Okasional Café opens in Fallowfield
Article published: Sunday, October 23rd 2011
The Okasional Café opened its doors again last Monday – but with new government proposals on the criminalisation of squatting, will this be the last time?
The OK café project squats empty buildings to use as temporary social centres. For the next three weeks, the café will be open at a former old people’s home on Wilmslow Road, a large building in the student area of Fallowfield. Ordinarily fading into the background, the building now catches the eye with its hoards of bicycles locked up outside and banners draped from the windows.
As with previous cafés, the space is being used to create a community centre where people can cook, eat, create and discuss together. The workshops range from training in direct action to learning how to cook, jewellery and craft making, circus acrobatics and even language classes.
Rosie Ford, a volunteer, explained: “We want this to be a space where nobody feels marginalised, it’s open to everyone to get involved, whether that be coming along to a workshop or putting one on yourself.”
Using empty buildings in this way however may well be in jeopardy due to new proposals to criminalise squatting. As such, Rosie argues that the creation of this space takes on greater significance in an age of austerity and Conservative political reform. She explained: “The café physically stages a protest against government plans to criminalise squatting, the effects of which ripple out much further than just outlawing projects like the OK Café. The proposed legislation will impact the most vulnerable in our society – the homeless. Squatting shouldn’t be the criminal issue they’re making it into- it’s a housing and welfare issue.”
Crisis, the homelessness charity stated this year that around 39 per cent of all homeless people have used squatting at some point to stay off the streets. “If they push these measures through then people already in bad situations will find themselves branded as criminals too,” added Rosie.
If passed, the proposed new laws could also have implications for political expression. The NUS has recently raised concerns about how the new trespass legislation could affect occupations as form of protest. Recent outrage at the cuts to public services saw a wave of occupations last year, including at the University of Manchester. Under the proposed legislation on trespassing, these acts of protest could lead to the criminalisation and arrest of protesters.
Katie Bordeaux
The OK Cafe will run for approximately another two weeks. The programme of events can be found at the OK Cafe website.
More: Manchester, News
Comments
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It’s all very student centric isn’t it – I wouldn’t be surprised if this cafe is a place where someone who isn’t a student or recent ex-student would feel very marginalised.
And what’s the point of something so temporary? Is running something like this now a module on some university course?
I’d be slightly more impressed if this kind of thing was done well away from the cosy student comfort zone of Wilmslow Road.
Many ‘activists’ seem to think Manchester is composed entirely of Fallowfield, the city centre and the road which connects the two.
Comment by simon on October 24, 2011 at 2:24 pm -
Hi Simon,
Comment by Callum Plowright on October 24, 2011 at 2:59 pm
I am currently volunteering at the ok cafe and in my experience it hasn’t been student centric at all. I am sat there now and looking around me I can’t actually spy a student in sight. I can however see a father with his son and a whole host of people from different ages and backgrounds. So if you are not a student then pop down and I’m confident that you won’t feel out of place.
I think all of us involved would like the cafe to be open longer but the fact that it is currently only temporary should not lead one to assume that it is pointless. I have personally found the experience of going to the last cafe and this one really inspiring. I have found a place where to be politcally engaged is welcomed and a place where you don’t need to worry that you haven’t spent enough to justify you being there. You can come and socialise and experience an environment liberated from the private sphere where repect and acceptance is gained not through your consumer choices and tastes but how you interact with those around you as part of the collective.
Someone just read this and said that I was gushing, and its just been seconded. I’ll leave it there -
Simon,
You might find it helpful to know that the OK Cafe is always planned to be open for 3 weeks at a time because of legal matters around squatting. It takes approximately 4 weeks for an owner to get a court order for a legal eviction, and so if the cafe is open for 3 weeks that gives a few days either side to set up and pack down without the risk of people or property being seized or damaged by police, and ensuring that the space is legal and protected during the time that people are invited into it. Well that’s the idea as long as the police stick to the law, eh?
As for it being student-centric, having been involved 2 cafes ago I would say that most people involved in helping to set up aren’t students (most of the students had exams to study for at that time!!), but even if they were it wouldn’t make them bad people or necessarily exclusive. All types of people get involved in OK Cafe because the point of it is to be inclusive – the project is designed to work outside of the usual barriers which divide us, hence skill shares, free lunches, alcohol free nights, and a space where you can just be without having to justify your existence financially or otherwise. The cafe was revived just under a year ago, and both cafes since its revival were located away from the Oxford/Wilmslow Road corridor. But this is an excellent building to allow for all the activities and resources which OK Cafe seeks to provide. Squatting with precision timing isn’t easy, and if it’s a choice between a clean and safe building with wheelchair access and the potential for running water, and one which has already had the contents gutted and trashed I know which I’d rather use.
Hope this answers some of your queries and gives you an idea of the thought that goes into something like this, let alone the time, effort, and sometimes personal risk (see police related comment above). It would be great if you had visited the cafe yourself before passing judgement as I think you would have been very pleasantly surprised, and if you do go down there I have no doubt you will be made to feel very welcome and have any further questions answered.
Comment by Ali on October 24, 2011 at 4:03 pm -
I think Fallowfield was chosen for the current cafe location as the last two were in town and the general feeling was that students were being excluded from the whole experience. As Simon’s comments show any locaion chosen isn’t going to please everyone and people will probably feel marginalized. Hopefully only unitl they check the place out for themselves anyway.
It’d be great to have this as a permanent thing but it takes up a lot of people’s energy even over 3 weeks. Maybe if more people got involved it could last longer next time?
Not sure about the 3 weeks legal thing though, I’m pretty sure court orders could be sent at any time.The less timethe place is occupied, the better I guess, as owners won’t be as fussed going through the whole court processand will just wait it out.
Comment by Harold B on October 25, 2011 at 7:46 pm
The comments are closed.
