Hackney Social Centre under threat of eviction, 21 April 2008

Hackney web site

updated 21 April 2008:

Hackney Social Centre - Morning report

Responding to the threatened eviction of the Hackney Social Centre people turned up prepared to resist. Those inside the centre climbed on the roof and raised the black flag as well as dropping a number of banners.

Spirits were high, tea was drunk, and someone made beans on toast. Reactions from passsers by were mixed, one person blamed the tube not working on weekends on 'people like you', others shook hands, and many read the leaflets that were being handed out.

After sitting around for probably 3 hours news filtered through that some bailiffs had been and said they would be back at some point before Friday. Soon after this there was word that the police were outside the Wominspace so we all bailed down there to check it out. The cops had left when we got there so there was more tea and some bike fixing.

The Hackney Social Centre is still under threat, it now looks like the bailiffs could turn up at any time so be ready.

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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.

See http://hackneysocialcentre.blogspot.com/

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