Reclaim Brixton demonstration

Some photographs from todays fantastic demonstration against gentrification, bringing together local campaigns on housing, rent rises in the arches, anti austerity, council cuts, library closures and much more.

Join The Big Borrow to Save Lambeth Libraries

Saturday 11 April 2.30pm

Waterloo Library

Lambeth Libraries are under threat! Come and join the campaign!

The Culture 2020 consultation proposes:

• Half of Lambeth’s Libraries under threat of closure
• Immediate sell-off of Minet and Waterloo Libraries
• Funding stopped to Carnegie, Durning and Upper Norwood Libraries
• Cut opening hours at remaining libraries
• Reduce size of West Norwood and Brixton Libraries
• Replace Libraries with bookshelves in pubs

Come to Waterloo Library and take out your full 15 book allowance, we plan to empty the shelves and show we need our libraries. You can sign up for a library card on the day, bring a proof of address (you do not need to live in Lambeth to join the library).

There will be storytelling and face painting for children, on the day.

What can I do to help?

1. Download our Big Borrow poster (PDF)  (or in jpeg below) and stick it up at home/work/school/public noticeboards/shops to spread the word.
2. Share this post on your facebook/twitter/email
3. Come to the library on Saturday and withdraw your full allowance with all your friends and family!

Stop the Cuts – Lobby Lambeth Council

Lobby Lambeth Council – Stop All Cuts
Rally on the Town Hall steps
Wednesday 26th February, 6pm onwards

Lambeth’s Labour-run council is preparing to pass another cuts budget, slashing millions of pounds from vital services – housing, parks, education, libraries, etc. – and destroying yet more jobs.

Lambeth Unison is determined to stop them. You can help by joining our lobby and supporting our industrial action, which we will take, rather than see our communities ravaged.

Organised by Lambeth UNISON

You can download publicity here

Report from the Lambeth College Governor’s Meeting

Why does everyone who wants to keep Brixton College open need to turn out in force to the lobby of the council on Wednesday, 20th November? Because the result of our lobby to the governor’s meeting was highly inconclusive. So we will be meeting at Rush Common (in front of the Brixton campus) at 5 pm and marching to City Hall to join the housing lobbies at 6 pm, because it’s all austerity.

Last night the Save Lambeth College in Brixton campaign — staff, community members and students — attended the Lambeth college governor’s meeting to try and find out just what the board of governors is planning to do with the Brixton campus. Asked to leave the warm and spacious building itself, I for one was a little unprepared for just how cold it would be waiting for a report back from the two representatives of the group whom they did allow to address the board.

We oppose the sale of the Brixton Centre, Lambeth College to property developers. We call on the College to keep using the whole site for community education and to secure the funds to rebuild the centre. Our demand at this point was primarily for transparency, and community hearings where the board can inform the community of their plans for the campus and hear back from the community. We asked that governor’s announce this right away, but they said very little though a sale is certainly being contemplated. The president seemed to be waiting to see what happened at the city council lobby, and appeared to think they had the support of local MPs.

We clearly need to put the pressure on.

If you want to get get involved:

• Sign the online petition https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/lambeth-college-management-and-board-of-governors-we-the-undersigned-oppose-the-sale-of-the-brixton-centre-lambeth-college-to-property-developers
• check out and like the facebook page at Save Lambeth College in Brixton
• write to your local MP asking for their support in saving and improving Lambeth College’s Brixton Centre
• help collect petition signatures at the stall on Saturday from 10-1 on the opposite side of the road from Costa Coffee just down from Brixton tube station
• join the campign meeting Monday 18 Nov 5.30pm at the Effra Social

And above all? Join the lobby of City Hall on Wednesday, the 20th of November to fight for our community’s rights to education and housing.

Save the Little Starz nursery

Lambeth Save Our Services has been asked to support the campaign against the closure of the Little Starz nursey in West Norwood.

Can people please sign the petition here

The matter is urgent, closure is planned for Friday 27th.

I, we, a load of children, carers and parents really hope that you can help in our campaign to save our nursery. You may or may not be aware of the devastating news that Lambeth have cut the funding at my daughters nursery school, Little Starz, in West Norwood (as well as their Kennington branch), forcing it to close on 27th September. The received a bad Ofstead report and instead of working with them to come up to standard, the removed the VITAL funding needed to operate.

I have started an online petition through change.org which so far, having started on Wednesday at 4pm, has 172 signatures and counting.

