AS HOPES OF STOPPING LEGAL AID BILL REST ON A LORD’S PRAYER

The government’s consultation on squatting ended on Wednesday (5th), so if you were planning on appealing to Tory government’s more compassionate side it’s too late – not that you would have had much luck anyway.

Long running Bristol squat and social centre, the Factory is facing eviction. Situated on the corner of Cave Street and Portland Square, the venue has been occupied for a year and a half and according to the collective is ‘a space for free activities, creativity and political discussion.’

The Cigarrones travellers’ site is one of several communities which have sprung up near Orgiva in Andalucía, Spain, in recent decades. Coming to the southern tip of Europe to escape the repression against travellers in Britain and elsewhere, they have carved out a life of avin’ it autonomous anarchy – despite increasing attention from tinpot local authorities who act like Franco is still in. Since 1997 the site has held the annual Dragon Festival - now arguably one of the most significant free festivals in Europe – but this is also under attack. Here is a brief history written by a resident of Cigarrones:

The Bigger Society Social Club opened its doors to the public of Lenton, Nottingham on Monday (28th) morning only to have them kicked in and closed a few hours later.

The Forest Café (a volunteer run venue/cafe/arts space in Edinburgh) was forced to close back in August when the building's owners went bankrupt. It has now risen phoenix-like and been re-christened 'The Peoples' Café' as a over 100 people are now occupying the building.

After Brighton University students waited until the coast was clear the N30 campus lockdown to occupy in protest in solidarity with the public sector workers, against the increase in fees and the fact that the VC made noises in opposition to the White Paper to please students and staff - and then signed a public letter to the government in support of fee increases. The uni is also targeted for their lack of transparency regarding links to dodgy private companies.

Hove Tory MP caught out telling whopper as he claims homelessness charity backs his anti-squatting campaign.

Yes it's Christmas again and apparently the season of good will to all, unless you are a Traveller. For instead of celebrating the winter solstice and preparing for the Christmas festivities like the rest of the nation; travellers In Brighton, and around the country, are preparing to up sticks and find somewhere else to put their homes, as many sites face eviction only days before xmas.

People's Cafe liberated space goes to court - who will win?

It made global headlines but after an extremely expensive violent and destructive eviction what's happened to the travellers at Dale Farm?

Last Thursday (20th) after a month long struggle of battles and barricades, the Dale Farm residents and Camp Constant supporters walked off the site, leaving their homes to the bailiffs’ tools of destruction.

A squatted courthouse, a group calling itself 'Occupy Justice'- all of this will sound eerily familiar to oldtime SchNEWS hacks. Occupy London is going strong in three locations

Irish activists move in to liberate government-owned empty buildings.

On Wednesday 21st December Brighton squatters beat back bailiffs with a hail of crockery.

Anti-nuclear tree protestors evicted

Activists squat a derelict farmhouse in protest against new nuclear.

Sussex police attempt to forcibly evict people from 'The World's Local Squat' but are thwarted by the number of supporters and the law.

Occupy Nottingham fights on

The Wilderness centre in Mitcheldean in the Forest of Dean was taken by activists back in January after budget cuts forced it to close in August last year.

While fighting closure, the Portuguese Es.Col.A movement has been inspiring the whole country to engage on self-management of abandoned spaces...

Location of Squatters Convergence

exclusively revealed!!

New squatted space in London puts Palestine on the map

Brighton's squatted Autonomous Homeless Shelter organised a Mass Sleep Out action outside Brighton Town Hall. The following day representatives from the AHS attended a court hearing in Brighton magistrates where they lost possession of the property.

Activists began a project of land reclamation in Runnymeade

Predictably enough it was Brighton squatters who found themselves first in the firing line of Hove MP Mike Weatherley's new anti-squatting law. 

North London library, closed by cuts, opened by squatters.

Out of the squats and into the er... prisons. As, Alex Haigh, the first squatter to be sent down under S.144 recieves three months.

Land occupiers fight back as cops try to evict for airport development in France

UPDATE: The sh*t's well and truly hit the fan since we published this interview last week... Stay tuned for more SchNEWS from the front...

German anti-fascists take Berlin on 20th anniversary of comrade Silvio Meier's murder.

Since October, Europe's longest, largest 'Postcapitalist land occupation', la ZAD (Zone A Defendre) has been under attack from French authorities who want to clear it and build an airport. Here's another update from 'le frontline'...

New squatting law forces homeless to sleep in the cold with lethal consequences.

Anti-cull travellers and squatters plot land seizures.

New Squat Law Fails In Court

Squatted community social centre and veg shop opens in Lewes.

UPDATE: They finally coughed up. After two days of consistent hassling by activists at the Department for Transport earlier last month, during which one person got nicked, the DfT sheepishly released the previously top secret (read: problematic and embarrassing) documents about the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road.

Another Brighton squat was raided by hired security, paid for through benefit farmers on the 16th.

Crowbars to the ready as the last of the three Brighton squatters arrested within days of Weatherleys Law being enacted was acquitted today at Hove Crown Court.

It's media archaeology vs membership of Parliament in tommorrow's hotly anticipated clash at Brighton Magistrates.

Housing Action in Southwark and Lambeth help occupy Britain's most expensive council house.

SchNews was at Brighton Magistrates today to witness Hove MP Mike Weatherley's positively below par day in court.

A group of squatters who had reopened the axed Friern Barnet library last year, decided to expand into the pub industry in 2013 by occupying The Bohemia Pub in North Finchley. Papers have been served...

Brighton squatter acquitted on appeal in important judgement.

SchNews was at Brighton Magistrates today to witness Hove MP Mike Weatherley's positively below par day in court.

Riot police clashed with 8,000 protesters in Hamburg over the eviction of a social centre in Hamburg on Saturday(21st). Barricades were built and petrol bombs hurled as locals took a stand against gentrification.

It's been 3 years and 4 months since the Dutch kraken (squatting) ban came into effect, SchNEWS has a look at the state of play as the two sides are still fighting it out.

Fascist demonstration planned tomorrow near Calais, fash presence increasing. People needed to defend new squat

Many undocumented people have spent a harsh winter on the streets in Calais after squat clampdown.

Re-occupation of the Hambach Forest, near Cologne in Germany, where activists occupy and fight the expansion of opencast mining.

Mass evictions of migrants in progress now

Amsterdam squat evicted in gentrification battle.

AS campaigners in the Forest of Dean (and elsewhere) prepare to do battle with the Government's Infrastructure Bill to keep our land public, barricades have gone up to prevent a sudden land grab on a community-run farm.

Mass squatting action in metal recycling plant pulled off in style, after brutal policing leaves hundreds of undocumented people without shelter.

Update:

So the landowner came, saw the numbers of protecters, the lock-ons, the bike-powered smoothie makers and the music, and returned home after refusing to talk to either the protesters or the press. But it isn't over – bailiffs could return at any time. Email GH your phone number if you want to be part of the phone tree or join the mailing list on the website: http://www.transitionheathrow.com… info@transitionheathrow.com