As campaigners, grassroots activists, trade unionists and members of social movements, we believe the overwhelming election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader presents a great opportunity. Jeremy has campaigned tirelessly over decades for social justice, and we share his vision for rebuilding democracy, respect and community. This election means we can start building a better country and a better world.
Some of us are members of the Labour Party and others not. Jeremy’s victory was made possible by people inside and outside the Labour Party who share a common hope in the future. There is an alternative. Things can get better.
But there is a steep road ahead, during which the government and its allies will attempt to spread fear and division. Parts of the media will attack him because they do not like his agenda of hope and participation. Many MPs will try to limit and constrain the process of giving power back to the people. This will be resisted.
As Jeremy himself has said, rebuilding this country cannot depend on one person. It demands that all of us take our share of responsibility. We commit ourselves to supporting this attempt to rebuild democracy in Britain.
We call on like-minded people to join us, creating a democratic and diverse network through action across the country - we will support each other’s campaigns at a local level as well as support the development of progressive changes at a parliamentary and legislative level.
Jeremy Corbyn provides space to once more allow people to make their voices heard. We must take it.
Hilary Wainwright, Michael Calderbank and James O’Nions, Red Pepper
George Monbiot, Writer
John Pandit, Asian Dub Foundation Soundsystem
Joseph Blake, People's Parliament
Jacqui Howard, Compass
Nick Dearden, Global Justice Now
Liz Davies, barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Michael Mansfield QC, Mansfield Chambers
Asad Rehman, Newham Monitoring Project
Lee Jasper, Black Activist Rising Against Cuts (BARAC)
Suresh Grover, The Monitoring Project
Ewa Jasiewicz, Fuel Poverty Action
David Graeber, writer and anthropologist
Emma Hughes, Platform
Selma James, Global Women's Strike
Amrit Wilson, South Asia Solidarity Group
Michael Rosen, Poet
Guy Taylor, Globalise Resistance
James Elliot, NUS Disabled Students' Campaign
Rosie Mudinki All African Women's Group
Deborah Hermanns, National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts
Anna Minton, author Ground Control,
Noel Douglas, Occupy Design
Alison Playford, Occupy London
Luke Cooper, activist
Rita Chadha, Chief Exec, RAMFEL
Andy Greene, Linda Burnip, Debbie Jolly, Bod Ellard & Paula Peters, Disabled People Against Cuts
Shaun Dey, Reel News
David Renton, barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Jan Woolf, chair Left Book Club
Mark Curtis, writer
Bert Schouwenburg, trade unionist
Rajiv Menon QC, Garden Court Chambers
Dr Jo Ram, co-founder Community Reinvest and University College Union member
Aaron Bastani, Co-founder of Novara Media
Marc O'Neil, UK Uncut
Ian Hodson, Fast Food Rights
Sujata Aurora, anti-racist campaigner
Jacqui Howard, Compass
Sirio Canós Donnay, Podemos London
Andrea Pisauro, Sinistra Ecologia Liberta UK
Andrew Simms, The New Weather Institute, Author
Charlotte Bence, Unite London & Eastern Young Members' Committee
Jo Littler, Soundings
Victoria Chick, Economists Against Austerity
Joel Lazarus, community educator
Jeremy Gilbert, academic
Nina Lopez, Legal Action for Women
Max Harris, All Souls College, Oxford
Mark Burton, Scholar activist, Manchester
Gail Bradbrook, Compassionate Revolution
Angus McNelly, Occupy Tours
Natasha Nkonde, Community Organiser
Sam Mason, GMB rep/Climate activist
Joe Taylor, National Community Activists Network
Symon Hill, Christian author
Aaron Kiely, Student Assembly Against Austerity
Gabriel Bristow, London Play & Youth Work Campaign
Alison Allan, Hilary Saunders, Steve Timmins & Sue Kilroe, The Greater Bristol Alliance
Natasha Maria Brooks, Maia Kelly, Aislinn Lambert, Sakina Sheikh & Khinezar Tint, Students Against TTIP
Zita Holbourne, BARAC UK, poet & artist
Rafeef Ziadah and Michael Deas, Palestinian BDS National Committee
Mostafa Rajaai, NUS International Students' Officer
Pat Stack, activist
Michael Chessum, activist
Beth Redmond, NUS national executive
Ruth Cashman, Right to Strike Campaign
Jill Mountford, Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign
Daisy Bata, Ritzy Cinema Staff Living Wage Campaign
Niki Adams, English Collective of Prostitutes
Mika Minio, Energy Democracy Project
Sara Callaway, Women of Colour/Global Women’s Strike
Jason Moyer-Lee, Independent Workers of Great Britain
Cathy Nugent, editor of Solidarity
Craig Gent, Novara Wire Editor
Diana Garcia Lopez, Cambridge People's Assembly
Neil Kirkham, Cambridge People's Assembly
Neil Swannick, Hannah Mitchell Foundation
Derek Clarke, High Peak Co-operative Party
Adam Ramsay, journalist
Shakira Martin, NUS Vice President Further Education
Didi Rossi, Queer Strike
Estella Schmid, Peace in Kurdistan Campaign
Jess Worth, Hazel Healy, Chris Brazier, Chris Spannos and Jamie Kelsey-Fry, New Internationalist
Jeremy Hardy, comedian
Count me in!
I’m interested in an alliance of activists inside and outside the Labour Party to build on the hope Jeremy has generated. Keep me informed and put me in touch with others in my area.
Council reps have been to yorkley court farm today. Probable prelude to an upcoming eviction attempt. Support appreciated in the next days, pls spread the word.
