more info also on:
 http://www.easf.org.uk

Pity about the eviction, as we were going to have a guerilla cinema showing of the film - Farenheit 9/11 at the Colchester Social Centre today. Never the less, about 60 people did attend an earlier Colchester Peace Campaign event today.

hello, just wondered if any of colchester crew would wanna get connected with social centre types in london? we have been involved in a project of opening buildings as political spaces for some time now and it seems sensible to share skills/experience/good times etc with others working towards similar aims. give us a call: 07956975490. the battery is fucked so you might have to try a few times or leave a text and we willl get in touch. i grew up in east anglia but fled the fields for the big smoke because of the political inactivity in those parts so it wld be interesting to see whats going on in the sticks..... peasnluv x

Yep - social centres, social forums, direct actions, public protests and info-stalls! We can all help make it happen! Here, there and everywhere!

Here is a picture of some of Colchester's smiling happy protesters this saturday! (11-09-04)

Would have been so brilliant to have gone to the shortlived Colchester Social Centre after this protest! The planned anti-capitalist cinema show with 'FAHRENHEIT 9/11' would have been just right! One more day and it could have happened!

Oh well, it can all be done in any small town or anywhere! Resistance is fertile!

See also:

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/09/297613.html

and of course:

 http://www.easf.org.uk

sorry to hear this :(

seems like the state's trying to hit every social centre it can find
at the moment, were in court on wed for the Bournebrook Nursery social centre

good luck for the next space.

yeah but, no but, yeah....

Basically the owners would have taken days or weeks to get a court order to get people out....and that would have been long enough for a 'temporary autonomous zone'.

But instead the leading squatters decided to cover this posh looking prime site office building with spray paint graffitti!

This convieniently gave the police the excuse they needed to threaten everyone with arrest for criminal damage - which was intimidation enough to end the squat!

It also successfully stops the public appreciating what you are doing. You dont get to be seen as creative young people reclaiming a space for the community from greedy capitalists...who, as we know, let loads of empty buildings rot.

Instead the squatters are seen as the vandals. Thus spray paint is a wonderfull tool for confirming popular sterotypes about squatters and undermining the whole point!

HANDY HINTS!
If people must spray paint, then do it on sheets and make wall hangings! Duh! These can be got cheap at charity shops, jumbles...then you can have a banner/ wall hanging making workshop.

I think the most subversive thing you can do in a squat is to clean windows, hang nice curtains, mow lawns, arrange potted plants in tubs, fix and repair....and people don't even see you as squatters! They just like the community centre! That would be real subversion, real 'propaganda of the deed'!

But some kidz really do luv the spray paint 'squat aesthetic' to convince themselves that they have really rebelled and escaped from their comfortable but stifling middle class parents homes just around the corner!

But in the end, all credit to them! I don't wanna be too harsh! At least this young bunch of Colchester Squatters took some risks getting in and doing it! And actually tried to do something creative and cool! - so well done...but ffs! really - and at least one of them was experienced enough to know the score!

I agree with the above. Squatting *ought* to be aproached with great responsibility and care. For every positive, vibrant social centre, there seem to be 10 stinking, derelict, dirty fiasco's. Breaking stuff, leaving rubbish around, spray painting and showing no consideration at all for the neighbourhood when it comes to things like parties is simply not acceptable.

Who do those squatters and parasites who do this think they are kidding? Behaving like anti-social moron's ain't big and it ain't clever. It is also something activists and other squatters shouldn't put up with. I have no solidarity with someone who behaves like a vandal, causes damage and nuisance and then claims it's all in the name of idealism.

It just doesn't help.

Stinkcore pirate style comedy evil. I'm glad you hate us, Ketamine is a great defense against snobby middle-class twats who consume ideology. Glad to be in the gutter, fuck the police, fuck the landlords, wreck it, scrap it, weigh it in.
If you don't like the scumzone get out into the yuppieville.

Nihilists! One more effort to be revolutionaries!