Reclaim Brixton movement - meetings and April 25th protest planned

[Gramsci]

Thanks. So many threads on urban make me feel that no ones allowed to join in unless they can quote Marx. Its a odd elitism.

I do instead of just handing out abuse. One need some kind of analysis.

Marx is readable. More so than many Marxist who came after him. He has a sense of humour lacking in later Marxists. I would recommend reading Capital volume one.

Marx was also into literature. Marx favourite writer was Balzac. If you want to know what he was about read "Cousin Odette"

A wonderful read. An attack on the "class of idlers" as Balzac called them. In the post Napoleonic age when everything came down to money.

 

[smokedout]

I do not represent all Reclaim Brixton. Some were upset about the Foxtons as they felt it detracted from the positive things that happened that day.

I was a bit upset with the boring bastards and trots who sat around doing nothing in windrush square, I felt they distracted from the positive things that happened that day,

 

[Gramsci]

I was a bit upset with the boring bastards and trots who sat around doing nothing in windrush square, I felt they distracted from the positive things that happened that day,

Trots always turn up to set up there stalls. Got to give it to them for perseverance.

It was sunny. Sitting around in the square was rather pleasant.

See my photos earlier on this thread where I did take a stroll through Brixton as well.

 

[Gramsci]

Affluence in most areas with a mixed demographic was and is generally a partial thing, with pockets of wealth, larger stretches of people getting by in various states of security and insecurity, and a significant minority just about getting by, or just about failing to. Now and 85 years ago have a lot in common, including exploitative landlords. Plus ça change...

Yes and even further back

"In countries like Britain, people last lived lives as unequal as today, as measured by wage inequality, in 1854, when Charles Dickens was writing Hard Times," he states.

 

[editor]

Mind you, I could happily watch Foxtons windows being kicked in every day because I definitely prefer the way it looks when it's all boarded up.

 

[Tricky Skills]

Cllr Lib Peck, the Leader of Lambeth Council, has attempted to politicise Reclaim Brixton, overlooking the reasons as to why so many gathered in the first place

BBuzz piece.

 

[Greebo]

Cllr Lib Peck, the Leader of Lambeth Council, has attempted to politicise Reclaim Brixton,<snip>

FFS this is a safe Labour seat - why on earth is she and the rest of her party stooping to this new low?

 

[ViolentPanda]

Jack is a good journalist.

Agreed. it's always satisfying when you see someone doing "old skool" stuff like not shitting on their own doorstep (unlike Ms McKie of the Brixton Bogle).

On inside pages he covers the attempted eviction of long time resident in Clapham from house the Council want to auction off.

After seeing my photos of that in Brixton Buzz he rang me to ask about what happened.

He also rightly quotes Cyndi- who has done am amazing job- that the protest is about "Hypergentrification". Its now sections of the middle class who are also under threat.

Which makes the story somewhat easier to sell, and to tell.

The frustration is also at the political class. I notice the Council , when asked, keep repeating the line that the Council is" "working hard to harness" for residents opportunities from rapid changes to the area.

I tend to switch off whenever a "statement" uses formulaic phrases that don't really involve any commitment to working for "the people". "working hard to harness.." just says to me that they won't take any responsibility if they fail to harness those opportunities.

The feeling I get is that a lot of local residents and small business do not think a Labour Council sticking up for them.

And IMO for good reason. When you have councillors actually declaring that their ward "has too much social housing", and others cheerleading the demographic change that gentrification brings, those attitudes aren't going to work unless the wider opinion (from council officers,for example) is conducive to it.

A Council Officer recently said to me that Network Rail investing here would bring jobs and housing and that the shopkeepers in the arches had had there places cheap for years. My understanding of that conversation is that the Council are still talking to NR. That the small business will be shafted for the greater good as the Council see it.

The same sort of civic knob-end who discards the opinion of estate-dwellers because we supposedly live in "subsidised" housing.

What people are up against can be shown by the reaction to Ed Milibands mild proposals to reform the property market:


Never underestimate the opposition of big bourgeoisie to limitation of property rights to make profit. Sorry to bring in Marx again but private property is the basis of modern Capitalism.

As is the drive to turn profit into ever-greater profit despite the tendency of the rate of profit to diminish over time (unless you happen upon a helpful "market" manipulation like the property price bubble).

 

[ViolentPanda]

Mind you, I could happily watch Foxtons windows being kicked in every day because I definitely prefer the way it looks when it's all boarded up.

Plus, the boards are so infinitely-decorateable.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Cllr Lib Peck, the Leader of Lambeth Council, has attempted to politicise Reclaim Brixton, overlooking the reasons as to why so many gathered in the first place

BBuzz piece.

Just left a sarky comment on Peck's wordpress blog. I hope it won't be moderated out of existence!

 

[ViolentPanda]

FFS this is a safe Labour seat - why on earth is she and the rest of her party stooping to this new low?

