Good Morning Comrades and friends all…
And what a morning song of delight do I sing…What a ‘turnout’ by Londoners yesterday, on what was after all a very cold and in every sense a real winters day, but it didn’t stop thousands of us taking to the streets to demand homes for all those in need 35 years after the Thatcher government made the push to turn the nation into a land full of homeowners and of course as we now know with disastrous consequences for (no exaggeration) millions.
Two legs one from the South and the other from East London merged on and over Tower Bridge creating the massive march, the biggest on housing ever seen in London for many a year.
I joined the south London leg with my comrades from the Love Activists (London) and the Bohemians the occupying crews at the 12 Bar in Soho and on our second day in defence and in defiance of the court IPO, we still hold the Bar and what a joy that is to behold, for the people and by the people, power to the people!
On Friday night we had a celebratory cabaret program of performing acts and artists, it went on rather late and as they do into the early hours of Saturday ment without not much sleep the troops at the Bar took some raising and getting out of bed, but they got to it as they do. We had to leave some of our number behind in order to keep the place safely secure from enemy invasion, that done we still had a good turnout from our comrades.
It’s a thing that dreams are made of, to have the many different sections of our movement come together and also, a movement one could say, is rebuilding itself in the face of an enemy intent on destroying the network of welfare and support that past generations fought so hard for including good old council housing, thinking about it always reminds me of what the late great Bob Crow said: “ I was born in a council house and I will die on one”…Bless Him!
During the course of the last few months, it’s been a real pleasing pleasure, to have been able to assist in pushing onto the spotlight (in our own small way) and to highlight the real extent of the housing crisis in this capital city and indeed in many other parts of this country. In human terms this Christmas just gone we concentrated on the thousands who are now sleeping on our cold streets this winter, the Love Activists have help to propel the plight of homeless people whilst many buildings stand empty, that was the case with 2a Charing Cross Road, the former bank. We have helped to win over public concern and I would like to think, changed public perceptions on how homelessness and the homeless are seen today and always ensuring, drawing attention to austerity and the big part it plays.
Whilst having said all this, that’s in no way dismissing all the many other campaigns that are emerging all over the city surrounding housing, New Area and the Focus 15 Mothers are just two of the better known, but there are other fights going on.
This is only the beginning…
Part One
