11.55 am Thursday 13th November
Ashley rd Squat eviction resistance continues.
Several people are on the roof after staying all night and despite the rain this morning.
Support on the ground is thinning, There's tea making facilities, bring yer tea and coffee stay, 10 mins-5 hours what ever you can. Leaflets stating the reasons for resistance have been made can be handed out.
Lets take this debate to the streets!
I'm an ex-Places for People tenant from Bristol and they get no support from me. The standards of the housing and responses to need dropped magnificently after Bristol Churches was passed to Places for People, and I was evicted through possession proceedings whilst not coping after a benefits error. . .
"personally wont work for anyone who is linked to human rights abuse, climate crime or abuse of animal rights, add to that list any major corporation and you'll find yourself in slim employment pickings. That is nothing to do with laziness, that is becase I refuse to take wages at other people's expense, whether it's a human or an animal"
Very commendable. As these companies pay taxes, which is where benefits come from, you equally won't sully your hands with blood money via the benefit regime then ??
Indeed, most activists don't see the hyprocrisy of living fairly well (this is despite their whinging - they should try being unemployed in the Third World) off state benefits whilst proclaiming to destroy that state. Having visited road protest sites and lived in squats my experience is that most are there for the drink and drugs lifestyle, believing that just by living on a protest site or in a squat they are doing society a favour. Others are in squats to save money whilst a very few actually spend most of their time in a productive manner like volunteering at social centres or helping those less fortunate or doing campaigning work. How many squatters pay council tax?
Many in squats do have 'mental health' or 'personal' issues, which is partly a result of the dependency culture the state encourages us to buy into and is a very tempting one - why bother getting up in the morning to do something which may not be valued by society and won't bring material reward when our needs are provided for in our land of plenty.
Maybe this is part of the police's crackdown on squatting, outside London anyway, leading only the young and most desperate into this lifestyle choice, which most can't maintain without chemical sustenance.
It is a shame as squatters are in an ideal position to both not be reliant on the state or be wage slaves, but the temptation towards hedonism is too much for most, and not just the youngest.
These are just personal observations and I don't know those resisting on Ashley Road and would be there to support them if in Bristol, but well done to them for their rare act of resistance.
So you know more than half of them do you? .... or are you merely assuming you do?
"Unemployed in the Third World"?
You betray you own very old fashioned perspective with such outdated and patronising jargon, at a guess I'd say you must be approaching 70 years old by now, how else can your holier than most attitude be explained?
Your patronising and condescending attitude is typical of those who have watched too many episodes of Dad's Army.
"Value to society"? .... again you assume way too much, the average worker - taxpayer - consumer is a far greater threat to the planet than any squatter, but I guess that you are just another of those ignorant and arrogant bigots and hypocrites that prefers to criticise others than examine your own part in the degrading of 'society' and the environment.
Sorry my language offends you troll dancer by not being PC enough. I will try better now to expand on my admittedly concise, imprecise and hastily written comments.
As I said my comments were based on my personal experience in activism and of other activists. As you correctly point out I should have written "most of the activists I know" - I have probably met several hundred over recent years, some of whom I count as my friends, and no, this doesn't mean I can generalise about activists but I can recognise certain patterns without having to do too much research, which would take up time that could be spent more productively in the activities I describe.
The "outdated and patronising jargon" you object to of "Unemployed in the Third World" - by this I mean those without regular employment probably working in casual, precarious labour in developing countries. Sorry for any "outdated jargon"
I didn't actually refer to "Value to society" but was trying to suggest the difficulties many have in getting up to do something which may not be "valued by society" - volunteer work, working on allotments, in other words activities which don't bring financial reward. What I meant by 'society' is the majority of those employed in full time employment for whom only this model has validity, in other words "the average worker - taxpayer - consumer" you refer to. Perhaps there is another way between wage slave and benefit claiming squatter, like the opportunity afforded by squatting to do temporary or part-time employment free as one is from rent demands, and do other stuff at the same time or work full time to save money and dedicate oneself to volunteering or activism.
Yes you are right, "the average worker - taxpayer - consumer the average worker - taxpayer - consumer is a far greater threat to the planet than any squatter" , only I would change "any" to "most", as I am sure you don't know all squatters - there are those squatters who save up large amounts by working full time which they spend on cars, foreign holidays etc, but let's not get pedantic hey.
