Reclaim Brixton movement - meetings and April 25th protest planned

[TopCat]

I was there from 10am.

I was talking to people throughout the day who asked what it was about.

I disagree it was a narrow cross section of communities. It was Council tenants, shopkeepers, private renters and local political activists among others.

It was kept peaceful on Windrush sq.

There are a lot of younger people out there across London who are frustrated and have had enough. What I did notice was the number of younger people protesting. They are not listened to. They have had the worst of it in this recession.

As I hope to show in my photos the attempt to take over Town Hall was not just a few militants but a large crowd. What does surprise me is the growing anger that I see when I talk to people about what is happening to London.

Well done you for the effort you put in. Big respect.

 

[Citizen66]

tosh.

'Our streets' is a reasonable chant from a bunch of people who've occupied the streets in protest, whether about cars, student fees or something else. The street(s) have been taken over and the people who've taken them are right in claiming they're 'our streets'.

'Our Brixton' is very different.

and while there are aspects of class involved here I don't think deploying class as part of this discussion will achieve anything other than division. Neither existing communities nor any of the wave after wave of incomers are delineated by class, and this notion that all incomers are m/c is just lazy stereotyping.

AFAIK the fight isn't against all incomers beyond property developers wanting to kick out those in social housing for high returns on lucrative land values. Perhaps you're lucky enough to be a property owner in Lambeth in which case I'd rather have those on the streets on Sat fighting my corner if I was in social housing and the bulldozers were at my door than a do nothing whinger like yourself.

 

[TopCat]

I am very well off compared to many who were there. I am a university lecturer and earn a decent amount of £. (housing still takes a massive % of my income though)
I was there for a number of reasons -
-solidarity with others who are not in secure housing positions (those I know and those I don't know )
-solidarity with all of us in London who feel that £ has flowed upwards to a small % of individuals and business who have increasing power to shape the fabric of spaces and homes to the detriment of many
-solidarity with my young adult daughter and her generation of renters - she's already been evicted once (suspect that her very low rent was the main factor) and cannot now afford the flat she is in (estate agents making loads of money out of getting her in and out of the contract)

Good to meet you (again). Sorry I must have been pissed before when we met.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Well it's two things really. Those who have a camera in their hand as an action happens aren't involved in that action as they're more a 'witness'.

Their choice to publish the images may well hamper, rather then help, their campaign and those whose front doors get put through won't be thankful for their 15 mins of fame.

I loathe the fact everyone has a camera nowadays.

I don't loathe the fact that seemingly everyone has a camera, but I do get annoyed at how few people think to obscure faces or crop their pictures so as to minimise exposure.
Also, w/r/t reversing pixellation etc, IIRC that's possible, but only via the same algorithms you've used (algorithms for effects vary between software manufacturers, apparently - so I've been told, so unless you've used photoshop, and the piggies use photoshop to undo it, they won't necessarily get a usable image, despite how the people on NCIS and other cop shows always manage it!).

 

[TopCat]

tosh.

'Our streets' is a reasonable chant from a bunch of people who've occupied the streets in protest, whether about cars, student fees or something else. The street(s) have been taken over and the people who've taken them are right in claiming they're 'our streets'.

'Our Brixton' is very different.

and while there are aspects of class involved here I don't think deploying class as part of this discussion will achieve anything other than division. Neither existing communities nor any of the wave after wave of incomers are delineated by class, and this notion that all incomers are m/c is just lazy stereotyping.

Newbie does not have a class analysis. Telling that.

 

[Greebo]

Well it's two things really. Those who have a camera in their hand as an action happens aren't involved in that action as they're more a 'witness'.<snip>

I loathe the fact everyone has a camera nowadays.

I had a camera, a campaign T shirt (with back print as well as front print), a tongue in my head, and a placard - the last few of these were used more than the first one mentioned. And the uncropped pictures were purely for my own use. Will you demand that every shot on Reclaim Brixton's FB group page is taken down too?

Anyone worried about being seen should bear in mind that central Brixton (including Windrush Square) has heavy CCTV coverage all the time - be careful out there.

 

[ViolentPanda]

AFAIK the fight isn't against all incomers beyond property developers wanting to kick out those in social housing for high returns on lucrative land values. Perhaps you're lucky enough to be a property owner in Lambeth in which case I'd rather have those on the streets on Sat fighting my corner if I was in social housing and the bulldozers were at my door than a do nothing whinger like yourself.

And given that at the moment there are 6 estates in Lambeth threatened with the bulldozer, including the one Greebo and I live on, I'd rather have people with fire in their bellies on my side than do-nothing whingers like newbie too.

 

[newbie]

AFAIK the fight isn't against all incomers beyond property developers wanting to kick out those in social housing for high returns on lucrative land values. Perhaps you're lucky enough to be a property owner in Lambeth in which case I'd rather have those on the streets on Sat fighting my corner if I was in social housing and the bulldozers were at my door than a do nothing whinger like yourself.

As I said earlier, the compere went out of her way to stress that this wasn't an argument between different parts of the Brixton population. I think that was the agreed position of the organised groups who helped put the event together.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Newbie does not have a class analysis. Telling that.

Some people will do anything to avoid examining the issue of class. Often those people are those who recognise the relevance of class, but refuse to engage with it because it doesn't facilitate their own views or wishes. The modern Labour Party are probably the biggest exemplars of the trend, but are far from the only people engaging in what is basically a case of sticking their fingers in their ears and pretending that they can't hear.