They feel threatened. After all, according to Streatham CLP's analysis, the Greens are more of a threat to Labour's majorities than the Conservative and Lib-Dem options. Labour will still win the seats, I've no doubt, but a smaller majority in two of the constituencies (Hoey's is insulated somewhat because she's not part of "the machine") will send a message to ordinary voters that Lambeth Labour isn't unassailable in the next set of local elections, and that they can't use the tactics they've always deployed against the Tories and Lib-Dems - their record in power in Lambeth. The Greens are a clean slate, so Labour are constructing their smears now, on the principle that if you sling enough mud, some will stick.

 

[Up the junction]

FFS this is a safe Labour seat - why on earth is she and the rest of her party stooping to this new low?

At the risk of appearing complacent?

 

[Greebo]

At the risk of appearing arrogant?

Corrected for you.

 

[Up the junction]

I guess you don't get to be a council leader unless you play the game well.

 

[Greebo]

I guess you don't get to be a council leader unless you play the game well.

 

[Pickman's model]

I guess you don't get to be a council leader unless you play the game well.

the winner takes it all

 

[Tricky Skills]

But the loser has to fall.

Eventually

 

[friendofdorothy]

But the loser has to fall.

Eventually

Steve Reed, Croydon MP? sorry, can you explain please.

 

[DrRingDing]

I was a bit upset with the boring bastards and trots who sat around doing nothing in windrush square, I felt they distracted from the positive things that happened that day,

As is always the case.

 

[ibilly99]

Nye Bevan's words resonate forcefully down the decades.

 

[Gramsci]

Cllr Lib Peck, the Leader of Lambeth Council, has attempted to politicise Reclaim Brixton, overlooking the reasons as to why so many gathered in the first place

BBuzz piece.

Good piece.

I add a few more comments.

Interesting that Cllr Peck decided to write about Reclaim Brixton rather than ignore it.

The wider issue of gentrification is a much more complicated debate. I don’t speak to many people who want to return Brixton back to where it was ten years ago – a place people without jobs, a place with a reputation for crime, a place that didn’t feel safe. And so for many in the community the word “reclaim” felt inappropriate – it didn’t recognise the positive change that has taken place, and instead tried to put up boundaries in a place whose very strength has always been inclusivity and diversity

Ten years ago? I do not agree it felt unsafe. Nor was it a place without jobs. Its not a description that I would give to Brixton ten years ago.

So after saying it was a community spirited event she sticks the knife in saying Reclaim Brixton is backward looking and trying to put up boundaries. Far from putting up boundaries it was celebrating the diversity that is under threat from "hypergentrification". She does not explain what she means by putting up boundaries.

BTW the Reclaim Brixton position is "Say Yes to Improvement and no to Gentrification".

I do not understand why she goes on at length about the Greens. They played a small role in Reclaim Brixton. I have nothing against the Greens. Why she says they started using the term social cleansing I do not know. It was not started by them.

The main political groups involved were London Black Revolutionaries and Left Unity. Who she does not refer to.

Also non aligned group like Lambeth Housing Activists and Unite Community. Whose members did a lot of volunteering for the event. A LHA leading light did a lot organise and keep the different political activists involved from falling out.

Cllr Peck ignores the involvement of Unite Community and LHA. They are both local grass roots organisations who , one would of thought, the local Labour party would support.

She also ignores the fact that Cressingham Gardens residents organised there own march to Windrush sq in the morning. Not at instigation by Green party. It CG residents who are opposing the Council plans.

And every time a Labour Cllr sings the praises of the Somerleyton Road scheme all I think of is my community broken up by Council and the Mansions left empty.

An ex Coop member , who has now left London, emailed me to say that she was glad Reclaim Brixton happened. She was heartened that Brixton community still has some fighting spirit left.

 

[Pickman's model]

The wider issue of gentrification is a much more complicated debate. I don’t speak to many people who want to return Brixton back to where it was ten years ago – a place people without jobs, a place with a reputation for crime, a place that didn’t feel safe. And so for many in the community the word “reclaim” felt inappropriate – it didn’t recognise the positive change that has taken place, and instead tried to put up boundaries in a place whose very strength has always been inclusivity and diversity

altho i don't hail from brixton or lambeth i do recall that even ten years ago people in brixton had jobs.

 

[Pickman's model]

But the loser has to fall.

Eventually

every loser whines.

 

[Orang Utan]

Nye Bevan's words resonate forcefully down the decades.

love the guy with the shades, and the guys having a smoke behind him

 

[ViolentPanda]

Steve Reed, Croydon MP? sorry, can you explain please.

Former "Leader" of Lambeth Council, failed contender for the Streatham seat and all-round one-off-the-wrist merchant.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Good piece.

I add a few more comments.

Interesting that Cllr Peck decided to write about Reclaim Brixton rather than ignore it.



