Dear all,
the following is a message that I submitted to mailbase when it was
clearly not working properly.... So here it is again, and it may
still be of some interest for those of you who haven't heard!
Keith
The Land is Ours (London action)
Just a quick note to publicise an ongoing action in London which may
be of interest to critical Geographers and is certainly concerned with
a very geographical theme.
Last Sunday [well it was then], several hundred people peacefully and
without incident occupied a site of a former distillery and oil depot
on York Rd., London SW11, next to Wandsworth Bridge.
The aim of the occupation was to highlight the lack of access to and
popular say over the use of vast areas of derelict land (in both urban
and rural locations). Since Sunday the occupiers have been building
the foundations of a `sustainable village', with gardens and
public structures. Whilst some people may be staying on the site for
a while, the intention is to hand the land over to the local
residents. From my own experience of being directly involved on the
site until Tuesday (back to lectures and marking!), the local people
have been supportive of the actions and are resentful of the likely
alternative uses of the 13 acre site for (unaffordable) housing or
supermarket development. During this week there have also been a
range of workshops and entertainments on the site, the most pertinent
of these for geographers was probably the talk by Colin Ward on the
50th anniversary of the takeover of derelict land by 1000 demobbed
British service personnel.
Of course, to what extent this action will succeed remains very open
and problematic. The owners of the land, which is prime development
land (ie very valuable), are Guinness.
However, any of you who fancy a day out this weekend [still worth
a visit] and are near or in London might like to pop round to give
support or just to see what is going on (just a few minutes walk
from Clapham Junction station by the way!). As geographers, too, we
should note the rise of the `land question' again over the last few
years through groupings such as the Land is Ours.
For more information, contact myself or The Land is Ours (East Oxford
Community Centre,
Princes Street, Oxford, OX4 1DD; tel. 01865-722016;
http://www.globalnet.co.uk/~weaver).
Thanks, Keith Halfacree.
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