This article was written by a member of London AF who is involved with
housing activism in the City. Published in the London AF bulletin, Rebel City.
Angry Londoner writes:
"The people who died and lost their homes - this happened to them because they are poor"
Akala, rapper and poet, local resident.
“Regeneration is a euphemism for ethnic and class cleansing”
Kensington resident and writer Ishmahil Blagrove.
GUILTY: Boris Johnson. When Mayor of London he put through cuts including the closure of 10 fire stations and the loss of 552 firefighters jobs despite pre-election promises not to do so. When questioned over this at the Greater London Assembly he said:” Get Stuffed”. The loss to the fire services meant a slower response time to the fire, with fire teams having to be called in from outside London.
GUILTY: Kensington and Chelsea Council. They repeatedly ignored warnings for years from residents about fire hazards. They attempted to close down a blogger, Francis O’Connor, member of the Grenfell Action Group (GAG) after he warned about fire hazards at Grenfell. They sent a lawyer to threaten him, which he ignored. Nicholas Paget-Brown, leader of the council, attended a private dinner to which he was invited by organizers of the MIPIM (property developers’ event) conference in 2015. The council has had plans to cleanse the residents and build luxury flats in the neighbourhood for the last three years. Now Paget-Brown is trying to put blame on the residents by falsely saying that they objected to water sprinklers.
GUILTY: Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation. The “arm’s length” body set up by Kensington and Chelsea Council to manage Grenfell block ignored tenants’ warnings. It was handed £11 million by the Council to manage the block and in 2015-2016 its bosses got a grand total of £650,794 in salaries! As GAG wrote: “We believe that the KCTMO have ensured their ongoing survival by the use of proxy votes at their Annual General Meeting that see them returned with a mandate of 98% in favour of the continuation of their inept and highly dangerous management of our homes” and that “It is our conviction that a serious fire in a tower block or similar high density residential property is the most likely reason that those who wield power at the KCTMO will be found out and brought to justice! The Grenfell Action Group believe that the KCTMO narrowly averted a major fire disaster at Grenfell Tower in 2013 when residents experienced a period of terrifying power surges that were subsequently found to have been caused by faulty wiring. We believe that our attempts to highlight the seriousness of this event were covered up by the KCTMO with the help of the RBKC Scrutiny Committee who refused to investigate the legitimate concerns of tenants and leaseholders.” (this was written in November 2016!) KCTMO was given a “deficiency notice” last year by the London fire brigade after an audit at another of its properties.
GUILTY: Gavin Barwell. Now Theresa May’s chief of staff, the then Housing Minister in 2013 promised to review part B of the Building Regulations 2010, relating to fire safety, but the review never happened. This was after the fire at another tower block, Lakanal House in Southwark in 2009 that killed six people. Instead housing ministers have sat on it for four years!
GUILTY: Brandon Lewis. Another Tory Housing Minister who sat on information about fire risks at blocks like Grenfell because it would “discourage building”. He waved away suggestions about installation of water sprinklers in 2014 saying it was “all red tape”.
GUILTY: The Conservative government itself and back bench Tory MPS who voted against a motion to make “homes fit or human habitation” in 2016 with a clause to undertake regular electrical checking. Among these were 72 MPs who are also landlords, including the present Police and Fire Minister Nick Hurd. The then local government minister Marcus Jones said: it "would result in unnecessary regulation and cost to landlords".
But GUILTY most of all is the whole class system, capitalism itself, that for decades now has unleashed the policies of neoliberalism on the working class, policies of the unbridled market, policies of austerity, policies of vicious attacks on social services and what is the robbing of the poor to make the wealthy even wealthier. This system should be sentenced to death.
