Anti-austerity squatters have taken over an empty branch of Barclays on Preston Road with the intention of creating a “radical alternative community space”.
One of the campaigners, Lucy Parsons, appealed for help on social media after the occupation, which followed an anti-austerity march in Brighton city centre on Saturday afternoon.
She appealed for donations of sofas, mattresses, cooking materials and food as well as books and art materials.
She said: “People of Brighton are creating a radical alternative community space, a space for organising actions to challenge all recent and ongoing political events.
“Unfortunately we can only get in via a ladder over a wall at moment – we are looking to change this as soon as we can.
We are calling out to the community to get involved and make use of this free space. Come and share your ideas and resources.
“People with experience or knowledge of law, homelessness issues, migrants, benefits and advice, healthcare, arts and crafts, squatting, sustainability, alternatives, eviction resistance and other demos/actions, and any other skills and knowledge you wish to share are welcome.”
A spokesman for Sussex Police said: “At 5.30pm on Saturday (6 June) police received a report that a number of people had entered the site of the old Barclays Bank in Preston Road, Brighton. There is already a squat there and it is not currently a police matter.”
Put a steel fence around it.. Only let them out and not back in. Cut off all services.
that’s the community spirit they are on about
How about you work save and BUY a property to what you want in rather than occupying someone else’s? By community spirit you mean “sponger”? You wouldn’t tolerate anyone stealing and damaging YOUR property, but I understand hypocrisy isn’t anything that bothers you lot either. Shame on you!!
Shame you’re not interested in the wider political points being made here and see this only as a matter of property rights. And I imagine that Barclays probably have sufficient resources to manage this without your helpful intervention. You really are the school bully’s best mate, aren’t you?
Only fence that needs putting is around ppl like you rostrum
Sadly landlords cant legally enter or cut of services.
Mazza… I’m fairly sure I do my views are the same as the majority of people in this city and the rest of the Country.
Clive… I’ve problem with people having political view but this is not the way to win over the electorate… And yes… It is a property issue issue.. And lastly NO I’m not a bully…
Rostrum, your inhuman views are unlikely to be shared by the majority of Brighton, perhaps the Blue ocean of the South East. You sound like a thug.
I walked passed this long empty property a few weeks ago and lamented it not being used or developed into affordable homes. Exactly what these people have done, what a local authority should do. That’s real/ People Power, which scares those who love only Money Power. Barclays owe us all anyway, Libor Rigging theiving bastards!
People should get a job, earn money and buy their own property, no one will every come around to believing your simplistic views that the rich are fair game to steal from. People should concern themselves more about getting work and paying their own way, and less about stealing someone else’s peice of land, sleeping in till midday and drinking cider and smoking roll ups….
There is a greater issue here and that is the demotivation of squatters and the victim culture. Instead of raving all night, get up early, go to First Base Day Centre, have a wash, spend a couple of quid on charity shop clean clothes and go out handing out cvs, get a cash in hand job – like bar man/woman, waiter etc and rent a room from the first months wages, then save up to rent your own flat. Then, once you have that, and you’re are contributing to the local community (council tax etc.) then you can look at what you actually want to do and what fulfills you. Sleeping in till midday on an old mattress and drinking cider honestly isn’t going to fulfil anyone.
We need to stop thinking that we are all victims and rich people were just born rich. Many worked their arses off to get what they wanted in life, to buying save and secure businesses where they employ people quite ethically, build safe and secure homes for their families. Those hard working people are not the enemy. The lazy, victim culture are.
Nothing was ever a achieved in life, no milestones, no life changing inventions, no space exploration was ever achieved through sleeping in all day, raving, drinking cheap cider and smoking backy/weed.
DJ if you would like to be directed to our no drink and drugs policy, see our facebook page for our safe spaces policy (https://www.facebook.com/Radicalbankbrighton?fref=nf). Alternatively, come by this Sunday for our open day 12-7pm where we are having workshops, talks, food and beverages. Although the dominant narrative would suggest squatters are lazy, jobless, and substance dependent, we feel that our squat demonstrates this to be false – one of the major issues we were trying to deal with is the demonisation of squatting. We rotate who is in the building since many of our occupants have jobs to go to, others are students, homeless or unemployed and are some of the most hardworking people involved!
We’ve been renovating after the group who held the building before us had trashed it, meaning we’ve had to paint the whole building, repair electrics and plumbing, and remove about 70 binbags of rubbish! However it is important to remember that substance abuse is a physical and mental health issue suffered by some of society’s most vulnerable, to demonise them as inherently bad is very unhelpful. I’m afraid that many people in the upper echlons of power be that political or economic, were born rich – unless of course those going to Eton started making their fortune at an incredibly young age in order to pay their fees. A critique of structural inequality is not an attack on individuals who work hard, it is an attack on a structure that allows the poor to get poorer while the rich get richer in an interrelated manner.
Please do drop by with an open mind before generalising!
A local authority shouldn’t have that much power. To steal your business off you if you are between trading and just give it to some one else. The local community is unlikely to agree with your views there. Thank God!
Yet again people right to have a roof over they’re head’s is been refused! buy a company that could build a new one and now even blink. It proves that this bunch of nutter at westminster dont can about any body apart from the rich.