UK Indymedia | Camberwell Squatted Centre Evicted 30-08-07

Camberwell Squatted Centre was unexpectedly evicted this morning by the police and high court bailiffs. The building had been occupied since March 2007 and was planning a busy weekend of events including a soca night, a bike wheel making workshop and a vegan cake day.

Just to let you know that the Camberwell Squatted Centre was evicted
unexpectedly this morning by a van load of High Court bailiffs and 2 van
loads of police, who climbed in to the building at 4.30am and surprised
the occupants. Helped by the Southwark Council scaffolding which gave them
a leg up into the place.

They gave us a few hours to move our stuff out, which we did, calmly.
refusing to be hassled, sitting down now and again to have a rest and a
coffee under the itchy eyes of the bailiffs. We took out all the residents
stuff plus most of the gear we had put into the place to make it wrokable
and liveable - the plumbing, the locks, cookers, plates, pans, stereo etc.
Some stuff we had to leave but very little.

Although we were caught on the hop, we manged to respond practivcally and
calmly, not breaking down or losing it... Despite our attachment to the
building, our investment of hard work and emotion, the feelings that have
grown up through the events we have put on and the collective experience
we have had keeping the Squat Centre going.

SO WHAT NOW?

Immediately we are calling a meeting for Friday 31st August at 8pm, at 56a
Info Shop, 56 Crampton St, London SE17, to discuss our next move: how we
respond to the eviction, rehousing of residents, and the possibilities for
our next move, as a group, a new building?.... We would welcome anyone who
has been involved or attended events to come down and help us plan what
happens now. It was your space as well!

Some of the events that have been planned for the next few weeks at the
Squat may well happen elsewhere, but this will be decided at the meeting.

The most important thing to keep in mind here is - this is not the end.
One building may have been taken back by the profiteering scum who live
off our backs... But the ideas, projects, plans, collective ways of
working together for ourselves, continue, whether it is in a new building,
or in other ways... The inspiration we have had from meeting so many
people, from Camberwell and beyond, will carry on and bear fruit in
unexpected places.

BLACK FROG - YOU CAN'T TOUCH US!

What some local people feel about us

The authors of the statement

Some people added a really beautiful statement to the former Camberwell Squatted Centre..

It really made our evening.

Thanks whoever you are

x @

There are a load of pictures from week one to our last few weeks here:

http://www.56a.org.uk/warhampics.html

@

If anything I'd say we were an older and more local crowd than average, or what I'd expect average to be like. Saying that - I met someone from Ramparts today and they were not what I'd expect them to be like either. We should be smelly crusties (not that there is anything wrong with being a crusty) but we appear not to be. We should be counter-cultural, lifestylist and closed - but we weren't. We did vegan food but that was about it.

A lot of us had been around - I had a history in the Trotskyist movement until several years ago. I've never squatted and live in a local estate. I was drawn to the centre in the same way I was drawn to Crystal Palace a few years ago - it was new and exciting! I'd never done anything like that before and now miss it terribly.

The DWP keep wanting to put me on courses to increase my self confidence. I gained more from being on the collective than any amount of state funded quackery. Squatted centres on the NHS? I'd recommend it to anyone..

I have a hole in my life where the centre was.

Empty buildings: we are spoilt for choice. Stick together and relocate your project elsewhere!
Best of luck.
ps. RampART that is not in danger of eviction may be able to give a helping hand.

It's an honest question. I visited twice and felt I was in a Euro-punk squat. I agree not all "social centres" are Euro-punk squats.
But I am asking some questions. Did a lot of ordinary local people come? Do those who did the work of setting it up feel their efforts paid off? Or could their energy have been better spent elsewhere? I have these questions about "social centres" in general from what I have seen. Am I being unfair?

new building, same project - keep it up.

erm hello
is that your first response
we are barely out the building and you are already criticising us for being a euro-punk squat (as if there is something wrong with being european or punk or euro-punk)

maybe you should have come more than twice
or just read our website, read the monthly calender of events we hand delivered to every flat in the neighbourhood and put in local libraries, cafes, and 'social' centres.
Or you could have come to /looked at the hundreds of events we put on from queer nights to jumble sales to films shows every single wednesday eve to cafes and bars and polish lessons run by polish people to spanish lessons to jazz and gardening and you came TWICE...#

or maybe it was that we kept the door open and didn't make people knock twice and give a password that offended you. WE are local people. WE live in the area. We aren't some bitchy armchair anarchist who cant think of something nice to say on the day people were evicted

you could have said
hey, solidarity with you people who have just lost your home, your community centre, your shared meeting and cultural space, your heart and squatted space after 5 and a half months

but no
you decided to pass judgement on people without barely trying to to think about context, the stress and tears and pain and and grief that people are dealing with

go away nathan and take your tactless lack of solidarity with you

hi. Visited you on my way to G8 and was made more than welcome. Just wanted to say ta and best wishes for the future. Bad luck for getting the shaft from the man, as it were. Oh, and Nathan may well have visited another squat, as the experience he describes does not tally with my own impression of the Camberwell centre, which I found to be welcoming and inclusive and had a number of locals by when I was there. Salud, Bob.

euro punk? i think that is pretty unfair judgement to put on the place.im english and i go there all the time.there's been aussies there,poles,spanish people,columbians,americans and more brits than in most social centre.the squat has put loads of free/cheap alternative events on and it's lasted a lot longer than anyone thought it would.it's a shame it's gone,but it's not the end.

a lot of people have been brought together and a lot of people have learnt new skills and been fed with lovely cheap vegan food and seen films and swapped seeds,clothes,books and music..so a lot of good has come out of that place "euro punk" or fucking not.as a local i will be showing as much solidarity as i can towards the group and attending the meeting tonight.up the ante and all that.

comrades,
the way you ran that place throughout, right up to the dignified departure, was a thorough credit to you.you can feel proud of yourselves

It was a great social centre for the short time it was in existence. I really enjoyed the events I went to and the general vibe of the space. Hope you're able to find another space and continue the project!

