A call to Vacant Property Receivership, a call to revolution.
Revolution ...
As the years have gone on (still plenty more to go), I've come to the conclusion that there is a general direction in social evolution, most probably as a direct result of the social consciousness sharing information. A direct result of mutualism. There is however no eutopia and the paths to a better society are never straight and narrow.
The gaff is wrecked. Every country has a housing crisis. There is no point going through the statistics here, we are depressed everyday by them. We can see them clearly in the cities and towns of most countries of the world when we step outside. One factor that is evident in almost all cases of this human tragedy is the appearance of vacant properties. Properties that could be fit for purpose, left idle for numbers of years and sometimes decades. Property developers and vulture funds hoard this properties. With almost complete unaccountability they have no interest in working for their money. Either because they couldn't be arsed or are hoarding vacant property for gentrification purposes.
Let sforce them to work for their money or we will put these vital resources and commodities to use ourselves.
One solution in London arose from within the squatting community. The Autonomous Nation of Libertarian Anarchists, aka ANAL, have taken a building in London to house homeless people. They have implemented Vacant Property Receivership.
Vice News:
Now back to the direction of social evolution. The appearance of a next point in social evolution and just one slow realisation of possible communal ownership of just one of our resources. But a very important one. Within the locality of Dublin, Ireland. The following is my impression of events based on my own memory. Although I have helped multiple examples at times and I can never take credit for being part of the core movement I'm about to describe, so I may have some details, timing of events, might be slightly mixed up. Let me know if clarification needed ;)
Grangegorman was a squat, in all aspects of a squat. It involved a number of houses, a yard and a couple of warehouses. In true squatting spirit they opened their doors to the community, became a communal garden, a workshop - even a day center and resource for local children. They held events and had plays that had attracted all walks of life across Dublin.
When it came the eyes of private property and eviction it was well established and proving its existence. A beautiful example of a squat, literally Vacant Property Receivership for the community by the community. There were well known reporters from mainstream media claiming they were there for a play, or literary event, and had no idea it was a squat. The mayor of Dublin even proclaimed he knew of no better solution to the then housing crisis. Which has exploded since. In the end the eyes of the unaccountable won their case. The property was returned to vacancy. The resource smashed and injunction implemented.
Moving forward, once again with the squatting community in Dublin trudging on, marching forward, another place was taken at the bottom of Dublin's main street, O'Connell St, known as The Barricade. A library was installed, raspberry pis and donated computer equipment was installed as a public resource. The best part of all was a vegan restaurant that took donations - and rooms for events, plays and poetry. The eyes of the unaccountable were fuming. The building was 20 years + vacant - would've been a win-win case anywhere else. Vegan restaurant was shut instead of being licensed, the library was closed and the resource is still sitting rotting to this day.
Moving on, there was a building taken near O'Connell St as well known as The Hostel. A number of homeless people 'squated' a building, I think they were previously living in, and gave their demands to Dublin City Council. In return for leaving the now sold building the homeless people were given the token of rooms and flats, I say token because it was then rejected once the men left the building. I may need to update this article to improve on this specific case, my knowledge is lacking here the most out of all examples :P
No stopping yet, like the eyes of Sauron, the unaccountable sub humans leech away. Homeless people went back to being homeless. I also have to mention that in Dublin, like most of the world now, being homeless means not having a fallback. I was homeless multiple times since coming back 3 years ago. Everybody I knew either has someone on their couch or is back living in their parents. One time was whilst I was on 90k that year! Landlords had more 'stable' applicants than somebody who's travelled for decades, backpackers hostels got irritating, so jumped in a tent in the beautiful Wicklow Mountains.
The Hostel was lost to the eyes of greed again. Building sold. Resource lost and most probably still empty. Between all the previous events the eyes of the public are now looking back, noticing the lack of solutions to the problem by the eyes of impending doom - the state and their definition of what is needed. There was even a council sponsored app, developed at Trinity College that the public could use to track vacant properties on their smartphone called reusingdublin.ie. It's now down citing legal complications. But still the peoples eyes are lighting up.
This brings us to a taste of revolution. Between now previous mayors support and the persistent solution solving that the squating community had done, some squatters and some activists got together and "occupied" a building. This was a militant action and declared as such. The building in question had sitting rooms turned into bunk beds with workers being charged full room price. The buildings were purposely left to rot and made unsafe, even by fire brigades standards, for gentrification purposes and more than market value robbed from the wage slaves that lingered inside. Either recently homeless from no fallback or foreign worker being exploited. The term "Slum Landlord" was coined and the revolution went into 1st gear. The facebook posts and chatter were exploding with #takebackthecity Take Back The City.