Please read my petition and let me know if you feel you can help me fight the council. I spoke to them this week and they basically told me there is nothing more they can do, the decision is final, and offered me a list of child-minder’s in the area. This infuriated me further. and I am determined to beat them.

kindest regards,
Carmen

(if you want to contact the organisers of the campaign, please contact us and we’ll forward your message)

Save Clapham Fire Station Campaign in the South London Press

There’s a good on the Save Clapham Fire Station campaign in this week’s South London Press

The Brixton Blog also had a good article

There’s still time to help with the campaign:

Please come to the public meeting on Monday 17th June, 6:30pm at Clapham Library, organised by Lambeth Council. More details here

Please respond to the consultation by Wednesday 19th June, particularly question 24 that asks about fire station closures. You can respond here

Save Clapham Fire Station – Meeting this Monday

Thanks to everyone to worked so hard to get signatures on the petition against the closure of Clapham Fire Station. Over 4,500 people have signed so far!

The consultation ends on Wednesday. Lambeth Council have organised a public meeting before then

Public Meeting – Save Clapham Fire Station
Monday 17th June, 6:30pm
Clapham Library, Clapham High Street
Organised by Lambeth Council

Hope to see people there. You can get Lambeth Council branded publicity here

It’s really good to see Lambeth Council campaigning against City Hall cuts and we should support them. But don’t forget that they’re implementing Town Hall cuts at the same time.

And please respond to the consultation if you have not already done so. You can respond online here. Question 1 to 10 are compulsory. Please also answer question 24, “Do you agree or disagree in the reduction in fire stations and fire fighter posts”. The other questions are optional and you need only answer if you have time and a strong opinion on the subject.

We’re in the South London Press

We got a letter in last week’s South London Press

OMG, what do they do in Russia?

As we stood in the snow today, holding the banner and passing out leaflets — about what the bedroom tax is, why people need to know and why we need to stop it — we did wonder how people manage activism in places where it’s really cold. Like Russia.

We definitely thought we needed to occupy more things until the summer gets here, as Spring definitely seems bent on giving us a miss, and doing things inside seems like the best ‘new’ idea anyone’s ever had. It wasn’t nearly as miserable as any of us thought, and I have proof.

Look how happy people look!

I have been wanting a raincoat like that for a very long time. I think of it as Philip Marlowe, but everyone else thought French Resistance. I guess they’re cool too (This is from a fashion site, so I’m not sure if it’s real or a film. But I like it):

I don’t think it would be a terrible thing if we were to all look like these ladies! The Lambeth Action Pensioners Group was stylish as ever as well

And of course, Dan showing his true colors

The bedroom tax is going to hit in April, and it cuts housing benefit by 14% for anyone who has an extra room. Here in Lambeth we all know that there are no empty smaller units for people to move into. The council has no plans to build more, and they are busy evicting people from the cooperative housing once known as ‘short-life’, but now in existence for decades. Those folks are supposedly getting bumped to the top of the lists.

After the leafletting we retired to the Albert for a short meeting about what next, it was a really nice coming together I thought, and there were a lot of us! Ellen from the Pensioners Action Group was saying how many of these cuts will affect grandparents whose children have moved out, or who have been left widowed. These spare rooms are vital to our elders, allowing them to have visits from their children, but also as so many of them take care of grandchildren. These spare rooms are vital to the ways that extended families are getting by and getting through these hard times, we need to fight for them.

Councils in Brighton and Hove have come out to publicly declare that they will not evict anyone over the bedroom tax. This is now the policy of the Scottish National Party. When the Green Party recently wrote to Lambeth’s Labour council to ask if they would follow this example and defend the community that elected them, Liz Peck replied that:

“…as a council we have a responsibility to all our tenants to collect rent and there should be no difference in how we treat arrears coming from the bedroom tax to those that accrue as a result of other Government policies. To do so would send a message to residents that they do not need to work with us to tackle the problem caused by the bedroom tax and that they can continue to under-occupy with the council meeting the shortfall.”

In short, they will implement the tax, and start evicting tenants. It is clear that we must bring pressure to bear to keep our community in their homes! We are currently confirming the time and place for the next meeting around the issue to be held in mid April. We’ll post that on the website and on facebook. The campaign is still forming as cities all over the country are protesting the tax. The action today was called by Defend Council Housing as part of the Benefit Justice Campaign, and of course was also sponsored by Lambeth SOS, Lambeth Unison, the Lambeth Pensioners Action Group, Disabled People Against Cuts and…I hope I’m not missing anyone out!

