Class Warfare Victory Over Qatari Royals – Thursday eighth February 2018 noticed a exceptional victory for Class Warfare in opposition to the one of many richest households on the earth, the Qatari Royal Household with a $335 billion sovereign wealth fund who are actually one of many greatest landowners in the UK.
Within the morning I had gone to the Royal Courts of Justice on Strand the place attorneys performing for the Qatari royal household have been attempting to stop a Class Warfare protest in opposition to the ten empty £50 million pound residences in The Shard, the tallest constructing in the UK. The Qataris personal 95% of the property with the remaining 5% retained by its authentic builders Sellar Property.
I hadn’t gone into the court docket however had waited outdoors, arriving in loads of time to greet Ian Bone and his barrister Ian Brownhill as they emerged triumphant from the court docket.
Legal professionals for the Qatari royals had tried to get an injunction in opposition to protests by Bone and “individuals unknown” and to assert over £500 in authorized prices from the 70 year-old south London pensioner for them doing so.
Brownhill had contacted Bone and provided to take up his case professional bono, and as quickly as he contacted the Qataris’ attorneys they provided to drop the case if Class Warfare ‘would cease attacking the Shard’. Class Warfare would after all not comply with giving up their protest. The Qatari try and stifle protest led to articles within the nationwide and worldwide press and radio and TV protection.
Within the Excessive Court docket the Qataris’ attorneys have been pressured to drop the try and ban protests and their demand for charges however Bone accepted a authorized restriction on him going contained in the Shard and its instant neighborhood.
Amongst paperwork provided to the court docket for the Qataris have been some clearly defamatory statments about one other particular person linked with Class Warfare however not named within the injunction and different info which had clearly been obtained from police sources. The Head of Safety on the Shard received his job after retiring as a police commander.
Police have through the years carried out plenty of clearly malicious arrests of individuals from Class Warfare throughout protests, aimed toward harassing individuals engaged in peaceable protest. The circumstances have both been dropped earlier than coming to court docket or have been thrown out by the courts.
Class Warfare’s protest went forward as deliberate, stating that the ten £50 million pound residences within the Shard have remained empty because the constructing was accomplished.
There seemed to be a number of instances as many police because the protesters outdoors the Shard, in addition to a lot of safety males and plain garments police, together with two males with search canines when the protesters arrived. It appeared an enormous overkill for what was at all times supposed – and was – a completely peaceable however noisy small protest.
Ian Bone’s well being issues meant he wouldn’t in any case have attended the protest, and the opposite protesters have been cautious to stay outdoors the boundary of the Shard which is marked by a steel line within the pavement.
Regardless of this police nonetheless tried to maneuver them away to the opposite facet of the street, making the patently spurious declare that they have been inflicting an obstruction to commuters making an attempt to enter London Bridge station. it was very clear that it was the police have been clearly inflicting a reasonably bigger obstruction than Class Warfare.
The protesters identified that there are actually an enormous variety of empty properties in London similtaneously an enormous housing disaster – on the time together with over 100 households from Grenfell who have been in non permanent lodging.
There are giant developments of high-prices flats going down, completely unaffordable for these in housing want, a lot of that are purchased merely as investments to reap the benefits of rising home costs and stay empty all or a lot of the 12 months.
In 2018 there have been plans to construct 26,000 extra flats costing over one million kilos every, together with many on former council estates being redeveloped and changing social housing – when 1000’s are sleeping on the streets and councils have big housing lists. At the moment in 2023 each Lambeth and Newham have over 35,000 ready for housing and 9 different boroughs have lists with over 10,000 names, with a complete of over 323,000 over the entire of Higher London.
George Monbiot final Saturday wrote an necessary article In a world constructed by plutocrats, the highly effective are protected whereas vengeful legal guidelines silence their critics. Class Warfare in February 2018 confirmed it’s generally attainable to tackle the highly effective and win. Although the Qataris are nonetheless laughing all the best way to the financial institution which they personal anyway.
Extra footage on My London Diary:
Class Warfare protest at Shard
Class Warfare victory in opposition to Qatari Royals
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Tags: barrister, Class Warfare, empty appartments, evict the wealthy, George Monbiot, Excessive Court docket, housing disaster, housing lists, Ian Bone, Ian Brownhill, injjunction, London, Occupy, pensioner, peter Marshall, police, police sources, professional bono, protest, Qatari royal household, Qatari Royals, requistion, retired police commander, Royal Courts of Justice, Shard, Southwark, squat, Strand, non permanent accomodation, £50 milion residences
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