KUWG Diary 21 Oct to 13 Nov 2016

DEADLINE: Fri 21 Oct Proposed Changes To Council Tax Reduction Scheme by Camden Council. Ensure your views are included in the consultation which may result in scrapping Council Tax for JSA (& other?) claimants. https://consultations.wearecamden.org/corporate-services/proposed-changes-to-council-tax-reduction-scheme-2/consult_view 

 

Sat 22 Oct, 11.30am Axe The Housing Act – National Summit by Defend Council Housing. At Hamilton House, Mabledon Place London WC1H 9BD (tube: King’s Cross St Pancras) http://www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/dch/resources/AtHASummit22Oct.pdf

 

Tue 25 & Wed 26 Oct, 7.30-9pm Land of the Three Towers by You Should See The Other Guy – female politically engaged theatre group. The play depicts the struggles of Focus E15 where women occupied 4 perfectly liveable council homes which been empty for 8 years. Free or donation. At Silchester Estate in Kensington, Maxilla Centre, 4 Maxilla Walk, W10 6NQ (tube: Ladbroke Grove) https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/land-of-the-three-towers-silchester-estate-kensington-maxilla-centre-tickets-27464222228

Wed 26 Oct, 1pm-5pm Disability Action Theatre and the Economy by Disability Action in Islington. Would you like to
Have your say about the economy and how it impacts you and other disabled people?
Participate in a creative workshop to generate ideas and strategies for what the future should look like?
Watch a participatory theatre performance created by disabled people to generate discussion and action towards economic justice?
We believe that everybody should be able to have their say about the UK's economy
Location: Voluntary Action Islington, 200A Pentonville Road,LondonN1 9JP View Map
Further details: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/disability-action-theatre-and-the-economy-registration-28746820514
 
Wed 26 Oct, 2.30-4.30pm Art As Action Workshop by You Should See The Other Guy – female politically engaged theatre group. A workshop on storytelling & creating protest songs as done in Land of the Three Towers. Come celebrate your home, tell your struggle, and together we'll make a protest song about it. At Silchester Estate in Kensington, Maxilla Centre, 4 Maxilla Walk, W10 6NQ (tube: Ladbroke Grove) https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/land-of-the-three-towers-silchester-estate-kensington-maxilla-centre-tickets-27464222228

 

Wed 26 Oct, 5-6.30pm How We Resist Workshop by Radical Housing Network, Eviction Resistance Network. Estate under threat demolition?  Got an eviction notice? You are not alone & you CAN fight it. Learn tools you can use to build campaigns to stop buy offs, demolitions & stop evictions. At Silchester Estate in Kensington, Maxilla Centre, 4 Maxilla Walk, W10 6NQ (tube: Ladbroke Grove) https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/land-of-the-three-towers-silchester-estate-kensington-maxilla-centre-tickets-27464222228

 

DEADLINE: Thu 27 Oct Consultation: Transforming Our Justice System by Ministry of (in)Justice, who plan to digitalise benefit appeals so claimants won’t be seen in person by the judge or expert panel members (i.e. doctors present at tribunals). This will lessen our chances to win appeals. Nip it in the bud! https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/oct/12/online-benefits-appeals-tribunals-disabled?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Consultation itself: https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/transforming-our-courts-and-tribunals/

 

Thu 27 Oct, 11.30am-12.30pm KUWG Leafleting at Kilburn Jobcentre, 3 Cambridge Ave, NW6 5AH map link:http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=525454&y=183527&z=0&sv=NW6+5AH&st=2&pc=NW6+5AH&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf

Transport for London Journeyplanner interactive link: https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

 

Thu 27 & Fri 28 Oct, 7.30-9pm Land of the Three Towers by You Should See The Other Guy – female politically engaged theatre group. The play depicts the struggles of Focus E15 where women occupied 4 perfectly liveable council homes which been empty for 8 years. Free or donation. At Rotunda, Cressingham Gardens, Tulse Hill, SW2 2QN https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/land-of-the-three-towers-cressingham-gardens-tickets-28000930537?aff=erelpanelorg

 

Fri 28 Oct, 2-7.45pm No One Turned Away: Housing Is A Human Right Crisis are calling on MPs to change the law so that no one is turned away when they approach their local authority for help & homelessness is a priority for single people. Streetskitchen.co.uk will be taking their kitchen to Parliament that day & campaign for #NoMoreDeathsOnOurStreets At Parliament Square, Westminster SW1A (tube: Westminster) https://www.facebook.com/events/708569762615517/ 

