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Decent crowd building up outside the Town Hall.


protest-lambeth-evictions-01.jpg


protest-lambeth-evictions-08.jpg


More: http://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2014/01/...inst-lambeth-councils-sale-of-housing-co-ops/
 
Lambeth Housing Activists Meeting


Reminder we are meeting this Tuesday February 4th at 7pm in the Effra Social Club SW2 1DF which is just beside the hootenany pub up Effra Road in Brixton.

All welcome.



We will be planning our response to the latest campaign announced by the Met Police to crackdown on homeless people 'committing' rough sleeping and begging. We can join the protest against the met at lambeth town hall next Tuesday the 11th of feb at 6pm -

https://www.facebook.com/events/333910863414314/?ref=2&ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming&source=1

Activists across london are also talking about mass sleep-outs at police stations and protests to hound Boris Johnson who is politically responsible for setting the policing agenda in london.



Stop the destruction of short-life housing co-ops



Well done to everyone who took part in the lobby of lambeth council last wednesday. We are making a considerable nuisance of ourselves over short-life and the council are definitely aware that we are serious about resisting this sell off and this eviction!



You can still help the campaign by signing and sharing the petition and by pledging your support to resist the eviction when Maritza is given a date.



https://www.change.org/en-GB/petiti...-sic-council-stop-the-co-op-housing-evictions
 
Article here on latest crackdown on rough sleepers.

Lambeth Council are one of several London Councils who support this police action.

POLICE have launched a crackdown on people who "commit" rough sleeping.

The Met says it has "joined forces" with six London boroughs, including Croydon, to "combat begging and rough sleeping".

A press release, published today (Thursday), said the authorities would be working together to target those who "commit such behaviour" through "engaging, disrupting and deterring".

Those found rough sleeping and begging could also be given an Asbo.

It follows an unsuccessful attempt by Croydon Police to have a soup kitchen for the homeless and needy banned from a town centre park.
Click to expand...

The Police Commander in charge says:

"Our activity today is ongoing and operations of this nature will be carried out in cooperation with our partners to ensure the safety of the public and make our city great."
Click to expand...

Make our city great :facepalm:
 
Gramsci said:
Lambeth Housing Activists Meeting


Reminder we are meeting this Tuesday February 4th at 7pm in the Effra Social Club SW2 1DF which is just beside the hootenany pub up Effra Road in Brixton.

All welcome.



We will be planning our response to the latest campaign announced by the Met Police to crackdown on homeless people 'committing' rough sleeping and begging. We can join the protest against the met at lambeth town hall next Tuesday the 11th of feb at 6pm -

https://www.facebook.com/events/333910863414314/?ref=2&ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming&source=1

Activists across london are also talking about mass sleep-outs at police stations and protests to hound Boris Johnson who is politically responsible for setting the policing agenda in london.



Stop the destruction of short-life housing co-ops



Well done to everyone who took part in the lobby of lambeth council last wednesday. We are making a considerable nuisance of ourselves over short-life and the council are definitely aware that we are serious about resisting this sell off and this eviction!



You can still help the campaign by signing and sharing the petition and by pledging your support to resist the eviction when Maritza is given a date.



https://www.change.org/en-GB/petiti...-sic-council-stop-the-co-op-housing-evictions
Click to expand...
Once again your meeting coincides with one of ours over the road (this time the Bar and Social Club committee) but will try and catch the end of it.
 
Tricky Skills said:
Well worth sharing this film showing how Bonnington Square in Vauxhall has benefitted from a squatting culture. Can you imagine what the Square would be like now if the 80's squatters were turned away? Probably more bland private housing.

Click to expand...


Enjoyed that, thanks.
 
Here's a decent read, highlighting the hypocrisy of the MP for Croydon North in wanting to work with communities, yet being largely responsible for the current short life situation in Lambeth.
 
Tricky Skills said:
Well worth sharing this film showing how Bonnington Square in Vauxhall has benefitted from a squatting culture. Can you imagine what the Square would be like now if the 80's squatters were turned away? Probably more bland private housing.

Click to expand...


Wow. I used to live in Bonnington Square in 1983/4 and that brought back so many memories!

I lived there before the café opened but I remember the lovely friendly corner shop, the 'night-club'/'cultural centre' :eek::thumbs: and the roof gardens the houses had.

The old photos of the place are amazing - I would say I lived there between the bricked up-stage and when the café opened, quite early on.

