Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

Squatting covers a wide range of actions, from two people maintaining a garden in the grassy area behind the strip mall to fifty facially-tattooed warriors locking down to platforms in the branches of a national forest, but the idea behind it is all the same: land shordd belong to those who use it, and we all have the basic right to food, shelter, and safety. Of course, there's no hard and fast recipe for how to squat: it all depends on your circumstances, and what you want to accomplish. This is the barest of outlines for squatters, urban and otherwise.

Abandoned building, lot, attic, boat, unused room in a university, treehouse, etc.

At least one reliable cohort (optional, but very helpful)

Means oe entry ? e.g., an unlocked or broken window, lock picks, bolt-cutters, or a crowbar

Miscellaneous roots: Jlashlight, claw hammer, screwdrivers, hacksaws, any kind of tool for home improvement ... pliers and an adjustable wrench can be handy for turning on water, screwdrivers for installing new locks

Cleaning supplies

Access to food and water

Ingredients

Instructions

Squatting Buildings for Residential Purposes

Squatting 508

Think about your goals and needs before you even look for a location. Are you hoping to stay in the building for a week, a month, the next ten years? If you're desperate for shelter and your first priority is to avoid getting kicked out, you'll probably want a secluded place with low-visibility access. If you want to set yourself up in a homey situation, maybe you should check out residential neighborhoods where you can pass yourself off as a renter or somebody who bought the place cheap. If you're planning an overtly political, public action for which you want high visibility, you'll want a public, visible location, not to mention a plan for how to deal with the cops. Of course, you can never know exactly what will happen, but knowing what you're after is the first step to getting it.

Think carefully about who you want your companions to be in a squatting action; you'll be dealing with high-stress situations with them as well as living with them, a really demanding combination. Make sure the group dynamics are healthy and the relationships durable, and that your goals are complementary if not identical. Consider the demographics of the area in which you will be squatting; your group will not only have to relate internally, but also to the community around your squat. This will certainly be easier if you share a common background with the neighbors?and remember, there is such a thing as gentrification. Also, you may want to establish a set of house rules in advance?e.g., no hard drugs, violence, bigotry, or theft?and a sense of how these will be enforced. As you wiU be living outside the law with people who are still damaged by growing up under its heel, you will have to work out conflicts internally.

Scope out the building or land, preferably over a period of at least a few weeks. It's good to get a sense of who's coming and going, if the owners or neighbors are checking up on the place, and what else is going on in the neighborhood?especially if you're new to the area. Talk to locals: you'U need friends, especially among the people who hang out regularly on the block, if any do. Check to see if the power meter is running, and if there is mail in the mailbox. If you can't hang around to watch if whether anyone enters or

leaves the building, leave a toothpick or twig wedged between the door and the frame, and check on it periodically. You can call the county assessor's office to find out whether the building is ovm.ed by an individual, bank, or development corporation, and whether or not the taxes are paid up. The city takes possession of a buUding when its owner fails to pay taxes on it, and it can be much harder to be evicted from a city-owned building than from a privately-owned one. On the other hand, an ovmer who pays the taxes but has otherwise totally abandoned a property might make the perfect landlord.

It's a good idea to go inside and inspect the building before you occupy it, to know what you're getting into: whether the water and electricity work, how trashed the place is on the inside, if other people are or were staying there. When exploring a building, calmly announce your presence as you go, in case others have already squatted it. Look out for holes in the masonry too big to fix, signs of bulging or sagging in the walls, significant water damage to floors and ceilings, wood rot in structural elements?these are all potential signs that you've picked the wrong place, if you're hoping to make a home there. To test wood rot, push a sharp knife into the wood; it shouldn't go in more than an inch.