Radical History: The (Occupied) Cambridge Arms Pub

There used to be a pub at 42 Cambridge Road in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey (overlooking the Cambridge Estate) which ceased trading sometime around the millennium. It was called, imaginatively, The Cambridge Arms. All you'll find there now are a small block of modern, fairly unremarkable looking flats.

However, in its fallow period, which probably would have been in about 2004 or so, the pub was squatted, the ground floor painted red with the words "BUY SECOND HAND" painted in bold white letters across the front.

Although I never met any of the residents, I understood the message, and this may have been what made me decide to take a photo while passing by one day.

The image above is an embellished rendition made using some image manipulation software like Photoshop. I have included it here to create a semi-permanent record of a highly transitory and easily overlooked period in history. If anyone passing by this blog has any memories of the building as a pub, or even as a squat, you are welcome to share them below.

Blossoms in Teddington

For me, one of the most beautiful times of the year is springtime, when the whole world appears to be bursting with exuberant life and colour. I have seen some blossoms and bulbs emerging already this year, which is somewhat concerning (along with blackberry picking, a traditionally autumnal activity, but one which I have been doing since 2011 in early August and even July).

To brighten things up until things revive fully, here are a series of photos taken in the south west London suburb of Teddington over the last two springtimes.

Even in the midst of death there is life. 

This picture was taken in Teddington Cemetery, which includes the final resting places of the author and market gardener R.D. Blackmore, the "fifth Beatle" Neil Aspinall, musician Art Wood, and many more.

Reflections on the recent eviction of Runnymede Eco Village

 
Runnymede Eco Village, which evolved peacefully on a few acres of steep, muddy, dilapidated woodland for more than three years, achieving an initially positive legal ruling in the High Court in June 2015, before losing a subsequent appeal in early September, was finally evicted, seemingly without notice and with a quite shocking but regrettably common degree of force, on the morning of Wednesday 16^th September 2015.

 The alternative community had its roots in a land rights campaign called Diggers2012 which sought to highlight the deeply unequal nature of land ownership in the UK. They did this by reviving the spirit and tactics of the historical Diggers of 1649, also known as the True Levellers, a millenarian group created primarily by a former cloth merchant named Gerrard Winstanley. Along with a small group of like-minded people, Winstanley had sought to “make the earth a common treasury for all” by occupying wasteland at St George's Hill in Surrey, building rudimentary structures and sowing vegetables, and inviting all to come and join them. We know about their ideas because, living as he was in the early days of the free press, Winstanley was also a very active pamphleteer.

 As is so often the case, the eviction of Runnymede Eco Village demonstrated the disregard that some bailiffs seem to show towards persons and personal possessions. No attempt was made to spare even the beautiful 16th century-style longhouse that had served as the main communal area for the community for example. Part of me always felt that, even if the residents were one day evicted, the longhouse could still have provided an interesting curiousity, either for visitors to the woods or for future residents at the top of the hill, but perhaps this was a naively hopeful expectation.

 The reality of what actually takes place during evictions of this nature is a disturbing reminder of what is required to create the “blank slate” necessary for more profit-oriented forms of development to take place.

 This may lead some to wonder if the surplus time and energy required (to destroy organic communities and protect private profits) is really worthwhile. Whilst property owners, or aspiring property owners, may think it is, and their attitudes may be shared consciously or unconsciously by those who accept the norms of the dominant culture without question (as being somehow "the best of all possible worlds" or simply "our way of life"), those with different desires may beg to differ, as the poet and former Runnymede resident Ben Cheal explains on his blog.

While there have been some attempts recently to address the issue of land rights north of the border in Scotland, given the increasingly authoritarian nature of the current Conservative administration, it remains a challenge to put forward issues of land redistribution on a national level in the rest of the country. This is not to say that there aren't people active in those struggles however, merely that such activity so far remains very grassroots.
 Prior to the creation of Diggers2012, for example, some of the chief protagonists had staged a one week occupation on part of Clapham Common in September 2011. Land and Freedom Camp, as it was called, was an attempt to highlight many of the same issues later raised by Diggers2012.

