Yesterday it was announced that the West Kensington and Gibbs Green estates, whose residents have been living under the threat of the demolition of their homes since 2012, will be sold back to Hammersmith and Fulham council at the price they sold it. Since the estates were sold to Capital & Counties Properties PLC — … Continue reading Saving West Kensington and Gibbs Green Estates: An Open Letter to Labour Activists
‘Middle-class Socialism’: A Warning from History
171 years ago The Communist Manifesto was published in Bishopsgate, London. Everyone has heard its famous phrases about a ‘spectre’ haunting Europe; about the history of all hitherto existing society being ‘the history of class struggle’; about capitalism being like a ‘sorcerer’ who can no longer control the power called up by his spells; and … Continue reading ‘Middle-class Socialism’: A Warning from History
A Vote for Labour is a Vote for . . . Emma Dent Coad
‘Feel free to check your facts, timelines and who made decisions when.’ — Emma Dent Coad Yesterday Emma Dent Coad, the Labour candidate for North Kensington in the forthcoming General Election, issued a formal statement refuting the claims made in 2017 by the constituency’s former Conservative MP, Victoria Borwick — and repeated this week by … Continue reading A Vote for Labour is a Vote for . . . Emma Dent Coad
Another General Election . . .
The first and most important thing you do when you vote in a General Election is consent to handing power over yourself and everyone else in this country — as well as over other countries in which the UK has colonial and financial interests — to a ruling class, which then has the entire apparatus … Continue reading Another General Election . . .
Choose Labour?
Choose Labour. Choose voting to bomb Syria. Choose going toe to toe with the Tories over who can inflict the biggest cuts to benefits. Choose criminalising the homeless with Public Space Protection Orders. Choose fining people £100 for sleeping rough in Labour-run boroughs. Choose planning permission for anti-homeless spikes in the doorways of banks. Choose employing … Continue reading Choose Labour?
A Vote for Labour is a Vote for . . . Florence Eshalomi
Florence Eshalomi, the new Labour Party candidate for Vauxhall. The constituency had a registered electorate of 82,055 in the General Election of 2017, which was won by the then Labour candidate, Kate Hoey, with 31,576 votes and 57.3 per cent of the vote. Except in the General Election of 1931, Vauxhall, including the former seat of Lambeth … Continue reading A Vote for Labour is a Vote for . . . Florence Eshalomi
For a Socialist Architecture 1. Part 1: Social Principles
Q. ‘Social and environmental issues really matter to me. I want to have real influence but, as an architect, I don’t. A. ‘Many architects contact me expressing a similar sentiment. Our profession tends to attract and develop idealists, and that can make some of our work little more rewarding than working on a factory production … Continue reading For a Socialist Architecture 1. Part 1: Social Principles
For a Socialist Architecture 3. Part 2: Economic Practices
I want to begin with the diagram with which we ended Part 1 of this presentation, which illustrates the connections between the social, the environmental and the economic dimensions of architecture. The terms ‘ecology’, meaning the study of the relationship between organisms and the environment, and ‘economy’, meaning household management, both derive from the same … Continue reading For a Socialist Architecture 3. Part 2: Economic Practices
For a Socialist Architecture 3. Part 1: Economic Principles
‘Where did this entire financial phantasmagoria come from? Quite simply, from the way people who could just not afford them were forced into buying nice new houses because they were seduced into taking out miraculous loans. Their promises to repay the loans were then sold on, after having been mixed up with securitisations whose composition … Continue reading For a Socialist Architecture 3. Part 1: Economic Principles
Rioting, Legislation and Estate Demolition: A Chronology of Social Cleansing in London, 1999-2019
‘We show respect to everyone — to each other, the general public and to the government and police. We engage in no violence, physical or verbal.’ — Extinction Rebellion 1990 Did the UK Poll Tax demonstrations in 1990 mark a watershed in the relations between governments and crowds? Certainly not in the violence used by the former. … Continue reading Rioting, Legislation and Estate Demolition: A Chronology of Social Cleansing in London, 1999-2019