Local traders condemn 'sham' Tottenham High Road consultation
On Thursday 28th November a delegation of traders from North Tottenham High Road West addressed the Council's cabinet meeting. They presented their 4,000-strong petition in which local people rejected the demolition of the area. The traders condemned the consultation over the future of the area as a 'sham' and said they had been lied to by the Council. They also condemned the report of the consultation that had excluded or sidelined most of the objections. They called on the Council to 'freeze this planning process and sit down to design a new Scenario, one that includes this Business Community and allows it to move forward and grow within the regeneration process, not be excluded from it.' Their powerful presentation is included below in full...
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- Published: 07 December 2013
Occupation camp against anti-squatting law at office of Finchley Tory MP Mike Freer
Mike Freer MP is a co-architect of the controversial ‘Section 144′ law that criminalises squatting in domestic properties.
On 22nd November 2013, campaigners arrived to protest and camp outside his constituency office (the Finchley building that used to be Margaret Thatcher’s office).
At first, in a PR move, he invited them off the pavement and onto the forecourt, but as many local people showed their support, and others arrived to protest, towards the end of the day he changed his mind. However, the squatters pointed out to the police that he would now need to put that in writing and to apply to a court, which he would be unable to do now before Monday morning, so the camp remains over the weekend at least.
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- Published: 24 November 2013
New pamphlet on the history of the New River
Photo: Hjuk at en.wikipedia
North London's man-made water supply, the New River, is 400 years old this year... Much has been made of its history; but it isn't well known that the New River's creation and development is intimately bound up with the growth of capitalism.
Now radical history publishers Past Tense have just produced a new pamphlet, 'Free Like Conduit Water', an updated and expanded version of our old pamphlet on the New River. Author John Tyre discusses the moral economy of water distribution in medieval London, and how the New River, in effect the first Private Finance Initiative, altered this in the interests of embryonic capitalism. Read how the River became contested between the Company and the people who lived near its banks, who subverted it for their own uses...
'Free Like Conduit Water' also includes a long walk down the River's length in London, including trespasses where Thames Water won't let you and me go and relates it to the radical history and present of some of the areas it passes through, from enclosure riots on Enfield Chase, through squatting on the North Circular, arson and rebellion in Tottenham, speakers corners in Finsbury Park, to disorderly open spaces in Clerkenwell.
'Free Like Conduit Water' is available for £5 plus £1.50 P&P from past tense, c/o 56a Info Shop, 56 Crampton Street, London SE17 3AE, (cheques payable to 'past tense publications'), or from the publications page at www.past-tense.org.uk.
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- Published: 11 November 2013
HSG's Totally Indypendent autumn newsletter hits the streets
The latest issue of Haringey Solidarity Group's newsletter, Totally Indypendent, is now out, with articles about Tottenham 'regeneration' (including the new Costa Fortune in Seven Sisters), the implications of cuts to legal aid and much more.
You can download a link from our website, just click on the link in the Newsletter side panel, but if you would like a hard copy sent, then This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
And if you like what you read, we'll be on the streets, handing them out, every weekend in the next month, so come and join us: keep an eye out on our Facebook page to find out where we'll be. Or sign up to our email list to find out how you can get more involved with helping to distribute it.
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- Published: 28 October 2013
Zombie Disco HSG fundraiser, Fri 25 Oct 8pm-3am
ZOMBIE DISCO fundraiser, with bands and DJs playing the deadest beats
at the Silver Bullet, 5 Station Place, Finsbury Park, N4
Friday 25 October - free before 8pm, £5 / £3 (concs) after. Music and bar til 3am.
Tube: Finsbury Park is 1 min walk.
Buses: 4, 19, 24, 106, 153, 210, 236, 253, 254 259, 279, W3, W7
FEATURING:
THE KEMISTRY - Straight out of London's live underground scene, with soul-laced melodies, poetic lyrics, unaccountable twists and a sound that no one can really pin point, not even the band. See the video of their collaboration with Abiade The Lynx 'ALT' and their track Untitled Ballad. www.thekemistry.co.uk
THE WAILING BANSHEES - music from the British Isles, Ireland and beyond: blood-red reels, ghoulish jigs, and songs to raise the dead.
