Deporting, imprisoning, or otherwise ‘silencing’ activists that become too much of a nuisance is something we usually associate with despotic third world regimes, authoritarian emerging superpowers and paranoid one-party states, but it’s happening right here in the UK in 2015. When anyone falls victim to this abuse of state power it needs to be opposed by all those who want to carry on living in a democratic society; just the fact that these abuses are happening is worrying in itself, but when it happens to a friend it’s even more disturbing.
Hungarian-born 34-year-old Daniel Gardonyi has spent the last 4 years fighting austerity and social cleansing in London, successfully organising neighbourhoods in North and Central London and helping put on spectacular events to bring the community together. We worked together on many of these projects, and shared some of our finest moments and most difficult times.
He lives in perpetual protest on the Sweet’s Way Estate in Barnet, just one of many communities to fall victim to social cleansing in London. Now, after resisting the eviction of Mostofa, the last original resident on the estate, the Home Office has served Daniel a letter threatening deportation, despite having no criminal charges against him.
Daniel, Peter Phoenix and Mordecai planning an event at The Bohemia, a social center and entertainment venue in North Finchley.
Daniel is something of a local hero, well knit into the big woolly jumper of the Barnet community where he resides. We first met and briefly lived together in the aftermath of Occupy LSX, but it was in Barnet that we first seriously worked together, sleeping on the floor of a once-abandoned library by night, stocking shelves and stamping books by day.
The historic Friern Barnet library was shut down as part of the council’s austerity regime. The shelves lay bare, and the building was set to be flogged off to Tesco when a motley assortment of activists well versed in squatting law occupied the building. Danny was there almost from day one. Gradually, the local community, who had thought their beloved library gone for good, came to trust us, and every day they came for meetings, poetry readings, concerts and even a Q and A session with Will Self. Not to mention, lovely books.
After five months the council relented. They eventually revealed that they had ‘found’ the money from ‘somewhere’, and the library could officially reopen. Now, it’s run by a trust made up of locals, and it’s one of the most used libraries in the borough.
I credit Danny for a lot of the library’s success. It was impossible for the initially wary Barneteers not to warm to his relaxed and humorous manner, and without their energy, tenacity and committed involvement the shelves would now be stacked with Tesco bread, butter, and bacon, not books.
On the back of this success some of those living in the library formed a group that was at times variously known as Occupy Barnet, the Library Defenders, Barnet Bohemians and the Cat Hill Eco Warriors. Over the following years we would run community actions such as the ARC social centre, the hugely popular Our Bohemia, the Cat Hill Environmental protection camp in Enfield, the 12 Bar occupation in Soho, as well as an encamped protest outside the constituency office of Conservative MP Mike Freer.
And as the horrific knock-on effects of austerity became clear, Danny and the Barnet Bohemians would focus more and more on halting social cleansing in London.
Daniel has been protesting the social cleansing of London at Sweets Way since March. It’s just one of the many estate resistances that have happened across the city in recent years. Focus E15, Aylesbury Estate, Our West Hendon, New Era and the Guiness Trust Estate occupation, just to name a few, have all seen local residents and activists stand up against planned eviction.
In parts of Britain, for every homeless family there are TEN homes lying empty. It's time for action - it's time to fill 'em up
The Big Issue is urging local authorities to address Britain’s chronic housing problem by exploring the potential usage of the nation’s abundance of empty buildings.
This week, we launch The Big Issue Fill ‘Em Up campaign. We believe empty buildings offer a great chance to increase housing supply. We want to see the following:
• More support and funding for community-led empty homes projects • More public bodies engaging with community projects ready and willing to make the most of empty buildings • More homeless people getting the chance to work on refurbishment projects
In parts of Britain, there are ten homes lying empty for every homeless family. The latest estimate from the Empty Homes Agency is that there are more than 635,000 empty homes in England alone.
Last week, former Manchester United star Gary Neville captured the public imagination by showing a flexible, common-sense willingness to use a resource which the country has in abundance: an empty building.
Four Seasons Community Cooperative are working on a framework which will mutually benefit ourselves, the council and the local community; socially, economically and environmentally.
The Community Co-operative will be comprised of:
1. A Renewable Energy Cooperative which will make the Oast House carbon neutral and reduce the energy bills for the local area. We intend to install a solar farm, and we propose to feed energy into the neighbouring police station so that they can invest more resources into keeping the neighbourhood safe.
We are hoping to get help and guidance from our friend Donnacaugh McCarthy: ex-deputy chairman of the Liberal Democrats party; designer of the first carbon neutral home in London; and #13 in the London Evening Standard's list of the 1000 most influential people in London.
