Speaker 1: M hey everyone, and welcome to take it happen here.
Speaker 1: I'm Andrew how due Channel Andrewism and today I want
Speaker 1: to talk about the squatting movement. Actually, before I do that,
Speaker 1: I'm joined today by my co hosts Your Cause Andrew
Speaker 1: or Garrison Davis and James Stout, and I am your producer, Sophie,
Speaker 1: and I am here Andrew. Please continue, Thank you, Sophie.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the squatting movement. I'm particularly
Speaker 1: how people love overcome the analities of privatizing land and
Speaker 1: restricting people's access to it so they could cove a
Speaker 1: life for themselves. Um in this troubling world. Now, I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people are at least passingly familiar
Speaker 1: with the squatting movements. The political squatting movements where be
Speaker 1: an anarchist, autonomous store, socialist and nature that have taken
Speaker 1: place in Italy, the US, and most famously Denmark where
Speaker 1: they had you know, Freetown Christiania set up. But outside
Speaker 1: of the global North and much of the rest of
Speaker 1: the world, squatting is just a fact of life. It
Speaker 1: doesn't typically though sometimes it does have radical political ambitions.
Speaker 1: So today I'm not going to be spending time discussing
Speaker 1: the squatting movement in Europe or North America, but instead
Speaker 1: discussing the millions of people in the world lack of
Speaker 1: access to land where they can find secure shelter and
Speaker 1: have turned to what has been deemed informal occupation or
Speaker 1: squatting to find residents. Most specifically, I'll be discussing the Caribbean,
Speaker 1: but first I need to get into some statistics. It's
Speaker 1: always that kind of weird, right. In nifty only eighty
Speaker 1: six cities around the world had populations of one million
Speaker 1: people or more. In twenty sixteen, there were just over
Speaker 1: six hundred cities that met this threshold. Over half of
Speaker 1: the world's population now lives in urban areas, and nearly
Speaker 1: a billion, if not a billion I asked to me
Speaker 1: to be living in in fourmal settlements, mostly in the
Speaker 1: urban and perry urban areas of less developed countries. I
Speaker 1: don't know if any of you have read Planets of
Speaker 1: the Slums by Mike Davis. I don't think I have,
Speaker 1: but he he discusses this phenomenon, this explosion in urbanization,
Speaker 1: and the fact that unfortunately, you know, these cities aren't
Speaker 1: exactly urban Eden's They are deeply impoverished, filled with makeshift
Speaker 1: and often unsafe, whether it be you know, poison us
Speaker 1: or just poorly constructed or disease written dwell ends areas
Speaker 1: such as their roots Quarantina, Mexico cities, Santa Cruz, Maya, Hualco,
Speaker 1: Rio DeRos Favelas and Cairo is a city of the
Speaker 1: dead ware, up to one million people living homes made
Speaker 1: out of actual tools. Now Davis addresses the issues root cause,
Speaker 1: that being post colonial neoliberal policies driven by free market
Speaker 1: catholicst principles. It is yes, cities modernized in the wake
Speaker 1: of the colonial era, a lot of the same zone
Speaker 1: and boundaries enforced by imperial powers across racial and soce
Speaker 1: economic lines were continued, so quality colonization did not really
Speaker 1: take place, and did imperial rule didn't lead to a
Speaker 1: magical increase in equality e galitianism. It's just post colonial
Speaker 1: rulers took up the mantel where a colonial rulers left
Speaker 1: so and of course this switch, this changing of hands
Speaker 1: of power was kept up by the International Monetary Fund,
Speaker 1: which stepped in on behalf of these elites and pushed
Speaker 1: the poorest citizens basically into thickly concentrated slums by making
Speaker 1: it easier for the ruling class to ignore these issues
Speaker 1: and prioritize the affluent. The depth restructure and policies and
Speaker 1: nine s also LEDs a lot of governments cutting down
Speaker 1: on their public health and education investment expenditure so that
Speaker 1: they could repay the loans that they had been forced
Speaker 1: to take out. David spent a lot of time talking
Speaker 1: about Asia and sometime talking about the increasing hardship in
Speaker 1: African cities. But the situation of squatting is off to
Speaker 1: overlooked in the Caribbean, and so I'd like to draw
Speaker 1: some attention to that. I think that anyone who has
Speaker 1: lived in the Caribbean or as family in the Caribbean
