Tresy Kilbourne wrote:

>If it was truly empty, and if the squat was sincere, I would agree with you.
>When I first visited the building I didn't know who the occupants were, and
>thought it pretty radical. But the more I learned, the less impressed I
>became.

Squatting is, in general, a tactic more easily employed by young people. Us
old folks really need a bit more stability and security than squatting can
offer. Not to mention the full range of services. young people with less
maturity will tend to make more mistakes.

I'm not sure what you mean by "sincere", but I guess you mean a genuine
intention to reside permanently as opposed to a guerilla tactic. Sometimes
the legal and social environment don't make that an option, often the only
way to create space for such possibility is for determined activists to
make it happen.

Of course squatting is a highly political activity. It is usually the case
that squatters are outlaws, with no legal rights. Their only defence is
public opinion, laws are only enforced to the extent that the public will
tolerate so squatters must be able to muster public opinion to their cause
or they are defeated.

I recall over 20 years ago we moved the Unemployed Workers Union into an
empty shopfront in downtown Launceston. The first thing we did after
breaking in and moving a few sticks of furniture into the building was to
invite the Tasmanian Minister for Employment and Education to officially
open the premises, which was to be a craft and food shop as well as the UWU
office. He accepted and dutifully presented himself for the photo
opportunity.

This, no doubt, presented something of a dilemma for the Education
Department, who actually owned the building. Their Minister had received a
splash of publicity doing the honours, so they could hardly humiliate the
poor silly bugger by having us dragged out by the cops a few days later.
;-)

Plus of course, the buildings had been empty for years. It is always unwise
for government departments to draw attention to "bureaucratic waste" such
as this. So we basicly got use of the building for a few years, before they
summoned up the courage to even ask, politely, for us to leave.

I guess that was a "genuine" squat. However not everyone has the luxury of
a benign political climate. However alienating the local people is never
the right way to go about it, that is utterly counter-productive. But then
the people you talk of sound pretty stupid, they probably haven't worked
that out.

Bill Bartlett
Bracknell tas