We are also hoping to work alongside: MaidEnergy Co-operative who provide locally owned, clean energy for schools and community groups; Spelthorne Energy Cooperative and Transition groups in the area.
2. The Social Cooperative will provide: formalised education and skills courses teaching recognised skills to increase employability; creative development including arts classes and free workshop space; an open community space available to run events for free; a library of 'stuff' which would include useful tools for locals to loan and share (such as diy tools, ladders ect...); a book swap/library; an open vegan cafe which also form part of the Workers Cooperative; and a urban edible garden which will also form part of the Workers Cooperative and provide reasonably priced organic produce, cultivate permanent culture and conserve local wildlife. The Social Centre will have fixed opening hours and will be open 7 days a week.
We have secured support and guidance from ReSpaces Ltd, a not for profit community interest group that regenerates urban environments through community initiatives. We are also pursing further help from community organisations including Radical Routes.
3. A Workers & Marketing Co-operative will be a member-run, not-for-profit enterprise, comprised of the cafe and the garden as well as utilising skills of the members (handywork, clothing alterations, hairdressing, cleaning ect...). This will provide employment as well as strengthening the local economy: making affordable products and services for local people.
We will secure support from Radical Routes, Seeds For Change, Cooperatives UK and The Cooperative Enterprise Hub for mutual support, advice and training with running the Workers and Marketing Cooperative.
4. A Housing Cooperative. Part of the space will be used to house resident members. This is a way of making housing truly affordable as rent paid will go into the upkeep of the space and not into making profit. We aim to house approximately 20 people as well as a offering a free guest space which can be booked short term on a first come first serve basis.
This will be registered and supported by Seeds for Change, Radical Routes, Cooperatives UK and the International Cooperative Alliance.
As an autonomous and independent self help organisation, we act with concern for the wider community.
We believe in honesty, social responsibility, transparency and care for others.
Cooperative membership is open and voluntary.
As a precautionary measure, to make sure we can maintain a democratically run cooperative, we aim to have at least one non-resident member from the local area for every resident member of Four Seasons Community Co-operative.
Each member has an equal share and therefore an equal say in how the Community Cooperative is run.
The exciting urban regeneration project aims to preserve the heritage and culture of staines upon Thames while cultivating a vibrant local community.
Mark gave himself one year to commit 100 Acts of Minor Dissent – from 14 May 2013 to 13 May 2014 – if he failed he pledged to donate £1,000 to UKIP as his forfeit.
If he was successful he would stage an art exhibition of the show.
He committed 104 Acts which were officially counted on the 15th May 2014 at a show in the Leadmill in Sheffield.
The show lasted 5 hours, featured a performance of his play by Nottingham students and a set from Jonny and the Baptists.
Mark bought the audience chips.
As part of the 100 Acts Mark wrote a short play for the political theatre project Theatre Uncut entitled “Church forced to put up gates after font used as Wash Basin by migrants,” it is the story of a right wing newspaper owner taken hostage by his cleaners. It was performed at the Young Vic in 2013 as part of the Theatre Uncut season.
100 Acts of Minor Dissent is an account of an entire year spent living provocatively. From successful campaigns against Royal Parks and multinationals, to arts and crafts with porn mags, from annoying estate agents, to raising cinema workers’ wages, comedian and campaigner Mark Thomas stopped at nothing.
The Acts were sometimes bold, sometimes surreal. Many brought about change and others were done for the sheer hell of it. Whether at the gates of the Saudi Arabian embassy or the checkout at Tesco – people reacted with laughter, shock, outrage and occasionally anger. Sometimes all of the above.
100 Acts of Minor Dissent makes for dangerously inspiring reading.
Student protests over tuition fees have rocked South Africa's universities for about a week. The protests have been so large that a number of universities across the country were shut down. Friday's protest in the capital, Pretoria, attracted 10,000 people — the largest student protest since the famous 1976 Soweto anti-apartheid demonstration, according to the Guardian.
For the last few weeks we have been struggling to hear of anything positive we could publish here. Too often we hear of evictions, deaths and the ongoing criminilisation of homeless people.
Today it was a relief to be told that the Manchester United legend Gary Neville has agreed to allow homeless people to continue to live in his property over the Winter months.
Lisa Mckenzie emerges jubilant from Stratford magistrates court after a charge of joint enterprise and a public order offence were dismissed. Photograph: Peter Marshall/Demotix/Corbis
Legal experts have criticised the prosecution of a protester who was arrested when a fellow activist placed a sticker on a window of a block of luxury flats.
