165 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
165 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
THE BARRICADES OF BROUGHTON
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'We're going to lock them out, we're going to stay here 24 hours a day.
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If the police and the sheriff officers come, we will not let them in."
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Angela, Centre volunteer, STV Reporting Scotland.
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THE ONCE-FAMILIAR wooden doors are Derried now 'neath steel, sheets of
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steel shaped and bolted on by blacksmiths who refused all and any payment.
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"Our donation to the Centre", said they. Solidarity lives.
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But the doors are open twixt noon and four every day bar Sunday, and the
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Centre is inhabited around the clock, seven days a week. Within opening
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hours a busy vegan cafe, famously cheap and substantial, is the hub of
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Centre activity and behind the chatting diners poster-festooned walls
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advertise gigs, meetings and actions, while the skirting tables sag
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beneath the mass of flyers and brochures explaining anti-VAT on Fuel,
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Criminally Injustice Bill, Stop the Fascists, community arts,
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homelessness, hunt sabs, gay rights, claimants rights, women's
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issues, Poll Tax arrears, AIDS, Parks for the People......
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Above the cafe the pine-beamed mezzanine floor is being transformed
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into a snug reference library and reading room, while next door the
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Centre office advises callers, who phone or drop in, on benefit rights.
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There's a well-equipped children's playroom and a basement darkroom.
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Upstairs, one end of the large hall is carpeted with defenders'
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sleeping bags while the other end is a mass of art and craft
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odds-and-ends with which the Creative Resource Network makes the
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puppets and props for its street theatre. The door of the small
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room opposite bears a hand-drawn sign - 'Cheap Claes Shoap'.
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The atmosphere is busy, cheery and sociable. No-one gets paid.
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Anyone can get involved. But when the doors are locked and blocked
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and the Centre quietens down, ears are cocked and nerves steeled
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for the baying of the bailiffs and the grunting of the pigs.
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New Readers Start Here
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"The creatures looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and
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from pig to man again, but already it was impossible to say which
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was which."
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George Orwell, Animal Farm.
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Conceived in 1981 as a left-Labour response to mass-unemployment,
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and funded by the Regional Council, the Edinburgh Unemployed Workers
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Centre (EUWC) was founded as a charitable trust and started life in the
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basement of the Edinburgh Trades council building.
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In the mid-80's it moved to larger temporary premises off the
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city's High St.. There it became something more than a printing
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press, computers and a meeting room, evolving, despite the reticence
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of the Party-hack dominant clique, into a focus for independent
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unwaged activists. The Right to Work campaign was submerged under
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Claimants Union direct actions, then along came the anti-Workfare
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Campaign.
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By the time the Centre moved into its new permanent premises
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in Broughton Street in 1989 the Poll Tax fight was well under way.
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By 1990 the Labour Council was setting the bailiffs on the refuseniks.
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All the poindings were stopped, many by pickets based at the EUWC.
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By that time 4 of the Centre's 7-strong Board of Trustees were unwaged,
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unaffiliated activists democratically elected from the Centre's Users
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Group. The other 3 were Labour councillors Tony Kinder and Des Loughney,
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and Jim Milne, boss of Labour-controlled Dalkeith Unemployed Workers
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Centre. [ Loughney, for his sins, was and is also secretary of Edinburgh
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Trades Council., Powerful enemies indeed.]
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These Labour and trade union bureaucrats had lost control. Their response
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was swift. During the night of 1/2 Feb. 1992 the 3 Labour Party trustees
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simply, and unilaterally, changed the Centre's locks one night and locked 4
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trustees, the users group and the public, out . The now-deserted building
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resonated solely to the rhythm of the basement printing press, operated by
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the paid worker George Wilson, churning out reams of Labour Party literature,
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exploiting charitable tax status.
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The locked-out organised in a donated room across the road in the Gay
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Centre and in March '92, in a splendid piece of direct action, smashed
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open the Centre's door and re-occupied the building, opening it again
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to the unwaged and homeless.
