Stop Starving Gaza!

by New Worker correspondent

Last Saturday thousands joined Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) actions at over 50 locations around the country, including eight across London, and laid down pots and pans to demand our politicians take action to end Israel's starvation of Gaza. “We must keep the pressure up,” says the PSC “as we once more lay down pots and pans to represent those starved to death by Israel’s genocidal blockade and demand our politicians take action to end Israel’s starvation of Gaza. We won't stop until our government ends all complicity in Israel's genocidal violence”. 
In south London Vanessa Redgrave, the veteran campaigning actress, joined protesters demonstrating for an hour outside Lambeth town hall in Brixton for an end to the genocide and for Lambeth council to divest its pension fund of enterprises linked to the Zionist entity.  
“Tonight, local people responded powerfully to the national call from PSC to protest the genocide and Israel’s deliberate starvation of Palestinians, a horror we are all witnessing”
said Micki Loebner from the Lambeth and Southwark 4 Palestine campaign. He told the media that “ in Lambeth, we wanted to join the wave of demonstrations happening across the country and also send a clear message to Lambeth Council: stop investing pension funds in Israeli companies complicit in this genocide. They are still refusing to act.The turnout tonight, especially on such short notice, shows that ordinary people are determined to stand up for Palestine. We see the genocide, and we will keep protesting”.

Lambeth to bulldoze council estate

THE LONDON Borough of Lambeth decided on 23^rd March to demolish the Central Hill housing estate in Upper Norwood. The estate houses 2,000 residents in 450 homes built between 1966 and 1974.

Architect Rosemary Stjernstedt designed Central Hill, and the estate is famous for its integration with the natural environment and spectacular views over the city.

The council claims this demolition is for regeneration but the residents about to lose their homes say it is for gentrification and they will not be able to afford to live in the new homes that will be built there.

A battle over the regeneration project has been raging now for two years between the council and the residents, who say they are being forced out of their homes.

This battle came to a head in a public meeting on Thursday 23^rd March. The Labour-led council cabinet outlined its final proposals for Central Hill to a packed meeting room in a community centre near Stockwell. There was a heavy police presence and even children had their bags searched by security before being allowed into the meeting.

In heated exchanges, residents accused the council of being “liars” and “social cleansers”. One woman talked of the “anxiety” and “mental torture” that the council’s plans were causing residents.

But Lambeth Council denied all these claims, with its Estate Regeneration Manager claiming that it had gone “above and beyond” its legal obligations.

Residents told The Canary they felt that the councillors’ attitude towards them was “disgraceful” and that, throughout the process of regeneration, the council had never consulted them properly.

But at the end of the meeting, emotions from the residents spilled over. The council took the decision to go ahead with its plans – Central Hill estate will therefore be demolished.

Many residents were angry and many left the meeting in tears. Some called the council meeting “an utter fucking sham”, “shocking”, and said that the panel “couldn’t look us in the eye”.

Some of the residents are seeking a judicial review of the decision, claiming that the decision was made two years ago and the consultation process was a sham.

Lambeth’s housing shame

THE LONDON Borough of Lambeth, a Labour council, is planning to bulldoze an entire estate in Upper Norwood and then build new homes. These new homes will be for sale to the private sector and the council claims it will then use this revenue to build new homes for the existing tenants.

The Central Hill estate was built between 1966 and 1974, and provides more than 450 homes.

Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Housing, Matthew Bennett, claims that too many homes suffer from damp, mould and disrepair. Too many homes have problems with their drains, the kitchens and bathrooms are dilapidated and need replacing, roofs and water pipes leak. Many families are living in overcrowded conditions in homes that are just too small.

The residents, who are campaigning as Save Central Hill, claim that the council has totally neglected the estate and allowed it to fall into serious disrepair. But they say that a renovation and repair project will be much cheaper and less disruptive to their lives than demolishing the estate and replacing it with luxury homes that they will never be able to afford to live in.

Save Central Hill says that: “The people who live on the estate will lose their current homes, tenants will lose their secure tenancies and leaseholders will be forced out as the new properties will not be affordable. The community will be destroyed. The impact on the local area will also be significant as Lambeth plan to at least double the number of homes on the estate. “