 The temporary nature of the Land and Freedom Camp may offer a more endurable model for future land rights campaigns, one that would perhaps circumvent the trauma commonly associated with evictions. Of course, for those more interested in pursuing an alternative lifestyle than campaigning exclusively for land reform such a shift in tactics may require a larger adjustment as they are forced to adopt a more nomadic life. However this may turn out to be not without its own appeal. It is worth remembering that nomadic, hunter gatherer societies have often demonstrated a remarkable longevity and environmental sustainability compared with more settled civilisations.

 One thing that becomes apparent with many fixed communities which come together in a spirit of protest is that the longer they persist the more the focus tends to shift over time, as different people come and go. This is less so in the case of occupied spaces like Faslane Peace Camp or Grow Heathrow, which have both maintained very clear campaign goals (against nuclear weapons and airport expansion respectively) over many years. In the case of more anarchic communities like Runnymede Eco Village its three year existence saw the focus of the community shift, as older members of Diggers2012 left and younger campaigners from the Love Activists group moved in.

 The Love Activists have been specifically focused on the related issues of housing and homelessness, which has been exacerbated by PSPO's (Public Space Protection Orders, which are used by local councils to criminalise homelessness and begging) and increasing gentrification, both symptomatic of the short-sighted focus of many politicians who remain intent on catering to the disengaged prejudices of the middle and upper classes.
 The Love Activists group first drew media attention for their short-lived occupation of an £80 million, grade 2 listed, offshore owned, former HSBC building in Charing Cross on 20^th December 2014. This was part of their 'Homes Not Banks' campaign, a form of creative direct action intended to open the empty building up to the homeless of London for unconditional food and shelter. Undeterred by an eviction on Christmas Eve, they maintained a street kitchen on the pavement opposite the former bank well into the following January.

 The “hippies” who are focused more on stepping out of mainstream society often remain a persistent presence throughout such long-running protest camps, based as they are around maintaining an alternative community, a model of the kind of egalitarian world many of us might rather build for ourselves given sufficient time and space. The same could be said for many of the artists and poets seeking the freedom to create in a space where the pressure of money no longer holds sway.

 When the Runnymede Diggers were eventually evicted they carried the distinction of having maintained their peaceful occupation for twice as long as the historical Diggers of 1649. The group's community page on facebook had attracted over 1,800 likes and the community had a distinct culture of its own. While some evicted residents apparently held out in a disputed patch of woodland between the now enclosed, derelict campus site to the south and the National Trust-owned Runnymede Park to the north, other former residents have already hit the ground running.

The Four Seasons Community Cooperative, whose new community page attracted 136 likes in its first two days, held its first open meeting on Sunday 20^th September 2015 at the newly occupied Oast House Adult Learning Centre in Staines, a council-owned property just along the River Thames which has apparently been empty for more than eight years. The current intention is to “pave the way toward a transition network” in the Staines area, and they have already launched a 38 Degrees community petition to Staines County Council, in an attempt to have the building they are presently occupying designated an Asset of Community Value.

 Those keen on campaigning on the front lines for a fairer system of land rights and more affordable housing, as well as those simply seeking an alternative, more liberated and ecologically sustainable life, will most likely roll on, come what may, learning skills at each new occupation. What I find most inspiring is the practical DIY approach and respect for individual freedom and autonomy at work in these spaces, together with the awareness that despite the violence of the eviction, the spirit of Runnymede will very likely be carried far and wide, the seeds needing only a little bit of fertile ground to grow. 

Anyone interested in learning more about the full spectrum of campaigns for a fairer and more sustainable distribution of land in the British Isles (or WISE Isles, if you will) may be interested in following the work of campaign groups like The Land Is Ours or the magazine The Land. 

Amended: June 3 2016

Zine Making Workshop in West London - Sunday 9th August

Anyone who likes the zine reviews I post sometimes, I just found out about this upcoming event from Transition Heathrow:

A zine drop-in workshop with OOMK. Participants will be invited to use various templates and collage materials to create their own future city zines to take away. There will be zines on display for participants to draw inspiration from.