I've uploaded more photos of the building and the eviction to Wikimedia Commons -

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Camberwell_Squatted_Centre

They are all copyleft and 1704 × 2272 pixel jpegs.

Feel free to use :D

In response to nathan's comment - having thought about it, I think this was in fact quite a good question. I was involved in setting up and running the Camberwell space, I live nearby, the building used to be my local greasy cafe. I and others wanted to squat the place from last year. I and the majority of people who got involved in running the space live 'locally', most being from 'England'. If not born and brought up in South London, most of us have lived here for several years, 19 in my case. We wanted to set something up to try and have a focus for the ideas and events we have been thinking about but have not had anywhere to put on for a while. Some of us have been 'active' in radical 'politics' in South London for longer than we care to remember: some stuff we have done has been more effective than others, but we are still out there attempting to think, talk, communicate, share skills and knowledge, spread and exchange experiences.

Alot of 'local' people came in while the space was there. You ask if they were 'normal' people. I have never really understood what 'normal' means. Are you using 'normal' as a cover word for something else? Do you mean 'native'? English? Born and bred in SE5? Working class? Not punks? Not from 'Europe'? Normal to me is a meaningless generality, no-one is 'normal', all of us respond to this alienated exploitative violent destructive way of life in different ways, some are more individual or funny-looking... All of them are 'real'. We aimed to challenge the way we all live and build some way towards a questioning of the world, and supporting/inspiring each other. Whether you're a punk or a pensioner, from Myatt's Fields or Moscow.

Many people came in from Camberwell, Brixton, Kennington, further afield: some of them were punks, most weren't. Some were born in this country, others weren't. We didn't ask people their class backgrounds on the door, but I'd say there was a balance of backgrounds. Sometimes folk came in i knew from the area who hadn't been in before and had little experience of squatted spaces. Some weeks we had 3 events and we had 3 totally different crowds to each, overwhelmingly local.
I think there's a temptation (going back to the old 80s getting out of the ghetto rhetoric common among anarchists) to dismiss 'punks', alternative looking people, as if how you look is real clue to your ideas or social relations, I know punks who are truely radical and punks who are wasters - I know /casuals', houswives, grannies who fall both sides too.

As to 'euro' squat - i too have been around and seen/been involved with many spaces that are overwhelmingly based in a scene of young anarchos from abroad. Where people come from is irrelevant to me, what counts is how you realte and try to relate to others. A genuinely open attitude can be found. It would be stupid to deny some of the spaces you mean are not open - we've all seen places where if you don't fit the looks, or if your not a vegan or punk, or if you work, or if you are older than 25, you get the cold shoulder. Yes i don't really relate to this either...

Camberwell really wasn't like that. Yes there were people from all over the world there. As well as people from the Brandon estate. I, and others involved, learned things from people who came in, as we hope people learned from what we put on. We didn't set up to be arrogant and full of ourselves, I personally have been involved in radical groups whatever you wish to call it for 25 years, but i learn constantly from non-activists, there's no monopoly on good ideas or practices.

The squat wasn't perfect, there are things i am still processing, but more than other places i have been part of it had a truly open spirit. Some great plans for local action have been put on hold due to the eviction, but will hopefully go ahead.

Sorry this has been a bit of an essay, but really, Nathan, i am glad you asked the question, we should always be thinking about what we do, questioning, evaluating, not just acting from habit or ritual. Was it worth it? In my view without a doubt, yes it was.

Alex

It changed some of our lives for the better, those who ran it and some of those who came...can't get better than that.
'Future now!! The trick is to begin...'

Ex-Occupier
@

'The present social organisation is not just delaying, it is also preventing and corrupting any practice of freedom. The only way to learn what freedom is, is to experiment it, and to do so you must have the necessary time and space.

The fundamental premise for free action is dialogue. Now, any authentic discourse requires two conditions: a real interest in the questions brought up to be discussed (the problem of content) and the free search for possible answers (the problem of method). These two conditions should occur at the same time, given that the content determines the method, and vice versa. One can only talk of freedom in freedom. What is the point of asking questions if we are not free to answer? What is the point of answering if the questions are always false? Dialogue only exists when individuals can talk to each other without mediation, i.e. when they relate reciprocally.'

Kinda sums up my feelings on 'worth it'.
From: 'At Daggers Drawn with the Existent, its Defenders and its False Critics'
Anonymous

http://www.geocities.com/kk_abacus/ioaa/dagger.html

Abahlali baseMjondolo would like to extend solidarity to the Camberwell Comrades. Qina!

We acknoweldge and respect what you have done and understand your pain at this time. Keep up your courage.

http://www.abahlali.org

Camberwell Squatted Centre Evicted 30-08-07

Additions

Thanks to who ever did this...

Nice photos page of opening, running and enjoying the place

@Alex

Comments

Relocate

Was it worth it?

go for it

responding to nathan

Bad Luck and Much Love

solidarity

pat yourselves on the back

good luck

More photos of the building and of the eviction are on wikimedia commons

worth it? good question

hell yeah it was worth it...

Solidarity from Abahlali baseMjondolo

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