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From The Socialist newspaper, 19 August 2020
Leeds: Little London residents are celebrating
Little London, Leeds, photo Mtaylor848/CC, photo Mtaylor848/CC (Click to enlarge)
Tenants and residents in Little London, an inner-city, Leeds council estate, are celebrating. Private developer Engie has just withdrawn its application to build an 18-storey monster block of unaffordable flats on a valued green space, locally known as the Mound.
Little London is a densely populated. Poverty and overcrowding are rife. So when this application was first announced, nearly two years ago, local people were furious.
Loads of people came to public campaign meetings and talked about the lack of local amenities and safe spaces for their children to play.
They also expressed concern at the loss of over 50 mature trees - a disgrace in a city that has declared a 'climate emergency'.
It took much hard work to get the developers to back down. Even after having the application thrown out last August, the developers attempted to bypass local democracy by appealing to the government's Planning Inspectorate.
Without a concerted campaign involving meetings, protests, petitions and lobbying, this development would almost certainly have gone ahead.
Having beaten back the developers, we are determined to turn this victory into a beginning, not an end.
Plans are now in place to use this site for food growing initiatives and outdoor learning projects for local children.
We hope that the networks established throughout this campaign will be used to strengthen local tenant and resident organisation, so that solidarity can built around community issues in the future.
Steve Skinner, Little London Tenants and Residents Association chair
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
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- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
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In The Socialist 19 August 2020:
Socialist Party news and analysis
Students 2 : 0 Tories - Protests work!
Student protests force government retreat
"As a working-class student, I already faced struggles"
Tory planning deregulation: a charter for building profitable slums
NHS workers demand improved pay - 15% for all now!
International socialist news and analysis
Revolutionary mood in Lebanon following horrific explosion
Mass protests and strikes rock Belarus
Leon Trotsky
80th anniversary of Leon Trotsky's assassination
Yorkshire: Celebrating the life and ideas of Leon Trotsky
Education
September school return must be safe for all workers and students
NHS pay
NHS pay: unions must take fight to U-turn Tories
Socialist history
75 years since the publication of Animal Farm: From 'two legs bad' to 'two legs better'
Workplace news and analysis
300 Covid cases at Northampton food plant - management to blame, not the workers!
PCS union: Vote Yes in DWP ballot! Reject longer opening hours
Support the Tower Hamlets council workers, vote for Hugo Pierre!
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Black Lives Matter: this generation is willing to stand up and fight
Nottingham: oppose the far right and attempts to divide us
Your donations help us campaign
Leeds: Little London residents are celebrating
To push change we need to be organised - why we joined the Socialist Party
Brighton: Another luxury development
The Socialist: back to weekly soon
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