London Labour Briefing no. 115

Lambeth Against the Poll Tax marched to a rally and mass burning of Poll Tax registration forms on Saturday June 3rd. Bonfires are planned in several other London Boroughs, including Camden and Haringey. Fan the flames of the summer of discontent — plan your summer bar-b-ques now!

IT’S THEIR TAX — MAKE THEM DO THE WORK!

- LABOUR-—TAKE THE POWER: |

London Labour Briefing No.145 June 7t-20th Page 2

TAs challenge rent rises

On June 8th, Edmonton Country Court will decide the legal status of Haringey Council’s recent £4.50 per week rent increase.

Ina unique case, a local Tenants Association has issued a summons against the Council, accusing it of

breaking its own tenancy

agreement by increasing rents, without consultation. ‘The Council’s failure to consult Tenants Associations on the rent rise would appear to be in breach of a clause in the tenancy agreement which commits the Council to consultation with Tenants

giving tenants four weeks notice of the rent rise.

‘Thousands of tenants are refusing to pay the rent increase with hundreds writing to the Borough Housing Officer informing him that they have been advised that the rent rise is unlawful and therefore will not be paying it.

Haringey Labour Council plans to increase Council rents by another £4.50 in October and by the same amount again next April.

This test case will have implications for Brent Council ‘Tenants who are also challenging the legal status of Council rent rises.

Further information from Scott on 01-263 8328 or Catriona, 01-387 6424 (daytime).

Community defence

By an innocent bystander in Tottenham

Over the last six weeks police in Tottenham have stepped up their usual harasment of local black people.

The homes of three black families were invaded by large numbers of police with dogs.

The excuses offered for these invasions were flimsy and the police actions were marked by violence and racist abuse.

Members of the families who argued with the police were dragged to the station and charged in time-honoured fashion

Local MP Bernie Grant has publicised the cases and written to Peter Imbert (Metropolitan Police), Douglas Hurd (Home Secretary), and Tottenham Police Chief Superintendent Stacey demanding explanations.

He has received predictable answers, either denying the problem exists or referring him to the “appropriate channels” for complaints.

‘An emergency meeting was held at the Haringey West Indian Centre on Sunday, May 21st. Such is the frustration felt by black peole in the area on this issue that there was literally ‘standing room only.

Anger and alarm were expressed by many of those present, but few proposals for action

Police in action:

@ law unto themselves... emerged from the meeting. itis obvious that local

coppers are still seeking their revenge for the uprising on Broadwater Farm Estate in October 1985. Individual officers have said as much to local black peole in the heat of the moment.

Despite the excellent work of the Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign and other local bodies, the police still feel free to engage in brutal and arbitrary attacks on Tottenham people.

Unless we find ways of arousing and mobilising a larger section of the local community than we have in the past — building broader, firmer alliances — these attacks will continue.

Troops Out Now!

Selfdeterminatio for the Irish People as a whole!

Sinn Fein Councillors Speaking Tour

uly 3rd-8th Public Meeting ‘Venues confirmed:

Monday July |3rd

‘Camden Irish Centre Wednesday

July 4th Turkish Community Centre, East London

Friday July 7th

Tottenham own Hall

_ | Brent Fightback Social

Friday July 14th 8pm till late

Food, cheap drink, music Brent NALGO Social Club

Tenterden Road, off Preston Road, Wembley (Preston Rd. tube) £3 waged/£1.50 UB40.

RALLY

CHAIR :

FOR BRITISH WITHDRAWAL FROM IRELAND : TIME TO GO

FRIDAY JUNE 30th. 7.30- 10.00

ASSEMBLY HALL, BRENT TOWN HALL, WEMBLEY (Nearest tube : Wembley Park)

SPEAKERS :

BAR ENTERTAINMENT SPECIAL GUESTS

ENTRANCE £2.00 (waged) £1.00 (unwaged).

HS in Ealing

Tory pressure

on DHA

By Cllr Valerie Vaz Ealing Health Authority

Ealing Health Authority has joined the local Community Health Council in rejecting the Tories’ NHS White Paper.

This happened despite local NHS management opposition and government attempts to manipulate the Authority.

‘The former Chairperson of Ealing HA was a local Tory Councillor. He was recently replaced, presumably because he was not making cuts fast enough, by a government appointee whose CV includes a Sainsbury's directorship and membership of the Widdicombe panel on local govemment.

Her idea of consultation was to discuss the White Paper at a seminar closed to press and public.

