Last week Hackney CVS hosted a meeting with Ed Miliband to talk about the reasons for last week's disturbances and what can be done. Here Adwoa and Djanomi from Emashi share with Hackney Unites their thoughts and plans they are making to bring communities together.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
A message to the youth of Hackney
In the aftermath of the riot in Tottenham, and with the violence on the Narrow Way, we call on the youth of Hackney to show restraint and urge you not to get caught up in rioting.
We ask this because a riot is not good for you and it is not good for our community.
We know your anger:
• at the lack of education, training or jobs in the borough
• at the slim life chances that are afforded you;
• at the police who so often fail to protect young people, but who appear relentless in their determination to ensure that you ‘know your place’.
In a society that chooses not to respect you, participating in a riot can appear like an act of rebellion and a response to a complex series of problems: giving the police a hard time for once, and adopting the stereotypes of recklessness, criminality and brutality with which you are so often labelled.
However, a riot destroys what little we have in terms of our community assets, it also places the rioters, as well as bystanders at great risk.
The use of petrol bombs and the burning of buildings is not only devastatingly destructive to the institutions and businesses in our community. It puts peoples lives at risk. In Handsworth in 1985, two people died when trapped in their flat above a shop, in 2005 a similar tragedy occurred in the Lozells district of Birmingham. On Saturday night in Tottenham families with children had to flee through a burning building to escape.
Burning, destruction, and putting the lives of members of our community at risk is not the way to express your legitimate anger at being left behind in the boom years and expected to pay with your future when the economy crashed. You are capable of more imaginative and more effective ways of demanding economic and social justice.
You may feel that in the aftermath of a number of high profile deaths particularly from the black community in police custody, a riot is inevitable. But a riot is the response of those who have no alternative channel for their anger. In America, following the assassination of Martin Luther King, the black ghettos erupted. Yet, where the Black Panther Party organised, the most militant of black radical organisations, they called on the community not to riot, but to organise for justice. We urge you to do the same.
Finally, please consider the risks you are exposing yourself to. The police are sophisticated in tracking down rioters. CCTV cameras mean that you can be tracked; covering your face simply won’t protect you. The maximum prison terms for rioting is ten years and it is unusual for sentences for riot to be any less than five years. Even lesser offences of violent disorder receive very stiff penalties from the courts.
It is not just the risk of imprisonment: in 1981 during the Toxteth riot the police used vehicles driven at high speed into crowds to disperse them. One young man, not even involved in the disturbance, was killed when he did not move fast enough.
In this statement we have not joined the long list of politicians and police officers who race to condemn rioters, as if their own policies and failings were not a major ingredient in the toxic mix that creates the context in which riots occur. We have not pretended that you are ‘outsiders’ but have spoken to you as members of our community, who we want to remain in our community. Please do not let your anger blind you to the madness that is rioting.
We ask this because a riot is not good for you and it is not good for our community.
We know your anger:
• at the lack of education, training or jobs in the borough
• at the slim life chances that are afforded you;
• at the police who so often fail to protect young people, but who appear relentless in their determination to ensure that you ‘know your place’.
In a society that chooses not to respect you, participating in a riot can appear like an act of rebellion and a response to a complex series of problems: giving the police a hard time for once, and adopting the stereotypes of recklessness, criminality and brutality with which you are so often labelled.
However, a riot destroys what little we have in terms of our community assets, it also places the rioters, as well as bystanders at great risk.
The use of petrol bombs and the burning of buildings is not only devastatingly destructive to the institutions and businesses in our community. It puts peoples lives at risk. In Handsworth in 1985, two people died when trapped in their flat above a shop, in 2005 a similar tragedy occurred in the Lozells district of Birmingham. On Saturday night in Tottenham families with children had to flee through a burning building to escape.
Burning, destruction, and putting the lives of members of our community at risk is not the way to express your legitimate anger at being left behind in the boom years and expected to pay with your future when the economy crashed. You are capable of more imaginative and more effective ways of demanding economic and social justice.