Sat 29 Oct, 10am-7pm London Anarchist Bookfair at Park View School, West Green Road N15 3QR (tube: Turnpike Lane or Seven Sisters)http://anarchistbookfair.org.uk/

 

Sat 29 Oct, 12-4pm UFFC Annual Remembrance Procession 2016 by United Families & Friends Campaign (UFFC). Since 1999, the UFFC holds its annual remembrance procession from Trafalgar Square to Downing Street to remember loved ones who died in custody. A disproportionate number of them were Black & Minority Ethnic people dying in police custody. https://www.facebook.com/events/1334523326576403/#

 

Fri 11 Nov, 10am-5.30pm Housing Advice Conference 2016 by z2k – Zacchaeus 2000 Trust. Update on law & practice for housing advisers in statutory & voluntary sectors. The key annual event for Housing Options & Housing Advice staff in local authorities, Citizens Advice Bureaux, Law Centres or independent advice centres. Fee: £40 cons. Book first, only 80 places. http://z2k.org/2016/10/housing-advice-conference-2016/

 

Sat 12 & Sun 13 Nov, all day? Socialism 2016 by Socialist Party. Weekend ticket: £16 unwaged. At The Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0A (tube: Russell Square) http://www.socialismweekend.socialistparty.org.uk/

DCH and DPAC Tenants and Housing Summit, Report 2

Personal report by Joan Grant

The following report by Joan Grant looks at the event previously prospectively outlined on the Defend Council Housing (DCH) website, of which there is another report from Benefits Justice published in the previous blog post on Kilburn Unemployed blog.(1) (2)

Tenant and Housing Summit

Saturday 13^th June 2015

In the morning there were a number of speakers. There was an inspiring talk by a woman from Greater Manchester Against the bedroom Tax, there was a woman from Unite and Paula from DPAC also did a speech. I arrived at the event at about 12 noon, so I missed a couple of speakers. I videod all the speakers that I heard. 

 

At 12.30 we broke into workshops. I attended the workshop on fighting estate demolitions. There were speakers from a number of campaigns: Sweets Way, West Hendon, Haringey, Walthamstow and possibly a couple of others. Again, I videod the speakers. 

 

We then had quite a lively discussion. Diane Abbott was at the workshop. 

 

All the campaigns are doing the same things. They are bringing residents of all tenures together to fight demolition and so called regeneration. They are having to fight mostly Labour Councils etc, though some Tory councils also have schemes. We need a body who can do that work on a pan London basis. Clearly Defend Council Housing does a lot of good work. 

 

There was a certain amount of wrangling in the workshop about whether the Labour Party are deliberately striking bad deals with developers or whether they are just incompetent.

The wrangles about the Labour Party got even more extreme in the plenary session. There will be actions taken to fight demolitions, the cuts and austerity more generally. We could easily spend the next 5 years marching. 

 

However, we know from past experience that marching alone does not work. I think we should set up a new single issue party. There are all sorts of single issues parties: parties to get us out of the EU, to promote Christian values, to defend internet security, to protect the environment and the health service etc. 

.

We need to take power at a local level. We need tenants on local councils. We need tenants in the room as members of the Council when negotiations are taking place with developers. You can win seats on a local council with just a few hundred votes. I think we need to be thinking more strategically. 

 

The Labour Party has taken its core vote for granted for far too long. It needs to get its act together on housing. It has just been wiped out in Scotland. It needs to know that it faces a similar fate in England if it continues to let us down on this issue.

