Rent Strike: The new wave of student radicalism in London
Rent Strike Demo. Source: UCL CTR
Student rent strikes have become something of a phenomenon in London. Starting with University College London and now encompassing three other universities, including Goldsmiths and the Courtauld Institute, around 1500 are withholding at least £1.2 million from university administrators in protest of rising accommodation costs and shoddy maintenance of student halls.The rent strike is the new predominant vehicle of student radicalism within London and… Continue reading
New Freedom Freesheet out now!
The latest freedom freesheet is out now and will be distributed around the country in the next week. Look out for it at your nearest radical social centre or bookshop or get in touch if you want some for any anarchist group you are a part of. This issue features articles on the panama papers, the fight for reproductive rights, homelessness in Glasgow and the housing struggle in London. A… Continue reading
Only working-class self-organisation will kill the housing bill
The Aylesbury Estate
With the Housing Bill about to come into effect, conditions are looking bleak for the working class. The Bill follows a plethora of attacks on poor people, the most notable of which are the benefit cap and the bedroom tax, not to mention the 2012 ban of residential squatting. Last year saw a record number of tenant evictions (averaging 170 per day), unprecedented numbers of people… Continue reading
New squatters’ newspaper SLAP released – Interview
Last week a new squatter newspaper, Squatters of London Action Paper (SLAP), debuted online and today physical copies have started to emerge in squats and radical bookshops. Freedom caught up with a few of the authors to discuss the newspaper and squatting in London.
What is SLAP and what is it trying to achieve?
T: There’s been empty space for a squatting publication for a while now. It gives the… Continue reading
Eviction Resistance Success at the Hope and Anchor Pub
‘I’m going to call Billy Bragg.’ Despite the promise of one local supporter, the singing socialist did not show at the successful eviction resistance at the Hope and Anchor pub in Mornington Crescent two days ago – but many did. A small mob turned out to resist an eviction by county court bailiffs of squat crew Squatters and Homeless Autonomy, who had occupied the building just before its planned… Continue reading
GBC Celebrates Fifth Birthday Party
Green and Black Cross are having their 5th birthday party this Friday at DIY Space for London. Come down to support their brilliant work and celebrate five years of premier legal support.
Green and Black Cross Legal is five this winter, born out of the police clampdown on student resistance to increased tuition fees under the coalition government. From stop and search, through mass arrests to political prosecutions, the… Continue reading
‘North of the Watford Gap’: Resistance beyond Central London
The Rebecca Riots of 1843.
You are holding a black-and-white photograph. It shows a woman holding a union placard. It shows a picket line, scab vans, Labour politicos, a man dirty and tired from his work. You are holding the narrative of industrial working-class struggle. You put down the photograph and pick another history.
The struggles of non-London working-class communities are condemned to history. We are all miners still on… Continue reading
Students, Class and Wildcat Strikes: Why free education must have a basis in working-class struggle
Reaching its second day on Friday, the wildcat strike and picket at the School of Oriental and African Studies was successful in putting further pressure on management to lift the suspension of union representative Sandy Nicoll.
The suspension comes in response to Nicoll’s alleged support for the occupation there and its resilience against increasing repression from university management. Two days ago director and former cabinet member Valerie Amos escalated the… Continue reading
Hipsterphobia Sails Close to Homophobia and Gendered Norms [3/3]
This the final article from Cava Sunday’s blog on anti-hipster politics, reposted with permission.
This has been really difficult to write. I have been poring over it for days trying to make what seemed to be gutteral, knee-jerk reactions seem more intelligible. I keep switching tenses, persons and so on. But Ive decided to get it out there because its driving me mad trying to tighten it up. Some issues… Continue reading
When they say gangs, they mean the poor: Armed patrols to begin in London
Armed copper at the Ministry of Defence
At nine o’clock in the morning on December 11th, police shot a man dead on Bracknell Close in Wood Green. As part of an “intelligence-led” operation, armed officers in balaclavas shot him as he waited in a car. There currently has been no accusation that the man was armed. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) was on the scene to search for signs… Continue reading →