Are you telling me that the future for humanity is living in a tent and eating carrots?

We need answers to the problems of today, based on what we have and what we can do, not reverting to a prehistoric cave dwelling society.
It's just postured camping, all your really trying to do is anoy (slightly) a property developer who frankly has no cash to work the site and get your faces in the media, especialy for when the balifs go in.

If you want to effect change you have to demonstrate LONG TERM the benefits of your plan, and then work it for a long time, without the assistance of the outside world (giros, extra food etc). then use it as a showcase.

I doubt anyone will hear of this outside the indi/prof demo crowd.

pity, a chance waisted as always

What are you doing?

Just because the piece of land they're on isn't going to be permanently theirs, they're doing something. Being self-sufficient seems the only way forward now, but it's hard to show how to do it without owning a large piece of land yourself. They're trying.

And, yes, the future may be living in a tent, but so what!?

Self-sufficiency is an issue so far removed from how most people live these days. It has to be shown to people and sometimes things have to be shown in a gentle way, gradually. How else do you suggest they do it than by a way that may get their issue in the paper? Not ideal, but it's a bit of publicity and maybe a few people will be interested enough to check it out and ask questions.

With Codex Alimentarius coming in, us being under the power of the EU and people being hugely dependent on big corporations to show them how to live, we do need to so something now. We need to stop using electricity made by non-renewable means, we need to stop being so reliant on others for our food and take responsibility for our own lives.

Looking at the world recently, I've begun to lose faith. I don't think anyone realises how quickly we're on a downward spiral - people don't notice things until they actually directly affect them. A lot of people are in for a big shock soon.

Check out Codex, self-sufficiency and stop complaining when other people actually go out and do something!

wow i dont even know where to start with this one!

Firstly we are not posturing - we are providing a model of not only how to extensively recycle but how to actually reuse almost everything the local community have previously thrown away as rubbish, we are attempting to provide a model of how we can all live until we are able to smash up every bit of concrete layed and once more live from the land like we were supposed to! In the first 2 days we have established relations with not only the local community but a local lib dem councillor.

Secondly, how could we demonstrate in any more long term way than this? we're living there!After the first 3 days we will have completed a compost toilet, a fuly functioning kitchen, a shower (with hot water) running water, a constant source of food and the complete cleaning of site that has lay in ruin for fifteen years.

Now no one on the site is under the illusion that we could have done this without the fantastic help of the local people who have donated building materials and other essentials (however i am currently aware of only three people on site signing on) but that is the model we are trying to provide - your rubbish isnt junk, its reuseable. We cannot take plastics, MDF, metal fence panels, advertising boards, vegetable oil cans, discarded sinks, and old beds out of existence but we can reuse them in a positive way!

I thought id end this on a pedantic level so - I aint ate a single carrot on site yet so neerrrrrrr

Anyway, anyone who wants to come on down to help, dontate or chill out with us is more than welcome to we hope to see you soon!

anon: "I doubt anyone will hear of this outside the indi/prof demo crowd."

..oh yes, anyone walking past it will just develop temporary selective blindness, of course.

i was at the wandsworth pure genius camp in 1996. i was there when we took the site and there for the next three months before other commitments took me away. i was not part of the organising or the pre-opening work at all though.

i had never taken part in any kind of direct action before that day.

during that summer i met and made connections with many very active people, some of whom had come down from newbury and other such protest sites, some of whom were more active in london, some of whom weren't "activists" as such but taught me loads nonetheless.

my eyes were opened and i didn't stop being active, in fact within a couple of years i was taking on the concept of anarchy and organising stuff myself (with others of course).

it changed everything for me.

it also changed a lot for the young boy who i befriended, who lived in the council estate across the road, and who quickly became a regular amongst us. his mum would come get him at tea-time, having decided she trusted me and us enough to leave him with us for hours on end.

i know we weren't the only ones affected and politicised by that protest site.

it breaks my heart to hear the negative stuff that happened, mainly after i had left but not entirely. i will always think of that protest site as my entry to an exciting and hopeful world, as the starting point for my move into anarchist politics.

for many people their contact with anarchists and activists on this site will change their world-views. without these moments they would only have the mainstream media to rely on for information about us and our beliefs.

even for those of us already "won over" for want of a better phrase, it is mindblowing to be reminded by real physical evidence that we can work together and IT CAN WORK! but you have to be there to get that benefit, and while you're there you may learn that it takes a lot more out of you than you had realised. co-operation and anarchy do work, but it ain't as easy as some would like to think. putting into practise, even for short periods, teaches us more than any book or website or conference possibly could.

The occupation sounds like an excellent idea. Spread the word.

What about those millions who dont want to live in a tent or revert to an agrarian society circa 102BC?Please remember this is your choice of lifestyle not thiers.

I think anons objections were based on the fact that this is far too small scale, too "flash in the pan", a real example would be a project on land with a vistors centre and turn the whole thing into a research project on sustainable living (a showcase, if you will).

I for one heed the tale of the three pigs, concrete is my friend and has been around since the greeks, it's not going away, just deal with it and come up with answers that dont just mean retreat to blue wode and dying at the age of 45.

"I think anons objections were based on the fact that this is far too small scale, too "flash in the pan", a real example would be a project on land with a vistors centre and turn the whole thing into a research project on sustainable living (a showcase, if you will)".

Firstly nobody is likely to hand over a piece of land so that people can demonstrate a way of living that is controversial and threatens the status quo. If the Duke of Westminster's up for that however would he please let us know now.

Secondly a camp such as this is not intended to be an exact model for a future way of life, it's more of a wake-up call. It's going to be way outside the normal parameters of western civilisation and that is good - without such an extreme you'd never get a balanced middle ground.

The very last thing we need is a managed solution, a "post-oil experience" with micro-managed smells and tasting plates - a heritage centre for a way of life that's not past but is yet to arrive.

This needs to be allowed to develop without hindrance, however "left of centre (arghh)" this seems, to stimulate debate and provoke thought. I look forward to watching, helping and documenting this eco-camp as much as I possibly can.

And, by the way, I am a local resident. I haven't parachuted in, and many of my neighbours are with me on this one.

.. and was very disappointed... if the group who planned it had already squatted it in the morning and had been publicising it for weeks, why didn't they sort out some sort of infrastructure? I would have loved to help build stuff but there was no wood. Maybe something went wrong..

Bring what you expect to find, yes, but i came from another city with seeds and i couldn't plant any because the site was all concrete. Hope it works out good, the first day was boring.