London Calling - February issue

LONDON CALLING
THE BULLETIN OF LONDON CLASS WAR
FEBRUARY 2005
PO BOX 467, LONDON E8 3QX
www.londonclasswar.org.uk

TO HELL OR TO CONNAUGHT
LAST YEAR, IN a little-noticed decision, Hackney Council awarded Connaught – the“facilities management group” - a £100M contract to repair 8,000 council homes.

Let’s face it, Hackney Council wouldn’t appear to have a hundred million quid lying about – so where’s the money coming from? Despite recent reports to thecontrary, Hackney Council’s still in a dire financial position. The long-standing saga of the Clissold Leisure Centre would indicate that the council couldn’t organise either a piss-up in a brewery or a swim in a swimming pool. Yet they can, seemingly, stump up a hundred millions to some shyster company.
Could it be that whatever the result of the famous ‘test of opinion’ last year, they were hellbent on privatising our estates?

The ‘test of opinion’, a devious plot to get residents’ consent for privatisation, offered tenants a choice between several alternative routes to privatised estates. At the time of writing, a break-down of the voting figures hasn’t reached us – but we suspect that several estates voted to remain as they were, outside the doubtful security of an ALMO or PFI disaster.

Some months ago we reported on the plans for a £64 million refurbishment of that nightmare on Mare Street, the hideous town hall. How can one building possibly cost as much to refurbish as 5,120 flats? It’s an obscenity, and – what’s worse – an obscenity doubtless paid for out of yet another massive and unwarranted increase in our Council Tax.

Returning to Connaught, though, we expect we’ll see more contracts between local authorities and this company. With every council home in the country due to come up to the Decent Homes standard in the next five years or so, it’s no wonder that investment analysts are describing the social housing market as one which will see strong and sustained growth.

But – we idly wonder – what will happen if Hackney fucks this up as they’vefucked up so many other things. We need not remind Hackney (or Islington) readers of the ITNet catastrophe, nor of the unbelievable fuck-up the council’s made with the Clissold Leisure Centre. Perhaps we’ve got it all wrong and this will all work out fine. Don’t forget, though, this is Hackney we’re talking about!

The council’s plan to spend £64 million of residents’ money revamping the town hall works out at a staggering £744 for every household in the borough. Hackney already has the second highest Council Tax in London, coming a close second – just after Knightsbridge, even though being one of the poorest boroughs in England.

Each year Hackney residents hear how the ‘Labour’ council will improve public services, we’re told we will see better transport and cleaner streets: but all people really see is a decline in all services, the Housing Benefit office is still in chaos, the streets are still filthy and public transport is an ongoing issue. With the election looming the Hackney Labour Party will be on the prowl with their bullshit campaigns and broken promises. But in just the last year Labour have managed to fuck up the Clissold Leisure Centre – closed down due to dodgy backhanders and incompetence – the Ocean venue, closed down due to mismanagement, selling off any bit of land to build over-priced loft conversions for yuppie scum; and ignoring real issues like the shortage of council houses.
Need we go on? It’s a disgrace to see the council forking out more than £60 million on soft seats and plush offices at the Town Hall, when residents – who are footing the bill for all this – have to make do with pitifully poor servicesand increasingly inadequate council housing.

+HARRY STANLEY LATEST+
THE PIG WHO shot Harry Stanley dead is trying to overturn an inquest verdictthat he unlawfully killed Harry Stanley as the CPS is currently considering whether to bring criminal charges against the two officers involved. Mr Stanley’s family called the latest move as “outrageous” and Sharman, one of the trigger-happy filth, should accept what the jury said and leave the CPS to do its job…time and time we see the two officers trying to avoid all responsibility of their actions with lying in court, lying to a jury and blatantly bending the rules to get them out of the shit there in, again this shows the true feelings of the Met —cowards in uniform.

SOUTHWARK ACCUSED OF ‘ETHNIC CLEANSING’
A LONDON COUNCIL faces being found guilty of institutional racism after an inquiry into claims of "ethnic cleansing".
Southwark council is braced for a damning report by Lord Ouseley, former head of the Commission for Racial Equality, into claims planning powers were used to drive black businesses out of Camberwell.
The report, to be published later this year, is set to condemn the council as
“destroying people's lives" and will say it failed to treat all inhabitants of
the area equally. Lord Ouseley was asked to investigate after a planning row which led to closure of a popular club and black youth centre. He has already indicated his report will make uncomfortable reading for Southwark, though the council claimed today it would be cleared of racism.
A spokeswoman said: "The report will almost certainly identify the council's
race equality scheme as widely acknowledged as a model. Despite this, there remain some real concerns about the outcomes for black and ethnic communities in Southwark, and these will be addressed."