The incident has raised concerns that the police are targeting known protesters for prosecution, even if they are non-violent, using joint enterprise laws.
Lisa McKenzie, a research fellow at the London School of Economics, was accused of assisting an unknown person to put the sticker on a window to protest against “poor doors” – separate entrances for social housing tenants in upmarket blocks that also cater for private tenants.
After she was found not guilty at Stratford magistrates court - the judge ruled there was no evidence against her - McKenzie said she had been picked out by police.
“The police were asked how they knew it was me and how they knew my name, and they said that I had been profiled in the meetings earlier, and the judge said he was very, very uncomfortable with how I had been profiled,” she told the Guardian.
Joint enterprise means a person may be found guilty for another person’s crime if it is judged that they shared a common purpose. It is more commonly used in connection to gang violence.
Friday 23rd October 10am-6pm – Saturday 24th October 11am-7pm
Places are limited – book now or email us on respaceprojects@gmail.com (subject Conference)
The Respacing Conference provides an independent and progressive opportunity for those involved with – or affected by – urban regeneration to engage in an open and informed debate about the use of public and wasted space. Hosted by The Hive in Dalston – the showcase building of not-for-profit company, ReSpace Projects – confirmed speakers include policy makers, architects, academics, developers and grass roots organisations. This breakthrough conference is the first in a trio of informed discussions and events designed to promote cohesive and progressive action. The first Respacing conference will look at the major public and private space related issues with a view to creating definite objectives to take into the second conference planned for early next year that will be focused on infrastructure.
The conference falls amid the two weeks of decentralised and co-ordinated action by European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and forms part of a cohesive strategy to influence positive change in the next year. ReSpace hope that the timing of the conference will encourage urgent action and cooperation between participants to mitigate some of the negative effects of austerity measures and urban planning policies.
The Hive was empty for eight years before the landlord approached ReSpace Projects, permitting them to use the building for community purposes until he was able to develop them into luxury flats. This progressive move enabled a group of social and environmental activists to demonstrate the feasibility of using wasted space for social good on a meanwhile basis.
Opened up to the public within two weeks and on roughly £200, the building is now six months in and continues to grow and serve the local community. During the conference there will an art exhibition and and independent art, craft and fashion stalls from The Cult Mountain and Minesweeper Collective and the conference will consist of talks, workshops, seminars and round table discussions. The conference will be structured such that outcomes and proposals from day one are carried into the second day ensuring that a definite focus and commitment to strategy can be achieved.
Although entry to The Respacing Conference is free, interest is high so booking in advance is advised. A full schedule of seminars, workshops and speakers will be published closer to the date.
A political activist arrested but not charged during peaceful protests is facing illegal deportation from the UK, his lawyer has claimed.
It is thought to be the first case of its kind and has raised serious concerns that the right to peaceful protest, which is enshrined in English law, is being eroded.
Daniel Gardonyi, 34, is Hungarian but has lived in the UK for several years. He is self-employed and has been involved in several high-profile protests, including the occupation of Friern Barnet library in north London and the Sweets Wayhousing occupation in the borough of Barnet.
hat do a former Manchester United player and the pope have in common? Quiet at the back: both have better opinions on and approaches to squatting than the current government.
Gary Neville succeeded in winning over half the country, and even the most fervent Manchester City supporters, this weekend after telling homeless squatters who’d taken up residence in the former stock exchange building he owns that they could stay for the winter. Not just that, he’d help them find homes as long as they allowed access for the staff developing the building, owned by Neville and Ryan Giggs, into a boutique hotel.
A crackdown on squatting by the coalition government painted the practice as a lifestyle choice by young anarchists who have the disposable income to rent. As with so many Conservative policies, the research doesn’t bear this out. On any given night 6% of homeless people squat and 40% of homeless single people do so regularly. Research indicates that squatters are also significantly more vulnerable than the general homeless population: 34% of homeless people who squat have been in care; 42% have physical ill health or a disability; and 41% report mental ill-health, compared with 19%, 27%, and 32% respectively of the homeless population who have not squatted.
Even ignoring the humanitarian cost of criminalising squatting during a housing crisis, it’s impossible to look at the statistics on empty buildings and not feel a sense of rage. In England alone there are an estimated 726,238 empty buildings, which could house a total of 1.8m homeless people. Put simply, by banning the practice of abandoning buildings or legalising squatting, the country could solve its homelessness crisis overnight.
Instead we’re faced with a situation where a young apprentice can come to London in the hope of finding a job, struggle to find a home and instead end up in jail. That’s the price of aspiration – sleep on the streets or end up in jail: the rights of absent property owners are worth far more than your human right to shelter.
