Friday seventh November 2014 was an unusually lengthy and busy day for me in London.
Brent Housing Sit-in – South Kilburn Housing Workplace, Friday seventh November 2014
My day started exterior the South Kilburn Housing Workplace the place campaigners had been calling for Brent to finish promoting properties to abroad buyers whereas rehousing native residents exterior the world. They accuse the Labour council of social cleaning and say individuals must be put earlier than revenue. Quickly they moved into the workplace and sat with their posters within the foyer.
There’s a enormous quantity of ‘regeneration’ happening in council estates in Brent, however the brand new properties are is essentially marketed and bought off to individuals from exterior the borough – together with to rich buyers overseas who usually will depart the properties empty whereas London home costs rise, promoting them after just a few years at a excessive revenue. It’s simpler to promote empty properties than to have the trouble of sitting tenants, although usually these might be simply evicted.
The campaigners included Isabel Counihan Sanchez and different members of the Housing 4 All marketing campaign which grew out of the Counihan household marketing campaign and Unite Neighborhood members. The results of profit-led regeneration course of is social cleaning – with individuals from Brent having to maneuver to outer London or away from London altogether as a result of they can not afford properties within the space. Typically they’ve to maneuver into personal rented lodging with little or no safety of tenure on short-term contracts, the place landlords usually fail to do repairs and evict tenants who complain.
What residents of Brent (and different boroughs want), because the campaigner’s posters said is ‘Social Housing Not Social Cleaning’, as within the earlier century when philanthropic schemes – comparable to Peabody – and councils constructed homes and flats as social housing at rents which can be truly reasonably priced to individuals on low or minimal wage.
Fukushima Nuclear Protest – Japanese Embassy, Friday seventh November 2014
From Brent I travelled to the Japanese Embassy on Piccadilly, the place a small group of Japanese and English protesters had been handing out bi-lingual Japanese/English fliers concerning the persevering with hazard from radioactive leaks from the Fukushima nuclear energy station.
Their weekly lunchtime protests right here name for an finish to the constructing of nuclear energy stations worldwide due to the security dangers that Fukushima has highlighted, and for a correct investigation of the failures of TEPCO, the homeowners of the Fukushima energy plant in operating the plant and reporting and tackling the disaster. Later they left to protest on the close by places of work of TEPCO in Berkeley Sq..
Taiji Dolphin slaughter protest – Japanese Embassy, Friday seventh November 2014
I remained exterior the embassy the place a crowd of a number of hundred as calling on Japan to halt the annual slaughter of 20,000 dolphins, porpoises and small whales every year in Taiji Cove, which had been happening yearly for round 40 years.
These protesting included Ric O’ Barry, founding father of the Dolphin Venture and the maker of the movie ‘The Cove’ which has proven the surprising actuality of the dolphin slaughter to audiences all over the world. Right here he holds a poste ‘Sufficient Is Sufficient’.
The protest was exceptional for the variety of hand drawn and painted posters and placards, in addition to some 3D artworks. Lots of these current accepted the supply of getting their palms lined in pink paint to symbolize the blood of the dolphins, which turns the water within the bay pink throughout the slaughter.
Many of the protesters remained behind the limitations on the other aspect of the highway to the embassy, however there was some stress between the police and some who crossed the highway to protest nearer to the embassy doorway.
Taiji Dolphin slaughter protest
Trafalgar Sq. Poppy Memorial – Friday seventh November 2014
On my method to the subsequent protest I modified buses at Trafalgar Sq. and stopped to have a look at Mark Humphrey’s brass ‘Each Man Remembered’ which had been unveiled there earlier within the day. Later I wrote about this bland and idealised picture of an unknown soldier in Remembering the Useless on this web site. To really bear in mind and honour the sacrifice our memorials may higher present – in Seigfried Sassoon’s phrases – ‘Younger faces bleared with blood, Sucked down into the mud‘. In my article I linked the one other by Paul Mason by which he reminds us that the First World Battle truly ended when German sailors, troopers and employees refused to combat.
IWGB protest at Deloitte, Friday seventh November 2014
One other bus took me in into the Metropolis, the place the IWGB (Unbiased Employees of Nice Britain commerce union) had been protesting round Shoe Lane at Deloitte’s Metropolis places of work. The cleaners in these are outsourced and employed by Serco who’ve suspended to employees for participating in earlier protests over working situations and workers shortages which have led to cleaners affected by stress and again issues.
The cleaners had hoped to take safety unexpectedly on the first of the places of work they arrived at, however they had been clearly ready, and the cleaners may solely play their drums, blow their horns and whistles, shout slogans and wave their flags within the courtyard exterior, unfurling a big banner with the message ‘Solidarity. We Are Performing a SercoExorcism’.
Safety managed to maintain forward of them as they visited and protested exterior three close by Deloitte places of work. On the third, two Metropolis of London law enforcement officials grabbed Alberto Durango as he was talking and tried to cease him protesting. IWGB members surrounded them, insisting that they’d a proper to lawful protest and ultimately the police backed down. The IWGB marched on to protest at a fourth workplace, then marched again to Fleet St.
IWGB protest at Royal Opera Home, Friday seventh November 2014
By now I used to be slightly hoping to say goodbye and go house, however as we arrived on Fleet St, Alberto Durango introduced that the group could be marching on to pay a shock go to to the Royal Opera Home, had been outsourced IWGB cleaners are in dispute with cleansing contractor Mitie over victimisation, commerce union recognition and dealing situations.
The cleaners moved quietly by the streets and slightly shocked me as we arrived on the opera home by dashing into the lobby. A safety guard grabbed maintain of Alberto Durango however he pulled away from right here and the remainder of the group adopted in and I went with them.
There they held a brief protest with Alberto making clear their calls for and calling on the Royal Opera Home to help their cleaners and strain Mitie who they’ve given the contract to to deal with the cleaners correctly. Opera Home workers stood and listened after which the IWGB walked out. And ultimately I may go house.
IWGB protest at Royal Opera Home
Tags: Alberto Durango, Brent, Metropolis of London police, cleaners, Situations of Service, Deloitte, dolphins, Each Man Remembered, Fukushima, Fukushima catastrophe, housing, Housing 4 All, housing workplace, IWGB, Japanese Embassy, lawful protest, London, MITIE, outsourced, outsourcing, peter Marshall, police, Poppy Memorial, porpoises, protest, radioactive leaks, Ric O’ Barry, Royal Opera Home, Serco, SercoExorcism, sit-in, small whales, social cleaning, social housing, South Kilburn, shock go to, Taiji Cove, Taiji Dolphin slaughter, TEPCO, The Cove, commerce union recognition, Trafalgar Sq., victimisation, working situations
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