All Campaigns subcategories:
Housing keywords:
Tenants
Highlight keywords |
Print this article
Search site for keywords: Housing - Homes - London - Council - Tenants - Rents - Councillors - Planning - Privatised
Action to defeat the Housing Act: we won't move!
National Housing demonstration 18 June (Click to enlarge)
Nancy Taaffe, housing campaigner
Disgracefully, the Tory government's Housing and Planning Act 2016 became law on 12 May. Pressure from housing campaigners forced some concessions but the central intention of this act - to eliminate secure low cost housing for working class people - still remains.
It will 'cleanse' our inner cities of workers - the very people who make cities function. It will force us onto cramped, privatised transport, spending our time and our money for the privilege of working. Or it will mean that the only way we may live near our work is to squeeze into overcrowded homes.
The Socialist Party has a proud history of campaigning to defeat bad laws and scoring victories against Tory governments. We forced Thatcher's ministers to stump up extra funding for Liverpool's socialist council in the 1980s, which built thousands of new council homes. We led a mass non-payment campaign in the early 1990s which defeated the unjust Poll Tax and helped bring down Thatcher. More recently our sister organisation in Ireland, with its strategy of mass non-payment, forced the government to retreat over implementing the hated water charges.
We intend to do the same with this spiteful Housing Act. We will be organising around the defiant strategy of 'I'm Not Moving', and bring together people who want to make this Act unworkable.
- No to 'pay-to-stay' rent rises. We say to local councils, housing associations, etc, that we have no intention of paying extortionate rents for homes that many of us have lived in for years.
- If any arrears accrue because we are too poor to pay - we will not move!
- If our estates are threatened with demolition from bogus plans for 'regeneration' - we will not move.
- If councillors don't actively oppose this act and make it unworkable, then we will encourage tenants, residents, and campaigners to stand against them in local elections.
See also: The Housing Act - Landlords and developers set to profit
- 'We Won't Move' all-London public meeting, Tuesday 21 June, 7.30 at The Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Square, W1T 6AQ
Axe the Housing Act national demo
Saturday 18 June, 12noon Hyde Park Corner, London SW1
www.wewontmove.blogspot.co.uk/
Donate to the Socialist Party
Finance appeal
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.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- 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.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
LATEST POSTS
12 May Stop Israeli state brutality
 |
9 May Post-election meetings
15 May Birmingham Socialist Party: How can we fight for socialist change and a new workers' party?
17 May Oxfordshire & Aylesbury Socialist Party: The role of the state
18 May Bristol North Socialist Party: Liverpool - history of socialist struggle
CONTACT US
Phone our national office on 020 8988 8777
Email: [email protected]
Locate your nearest Socialist Party branch Text your name and postcode to 07761 818 206
Regional Socialist Party organisers:
Eastern: 079 8202 1969
East Mids: 077 3797 8057
London: 075 4018 9052
North East: 078 4114 4890
North West 079 5437 6096
South West: 077 5979 6478
Southern: 078 3368 1910
Wales: 079 3539 1947
West Mids: 024 7655 5620
Yorkshire: 078 0983 9793
ABOUT US
ARCHIVE
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999