Accommodation situation in Edinburgh

There has been an effort for several months to obtain accommodation in Edinburgh. People worked really hard to find a place where protesters could sleep, meet and live during the G8 protests. The best they that could get be found was an autonomous space within the campsite arranged by the council.  http://www.dissent.org.uk/content/view/252/104/
This specific camp is based on repressive control of the protesters, with CCTV cameras at the entrance as well as in the camp, surrounded by fences and guarded by security staff.
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/scotland/2005/06/314980.html
There is no way that we can interfere or change the decisions that the council made for us. Many people from different political backgrounds have already expressed their concerns about the safety of those who are going to use the space. We strongly object to being in a place where we are filmed and held like in a prison, where we cannot move freely and feel trapped in our own space.

For most of us surveillance and imprisonment is a sad reality. We don't want to put ourselves in an even more repressive environment than that we already have.

We want a space where we can talk, organise ourselves in a non-hierarchical way and feel free, which will not be possible in the space provided by the city council. We think that if adequate places are not provided we will have to take them.

On Friday the first of July at 4 pm, we will meet at the spokescouncil in Teviot Building Student Union, Bristo Square, Edinburgh to decide collectively what alternative options we have.

We invite all people who want to stay in Edinburgh so as to take part in actions and do not want to stay in a campsite with CCTV and security to meet us up there. We are confident that all together we can change what the local authorities require from us.

"Homeless" activists in Edinburgh