London Archives - Green Anti-Capitalist Media

Squatters Occupy Clapham Common Police Station

A group of squatters have occupied the former Clapham Common Police Station in London to demand the withdrawal of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and the end of the femicide. Here’s their statement in full:

Squatters and autonomous activists have occupied the former Clapham Common Police Station to demand the withdrawal of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill and the end of the femicide recently highlighted by the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Met police officer.

As the closest cop shop to where Sarah was last seen, the occupation of this building holds particular importance and meaning at this time. Although the bill has been postponed, we have to keep fighting it to ensure it does not pass. And in the meantime, violence against women continues. We must seize this moment where we find ourselves UNITED in rage, unified in our fight against the ongoing global femicide and to remember people like Sarah, Blessing Olusegun and countless others and to build our fight to end violence against women.

We also seek to bring attention to Section 4 of the Bill which criminalises trespass, a racist move by this Tory government which will affect predominantly travellers and van dwellers but also squatters, protest camps and the homeless. We hope that all those who resist the expansion of police powers in the Tories Bill will also join us in resisting any amended versions of that Bill which retain this racist attack which will make a travelling way of life almost impossible.

Last night, police attempted to intimidate us into leaving the building, stating that they did not care that this was a legally occupied building and that they would turn up in the morning full force to get us out. We called their bluff and continue to enforce our rights as squatters to occupy this empty building in political protest.

We invite all to come and help occupy the space, to discuss and share ideas and create networks of solidarity which will help us to resist this racist, authoritarian Bill, and just to use the space for whatever you need it for as we work to stop this Bill and end femicide!

In love, rage and solidarity,

The occupiers xx

Action Report: In Solidarity with Dimitris Koufontinas. London Sends its Regards to the New Democracy Party

During the last few weeks, Greek prisoner and hitman of the famous revolutionary organisation 17 November Dimitris Koufontinas went on a hunger strike to protest against the conditions the Greek state had him under. This inspired a series of solidarity protests all over the Greek state. These linked up with the increasing number of large protests that were being help to express the Greek people’s anger against the disastrous handling of the pandemic by the government, the increased authoritarianism of the police forces and the state, and the disillusionment with the entire conceit of capitalist democratic rule.

This is currently embodied by the New Democracy Party, which has been making use of the democratic structures and the state of exception during the pandemic to impose the kind of authoritarian measures most people associate with dictatorships. Seeing that the New Democracy party came to power on an extreme right platform and that, despite the Greek junta falling in 1974, many of its members and proponents are still alive and active within the state institutions (especially the police), this association is particularly real in Greece.

We shouldn’t see this as a break with the previous administrations, but rather a continuation and maybe a culmination of processes initiated long before the current government took power. They are the result of dynamics taking place in many other countries as the current world system approaches its end amid economical, social and ecological collapse and the ruling classes try to reconfigure its future. Including the UK under the Tories, who have escalated the level of police repression since the start of the Pandemic to the point where even peaceful protests have been forbidden. Furthermore, they are now seeking to enshrine these powers and authoritarian measures into law in the form of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.