Latest Autonomous Community Spaces Press Release

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Tuesday July 15, 2003 18:34

by one of many acs - ACS

Press: Cian O'Callaghan 086 286 6631

Members of the collective who opened a community centre in Central Dublin at the weekend say they are undeterred despite being attacked and evicted yesterday.

News reports on the Quarterly Housing Bulletin yesterday revealed that the price of new houses had risen by over 12% in the last year. Junior Minister Noel Ahern admitted, "that successive governments had shied away from tackling the issue of the cost of building land" and said "it must now be confronted."

On the 13th of July at 2:30pm a collective called Autonomous Community Spaces (ACS) reopened a building which had been left derelict for over 11 years at 41 Parnell Sq. West. The situation was explained to a passing policeman who was given a copy of the political statement (1)and left taking no further action.

The Dublin Corporation had requisitioned the building and its title was under dispute. It had been left derelict for 11 years in a climate where few can afford their own house and work long hours to pay for a home they have little time to spend in. Many buildings are left derelict waiting for the highest price so that they can be turned into cramped apartments that can few can afford.

The ACS spent the night cleaning the building, making plans to use it as a community resource centre (and soup kitchen for the homeless). An evening was planned to invite local residents to contribute their ideas for the use of the free space.

At 2:40pm on Monday the 14th three men arrived at the door shouting and threatening physical violence against those inside and outside the building. No I.D. was shown or papers served. They proceeded to smash a hole in the door with a sledgehammer and attack people inside with a crowbar. One occupant sustained serious head wounds and was later hospitalised. In serious fear for their lives, members of the collective inside and outside the building called the police.

The police arrived, unsure of the situation and aided the illegal eviction, arresting 2 members of the collective standing on the pavement. They ignored reports of the assault carried out by the unidentified men claiming to be the previous owners. Both arrestees were later released without charge. The police did not state the law under which they were evicting the occupants or threatening arrest. They ignored the fact that no proof of ownership was given by the 3 men who assaulted the occupants. A member of the collective said, "ACS believe this to be a illegal eviction and we are considering our options".

Statements were given by members of ACS at Store Street Gardai Station later that day, describing the assault and the physical and verbal abuse by the 3 unidentified men. ACS is a peaceful group who wish to see proper use of the cities resources and still see a need for more space for community activities "We cannot rely on the state to do these things for us so we are creating them for ourselves. We are not deterred by these events and encourage other to join us.

Available at www.1978.org/discodisco
For more info contact: Cian O'Callaghan 086 286 6631

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Comments (7 of 7)

First hand summary of events

by twist - acs

Tue Jul 15, 2003 18:56

At 2:30 on the 13th of July a man appeared at the door, claiming to be surveyor and demanding I open up. He was very aggressive and threatening. I was refused to talk to him unless he calmed down He claimed to be the owner of the building and unless we left within twenty minutes he would try to force his way in. We immediately activated our alarm list and proceeded to reinforce our barricade at the front door while continuing to monitor the situation outside.

Less then 5 minutes later he was back with 2 equally enormous thugs all armed. Without warning they commenced a frenzied attack on the door with a sledgehammer a crowbar and a length of iron all these over a meter in length. They managed to break a small hole in an un-reinforced part of the door but the rest of the barricade held. Wood and nails were flying through the air. When the hole was big enough they started swinging the tools inside trying to reach us. One of the barricade team was attempting to reach the stairs. The main aggressor spotted him ands swung his crowbar it connected with his head causing profuse bleeding. Apart from the hole in the door our barricading was intact and the aggressors were unable to penetrate further.

A crowd of onlookers had gathered, some sympathetic other distinctly not, one woman claiming she had "RA" connections. The lead aggressor asked for the no so he could get our legs broken. Frustrated by their lack of progress they threatened to come back that night with a 10o's of people to extricate us from the building. At this point the police arrived. The aggressors claimed that we threw stones and sharp objects at them.

The 1st police on the scene confirmed the absence of any such objects on the ground at the door. Water was the only thing that was thrown at the thugs, which the police seemed to consider a deadly weapon. Initially we refused to open the door but after assessing the situation considering out small numbers and the need for medical assistance we reneged. We realised that we didn’t have the manpower for a siege. 2 people outside the house were arrested for standing on the footpath.

It took 1/2 an hour for an ambulance to arrive none of the aggressors were arrested! Those inside the house are taking criminal proceedings against these men. The aggressors are alleging that they were attacked by the people inside the house and want to place charges One maintains he sustain a head injury.

Good stuff

by TPT

Tue Jul 15, 2003 19:28

If a load of useless crusties broke into a house belonging to me I'd have no hesitation in giving one of the cunts a slap sround the head with a crowbar.Stuff for ye's useless bastards.Irish useless crusties.What a joke.Those 3 "big thugs" must of really scared youse if youse had to call the police.Tell me why an anti-state bunch like yourselves called the police and made complaints of assault to the police? Hypocrites,Hypocrytes.Those 3 big bullys.Help mammy I'm scared.Poor little darlings.Fuck off.

