The Hackney Social Centre was evicted May 16, 2008, after two unsuccessful eviction attempts in April. Many of the people living at the Social Centre have returned to their countries, and many are still in London, involved in different projects. The Social Centre was a brief but valuable experiment in active resistance and active defense of a large autonomous space in Hackney.

The Hackney space has a little bit of money left from the vegan cafes and from donations from the different groups that hosted events in the building. All of this money is going to fund direct action activies in London and abroad. Last month, £300 was given to comrades in Vancouver, organizing militant direct action resistance to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. In Hackney, squats and low-income housing are directly threatened by the Olympic re-development plans. The militancy of the Canadian activists is....inspirational.
URGENT UPDATE! The Hackney Social Centre is still under **THREAT OF EVICTION!** In March, the building's owners were given a Warrant of Possession by the courts. The Social Centre's scheduled eviction was successfully resisted on Monday 21 April by over 60 people - both inside and outside the building. Bailiffs are now expected to return to the building at any time.

Saturday, 16 February 2008

Hackney Social Centre Opens!




After three weeks of resisting illegal forcible evictions, the Hackney Social Centre opened last night for an evening of food, music, films - including one, Trainsquatting, about squatters and resistance to evictions in Slovenia.


The social centre grew out of meetings through the Northeast Squatters Network, which seeks to strengthen solidarity and skill-sharing locally between the squats in north-east London. It is a non-commercial social space and plans to be home to activities such as free language lessons, a donations-only cafe, a free shop, meetings of local groups, skill-share sessions and a bike workshop.


General Meetings for the social centre are open to the public, and begin this Sunday, February 17th, at 3pm. Anyone interested in getting involved, or learning more, is welcome. The social centre is located at 231 Lower Clapton Road, in Hackney. Some photos (courtesy of Endo) are included above.
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