Tonight we’ll review some definition taken from the underground world lifestyle culture: what is a Squat? An autonomous active space//Radical centre? A freegan person? Dumpster Diving?
Let’s refresh the old memories and introduce it to the virgin ears.
Here is a taste of the music of tonight:
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TONIGHT FROM 9pm*
*UK TIME, check what time it’ll be in your country
Squatting is still legal in England and Wales but it will soon be a criminal offence to squat in a residential building. Same as Netherlands, it looks like the law is a demonisation of the poor because it is punishing the squatters under the public excuse that squatters are occupying non-abandoned houses (there is as bad squatters as tenants or owners obviously) and they are not punishing owners for leaving their properties empty for decades while thousands of people are struggling to have a decent affordable house to live in.
Here is the report of Squash (Squatters’ actions for secure homes) for more explanations:
This post should clarify for anyone confused about where the laws around squatting are right now. The law is currently still the same: it is not a criminal offence to squat a building, it is a civil offence with no risk of conviction for the act of squatting itself.
The House of Lords, on 28th March, during their debates on the clause to criminalise squatting, agreed with the Government to make it a criminal offence to squat in residential buildings. However, the definition of residential buildings is vague, so it could possibly come to include non-residential buildings once enforced. This will be clarified by legal challenges that groups such as the Advisory Service for Squatters and Squash will pursue in the coming months, and by the legal precedent set by the first criminal trials of people for squatting. This is currently what they define as a residential building:
(a) “building” includes any structure or part of a structure (including a temporary or moveable structure), and
(b) a building is “residential” if it is designed or adapted, before the time of entry, for use as a place to live
This Clause is a part of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill and is yet to receive Royal Assent, this is likely to happen on the 9th May. Royal Assent means the Monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of her nation’s parliament, making it a law. After Royal Assent the Secretary of State must commence the law, but prior to commencement the Government must consult and prepare a number of organisations which will be affected by the change in law, these include: National Homeless Advice Service, Citizens Advice, Crisis, Association of Chief Police Officers, Local Authorities.
The consultation prior to commencement could take an unknown quantity of time, and the law will stay the same until it is completed. It is important that this information is understood and that the current law is the only law enforced by Police.
If you are organising and preparing for the coming criminalisation of squatting get in touch with local anti eviction networks and squatter networks, here are but a few: Bristol Housing Action Movement, Squatters Network of Brighton (and Hove actually, Squattastic, North East London Squatters Network, South London Squatters Network, OKasional Cafe, Autonomous London, Kebele, Squatter’s Legal Network. Please get in touch if you have details of more active networks.
If you need legal advice contact the Advisory Service for Squatters – 020 3216 0099
Squatters Network of Brighton (and Hove actually) have called a Squatters Convergence in Brighton Thurs 17th – Sun 20th May 2012, this is a good place to share information and to strengthen networks and resilience.
Whatever they say squatting will stay!
Here it is for the little report, we will keep you in touch whenever the law is activated or not.
We have a guest tonight folks! Marcia is coming to talk about her lifestyle: she is actually squatting in the UK, and she just bought a river boat! How did she get involved in those alternative residences?
And here is the independent discoveries of the week!
Hya Folks!
Looks like I wasn’t clear at all on what I was saying on the last show ha ha! So will explain again and try to be clearer about this sound healing and colour therapy.
Don’t hesitate to leave a comment on what you think about the show for us to realize quicker what can be improved!
The new discovery of tonight:
And the usual wicked artists:
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN FROM 9pm*
*UK time, check the time it’ll be in your country!
A friend of mine is pregnant, and she was talking to me about how she was combining sound and colour therapy along side with auto-hypnosis to prepare her body to contractions and try to minimise (or erase) the pain.
She didn’t know I would repeat you everything tonight! We’ll discover together what is the sound therapy, and the next show will be dedicated to alternative medicine such as colour therapy or hypnosis.
Science is slowly discovering and improving those therapies that were already known and well-used since millions of years by tribes and different cultures around the world as Buddhism with the music healing bowl for example. They knew the power the sound can have on the human body and mind and they were using it while healing ceremonies.
There is many ways to heal yourself and we feel here that one doesn’t necessary need to spend so much money on specialists and medication to have access to many different alternative medicine and eventually auto-heal oneself.
Links about Sound therapy
To Read
About Sound therapy in the UK, by the Guardian/The Observer
The History on using Sound as therapy
To Listen
Here it is for the music of the night, new artists to discover!
Dangerous Dinky aka Dirty South
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☁I am siiiiinging in da rain ☁
There is no water in the house I am living in so we’ve put some buckets under the rain pipes and connected it to the kitchen sink and toilets.. You can imagine how happy we are when it rains haha!
Tonight we’ll talk about services exchange via volunteering with the TimeBank concept:
; and we’ll see how the local community of Brixton created its own currency: some other ways to improve the local communities through autonomy, independence and skill exchanging!
About the sound:
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN on OPTICALRADIO.net, from 9pm every Thursday; rerun on Sunday from 5pm*
*UK time: check the time it will be in your country 
DOWNLOAD THE SHOW (available 3 month, just ask if you want a particular show)
Hyaaaaaa FOLKS!
How’s it going? Enjoying the good rain showers of April? Dunno why I always talk about the weather it is outside … Well.
Here is a taste of the weather of tonight anyway eh!
We will do a quick resume about squatting in Europe as well. Get to know the rules!
