Category Archives: political policing

Dublin and Glasgow – first hand reports from the Housing Struggles!

October 20, 2018#housingcrisis, Dublin housing crisis, Focus E15 Campaign, Glasgow Housing Crisis, housing crisis, political policing, social cleansingFocus E15 Campaign

Reports from recent solidarity trips to Take Back The City Dublin and Living Rent Campaign Glasgow

Active solidarity with anti-racist housing campaigns is key in the struggle to build a unified movement to challenge a system which is failing from one City to the next. Debating different methods and politics with other housing campaigns is an important part of our work. To that end we were recently hosted by Take Back The City Dublin and also by Living Rent Campaign in Glasgow, as we joined them for their AGM.

Take Back The City – Dublin, Ireland

(Previously called Summerhill Occupation) Take Back The City contacted Fe15 campaign during their first occupation. We were very excited to show solidarity with them, and you can see their initial statement published on our blog. Following a second occupation, we decided to visit these brave campaigners in August to hold a discussion, visit the occupation and make the links between London and Dublin, as many campaigners from these Cities have done in the past.

We spoke at a public street meeting in Dublin, Ireland: Watch here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2115174032081958/?active_tab=discussion

Dublin’s rents are as high as in London. This is a City of many empty homes and many homeless families. The growing action in Ireland is an illustration of organised resistance to this; people are fighting back!

Take Back The City has evolved from the work between many different political groups, campaigns and individuals. They are demonstrating the strength of fast paced direct action, but they have also shown us how brutally the state can try and squash political action which is making a difference; campaigners were hospitalised during violent evictions last month.

Garda (Irish Police) violently evict Campaigners

This state intimidation has not thrown off this campaign, and they are mobilising large numbers across Ireland to fight for housing. We will continue links with these comrades. Follow their action and like their page here: https://www.facebook.com/TakeBackTheCityDublin/

Living Rent Campaign – Glasgow

Focusing on organising renters in Glasgow and the rest of Scotland, this new tenants union held their first AGM last weekend and launched a new campaign ‘Not a Penny More’ .

Living Rent along with other groups and individuals organised against the eviction of 300 asylum seekers in Glasgow in July, and they have been growing ever since. Fe15 were invited to be on the panel of their opening session ‘Housing Struggles, Women in the lead’. Speaking alongside two women from Living Rent, we presented our 10 lessons from 5 years of campaigning to a packed audience in South West Glasgow in the radical neighborhood of Govan, which gave birth to the revolutionary 1915 rent strike and Mrs. Barbour’s Army of women; leading all the way!

https://remembermarybarbour.wordpress.com/mary-barbour-rent-strike-1915/

(Mary Barbour’s Army memorial statue, Govan)

Rates of homelessness are substantially higher in Glasgow than in other areas of Scotland.

Number of children living in temporary accommodation (Shelter Scotland 2017/2018)

Excerpt from Living Rent AGM opening statement:

‘…. our union is not, and should not, be interested in co-opting the power of the institutions that have created the housing crisis. Instead, our interest lies in building our own institutional power – one that is equipped to defend itself, run by tenants, for tenants.’

We endorse these principles and are excited to see a growing housing movement in Glasgow built on this solid foundation.

Read the full Living Rent AGM opening and closing statements here:

https://www.livingrent.org/opening_and_closing_speeches_from_our_glasgow_agm

London to Glasgow,

Dublin to London,

One Struggle, One Fight!

Caught on camera with Newham Nag!

July 17, 2017Carpenters Estate, event, Focus E15 Campaign, housing crisis, Newham council, political policing, social cleansing, street stallFocus E15 Campaign

Have a Nag Robin…

The Newham Nag is a spoof magazine, put together by Focus E15 campaign and Debt Resistance UK to bring some truth to the streets of Newham and to challenge the Labour Council’s in house magazine,The Newham Mag, which unfortunately pops through people’s doors every two weeks. The latter publication is full of pictures of smiling Mayor Robin Wales telling us all what an inspiring borough Newham is, when in reality, Newham faces huge debts from LOBO loans, instigates ongoing social cleansing and has residents living in towers with cladding that has failed recent safety tests. Newham also owns many empty council homes like those on the Carpenters Estate where 410 homes are still boarded up and remaining residents there now face eviction and are worried about where they will live. The borough has a rising number of homeless people sleeping rough or living in temporary accommodation. Plenty of reasons then to Nag Newham!

At the annual Newham Mayor’s Show in July this year, Focus E15 campaign spoke to local residents and ran an open mic outside, demanding safe, secure, long term housing for all and distributed the Newham Nag for free. The campaign set up outside the show grounds because Newham council will not allow anyone to hand out their own literature inside. Our campaigners and supporters made sure everyone got a copy of the Nag as they came out.

We thought you might like this photo taken of the Mayor at ‘his’ show…

If you feel concerned about housing safety standards and the rising number of residents sleeping rough or living in inadequate accommodation then join us on the streets, 12-2pm every Saturday on The Broadway in Stratford for a public speak out and stall with open mic.