Despite such manoeuvres,

awareness of and opposition to the White Paper is growing. Some of the major proposals are: *encouraging hopsitals to “opt out” of local control, setting up cross-charging and an intemal market within the NHS (meaning patients have to travel further for treatment);

sturning large GP practices into cash-limited budgetholders subject (like local Councils) to the Audit Commission;

sand removing elected members (like myself) from Health Authorities.

‘The NHS is the best example of socialism in practice, for all its faults. The government proposals are nothing but a scheme to dismantle it.

BERNADETTE MCALLISKEY GERRY ADAMS MP

BERNIE GRANT (invited)

and local labour movement speakers

KEN LIVINGSTONE MP

ALL WELCOME

Camden Stop the Poll Tax

Mass burning of Poll Tax Registration forms June 17th, 4pm St Martin’s Gardens Camden St,

London NW1

(between Pratt St and Carol St)

Bring your forms!

p StO R alse

Brieting supporter Ann Bond of Kensington CLP is Labour’s candidate in the Goildborne Ward by-election on Thursday June 15th.

Refugees from the Euro-elections are welcome at the Committee Rooms, 70 Goldborne Road, London W10 (Westborne Park or Ladbroke Grove tube).

Telephone 01-968 7699 to help; Mon-Thurs 6-8pm; Sun. 11pm-2pm

London Labour Briefing No. 118 June 7th-20th Page 3

PUBLIC MEETING 1 Poland “|| Defend Sal elections e en a man Speakers: re La d = 2 Chris Ford a S i e = em oo Iranian and British writers support Salman Rushdie Revolution) Organised by the Campaign Against Repression in Iran (CARI), ae bib BM CARI, London WC1N 3XX. Friday, June 23rd; 6.30pm Tadeusz — Old Theatre, LSE, Houghton St, WC2 nan Admission £1 » eae SPEAKERS: (extn REZA MARZBAN a Ex-General Secretary, Iranian National Union of Journalists Thursday ESMAIL KHOIE June Iranian Poet 14th MANOCHEHR MAHJOBI Spm Iranian Writer and Journalist Bloomsbury TARIQ ALI Theatre GITA SAGHAL Sites Voices for Rushdie; Southall Black Sisters Gordon CARI ‘Street plus London WC1 Article 19, & International Committee eg pty, of Salman Rushdie and his publishers; and messages of support from British writers including Jasper Ridley; Ken Smith

NUMSA Supporters Meeting Wednesday June 21st, 7.30pm House of Commons

(Room booked by Jeremy Corbyn)

Support the NUMSA Campaign

against BTR!

Speakers:

Bongani Mkhungo Chair of NUMSA National Shop Stewards Council of BTR-Dunlop Group of South Africa

Dumisane Mbanjwa NUMSA

Jeremy Corbyn MP

Roger Lyons Asst. General Secretary MSF

David Warburton National Industrial Organiser GMB

Margaret Levin NUMSA Campaign Support Network Co-ordinator

Further details from the London Group on 01-733 5670

Defend the Kurdish Refugees Stop persecution of Kurds

Public Meeting

Thursday June 8th, 7.30pm Hackney Town Hall, Mare St, London E8

Issues to be discussed:

The Kurdish National Question Europe 1992 and Refugees Kurdish Refugees Support Group

Speakers:

Ihsan Qadir “Whose Europe” Campaign Tamil Refugee Action Group Jeremy Corbyn MP Brian Sedgemore MP Andrew Puddephat (Hackney Council)

No visa restrictions!

Organised by Kurdish Refugees Support Group 489 Kingsland Road, London E8. 01-249 6930

Secon

The gloves are

off in the fight a eet Bangs

for Kings Cross. ings Cr Not only are cam- Labour Party

paigners faced with

a developer whose sored by Newham

“office city” plans swell to ever greater

Council shows the Stratford option to

proportions week by _be £1 billion cheaper week, but they have. than Kings Cross; to take on a British -journey time to

Rail management which is prepared to

central London and to the North will be

resort to manipula- no different via Strattion and deceit to ford than via Kings prevent any rational Cross; alternative to their planners are plans gettingahear- _ united in pointing to ing. the great strategic British Rail plans advantages for the forthe Chunnel high East London

speed link going through Kings Cross entail the destruction not just of the famous Camley Street Natural Park — one of the first and best known” achievements of the urban wildlife movement — but also the demolition of a great swathe of businesses, shops, and homes to the south of the present terminal.

Furthermore, them measures proposed in BR's Private Bill are only the beginning. A second big land-grab will follow involving a great wave of demolitions and disruptions — threatening a 160flat Council estate.

British Rail has good reasons for trying to squash open debate:

*a report spon-

economy of a combined passenger and rail Channel Interchange at Stratford, where levels of disruption during Salo ey will be imal compared

There’s only one reason why British Rail want the Chunnel link at Kings Cross at such huge cost and with so little justification in planning and transport terms, and that’s the huge rise inland values that will result!

