USE YOUR LOAF SOCIAL CENTRE: STILL HERE

Albert Meltzer | 28.07.2004 21:19 | Free Spaces | London

The squatted use Your Loaf Social Centre has survived an attempt at illegal eviction... But we are being taken to court.

After two and a half years occupying this former bakery, left derelict for ten years, the so-called owners came down twice last week to try and kick us out. We're still here.
Being warned by Mr Thakrar, alleged agent for the alleged owners of the property, Glen International, that builders "and the police" were coming to illegally evict us on Monday 26th July, we gathered our forces and had a few mates down to help defend the building.
At 8am on Monday morning, the same builders who visited the Centre last week appeared and told us to get out. We said no. They got confused and in traditional style went off to the cafe and to ring their bosses; they stayed in the cafe for a couple of hours. Shortly after this a truck turned up with a load of breeze blocks, but pissed off when the driver realised the builders were not in control of the building.
The builders buggered off just after this, waving to us cheerfully. Despite Mr Thakrar's hysterical promises on Friday that the police would "deal with us", no police arrived.
Although our friends at S.K. Thakrar claim they are agents acting for the owners, there is a widespread suspicion that they are in fact the owners, disguised behind various offshore companies. Use Your Loaf is a very old building, it is Grade 2 Listed, so they cannot just knock it own along with the 3 derelicts they own round the corner to build the 21 flats they desperately desire. Their clear intention is to let the place fall down by itself: a cunning plan only spoiled by us occupying the building and repairing it. The load of breezeblocks shows they were only interested in bricking the place up and leaving it to rot.
We aren't going to allow that to happen. The building is open, a free space for all, and will continue to defy illegal eviction.
We would like to thank from the heart of our bottoms the lovely people who came down Monday morning to help defend the Social Centre. HOWEVER: We still need people to help us out. We urgently need people to come and stay in the building, day and night, to prevent any further attempt to kick us out. Come down or ring us on 07984 588807 to put your name on the rota. We urgently need folk to organise events here as well, to draw people in and keep the life in the space. If there's any event you would like to put on, or want to see happen, get in touch. USE YOUR LOAF IS YOUR SPACE TOO.
Please pass the news/appeal on to as many people as you can.
Thanks again to all those who came down. We won't accept the crumbs from the table, we've got the whole bakery!

UPDATE...

As of Wednesday July 28th, we received a court summons for a possession hearing for Use Your Loaf, to be held on August 11th. We are looking at our options... Get in touch with us for more information.

USE YOUR LOAF, 227 Deptford High Street, Deptford, SE8.
How to get there:
Tube: New Cross.
Overground train: Deptford.
Docklands: Deptford Bridge.
Buses: 47, 53, 177, 188, 199, 225, 453.

Albert Meltzer
e-mail: useyourloaf@btinternet.com

Comments

Hide the following 6 comments

blaa blaa blaa wank

29.07.2004 00:14

no body cares. this whole social centre movement is wank. nobody will come. nobody will organise event at loaf or anywhere else. it's just you and your mates, nothing else. no movement, nothing. dream on. social bollocks. anarchists couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery. mutual aid. cooperation. blaa blaa blaa wank.

cynic

you sad case!

29.07.2004 10:30

there's been lots of great stuff happen down there, and if 'cynic' doesn't wanna go along - great!

who on earth wants a miserable bastard moaning away to hisself in the corner?

even more cynical about eejits with no vision

use your loaf cynix

29.07.2004 10:37

"Use Your Loaf is a very old building, it is Grade 2 Listed, so they cannot just knock it own along with the 3 derelicts they own round the corner to build the 21 flats they desperately desire. Their clear intention is to let the place fall down by itself: a cunning plan only spoiled by us occupying the building and repairing it."

This is one of the best arguments for squatting I think. The practice of letting listed buildings fall is rife, and gives a certain 'moral high ground' to the squat. Best of luck in court guys.

Social centres do work. They can inspire communities to get involved - if you've visited Ex Grand Banks you'll know this. If you 'cynically' snipe from the sidelines, you will remain in ignorance.

stinkbomb
mail e-mail: stokesection6@hotmail.com
Homepage: http://www.actionnet-northstaffs.co.uk

The cop OUTSIDE we can see...

29.07.2004 16:44

I live in the local area of Use Your Loaf and went down there on monday following the callout for support. I arrived quite late but ended up chatting to those who were still there and putting my name and phone number on the "rapid response" list, as well as agreeing to do a 4 hour "guard" stint there on thursday (ok, not much, but if we all etc.) Well I went there just now, as promised, and after the exchange I had with the guy who answered ( after 10 minutes of banging on the door in a busy main street) I don't think I want to go there again. Peering condescendingly at me through the glass, he quickly makes it very clear that he (adamantly) doesn't believe me in what I say about why I want to come in. He subjects me to an impromptu interrogation and palpably appears to relish the fact I can't hear most of it because of the passing traffic (I have to scream answers to the questions I can hear, which clearly amuses him but doesn't have any other effect.) I tell him I'm supposed to be covering from 4 until 8, when the film comes on. He looks at me like I'm trying to sell him magic beans and gesticulates appropriately. I can't catch what he's saying and tell him so, but it makes no odds. I tell him to look on the rota, in the corridor, for my name, which he refuses to do. "Who did you speak to?" he asks. I tell him. He shrugs. I tell him I can hardly hear him and ask if he's going to let me in, or open the door so we can at least hear and speak to one another. This goes on and on and I'm getting a little peeved at having to shout myself hoarse, while people are stopping in the street to take in the spectacle. Presumably my discomfort is apparent: "Don't be angry, don't be angry", he says, with a superior little smirk. It soon becomes clear exactly what kind of person I'm dealing with and I do the only thing there is to do: Tell him he's a silly man and quit the scene. I'm obviously not needed that much.

Well, I only put my name down on the rota as a sort of goodwill gesture anyway; I've been out of this sort of thing for a couple of years and I remember part of the reason why. I'm fucked if I'm going to stand yelling in the street and FIGHT to be allowed to help, against some trivial litle tit of a power-junkie Carabinieri-reject. "I'm inside and I've got the keys and you can stand out there and scream yourself silly until I say you can come in. If you make a case that I judge to be good enough, that is. If." This sort of thing used to happen at the dairy. In the time it stood I lost count of the amount of petty authoritarian little cliques and individuals who just made the place impossible to fucking breathe in. Ever wonder why the "movement" is so fucking ghettoized, with nobs like that? (and don't come back with a load of mealy-mouth hogwash about it being a misunderstanding either. I was there and the guy's a cunt, enjoying himself.)

jim
mail e-mail: jimbomatthews@hotmail.com

clickety clique

30.07.2004 06:14

I guess there are problems like this, though I never experienced it at the dairy. Eviction pressures can lead to this, but I agree sometimes there is way to much clique mentality re-enforcing boundaries and preventing wider involvement. Was a problem too on road camps, and will always be there when there is such a difference ie when people take an oppositional stance to something. It's up to evryone involved in anything like this to try and reduce the tendancy for cliques. If you've been involved in the past then you will know how hard it is sometimes - all prblems like this including sexism needs to be constantly challenged - no one said it would be easy!

open organisations?

support use your loaf!

07.08.2004 00:54

with the increasing amount of literal physical public space siphoned off for for private interests it's important we defend places like use your loaf.

nicholas

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