occupation. Hundreds of messages of support were delivered to the occupiers, including one from the Kent miners which was read out to enormous cheers from the 2,500-strong rally which gathered on Sunday afternoon when the occupation ended.
Even sections of the bourgets press felt obliged to respond. The Guardian headlined its story "Centre Point taken at last', the Mirror's leader came out with a line close to solidarity, and the Sun devoted a large part of its centre spread to the violence of the police who physically jumped on an architect who sounded his car hom. "HOMES NOT HYAMS' The reason for this broadly-based sympathy is evident, Centre Point was constructed at a cost of ES million, Now, 10 years later, it is stul an empty concrete shell and is valued at around CS0 million, Property speculation has. become the focus of the rumpleasant face of arena, and few would openly contradict the placard which read "Homes not Hyams". Harry Hyams has almost been elevated to the status But the success of the occupation exposed ats serious weakness: having succeeded in focus ing the attention of the nation on this concrete: pinnacle as a symbol of everything that is rotten in our unequal society", the organisers seemed to have little idea of where to go from there, and were unable to differentiate themselves from the horde of bourgeois politicians prepared to jump on the band wagon of demagogic 'speculator bashing' This failure was not an oversight or mis calculation, The organisers of the occupation, who had spent eight months laying their plans. which included infiltrating the security fum engaged to protect the building, declared that at was prunanly a stunt to win publicity, very much in the style of protest politics. And the organisers' obsession with both respectability and legality reached ludicrous proportions.
Their press statements stressed that the. occupiers were drawn from a variety of professions, and they insisted on putting As part of the present toughening up of the their picture taken.
There was, however, a broad spectrum of political opinion among the squatters themselves, and a vote taken on whether to continue the occupation was only narrowly defeated.
The main slogin taken up hy those assembled outside Centre Point was "Stay in", and this undoubtedly had repercussions among those EXPROPRIATION.
The occupation was timed to coincide with a meeting of Camden Council to consider the compulsory purchase of the 36 flats contained in the 32 storey building. Since these fats are located on ground level, it would have been quite feasible to squat these for an indefinite penod. thus keeping public attention cenired on the issue and providing a valuable Tocus for organising mass support around the demand for the expropriation of Centre Point. Any action taken by Hyams or the police for the "legal' or physical removal of the squatters could have been prevented by mass pickets. capitalism in almost every comer of the political. had little time to react to the situation, und As it was trade unions and other organisations while a dozen banners from Labour Party constituency organisations were in evidence on Sunday's rally, there was no pressure on Labour Party members to raise their sights beyond the purchase of a slice of the building at market price.
Maida Hill Squatters and Tenants Association distribuled a special issue of their newsheet which correctly called for the immediate takeover of the 36 flats for homeless people as the next practical step and for trade unions and tenants to show their support. They also proposed that the occuaption shoukd be used to propagandise on present housing struggles, such as the defence of the 26 squatters who are on charges arising from the occupation of the London Electricity Board showrooms in West London, and support for squatters who have broken 'official agreements' with councils to eviet themselves at the council's request.
Housing struggles all over the country -Bristol, Oxford, and London especially have during the past six inontis, made advances in both the level of organisation and multancy. These struggles, increasingly around houses As to how to deal with the situation, the struggies for decent housing URBAN CRISIS through lepal" intervention. Centre Point occupied, but the action failed to expose the bourgeois speculator-bashers owned by the property companies rather than those awaiting demolition, have inevitably led to an increasing isolation of the reformist old guard among housing activists, who rely on various State bodies to solve the housing crisis rather than mass struggle. The task for militants is to determine bow to lake these strumeles Forward. whether initiated by reformists or others, and how to organise support for all In London the urban crisis of capitalism is seen at its sharpest-acres of multi-occupied slums, rampant speculation, cuts in council boase development. and now attempts by the GLC to make houses available for transport workers who, like other essential service workers, are being forced out of the cily centre These factors express themselves in soarine rents, to launch a massive wave of propaganda-leafler100,000 properties lying emply, and rapid growth of spatting In London there are now over 18.000 squatters, drawn more and more from the ranks of the industrial working class.
Increasingly these squatters are under actack Important developments in the organisution of housing struggles have included the ferration of the All London Squatters Federation, official squatting groups in a number of boroughs VANG OFFICE I MACHINERY actively breaking agrcements with councis about vacating premises; militant squatting against speculators, by placing homeless families in ceipty luxury flats; and re-squatting in contempt of eviction orders It is this context which gives the Centre Point action such tremendous potential, and it is still possible to draw an this potential to carry all of these struggles forward The central task must be to build a unified campaign, centring on the demand for the outright expropriation of Centre Point but taking up the whole question of property speculation and housing under capitalism. that can hring together London squatters, tenants and trade unionists, Local Labour CouncilTrades Councils, trade union branches and shop stewards committees should be canvassed for support. The opportunity should he seized ing, street theatre, rallies and public meetings. Finally, a series of mass actions demonstrations, occupations, ete-must be planned to back up the demand for expropriation. In this way the present struggles can be advanced and a move ment capable of ereating a working class rolunon ln the bousing crivis of capitalism can come into being PIERS COBYN and RICHARD BRANSLEY