Author: screw-this

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We’re excited to take the info-shop to Northern Green Gathering festival this August! Get down if you can, you’ll find us in the main communal tent.

Come down on Saturday 24th, 10am-4pm to check out zines, books and upcoming events!

The Serious Annoyance has returned to occupy the empty Camberwell Police Station, Camberwell Church St SE5, as we continue in our fight to #killthebill and highlight the destructive role of the police. 

This week, the draconian PCSC Bill passed its third reading in the commons as the state continues to enforce the expansion of police powers that do nothing but increase the ruling class’s ability to repress us. We know the cops don’t protect us – their resources aren’t focused on catching so-called “criminals”, but on protecting the wealth and power of the capitalist class. We also know that no demand to defund the police is enough – the bastard Tories have already been defunding the police for years! As all these empty cop shops prove… Instead we must build a world which abolishes the police by organsing our own communities and making the cops completely unnecessary. 

We do not and we will not accept increased police powers which effectively ban protest and criminalise trespass, something which amounts to the ethnic cleansing of the GRT community in the UK by making a travelling life impossible. 

Despite the increasingly violent and extreme attacks from the state against those of us who resist the growing police state, from the brutal eviction of the Clapham NotACopShop to the harassment of our comrades in Bristol and the vicious prison sentences being proposed for the brave militants allegedly involved in the Bristol Riots, we will continue to fight against the Bill and its criminalisation of trespass and our democratic rights. 

Not only do we continue to resist this Bill to the final possible moment, but we will continue to organise ourselves to break the system that needs it: a system falling deeper and deeper into a crisis it can only try to solve with more cops, more surveillance, more laws, that strip away our freedom and dignity in order to protect the wealth and power of the ruling class. We refuse to live in their world of ‘total policing’, guarded everywhere by the servants of an evil regime of persecution of women, Black and Brown people, queer people, the working class and every other oppressed group. 

In occupying this cop shop, we collectively stand against this injustice. We will be offering workshops and events that resist this fascist state. We hope that this will be space to find one another, to forge affinities, to tell stories, to inspire, provoke, plot. Watch out for workshops and discussions, for harnessing our ideas, for identifying our enemy, always towards total liberation from this authoritarian society. 

Together we are strong and we will take what we deserve. 

Fuck your laws, fight forever. 
In love, rage and solidarity, The Occupiers xx

As the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill makes its slimy way through the Commons, and now the Lords, the GRT community and friends chose to stand up and decry their outrage on Wednesday.

The series of speakers from a variety of groups led by members of the GRT community were hosted at a static demonstration in Parliament Square. The speeches highlighted the insidious racism in section 4 of the bill which is set to criminalise trespass, making it a criminal offence to follow a tradition of nomadism that has underpinned Gypsy and Roma heritage for the last 1000 years. Penalties could include hefty fines of up to £2,500, 3 months prison time and the traumatic seizure of peoples homes and vehicles.

The rally brought together many vibrant groups and individuals from all walks of life. A vocal presence of New Travellers, squatters, political factions, BLM activists all came mutually empower one another and stand as one for Traveller’s rights.

The rally was followed by a short walking demo to Europe House to hand in a letter to the World Roma Congress regarding the persecution of Roma in Kosovo in 1999. More splintered off after this planned part of the protest an energetic march through central London, headed mostly by New Travellers, as well as squatters from up and down country and their supporters. The fairly heavy police presence and monitoring was hugely disproportionate to the size of the moving procession, which punctuated and energised by instruments and chants.

One person was arrested outside Downing street for a supposed trivial offence. The crowd attempted to peacefully de-arrest the individual by blocking the police escort to the van. After a short stand off, the crowd continued on coming to a close at a park.

The campaign to KILL THE BILL is set to escalate over the summer and the voices of the GRT community need to be elevated in this fight. We stand in solidarity with all those impacted by this facist legislation. We will continue actively exercise our right to roam and reside, regardless of what laws are imposed upon us we will continue to live freely.

FREE THE LAND /// SQUAT THE FUCKING WORLD

Keep updated with the Drive2Survive Campaign on their site: www.drive2survive.org.uk and social media: https://www.facebook.com/Drive2Survivecampaign2021