OFF : Fwd: Crass have some problems

[gingoblin at EASYNET.CO.UK]

>  null at southern.com wrote:
>
>From: null at southern.com
>Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 15:21:51 GMT
>Subject: Crass have some problems
>To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
>Reply-to: tour-dates-reply at southern.com
>
>
>Update 17 January 2001
>
>The auction takes place next Tuesday. There has been an overwhelming
>response of support and many many individuals have sent small donations
>which has truly touched Crass and inspired them to fight on. However
>unfortunately they are well short of the necessary funds to place a bid,
>so if you can help, now is the time. Please pass this on to everyone you
>know who might be interested.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>December 2000
>
>You may be among the many people who know of DIAL HOUSE, if only because
>it was home to the infamous anarchist punk band, CRASS. Although over the
>years some members of the band have moved on, three remain at DIAL HOUSE,
>maintaining their anarchist lifestyle and sharing it with what over time
>has grown to be a massive extended family.
>
>When we first rented DIAL HOUSE thirty years ago it was a
>derelict, rat infested dump with a rubbish heap for a garden.
Nonetheless,
>we could see in it the possibility of making real our dream of setting up
>a communal creative and theraputic centre. Having completely renovated
the
>house to include studio, print-rooms, a rehersal space and workshops, we
>created an organic garden that enabled us to be largely self-sufficient.
>The more we expanded, the more we were able to share.
>
>>>From the outset, in 1967, the lifestyle at DIAL HOUSE has sought to
offer
>residents, guests, visitors and the broader community a workable
>alternative to the all-pervading consumer ethic. For over thirty years,
>the DIAL HOUSE community has shared its vision of possibility and hope
>against a culture in which personalgreed has become an accepted norm.
>
>CRASS was perhaps our most renowned enterprise, seconded by the creation
>of the first STONEHENGE FESTIVALS. These were public expressions of the
>more personal ideas which had always been shared by the community. For
the
>last 12 years DIAL HOUSE has been under siege from various uncaring
>landlords who, believing that they have the right to profit from the love
>and care we have invested into the house, have sought to evict us from
our
>home. The most powerful of those landlords was British Telecom who after
a
>five day Public Enquiry we were able to beat off. It was our first major
>victory in a war that wasn't over. British Telecom sold the property on
>to Peer Group, a London based development company. Having twice failed in
>Court action against us, Peer Group have now decided to put DIAL HOUSE
>up for auction on the 23rd January 2001. Not once in their six years as
>Landlords have they attempted to open up a dialogue with us over a
>sensible price on the house. The auction is Peer Group's last ditch
stand.
>
>If you know anything about CRASS, you will know that despite selling
>thousands of records, profit was never on the agenda. As long as there
>was food in the garden a roof over our heads and friends to share time
>wth, we were happy enough. Not surprisingly enough, we are now broke as
we
>were thirty years ago and consequently haven't got the necessary funds to
>make a bid for DIAL HOUSE.
>
>Obviously we would love to be able to buy DIAL HOUSE so that we can
ensure
>a future for what it has come to represent. It would be unrealistic to
>imagine that any future Landlord would be any more sympathetic than Peer
>Group. Our way of life, after all, is the very antithesis of capitalist
>greed.
>
>For too long we have had to suffer at the hands of Landlords whose only
>interest in DIAL HOUSE was its material value. For too long we have had
to
>put aside our desire for radical change simply to be dragged through the
>Courts or to conform to the limiting legal restrictions of our Tenancy
>Agreement. We want to grow personally and to expand our operations, but
>know that unless we own DIAL HOUSE it will not be wholly possible.
>
>Our current dream is that DIAL HOUSE should continue as it
>always has been, as a 'safe house': a space where there is a welcome,
>where there is a bed for the night, conversation, food and the
possibility
>of sharing ideas. On this foundation we want to expand on DIAL HOUSE's
>traditions of radical creativity, offering its facilities to an ever
wider
>public.
>
>We would like to arrange workshops covering a range of alternative
>activities from healthcare courses to literary weekends; to offer studio
>and rehersal space to visiting artists and musicians; to organise formal
>discussions and debates to contribute towards the ever growing
>international radical dialoguel to arrange gigs, film and art shows,
>readings and debates in the local village hall; to widen our own field of
>visions and at the same time to involve the local community, most
>especially the young.
>
>Any capital raised through these activites could be re-cycled back into
>DIAL HOUSE for further projects. We would like to open a website to
>broaden the network, open the house and garden to new activities and new
>thoughts, open our hearts to a new vibrant future. Parallel to this
dream,
>a Trust would be set up of around half a dozen interested individuals,
>made up of residents and non-residents, who would meet regularly at DIAL
>HOUSE to guide and administer the overall policies and agendas of its
>running. In addition to this, the permanent residents could pursue
>their personal work - painting, writing, music-making, gardening etc...
>
>So, that is the dream, but the reality remains - we're broke.
>
>To ensure a chance of a successful bid, we need to raise something in the
>region of 80,000 GBP : a huge sum of money for us. Because we are
>desperate, we are taking a course of action that we would not normally
>contemplate - in short, this is an appeal to anyone who might have lived
>at, visited, supported or had any interest in DIAL HOUSE and what it
>represents to somehow contribute towards buying it.
>
>CAN YOU HELP?
>
>Contact details :
>
>Dial House
>Ongar Park Hall
>North Weald
>Epping
>Essex CM16 6AE
>tel/fax +44 (0) 199 252 3854
>
>email : geecrass at southern.com
>
>Cheques can be made out to Penny Rimbaud.
>
>Thank you.
>
>
>


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