I am about half the age you suggest, and am definitely not a troll but someone interested in reasoned debate without insults, of which there seems a shortage on this particular thread - don't confirm the stereotypes many have about activists being 'angry' people with personal grudges against society, the world, whoever. Such an attitude and comments - "ignorant and arrogant bigots and hypocrites" - also put off other activists from Indymedia, although clearly I don't follow this.
Unless of course you yourself are a troll!
Sorry, but I was eligible. I inherited a secure tenancy under Bristol Churches after my mother died. After a few years I ran into problems with benefits and accrued rent arrears on the tenancy. So I put in a fresh claim with a backdating request. The Housing Benefits office made an error and told the landlord that there was no backdating request, so they pursued a possession order. All without any personal contact with me. At the time I was having alot of difficulty coping on my own, after losing my parents and all, and should have been on sickness benefits ('sponging' you called it, one of the things being that unemployment is something the 'market does well'). I now live with a 90+ year old relative in Milan, Italy, with all my belongings in storage, and am struggling to find some way of returning to Bristol. Thanks for your sympathetic and well-informed remark . . .
It would be much more usefull @Jog - if you could come up with some original thinking mate, and 'on topic' would be good also, its cold out there when you are homeless!
Yeh, thanks Jog, perhaps you should try living on the streets or being run out of your home by an abusive parent, or losing everything due to a breakdown before ranting about evil squatters. Silly man.
Nah its bang on; squatters and squatting just introduce lawlessness and resentment into communities; taking them down further than they already are. Pull the squirmers off the roof; rough em up and send them on their way, there is no justification for shitting on your neighbours in your own back yard. You will be doing half the squatters a favour as they will be being oppressed by the other half of the lawless bullys
thanks author required, youve given me the inspiration to go out and see what I can do to support these people myself instead of just talking about it, your mean spirited know-nothing attitude is entirely at odds with real life and real experience, perhaps you should find out what its like being down on your luck yourself before you condemn others. There were always hippy liggers in the squat scene but the basic motivation is to get a roof over your head and it does help the homeless, in a far more immediate front-line way than the beurocrats who keep places like this empty for years on end and only use them once it becomes profitable.
make this your indymedia front page
Thursday November 13, 2008 12:02
by supporter
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12if more people acted on housing in the same way, maybe we could force the cost of housing down to a reasonable level, if not for free!
we all can see what happens to land/housing in private hands: look at what the landowner has done in eastville park.
I'm an ex-Places for People tenant from Bristol and they get no support from me. The standards of the housing and responses to need dropped magnificently after Bristol Churches was passed to Places for People, and I was evicted through possession proceedings whilst not coping after a benefits error. . .
All power to those on the roof.
"personally wont work for anyone who is linked to human rights abuse, climate crime or abuse of animal rights, add to that list any major corporation and you'll find yourself in slim employment pickings. That is nothing to do with laziness, that is becase I refuse to take wages at other people's expense, whether it's a human or an animal"
Very commendable. As these companies pay taxes, which is where benefits come from, you equally won't sully your hands with blood money via the benefit regime then ??
Indeed, most activists don't see the hyprocrisy of living fairly well (this is despite their whinging - they should try being unemployed in the Third World) off state benefits whilst proclaiming to destroy that state. Having visited road protest sites and lived in squats my experience is that most are there for the drink and drugs lifestyle, believing that just by living on a protest site or in a squat they are doing society a favour. Others are in squats to save money whilst a very few actually spend most of their time in a productive manner like volunteering at social centres or helping those less fortunate or doing campaigning work. How many squatters pay council tax?
Many in squats do have 'mental health' or 'personal' issues, which is partly a result of the dependency culture the state encourages us to buy into and is a very tempting one - why bother getting up in the morning to do something which may not be valued by society and won't bring material reward when our needs are provided for in our land of plenty.
Maybe this is part of the police's crackdown on squatting, outside London anyway, leading only the young and most desperate into this lifestyle choice, which most can't maintain without chemical sustenance.
It is a shame as squatters are in an ideal position to both not be reliant on the state or be wage slaves, but the temptation towards hedonism is too much for most, and not just the youngest.
These are just personal observations and I don't know those resisting on Ashley Road and would be there to support them if in Bristol, but well done to them for their rare act of resistance.
"Most activists"?
So you know more than half of them do you? .... or are you merely assuming you do?