Suggested donation – £2

Grow Heathrow, Vineries Close, Sipson, West Drayton UB7 0JG

Sunday 9th August, 13:00

Biographies

OOMK is a highly visual, handcrafted small-press publication. Printed biannually its content pivots upon the imaginations, creativity and spirituality of women. Each issue centres around different creative theme, with more general content exploring topics of faith, activism and identity. Studio OOMK is a design studio that specialises in bespoke booklet design, project documentation, exhibition design and live illustration. The studio is run by Sofia Niazi (illustrator and educator), Heiba Lamara (researcher) and Rose Nordin (graphic designer). Previous clients include the Museum of London, Southbank Centre, 3FF and the Migration Museum.
Other Asias challenges preconceived notions of Asia opening up new configurations of space, thought and discussion. We provide alternatives to corporate/NGO representations of Asia with cross-community and inter-continental discourse enhancing local and international knowledge distribution. Projects include exhibitions, plays, film screenings, talks, zines and performance work. Hamja Ahsan is an artist, activist, curator and Director of Other Asias. Helena Wee is an artist and curator. Fuad Ali is a researcher and creative producer.

Commoning and Commons Rising

"Gentrification" is a term used to describe the process whereby a previously low rent neighbourhood sees a shift in the core demographics of its population, usually driven by a combination of factors, including increasing numbers of affluent, middle class professionals moving to the area, pushing up rents and providing the economic basis for a more consumer-driven local economy. Other factors usually play a part as well however, not least among them may be decisions made by local councils to make planning decisions which deliberately allocate more land for the construction of luxury flats and none for genuinely affordable, social housing. The result of this process is what many people have described as a kind of 'social cleansing' in which indigenous members of the community find that they can no longer afford to live in the area and are eventually forced to move away.
This process is simply the end result of what happens when individuals, businesses, and government, simply accept the individualistic, acquisitive nature of capitalism as a given. It isn't, of course, and the predominance of this way of life hasn't stopped committed groups of people coming together to build alternatives. It simply makes it a bit harder.

There's always alternatives, often difficult but always worthwhile

What are the alternatives though? I have always been keen on searching out practical examples of living alternatives, in the hope that I may find a kind of reverse process, a "de-gentrification," an attempt (to borrow an old legalistic term) to un-enclose the enclosures of an increasingly privatised world, a world of individuals and nuclear families, competing against each other in increasingly gated off communities filled with surveillance cameras and private security guards.
Sometimes groups of people band together to live communally, not so much like a student residence, but like an extended family, sharing meals and resources, and offering practical and emotional support to one another. But if you are still paying rent to a private landlord you remain subject to rent rises and lack control over how you maintain your own property, so some people form housing cooperatives, becoming their own landlords. The Sanford Housing Co-op in New Cross, south east London is a good example of a large project which has been around since the 1970s. Of course, unless you have a large sum of capital to begin with, you will likely still have to deal with banks and building societies though.

Other approaches are more radical still. Squatting dis-used land is an old practice which challenges one of the very fundamental assumptions of capitalist life - the nature of private property. It is a   practice that has made possible community centres like the Bonnington Cafe in London's Vauxhall, played a significant role in protest movements, and led to the creation of entirely off-grid communities like the threatened Runnymede Eco Village in Surrey.
Of course, living together in a shared house with shared resources, whether by forming a housing cooperative or by squatting it, is really only one manifestation of a broader trend which has had many different names over the years, but which increasing numbers of people now choose to call "commoning" - a handy term which describes the process of either reclaiming the old commons, or creating new forms. 

The most effective approach seems to be to build stronger, more resilient communities, capable of protecting their own interests. A good example may be the way residents of the villages to the north of Heathrow airport have worked together to oppose a third runway, which would have meant the destruction of their homes and communities. The key to their success lay in the very broad-based nature of the campaign. While the locals fought for their homes, environmental activists set up community protection camps in the area to create hubs for the local community whilst highlighting the negative consequences for the climate of expanding the airport. The first of these was the Camp for Climate Action, soon followed by Grow Heathrow, which remains to this day. Even the inhabitants of neighbouring wealthier boroughs opposed the expansion on the grounds of increased noise pollution.

