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Reclaim Brixton movement - meetings and April 25th protest planned

Blagsta said:
I take it to mean "our" as in "the people's", not the power of capital etc
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editor said:
To the exclusion of property developers and those seeking to evict or exploit them, you div.
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Capital, property developers and so on weren't listening. Capital can't listen, thinking of property developers as individuals, as people who listen, is pointless.

Those chants were aimed at, and heard by, people in Brixton, and it was quite plain that a claim was being staked "OUR Brixton".

If the target of the chanting had been Lambeth council, or Network Rail, or Foxtons then fine, no problem at all. Even general attacks on capital and stuff.

You seem to want to defend divisive chants by a small proportion of protestors, of whom there were only maybe a couple of thousand in total drawn from a population of hundreds of thousands. How do all the rest get engaged- by chanting that the area belongs to a few members of noisy subcultures. I don't think so.
 
pesh said:
am I supposed to give a fuck about 2 teenagers with an aversion to walking being mildly inconvienced?
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IMHO no.

Sorry as I feel for anyone who was inconvenienced, yesterday's demonstration gave plenty of very widely covered notice. If 3 presumably literate and net-using teenagers couldn't make other arrangements, tough.

An elderly woman from the same estate as me was on the protest, and she chose to leave quite early so that she'd be able to get a bus back up the hill (before they were diverted).

Also, let it be remembered that one woman trying to drive through Brixton to visit her mother in hospital was allowed through (protestors got out of her way), after she explained what her situation was.
 
newbie said:
Capital, property developers and so on weren't listening. Capital can't listen, thinking of property developers as individuals, as people who listen, is pointless.

Those chants were aimed at, and heard by, people in Brixton, and it was quite plain that a claim was being staked "OUR Brixton".

If the target of the chanting had been Lambeth council, or Network Rail, or Foxtons then fine, no problem at all. Even general attacks on capital and stuff.

You seem to want to defend divisive chants by a small proportion of protestors, of whom there were only maybe a couple of thousand in total drawn from a population of hundreds of thousands. How do all the rest get engaged- by chanting that the area belongs to a few members of noisy subcultures. I don't think so.
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I wasn't there, but I reckon you're over thinking it a bit.
 
newbie said:
Capital, property developers and so on weren't listening. Capital can't listen, thinking of property developers as individuals, as people who listen, is pointless.

Those chants were aimed at, and heard by, people in Brixton, and it was quite plain that a claim was being staked "OUR Brixton".

If the target of the chanting had been Lambeth council, or Network Rail, or Foxtons then fine, no problem at all. Even general attacks on capital and stuff.

You seem to want to defend divisive chants by a small proportion of protestors, of whom there were only maybe a couple of thousand in total drawn from a population of hundreds of thousands. How do all the rest get engaged- by chanting that the area belongs to a few members of noisy subcultures. I don't think so.
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It's pretty clearly based on the common chant "whose streets? our streets!" that happens at pretty much every demo. I think you are over-egging any "divisive" aspect here; "our" doesn't refer to any particular subset of people, it means people generally, and I'd be surprised if any significant number of listeners misunderstood that. I've not even seen that interpretation in the Mail etc.
 
newbie said:
Capital, property developers and so on weren't listening. Capital can't listen, thinking of property developers as individuals, as people who listen, is pointless.

Those chants were aimed at, and heard by, people in Brixton, and it was quite plain that a claim was being staked "OUR Brixton"
If the target of the chanting had been Lambeth council, or Network Rail, or Foxtons then fine, no problem at all. Even general attacks on capital and stuff.

