What is Urban Liberation?

The city is suffocating. High rising buildings in the concrete jungle, a mirage of steel and glass signifying the constant flow of capital accumulated aggressively with the same colonial arrogance trying to transform London to a perfect playground for the total panoptical commodification of life.

Our cities are being reshaped relentlessly by force. We live under pervasive surveillance:CCTV, facial recognition, and predictive policing tools. Violent policing tactics, racial profiling stop-and-search, attacks on public protests of a worn ‘law and order’ dogma, now upgraded to a militarised, Orwellian discipline where consent doesn’t matter and obedience is enforced. Even in the darkest hours of history when humanity is bleeding in Palestine in a genocide that resembles Auschwitz, proscriptions and mass arrests emphasize on the doctrine that total repression of the denisers is the new normality.

Gentrification and corporate urban planning drive displacement, eliminating or distorting the character of entire neighborhoods. Whole areas are warped into exclusive consumer enclaves stripped of soul.. Local businesses are pushed out by corporate chains and greedy developers who through their specialisation have lost their imagination and any sparkle of authenticity, producing homogenised cities where everywhere looks the same. Luxury flats rise where social housing is desperately needed, expediting ethnic cleansing especially in the estates. Empty buildings are wrecking in the altar of real estate speculation, and an irrational stock market together with automation plus the total control of public space, try to regulate for the chosen few, a dark absurd reality for the many.

Urban liberation begins with recognising this reality—and rejecting it.

A reality which is asphyxiating, captivating the city in a neoliberal bubble.. When Thatcher declared‘there is no alternative’ she dreamt a part of the present, a ruthless state, ruling over a dismantled society with destroyed social bonds, where there are only families and individuals.

Thatcher,forgot,however that society always self institutes itself beyond authority. Against insignificance, individualism and assignment to the state, a brave new world of communities, groups and campaigns blossom across the city, creating another example counter to the mainstream, reclaiming the streets of London and its collective spirit. Solidarity, equality and action are the ingredients of an explosive mixture that is simmering in an unspectacular way, creating an unpredictable variable in the mysteries of the present.
Urban liberation is about taking back the streets with our bodies, living the city as an organism which breeds new autonomous structures for living rooted in care, solidarity, and freedom. It’s about communities that look out for one another rather than competing. It means seeing the city not as a commodity but as a common good. It's about reclaiming public space, protecting green spaces, public squares, social centres, and community hubs and all kinds of grounds of unmediated communication and contact. It’s the collective effort to self organise our everyday life and reimagine radically our urban spaces from the ground up.

An effort that starts with connecting to one another, building networks of solidarity and sharing what we do.
Call it what you will: the right to the city, urban commoning, we are calling it urban liberation.

We believe this fight must be intersectional. Housing struggles, anti racism, gender equality, climate justice, immigration rights, decolonisation and antifascism are all interrelating and it's exactly this interaction and interconnection that Urban liberation wishes to contribute to and strengthen. This autumn, under the exciting expectations of the Anarchist Book Fair, Temporary Autonomous Art actions and many other marvelous mischiefs, we are coming together to make visible that across London, a colourful mosaic of initiatives is thriving not for profit, but for people. Things will kick-off with the Gathering in Lesnes on the 14th of September and we hope to close the month with a coming together at the end of October.

Urban liberation is already happening.

It's the people in the community trying to save their social and community centers.

It’s the families occupying town halls for social housing and decent living conditions.

It’s the community land trust building their own homes.

It’s the market traders defending their livelihoods against ruthless developers.

It’s the small daily fights against racial profiling part of an ongoing struggle to decolonise our future.

It’s the art from the streets that gives back to the city its grit.

It’s the constant battle for dignity, solidarity and resistance.

How do we organise?

We are not a group—we are a rotating assembly of individuals and collectives. We organise horizontally, inspired by antiauthoritarian, antihierarchical political assemblies. We work by consensus. We want people and groups to maintain their autonomy and therefore this gathering of urban liberation depends solely on your participation,on what you bring to the table.
We encourage you to share your struggles and invite people to the corners of freedom you have carved out.

There are a couple of open working groups to support practical matters:
Outreach Working Group (WG) - Aiming mainly to contact communities and reach out to collectives in order to be informed about Urb Lib and propose to them to participate

Text WG - If you want to help with writing texts, open calls and process the minutes and the decisions of the assemblies.

Digital Presence WG - Supporting the technical infrastructure, e.g. hosting Gancio, the open source tool we are using to share events, administration of the website with any updates etc.

Design WG - Creating visual materials, drawing posters, flyers etc. Also providing designing support for the website
We want to reach, interconnect and interact with housing co-ops, rent strikes, tenant unions, mutual aid networks, collective kitchens, social and community centers, antifascist and anticolonial organisations, climate justice groups, every act of resistance that fights for the right to live, thrive, and belong to the city.

How to get involved

We have set up a platform where you can register your group, collective, or space. You can add your event, protest, screening, assembly, or action happening between 20th September and 1st November.

It’s as simple as that. For more information please contact urbanliberation@protonmail.com