Save Lambeth Libraries and the Carnegie Library occupation

[Rfurr]

The impetus created by the occupation of the Carnegie must not be allowed to die. Councillors and officers rely on the fact that only the little people - those living in social housing, the poor, the old, the disabled, the unemployed - really give a damn about what they do, and that such people (unless backed by the Unions) can quite simply be ignored, as they have neither the stomach nor the endurance for the fight, nor the skill, nor financial resources to sustain it. So, the logic is, ignore the silly bastards, and given time they will stop whining! You can manipulate them with impunity and tell them anything that comes into your head. Should they take you to court, the council has deep pockets and can fight them to a standstill, and, in the end, it will be they who are obliged to pay for everything!
As to manipulation - Why were protestors permitted to occupy the Carnegie?
Councillors and officers cannot have been unaware that this would occur, yet no additional security was put in place.
The answer must surely be that they wanted this to happen to wrong foot protesters, so that they could be portrayed as rabid red Corbynites.
Happily this weapon misfired - spectacularly, as not only did the protestors attract the support of decent middle class opinion, but in the end one
honest councillor came out openly against the proposed reduction of library facilities.
The battle must continue to be fought every step of the way by residents and Union members.
Forget those useless Labour councillors, who have shunned discussion with their constituents and locked themselves in their offices, firing off irrelevant and uninformed letters containing insulting pictures of yawning cats and similar rubbish!

 

[CH1]

As a non-combatant it does seem to be confusing that the Carnegie Community Trust continues to stir the pot at this delicate time.
Local people (local to Carnegie Library that is) known to sympathise with the library occupation and oppose the council's strategy have been getting hand-addressed mail pointing out the errors of their ways. All a bit reminiscent of hard-fought by elections of the 1990s - and apparently as successful from the Labour Council's point of view.

Why it is that the Carnegie Community Trust are solidly supporting the official Labour Council view on Carnegie Library (& hence a GLL takeover)?

I note Cllr Rachel Heyward has come out in favour of the Libraries campaigners (The Ten). I was pleased to see that - though wondered what that meant in terms of her long term career prospects.

In my opinion ALL councillors should be expressing their own views on this issue, not trotting out the Stasi line.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I want libraries, I want a learning space; not for profit. So I support this.

Lambeth Council is solidly focused on profit.
Our councillors excuse this with weasel words about having to bridge the funding gap left by central government cuts, but frankly you wouldn't even consider replacing libraries with gyms, or bulldozing estates in "prime" locations, or kebabing local independent businesses, unless you were so ideologically-fixated on profiteering that local people mean nothing to you except a lumpen mass who you smarm once every four years in order to facilitate your political career.

 

[ViolentPanda]

The impetus created by the occupation of the Carnegie must not be allowed to die. Councillors and officers rely on the fact that only the little people - those living in social housing, the poor, the old, the disabled, the unemployed - really give a damn about what they do, and that such people (unless backed by the Unions) can quite simply be ignored, as they have neither the stomach nor the endurance for the fight, nor the skill, nor financial resources to sustain it. So, the logic is, ignore the silly bastards, and given time they will stop whining! You can manipulate them with impunity and tell them anything that comes into your head. Should they take you to court, the council has deep pockets and can fight them to a standstill, and, in the end, it will be they who are obliged to pay for everything!

You're right about preserving the impetus. Take the political temperature in Lambeth at the moment, and you get a very forceful sense of anger, and of people who've reached the end of their tether with "the co-operative council".
I've said elsewhere that - apropos your point above about "the little people" - that they treat us with contempt. What that contempt generates is a twofold blow-back on them, because not only do people now openly see the contempt that Labour's majority has instilled, and act accordingly, but that contempt blinds them to the fact that those "little people" are probably the worst, scariest opponents they could have - we're people with little to lose,and much to gain by resisting, and the last two years highlight this to anyone who isn't an idiot.

As to manipulation - Why were protestors permitted to occupy the Carnegie?
Councillors and officers cannot have been unaware that this would occur, yet no additional security was put in place.
The answer must surely be that they wanted this to happen to wrong foot protesters, so that they could be portrayed as rabid red Corbynites.
Happily this weapon misfired - spectacularly, as not only did the protestors attract the support of decent middle class opinion, but in the end one honest councillor came out openly against the proposed reduction of library facilities.
The battle must continue to be fought every step of the way by residents and Union members.
Forget those useless Labour councillors, who have shunned discussion with their constituents and locked themselves in their offices, firing off irrelevant and uninformed letters containing insulting pictures of yawning cats and similar rubbish!

I'm going to disagree with you there.
From a tactical perspective, it's much better to keep engaging with them, irritating them and eliciting foolish actions from them. It keeps them occupied, and keeps them looking stupid/condescending in the eyes of the public. They way to win a guerilla war is to engage in small conflicts across many fronts until you can game the odds to engage them on a primary front. We have the advantage of being able to inflict a "death of a thousand cuts", where they only have bludgeons that, each time they use them, turns more Labour-voting residents against them.