Speaker 1: would be somewhat familiar with the idea of family land,
Speaker 1: which is this idea that you know, you have these
Speaker 1: plots that the family essentially owns collectively, maybe somebody living there,
Speaker 1: or it may just be landed as being passed along
Speaker 1: for anyone who needs it. Um A lot of this
Speaker 1: land was acquired by purchase, and a lot of it
Speaker 1: was acquired by squatting. In turn, Dad in Jamaica and
Speaker 1: Puerto Rico and Martinique and Barbadoes, squatting was how a
Speaker 1: lot of recently emancipated people gained some foothold to live
Speaker 1: now they could not stay on the plantation system. Now,
Speaker 1: the early squatting movement was largely wiped out by the
Speaker 1: growing plantation system um, but eventually a new squatting movement
Speaker 1: would arise due to escaped slaves and maroons and post
Speaker 1: indentured individuals who would resettle um on those regions that
Speaker 1: were previously wiped out by the plantation system. When I
Speaker 1: spend most of the focus of this episode discussing what
Speaker 1: took place in Jamaica, because I discovered this really excellent
Speaker 1: research paper done by Pressergene Besson. But Jamaica is really
Speaker 1: quite an interesting example because Jamaica is one of the
Speaker 1: few Caribbean countries that had a successful sustained maroon movements
Speaker 1: that lasted into the twenty one century. And so what happened,
Speaker 1: as is the case for a lot of these colonies,
Speaker 1: is you have this sitting model of land ownership called
Speaker 1: crown land. Basically all the land of the crown deemed
Speaker 1: themselves to own by virtue of colonized. In these places,
Speaker 1: crown land would often be you know, parceled out when
Speaker 1: they wanted to attract new colonists to the different colonies,
Speaker 1: and so enslaved people in Jamaica created these squatters, settle
Speaker 1: months on Crown land, basically recaptured that land and created
Speaker 1: villages and communities um in as Maroons in that context
Speaker 1: of colonial violence, and of course these governments would demolish
Speaker 1: the squads settlements and try to effect land capture. But
Speaker 1: in Jamaica, the Maroons succeeded, particularly the Leeward Maroons, as
Speaker 1: they were two different groups to Winwood Maroons in the
Speaker 1: Leewood Moroons, and that's a whole different history. Today, a
Speaker 1: Kampong village is the only survive in village for the
Speaker 1: Jamaican Leewood Maroons, and there's also the oldest persistent Maroon
Speaker 1: society in African America. After the slaved Africans and Creoles
Speaker 1: escaped the plantations and squatted Crown Land, they waged successful
Speaker 1: guerrilla warfare against the British colonists in the Foost Maroon
Speaker 1: War and the leadership of Colonel Couju, and that land
Speaker 1: would be the basis of two Leewood Rooon villages that
Speaker 1: be in Coudo's Town in St. James and a kampongs
Speaker 1: Town in St. Elizabeth, a Kampong being named after couldos
Speaker 1: brother in arms, Captain Kampong. Eventually, Couldow's Town would be
Speaker 1: renamed Trelawny Town after the treaty between the British Governor
Speaker 1: would grant the Moroon's their freedom and fifteen hundred acres
Speaker 1: of legal freehold land. A Kampong Town, on on the
Speaker 1: other hand, did not really get any legal recognition until
Speaker 1: a land grant was given to them to some two
Speaker 1: thousand five dcres around set a couple of decades later
Speaker 1: between six the Second Maroon War before between the Trelawny
Speaker 1: Town Maroons and the British colonists. Because of course, the
Speaker 1: British did what they would do and whipped to the
Speaker 1: Maroons for the theft of pigs in Montego Bay. Of course,
Speaker 1: this is just the insight and incident, as these things
Speaker 1: tend to be, for the deeper discontent regarding access to
Speaker 1: the land, and after this Second Maroon War, the Trillony
Speaker 1: Maroons ended up being deported to Nova Scotia. So, for
Speaker 1: those a bit familiar with you know, Canadian history, the
Speaker 1: Maroons are moved and resettled in Canada. As a result
Speaker 1: of this and the Trintown Ruins land being confiscated, a
Speaker 1: compunc Town became the soul surviving village, and today it
Speaker 1: remains Common Treaty town. It is owned in common by
Speaker 1: the some I believe it's like just over three thousand adults,
Speaker 1: all of which by the way, claimed descent from Colon Couju.
