Housing ourselves and others: 50 years of the Advisory Service for Squatters Last October, the Advisory Service for Squatters celebrated its 50th anniversary, though squatting has been around much longer. In October 2024, we published the 15th edition of the famous Squatters Handbook, which had to be more detailed and complex than earlier editions. Squatting used to be a mass movement; a way for almost anyone in need to house themselves or make space for social use, against the domination of buildings by money and power. But after decades of attacks, sacred property values have been gradually restored, patrolled by the law and the increasingly bloated security industry. In 2012, a law was passed to criminalise squatting in empty residential buildings in England and Wales.
https://libcom.org/article/housing-ourselves-and-others-50-years-advisory-service-squatters Indian communist parties suffer historic defeat: how did we get here? The April-May state elections were an historic turning point in Indian politics. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP conquered West Bengal, while the Left Democratic Front (LDF) lost control of Kerala. For the first time since 1977, not a single Indian state will be led by a communist party. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) – the largest and, in words, the most radical of the two main communist parties – described the results in Kerala as a “serious setback.” This is something of an understatement. The Indian National Congress – the main party of Indian capitalism – won 63 seats. Its allies in the United Democratic Front (UDF) won another 39, giving the UDF 102 of the 140 seats in Kerala’s state assembly. Meanwhile, the vote share for the CPI(M)-led coalition of four parties, including the Communist Party of India (CPI), fell by 12 percent. These results are nothing short of a catastrophe. However, this did not come out of the blue. It is the culmination of decades of decline for India’s communist parties, which have abandoned the ideas and methods of Marx and Lenin in favour of criminal class collaborationism. Let us look at the lessons for the working class and youth today.
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