HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

Liverpool Indymedia

Service Providers or Fascist?

Mike Lane | 05.03.2005 09:37 | Liverpool | London

The good news for Indymedia readers who campaign against social injustice is the ruthless housing association officers and council officers are now reading the postings I am putting onto Liverpool Indymedia. It has also come to my attention that those members of my community known as the cronies are reading it to.

I have decided to report to Indymedia how appalling housing association are and how they actively work to keep dissident tenants living in misery. These posting will give some authenticity to the fact that these housing association officers as well as acting as an oppressive force within poor working class communities are vindictive and heartless. I would go as far as to say that their behaviour is not too dissimilar to that of the fascist. Mention is given to Tony Megan of the Eldonian estate. I know that some people, especially people on the left, do not agree with what goes on the Eldonian estate and that’s fair enough.

It has been over six weeks since people unknown hijacked me and my car was petrol bombed outside my flat propably by the same people and sadly I am still in the same position. Even if I knew who these people were I would not go to the useless police because the police don’t give a shit about working class people and I’m no grass.

Riverside Housing have got me on their list as an Harassment Tenant, what a joke and Venture Housing have offered me two flats which are in areas ten times worse than where I am now living. But as an activist and chairman of a Tenants Action Group who campaigns against these oppressive heartless housing associations can I really expect anything else? There is no way I will capitulate and grovel to these housing association officers because as far as I am concerned they are oppressors within our working class communities.

Below is a letter I wrote to Riverside’s Community 7 harassment officer.

Hi C,

I trust you are not working too hard? Your colleague (who’s second name I don’t know) B rang me again today, but just like the first time he rang me the phone cut off only ten seconds into the conversation. Did he bother to ring me back? No he didn’t. Surely Bob must have known that if he was ringing a mobile that there is always a possibility that it may cut off, as mobiles often do.

What this sort of behaviour indicates to me is that officers at Community 7 don’t really care about tenant’s problems. All the contact structures that are in place at Riverside and their subsidiaries only serve to distance officers from tenants and as such are not conducive with good tenant relationships. Is it any wonder that tenants take off at housing officers?

Many of the antisocial tenants you are investigating are your own tenants or tenants belonging to Riverside’s growing empire of subsidiaries. If Riverside and C7 put simple structures into place to address the issue of antisocial tenants and “consulted properly” with their tenants and asked them what they think the structures should be there would be a large drop in tenant antisocial behaviour. But such is the paternal attitude of Registered Social Landlord staff I suppose it is impossible for tenants to even try to have dialogue with you concerning these issues. But we as emancipated empowered tenants must look at the possibility that RSL’s use antisocial tenants as a further tool to subjugate their existing tenants with and also as a tool to encourage people, especially homeowners, to leave an area which the RSL (ten years down the line) wants to demolish.

We as tenant activists are well aware of the fact that we have absolutely NO say in the crazy incompetent running of RSL’s. What RSL staff say is final, there is nothing the tenant can do. In effect the tenant has no voice. Why don’t you go and talk with Tony Megan at the Eldonian Estate and observe the simple structures they have put into place to address the issue of antisocial tenants? You will learn a thing or two. But I suppose Tony wont let anyone from Riverside near his estate such is his mistrust of them from his past experience with Riverside when Riverside had another name.

I have now given up on Riverside and Venture ever finding a suitable place for me to live. It would seem to me that the only way I am going to get out of my present predicament is to move into a private landlord property. But as you know the rents with private landlords are twice as expensive as with an RSL. As you probably know I am Chairman of a Tenants Action Group that we set up a couple of months ago. What I intend to do over the next couple of months is stay in this flat and keep out of the sight of the thugs who tried to mug me and who petrol bombed my car (thugs who in my belief are your tenants) carry on working in the community on a new film documentary about the appalling behaviour of RSL’s towards their tenants even if I am putting myself in danger. I will start leafleting the New Deal area next week with the Whistle Blower newsletter in which I will tell the whole New Deal community how Riverside Housing’s Community 7 know about my present predicament but point blankly refuses to move me out of the community and away from possible danger to my life. I don’t want to have to have to exercise my right to protest and freedom of speech, but what choice do tenants have, especially tenant activists who campaign against social injustice? The only thing open to activists is to shame RSL’s in to helping their tenants.

Oh, by the way, the only properties your call centre ever has on offer are totally unacceptable. I went to look at one yesterday (the call centre would not give me the house number but when I got there other kind obviously oppressed beleaguered Riverside tenants pointed the house out to me) and was I shocked at the state of it. What really shocked me the most was that Riverside just expects people to live in such dire and what can only be described as Dickensian conditions.

I have to keep ringing your call centre and asking about these awful properties, what option do I have? Being an activist who campaigns against the social injustice that is perpetrated against poor RSL tenants by senior RSL housing officers, officers who are quite capable of the most vindictive behaviour, I suppose I should expect nothing else.

In conclusion, the staffs that work at your call centre are starting to build up a friendly repartee with me and it is quite obvious that they feel sorry for the people who ring them. One of them told me that she felt like crying after she spoke with a tenant who was having problems. This poor tenant explained to the call centre operative how her RSL officer would not get back in touch with her and about the miserable conditions she was living in. It would seem that the dreadful behaviour of Riverside’s senior staff is not going unnoticed by their subordinate colleagues. But I suppose this fact like all the other criticisms of your organisation does not bother you in the least. I mean, lets face it, it is now quite apparent even to the most casual observer that RSL staff continually present themselves, especially to the local media, as the victims, when in reality it is their tenants who suffer the most.

Yours most regrettably


Mike Lane
- e-mail: mickjlane@btinternet.com
- Homepage: http://www.tenantsactiongroup.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

[navigation.actions2016]

[navigation.actions2015]

[navigation.actions2014]

NATO 2014

Actions 2013

G8 2013

Actions 2012

Workfare

Actions 2011

2011 Census Resistance
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Occupy Everywhere

Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech

Publish Your News


Temporary Scroogle search

-->