Speaker 1: And they sort of have a mixed settlements, producing for
Speaker 1: household use, rare and livestock, utilizing the forest for medicines
Speaker 1: and timber um, cultivating food forests and provision grounds. And
Speaker 1: even after that was of the commitude migrate, they would
Speaker 1: still have that connection to their commons and often returned
Speaker 1: to either live or visit. Sloney Town. On the other hand,
Speaker 1: after being recaptured by the Crown, it was eventually purchased
Speaker 1: and transformed into family lands by the descendants of slaves, lanterns,
Speaker 1: and ruins, and of course squatting played a part in
Speaker 1: that development. Most recently in Latin America and the Caribbean,
Speaker 1: there has been a move by governments switching from a
Speaker 1: policy of trying to eradicate squatters and instead trying to
Speaker 1: give them titled their lands, either granting them or usually
Speaker 1: selling it to them in an effort to alleviate poverty,
Speaker 1: so they could use their house as you know, collateral
Speaker 1: for business loans and that kind of thing. And that's
Speaker 1: basically what happened for a compoun town and for Trelawney Town,
Speaker 1: where the captured land was surveyed and subdivided and put
Speaker 1: for sale, and so the squat was were able to
Speaker 1: purchase the land and the government was able to impose
Speaker 1: taxation on the people who lived on that land. Now
Speaker 1: I spoke of squatting in the Caribbean lats market not
Speaker 1: ratherically political, but there are political slash religious movements that
Speaker 1: have used squatting to gain a foothold. For example, the
Speaker 1: Revival Zion movements and offshoot of Rasterfarian movements. If I'm honestly,
Speaker 1: couldn't find much information about them, but they're enough through
Speaker 1: Jamaican religion and slash cult and so they managed to
Speaker 1: capture a lot of the land near Lawney Town and
Speaker 1: would often settled their homes right behind the city councils
Speaker 1: no squatting signs. Eventually, you know, you have about thirty
Speaker 1: househoods who have basically recaptured their land from Babylon. As
Speaker 1: Rastafarians would describe the state um, their community, which they
Speaker 1: called Zion, became a very vibrant squatter settlement of some
Speaker 1: seventy house yards on about thirty acres of captured land.
Speaker 1: Eventually the land was surveyed and subdivided, of course, trying
Speaker 1: to tax and control the people that were there. But
Speaker 1: the situation led to a lot of people still you know,
Speaker 1: not being able to afford the land, and still of
Speaker 1: course having to squat on the land that they lived on.
Speaker 1: But so long difficulty with squatted land is that it's
Speaker 1: a very um tenuous, very fragile state of being. The
Speaker 1: future is often unsitting and clay. It's it's more secure,
Speaker 1: i would say, than being like homeless, but you're still
Speaker 1: very much subject to state violence um. And even when
Speaker 1: so called legal avenues opened up for you to get
Speaker 1: the land, you know, through purchase, the fact that you
Speaker 1: had to squat in the land in the first place
Speaker 1: should be some indication that you probably can't afford to
Speaker 1: buy land. But squatting enables people at least in the
Speaker 1: interim two potentially you know, develop some funds and stuff
Speaker 1: until they are able to secure a future for their families.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the liberal solutions to the
Speaker 1: issue of squatting and poverty is to replace these sorts
Speaker 1: of systems and putting instead like proper private property rights
Speaker 1: and giving these people private property so that they could
Speaker 1: achieve sustainable development goals and all the other buzz words
Speaker 1: that you know these programs tend to use. I think
Speaker 1: the future of these kinds of projects, however, should be
Speaker 1: more along the lines of commons. I think that the
Speaker 1: fact that they were able to secure that land without
Speaker 1: the government's approval should be an indication that the government
Speaker 1: should not need to approve for people to live on
Speaker 1: the if you're called home. I've spoken a previous episode
Speaker 1: about barb Uda and they are commons, and I really
Speaker 1: don't see why. I do see why, But I really
Speaker 1: believe the solutions these isssues lies in reclaiming the commons,
Speaker 1: lies in rejecting these colonial and post colonial governments which
Speaker 1: based themselves on exclusion and illegality, and bring about participatory
Speaker 1: local management of the land by the people for the people.
Speaker 1: And that's about it. Thanks. I do you think it
Speaker 1: was really fascinating? Any any final thoughts? Scare James. My
Speaker 1: final thought is that we have a live share of Wonderful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just thing I was thinking about as we talked about
Speaker 1: squatting this one. You will be excluded unless you can
Speaker 1: pray the cost of entry or work out how to
Speaker 1: not be excluded, I guess. But it's on the twenty
Speaker 1: six of October. I nearly forgot what month it was,
Speaker 1: and you can buy tickets on the internet. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: we're doing this live stream October six pm. It is
Speaker 1: a live virtual event and you can get tickets at
Speaker 1: moment dot ceo slash I see h H will link
Speaker 1: that in. The episode will be a fun, spooky themed
Speaker 1: live show who It could Happen Here as a production
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