> All-in-one shooting (no cuts, no computer editing) and you're ready to upload > Equipped with only your phone, record and distribute a video interview in just 15 minutes
Image captionReyaad Khan (L) and Ruhul Amin were killed in August
The use of drones to kill UK citizens abroad is being legally challenged by two Green Party parliamentarians.
Earlier this month, David Cameron announced an RAF-operated drone had killed two Britons linked to so-called Islamic State in Syria, describing the action as an "act of self defence".
MP Caroline Lucas and Baroness Jones have now sought permission for a judicial review of the policy, claiming that "targeted killing" is unlawful.
It costs to campaign for good causes,help pay phone bills,travel cards,petrol,printing,legal stuff,tools,getting
equipment for squatting,projects and direct action.
Funds help the networking of the many projects,communities,squats,actions,and solutions. u read about on this blog.
Funds are very low to keep the show rolling
Donate now to plant the seeds of a brighter future in the sands of time...... take action for a better future every day Keep Networking ......Many thanks Phoenix
HARVEST FESTIVAL at Grow Heathrow this Saturday, from 12. Clay pizza oven turning out pizza for the masses. Workshops in yoga, meditation,massage, herbal remedy making, bio-char + more. Six course vegan dinner featuring highlights from our own garden, fires, and live music into the night with our homemade sound system
Rents in England are almost half of tenants’ average take-home pay, according to an official report on the state of the country’s housing.
Figures in the latest English Housing Survey, based on research in 2013-14, show that tenants paid an average of 47% of their net income in rent, while those who had taken out a mortgage faced repayments equal to 23% of their earnings after tax.
The report, which is the most comprehensive snapshot of England’s housing stock and how people are living in it, also showed that once housing benefit is stripped out of income, average rents are now more than half of average gross pay.
Nearly 113,000 council homes could be sold off across England to help finance the government’s controversial plans to extend the right-to-buy scheme, according to analysis from Shelter.
Shelter looked at how many homes in each area would have to be sold if the thresholds for selling were set as has been suggested. If, as has been suggested, the prices were set at a regional level, unaffordable towns such as Oxford could be set the same thresholds as places such as Hastings where property is much cheaper.
In London, it seems that one-bedroom homes worth more than £340,000 would be sold, while in the north-east the sale would be forced on a one-bedroom property worth more than £80,000.
In Kensington and Chelsea it found that 97% of the council housing stock could be sold when it becomes vacant, in Cambridge nearly half, , and nearly a fifth of that in York.
The London borough of Camden would also be among the most affected, with more than 11,700 homes eventually facing a forced sale – almost half of the total council housing stock there.
Bailiffs line up at the estate. Image: Sweets Way Resists
This morning, at around 8am, the occupiers, squatters and remaining residents at the Sweets Way estate in Barnet, north London, woke to find the area fenced off and crawling with bailiffs and police. Ambulances stood waiting nearby as the bailiffs prepared to execute a mass eviction, co-orchestrated by Barnet council, the Metropolitan police and developer Annington Homes, which plans to redevelop the site into new flats once the remaining occupiers clear out.
Since this morning, squatters and housing protesters have resisted the bailiffs and police officers as they smashed through fences and attempted to force the occupiers to leave.
I spoke to Cat Denby, one of the occupiers and the campaign's media contact, who told me that bailiffs smashed their way through a glass door in one of the houses while Denby and a fellow occupier pushed their faces against it. Denby says that the bailiffs told the pair to "take responsibility for your actions" as they smashed the glass.
The story of the incident has been backed up by a London Live reporter, who reported during a midday broadcast that he saw "a couple of protesters with bloodied faces walking away". Denby tweeted this photo of the incident:
As bailiffs pushed forward into the estate, some protesters occupied the roofs of the houses while others threw food and supplies up to them. In response, the bailiffs brought in cherrypickers to bring them down again. This video apparently shows bailiffs carrying a protester they removed from a roof.
Residents of a north London housing estate are facing ongoing violence as High Court enforcement officers armed with heavy battering rams and sledgehammers, attempt to evict them from their homes, so the estate can be redeveloped.
Bailiffs arrived a 08:00 BST on Wednesday morning and have been trying to evict the last 100 residents of the estate ever since. Many residents have barricaded themselves into their houses or have climbed onto rooftops to avoid officers.
High court enforcement officers armed with sledgehammers and battering rams battled to evict more than 100 people from the Sweets Way housing estate in north London so that a developer controlled by the private equity baron Guy Hands can redevelop the site.
There were violent clashes between court officers, police and protesters as a judge ordered the repossession of the home of the last tenant living on the former Ministry of Defence housing site in Whetstone. The action left a disabled father of four, Mostafa Aliverdipour, facing eviction. Late on Wednesday, protesters erected barricades around his house.
Hossein Aliverdipour, 21, Mostafa’s son, said the Barnet council’s housing arm would not offer a replacement home suitable for his father’s disability. “He is a full-time wheelchair user and the doors aren’t wide enough for it. It is a three-storey house and there is no downstairs bathroom for him,” he said. “If they can do this to a disabled man, imagine what they can do to a normal family.” Mostafa Aliverdipour’s case is expected to be heard in court on Wednesday afternoon.
The confrontations came six months after the estate was occupied by housing activists protesting against the eviction of several families, many of whom had been homeless. Annington Homes plans to build 282 properties on the site, 80% of which will be for private sale. The dispute over the future of the properties came to national attention when Russell Brand joined a protest sleepover at the occupied homes. Sweets Way has since become a focus for national campaigners concerned over the lack of affordable housing.
The sign-up page for this initiative is being hosted by Red Pepper on behalf of an ad hoc network currently in formation. Organisations are listed for identification purposes, and don't necessarily imply agreed organisational backing.