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Councillor Kinder's lucrative printing contract was left hanging.
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But even Labour politicians are not averse to a bit of direct action,
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it seems, especially when their wallets are threatened. Shortly after
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the Centre's liberation, one cold, dark March Sunday morning, Labour
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trustee Jim Milne and ex-Centre worker George Wilson, backed verbally
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by Councillors Kinder and Loughney, broke back in and removed the printing
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press, 6 Applemac computers, a process camera, enlargers........in short
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they took away 25,000 pounds of the Trust's equipment, including a washing
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machine for the homeless. They removed the accounts and minutes books.
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They even pinched the donations tin and the teabags, and smashed the emergency
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lighting system, just for the hell of it. The councillor-trustees then used
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their clout to freeze the Centre's 10,000 pound bank account and stop its mail.
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Repeated attempts by the independent trustees to have the assets judicially
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returned have been consistently denied legal aid. The Establishment closes
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ranks.
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The Centre Fights On
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"It's getting up the nose of the Council, the fact that we're unfunded,
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but still here and still running."
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Maggie, Centre volunteer, STV Reporting Scotland.
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Custodians now of a stripped building, with no equipment, no funding
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and no bank account, the Centre users decided to fight on. Money was
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raised by using the upstairs hall as an increasingly popular gig venue
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with live bands appearing from all over Britain. Room space was rented
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out to community and other groups. The bills could be paid, but hostile
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eyes were watching. The Council's attempt to strangle the life out of
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the self-managed centre had failed. A new tactic was tried.
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In February 1993 the Region's Social Work Committee - the Centre's
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landlords - suddenly remembered that they had 'inadvertently left out'
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an all-important clause in the lease, a clause which disallowed
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fund-raising activities in the Centre without their permission.
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The bills piled up.
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Both renegade trustees Loughney and Kinder were members of the
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Social Work Committee. The centre's lease had only just over a
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year to go. They sat back and waited.
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In February 1994 a social work inspectorate visited the building,
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ostensibly to 'see if any repairs needed done'. Party Hacks then
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produced a hostile report, signed by the social work director,
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recommending the Centre's closure. Amid a welter of media publicity
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the users' group smashed the phoney report to pieces, proving it to
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be totally false and deliberately contrived. Nonetheless, the report
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was adopted by the Council who immediately started eviction proceedings.
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For obvious reasons, the 4 independent trustees chose to obey the
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injunctions and quit the premises, but not before putting all Trust
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property into the sympathetic stewardship of the local community
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council who are requesting that a new lease be granted to them,
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so that the Centre volunteers can be kept in situ, carrying on
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their sterling community work. The Edinburgh Unemployed Workers
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Centre is no more. Now it's simply 'the Centre'. The Labour
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Council is entrenched in its bitter hostility. 'Get out'
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they yell. 'Get stuffed' reply the volunteer defenders.
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Power and Control
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The whole issue is, of course, about power and control. The attempted
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destruction of Edinburgh's autonomous, volunteer-run centre is part of
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an iworld-wide attack on such self-managed social centres by the state,
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national or local. The Centre recently received a letter of support
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from Spain, telling of such attacks against autonomous centres in Bilbao
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and Zaragoza. Similar letters have arrived from London, while a
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recent visitor to the Centre described the resistance to evictions
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mounted by squatted centres in his native Netherlands. Meanwhile
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in Italy dozens of self-managed social centres, such as the renowned
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Leoncavallo in Milan, continue their activity despite state harassment.
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Grey Orwellian drabness and conformity is the order of the day.
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International support has been more than on paper. So far, two months
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into the sit-in, folk from Holland, Canada, USA, Australia, and
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Germany have turned up and got involved, widening the definition
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of 'community centre'. More help is needed though. Operating a
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24 hour 7 day shift system is demanding and we need more people
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to get involved, in any way.
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The Centre must remain open, and self-managed.
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Riddley Walker
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The Centre, 103 Broughton Street, Edinburgh EH1. Tel. 031 557 0718.
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