Guinness site Eviction Jules On BBC Newsroom SE Tue 15 Oct 1996 Pure Genius Wandsworth Ecovillage

GUINNESS PILLAGE ECO-VILLAGE

https://schnews.amo.org.uk/archive/news95.htm

"Guinness are vindictive bastards. We are all furious; not only have they evicted our new friends, they have flattened the site. London Wildlife Trust surveyed the site, and declared it a site of prime Metropolitan importance. I've now got massive floodlights glaring through my window. We have to hit them where it hurts - their profits. I want a national boycott of Guinness."
- Len James, Wandsworth local resident

https://tlio.org.uk/past-camapigns/wandsworth-eco-village-1996/

On Tuesday morning 300 police and bailiffs invaded the Pure Genius site in Wandsworth and evicted 150 eco-activists. The 12 acre site had been derelict for six years before the occupation by The Land Is Ours campaign in May. In five months the campaigners built a sustainable, low impact community offering and alternative to the unsustainability of modern life. Vegetables were planted in raised beds, dwellings constructed and keys to the site were handed over to locals to share the running of the site.
Kicked Off

Guinness like to describe themselves as an "environmentally sensitive company". Some people even believe them. In the same week that they kicked everyone off the Wandsworth site they won the Ecology Sponsorship Award in Geneva!

The brewery giant evicted the greenies a month before a public enquiry decides whether to give planning permission to build a supermarket on the site. It seems unlikely that Wandsworth Borough Council will grant permission for the supermarket and luxury flats originally destined for the site, especially in light of the nine other superstores within a mile and a half radius.

A spokeswoman for Guinness told SchNEWS, "I'm not surprised that the eviction went ahead. We tried to offer an 'orderly resolution' to The Land Is Ours while they were illegally squatting but they refused to cooperate and continued the occupation."

Orderly resolution? Guinness offered to include The Land Is Ours in talks about 'possible future co-operation on one of the conservation projects in which Guinness in involved'. A prime example of words not deeds. Unfortunately, nice little corporate funded projects don't house people or offer radical solutions to urban problems.

The eco-village managed to highlight issues surrounding urban regeneration, but it also highlighted a recurring problem in the direct action movement. People with mental health, drink, drug problems or just couldn't-give-a-toss attitudes appear when we create 'temporary autonomous zones'. At the eco-village, life was often severely disrupted by people not willing, or able, to take responsibility for their own actions.
Energy Vampires

Thanks to the government's 'Care in the Community' scheme and the continued running down of social services, thousands of people with serious mental health problems are finding themselves with little or no help - and on the streets. People are turning up at protest sites with severe problems that we do not have the time, energy or resources to deal with.

Chris from the Third Battle of Newbury told SchNEWS, "It is slightly arrogant to assume that we can "heal" people who may have been ill for many years, especially when living on protest camps can be highly stressful (at least 6 people have been sectioned at Newbury under the Mental Health Act) and they are far from an ideal environment for people who are vulnerable to start with."

As one activist told SchNEWS, "ideally, each of us would like to be free to do as we please , but when this infringed on the rights of others and diverts for the issue at hand, action mist be taken. It has been the case in the past that the irresponsibility of a few have put themselves and others at risk on actions. Let's be honest - the last thing you want at an eviction is some pissed nutter trying to throw themselves or someone else off the roof."

It isn't inevitab1e that any space we take over should end up like this. In other parts of the world community activist groups have found ways to deal with these problems. In Brazil, The Movement for Rural Workers Without Land organise land occupations of up to 12,000 people, but they eliminate major problems by enforcing a strict set of rules. Drunks, drug users, and prostitutes are told to leave, and children are expected to go to the school run by activists. Nearer to home, the Exodus Collective in Luton take a pro-active stance by using peace stewards to patrol their parties. The yellow jacketed crew look out for everyone's safety, and ensure mutual respect among party-goers.

Thousands of organisations, especially in the poorest and most oppressed countries in the world, have learnt important lessons about how to organise effectively amongst those kicked around the most by the powers-that-be. It's not easy, it means being organised and self-disciplined - and it works. We are learning more and more about how and why we stop people disrupting our actions. But we're not forgetting that the people responsible for cutting health services, social services and housing are the same people that employ the police and bailiffs to stop us challenging their destruction of the planet. They're the real enemy - and no one is going to stop us organising effectively to put them out of for good.

* Fairmile... we hope you haven't been holding your breath for the eviction. Despite the camp going on Red Alert last week (and every bloody week for the past year), the bailiffs still haven't shown their ugly mugs. So, there's still time to get on down there...Call 01404 815 729 for details.

* Naburn Hospital Site.. .our York corespondent informs us that, despite the eviction of Naburn Woods in September, local support remains strong and the protest isn't over yet. Heavily guarded fencing was erected around the site for a week... at a cost of £30,000. The organisers now want to know of any more hospital sites around the country that have been trashed by developers. Contact York LEAF on 01904 410 185