Ten years ago? I do not agree it felt unsafe. Nor was it a place without jobs. Its not a description that I would give to Brixton ten years ago.

Note how much (2/3rds) of her supposed point is about perception - how some people felt unsafe, and how Brixton had a reputation for crime - rather than fact. I remember back then somewhat differently - as the era when Donal MacIntyre couldn't get mugged in Brixton!

So after saying it was a community spirited event she sticks the knife in saying Reclaim Brixton is backward looking and trying to put up boundaries. Far from putting up boundaries it was celebrating the diversity that is under threat from "hypergentrification". She does not explain what she means by putting up boundaries.

She's accusing the protesters of being exclusionary snobs, basically.

BTW the Reclaim Brixton position is "Say Yes to Improvement and no to Gentrification".

I do not understand why she goes on at length about the Greens. They played a small role in Reclaim Brixton. I have nothing against the Greens. Why she says they started using the term social cleansing I do not know. It was not started by them.

There's a reason, you can be sure. back in March, Streatham CLP had an election strategy meeting. I have in my possession a recording of said meeting. A chap who identifies himself as "a number-cruncher" is explicit that the major threat to Labour hegemony in the three constituencies that cover Brixton is the Green Party, not the Tories or Lib-Dems, who are still tainted. They know that the Greens can't win any of the constituencies, but they're fully-aware that the Greens can (and likely will) cut their majorities substantially, and that this may feed into Labour ward losses at a later date. It's mud-slinging by Labour in the knowledge that some of it, however fatuous, will stick.

The main political groups involved were London Black Revolutionaries and Left Unity. Who she does not refer to.

Also non aligned group like Lambeth Housing Activists and Unite Community. Whose members did a lot of volunteering for the event. A LHA leading light did a lot organise and keep the different political activists involved from falling out.

Cllr Peck ignores the involvement of Unite Community and LHA. They are both local grass roots organisations who , one would of thought, the local Labour party would support.

She also ignores the fact that Cressingham Gardens residents organised there own march to Windrush sq in the morning. Not at instigation by Green party. It CG residents who are opposing the Council plans.

And every time a Labour Cllr sings the praises of the Somerleyton Road scheme all I think of is my community broken up by Council and the Mansions left empty.

An ex Coop member , who has now left London, emailed me to say that she was glad Reclaim Brixton happened. She was heartened that Brixton community still has some fighting spirit left.

While Peck is obviously disheartened that the community has.

 

[Pickman's model]

the era when Donal MacIntyre couldn't get mugged in Brixton!

what a sad indictment on brixton that someone actually trying to get mugged in 2002 couldn't find someone to oblige.

 

[Greebo]

<snip> Cllr Peck ignores the involvement of Unite Community and LHA. They are both local grass roots organisations who , one would of thought, the local Labour party would support.

She also ignores the fact that Cressingham Gardens residents organised there own march to Windrush sq in the morning. Not at instigation by Green party. It CG residents who are opposing the Council plans. <snip>

I think and (pace Garrison Keillor) I could be all wrong about this, Labour representatives such as Lib Peck think that it's okay to tie Save Cressingham Gardens with the Green party because of a few stupid coincidences:
1) Green ink on our T shirts.

2)Using the phrase "green retrofit" (because it's far more concise than "improving energy efficiency in the most ecofriendly way possible, reduce or avoid carbon tax, and also access the grants which could make such measures significantly reduce the cost of repair and refurbishment").

3) The fact that some Green party members have been seen in public wearing our T shirts.

Paranoia is such an ugly thing. TUSC joined us in the march down, but they didn't organise our bit of the march either. AFAIK some of the other tenants did. Shocking I know, self-organising plebs.

 

[ViolentPanda]

what a sad indictment on brixton that someone actually trying to get mugged in 2002 couldn't find someone to oblige.

Hilarious bit of telly, though. By the end of the prog you ended up wondering just how much his producer must have hated him, to put out something that made him look such a twat that by the end he had to literally wander around with an open bag, showing his laptop and phone to all and sundry for hours on end before someone skanked him!

 

[Gramsci]

There's a reason, you can be sure. back in March, Streatham CLP had an election strategy meeting. I have in my possession a recording of said meeting. A chap who identifies himself as "a number-cruncher" is explicit that the major threat to Labour hegemony in the three constituencies that cover Brixton is the Green Party, not the Tories or Lib-Dems, who are still tainted. They know that the Greens can't win any of the constituencies, but they're fully-aware that the Greens can (and likely will) cut their majorities substantially, and that this may feed into Labour ward losses at a later date. It's mud-slinging by Labour in the knowledge that some of it, however fatuous, will stick.

.

Instead of number crunching- a very New Labour pastime- I would have thought they might look at why the Greens are getting support.

The Greens ( and SNP) say all the right things about inequality etc. Things that the Labour party no longer wants to talk about.