Lets join together and help TPT

by Faisal

Wed Jul 16, 2003 00:19

Dear TPT,
I am an Irishman, and though I'm not sure what nationality you are, you are clearly a sad excuse for a human being and for that, you have my pity.
Though your spelling is poor, your intellect has nonetheless evolved to the level whereby you can type into a keyboard.
You may also, though I doubt it very much, have heard of something called History. This is the study of things that have happened in the Past - such as your mother's traumatic birthgiving, for instance.
Your mother would have perhaps told you, had you not been assaulting her at the time, of a thing in Ireland called the Land War. This was a time in our History where poor, unkempt, passionate, revolutionary bogmen and women [c.f. Punks/Crusties/Anarchists?] mobilised to take from the British and rich or weak Irish assholes [like you maybe?] their basic human and constitutional right - a roof over their head.
Though the Land War is just 1 of 1000 examples of people seizing property in Ireland or elsewhere, History will continue to repeat itself as long as people, and degenerates such as yourself, see the value of promoting personal wealth at the expense of peoples lives.
Unluckily for you though, as "anti-state" people become more and more angry at the refusal of the State to provide basic services for them, the pathetic crowbar you mention will be of no use to you. This is because the State, holed up in golfcourses in Portugal and offshore banks in Liechtenstein, will not be there to protect you or the salubrious shithole where you no doubt keep your family terrorised.
Yes - I know I should be afraid- you have already fantasised about "slapping cunts with crowbars" but the terrible thing [for you] is that you have not seen real Anger - yet.
Personally I hope you never do. I doubt your lazy inbred, redneck irritation could ever compete with the righteous, qualified, organised Anger of the growing numbers of Blanchardstown, Mullingar or Limerick dwellers with no jobs and no homes, creches, centres, libraries or amenities. These people, unlike you obviously, have nothing at all to lose, you see.

People travelled from far and wide to liberate this building [it's nobodys House after all]. No praise is high enough for the efforts of this great bunch of people - label them with what you like but they have done in 24 hours more than someone of your unfortunate simplicity could do in the lifetime of a pitbull terrier. As one person bored with hanging onto a basic job/flat I find the actions of these people inspirational. I am, as they say in your property circles, sold.

On the other hand, your feeble attempts at voicing an articulate opinion have not relocated my sympathies. If, though, I could find out where you live, well maybe I could help beat some sense into your sentences for you....:)

Up with Disco! [& Down with this sort of thing]

Faisal

TPT = Red 1913

by Observor

Wed Jul 16, 2003 10:31

You should know the trot git by now.

Re Falseall or failall

Wed Jul 16, 2003 13:13

If you look to the likes of these for inspiration, it just goes to show what a sad bastard you must really be.To compare these to the land league of the 1800's is a sad joke to say the least and shows your intellect seeing you seem to think yourself as some sort of genius.I suppose this struggle will go down in the history books as a great victory in the struggle against the evil landlords.Doubt it.A few gobshites break into a disused building and get a kicking off the owner and then run screaming for help to the cops.What an inspiration!On with the movement!The world has changed for the good of the people!
What an excuse for a person you must be.As for the biggest joke, which is a sap like you making a "Cyber threat" to knock sense into me.Name the time and the place.You must of had a whiskey too many you faceless piece of maggot shit.Faceless,failure,fascourse,Faisal.

Troll Alert!

by IMC troll monitoring unit

Wed Jul 16, 2003 18:23

Well here we have multiple trolls. There is some right wing idiot trying to taunt the disco disco people and then some other idiot pops up trying to get another row going between anarchists and trotskyists. Two for the price of one and both best ignored.

an other sight

by drostan

Wed Nov 26, 2003 12:40

drostan4 at hotmail dot com

france (for the moment)

first i had to apologies for my english : i'm french.....

then i must say who i am : i'm a squatter in france...

so the thing is that i'm happy to see that squatt exist in ireland.

and then i had to say that i was surprise that you called police....

i don't know what you've done but first thing to do in a squatt (in my opignon) is to baricade evry entrance and THEN begin to clean up the place...

so if fascist came up to evicted you they can't! if they still try, instead of calling the dark side of the force we use to do a call pyramide : each persone in the squatt call to 10 persons outside and say them to call 10 others.... and to come at the place to help

so if 3 psychotics fascist came to bother you in the time they need to broke the door that you have barricated a hundred of friend came to say them : "hello folks, whats wrong??"

it works also when a few cops came to evicted you and it's a peacefull way to fight.....

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Comments (7 of 7)