#focus e15

[revolutionarycommunist-ne-blog]

Sweets Way takes to the streets Social housing, not social cleansing!

[demandthefuture]

Demand #21: Reproductive Justice For All!

Guest demand by Feminist Fightback

Reproductive justice consists of the social conditions necessary for people to enjoy the freedom to “have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and healthy environments” (SisterSong). As UK-based intersectional anticapitalist feminists in solidarity with the SisterSong Women of Colour Reproductive Justice collective in the USA, we in Feminist Fightback demand: reproductive justice for all.

There has recently been a significant increase in the number of anti-choice pickets occurring outside abortion clinics, with picketers becoming increasingly aggressive.  Earlier this week, Lord Bates, a Conservative member of the House of Lords, suggested that immigration needed to be decreased, as migrant women were having ‘too many’ babies. In London, a group of single women with children, the Focus E15 Mothers, are defending their right to stay in social housing near their friends and support networks, as Newham council wants to ‘re-house’ some of them as far away as Sunderland.

When we speak about reproductive rights in the UK, we generally talk about a woman’s right to ‘choose’.  But while access to abortion on the NHS is still clearly very important, ‘the right to choose’ is inadequate to address the situation of migrant women subjected to racist and sexist attacks by the government, or low-income single mothers fighting to stay in their communities. What women (and other people who can bear children, but may not identify as women) need is reproductive justice.

While the phrase “reproductive justice” itself is relatively new, dating from the 1990s, in both the US and UK, racialized women, low-income women, disabled women, and their allies have long supported the need to legalise abortion while also challenging the limitations of focusing exclusively on the ‘right to choose’. Reproductive justice places the ‘right to choose’ within the wider social context in which choices are being made. It asks us to think about the conditions necessary for genuine reproductive autonomy, and the intersecting systems of oppression that pervade our lives, preventing these conditions from being realised.  It asks us to consider why some women have more options than others, and why some babies are seen as more ‘valuable’.  

Conditions necessary for reproductive justice might include (but are not limited to):

●     Free abortion on demand for anyone, without the need for doctors’ signatures, everywhere in the UK, including Northern Ireland.

●     Access to contraception, abortion and ante-natal, peri-natal and post-natal care for ALL people, regardless of immigration status.

●     A welfare state that provides adequate financial support for all parents and children, with extra support provided for children and parents with special needs.

●     A fully public and well-funded NHS to ensure free, excellent, reproductive health care for all.

●     An end to immigration detention, which is especially difficult and detrimental for children and pregnant women

●     Adequate training for all medical personnel on the reproductive health needs of trans* people, intersex people, and any other non-binary people.

●     An end to all ideologies and policies that paint some children and parents as ‘less valuable’ or less capable of making ‘good choices’ than others; obvious examples would be capitalism, sexism, racism, ableism, homophobia, trans*phobia, and xenophobia.

These are by no means the only conditions. What would you add?  

[waxyslittlesister]

Newham Mayor sees red at woman campaigning for homeless single mothers

Newham Mayor sees red at woman campaigning for homeless single mothers

  One of London’s most powerful town hall bosses has been censured for his “disrespectful” behaviour towards campaigners for more affordable housing.

Labour Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales, was found to have breached the borough’s code of conduct when he lost his temper after being approached at a show in East Ham last summer.

A YouTube video of the incident shows the red-faced 60-year-old…

View On WordPress

[southlondonrcg]

We have just been in Newham at Bridge House housing office with Focus E15 campaign supporting Candice & her daughter who was made homeless whilst Newham tried to bribe her to move to Liverpool and out of London or face further homelessness. This is the reality of living in Labour party council where the poor are treated like how many on the left claim is only possible through "Tory" (conservative) policy. This is how capitalism works, this is how Labour work. The campaign went into Bridge House - despite the physical resistance of the security guards - to meet with the council. Finally the council backed down with the support of Focus E15 to 'find' Candice a 2 bed flat in Canning town. Unbelievable! But an unbelievable victory for Candice, the campaign and all! Onwards comrades!

[gracelaand]

[gracelaand]

[freespeechradionews]

New Post has been published on FSRN

New Post has been published on http://fsrn.org/2014/10/low-income-mothers-and-children-in-london-end-occupation-of-empty-public-housing/

Low income mothers and children in London end occupation of empty public housing

A battle over affordable housing in London drew to a close this week when a group of young mothers who had occupied a section of empty public housing left the building after signing an agreement with authorities. The group occupied the building in protest, demanding more public housing in London. The occupation reflected a trend across London, where rents have increased dramatically in recent years, forcing thousands of poor families out of the city. FSRN’s Sam Cowie reports.

Download Audio

The group of 29 young mothers left the property near London’s Olympic Park earlier this week after reaching an agreement with a local court. All have been rehoused locally. They formed the campaign group Focus E15 after receiving eviction notices from a local mother and baby hostel of the same name. Their aim, they say, is to draw attention to London’s rapid gentrification which is forcing poorer families out of the city.

For nearly three weeks, the group occupied an empty block of public housing on the Carpenters Estate – a low income community in Newham, East London. Long marked for demolition, today the majority of the residents have been re-located, leaving more than 600 empty public housing units.

Twenty year-old Jasmin Stone was one of the occupiers. Born and bred in East London, she says that she is being priced out of the borough.

“When the Olympics came to London, Newham council promised that it would benefit the local population – that there would be more housing and more activities – but for whom?” she asks. “Not the local working class people, just the super-rich.”

Jasmin says she living in a local mother and baby hostel with her young daughter when she received an eviction notice. When she asked about relocation options, she says she was told that she would have to move more than 200 miles away.

London rents have increased dramatically in recent years with average prices rising by 21 percent since 2010, according to LSL Property Services. At the same time, construction of public housing has all but halted and housing benefits have been severely cut.

Newham, one of London’s poorest boroughs, has been one of the worst affected. It currently has a public housing deficit of 24,000 homes. Meanwhile, Newham council recently approved the construction of 3000 private homes.

Twenty year old Sam Middleton, who was with Stone in the mother and baby hostel, says it’s outrageous to move people out of London while boarding up and abandoning public housing in good condition.

“They say there’s an acute housing crisis, but there really isn’t,” according to Middleton. “If you walk around this estate, you can’t even count how many homes are boarded up.”

It is widely speculated that politically-connected developers have plans for the property near London’s 2012 Olympic park. Newham council members have said that it is too expensive to redevelop the estate for public housing purposes.

Ayeesha Taylor is an advocate with the Focus E15 campaign and has been working housing issues around East London for the last twenty years. She says the selling off of public housing units forces poorer families into the unregulated private renters market and away from support networks – like relatives who can watch their children while they work.

“People are being forced into the private rental sector and rents are going up and up,” says Taylor. “Landlords are evicting people to get in new tenants that will pay higher prices. And so those people, especially if they’ve got children are extremely vulnerable.”

Following the eviction, Newham Council – the local authority – said they will open up forty of the empty lots on Carpenters Estate for families in need of housing. The mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales, also publicly apologized to the mothers, admitting that were badly treated.

The Focus E15 Group says they will continue their campaign to save the Carpenters Estate from demolition and to demand more public housing across London.