How do we take political advantage of that, though? That's a debate for another day!

 

[editor]

Latest:
Lambeth Archives remains closed as Lambeth library debacle continues

 

[Greebo]

Latest:
Lambeth Archives remains closed as Lambeth library debacle continues

Thanks for the heads up - closing the archive at such short notice is ridiculous!

 

[editor]

Thanks for the heads up - closing the archive at such short notice is ridiculous!

Just been to the Tate in Brixton. It was rammed as usual with people desperately trying to get on PCs. There was also a load of displaced staff there unable to do anything. It's a fucking ridiculous situation.

 

[gaijingirl]

Just been to the Tate in Brixton. It was rammed as usual with people desperately trying to get on PCs. There was also a load of displaced staff there unable to do anything. It's a fucking ridiculous situation.

gaijinboy was in Streatham library yesterday. He got there when it opened and said it was also rammed immediately!

 

[Gramsci]

I was at the march on Saturday. It was well attended. And a good atmosphere.

One thing I was heartened to see was the amount of support from people as the march passed through LJ and Brixton.

Going down Brixton road a lot of cars and buses honked there horns in support of the march.

 

[Gramsci]

Why it is that the Carnegie Community Trust are solidly supporting the official Labour Council view on Carnegie Library (& hence a GLL takeover)?

I note Cllr Rachel Heyward has come out in favour of the Libraries campaigners (The Ten). I was pleased to see that - though wondered what that meant in terms of her long term career prospects.

In my opinion ALL councillors should be expressing their own views on this issue, not trotting out the Stasi line.

Friends of Carnegie and the Carnegie Community Trust have different views. The Trust is dominated by Labour party loyalists. Its a creature of the Council.

Cllr Rachel- I do not think she has any long term career prospects in New Labour. She has been showing independence in her views recently in a public way. Its doing her no good with the New Labour leadership. No matter that you are back bench Cllr if you do not follow the party line in all matters you will be given a hard time of it. And from what Ive heard she is. She is one of the better Cllrs and Im afraid they will make it so unpleasant for her she may be pushed out.

I was having some interesting chats on the march. One about this. Said that "Progress" were operating like a party within a party almost like a trot group. The other guy said that "Progress" operated in a much less open manner. They have no real membership. Cllrs can easily deny they support "Progress". Yet they are very well organised and influential in Lambeth.

 

[Gramsci]

Sue Foster was seen at the Carnegie on Saturday morning parked up in car.

Spotted by one of the ex Short Life people I met on march. Well known to S/L. A hard nut. Totally loyal to this Council administration.

Lambeth’s strategic director of commissioning Sue Foster OBE ( yearly pay £178,147)

Quite why she was present I don’t know. She does not need the overtime pay.

 

[Gramsci]

Just picked up on an interesting blog from 2011 - 12, when GLL were taking over leisure services in Greenwich. Readers may find its content informative -
Greenwich Libraries takeover – GLL boss speaks out

Mark Sesnan is well networked with politicians and local government. . His social enterprise model goes down well with Blairite politicians. He is evangelical about the social enterprise idea.

The evolution of social enterprise

Whereas once we were seen as the rank outsiders, our journey and those of many other social enterprises has proven that combining a public sector ethos with private sector freedoms really does work. It's not just a model suitable for small businesses either, but one that can successfully "upscale" to tackle larger challenges and deliver at a national and potentially international level too.

What I heard was that it was GLL who approached the Council over the library issue. They were eager to "help". It appears they are upset library campaigners are having a go at GLL management about the gyms in libraries idea.

Whether GLL really operates as a touchy feely worker cooperative is another matter.

See here:
Stop the privatisation of Public Libraries: The Gospel according to Mark Sesnan (GLL)

At the Brixton Rec the staff and manager are fine. But a lot of decisions about the Rec are taken higher up. With little or no consultation with the Rec users. GLL act like they what they really are now- a large corporate business. They may have started off as small scale social enterprise. Now they are one of the big players in leisure ( including libraries).

 

[Ol Nick]

Lambeth’s strategic director of commissioning Sue Foster OBE ( yearly pay £178,147)

Head of Deliverance?

 

[ViolentPanda]

I was having some interesting chats on the march. One about this. Said that "Progress" were operating like a party within a party almost like a trot group. The other guy said that "Progress" operated in a much less open manner. They have no real membership. Cllrs can easily deny they support "Progress". Yet they are very well organised and influential in Lambeth.

Progress has 7 declared members as councillors in Lambeth, most of whom are also members of the Fabian Society.
Of course, there may well be more, who aren't declaring their membership of Progress, given that over a dozen of the Labour councillors don't declare membership of the Labour party!

 

[Gramsci]

Good article in Evening Standard today:

Rosamund Urwin: Lambeth sees libraries as relics and a luxury

Even some of Labour’s own councillors are appalled. The bravest, Rachel Heywood, said yesterday: “The elite, inside their castle, or town hall, can lose sight of what real life is like.”

