The latest Manchester OKasional cafe was today evicted in a violent operation conducted by builders and police. After Monday's activities the squatted info shop had been left without water, electricity or access to toilets. Today builders returned accompanied by police and illegally broke into the building by shatering the shop front, glass window. All activists were then forcibly evicted and arrested. Despite the squat having contacted the electricity company all those arrested were charged with illegal extraction of power. Activists occupying the building were fully within the law and solicitors representing them consider the eviction to be illegal.
The Manchester OKasional Cafe collective have been squatting empty buildings for the past four years and the current eviction is the most violent and heavy handed since the retaking of the Hacienda in 2000. Some suspect the current totalitarian political mood has given the police the liberty to repress dissent more freely. Saturday sees Manchester's biggest peace demo of the war while the squat, sited opposite the peace gardens and cenotaph, had been acting as an info shop for anti-war views and literature.
Don't worry, we'll back!