they intending to sell the site to a property developer? To build more empty office blocks? To build more millionaire flats? Where are the poor and homeless supposed to go? They were protecting them from vandalism by living in them. And then along come a bunch of heavily armed vandals under the protection of Nazi-like police to smash the place up. I hope they have tremendous difficulties reconciling this with their consciences and sleeping at night. Though I doubt it.

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  16. Pingback: Collapse | Gabriel Vents
  17. rose

    Disgusting! Behind the protesters 100%! Southwark wants Southwark for the Rich! Most corrupt council, not content with being responsible for 6 deaths in Larkenhal several years ago, now they want to socially cleanse the area!

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