You may feel that in the aftermath of a number of high profile deaths particularly from the black community in police custody, a riot is inevitable. But a riot is the response of those who have no alternative channel for their anger. In America, following the assassination of Martin Luther King, the black ghettos erupted. Yet, where the Black Panther Party organised, the most militant of black radical organisations, they called on the community not to riot, but to organise for justice. We urge you to do the same.
Finally, please consider the risks you are exposing yourself to. The police are sophisticated in tracking down rioters. CCTV cameras mean that you can be tracked; covering your face simply won’t protect you. The maximum prison terms for rioting is ten years and it is unusual for sentences for riot to be any less than five years. Even lesser offences of violent disorder receive very stiff penalties from the courts.
It is not just the risk of imprisonment: in 1981 during the Toxteth riot the police used vehicles driven at high speed into crowds to disperse them. One young man, not even involved in the disturbance, was killed when he did not move fast enough.
In this statement we have not joined the long list of politicians and police officers who race to condemn rioters, as if their own policies and failings were not a major ingredient in the toxic mix that creates the context in which riots occur. We have not pretended that you are ‘outsiders’ but have spoken to you as members of our community, who we want to remain in our community. Please do not let your anger blind you to the madness that is rioting.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Our new Unemployed Workers Project meets every Friday (till September) 11-2pm. Please download flyer and circulate to anyone you think will be interested - the unemployed, community groups and anyone that could support.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Unemployed Workers Project meets this Friday, July 8 at 11am
With unemployment rising, and with fewer jobs becoming available, many people in Hackney are facing the prospect of long-term unemployment and the consequent isolation and poverty that accompanies it. As a community we have an obligation to support the unemployed, not least because in the current economic climate, none of us can feel secure.
The first meeting of our unemployed workers project will be this Friday 8 July at 11am, at the Community Hall, 8 Navarino Mansions, Dalston Lane E8 1LB.
The first session will be an open discussion about what an unemployed workers project looks like in Hackney. We will explore:
· which support agencies and community institutions we need to approach and how to win their support
· how to bring unemployed people together to create a voice that will be listened to
· how to win longer term funding for a permanent unemployed workers centre in Hackney.
Lunch will be provided
The initial project will run for 13 successive Fridays, and will conclude with a conference for the unemployed.
You can help by
· Coming along on Friday if you are unemployed
· Sending messages of support if you are part of a community organisation prepared to work with Hackney’s unemployed
· By cascading this email on to friends, neighbours and former colleagues who are unemployed.
Sending us your ideas for how to sustain an unemployed workers project in the borough.
The first meeting of our unemployed workers project will be this Friday 8 July at 11am, at the Community Hall, 8 Navarino Mansions, Dalston Lane E8 1LB.
The first session will be an open discussion about what an unemployed workers project looks like in Hackney. We will explore:
· which support agencies and community institutions we need to approach and how to win their support
· how to bring unemployed people together to create a voice that will be listened to
· how to win longer term funding for a permanent unemployed workers centre in Hackney.
Lunch will be provided
The initial project will run for 13 successive Fridays, and will conclude with a conference for the unemployed.
You can help by
· Coming along on Friday if you are unemployed
· Sending messages of support if you are part of a community organisation prepared to work with Hackney’s unemployed
· By cascading this email on to friends, neighbours and former colleagues who are unemployed.
Sending us your ideas for how to sustain an unemployed workers project in the borough.
Friday, July 1, 2011
No Sainsbury in Stokie!
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| DOWNLOAD POSTER HERE |
Sainsbury are seeking planning permission to build an enormous new store behind Wilmer Place. With parking for 90 vehicles and a development that is five stories high (a number of ‘affordable housing’ units will be plonked on top of the superstore in an attempt to demonstrate some benefit to the community). At a time when the government is concerned about the dereliction of high streets, an enormous Sainsbury on Church Street/High Street, would suck the life out of the independent stores in the areas, including the independent food stores, the newsagents, local off licence etc.
The proposals are also a vast overdevelopment of the site, with enormous issues regarding traffic management (delivery lorries will enter the site from Church Street/Wilmer place) while a terrace of Victorian properties on the High Street (with their existing businesses) will be demolished.
