Peter Mc Gregor - Squatting

Squatting

In 1974 he helped resurrect the Sydney Anarchist Group to organise an Australian Anarchist conference in Sydney in January 1975. He later gravitated with other Sydney anarchists around a three-story mansion at 130 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe. The group commenced a successful rent struggle against an intermediate landlord on the Glebe Estate (formerly owned by the Anglican Church), and against the Whitlam Labor Government's Department of Urban and Regional Development (DURD). Many of the squatters from Victoria St, in Kings Cross, had moved to Glebe, where there was an abundance of empty homes, resulting from the transition of The Glebe Housing Estate sale from the Anglican Church to DURD (750 properties). The SAG’s first squatting tabloid RISING FREE, seemed to find both an 'audience' as well as a range of keen contributors.

McGregor discerned considerable similarities between the Situationist International (SI) & Socialism or Barbarism (SoB), let alone more general parallels between the SI (including its Libertarian Marxism) and Anarchism, especially in its council communist form.

Among other Anarchists from Melbourne and Brisbane and the SAG, McGregor’s interest in Situationism coincided with a period of 'anything goes' carnival anarchism. Spontaneity was essentially the name of the game during 1975 and early 1976 in Sydney. 'Situations' like a room full of stoned people suddenly deciding to go out and do a paint up on the local billboards and buildings often occurred. The local Police Station and Commonwealth Bank and the Medical Association building were often targets.

In June/July 1976, a range of folks - in friend or affinity groupings, who hadn't necessarily know each other previously - had seized-the-time and moved in & sqautted the corner block of Palmer & Stanley St’s Darlinghurst Sydney. The DMR (Department of Main Roads), in order to construct their Freeway, had bought out local residents in preparation for demolition... But there were delays, because of disputes between State and Federal Governments, Green Bans from the NSW Builders Labourers Federation (BLF), and resistance from local resident groups. Bordered by the lane from Palmer to Bourke Sts, 'The Compound' was born with considerable idealism. Internal fences between the houses were knocked down, and levels of communalism and conviviality blossomed. Back-yards, tools, a washing-machine, electricity, etc. were shared, community gardens were planted, a food coop and a squatters shop on the corner were established. Lots of partying, making and listening to music, drinking, cooking & eating, dope (Cannabis (drug)) & LSD, sex & raving occurred.

MORE TO COME...