On the last day of his inquiry, Lord Ouseley said: "We have heard a lot of
different experiences and they have a common theory of oppression-and destroying people's lives that will appear in my report. Hopefully the council will hold its hands up and say, 'We accept there's been discrimination'. The council has a responsibility to provide public and personal services to its inhabitants. It needs to do this fairly, and clearly hasn't."

Imperial Gardens club owners Raymond Stevenson had to close when, due to what the council said was a planning "mistake" expensive flats were built three metres away.

JAMIE OLIVER IS A WHORE
THEY’RE A TOUCHY lot, these celebrity chefs who seem to relieve all that tension making too much money by insulting each other. Jamie was roasting after that silly old cow Clarissa Dickson-Wright - who was in Two Fat Ladies - called him a whore. Not any old whore, but a “Sainsbury’s whore”, for selling himself to that supermarket. Dickson-Wright also weighed in saying “I really do think he’s a whore, isn’t that what whores do, take money for something they wouldn’t do otherwise?”

Jamie sold his soul carte blanche to Sainsbury’s, turning up wherever they want him. He’s also causing turmoil with environmentalists, who attacked the Fifteen boss for promoting salmon farming in his latest TV advert for Sainsbury’s. The ecologists said the practice of salmon farming damages the sea bed and produces salmon that is not good enough to be served in restaurants…My God, it’s tough at the top.

OH NO! HERE COME THE TORIES!
THE CONSERVATIVES ARE raising their ugly heads in Hackney. Hackney Conservative Ertan Hurer has started a campaign to get more police on the streets. He also wants less paper work for the plod when they stop and search people, so that there can be more stop and searches, more school discipline, and so on. We have gone through the Tories stage before – there is no difference between Labour and the Conservatives. The Green Party pop up now and again – and all they are concerned with is bicycle lanes and that everyone should eat organic food (food with mud still on it) – they want to help and hug the planet, well they should get on this planet first.
Why bother voting in the coming election? It only encourages these people. Hackney’s a mess and voting will not change anything.

THEY’RE HAVING A LAUGH!
WORD REACHES US that the Hackney Empire has a range of subsidised tickets. It seems that anyone who’s under 21; on benefits or unspecified low income; disabled; black or from another ethnic minority; or simply works in the borough can get a ticket for £2 – rather than the £12.50 you’d pay ordinarily. But you can’t have gone to the Empire to see a show before.

This seems at first glance fair enough. But on reconsidering it, there are some uncomfortable things here. The fact that the Empire thinks it can charge £12.50 and people will flock to see it’s quite curious – especially when one thinks about what happened to the Ocean, just over the road. The Ocean, as readers may recall, went into administration at the end of last year, due in part to excessive ticket prices putting off the punters. Yet, here we see exactly the same thing occurring again!

If Hackney’s cultural amenities are going to be priced out of the reach of most Hackney residents – and we’d submit that £12.50 a head is beyond most people’s reach on a regular basis – then it’s no bloody wonder when things like the Ocean close down. The Hackney Empire, which recently reopened after refurbishment, could easily go down the same sorry path.

Despite the clear warning from the Ocean’s fate, the management of the Hackney Empire seem hellbent on pursuing their bizarre pricing policy – when even the dogs in the street could tell them it’s a daft idea. But if they really wanted to get people going into the Empire, they’d stop appealing to middle-class wankers and start putting on acts which appeal to the working-class majority.
Yet, from the pricing scheme they’ve adopted at the Empire, they’ve made it plain which patrons they consider more welcome.

BLOOMIN’ MARVELLOUS!
THE CURRENT MORAL panic in London and beyond is about binge drinking. Of course it is not rugby clubs or University students being attacked for this, but the usual targets - women, young people, the wider working class etc. In Barnet, the Labour party has been criticising the Tory council for refusing to limit the number of pubs in Edgware town centre. What a bunch of sourpuss killjoys!
Labour Councillor Steve Blomer leads the charge by arguing "binge drinking leads to anti-social behaviour... the Council should be protecting residents by cracking down on the yobs as much as possible".

Unfortunately for Cllr Blomer, the picture currently being used by the
Labour party locally shows him overweight, sweating, with his tie at half mast, and lank, greasy hair flopping over half his face. A bit like anyone after a good night’s drinking...

WHOOPS! WHO SAID THE FILTH ARE THICK?
THE SQUATTERS OCCUPYING Arbour Square police station have won the first round of their legal battle with the Met following an administrative blunder. Around 20 squatters will now be allowed to stay in the station, off Commercial Road, Stepney, after lawyers admitted they had not served the correct papers on them.
The error emerged during the first hearing of the Metropolitan Police
Authority's claim for repossession of the building, being heard at Shoreditch County Court. In a written statement, squatter Lukas Kowlsai argued police had failed to serve the correct papers on them as they had not given them enough time to respond. He claimed that another group of squatters had been unlawfully evicted from the station before them, meaning that the building had been previously occupied. And he pointed out that if a building has been used as a home, squatters have five days to prepare for court. The papers served only gave two - the limit for non-residential buildings.