Please also join the campaign on Monday 23 July at 1pm at Bridge House in Stratford to demand Newham Labour council saves the Carpenters Estate and that it is repopulated immediately.

Newham nag is a hit with residents

May 22, 2017event, Focus E15 Campaign, housing crisis, Newham council, News, political policingDebt Resistance UK, Newham NagFocus E15 Campaign

Read all about it. Real news hits the streets of Newham

Focus E15 campaign and Debt Resistance UK joined forces to launch a one off publication, the Newham Nag on Saturday 20 May outside Stratford station in London. Both campaigns agree that Robin Wales and the Labour council in Newham continue to pull the wool over the eyes of residents and this needs to be exposed. The Newham Nag draws attention to the official publication for Newham council, the Newham Mag. This latter publication paints a rosy version of Newham that is unrecognisable to those who are facing the effects of years of austerity and council cuts. Clearly an alternative voice is needed in Newham!

Passersby flocked to get their free copy of the Newham Nag and stayed around to chat to campaigners. Speakers on the community sound system included Debt Resistance, Focus E15 campaign and Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! with a special Newham news and weather bulletin from our very own correspondent. Points were made about the financial scandals, the growing disparity in wealth in the borough, gentrification, social cleansing, the corruption in the Labour Party at local level, the ongoing cuts to services and the appalling state of temporary and emergency accommodation that people are being forced into as evictions and homelessness increase.

The event was brought alive by some special guests including someone dressed up as Sylvia Pankhurst, the revolutionary, anti-fascist, communist, who was also campaigning in east London for the rights of working class women a hundred years ago; there was someone dressed up as Lyn Brown, the local Labour MP who received a fair few boos and also someone dressed up as a council worker and a cockroach, a symbol of the overcrowded slum living conditions that many residents have to put up with in Newham.

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Just as members of the public came forward to share their stories the police and local enforcement officers approached campaigners and suggested that there may be a problem with the street event under S137 of the Highways Act. It was hard to take this seriously given the amount of space available outside Stratford station and no passersby were complaining. After some discussions, with police officers ominously hanging around, the enforcement officers came back to announce that they were now going to ‘take enforcement action’, which turned out to be the threat of issuing a penalty notice, which they never did as campaigners took to the community sound system and made points about police harassment – a fine lesson in standing your ground and knowing your rights and garnering the support of people on the streets.

The council may not want us distributing real information but we won’t be silenced.

Come and get your copy of the Newham Nag, available every Saturday on the Focus E15 stall 12-2pm outside Wilko’s on The Broadway, Stratford E15. Email focuse15london@gmail.com for more information.

For more information about the work of Debt Resistance UK and their involvement in exposing local council financial scandals all around Britain, see lada.debtresistance.uk.

We will not be silenced about the housing crisis

October 30, 2015#housingcrisis, event, Newham council, political policingaction, focus E15 campaign, homelessness, rough sleeping, stratford centreFocus E15 Campaign

East London night of resistance – resistance goes on undeterred….

On Wednesday 28 October, Focus E15 campaign, East London Radical Assembly and Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! organised a night of resistance in a local Stratford pub. After a great evening of film showings, discussion, poetry and music, the plan was to join the rough sleepers and homeless people overnight in the old Stratford Centre/mall to highlight the fact that rough sleepers are regularly kicked out of the mall and often spend the night in the grounds of the local church.

Suspiciously however, on the day of the event, a notice went up to say that the Stratford Centre would be closed from 11pm to 5am for ‘maintenance works’. We then found out that the police had been on the phone to the pub all afternoon, hassling them to cancel our social event and discussion about the escalating housing crisis. The pub realised that this was absurd and said no. We are clear that this is Newham Labour council and the police working together to intimidate the pub and silence our campaign. We also saw police ‘guarding’ the grounds of the local church at night, presumably to stop people from sleeping there. Of course, when we arrived at the mall there was absolutely no sign of any maintenance work. The police guarded all entrances but we led a lively and noisy demonstration just outside and told passersby what was going on. A home made quilted banner declared our solidarity with homeless people and as one Focus E15 campaigner clearly explained, ‘we are in solidarity with people facing homelessness and no intimidation by council or police will stop our campaign growing’.

What is happening to people with their housing is unacceptable. More and more people are sleeping rough or left in temporary accommodation for years on end whilst at the same time many homes are sitting empty, such as the 400 or so homes on the Carpenters Estate. Robin Wales and Newham council encourage an Olympic legacy of gentrification on the one hand and evictions and social cleansing on the other. Let us not forget that Newham is one of the least affordable boroughs for private renting in the country and has one of the worst records in London for rehousing people out of the borough: last year Newham moved 423 homeless families out of London altogether.

It is not good enough to leave people to sleep rough on our streets. Say no to street homelessness and join our campaign by getting involved in organising with us and by coming down to our weekly street stall in Stratford on the Broadway outside Wilkos from 12-2pm. Make your voice count.