The Hackney Social Centre (231 Lower Clapton Road, Hackney) is now waiting for High Court Bailiffs, scheduled to arrive at the property at 9:00 AM this Monday, April 21, 2008. Anyone able to stand with us to meet the bailiffs and defend the space is asked to gather outside the Social Centre at 8:00 AM on Monday Morning.
In March, Howun Estates – the property developers who had left the building empty after buying it in 2007 as a pre-Olympic Games “investment opportunity” – was awarded an Order of Possession by Judge Manners (her real name!) at the Gee Street County Court and subsequently secured the Warrant of Posession needed to evict the Social Centre.
County Court Bailiffs were booked for the social centre’s eviction Monday 21 April 2008 at 10:20 am. However, residents of the Social Centre were awoken at 9:30 am this Friday morning (18 April 2008) by two alleged representatives of the courts and two police escorts, who informed the residents that a High Court eviction was now scheduled for Monday at 9:00 am.
It seems as if Howun Estates has moved ahead and escalated the eviction threat by sending the notoriously aggressive High Court bailiffs for the first eviction, dramatically ahead of the typical schedule, which usually begins with County Court bailiffs. This move follows several successful resistances to County Court eviction attempts in Hackney last week.
Early last week both a residential property and another autonomous space were effectively resisted, though police presence was high and police intimidation rampant. At the attempted eviction of the residential property, one resister was threatened with pepper spray, and another was assaulted by a police officer who threatened her and twisted her wrist.
The last-minute announcement that High Court bailiffs are now scheduled for the Social Centre’s eviction is seen by many Social Centre residents and supporters as an aggressive, escalation tactic, and a response to last week’s successful eviction resistances.
** Please gather in front of the Hackney Social Centre (231 Lower Clapton Road, Hackney) at 8:00 AM. The aggression of greedy property developers and the police who serve and protect them must not be allowed to exist behind closed doors. The resistance to this eviction must be public. **
It is a well-known fact that the police read both the Hackney Social Centre website and Indymedia UK. A police presence is expected at the eviction. Come prepared.