When Judge Peter Latham asked Metropolitan Police Authority counsel Thekla Fellas about the mistake, she blamed the error on the authority's solicitors.
The Judge described it as a "technical irregularity" and ordered the Met to
serve the proper papers on all the squatters who wished to fight eviction. The delay is the latest problem in an embarrassing case for the police as they try to reclaim the building that once held the Kray twins and IRA terrorists. The squatters moved in last December and the station is now thought to be home to a number of hard-up musicians and artists from Europe and South America. Its former Magistrates court has been converted into a party room with a sound system, while its interview rooms have been turned into living quarters.

Judge Latham adjourned the case until March 23, allowing the squatters a further two months to seek legal advice and prepare their defence before the hearing. We wish all at the squat good luck.

PCSOS NEEDED: PRETEND CUNTS SMELLING OF SHIT
WANTED TO JOIN the army but couldn’t get in? Ever wanted to be a big boy or girl? Were you a bully at school? Ever wanted to get your own back on society? Do you like being spat at, do you have no friends, want to pretend to arrest people, tired of locals taking the piss out of you, ever wanted to be apart of a team exactly the same as you, had a fetish to be a traffic warden, want to carry a truncheon, look hard with a walkie-talkie, wanted to give tourists directions, well the Met has the answers to all your wet dreams, you can now join the Met Police and pretend to be a real copper – and get paid.
The Met is appealing for East Enders interested in becoming a Police Community Support Officer to come to an open day in Mile End Park.

Chief Inspector Colin Morgan, from Bethnal Green station, explained that around 40 PCSOs were needed for new Safer Neighbourhood Teams across the borough, adding that it was hoped most could be recruited from the East End. He also said that since more kebab shops have opened the MET are stretched to do their job they are trying to recruit have-a-go heroes giving them more time to eat and frame innocent people.

"PCSOs play a key role, providing a visible police presence as we don’t like this side of the job, a nice cosy office is what we need, to keep the streets safe and working with local communities to create local solutions to local problems," he added. “So we thought, why not get the locals to do our job.

"All of these teams require is to look quite tubby and a bit thick – and must
have a passion for kebabs. We're holding the open day to spearhead the
recruitment drive.”

Ch Insp Morgan went on: "If you are keen to enter law enforcement and have a passion for kicking people in the head, this could be the job for you.

"People from the East End will be the ideal choice for these roles, because they know the area, understand its problems and will be committed to addressing community concerns about crime and disorder, and it would be a bonus to grass up what you know straight away.”


GLENEAGLES FOR RIOTING!
If you’re going to this year’s G8 Summit, there’s only one agent who you can trust, one agent who can organise your gas mask and legal support before you go.
With many years’ experience everyone knows that…
DISCERNING RIOTERS CHOOSE BALACLAVA! CATERING FOR DISORDER SINCE 1998.

NO TO THE OLYMPICS! NO TO MORE GENTRIFICATION!
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is coming to London between 16 -19 February to assess London's bid for the 2012 Olympics. One of the things they will be looking at (as a bad point for the bid) is the amount of opposition to each city's bid. A number of people opposed to the bid have got together to try and mobilise all the passive resistance there is, into something more active -especially while the IOC are here.

Have your say on the Olympic bid, in Walthamstow, this month - Should
Walthamstow Back or Scrap the Bid? Thursday 10 February, 7.30pm, Friends Meeting
House, 18 Jewel Rd, London E17

On Saturday 19th February, there will be a large march to show our opposition to the bid. The demonstration will start of from Meridian Square in Stratford at 1pm. More details on both the meeting and demonstration from  http://www.nolondon2012.org/.

Class War hopes that the opposition to the Olympic bid will be based around the problems of gentrification, poor transport and environmental damage. This affects all working class Londoners. If you agree with us, get down to Stratford on the 19th.

DIARY DATES
There are loads of benefit gigs coming up at The Grosvenor pub in Stockwell, during February and March.
More details from  http://www.eroding.org.uk/brixtonscum.htm

10th and 19th February - Anti-Olympics events in east London. See above.

Saturday 5 March - To mark the 20th anniversary of the end of the miners strike, Doncaster will host a rally and social asking "Where have we been, where are we now, where are we going?" It starts at 6pm, and the address is: The Old Club, Market Place, Stainforth, Doncaster.More on this in the next London Calling, and from www.minersadvice.co.uk

Sunday 6 March 7pm London CW meeting, at a top central London location.

MERCHANDISE
You can check out all the latest Class War t-shirts, videos and books on the merchandise page at www.londonclasswar.org.
You can order fifty stickers for just a quid, so why not do so today?

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