I was very young, younger than the people interviewed in the video, and while I had a bit of that pioneering spirit needed to squat, I clearly didn't have enough, as far from digging drains and doing building work me and my housemates all got fed up of the mice & lack of hot water and moved to private rented places! :D
 
^^ Thanks,in other news my old house 35 Villa road was sold today at auction,£905,000.As far as I'm aware the highest price at previous auctions was £720,000 and that house is in worse condition than most of the others so the price has increased that much in just over a year.
 
Tricky Skills said:
Here's a decent read, highlighting the hypocrisy of the MP for Croydon North in wanting to work with communities, yet being largely responsible for the current short life situation in Lambeth.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that link. Read the Guardian piece he wrote.

The trouble with what he is saying is that it , in good Blairite fashion, is not that much different to the Tories "Big Society".

For example comments like these two:

Over time this lack of control can sap their self-reliance and their ability to aspire to a better life. This becomes even worse when it affects whole communities or is transmitted across generations. People get locked into dependency with no easy way out.
Click to expand...

the point is for people to take the power to lift themselves above their circumstances and live "bigger lives".
Click to expand...

He even says that politicians cannot do much:

The British people do not believe politicians can solve all the problems the country faces. They are right. Politicians alone don't have all the answers, and pretending we do simply sets ourselves up for more failure in the future
Click to expand...

The problem with his take on handing control to people is that he is not.

At no point in his article does he say that inequality of power and wealth saps people.

Politicians wield State power. The State can be used to redistribute wealth and power.
 
Tricky Skills said:
Here's a decent read, highlighting the hypocrisy of the MP for Croydon North in wanting to work with communities, yet being largely responsible for the current short life situation in Lambeth.
Click to expand...



Going back to Steve Reeds article for Guardian

The social theorist Roberto Unger talks about doing politics in a different way. Politics has to be experimental, unleashing creative forces, instead of grand schemes run by the state. We need a form of democracy that can react more quickly and be effective in creating change. And it has to be more participatory and deliberative. For Unger, the point is for people to take the power to lift themselves above their circumstances and live "bigger lives".
Click to expand...

I was curious about this so watched the video. Interesting.

However what Reed does here in this paragraph is make Unger sound like an advocate of small state.

As is common with Blairites I always have the suspicion that they take progressive ideas like that by Unger and cherry pick ideas from them. The ones that are the easiest to do.

Unger in fact is arguing for a party that "democratizes the market economy". He says the biggest opposition to this will come from "Cosmopolitan finance"- finance that does not serve the "real economy" but becomes its master.

Also that a party takes power in a democracy to "tilt" returns back to Labour away from Capital. Modern capitalism is returning to patterns of work that are insecure.

So where did Reed get the bit about people "lifting themselves above there circumstances"?

Near the end where Unger addresses directly how this relates to Labour Party.

In summary. Democracy must be "energized" from above and below.

Civil society must play larger role in producing services ( bottom up).

The Labour party three aspects traditionally coming from civil society must therefore play an important role in this. ( How I read what he says).

Three element are:

  • Labour militancy- organize the growing (post Fordist) insecure workforce.
  • Middle class social improvement.
  • "Non Conformist religion"- they always used to be part of the Labour party. Encouraging people to "Lifting men and women up to a greater life"
Whether one agrees with Unger or not the implications of his model for a progressive democratic politics is more radical than the tame version Reed outlines. Reed misquotes Unger. Unger means something more than just not being "locked into dependency". As Unger says at end what is needed is imagination. Thats what he means when he refers to lifting men and women up to a greater life. He means a political programme that is ongoing. Neither business as usual minimalist realism or utopian.

Also I notice Reed does not mention "Labour Militancy" in organizing the new insecure workforce.

So Unger does see an important role for the State. Example is In Education where the state is to have a central role in defining a universal education system. Changing the character of education to foster not learning facts but analytic capability, cooperation in learning between pupils and pupils and teachers ( against authoritarian schooling) and a "dialectical approach" to learning. ie learning about a subject from differing points of view.

Once this has been defined then local areas can have wide choice in experimenting in how it is to be delivered. Though he does say education will be state schools.

Unger is an advocate of "civil society" running what traditionally (post WW2 welfare state) were State run public services. However he makes it clear that there is a difference between this and what has been done which is privatization. I think he is trying to get beyond the either State or privatization dichotomy.

In relation to housing its controversial.
 
