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Friday 30 June 2017

Axe the Housing Act: March for safer homes, 1 July 2017

From: Axe The Housing Act
To: @
Sent: Friday, 30 June 2017, 0:16
Subject: Safe homes for all - march 1 July, film night 4 July, meeting 12 July



The terrible Grenfell fire and the failed response of local and national
Government, is now exposing the lethal mix of cuts, neglect and refusal
to listen to residents,  across Britain.  In hundreds of meetings,
people are attempting to hold landlords to account and force them to
act. Several councils have committed to fit sprinklers in all tower
blocks: these include Birmingham, Sheffield, Croydon, Southampton.

  Housing is now high on the public and political agenda, and will be a
key theme of the Peoples Assembly march this Saturday 1st July.  We will
assemble with other housing groups from 12 noon outside BBC Great
Portland St W1A 1AA, and give out our new leaflet -

We are co-sponsoring a London-wide meeting 12 July on Grenfell and fire
safety, with Matt Wrack of Fire Brigades union, Kevin Courtney of
Teachers union, tenant groups and campaigners - see leaflet:
.  Please invite local residents and others concerned to secure justice
for Grenfell and safety in our homes, schools and hospitals.

And on 4 July 6.30pm you are invited to a book launch and film night,
for a free showing of Ken Loach's classic 'Cathy Come Home', at the
Genesis Cinema  93-95 Mile End Rd, London E1 4UJ. Book a free ticket
  Combine a relaxed social event with some serious talk.  All welcome


Next open organising meeting 22 July 11am venue to be confirmed.  Notes
from last organising meeting here:


If you want leaflets for your local campaign, or speakers and help
organising local events, please email or call on 07432 098440.  Help
build the housing movement to win safe, secure homes for all.
Best wishes
Eileen Short
for
...........................
axethehousingact.org.uk

--
...........................
axethehousingact.org.uk

Thursday 29 June 2017

June 29, 2017 headlines from Disability News Service

The latest news from Disability News Service was published today. Very few of these stories will even be mentioned on the BBC, and that is all the more reason to flag them up here, to help make readers aware of them.

Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Latest Stories

Monday 26 June 2017

The Council leader and the unsafe cladding

In May, Cllr Gould's 'coronation' as Camden Council leader came with plaudits from Lord Mandelson and other local Labour Party luminaries. The Camden New Journal reported: "Town Hall boss says she will be judged on her own merits and not 'New Labour heir' tag."(1)

Yet perhaps both her backers and her 'performance on the job' betray an alienation between her 'leadership' and Camden's tower block fodder?


"Everything that is proposed from the establishment seems almost calculated to minimise the role of the people, to miniaturise man [sic]. I can understand how attractive this prospect must be to those at the top. Those of us who refuse to be pawns in their power game can be picked up by their bureaucratic tweezers and dropped in a filing cabinet under 'M' for malcontent or maladjusted. When you think of some of the high flats around us, it can hardly be an accident that they are as near as one could get to an architectural representation of a filing cabinet.” (2)

As a newbie council leader Georgia Gould might not be personally responsible for the Health & Safety failings of Camden's Tower blocks that came to prominence in the wake of the Grenfell Tower inferno. I would argue though that her 'swift and decisive' attempt to remedy those Health & Safety failings by means of delegated turfing out of people at unsocial hours without consultation from the tower blocks bears evidence of bureaucratic tweezers more than a friendly, “I am here to help you at this hour of danger” handshake.(3)

By Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Notes

  1. http://camdennewjournal.com/article/proud-lord-mandelson-hails-new-council-leader-georgia-gould
  2. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/still-irresistible-a-working-class-heros-finest-speech-2051285.html
  3. http://camdennewjournal.com/article/georgiagouldexplanation




Friday 23 June 2017

Jimmy Reid on tower blocks as 'filing cabinets'

In the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster, I'd say that we need to look again not just at the matter of the 'cladding' materials used, but moreover at the nature of people's living conditions,

Heed the words of the late Scottish trade unionist and Communist Jimmy Reid in his 1972 inauguration speech as Rector of Glasgow University:

"Everything that is proposed from the establishment seems almost calculated to minimise the role of the people, to miniaturise man [sic]. I can understand how attractive this prospect must be to those at the top. Those of us who refuse to be pawns in their power game can be picked up by their bureaucratic tweezers and dropped in a filing cabinet under 'M' for malcontent or maladjusted. When you think of some of the high flats around us, it can hardly be an accident that they are as near as one could get to an architectural representation of a filing cabinet.

