THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS

Democracy Village was evicted in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Just after 1am around 50 bailiffs and a similar number of police descended on the site, then taking over three hours to complete the eviction. After the majority of the site was cleared, the last to go were two who were up a scaffolding A-frame, along with another who was D-locked to the bottom of it. Other ‘last men standing’ were one man on top of the kitchen with a megaphone, and another who sat atop a truck piled high with fencing. No one was arrested. Later that morning a fence was erected around the square, and around 25 villagers remained on the pavement next to it.

At 2pm that afternoon a fence jumping tournament was held, with around 23 managing to get back into the square. Within the perimeter people played chasing games with the goons, and each was led out without arrest and allowed to return to the group gathered on the pavement.

The appeal against the High Court ruling (see SchNEWS 729) was lost last Friday (16th), which meant it was only going to be days before the bailiffs arrived.

But despite this, the regular Saturday Peoples’ Assembly will still go ahead this weekend (24th), 1pm-6pm in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to Parliament. It will be a forum covering topics from wars to civil liberties, direct action, climate crisis, electoral reform, land reform and more. There will also be action at the fence around the square.

* See www.london.indymedia.org/about/democracy_village www.democracyvillage.org www.democracyvillage.blogspot.com