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Some sort of press release which appears relevant to this thread, possibly:

PHOTO OP with VIVIENNE WESTWOOD, MARK THOMAS, KATE HOEY MP and MAGGI HAMBLING

Wednesday 5th March, 11am

22 Lilleshall Road, London SW4

On Wednesday 5th March Lambeth residents and campaigners, including designer and activist Vivienne Westwood, comedian and activist Mark Thomas, artist Maggi Hambling and Kate Hoey MP, will meet in Lilleshall Road, London SW4 to protest against Lambeth Council’s sale of long-standing housing co-operatives.

All those gathered for this photo op have pledged to defend residents of these housing co-ops against evictions, and have stated:

We will stand with housing co-op residents when they refuse to leave their home, if Lambeth go through with their threat to send bailiffs to evict them.

What is happening in Lambeth?

Lambeth's so-called 'co-operative' council is evicting members of housing co-operatives who have lived in the borough for periods of up to 40 years, with some residents in their 70s who have lived in their homes since the 1970s. This community purge is also a triple whammy for housing with social housing stock sold off, more people added to the waiting list and no new housing built as a result.

Case study – Maritza Tschepp

Maritza Tschepp and her family have lived in their home for 33 years. Their house was among those compulsory purchased by Lambeth for demolition for a couple of thousand pounds in the 1970s and left to rot. The council allowed ‘shortlife’ co-ops to be set up, run by the people like Maritza who were occupying and maintaining the houses. But Lambeth are now destroying these co-ops and selling off the properties with no acknowledgement of the blood, sweat and tears of the ‘short lifers’, who saved these homes from dereliction.

Maritza has also invested in her community, setting up a local youth group and running it as an unpaid volunteer for over 20 years, but Lambeth has shown no concern about keeping people in homes and communities where they have lived and worked for so long.

At a time when waiting lists for council housing are at record levels it is a crime for Lambeth to sell social housing.

Pledge your support to stop the eviction by contacting:

Lambeth Housing Activists
lambethhousingactivists@gmail.com
www.housingactivists.co.uk
07834 828 292

Lambeth United Housing Co-operative
lambethunitedhousingco-op.org.uk
Twitter: @LUHousingCoop
facebook.com/LambethUnited
Petition: http://chn.ge/16PkKwv
Click to expand...

Kate Hoey, whoopee!
 
Some photos of last Tuesdays demo outside Brixton police station against new "Operation Encompass" by Met (supported by Lambeth Council ) to get rid of those who "commit" rough sleeping.

photos by freelance journalist here

My photos below (with help from another Urbanite:))





1655840_10152808597277788_242379851_n.jpg
1653413_10152810175627788_2023857266_n.jpg
 
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The press release by the Met police states

“The Metropolitan Police Service has joined forces on Thursday 30 January 2014 with Camden, Croydon, Islington, Lambeth, Southwark and Westminster together with UK Border Force, local authorities and other partner agencies to combat begging and rough sleeping across the six London boroughs.

Under the banner of Operation Encompass officers and council wardens are working in partnership targeting those who commit such behaviour by concentrating on engaging, disrupting and deterring rough sleeping and begging.”

for full press release:

http://content.met.police.uk/News/T...nd-rough-sleeping/1400022279369/1257246745756
 
This is on Lambeth Housing Activist website:

I met a guy coming out of Lambeth Housing office today who had nowhere to sleep tonight and the Council had said there was nothing they could do for him because he is 25 and has no children so is not ‘vulnerable’. They gave him a number for the safer streets team but he had no credit to phone the 0207 number… so i rang for him and this is roughly what they told me – “get him to ring us when he knows where he is going to be sleeping tonight and we will try get to him in the morning. And then he can tell us where he is sleeping the next night and we’ll try to get to him again. Then we’ll see if we can find him somewhere”. So i say “you can’t be serious. He doesn’t want to sleep on the street he needs a hostel”. They say “very sorry that’s how it is”. So when somebody says to you that people are ‘choosing’ to sleep on the streets tell them it is bullshit. You HAVE to sleep on the streets or they won’t help you. That is the OFFICIAL POLICY - See more at: http://housingactivists.co.uk/protest/homelessness-stories/#sthash.ApKsg0Fs.dpuf
Click to expand...
 