You seem to want to defend divisive chants by a small proportion of protestors, of whom there were only maybe a couple of thousand in total drawn from a population of hundreds of thousands. How do all the rest get engaged- by chanting that the area belongs to a few members of noisy subcultures. I don't think so.
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i don't know where you get the notion that hundreds of thousands of people live in brixton from. but a word to the wise: it is bollocks that even a hundred thousand people live in brixton. it's maybe 60,000 on the basis of 'brixton' being the wards of ferndale, brixton hill, tulse hill and coldharbour. the map of lambeth at http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Lambeth Wards.jpg shows brixton being in coldharbour ward (15,842 in 2011) but there you go
 
I was on the street near to the pavement on the first time the protesters took the junction. People waiting for buses were curious on the whole and not pissed off. Of course that's just my opinion at that time which was probably about 2pm. Might have varied later. When you hear a chant like 'whose streets our streets' and you're not a protester maybe it makes you think. Maybe it pisses you off. Maybe you think, like the guy who runs the shop opposite Forest Hill station when he asked about my day and what I'd been up to 'but darling you can't stop that type of business gentrifying an area'

Later in the afternoon (I left early to go shop with my daughter) we and others had a long wait at the bus stop up Effra Road for a 37. Many people were walking rather than wait so long for a bus. Their mood wasn't angry.

As Greebo pointed out - younger people who are internet literate were most likely aware of events and could choose to be out of the area
Others unaware must have clocked windrush square setting up for hours - at that point make your leaving plans. Some people will be genuinely inconvenienced and in difficulty and I'm genuinely sorry for their trouble. But as others point out upthread, there are bigger inconveniences being cause in Brixton, in Hackney, all over London as money is diverted towards the top away from communities and living for more and more becomes more and more precarious
 
Pickman's model said:
i don't know where you get the notion that hundreds of thousands of people live in brixton from. but a word to the wise: it is bollocks that even a hundred thousand people live in brixton. it's maybe 60,000 on the basis of 'brixton' being the wards of ferndale, brixton hill, tulse hill and coldharbour. the map of lambeth at http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Lambeth Wards.jpg shows brixton being in coldharbour ward (15,842 in 2011) but there you go
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oh - and newbie it's disheartening that when you make a claim that can be checked you're found wanting. it makes me wonder about the other claims you make which can't be so readily verified.
 
Blagsta said:
I wasn't there, but I reckon you're over thinking it a bit.
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well we'll see, won't we, whether this has real traction or is simply a social whirl for those who use Brixton as a plaything. That's happened before, this place being the icon it is.

Maybe I'm the only person in the area who felt alienated by the chanting, but nobody has said anything so far that reduces that feeling, and comparisons to a minor subculture from some years ago certainly don't work. I don't know how long the chanters have lived here, nor how much they "interact (or not) with the existing community", nor to what extent the local communities wish to interact with them. But I'm a bit doubtful that their efforts will amount to much if they don't include the rest of us.
 
ffsear said:
Would love to but been supporting the London marathon mostly today. Real people, fighting real issues
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Sure they were. Okay, maybe a few who were raising money for charity, you can have those. But as for the rest... :rolleyes:

So how can you tell me that we don't count
or say that Brixton isn't mine?
Let me take you by the hand and guide you through the streets of Brixton,
I'll show you plenty
that'll make you change your mind.
 
editor said:
How do you instinctively know that someone is from outside the are?
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Well, others seem to possess that very power whenever they're judging whether customers of some unpopular businesses in the Village might be locals or tourists.
 
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Citizen66 said:
"Whose Brixton, Our Brixton"?

It's just a rehash of "Whose streets, our streets" from the original reclaim the streets.
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surely the ideal is to get everyone, rich, young, poor, old, etc, etc wanting change in brixton. wanting to screw the greedy landlords, the heartless local politicians. no matter how long someone has been in brixton, if you live there you have a right to say "we don;t want our town turned into a rich ghetto". keep fighting!
 
Citizen66 said:
It's a popular chant. Even the fash are known to have used it against muslims. :facepalm:

Maybe it pre-exists reclaim the streets. Maybe reclaim the streets were coined after it. :D
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I never heard it on any RTS actions. First I became aware of it was the student demos in 2010.
 
BigMoaner said:
surely the ideal is to get everyone, rich, young, poor, old, etc, etc wanting change in brixton. wanting to screw the greedy landlords, the heartless local politicians. no matter how long someone has been in brixton, if you live there you have a right to say "we don;t want our town turned into a rich ghetto". keep fighting!
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Well it excludes those who have moved there because of gentrification. It's trendy Brixton now. It'll end up like Hoxton.
 
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