Squat's End
Britain's Labor Government decided last week that there wasn't going to be any insurrection. Squatting unbudgeably on the law of trespass, the Government took out high court injunctions, ordering thousands of London squatters to vacate the luxury apartments they had recently taken over (TIME, Sept. 23).
Out of the Duchess of Bedford House the squatters marched in solemn ceremony, singing lustily to the obbligato of a small band headed by a Scottish bagpiper.* Then they were whisked away in buses furnished by the British Communist Party, which had decided to move them into an East End rest center maintained by the Government for building workers. But the building workers made a sad show of proletarian solidarity. With a cry of "Stand by your homes, lads," squads of threatened residents raced through the rest home, locking dormitory doors and posting guards.
Then the Government took the problem out of the Communist Party's hands, found new accommodations for the building workers in Kensington. It also announced a program to house 20,000 homeless Britons in some 700 unoccupied army camps. A drive is being launched to finish before the end of the year all houses now built up to the roof level.
The Labor Government showed little desire to press damage charges against squatters or ask heavy sentences for the five Communists arrested on conspiracy charges during the squat. Meanwhile, the Communist Party line had become almost as occult as the Indian rope trick: to disclaim responsibility for inciting the squatters, while claiming credit for all progress made in the housing situation.
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Lloyd's issued the first insurance policy against squatters last week, when Greenhill & Powell, estate agents, insured their flats in Chelsea--which they had just renovated to the tune of -L-23,000--against squatter damage. The terms were stiff---L-75 for three months to cover up to -L-5,000 damage.
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