 

[Gramsci]

Cllr Rachel Heywood ( Coldharbour) has released a statement in Brixton Blog

I was proud to be amongst those marchers,and passing throughthe Loughborough and Angell Town estates of my ward–both a stone’s throw from the now closed Minet and Carnegie libraries–provided a hugely powerful reminder of why taking this action was the right thing to do for every single one of us on that journey. Our communities are in crisis and the gap between wealth and poverty is growing. A new report by the Runnymede Trust found that Lambeth has the greatest level of inequality in England and Wales based on the four indicators of health, housing, employment and education. I believe absolutely–in fact I know-that it is services such as those provided by libraries and by children’s centres that begin to bridge the gap, that provide support, that prevent the crisis that is otherwise inevitable.

Entitled "Why I broke ranks" ( that is from the Nu Labour administration)

Full letter here:

http://www.brixtonblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/heywood-breaking-ranks.pdf

 

[editor]

Cllr Rachel Heywood ( Coldharbour) has released a statement in Brixton Blog



Entitled "Why I broke ranks" ( that is from the Nu Labour administration)

Full letter here:

http://www.brixtonblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/heywood-breaking-ranks.pdf

We posted it here two days ago too and saved people having to download the PDF: Cllr Rachel Heywood delivers stinging attack on Labour Cabinet “elite” with a call for change of direction

 

[brixtonscot]

At the Brixton Rec the staff and manager are fine.

Not so sure about manager.... when a union recruitment email was sent to staff , he replied , protesting - " you don't bite the hand that feeds you "

 

[brixtonblade]

Just been canvassed for the local elections and the Labour guy said that there are no librarians working at Carnegie now (well before it closed) and so their plan wouldn't change provision. That didn't sound right to me... what's the score?

 

[nemoanonemo]

Similar to most of the information disseminated by our Labour council, this was untrue. From the brixton blog website:

Lambeth honours librarian whose job is due to disappear

Written by Alan Slingsby on February 24, 2016 in Council, Libraries,

Lambeth libraries protesters outside the Carnegie last month


A Lambeth librarian whose job is due to disappear at the end of this month was yesterday (23 February) presented with a Lambeth council award for her outstanding work.

Caroline Mackie is library manager at Carnegie Library in Herne Hill – one of three Lambeth libraries due to be turned into gyms with no library staff.

Her Lambeth Focuses on Citizens award was presented by Lambeth mayor Donatus Anyanwu at a ceremony in the Royal Festival Hall.

“Love Lambeth” staff awards recognise the achievements of staff in six categories. For the Focuses on Citizens award, members of the public nominate helpful individuals who go an extra mile in providing services.

Twenty-nine nominations were received for the category. A panel led by Mayor Anyanwu assessed a shortlist of three and chose Caroline Mackie as the winner.

She was praised as “a dedicated and hard-working librarian … incredibly popular with the local community, from parents and toddlers to silver surfers”.

The citation said she had “significantly increased visitors and book issues and, not surprisingly, the library gets a lot of positive feedback from residents”.

Jeff Doorn, chair of the Friends of Carnegie Library, said: “We are all delighted for Caroline, and are determined to keep campaigning so she and her excellent team can continue their good work here”.

 

[brixtonblade]

Does library manager <> librarian then?

 

[Orang Utan]

Does library manager <> librarian then?

of course.

 

[snowy_again]

More continued Lambeth rubbishness: Evicted Carnegie tenants accuse 'shameful' council - Brixton Blog

 

[editor]

More continued Lambeth rubbishness: Evicted Carnegie tenants accuse 'shameful' council - Brixton Blog

They were nice spaces too:

The guy who did the fantastic Carnegie portraits was unable to send us the follow up pics because he couldn't get into his office

Lambeth Council hoofs out twenty local businesses from Carnegie Library in Herne Hill

 

[Greebo]

<snip>The guy who did the fantastic Carnegie portraits was unable to send us the follow up pics because he couldn't get into his office

Lambeth Council hoofs out twenty local businesses from Carnegie Library in Herne Hill

 

[brixtonblade]

Have the council said why they've thrown the businesses out?

 

[SaveLambthLibs]

Does library manager <> librarian then?

Staff structure in Lambeth Libraries currently consists of Library Managers, Librarians, Assistant Librarians, & Customer Services Assistants. Carnegie, like the other neighbourhood libraries has one Manager, one Librarian, one Asst. Librarian and three part time customer service assistants.

 

[Orang Utan]

Staff structure in Lambeth Libraries currently consists of Library Managers, Librarians, Assistant Librarians, & Customer Services Assistants. Carnegie, like the other neighbourhood libraries has one Manager, one Librarian, one Asst. Librarian and three part time customer service assistants.

Library managers are qualified librarians though, aren't they?

 

[Pickman's model]

Library managers are qualified librarians though, aren't they?

while they are likely to be in academic libraries it is much less likely in public libraries. when i worked for a well-known local authority, to the best of my knowledge there were two qualified librarians employed by the council. and neither of them worked in the libraries.

 

[editor]

Benefit on Saturday Cajun & Country benefit for Save Lambeth Libraries, Sat 23rd April