 

[Miss-Shelf]

Good to meet you (again). Sorry I must have been pissed before when we met.

I will be disappointed if you remember me next time we meet!

 

[TopCat]

Some people will do anything to avoid examining the issue of class. Often those people are those who recognise the relevance of class, but refuse to engage with it because it doesn't facilitate their own views or wishes. The modern Labour Party are probably the biggest exemplars of the trend, but are far from the only people engaging in what is basically a case of sticking their fingers in their ears and pretending that they can't hear.

Whilst they pretend they can't hear we can ignore them as they are utterly irrelevant. Consigned to the wheelie bin of history.

 

[Citizen66]

I had a camera, a campaign T shirt (with back print as well as front print), a tongue in my head, and a placard - the last few of these were used more than the first one mentioned. And the uncropped pictures were purely for my own use. Will you demand that every shot on Reclaim Brixton's FB group page is taken down too?

Anyone worried about being seen should bear in mind that central Brixton (including Windrush Square) has heavy CCTV coverage all the time - be careful out there.

I think you missed me saying 'during an action'. Hopefully It's obvious what I mean by that.

 

[newbie]

Newbie does not have a class analysis. Telling that.

I didn't say i don't have one, I said I don't think it's particularly relevant in the context of this discussion.

Maybe I'm wrong on that, so what is the 'class analysis' that I should bring to bear on this issue? The previous population is w/c and the newly arrived are m/c? Everyone who owns a home locally is m/c? Everyone who lives on an estate is w/c? Owners of small business in the arches are ok but of small business in Granville are capitalist scum?

tmm the class issues here are structural and far wider than parochial stuff in Brixton and trying to shoehorn discussions between neighbours into the same mould doesn't really work.

 

[TopCat]

I didn't say i don't have one, I said I don't think it's particularly relevant in the context of this discussion.

Maybe I'm wrong on that, so what is the 'class analysis' that I should bring to bear on this issue? The previous population is w/c and the newly arrived are m/c? Everyone who owns a home locally is m/c? Everyone who lives on an estate is w/c? Owners of small business in the arches are ok but of small business in Granville are capitalist scum?

tmm the class issues here are structural and far wider than parochial stuff in Brixton and trying to shoehorn discussions between neighbours into the same mould doesn't really work.

Irrelevant fool.

 

[newbie]

Irrelevant fool.

please spell out your class analysis in the context of this thread.

 

[shygirl]

Well done everyone who was there and put time and effort into this. Had to go to Wales, really pissed I couldn't be there.

 

[Dexter Deadwood]

You newbie have been batting all day, your wicket has been broken over and over, every over; are you not exhausted?

 

[TopCat]

please spell out your class analysis in the context of this thread.

You ain't worth a yawn fella.

 

[newbie]

You newbie have been batting all day, your wicket has been broken over and over, every over; are you not exhausted?

battling? not really, but I'll wander off when motd comes on.

 

[Dexter Deadwood]

Well done everyone who was there and put time and effort into this. Had to go to Wales, really pissed I couldn't be there.

You can come and play another day, would be nice to see you again.

 

[newbie]

You ain't worth a yawn fella.

which is another way of saying you can't.

 

[Dexter Deadwood]

battling? not really, but I'll wander off when motd comes on.

I said batting not battling, a freudian slip on your part.
Thanks for the reminder because Arsenal were great today, played the carparkers off our lawn.

 

[Gramsci]

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

Good post.

Some were not inconvenienced. The night market outside the Ritzy set up early in the morning and did a lot of extra business as a result of the protest.

 

[Pickman's model]

I didn't say i don't have one, I said I don't think it's particularly relevant in the context of this discussion.

Maybe I'm wrong on that, so what is the 'class analysis' that I should bring to bear on this issue? The previous population is w/c and the newly arrived are m/c? Everyone who owns a home locally is m/c? Everyone who lives on an estate is w/c? Owners of small business in the arches are ok but of small business in Granville are capitalist scum?

tmm the class issues here are structural and far wider than parochial stuff in Brixton and trying to shoehorn discussions between neighbours into the same mould doesn't really work.

when you've been caught talking shit it might be better to stfu than continue spouting bollocks

 

[newbie]

well alright, you spell out the class analysis that ought to be applied here.

 

[Pickman's model]

well alright, you spell out the class analysis that ought to be applied here.

why should i do that for a liar?

 

[newbie]

to show your erudition. I'm clearly not up to it and no-one else has come up with anything.

 

[Greebo]

I think you missed me saying 'during an action'. Hopefully It's obvious what I mean by that.

As I understand it, "an action" isn't exact - it's similar to the line between "campaigner" and "activist".

Maybe you've heard (and used) exact definitions, but I've heard it used about people putting post its on estate agency windows, standing in solidarity outside an imminent eviction, or occupying (without forcing entry) an evicted property, as well as things which were far more definitely on the unfortunate side of where the current law seems to stand.

All of those things were described to me as actions, which ones would you list as that? Serious question BTW, not taking the piss.

 

[Pickman's model]

to show your erudition. I'm clearly not up to it and no-one else has come up with anything.

i've no need to prove my erudition to someone who has yet to demonstrate their honesty.

 

[newbie]

what are you on about?