"Keep your coins - I want change"
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Background
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Latest updates
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(The history of the campaign as it has developed can be seen by scrolling to the bottom of the page, to RAPAR’s first press release on the homeless camp (20/04/15). Updates are in the right column and below.)
On 15/04/15 a tent camp of around twenty homeless people (this number has now risen) appeared in Albert Square, Manchester, outside the city’s town hall and council offices, stating aims of raising the profile of the issue of homelessness in the Manchester area, seeking meaningful engagement from the council on homelessness, and protesting against the broader context of austerity and severe cuts to services and jobs. On April 20th council staff attempted to serve an Order for Possession to evict the camp. Camp members resisted this attempt by not accepting the papers, and later the courts postponed the eviction pending further hearings. On April 27th the camp decided to move around the corner to St Peter’s Square, outside Manchester’s public Central Library, stating its intention to remain visible in Manchester’s public spaces until genuine commitments are made by the city council. The next day the council served notice to quit this new site, which the camp has so far resisted through legal means. The situation soon took another turn through the council’s decision to bring in police officers and G4S private security guards at the entrance to the library, employing an unknown ‘profiling’ method to effectively bar homeless people (or people adjudged by the guards to be homeless) from entering the public library. This was despite confirmation that there is no legal justification for this. The library also houses homeless services for the local area. On Saturday 9th May a demonstration involving 200-300 people voiced solidarity with the homeless camp and protested the ‘social cleansing’ represented by the Council’s barring of the homeless from the public library. An appeal against eviction from the St Peter’s Sq camp will be heard on Thursday 17th May at Manchester Civil Justice centre at 10am – a solidarity demonstration has been called for 9.15am outside the court. On 09/05/15 the camp released an agreed statement of 'What We Stand For and What We Want', which reads as follows: ------------------------------ WHAT WE STAND FOR AND WHAT WE WANT
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1/10/2015 - COURT VICTORY YESTERDAY BUT WOMAN, 17, HAS DISAPPEARED SINCE MANCHESTER CITY COUNCIL USED COURTS TO BREAK UP ST ANNE’S SQUARE HOMELESS CAMP
Read the full press release here. DIRECTIONS HEARING FOR INJUNCTION CASE: 30th SEPTEMBER 2015
10.00AM MANCHESTER CIVIL JUSTICE CENTRE 1 BRIDGE STREET MANCHESTER GREATER MANCHESTER M60 9DJ See the Latest Press Release HERE... SOLIDARITY DEMO! 1PM SATURDAY 1ST AUGUST 2015, ST. ANNE'S SQUARE, CENTRAL MANCHESTER! BRING TENTS, GAZEBOS ETC!
See full press release... |