Pilgrim Tucker from Grenfell Action Group on Newsnight
Yesterday an anarchist-comrade along with several others were
arrested violently by the police during a solidarity demonstration with
Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Ozakca*. Comrades in question are held
arbitrarily by the police in custody and in protest of their treatment,
yesterday they went on an indefinite hunger strike until they are
released. As the anniversary of the Gezi Revolt approaches (the end of
May) fascist Erdogan government fears another revolt against its violent
dictatorial regime. It is keeping every protester it can arrest as
hostage. I will update this as more information arrives. As always, but
as it becomes more and more clear everyday, our only weapon against the
state and sectarian violence directed everywhere against the working
class is international solidarity!
*Nuriye Gulmen, a university professor, and Semih Ozakca, a high
school teacher, were sacked by the government for no reason except being
leftists and participated in the Gezi demonstrations after the military
coup last year. The government officials and prosecutors clearly know
that Nuriye&Semih have no ties with the islamist/Gulenist coup
plotters who were until yesterday partners of Erdogan in repressing the
working class and the Kurds. Unsurprisingly though state officials fear
the militant working class people more than they fear coupist Gulenist
army generals. Hence, Nuriye and Semih were sacked together with
thousands of other teachers, professors and civil servants without any
real evidence. Nuriye and Semih are on hunger strike for 76 days. Their
only demand is to be reinstated at their jobs. Two days ago they were
arrested at their home after a night raid by the police. These people
are already under surveillance, their passports have probably been
cancelled and they never attempted to hide. The prosecutors asked them
if "any radical left wing group promised them any material benefit in
exchange of their hunger strikes and if they are trying to overthrow the
government by triggering a revolt, similar to the Gezi revolt". These
outrageous questions constituted the basis for their imprisonment.
Clearly this naked state terror is only aimed to intimidate the workers
not to oppose the government, whose self-confidence is daily eroding
and, in fear, using the only weapon it knows best: violence.
11.30am Assemble in Jubilee Square at the top of High Street.
12.00 noon The march sets off towards the Clock Tower. From there it goes up Gallowtree Gate for a rally at the Plaza outside the Tourist Information Office. Leicester AF will be marching with comrades from the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) so look out for red and black flags and IWW flags.
1.30pm May Day Social Event at Duffy's Bar on Pocklington Walk Free entry. Seven bands on.
*March and social organised by Leicestershire & District Trades Union Council
_________________________________
Leicester IWW
PUBLIC MEETING
"Why join the IWW?" 10am on Saturday 6th May at the Secular Hall 75 Humberstone gate Leicester LE1 1WB _________________________________
Leicester AF
PUBLIC MEETING
"No to electoralism, yes to class struggle!" 7.30pm, Wednesday 24th May
Council
communism was an influential, historic left-communist current which developed
mostly in Germany (where it became a significant force within the working class
movement) and the Netherlands, with notable theorists and supporters such as
Anton Pannekoek, Herman Gorter, Otto Rühle, Sylvia Pankhurst, Paul Mattick and Reichstag fire starter, Marinus van der Lubbe. Lenin dismissed it as an “infantile
disorder” but council communist ideas have since influenced a range of more
libertarian left-marxists as well as non-marxist groups such as the Anarchist
Federation. So what is it exactly and what can we learn from it today?
This meeting is organised by Leicester group of the Anarchist Federation
This article was written by a member of London AF who is involved with
housing activism in the City. Published in the London AF bulletin, Rebel City. 
Yesterday an anarchist-comrade along with several others were
arrested violently by the police during a solidarity demonstration with
Nuriye Gulmen and Semih Ozakca*. Comrades in question are held
arbitrarily by the police in custody and in protest of their treatment,
yesterday they went on an indefinite hunger strike until they are
released. As the anniversary of the Gezi Revolt approaches (the end of
May) fascist Erdogan government fears another revolt against its violent
dictatorial regime. It is keeping every protester it can arrest as
hostage. I will update this as more information arrives. As always, but
as it becomes more and more clear everyday, our only weapon against the
state and sectarian violence directed everywhere against the working
class is international solidarity!
MAY DAY EVENTS in LEICESTER
Leicester IWW 
Leicester AF 
