dozens of supporters arrived this morning to ensure that no illegal eviction could take place at the occupied social squat in the building that used to host the vortex jazz club in stoke newington church street.
there was much local support as residents don’t want more luxury flats, a tesco, or a starbucks, all of which are possible plans for the site under owner richard midda’s stewardship.
midda is so unpopular in the area that a photography studio was sold to alex ross (the present owner of the spence bakery) at under market value, rather than allow midda to buy it, even although he was offering far more.
a woman police officer who attended the scene was clearly sympathetic to the squatters, and after seeking advice and clarification, reported that the bailiffs would have to return once they had written clarification from the court (which may take up to two weeks).
one independent photographer was so taken with the officer that he asked if she had a boyfriend – his hopes were dashed when she told him she was married.
quicktime – video/mp4 6.5M
flip4mac/wmv – video/x-ms-wmv 7.1M
films attached in wmv and mp4 formats
if you can’t see the film just by clicking on it (and waiting awhile, as these are several megabytes of data), then right-clik-hold (ctrl-clik on mac) instead and ‘download linked file’ before watching it on your viewer of choice
on mac or pc, i recommend downloading vlc which is a free viewer from viedolan, or also mplayer (free too)
on a mac, if you insist on watching the wmv, then download ‘flip4mac’ so you can watch it on quicktime, as the windows media viewer itself puts all sorts of nasties on your system.
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Earlier report:
From 8.30am around 70-80 people, the majority local residents, turned out to support the resistance to the threatened eviction of the Vortex Occupied Social Centre. The owner, Richard Midda, a well known thug and property developer threatened to use force to evict the occupiers if they did not leave by 9.00am.
But like the saying goes “they make plans we make history”! After seeing such a response, composed of all age ranges and faced with no fewer than 15 film and video cameras the police intervened and thereby starting a debate on the finer points of law. With the cops in the middle of this legal debate a decision was made to send one person from the Social centre and the owner, midda, to Stoke Newington Police station where independent legal advise is now being sort.
This is current as of 9.50am.
This occupation has its roots in both the trajectory of occupations from the Radical Dairy (Stoke Newington) in 2002 and the subsequent spaces (Occupied Social Centre – Kentish Town,Ex-Grandbanks – Tufnell Park, Institute of Autonomy – Bloomsbury, The Square – Bloomsbury), BUT also in last years occupation of “Francesca’s Cafe” on Broadway Market – Hackney and Daslton theatre in Dalston.
It shows that radical political interventions in the form of occupied social centres can resonate with pre-exisiting social tensions and antoganisms, especially around gentrification and “community” issues and activate people to self-organise and take some control on how their environment(and quality of life) are shaped.
If your in the area come down, we have now occupied both sides of the pavement due to numbers.
one of the Vortex Anarchists
occupiedsocialcentre@hushmail.com
http://www.londonsocialcentre.org.uk