Lewisham

Ledbury Estate tenants and supporters demonstrated on Sunday 17th Sept after several days with no heating. Ledbury Estate flats in Southwark have been declared unsafe due to cracks in the 13 storey towerblocks, which the tenants have been protesting about for years, and Southwark Council has told the tenants they will need to be decanted so the blocks can be repaired. The cracks are big enough to see daylight through and are a fire risk as well as a risk to the integrity of the building.

The gas has been cut off as a safety measure forcing tenants to go to shower in a nearby leisure centre and their only cooking facilities are small two-ring mini cookers. Now with the onset of colder autumn weather there is no heating for the tenants at all as the electrical power supply cannot cope with high load so no fan heaters or plug in radiators are permitted. One block has already had an overnight total power failure.

The demonstration on Saturday 24th November against the closure of A&E and Maternity wards at Lewisham Hospital drew a huge turnout of between 10,000 and 15,000 people yesterday.
Seasoned older marchers agreed it was the biggest demo in the borough since the New Cross Fire of 1981 or Lewisham’s 1977 mobilisation against the National Front.
The numbers, in pouring rain and on the same day as a demo against the ongoing atrocities in Gaza, showed massive popular feeling and determination to fight the closure.
The crowd was very local and very diverse, all the different populations of Lewisham from the local pensioners forum to small woolly-hatted girls holding placards saying “I could have died by the time the ambulance reached Woolwich” walking alongside huge numbers of NHS workers.
If the closures go ahead it would mean just one A&E would be left serving a population of 750,000 people, — a punishment for being the “wrong” type of population.

Ray Woolford is hard to avoid in local politics in Lewisham. He’s a political activist, four-time local election candidate, editor of the Lewisham Campaigner, bankroller of the local self-styled ‘revolutionary socialist’ Lewisham People Before Profit party, owner of Housemartins estate agents and former owner of the now closed Come the Revolution cafe.  We want to highlight the risks involved in working with him (and indeed, anyone associated with him), and advise everyone to give him a very wide berth. 

As the owner of Come the Revolution he
• Fired workers who joined Unite, the union
• Used threats of closing the business to get his way
• Accused workers of theft to cover up his own mismanagement
• Used the government’s workfare schemes for free labour

Report from a South London Solfed member.

On my way to work this morning I found the bus stops around New Cross bus garage swarming with police and UKBA immigration officers. I saw a man being questioned by immigration officials and surrounded by several police under the bus shelter. This was a bit weird and unnerving so I sent a mass txt out to warn people and pass on the message.

As part of the national day of action against workfare and the IWA days of action, SLSF picketed Holland and Barrett along with 20 other SF locals and others around the country. 

A heavy security presence in Lewisham Shopping Centre was outwitted when protesters moved down the road to Catford where a noisy demonstration began outside the local Holland & Barrett.  The store closed as 20+ SLSF and comrades chanted, sang and dished out leaflets.  Many people passing supported the need to take action against forced labour, particularly in a borough which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. 

After an hour the store was partially opened but few customers entered. Protesters vowed to keep coming back until Holland &  Barrett reject workfare in all it’s insidious forms and pay their staff a proper wage.

On November 30th, South London Solfed set out to support the strike in Lewisham. Members and friends got together with food, drink and positive energy for the pickets. We started at the town hall at 7am and moved north through the borough stopping at Kaleidoscope (NHS), Job Centre Plus, Lewisham Hospital, Wearside refuse centre and Goldsmiths college.

As well as bringing supplies, we helped leaflet and tried convincing workers not to cross picket lines. We found few union members willing to challenge their colleagues in a meaningful way. Having a group of 30 supporting picket lines boosted visibility and confidence, but workers will have to become more active in their workplaces to make the real difference. We hope that as this struggle goes on the social stigma attached to scabbing returns and we see stronger picket lines.

On 19th February 700 people marched through Lewisham to protest against local and national austerity measures. The “Carnival Against Cuts” had starting points all over the borough which converged at the Town Hall and marched to the centre of Lewisham. Despite the rain there was a good atmosphere with a samba band, singing, chanting and even SolFed members in wigs! The usual speeches were made by the usual people but 700 people on a Lewisham protest is not usual. It’s a positive sign but much more needs to be done.

South London SolFed leaflet produced for the event:

STRIKE, BLOCKADE, SABOTAGE!

At 5 pm on Sat 5th feb, a group of about 30-50 local people, including members of SolFed and other local anarchists, occupied New Cross library. Initially this had been part of a national ‘read in’, supporting threatened libraries across the country, but developed into an occupation as participants decided to stay.

As the only occupation out of 450 read-ins, New Cross got a good amount of press. This was more or less the aim; getting publicity for the libraries campaign and keeping up the momentum of the anti-cuts movement in general.  As one optimistic campaigner, James Holland, put it; “I think with this occupation we are going to take the libraries campaign – and the anti-cuts campaign in general – to a whole new level.”

Inspired by the recent student protests and angry about proposed local cuts, people in Lewisham stormed the town hall where a vote on the cuts was taking place. Around 100 people tried to force their way into the building in an attempt to stop the vote going ahead. Some protestors got to the council chamber whilst others faced police brutality in the lobby, where batons and fists rained down on the protest. After half an hour, the protestors were ejected from the building. The meeting was subsequently held in private where the first wave of cuts were passed by the Labour-run council.

The lobby at the town hall continued outside where several hundred people faced riot police, horses and dogs. There were so many officers that the south circular road outside the town hall was closed due to the number of police cars and vans.

On the 29th November, Lewisham held its full council meeting to agree its first tranche of cuts, involving over 400 job losses, cuts to services and the closure of a children's centre. Not yet agreed were proposals to close five libraries.