Legal theft

POLICE in Redbridge have been conducting coordinated swoops on the resting places of the homeless, confiscating sleeping bags and food parcels that have been donated by the public.

Adam Jaskowiak was one of the men targeted and said he pleaded with police to be able to keep his things but was ignored.

He was sleeping with eight other people finding shelter for the night in the former Ilford Baths in High Road, Ilford.

All of their belongings were bundled into a police car leaving the men, one in his 60s, stunned.

A police chief told the Recorder, the local newspaper, the operation was carried out to “reduce the negative impact of rough sleepers”.

 Jaskowiak said: “They were just taking the sleeping bags and chucking out everything. I asked to keep it and the food, but they said ‘no’. I just grabbed as many of my things as possible and put them into a bag and ran.”

He had been given the sleeping bag by the Salvation Army, over the winter months after becoming homeless when his friend died.

John Clifton, corps officer at the Salvation Army, said: “I’m shocked and disgusted. Why would you take the only form of shelter someone has from them?

“We have tried to find out why they were taken and if we can get them back.”

After the raid happened on Thursday, the men went to the Refugee and Migrant Forum of East London, High Road, Ilford, for help.

Chief executive Rita Chadha said: “I am appalled because there’s no logic in this – it’s not as though if they take someone’s sleeping bag they will automatically walk into a house.

“It’s not a lifestyle choice and becoming homeless can happen to anyone.”

She also said the action will damage relations between the police and those sleeping on the streets.

Ilford Chief Inspector John Fish said: “The public rely on police to reduce the negative impact of rough sleepers, this includes the need for us to assist in the removal of temporary structures, tents, and bedding from public spaces and other inappropriate locations.”

Racist police hound whistle-blower

KEVIN Maxwell, a young gay black police officer was hounded out of the force “like an enemy of the state” for raising concerns, in private, about racist, homophobic behaviour in the force.

Last week an industrial tribunal found in his favour on at least 40 points.

In his first interview, former detective constable Kevin Maxwell told the Guardian he was sacked after raising concerns about racist and homophobic behaviour by some counter-terrorism officers.

They also picked on members of the public, subjecting them to searches based on their skin colour or nationality, which amounted to racial profiling, he said.

This week the Met lost an employment tribunal appeal against an earlier ruling, which found in Maxwell's favour on at least 40 points.

The tribunal found that Maxwell, who is black and gay, suffered multiple counts of degrading or humiliating treatment. One officer talked of gay men "taking it up the arse", and the tribunal found that one officer described a man in a photograph as being "as gay as a gay in a gay tea shop", which police colleagues greeted with laughter.

Maxwell, 35, said he had dreamed of being a police officer since the age of five, but has now been left financially ruined and suffering from severe depression, which he says was triggered by the Met ignoring his concerns and trying to punish him for raising them, even though he did so privately.

Barnet council privatises regulation

THE LONDON Borough of Barnet last week announced that it is to hand its regulation responsibilities to the private sector, according to a report from the public sector union Unison

Barnet council staff were told at a series of briefings that Capita Symonds is the preferred bidder to deliver a whole range of council regulatory services to Barnet residents and businesses.

This is the latest step in the council's plan to mass-outsource services at Barnet council. This plan – which is extremely unpopular with residents – is called One Barnet.

The services to be handed over to Capita include: Trading Standards & Licensing, Land Charges, Planning & Development, Building Control & Structures, Environmental Health, Highways Strategy, Highways Network Management, Highways Traffic & Development, Highways Transport & Regeneration, Strategic Planning & Regeneration, Hendon Cemetery & Crematoria.

Barnet Council has a number of statutory responsibilities to monitor the private sector in order to ensure the health and safety of their residents.

The recent high-profile national public-health scandal about the use of horsemeat in processed foods emphasises that private companies do not adequately monitor their own activities, leaving the public at risk. If

Barnet council is allowed to privatise these services, it will set a dangerous precedent for other councils. It has been promoting itself as an innovator for the future of public services by adopting the Commissioning Council model.

In the last 12 months, the Council has overseen a significant number of services outsourced to other providers.

John Burgess, Unison branch secretary said: “Barnet Council is making a huge mistake in handing over these critical services to the private sector.

“It is not just about the risks this brings, but what it means in term of democratic accountability. Next year, we have the local elections in May 2014. What options will there be for the electorate if all the council spend is tied up into complex contracts?

“As for all the remaining staff the message is stark: no matter how loyal you are, no matter how hard you work political dogma is dictating all services are to be outsourced. Today a number of our members have chosen to wear black armbands/ black clothing as a sign of the demise of the public sector ethos in Barnet council.”

Emily Wilding Davison centenary

 by New Worker correspondent

ON 4^TH JUNE this year it will be 100 years to the day since the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison died at Epsom racecourse after stepping out from the crowd during the Derby race in front of the King George V’s horse, Anmer.

 Last Thursday there was a memorial meeting in Bloomsbury and on 18^th April a plaque to commemorate Davison’s sacrifice to draw attention to the cause of women’s right to vote was unveiled at the race course, on the spot by Tattenham Corner from where she stepped out to her death.