"If modern technology requires greater and larger productive units, let's make our wealth-producing resources and potential subject to public control and to social accountability. Let's gear or society to social need, not personal greed. Given such creative re-orientation of society, there is no doubt in my mind that in a few years we could eradicate in our country the scourge of poverty, the underprivileged, slums, and insecurity...."(1)

Also from Glasgow is Matt McGinn's 'Jeely Piece Song' aka 'Height Starvation Song'.(2)


For more of how things could and should be, there is a Taxpayers Against Poverty series of blog posts about solutions to the UK's housing crisis.(3)

Blog post by Dude Swheatie of Kwug


Link references

Friday 16 June 2017

Socially engaged artist Helen Mandley exhibiting at Middlesex Uni BA (Hons) Fine Art and Design Show at Old Truman Brewery, 16-19 June 2017

(This blog post was uploaded again here because of earlier deficiencies in the original publication. At that time, the Kwug Blog editor was using other people's equipment — MacBook Pro and iPad — that are unfamiliar to him. This marks republication marks his first uploading of a blog post using a Windows 10 laptop. The earlier posting of this content received 82 viewings before it was deleted on 22 June 2017.)

Helen Mandley knows the importance of Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group as both the subject matter of a socially engaged artist and a former customer of the now scheduled for closure Kilburn Jobcentre. Becoming an artist requires years of dedication and for Helen2 of Kwug it has meant additionally the kind of empowerment that comes with knowing more of one's rights than Department for Work & Pensions officials like customers to know they have.

Then, she received threats from staff to toe the line set by them and those who give them their orders. Those orders basically said that as a Fine Art & Design Foundation student at Working Men's College she lacked talent and her tutors were conning her when they said otherwise. They threatened her with sanctions for 'not making herself available' for the kind of alienation that she would get through surrendering her sense of social engagement as being herself and being an enabling neighbour. The placards she saw as the backdrop to Kwuggies' appearance at that place showed her that there was a valid alternative source of Information, Advice & Guidance to what Jobcentre staff told her was the only way for her to go.

Kwug could not guide her artistic expression as her course teachers and leaders could and have done, but the knowledge of her rights obtained from attendance at Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group meetings helped keep her on the path to becoming not just an artist, but also a socially engaged artist.

An installation by socially engaged artist Helen Mandley, aka Helen2 of Kwug

She texted the Kwug Blog editor on 14 June:
"I'm installing work over the next day and today.

"The Exhibition is open to public Daily from Friday 15 June to Tuesday 20 June, 11am to 6pm. Private view is Saturday 17 June at 6pm.

"The venue is Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL."
The kind of 'Private View' that will happen this Saturday is very different from the kind of 'private view' that goes on in a Jobseekers Allowance claimant's 'interviews' at the jobcentre!

Social engagement vs patronage of and by the wealthy

Of course, social engagement is very different from the kind of sponsorship that has gone on previously between the wealthy and artists as people needing to be paid for their output. Social engagement works both ways, and Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group does not sponsor artists in the way that royalty traditionally has.

Conservative Government promotes 'Universal Credit' saying that it is to 'incentivise' people to work. The reality as authoritatively stated recently by benefits adviser and Basic Income UK representative Barb Jacobson, that in order to obtain and maintain paid employment, a person needs capital.


Kwug in association with youtube has given a platform for youtube video content by Helen for presenting 'studies' that have gone into her work that is to be exhibited.

Helen has written of her subject matter in a Middlesex Uni publication 'May Grey June Gloom':

"Socially engaged art is my main focus, mainly working in the last year with film and photography, yet also sculpture and installation. I aim to understand, to see and capture people's movements, conversations, resistance and their need that is a result of government policies in the UK today.

"Most of my work is driven by a constant duel of working to survive and striving to garner more understanding of the political and social inequality I see in my life and around me.

"I use film and photography as an embedded artist within a community group that campaigns against austerity cuts. Campaigning could be a conversation and sharing of information, but the challenge is that many of the group members wish to remain anonymous."

"Ths new challenge has created many layers and a deeper understanding of the moving image. Capturing the esence and role of the group whils staying within an art framework has been my main focus and challenge."

helenmandley@icloud. com     helenmandley.wordpress.com

Helen has also told the Kwug Blog editor in one-to-one conversation that she likes to think of her work as an antidote to the social poison of such 'reality tv' output as 'Benefits Street' and the like.