"Unemployed in the Third World"?
You betray you own very old fashioned perspective with such outdated and patronising jargon, at a guess I'd say you must be approaching 70 years old by now, how else can your holier than most attitude be explained?
Your patronising and condescending attitude is typical of those who have watched too many episodes of Dad's Army.
"Value to society"? .... again you assume way too much, the average worker - taxpayer - consumer is a far greater threat to the planet than any squatter, but I guess that you are just another of those ignorant and arrogant bigots and hypocrites that prefers to criticise others than examine your own part in the degrading of 'society' and the environment.
Sorry my language offends you troll dancer by not being PC enough. I will try better now to expand on my admittedly concise, imprecise and hastily written comments.
As I said my comments were based on my personal experience in activism and of other activists. As you correctly point out I should have written "most of the activists I know" - I have probably met several hundred over recent years, some of whom I count as my friends, and no, this doesn't mean I can generalise about activists but I can recognise certain patterns without having to do too much research, which would take up time that could be spent more productively in the activities I describe.
The "outdated and patronising jargon" you object to of "Unemployed in the Third World" - by this I mean those without regular employment probably working in casual, precarious labour in developing countries. Sorry for any "outdated jargon"
I didn't actually refer to "Value to society" but was trying to suggest the difficulties many have in getting up to do something which may not be "valued by society" - volunteer work, working on allotments, in other words activities which don't bring financial reward. What I meant by 'society' is the majority of those employed in full time employment for whom only this model has validity, in other words "the average worker - taxpayer - consumer" you refer to. Perhaps there is another way between wage slave and benefit claiming squatter, like the opportunity afforded by squatting to do temporary or part-time employment free as one is from rent demands, and do other stuff at the same time or work full time to save money and dedicate oneself to volunteering or activism.
Yes you are right, "the average worker - taxpayer - consumer the average worker - taxpayer - consumer is a far greater threat to the planet than any squatter" , only I would change "any" to "most", as I am sure you don't know all squatters - there are those squatters who save up large amounts by working full time which they spend on cars, foreign holidays etc, but let's not get pedantic hey.
I am about half the age you suggest, and am definitely not a troll but someone interested in reasoned debate without insults, of which there seems a shortage on this particular thread - don't confirm the stereotypes many have about activists being 'angry' people with personal grudges against society, the world, whoever. Such an attitude and comments - "ignorant and arrogant bigots and hypocrites" - also put off other activists from Indymedia, although clearly I don't follow this.
Unless of course you yourself are a troll!
"the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience"
Oscar Wilde
Sorry, but I was eligible. I inherited a secure tenancy under Bristol Churches after my mother died. After a few years I ran into problems with benefits and accrued rent arrears on the tenancy. So I put in a fresh claim with a backdating request. The Housing Benefits office made an error and told the landlord that there was no backdating request, so they pursued a possession order. All without any personal contact with me. At the time I was having alot of difficulty coping on my own, after losing my parents and all, and should have been on sickness benefits ('sponging' you called it, one of the things being that unemployment is something the 'market does well'). I now live with a 90+ year old relative in Milan, Italy, with all my belongings in storage, and am struggling to find some way of returning to Bristol. Thanks for your sympathetic and well-informed remark . . .
It would be much more usefull @Jog - if you could come up with some original thinking mate, and 'on topic' would be good also, its cold out there when you are homeless!
Yeh, thanks Jog, perhaps you should try living on the streets or being run out of your home by an abusive parent, or losing everything due to a breakdown before ranting about evil squatters. Silly man.
Nah its bang on; squatters and squatting just introduce lawlessness and resentment into communities; taking them down further than they already are. Pull the squirmers off the roof; rough em up and send them on their way, there is no justification for shitting on your neighbours in your own back yard. You will be doing half the squatters a favour as they will be being oppressed by the other half of the lawless bullys
thanks author required, youve given me the inspiration to go out and see what I can do to support these people myself instead of just talking about it, your mean spirited know-nothing attitude is entirely at odds with real life and real experience, perhaps you should find out what its like being down on your luck yourself before you condemn others. There were always hippy liggers in the squat scene but the basic motivation is to get a roof over your head and it does help the homeless, in a far more immediate front-line way than the beurocrats who keep places like this empty for years on end and only use them once it becomes profitable.
thanks again for breaking me out of my apathy.