THIS BUILDING IS OURS! Chapel Hill Anarchists Occupy Downtown Building
In the midst of the first general strike to hit the US since 1946, a group of comrades occupied a vacant building in downtown Oakland, CA. Before being brutally evicted and attacked by cops, they taped up in the window a large banner declaring, “Occupy Everything…”
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Last night, at about 8pm, a group of about 50 – 75 people occupied the 10,000 square foot Chrysler Building on the main street of downtown Chapel Hill. Notorious for having an owner who hates the city and has bad relations with the City Council, the giant building has sat empty for ten years. It is empty no longer.
Following the Carrboro Anarchist Bookfair, a group “in solidarity with occupations everywhere” marched to the building, amassing outside while banners reading “Occupy Everything” and “Capitalism left this building for DEAD, we brought it back to LIFE” were raised in the windows and lowered down the steep roof. Much of the crowd soon filed in through one of the garage door entrances to find a short film playing on the wall and dance music blasting.
People explored the gigantic building, and danced in the front room to images of comrades shattering the glass of bank windows 3,000 miles away in Oakland. Others continued to stay outside, shouting chants, giving speeches, and passing out hundreds of “Welcome” packets (complete with one among many possible future blueprints for the building – see below for text) to passersby. The text declared the initial occupation to be the work of “ autonomous anti-capitalist occupiers,” rather than Occupy Chapel Hill, but last evening’s events have already drawn the involvement of many Occupy Chapel Hill participants, who are camped just several blocks down the street.
Soon several police showed up, perhaps confused and waiting for orders. Three briefly entered the building, and were met with chants of “ACAB!” Strangely, the cops seem to have been called off, because they left as quick as they came. For the rest of the night they were conspicuously absent, leaving us free to conduct a short assembly as to what to do with the space and how to hold it for the near future. The group also decided to move a nearby noise and experimental art show into the building. As some folks began to arrange the show, others began filtering across town seeking things we needed for the night.
Within 30 minutes of the assembly ending, trucks began returning with everything from wooden pallets, doors, water jugs, and a desk, to a massive display case for an already growing distro and pots and trays of food donated by a nearby Indian restaurant. Others began spreading the word to the nearby Occupy Chapel Hill campsite, and bringing their camping gear into the building.
Over the next few hours more and more community members heard about the occupation and stopped by, some to bring food or other items, others just to soak it all in. All the while dozens of conversations were happening outside with people on the street. The show began eventually, and abrasive noise shook the walls of the building, interspersed with dance music and conversations, and ending with a beautiful a capella performance, and of course more dancing.
More events are to follow tomorrow in our new space, with two assemblies from the anarchist bookfair being moved to the new location, and a yoga teacher offering to teach a free class later in the afternoon.
As of the early hours this Sunday morning, the building remains in our hands, with a small black flag hanging over the front door. The first 48 hours will be extremely touch and go, but with a little luck, and a lot of public support, we aim to hold it in perpetuity. Regardless, we hope that this occupation can inspire others around the country. Strikes like the one in Oakland present one way forward; long term building occupations may present another.
-some anti-capitalist occupiers
For pics, you can go to http://www.trianarchy.wordpress.com
TEXT FROM THE “WELCOME” HANDOUT:
We would like to welcome you to an experiment.
For the past month and a half, thousands of people all over the US have been occupying public space in protest of economic inequality and hopelessness. This itself began as an experiment in a small park in New York City, though it did not emerge out of a vacuum: Occupy Wall St. “made sense” because of the rebels of Cairo, because of the indignados of Madrid and Barcelona and Athens. All of these rebellions were experiments in self-organization which emerged out of their own specific contexts, their own histories of struggle and revolution. Each were unique, but also united by the shared reality of the failure and decline of late global capitalism, and the futility of electoral politics.
Recently, this “Occupy” phenomenon has expanded beyond merely “providing a space for dialogue” to become a diverse movement actively seeking to shift the social terrain. From strikes and building occupations to marches and port blockades, this looks different in different places, as it should, but one thing is clear: Many are no longer content with “speaking truth to power,” for they understand that power does not listen.
Toward that end, we offer this building occupation as an experiment, as a possible way forward. For decades, occupied buildings have been a foundation for social movements around the world. In places as diverse as Brazil, South Africa, Spain, Mexico, and Germany, just to mention a few, they offer free spaces for everything from health clinics and daycare to urban gardening, theaters, and radical libraries. They are reclaimed spaces, taken back from wealthy landowners or slumlords, offered to the community as liberated space.
All across the US thousands upon thousands of commercial and residential spaces sit empty while more and more people are forced to sleep in the streets, or driven deep into poverty while trying to pay rent that increases without end. Chapel Hill is no different: this building has sat empty for years, gathering dust and equity for a lazy landlord hundreds of miles away, while rents in our town skyrocket beyond any service workers’ ability to pay them, while the homeless spend their nights in the cold, while gentrification makes profits for developers right up the street.