Of the 280 organisations and individuals who have tried to “petition” (i.e. present their points of view) against British Rail’s Bill, 140 have been challenged by BR! Only twelve have so far survived this challenge.

South London Year of Action on Ireland

DAYSCHOOL

Ireland: 20 Years After the Civil Rights Marches 820 Years After British Invasion Saturday June 10th

Lambeth Town Hall, Acre Lane, Brixton

10.00am - 5.00pm Speakers: Mary Mason (TOM) on the solidarity struggle Geoff Bell on James Connolly: Lessons for Today Workshops led by Pat Finnegan (Colonialism and Emigration), NALGO activist (Solidarity work in the unions), Diarmuid Brentnach (Politics of Irish culture) Plus: Two short plays and evening Social with Irish music. Details from SLYAI, c/o Lewisham Labour Club, Lime Grove, SE13.

nig mare Londo

ds out at Kings Cross

All the South London and Kentish antiHigh Speed Link groups, amenity organisations (including English Heritage), all of the political parties, and all the affected Local Authorities (eight, including Newham) except Camden and Islington have been barred.

In the parliamentary “Court of Referees” (at which the status of contested petitioners is examined), reactionary procedures have been used to uphold the rights only of those organisations and individuals with “land or property proposed to be acquired”, “trade, business or interest”, majority of MPs sitting in the Court were Labour.

Yet all these petitioners would have had the right to speak at a public enquiry.

Not only the whipped ranks of the Tory Party, but also the solid block of northern and Scottish Labour MPs voted for the BR Bill’s Second Reading.

Such is the historic resonance of the name “Kings Cross” that northern MPs have closed their eyes to any criticism of BR propaganda.

With British Rail using the Private Bill procedure to circumvent local opposition and the restraints which planning laws provide, it has to be asked whether it is in the best interests of local campaigners to participate any further in a game in which all the rules are stacked against them.

Wall Street-Kings Cross will be the result if the London Regeneration Cor-

poration (LRC) is allowed to go ahead with Its “Office City”. it will fill the skyline with towers as tall as the top of the St Pancras Station facade.

Far from modifying their plans as a gesture towards local anxiety LRC’s April Planning Application added two million square feet of commercial office space to Its original scheme, making for 8 million sq. ft. of office development.

Furthermore, they have withdrawn two of their earlier concessions on local housing.

Now the housing — unspecified in tenure, methods of finance, and rental

_ levels — was to be

built only in the last phases of construction and ail at the north end of the 130 acre site — distant form park, canal, and local services.

The developers’ plans involve the creation of 30,000 office jobs for workers who will travel in from the farthest corners of the Home Counties — a working population the size of Harlow New Town! — in an area already crammed to bursting with road traffic...

LRC freely admit that three quarters of these jobs will go to people outside the area.

This planned northwards extension of City-based financial services will send land values rocketing and spell the end of most existing non-desk employment.

Researchers have predicted that the combined effects of the development and changes in the housing law could destroy up to half of housing, in an area where two thirds of residents are Coun-

cil tenants and waiting lists run to over 10,000.

This development spells the end for low-income people in Camden and South Islington. It may even mean the end of Camden as a Labour Borough.

Yet the Camden Labour leadership — which cut planning Staff by 30% last year — talks only of negotiating a solution with the developers.

They use the prospect of Ridley imposing planning consent over our heads to persuade us against any open display of opposition to the speculators’ piracy.

date is limited by their statutory role,

Camden Council still stalls even over the funding of the main community opposition group, which

could — with the freedom the Council says it does not possess — oppose the developers.

What is happening in Kings Cross is a pilot project for Ridley’s new speculator-friendly London. His “Draft Strategic Planning Guidance for London”:

“As Docklands has shown, development associated with the growth of the financial sector can help to regenerate and bring new employment to older urban areas...”

Yet the Docklands experience meant a net loss of 5,000 jobs after eight years.

People in Camden and Islington know only too weil what to expect from LRC’s move to replay the Docklands nightmare at Kings Cross...

Rally

Solidarity

with the

Dockers!

Wednesday June 14th, 7.30pm

Conway Hall Red Lion Square, London Speakers: Tilbury Docks Shop Stewards Dennis Skinner MP

Peter Gibson (Chair, T@WU London Bus Committe)

Sue Haynes (P&O Dover striker)

London Tube Driver Pergamon Striker Organised by the Solidarity Network and the Socialist Conference Sponsored by Tilbury Docks Shop Stewards Committee