OT25: Preview

Following a prolonged hiatus from publication, the Occupied Times returns with a new issue available online and in print from this weekend. This is our 25th issue, and we are proud to be continuing our humble efforts towards production in common with a publication free from cost and copyright.

In this issue, we look to unpack the relationship between art and gentrification. Several articles focus on different aspects of how art and the “creative industries” work in concert with the overlapping interests of state and capital to act as a dynamic force behind the twin processes of dispossession and capital accumulation to produce the neoliberal city.

Delving into the role that art plays in gentrification, Matt Bolton suggests “creatives” must engage in a constant and ruthless critique of their own relation to the processes of capital accumulation. In a piece titled Social Cleansing in Southwark, Tom Gann exposes the forces that underlie the gentrification culture rapidly taking over the South London borough of Southwark: How to counter the destruction wrought by the amnesiac ‘urban pioneer’? Examining the dubious practice of social entrepreneurialism and its role in gentrification, OT editor and illustrator Alex Charnley examines the symbiotic relationship between the politics of temporary autonomous zones and “pop-up” culture.

In our regular Preoccupying interview feature, veteran organiser and writer Selma James sits down with the OT in a discussion exploring the three key issues she addressed in one of her most celebrated works: Sex, Race and Class.

Issues of public space, its history and potentials are explored elsewhere. In I Kissed a Tory (And I Liked It), Huw Lemmey calls for an infrastructural re-examination of sex, taking into account the possibilities of urban space and the politically vital question of who you screw and where you do it. After delving into the archives, Mark Kauri presents an overview of the history and radical legacy of Whitechapel’s London Action Resource Centre.

This issue contains three posters/placards for distribution. A full-page infographic offers a visual guide to resisting mass arrests. Whilst not official legal advice, it offers suggestions for resisting the police method used to deter protest. Our back cover draws attention to the struggle against the racist, imperialist treatment of migrants in the UK and across the world.

This issue also features a pull-out poster/placard as a small gesture of solidarity with the citizens of Gaza and the West Bank, where an onslaught of attacks by the settler colonial state of Israel has persistently made targets of Palestinian civilians and failed to obscure these indiscriminate attempts to murder those living under occupation. The still escalating cost to human lives has totaled an estimated 1,400+ deaths, and 8,200+ injured to date. We hope these images will be shared by anyone who wants to support the cause for a free Palestine.

Copies of OT25 will be distributed at events and within communities throughout the next two months. You can also find us on the shelves of various outlets across the capital, including Housmans, Black Gull Books, Banner Repeater, 56a,Freedom Bookshop, Cafe Crema and the London Review Bookshop. The full list of stockists can be found on the OT Stockists Map on our website.

Follow the OT on Twitter at @OccupiedTimes, Facebook at The Occupied Times, or visit our website at TheOccupiedTimes.org

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