During May, following the general election result which returned the Tories to power with a slim majority (a party seemingly committed to destroying all alternatives), I found it quite rejuvenating to be able to pay a visit to the community of my colleague Earthian in the east end of London, just prior to his setting out on the latest leg of his peace pilgrimage, advocating for world peace and a world without borders. Three months into their latest occupation of a surprisingly clean and modern former primary school, the community were having an open day with talks and music, including one given by a speaker from the group Commons Rising, which has helped clarify and give structure to a wide range of different projects I had discovered over the last few years, and many I had not.

So what is the commons and commoning?

Put briefly, the commons (or 'commoning') is a term we can apply to anything that involves ordinary people coming together to create something which serves a communal need, rather than someone's personal profit. In the commons, the only rules are those that ensure everyone profits. But rather than being a form of charity (where the 'haves' give to the 'have-nots' and thereby uphold an essentially unequal relationship) in order to build a true commons, our basis must ideally come from a feeling of equality and solidarity, of shared struggle and shared interests.

Manifestations of commoning does not even need to exist in physical space, like a housing co-op or community cafe. Online projects like Wikipedia and the Internet itself are good examples of the commons taking other forms.

For more information, check out: 

http://commonsrising.ning.com/

Amended: June 28th 2015

Two Zine Reviews for the Price of None

In this post I will be offering you a brief summary of not one but two zines.

Why two zines?

Primarily because both deal with the same subject - veganism (or vegan tourism) - in the same way, by creating what are both witty and informative little guides for vegans trying to find places to eat in two very different UK cities. Also because I'm quite lazy and its easier than writing two different posts.

The first of them, A Vegan Guide to Newcastle, which has been put out by newcastlenerdpunx.wordpress.com, I found in the great, zine-friendly, independent comic shop Travelling Man (its actually an expanding chain, but still a very small one at the present time), during a recent trip to that city in the north-east of England. The zine is comprised of mostly descriptive passages of text, but is greatly helped by the many simple yet realistic pen drawings of the places featured. Sadly, I only had time to check out two of the places mentioned in the zine, but I was not disappointed. Both the Settle Down Cafe and Tea Sutra had great service and a chilled out vibe, while the food in the first was amazing, the choice of herbal teas in the second was quite frankly overwhelming. You would need to live in Newcastle to be able to sample everything!

I am going to overlook the terrible pun in the title of the second vegan guide: TimeSprout: A Vegan Tourist's Guide to London, because while the artwork is not as polished, it is written in a far more entertaining style, is attempting to cover a far larger city (except the west end, which the authors admit they don't know as much about), is lovingly bound with beautiful soft string which gives it a handmade quality which reminds me of my wife's aesthetic tastes, and if that weren't enough is being produced with the help of the folks at Footprinters and Active Distro as a benefit comic for the Green and Black Cross. GBC is a 100% volunteer grassroots group who have been around for five years, and who provide legal support to activists working on liberatory social change (the combination of factors is so right-on it hurts!)

If you are looking to connect with a more ethical life through the prism of a lively, grassroots DIY culture what more could you ask for than these two amusing and informative little zines?

Book review: Wonderful Copenhagen

 
I would recommend anyone reading this to find a copy of this graphic novel by Danish creator Adam O for the stunning full colour artwork alone. However, I am conscious that to do so might be doing a dis-service to the powerful themes the book explores.

The story is SF/Fantasy, but more in the tradition of authors like John (Day of the Triffids) Wyndham than Aldous (Brave New World) Huxley or George (1984) Orwell. For this reason I am not sure if it is right to call Wonderful Copenhagen 'dystopian'. I think 'post-apocalyptic' may be a more useful term, because in the time period when the story is set the dystopia (our own ecologically fragile, surveillance-ridden world) has already passed. We only see this world through the flashbacks of the principal (in fact, the sole) character. Without wanting to give too much away, I will say that Adam O proves quite masterful in the way he explores the potential dangers of increased repression by a technocratic state with beautiful, and in some aspects disturbingly believable, attention to detail.

An added plus side to spending hard cash on buying a copy is that the proceeds from the English translation (available in the UK from Active Distribution) all go to Haven Books to Prisoners, a shoestring charity which buys books for people who are studying in prison.