The suffragettes organised a huge and dignified funeral an honour of their comrade who had sacrificed her life in the struggle for women's rights and democracy, at St George's Church in Bloomsbury.

The campaign to get a minute's silence at this year's Derby held a rally celebrating the life and struggle of Emily Davison at the very same church last on Thursday 16^th May.

 Speakers included Katherine Tupper, Emily Wilding Davison's great great niece, Emily Thornberry MP, Shadow Attorney General, Lindsey German, national convenor of Stop the War Coalition, Katherine Connelly, campaign coordinator and author of biography of Sylvia Pankhurst, Yvonne Ridley, journalist and human rights activist and others.

Davison was born in Blackheath, London, the daughter of Charles Davison and Margaret Davison. She attended Kensington High School and won a bursary to Royal Holloway College in 1891 to study literature. She took up her place in January 1892 but in 1893 she was forced to drop out when her father died and her recently widowed mother could not afford the fees of £20 a term. She then took up employment as a private governess after which she became a school teacher raising enough money to study Biology, Chemistry, English Language and Literature at St Hugh’s College.

 She obtained first-class honours in her final exams, though women were not at that time admitted to degrees at Oxford. She also obtained a first class honours degree from London University. In 1906 she joined the Women’s Social and Political Union, which was formed in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst.

Davison gained a reputation as a militant campaigner. She was arrested and imprisoned for various offences nine times, including a violent attack on a man she mistook for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George

On 2^nd April 1911, the night of the 1911 census, Davison hid in a cupboard in the Palace of Westminster overnight so that on the census form she could legitimately give her place of residence that night as the “House of Commons”. In 1999 a plaque to commemorate the event was set in place by Tony Benn MP.

No one is certain whether Davison intended to commit suicide when she stepped in front of the King’s horse at Epsom on 4^th June 1913. But she must have known she risked death or serious injury and her courage has been an inspiration to campaigners ever since.

Saving Clapham Fire Station

By New Worker Correspondent

HUNDREDS of people marched through the centre of Brixton, south London, to Lambeth Town Hall last Thursday evening (16th May) to protest at plans to close Clapham Fire Station.

And in the following public consultation meeting in the Town Hall the audience insisted on a vote that could be minuted and, in defiance of the platform, took a vote that showed the audience was unanimously opposed to the cuts.

The march was led by the Fire Brigade Union’s own fire engine, bearing the slogan: “Workers of the world unite”.

Many trade unions and the local trades council were represented, as well as Lambeth Pensioners’ Association and other local community and political groups.

And when they arrived at the Town Hall they packed in to the public hall for a consultation meeting organised by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) – one of a series of consultation meetings being held in every London borough to inform the public about the plan to close 12 London fire stations and make other cuts.

This plan was initiated by London Mayor Boris Johnson and rejected by the elected committee of the LFEPA on two occasions, with Liberal Democrat councillors voting with Labour and the Green Party against the Tories.

Nevertheless Johnson said he would ignore these votes and proceed with the plan, subject to the public consultation process.

But the people of the London Borough of Lambeth are well aware that such consultation processes are usually a sham and they were determined in this case that they would make it absolutely clear to all and sundry that they were unanimously against the plan.

The meeting began with London Fire Brigade Commissioner Ron Dobson, who tried to present the case for the cuts, arguing that over recent decades the numbers of fires and fire deaths in London has fallen.

He claimed that the closure of Clapham Fire Station would make only 30 seconds difference to the target time for the average time taken for the first fire engine to arrive at the fire after a call-out.

But the audience was having none of it. Well briefed by the FBU, they challenged all his claims. Their figures showed fire deaths in London have increased from 39 in 2008/9 to an expected 56 in 2013/14.

And average arrival times of first engines after a call-out will rise from 3.56 minutes to 7.53 minutes. And average means that many arrivals will take a good bit longer than that, especially when there is traffic congestion.

It was firefighters from Clapham Station who were first on the scene earlier this year when, in fog, a helicopter crashed into a crane on a construction site on the Thames bank, scattering burning debris and iron girders over the busy Wandsworth Road during the morning rush hour. A slower response time would have left many lives in danger in the confusion.

And in the case of serious fires or fires in tower blocks more than one fire engine is needed and hazardous rescue operations cannot begin until back-up engines have arrived.

Members of the audience asked whether equality impact assessments had been made – Lambeth is ethnically a very diverse borough but with many seriously deprived households. And poor households are statistically much more at risk of fire.

The platform referred them to long documents available from LFEPA offices. But before the meeting ended one Unison officer in the audience had used his smartphone to access the documents and challenge the platform on the inadequacies of the assessment.

And when the chair of the meeting told them it had been organised to inform the public about the planned cuts and to allow them to air opinions but not to register those opinions – he said there was as questionnaire for them to take away and fill in for that – the audience expressed doubt that the questionnaires would be noted and insisted on a vote there and then.

Ignoring the imprecations of the chair, a young woman walked to the front of the room asking all those who supported the cuts to raise their hands. No hand came up. Then she asked those opposed to the cuts to raise their hands and every hand in the room – including a couple on the platform – came up. It was unanimous.

And it was minuted and noted by the local press.