The thriving village of Church Street will be devastated if this development goes ahead. Hackney Unites are supporting the community campaign to ensure that these proposals are not just rushed through against the wishes of the local population.
If you want to get involved then please attend the meeting on Wednesday 13 July at 7pm, St Mary’s Church Community Centre, Defoe Road (Church Street end) also visit http://stokeylocal.org.uk/
We have some leaflets to promote the meeting. If you drop us an email, then we can either send you a link to the leaflet or drop some off to you.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Hackney Coalition to Save the NHS - working together to save our health service.
Hackney doctors, Unite L&E 524 branch, Keep Our NHS Public, Hackney LINk, Hackney Labour Party,
Homerton Hospital workers, Hackney Coalition to Defend Public Services, Derman Turkish and
Kurdish well-being group, Hackney NPC) Contact: hackneykonp@aol.com, 07896 303 207.
1 pm onwards
Line up and link
hands around
the Homerton
Join hands to support the Homerton
Calling all Hackney citizens
Saturday
16 July
Assemble 12 noon
in the park that runs between
Brooksby’s Walk and Wardle St,
opposite the Homerton hospital.
Hackney’s citizens
love the Homerton
x x x
HANDS AROUND
THE HOMERTONShow the government we love our hospital
and we won’t let it go
The Health & Social Care Bill threatens our
local hospitals with privatisation & closure
The government's Health & Social
Care Bill threatens the entire future
survival of the NHS.
n All local hospitals (like the Homerton)
face cuts in services and threats of closure.
n Your GP will be forced to ration
your healthcare.
n Hospitals can now take as many
private patients as they like (previously
the number was limited).
n The whole NHS is thrown wide
open to exploitation by big private
healthcare companies.
The recent "pause" in the government's
driving through of the Health Bill did not bring a
pause in the massive top-down restructuring
of the NHS which has carried on regardless.
There has been no change in the policy to
introduce more "competition" (i.e. big private
healthcare companies) into the NHS.
Hackney needs a health service which puts
patients first, and not profits.
URGENT This is all happening at a time
when NHS funding is being cut by
around £20 billion. It can only
result in further healthcare rationing
and cuts to services.
The government has finished its
pause and now plans to ram the Bill
through before the end of July.
This is your chance to show the
government that Hackney
citizens will not accept
privatisation and cuts to our
NHS services - before the Bill
passes through parliament.
Join us on 16 July at 12
noon to hold hands around
the Homerton.
Show the government we
love our health service and
we won’t let it go.
Show the government - Hackney citizens
will defend the Homerton - and the NHS
Monday, June 6, 2011
Hackney Unites - mapping our progress
Dear all,
Hackney Unites is entering an exciting period of development. We recently held a very successful event with Friends of the Earth to promote their 'Power up' training: (more details from http://www.foe.co.uk/news/power_up_27151.html)
We are gearing up for the 2012 GLA elections (where we hope to generate a positive 'Manifesto for Hackney' and mobilise an anti-BNP vote)
We are exploring establishing a pilot unemployed workers centre, and our CLR James project is coming on stream.
However, before making any big decisions, we are taking the opportunity to review our progress and to explore the views of our supporters.
Please take the time to complete our on-line survey and let us know your views and ideas.
Visit the survey here: http://www.surveybob.com/surveybob/s/3a030ec1-c50b-40f9-9274-ebfbc546c37f.html
Hackney Unites is entering an exciting period of development. We recently held a very successful event with Friends of the Earth to promote their 'Power up' training: (more details from http://www.foe.co.uk/news/power_up_27151.html)
We are gearing up for the 2012 GLA elections (where we hope to generate a positive 'Manifesto for Hackney' and mobilise an anti-BNP vote)
We are exploring establishing a pilot unemployed workers centre, and our CLR James project is coming on stream.
However, before making any big decisions, we are taking the opportunity to review our progress and to explore the views of our supporters.
Please take the time to complete our on-line survey and let us know your views and ideas.
Visit the survey here: http://www.surveybob.com/surveybob/s/3a030ec1-c50b-40f9-9274-ebfbc546c37f.html
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