Article from Camden New Journal ( Camden is one of the Councils who are doing "Operation Encompass").
Duncan Shrubsole, who is the director of policy and external affairs at Crisis, warned that the police operation was “aggressively targeting and potentially criminalising some of the most vulnerable people in society”, adding: “We don’t see how this is going to help anyone. What homeless people really need is access to services and support to help them get off the streets and to rebuild their lives.”

Shelagh O’Connor, director of New Horizon Youth Centre, based in Chalton Street, Somers Town, said: “We are concerned if police are targeting people who have literally no access to anything. The recession has really changed things. Before, people had something to fall back on, and now they don’t. For some, their only income is now begging.”

Ms O’Connor added that issuing Asbos “rarely” helps the situation, even if anti-social behaviour is a problem.

“If you’re from Camden, you know the agencies here. But then if you’re moved away through arrest, or receive an Asbo and can’t come back to the area, then you’re left with no one again. If homeless people are taken off the streets, where they’re visible to police, they will frequent stairwells or the canal bank in Camden Town. Those places are more dangerous for them, and they’re harder for our outreach teams to access.”
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I was chatting to a Big Issue seller I know in central London last Friday.

He confirms that the police every now and then target rough sleepers and also beggars. They do this even if there is no sign of anti social behaviour like being aggressive.

What they do is tell them to move, take there details and if they get stopped in same area they might get ASBO. Its a round about way to criminalize people. There is no law to directly arrest someone for rough sleeping.

As the Met press release says the idea is to "disrupt" and "deter". In plain language harass and intimidate people.

He also said that one tactic of police/ council officials is to run "welfare" checks on rough sleepers several times a night. This means waking the same people up several times over one night. Its done to make life more difficult for those sleeping on the streets.

I have seen the police move rough sleepers ( in West End) even when they are not causing any trouble. Also stop people carrying sleeping bags etc for spot checks.
 
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A night of films celebrating the struggle for decent housing in our communities (part of the Radical Housing Weekender).


St. Matthew's Tenants Hall, 10 St. Matthew's Rd, SW2 1NH

Saturday April 26th from 7.30 pm


As the housing crisis in the capital deepens - with homelessness on the rise, one in ten London homes overcrowded, rents far outstripping earnings, and private landlords running amok - join us at St. Matthew's Tenants Hall for a reminder of what can be achieved through collective action against these problems.

We will be showing a series of short films which give an insight into housing activism, past and present, and aim to provide acknowledgment and encouragement both to those who are precariously housed and those fighting to combat this social ill.

The films will show contemporary projects, such as the campaign to save and expand social housing in Cressingham Gardens, and inspirational historical examples, such as the co-operative living spaces established by the Brixton Faeries in the 1970s.

In addition to the short film screenings, there will be an opportunity to hear from activists and local residents and, most importantly, for discussion. There will be people from a number of different housing campaigning organizations in Brixton the E15 mothers a group of 29 young mothers organising’ to stop the hostel they live in being closed are coming to say a bit about their campaign. We will more during the week.


The films should be interesting but just as important is the opportunity for us all to spend some time socializing and having fun.


There are drinks at the bar.


St. Matthew's Tenants Hall, 10 St. Matthew's Rd, SW2 1NH

Saturday April 26th from 7.30 pm

https://www.facebook.com/events/685937631474177/


Hope to see you Saturday

Lambeth Housing Activists

Web site: www.housingactivists.co.uk

Twitter: @LambthHousngAct

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/476032432500896/
 
Rushy said:
Lambeth don't appear to be very keen on answering it.
Click to expand...
Regarding Lancaster and Clarence Houses - The Weekender carried ads from Lambeth Planning regarding extensions to the ground floor in three cases:
http://planning.lambeth.gov.uk/online-applications/simpleSearchResults.do?action=firstPage
(my PC doesn't seem to be putting the links in fully - the actual reference numbers are 14/01624/FUL, 14/01625/FUL and 14/01627/FUL)
These are on behalf of Lexadon - but not their usual architects
 
CH1 said:
Regarding Lancaster and Clarence Houses - The Weekender carried ads from Lambeth Planning regarding extensions to the ground floor in three cases:
http://planning.lambeth.gov.uk/online-applications/simpleSearchResults.do?action=firstPage
(my PC doesn't seem to be putting the links in fully - the actual reference numbers are 14/01624/FUL, 14/01625/FUL and 14/01627/FUL)
These are on behalf of Lexadon - but not their usual architects
Click to expand...

In 100 years, it will be known as Lexton, not Brixton.
 
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