The beautiful UK Uncut has also called a day of action around the bedroom tax for the 13th of April. For more information check out their new facebook page here, and we’ll be in the thick of things, so you can email us as well!

For more info on the bedroom tax, and how it connects to all of the other cuts, pressure on job centres to cut people off the lists and everything else, there is a short and immensely powerful video from the guardian, and a few articles giving fairly clear roundups of everything that is hitting our community, one from the AntiCapitalist Initiative, another from johnnyvoid, and a third from the Guardian. That’s just a start, the volume of information is rapidly building

The Latest in the Campaign to Save Lewisham Hospital

There are a couple of updates on the campaign to save Lewisham A&E, and some dates for your calendar and emails for you to write if you haven’t already! First an excerpt from the email from Lewisham MP Heidi Alexander on the situation now and what they are doing to save the hospital (we encourage all Labour MPs to stand against all the cuts of course):

As many of you will know, at the end of January despite huge public opposition, the Government decided to proceed with the closure of the full A&E and full maternity department at Lewisham Hospital.

They claim they will retain a “smaller A&E” at Lewisham and a mid-wife led birthing unit. Be under no illusions – these changes will lead to a decimation of services at Lewisham.

Whilst the plans will take about 3 years to implement (and all services at Lewisham are set to remain until investment has taken place at other hospitals in order to deal with patients displaced from Lewisham), it is clear that ultimately, all “blue light” ambulances will be sent to other hospitals and up to 9 in 10 babies will have to be born elsewhere.

The sale of two thirds of the land and buildings at Lewisham Hospital is also set to proceed.

In Parliament, the three Lewisham MPs have been united in opposition to these plans, whilst Lewisham Council (under the leadership of Mayor Sir Steve Bullock) have launched a legal challenge.

The council are seeking a judicial review of the Government’s decision in the High Court on the grounds that the Secretary of State didn’t have the power in law to take a decision about services at Lewisham Hospital, based upon the Trust Administration process that had taken place. They have yet to be given a court date but you can read more on their website.

The council has also launched a challenge fund to assist with covering the costs of the legal action. If you are able to make a donation (no matter how small), please click on the link below:

https://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/socialcare/health/Pages/Save-Lewisham-Hospital-Legal-Challenge-Fund.aspx

All the money raised will be used to pay for the court case. In the event that the court awards costs in the Council’s favour, or if for any other reason your donation is not needed for the legal action, then the Council will donate your money to local charity, Children First Lewisham.

The Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign will also be lobbying Parliament, next Tuesday 26 March. Below is the letter from the Chair of the Campaign with links.

 Dear Save Lewisham Hospital Supporter

I am writing to you to ask you to:

Join the Lobby of Parliament on Tuesday 26th March to say No to Privatisation Of the NHS and to Stop the Section 75 Regulations

Assemble at the Lobby Gate at 12 noon

Called by the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign and supported by NHS campaigners all over the country, backed by Unite the Union.

See
http://www.savelewishamhospital.com/lobby-of-parliament-26-march-stop-nhs-privatisation/

Sign up on FaceBook and join the event https://www.facebook.com/events/571798492839107/

For the last month the Government have been trying to sneak through regulations (the fine details) to the Health and Social Care Act that will mean the privatisation of the NHS. Despite giving repeated assurances they would not do this the drive for profit is greater than their commitment to promises made to us, the electorate. They were caught red-handed and after an amazing groundswell of opposition from all over the country the Government were pushed into re-writing the regulations. A small victory for us, but they are now back with the same wrecking ideas spruced up, cowardly repackaged and due to come in to force on April 1st.

We are calling on all who support the NHS to join the Lobby of Parliament (26 March) to urge the Lords and Commons to reject the regulations and to defend the NHS as a public service.

We also ask you also URGENTLY to write to a Lord. You can help by writing to as many peers in the House of Lords as possible.

The Lords will have a crucial role in scrutinizing and debating the regulations over the next few weeks. We think you should write to peers because any of us are free to do so. We can only write to our own MPs which limits the mass effect we can have. But you can contact friends and family in other areas and ask them to write to their MP too.

We have email lists of key Lords and sample emails/letters See website www.savelewishamhospital.com to find lists of Lords you can click on to urgently write a letter to a Lord.

Louise Irvine

Chair of Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign