The majority of things that HI do are not "asking the council".
What we normally do is go out and speak directly to people where they live - knocking on doors for surveys - and distributing the newsletter. In the case of surveys, this isn't asking the council to do things, it's asking working class people about their own concerns - what they think is wrong, what they'd like to see happen etc. etc. We then feedback the results of this in a newsletter - sometimes just back to the blocks we did the survey on, sometimes the whole area, meaning that people can see what others in their area are thinking about, hopefully feel less isolated, maybe start to act together to improve things. Recently, one person we surveyed said "this is the first time in 25 years anyone's asked me what it's like to live on this estate". The fact that there's been a large concentration of political activists living in Hackney for decades, and people are largely ignored by them, certainly doesn't increase self-confidence does it? Surveys can lead to anything from helping individuals with getting repairs done*, organising public meetings, simply putting different people in touch with each other, contacting the local press, and yes, sometimes dealing with the council if they're responsible.
* although we're trying to move towards a situation where groups of people with repairs issues act collectively by taking on the landlord (not always the council) together, with or without practical help from us.<<<
In the case of Haggerston Pool - a situation that existed for a while before I got involved with HI and one I've not been directly involved with -the most recent thing we did was help out with the Laburnum Street Party:
http://www.hackneyindependent.org/content/view/159/48/
This is organised by the community around Haggerston Pool - not by us, and we supported it by stewarding on the day, plus ran a stall (I personally didn't do anything 'cos I was in the middle of moving). As far as I know at no point have we tried to lead the campaign or bring it into HI, just support it with publicity and practical help where we can. Were we to squat haggerston pool and turn it into a social centre there's a number things that might happen:
1. We'd have to spend a lot of time making sure the place was secure and arrange for it to be occupied. Since most people in HI have families and/or jobs, this would take up all of our resources in terms of time (or more likely exhaust them). We'd therefore be unable to continue distributing our 8000 newsletters door-to-door, and wouldn't have time to do any surveys. Potentially breaking links with the communities we're active in.
2. The result of this would be that rather than going out and speaking to working class people where they lived, we'd be inviting them to come to us at the social centre. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. Were it to work, point 1 would be at least partly ameliorated, but not necessarily.
3. Most importantly, it would mean us imposing a specific form of organisation, a specific tactic, on a campaign that runs independently of HI. And attempting to use that tactic to bring more campaigns (Blue Hut, Clissold etc.) into that particular political space we'd created. It might boost all those campaigns, it might mean the people involved got really pissed off at us for hijacking them and acting on their behalf without consultation. Again, it could go both ways, I don't want to suggest it'd always be bad.
4. Whatever happened, it's very unlikely we'd be able to get it working as a swimming pool directly (I have no idea what the condition of the place is like personally - never been there), even with a lot of community help, unless a load of construction workers, engineers and lifeguards gave significant amounts of time for free. So it'd be largely symbolic, and at best provide facilities/meeting space for a few things (but not necessarily any better than existing ones, and possibly with a lot more time and effort for the same result).
If the result was we ended up with Haggerston Pool workers' and users' co-op with people around the world comparing it to the Zanon factory, that'd be great, it's also extremely unlikely, and would be an isolated event (like JoeBlack's 2020 Colchester uprising example), and therefore not allowed to last long.
To get it working as a pool again, realistically would mean getting funds from the council, so squatting becomes simply a more spectacular way of "asking the council", but one dressed up as direct action. This is my problem with the current state of direct action in general.
See that's the problem with your criticisms. If we approach Hackney Council, it's usually because people have asked us to help them get things sorted out, not because we love talking to them, or because we think they have any real power to change things long term. Either way, it's usually informed by either surveys or direct requests, not "whatever we feel is appropriate" - otherwise it runs the risk of substituting for the class, innit. If communities substantially disagree with our take on things, we'll often keep putting our arguments forward but we won't do things 'on their behalf' that they've clearly rejected when we've spoken to them.
I'd love it if HI was able to take on more campaigns, and more wide ranging ones, many of which would have nothing to do with the council, but at the moment we've got limited resources, and social housing and community facilities are decent things to concentrate on that provide real material benefits short term. Hackney Council are also incredibly shit, and attack working class people and public facilities whenever they get the chance, so they're an easy target as well.
thats great im gonna use that everywhere