LOATHSOME WAYS - bluesy soul music inspired by Prince, Wanda Jackson and Tom Waits. https://soundcloud.com/loathsome-ways
PLUS
- the best Zombie DJs to make your flesh creep and get you re-animated on the dancefloor.
- Zombie dress-up and dance-off with prizes
- Zombie pinata!
DRESS CODE: None - the Zombie Disco is welcome to everyone, whatever the apparent mortality status.
All proceeds will go to Haringey Solidarity Group, to support community action around housing issues, and Tottenham-based Mary Ann Johnson Housing Co-op (MAJ) who are trying to raise a cool £90k in loanstock to affordably and securely house their members.
Put it in your diary - you'll be thrilled you came... Or indicate your attendance via the Facebook event link.
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- Published: 06 October 2013
No to workfare at Homebase - Harringay and Willesden joint protests, Sun 22 Sep, 1pm
Haringey Solidarity Group are calling for people to join a picket outside the Harringay Homebase following recent confirmation that the Willesden branch of Homebase continue to recruit unpaid workers via their local Job Centre. This is despite earlier statements from Homebase stating that they would only take on people on work experience through local organisations, and where claimants were under no threat of sanction
Join us at: Harringay Homebase, Arena Retail Park, Green Lanes, N4 1DT. Just by the bridge on Green Lanes. Buses: 29, 141, 341. Tube: Manor House. or one minute walk from Harringay Green Lanes overground. (Facebook event is here)
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- Published: 17 September 2013
Haringey Council: ensuring "business-led" development in Tottenham
Haringey Council has recently said that it will listen to the concerns of local traders over the ongoing 'regeneration' of Tottenham High Road, which many fear is little more gentrification. Many traders have been recently speaking out against proposed demolitions and the threat of higher rents which could close many local family businesses.
But despite Councillor Alan Strickland claiming that local businesses will have a “strong voice” in the “business steering group” - which met for the first time at the end of July - the Council has been meeting with the borough's “major” businesses for several months already – and their main concerns do not appear to be the needs of local residents.
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- Published: 21 August 2013
Benefit Cap: Resource downloads for the fight to stop this social cleansing
On 12 August 2013 the final stage of the rollout of the government's benefit cap started. The cap has been 'trialled' in Haringey and three other London boroughs, since April. In July, it then spread to areas which had low numbers of households affected. Now local authority areas with over 276 affected households will have the cap imposed: Chiefly the remaining London boroughs, along with high-rent areas in other cities around the country.
We have been fighting the cap, download our resources to use in your own local actions, read news about our local fight.
In the last few months, Haringey Solidarity Group and Haringey Housing Action Group have been getting information out to people who are likely to be affected. We've distributed over 5,000 leaflets at schools, job centres and the council's customer service centres. Now that this has gone national, we would like to encourage others, from around the country, to turn this into a national struggle.
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- Published: 15 August 2013
Justice delayed is justice denied
Saturday 3rd August marked the second anniversary of the death of Mark Duggan at the hands of armed police, and the twentieth anniversary of the death of Joy Gardner at the hands of immigration officers. At a packed public meeting at North London Community House, members of their families and others shared their stories and talked about the ongoing campaigns for justice.
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- Published: 07 August 2013
Support civil disobedience against austerity! Solidarity protest, Friday 2 August
Haringey resident Reverend Paul Nicolson is refusing to pay his council tax in protest at the cuts to council tax benefit and other government welfare 'reforms' that are making many people poorer and pushing them further into debt and poverty. He has said that “civil disobedience is morally defensible if it highlights laws which are morally indefensible”.
He has been summoned to appear for a liability order hearing on 9.30 AM on Friday 2 August at Tottenham Magistrates Court (map), where there will be a protest and to support him and a 'speak-out' for those affected by government policy to share their stories.
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- Published: 29 July 2013
