Camden and Islington Unite Community Branch: Support Sat 18 June 2016 housing march and leaflet Kentish Town Jcp Mon 20 June 2016

To:     Camden & Islington Unite Community Members

 

Saturday 18^th June

I am sending out a reminder that the ‘Axe the Housing Act’ march taking place tomorrow, Saturday 18^th June, is supported by the Camden & Islington Unite Community branch and we encourage all our members to join as we protest against the Housing Act and it’s attacks on the basic human right of housing that is affordable, secure and habitable and which gives power, money and influence to land owners, landlords and developers.

 

Join us tomorrow at 12pm at Hyde Park Corner, find us under the red Unite the Union flags and lets march!

 

Monday 20^th June

We will be outside Kentish Town job centre at 178 Kentish Town Road, NW5 2AG from 11am until 12pm talking to claimants and offering our support and solidarity. We will have our ‘know your rights’ leaflets and we have produced a leaflet giving details of all the local advice and support services.

 

Please get in touch with me at the contact details below if you would like any more information.

 

In solidarity

 

Janet MacLeod

Unite Community & Unite in Schools Coordinator

London & Eastern Region

Ron Todd House

33 – 37 Moreland Street

London

EC1V 8BB

 

07718 668498

FB London & Eastern Unite Community

#OurCommunityLE

www.unitetheunion.org

National march vs Housing and Planning Bill 2016, Sat 18 Jun, 12-4pm — assemble Hyde Park from 12 Noon

Sat 18 Jun, 12-4pm National March – Axe The Housing Bill by Kill The Housing Bill Campaign. From Hyde Park Corner, march to Saville HQ (near Oxford St) the company “advising” government on Housing Act so they can profit from it
https://www.facebook.com/events/983139975074374/

Council sourced housing as a workplace and suckerdom issue

Regarding the exploitation of 'licensees' by a 'property guardian' company called VPS using old Camden Council stock, the Camden New Journal reports:

Empty home schemes: As the costs go up, property guardians ask 'where are our rights?'(1)

Published: 28 April, 2016
By ELLA JESSEL

LIVING as custodians of former pubs, empty offices or in the twilight zones of council high-rises awaiting demolition, Camden’s property guardians are something of a hidden population....

For the charges issued by another 'property guardians' company, go to Global Guardians.(2)

A CNJ reader questions the maths on all this.(3)  It might be argued that the licensees and council are the 'suckers' in this, but we need to face the fact that if the Housing & Planning Bill 2016 gets passed by Parliament, we will all be suckered into slavery and exploitation by a global elite and their friends in Parliament and the 'popular press'. Former Community Care magazine 'Outside Left' blogger Mike McNabb criticised the blinkers of the Daily Mail on housing issues.(4) Yet the clutches of the Daily Mail on Transport for London are contractual, and Green Party Mayoral hopeful 2016 Sian Berry proposed an alternative to that dominance or hegemony.(5)

It is also against the backdrop of the so-called Housing & Planning Bill 2016 that Kill the Housing Bill has been set up, and they have a blog.(6) 

 

Links

1. http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2016/apr/empty-home-schemes-costs-go-property-guardians-ask-where-are-our-rights
2. http://www.global-guardians.co.uk/available-guardian-properties/
3. http://www.camdennewjournal.com/propertyguardians
4. http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/social-policy-blog/2010/07/asylum-seekers-2m-home-but-who/
5.  http://www.camdennewjournal.com/sian-berry-locals
6. https://killthehousingbill.wordpress.com/

Kill the Housing Bill 2016 march report

A report on the Kill the Bill Housing March

Defend Council Housing's Eileen Short
addresses the crowd

Joan writes:

Abby, Joan, Alan1, Aleco and Giselle went to the Kill the Bill Housing march on 13^th March 2016. I was very disappointed with the turn out. The usual suspects were all there. That includes our comrades from Unite Community

The turn out was nowhere near are big as it should have been given the importance of the issues. Basically, the Tories are abolishing social housing. John McDonnell turned up and gave a brief speech. Jeremy Corbyn did a no-show. Emily Thornberry read out a statement from him, She was drowned out by a bunch of Troyskyists. Abby asked them to make less noise, but got no joy. The Bill goes back to the House of Lords but is all but passed. I have to say, I felt quite discouraged.

And Alan1 adds: For me, the best thing about it was an opportunity to catch up with old friends and comrades. And while I found participating in conversations with three or more people in parallel at the same time, it was great catching up with people I'd not seen for some time and having one-to-one conversations with them. While it was disappointing in terms of weighing the turnout against the severity of the issue, the lack of congestion on the march helped allow my completion of it.

GeorgeI was there at the start in Lincoln's Inn Fields, though he said at the outset that he doubted he'd be able to make it for the full length of the march. I also met up with a friend I'd known from local Inner London Education Authority-run Community Education Centre days of the 1980's but not seen for quite some years now, along with Martin Francis of Brent Green Party and the Wembley Matters blog.

There were a few Labour Party banners that I spotted, but it would take a real Green Party activist such as Martin Francis to locate Green Party banners. Green Party leader Natalie Bennett also spoke as one of the first speakers. Her speech told of discussions she had just had with a marching mother of a full time student who anticipates the 'pay to stay' burden hitting their family upon the student's graduation. Natalie Bennett also added that this Tory Government is very weak, having recently lost the vote on Sunday Trading through the impact of its own MPs voting against Tory policy. She argued that the nation cannot afford to wait for a 2020 General Election and the Housing Bill should not be allowed to come into law.

The march was also attended by Trade Unionists For Housing, who declare housing a workplace issue.

A speaker from LB Barnet pointed out that many of the changes brought in by the Housing Bill 2016 have already been piloted in LB Barnet. Since Sunday's march there has been a TV documentary broadcast about Barnet residents' objections to being turfed out of their social housing as Tory Barnet has sold off their land to Barratt's the builders. And much as the Housing Bill 2016 trumpets 'Right to Buy' for people in social housing, what would be the point of social housing tenants taking government subsidies to buy their social housing accommodation only for a company such as Barratt's to then have the legal right to demolish that same property?

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00t0ydd/the-estate-were-in

which helps show how much 'austerity' is being used to lever in fire sales of public assets.