Notes

(1) Tenants and Housing Summit e-leaflet accessed Monday 15 June: http://www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/dch/resources/summit13june2015.pdf
(2) http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/defend-council-housings-tenants-and-housing-summit-report-1.html

Defend Council Housing's Tenants and Housing Summit, Report 1

The Tenants and Housing Summit organised by Defend Council Housing (DCH) and Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) took place on Saturday 13 June in Central London,

"to resist Government attacks on council housing, tenants and benefits. A 'summit' for all those fighting for rent control and the homes we need."(1) Its agenda and prospectus are/were set out in a leaflet appearing on the Defend Council Housing website.(2)

Benefits Justice's Report on the Summit, by Eileen and Kate

Notes on 13 June Tenants and Housing summit (organised by Defend Council Housing and Disabled People Against the Cuts in central London)

Around 120 people attended, from organisations incl. DCH, DPAC, Housing Justice, Radical Housing Network, Radical Assembly, TUSC, Trade Unionists for Housing, Young GMB, Unite Community, NUT, Bolton Against Bedroom Tax, Generation Rent and various London borough campaigns

Action plan agreed:

*a housing bloc on the Peoples Assembly London march 20 June: assemble 1 Poultry opposite Bank of England 12 noon

*25 July national day of local actions for housing and against benefit cuts and bedroom tax

*a campaign against the extension of Right-to-Buy to housing associations financed by open market sale of council homes

* A national London march for Housing and Homes (date to be agreed)

• housing campaigns, hustings and lobbying aimed at Scottish, Welsh, London and other local elections 2016

Other actions

• 16 and 22 June: lobbies of Hackney council (was going to fine rough sleepers £1000 - petition and protest made them drop it)
• 16 June Trade Unionists for Housing: 6.30pm GMB HQ Young London - open meeting on housing
• 16 June 6.30pm Radical Housing Network: ‘What would a rent strike look like?’, Brick Lane
• 18 June meeting on housing Unite offices Holborn
• DPAC: short March for London 20 June; meet 1.30pm opposite Downing St
• 26 June DPAC campaign against introduction of psychological therapies into Job Centres march on Streatham Job Centre. Meet 1.30 Streatham Memorial Gardens SW16 (Pilot project to bring CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) into… Continue Reading Stop Forced Treatments 26th June 1.30 Streatham
• 2 July Westminster Hall - Labour London mayor candidates hustings - challenge on housing
• 10 October: People’s Assembly and Unite Community conference on housing
• Bolton 1st Sat of every month: Wake-up Bolton (+ Wigan etc) - open mic events in city centres

Other

• stopping evictions: use all legal means, bailiffs have limited power, peacefully refuse to leave; but law on landlord’s side so build anti-eviction networks (many already set up);
• need broad national movement for homes, including private tenants’ union;
• estate demolitions/loss of homes: lobby and negotiate with councils + direct action + confront developers + Waltham Forest Trades Council organised ballot of residents
• new Right to Buy: serious attack than can be beaten.Statement being drawn up - paper and on-line petition - as focus for campaign; force Labour councils to resist selling valuable properties; organise with housing associations and tenants groups (leader of Southwark council has come out saying he wants to oppose it)
• include refugees/migrants/asylum seekers in fight for homes;
• Cambridge Trades Council - target letting agents for flash protest; build campaign to occupy empty properties
• Southwark Benefit Justice: job centre protests linking up with PCS
• homeless camp taking place in Manchester

Notes

(1) Defend Council Housing homepage accessed Monday 15 June. http://defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/dch/
(2) Tenants and Housing Summit 13 June e-leaflet, accessed Monday 15 June.  http://www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk/dch/resources/Benefitsworkshop13juneweb.pdf

Mon 23022015 Block Budget

BLOCK THE BUDGET #HousingAction

Monday 23 February, 9 onwards protest. 12 – 2pm Music, food, entertainment, speakers

City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, London SE1 2AA

KUWG placard: Cancel 'austerity' — not tenancies!

Land sold off, secure tenants

 sold out!

Mayor Boris Johnson is the most powerful politician in London when it comes to decisions about housing, with control over a £1.8bn budget for delivering new homes and hundreds of hectares of public land.

His budget goes to the vote on 23 February and if passed, will mean more sky-high rents, sell-offs of the public land we need to build council housing and ‘affordable’ housing that most people can’t afford. It’s a recipe for bigger profits for landlords and developers, and more social cleansing and homelessness for ordinary Londoners.

Join us to BLOCK THE BUDGET and demand SOCIAL HOUSING NOT SOCIAL CLEANSING

Family friendly demonstration with music and food.

https://www.facebook.com/events/828141947231932/?source=1&sid_create=2710301415

#housingaction #blockthebudget

Pilgrim Tucker

Unite Community Coordinator

London and Eastern

33-37 Moreland Street

London EC1V 8BB

Social housing enriches social mix

How to get there by public transport, cycling and/or walking