Support grew across the city. Politicians weren't allowed a platform, after years of neglect, political parties weren't allowed access to Take Back The City, although they mainly supported the action. Housing groups sprung up across dublin, with new ones still being created to this day. They all joined Take Back The City. The eyes of doom and probable torture shook down on them, as expected. They were brought to court and naturally told that they lost. The landlord was also charged, which was a plus (to be fully confirmed), but at least publicly named and shamed on front papers across the country, multiple times.
On the day of eviction, the activists snook out of the Slum Landlords building and marched with banners straight into a new building. "we can do this all day" was the chant. An "estimated" 5K vacant properties in Dublin alone. The activists marched into Fredrick St in Dublin and occupied the building. Solicitors, carpenters, tradesmen, squatters and activists held the building. Banners were made and marches done. Calls went up across the Island for support, with other "occupations" starting to happen, and even a councillor in Co. Clare taking a building under occupation.
The Frederick St Occupation was born. The management of the building was interesting and based on lessons from previous tactics. After a small tower block was taken, known as Apollo House, it was housed by homeless people and managed literally by civil society. There was councillors, tradesmen and full support across all classes for the occupation of Apollo House. The government reacted by removing all services from any homeless people in Apollo House. Stating that the activists were creating a humanitarian crisis there by taking vulnerable people of the streets. The building was also scheduled for destruction in a number years but must be kept vacant, homeless people went back to the streets.
So the Take Back the City movement can't directly house and help homeless people but direct action is needed. Shifts were done between all parties there. 8 hour shifts to man the building. It quickly became a center for debate on solutions to the crisis - a modern Libertarian Club of the 1848 european revolutions. The eyes of impending doom went into panic and shock. It was growing, protest and multiple occupations that has now given the horn for war. Instant shock and awe. And it happened:
The workers have taken back empty council flats and buildings for eons and lost, the squatters have been refining a solution for decades, the realisation of the urgent need to own these resources communally is now in full swing, even across civil society. After the eviction a protest was called and the people were marched straight to a new building, once again, by the leaderless group Take Back The City. Belvedere Occupation was the new buildings name. Same system of management as in the Frederick Street Occupation, but this time slightly more relaxed. 3 homeless people were allowed to live there, taken off the streets. But that was never official, couldn't be or the horn of war from the state would try starve them. The building was again lost, it was the wrong building in the first place as it was in need of repair.
What happens next is the has amazed me. The squatting community have been very active in providing a solution to the housing crisis - awards in history books must be given. But as I'm not part of the squatting community I don't have an insight to their inner workings, so my imagination goes wild with what happens next.
A building is given to 9 homeless activists to run as the Pearse St Occupation. Statements were made and declarations put out. The statement from the occupation was clear. We are here, we are not leaving, this building will belong to the community. I have been more involved in helping this Occupation than previous, working on their statements with them and also helping with social media. I help out with homeless directly, so that takes most of my spare time, but don't live in the occupation. The judgement were that 'persons unknown' were in breach of injunction, and that anybody helping them is also but thats collective punishment - I will continue to help.
They have not had it easy, with rumors being spread by local radio, one member even threw a rave and another fell back into their addiction. The facebook page is unfortunately hijacked by a previous member, used by him as a bullying tactic. Hence with me on media more now, Steemit and diaspora* look like the best solutions.
In my imagination I can clearly see the squatting community in Dublin lurking in the corners, like saviour syndicalists coming out to try solutions, constantly refining and planting seeds of realisation from these corner, by persistently showing dublin what can be done. And like saviours they provide a building with utilities in a community with support.
Pearse St Occupation's main demand is the implementation of Vacant Property Receivership on a community level. This means a mandatable and directly controlled receiver has the right to take property into receivership once it is 3 years vacant. Should the community specifically want a building for a purpose, then they have the right to direct their community receiver. They have more details on how this would work and I’ll be sharing them when posted.
Here in Ireland the banks have reacted very violently. Hiring known neo-nazis from northern ireland, politically and religiously motivated to cause war as an eviction force. The famous Irish revolutionary song 'Come out ye black & tans', against black ops militias used by the British in early 1900s, has been perfectly rewritten to suit what happend christmas 2018 in Roscommon.
I have been charged with setting up new social media for the group. This brings a new steemit and diaspora account to the team. I will update and share posts from their steemit page when its ready.
https://freehuman.fr/people/0f16c8a0f3ff01366fc5096dd399bdac
It is vital that we stand together as groups in our individual battles against a system spiraling into an economic black hole. In my experience all groups experience the inevitability of somebody destructive joining, it happens. The end goal is still in sight and I'm glad to see Pearse St Occupation marching on. If anybody would like to know more then comment, especially anybody that may be already in something similar or interested in starting something.
(image from Sep 2018, when building was first given to homeless. This statement was left in all local shops windows for number of months)