For these reasons, we see this occupation as a logical next step, both specific to the rent crisis in this city as well as generally for occupations nationwide. This is not an action orchestrated by Occupy Chapel Hill, but we invite any and all occupiers, workers, unemployed, or homeless folks to join us in figuring out what this space could be. We offer this “tour guide” merely as one possible blueprint among many, for the purpose of brainstorming the hundreds of uses to which such a building could be put to once freed from the stranglehold of rent.
In Love and Rage,
for liberty and equality,
-some autonomous anti-capitalist occupiers
UPDATE! Police Raid Occupied Building with Guns Drawn
At aproximately 430 pm, one of the largest coordinated police actions in recent Chapel Hill/Carrboro history took place in downtown. After shutting off both ends of Franklin St. and establishing a perimeter around the building, a several dozen police with guns drawn raided the 10,000 square foot Chrysler building at 419 W. Franklin St. Both Chapel Hill and Carrboro Police participated, as well as the fire department.
For the past 24 hours, the large space had been seized by a group of “anti-capitalist occupiers” aimed at permanently squatting the building which had previously been empty for ten years. Banners and flags were hung across the front of the building and roof, an impromptu kitchen, zine distro, and tool area had been set up, and most of the boards removed from the large windows on the west side of the building.
While some were held down on the ground at gunpoint, a large crowd gathered outside the building, taking up a lane of traffic and screaming at the police.
Ultimately eight people were arrested, probably on trespassing or breaking and entering charges. We are waiting to hear back from the jail on the bail and charges situation, and will provide updates as soon as possible.
Just looking around the crowd during the raid, there’s more new and old faces showing up to support this occupation than ever before. This is definitely only the beginning.
To read mainstream press coverage, and see an incredible photo taken mid-raid (sure to be a PR nightmare for CHPD for years to come), check out this.
Ciao,
some anticapitalist occupiers
Police with Assault Rifles Raid Newly Established Squat, Crowds Gather
In one of the largest coordinated police responses in recent Carrboro Chapel Hill history, dozens of SWAT team members raided the newly established squat in the 10,000 square foot Chrysler building. With guns drawn, they blocked off the surrounding streets. Eight people were ultimately arrested, likely on trespassing charges or break and entering. A large crowd gathered outside, booing the cops, screaming, and vowing to return. Two town aldermen from Carrboro even took part, ironic considering Carrboro police were involved.
A benefit show is being held tonight and bail money is being raised as this is typed. Solidarity actions everywhere are appreciated; the cops here have seriously overstepped their normal bounds, and have been captured on film by mainstream press with guns drawn on old ladies and legal observers.
This is only the beginning of this effort, and we already have found more comrades than ever before through this struggle.
More updates coming asap…
Chapel Hill: March against Police Violence, Call for Solidarity
This brief report covers the events of November 12 and 13 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, focusing on a black bloc solidarity march supporting those arrested in the eviction of a building occupation. It includes a call for solidarity actions around the world.
On Saturday, November 12, following the Carrboro anarchist book fair, 50-75 people occupied a building that had sat empty for a decade. Participants distributed leaflets proposing that the space should be turned into a social center serving the community and offering a floor plan of what that could look like. A joyous show and dance party ensued, attended by 100 or more locals of many walks of life. While movies and footage from the Occupy Oakland protests were projected onto the walls, people set up a kitchen, a reading library, and sleeping areas. Two dozen people stayed overnight, while others sat up outside keeping watch.
The following afternoon, as people were cleaning up the building to prepare it for its new role, police brandishing assault rifles carried out a massive raid. Seven people were arrested and many more detained, including journalists and legal observers; officers pointed guns in their faces and forced them to lie on the ground. Several blocks of the Franklin Street, Chapel Hill’s primary artery, were shut down for over an hour. In response, a large crowd gathered across the street chanting “Shame!” and “Police, Police, the Army of the Rich!” The city bus requisitioned by police to hold protesters bore a Wells Fargo advertisement on the side.
Only a few hours later, a solidarity march of approximately 75 outraged people took the streets of downtown Chapel Hill, marching around the main thoroughfares of the city center. Chanting “Occupy Everything” and “We’ll Be Back,” they carried black flags and banners reading “Under Capitalism We’re All Under Gunpoint” and “Fight Back.” Some held signs proclaiming “Pigs Gonna Pay” and “All Cops Are Bastards.” The majority of the participants were dressed in black bloc attire; many supporters and curious passers-by followed behind.
The march was followed by a benefit show for the arrestees, attended by well over 100 people, at which Chapel Hill locals and visitors from around North Carolina expressed their passionate support for the those attacked by the police, for the occupation of the building, and for the worldwide movement against capitalism and police repression.
This immediate response to the police attack shows that people in North Carolina will not be intimidated by violent repression. Anarchists and other activists in Chapel Hill are calling for solidarity actions around the world to show that this movement will only grow stronger in response to attacks.
Photos from downtown Chapel Hill after the solidarity march:
Occupy Everything! 
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