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The Second Assembly and the Future Focus of the South London People’s Assembly

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The South London People’s Assembly II

The closing plenary. Still from video (http://www.southlondonpa.org/diane-abbott-paula-peters-betty-joseph-speak-at-closing-plenary-of-slpa2/)

The closing plenary. Still from video (http://www.southlondonpa.org/diane-abbott-paula-peters-betty-joseph-speak-at-closing-plenary-of-slpa2/)

The second South London People’s Assembly (SLPA), which took place on Saturday 4th October, represented a further step forward in our attempt to assist in the building of a broad-based campaign which has the power necessary to halt the government’s programme of austerity, cuts and privatisation. Despite a busy weekend of activism, the Assembly coincided with a Stop the War demonstration, over one-hundred people gathered in Lambeth Town Hall to consider and discuss, in a lively fashion, the future of anti-austerity politics in South London. A wide spectrum of community and trade union activists involved in a number of distinct yet related campaigns over housing, privatisation, disability rights, the NHS and workers’ pay and conditions were brought together by the assembly. In this way, the event worked to facilitate the transfer of experience from one cause to another, and support and encourage joint action between different groups.In-keeping with the SLPA’s open and exploratory ethos, the Assembly was addressed by a number of individuals engaged in a wide variety of types and forms of anti-austerity activity. The speakers included:

-    Romayne Phoenix, People’s Assembly Co-Chair and member of the Green Party, who outlined the origin and the purpose of the People’s Assembly initiative and the impact of austerity.

-    Roger Hutt, a Care UK striker, who spoke on the struggle of Unison workers in Doncaster to safeguard their terms and conditions.

-    Mandy Brown, of Lambeth College UCU, who spoke on the recent industrial dispute at Lambeth College.

-    Betty Joseph, a member of the National Union of Teachers National Executive, discussed the government’s education policy and opposition to it.

-    Paula Peters, of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), who discussed DPAC’s program of non-violent direct action against the government’s cuts to services.

-    Diane Abbott MP, who discussed the need to build opposition to austerity at London-wide level and transform the city into the leading edge of resistance to government cuts.

Alongside these speakers, a number of workshops were also held over the course of the day. These workshops included:

-    Young People and Austerity

-    Public Services, the NHS and Privatisation

-    Social Security: restoring the safety net

-    Planning a Living Wage Campaign

-    London’s housing crisis

-    Building the People’s Assembly in Your Area

The workshops firstly provided an opportunity for an extended discussion of the impact of austerity and the means by which it can be combatted. Just as importantly, however, during the workshops three motions on privatisation, housing and the living wage were considered. These motions provide the framework for the future political orientation and focus of the SLPA and it was therefore vital to ensure that their contents were shaped by Assembly attendees. The motions, with some amendments, were all passed shortly before the closing plenary. It is worth considering each of these motions in some detail.

Campaigning for the Living Wage in South London and Beyond

The living wage is the amount that an individual needs to earn in order to cover the basic costs of living. The living wage in London, which is calculated by the Greater London Authority, is currently set at £9.15 an hour. In contrast to the National Minimum Wage, which is set a significantly lower rate, the living wage is not statutory and therefore employers are not mandated by law to pay it. Given this, employers must be forced by other means to pay the living wage to their workers.

The strike of BECTU members at the Brixton Ritzy cinema has highlighted the importance of the issue of the living wage in South London. After a great deal of struggle and hard work, the workers have made significant gains. It is therefore important that this victory is built upon with a wider campaign, in South London and beyond, in order to ensure that all workers are paid the living wage.

In order to help to achieve this, the Assembly plans to join with existing campaigns to help unionise the Lambeth area and work alongside existing campaigns to broaden the geographical scope of this work. Furthermore, the SLPA will hold a public meeting in March about the living wage with the Living Wage Foundation.  A letter-writing campaign will be a launched in order to encourage local councils to only commission care work companies that pay the living wage to carers (while noting that care services should ideally be in-house). The SLPA will also engage in a letter writing campaign to all local MPs asking them to formally state their support for the living wage. The National People’s Assembly is to be encouraged by the SLPA to adopt this initiative at a national level.

DPAC's stall at the Assembly. By Paula Peters.

DPAC’s stall at the Assembly. By Paula Peters.

Privatisation

The privatisation of state services, begun under Thatcher during the 1980s and continued under New Labour and the Coalition, is a threat both to service users and the workforce. Although often justified in terms of ‘choice’ and ‘improving quality’, privatisation invariably means a reduction in the quality of service delivered and reduced democratic oversight and control over services. Furthermore, post-privatisation, trade union recognition may be withdrawn, working conditions changed, national agreements flouted and salaries cut. The experience of Care UK workers in Doncaster, as related by Roger Hutt to the Assembly in October, is testament to this.

Given the destructive effect of privatisation for both service users and workers, the Assembly believe that it is fundamental that government attempts to further privatise services should be resisted and reversed. Through such a process, it should be possible to safeguard, and ultimately improve, the quality of service provided and wages and conditions of public sector staff.

The SLPA will therefore undertake a number of actions which are designed to support the fight against privatisation and its effects. First, the Assembly will actively support all groups of workers taking action against privatisation or its impact on wages, contracts or working conditions.  The SLPA plans to send messages of support to workers in struggle, attend solidarity events and invite trade unionists to speak at public meetings and workplaces impacted by the government’s privatising agenda. Second, the Assembly encourages all those opposed to privatisation to join campaign groups that are committed to publicising the dangers of privatisation and combatting its implementation, such as Keep Our NHS Public and DPAC. The SLPA also plans to send observers/delegates to the national conferences of such groups.

Homes for All

Housing is the biggest issue facing most Londoners. The struggles of Focus E15 in Newham, New Era 4 All in Hoxton and the Guinness Trust AST residents in Brixton have served to highlighted this fact. The average home in London now costs more than twenty times the average wage, meaning that few can now afford to buy. An increasing number of Londoners are now living in private rented accommodation, and a third of all private renters are families. Private renters have few rights and little security of tenure. Government policy, both historically and in the present, at a national and a local level, has contributed to the housing crisis in London. The government has systematically worked encourage the growth of Buy-to-Let landlords while at the same time assaulting council housing. Council housing, which at one time provided homes for four-in-ten people, has been under siege for a number of decades, and, in the contemporary moment, we see councils increasing rents for tenants and implementing ‘regeneration’ initiatives that force people out of inner city areas.

The Assembly believes that it is fundamental that everyone should be able to live in good quality housing, there should be a halt to any attempts to further undermine council housing and a programme of council house building should be initiated, strict controls should be introduced in the private rented sector, renters should have strong security of tenure, mortgage lenders should be made to help first-time-buyers and large numbers of homes should be built by the government for first-time-buyers.

In order to begin the process of achieving these ends, the SLPA, alongside Defend Council Housing, has called for a demonstration, ‘The March for Homes’, on 31st January 2015. The purpose of this demonstration is to bring together a broad range of Londoners – from pre-existing community, trade union and tenant organisations and campaign groups as well as atomised young people and private renters – to march on City Hall. This march is being organised by the National People’s Assembly and local People’s Assemblies in conjunction with activist and campaigning groups.

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The SLPA plans, by focussing its work on these three campaigning objectives, to continue to help build the strength of the anti-austerity movement into 2015 and beyond. In this way, the conditions for the defeat of the austerity agenda may be built.


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