Stop Banking on Genocide!

by New Worker correspondent

Activists from Palestine Solidarity Campaign branches in Camden and Islington marched from Camden Town to the Sadler's Wells Theatre in Islington, North London, to call on the theatre to stop taking sponsorship from Barclays Bank while a very small counter-demonstration of around ten Zionists was largely ignored by the public. Last weekend’s protest was part of the ongoing Boycott Barclays campaign which has targeted the bank for its major lending, investment and business interests which help to support the Israeli economy and its powerful military machine. The campaign slogans are "Stop Banking on Genocide – Stop Banking on Apartheid". Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign stated "We do not have anything against the theatre, other than their sponsorship from Barclays". The date of the protest was changed at the request of the theatre as many disabled visitors were expected on the original date.

Remembering Michael Collins in London

By New Worker correspondent

Over 100 people turned up to see a new plaque commemorating Michael Collins, the Irish revolutionary, soldier and politician, being unveiled in Islington, north London, last month,
to mark the spot where Michael Collins joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in 1909.
There was a huge turn out in north London, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as well as the Mayor of the County of Cork Frank O’Flynn, and the deputy Lord Mayor of Cork City Colette Finn. 
Collins spent a third of his life in London, and it was at 2 Barnsbury Road Islington, a minute away from Islington Town Hall and then the site of Barnsbury Hall, that he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1909.
Pictured here after the unveiling are Aengus Connoly O'Malley, a descendant of Collins, Mayor of Islington Gary Heather, and Kaya Comer-Schwartz, leader of Islington Council. The plaque installation was organised organised jointly by the Terence MacSwiney Committee and Islington Council.
Following the unveiling there was a buffet at Islington Town Hall, and a celebration of Collins' life at the London Irish Centre in Camden, will Irish dancing, music, talks and slide shows.

Corbyn joins housing protest

 by New Worker correspondent

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was one of 30 campaigners who took part in a protest outside Pentonville Prison last week. The protest targeted a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) decision to sell off two blocks of 28 flats formerly used to house prison staff.
    In his capacity as the local MP, he said: “The Ministry of Justice is selling off a group of properties at the back of Pentonville Prison. The council, quite correctly, tried to buy them in order to house local people in housing need.”
    Their particular objection is that the developer, LGP Wellington Mews Ltd, has submitted several applications for a Certificates of Lawfulness for Existing Use or Development (CLEUD), which would excuse it meeting a target of 50 per cent of the homes on the site being rented at so-called affordable rates.
    Islington Council was close to a deal with the MoJ in 2019 to acquire the flats, used as temporary accommodation for those in desperate need of homes, but this fell through. Now Corbyn says: “The Ministry of Justice upped the price and prevented Islington from doing that. So what are we doing? We’re demonstrating outside those places to say to the MoJ and everybody else: let us solve the housing crisis by filling the empty homes with people that need them.”
    Unsurprisingly this claim was rejected by the MoJ, who insisted they were put out on the open market and that they were not trying to blackmail the council.
    Private ‘affordable housing’ is of course nothing of the sort. On Monday, a search of local estate agents for one-bedroom flats had nothing under £500,000.