Letters

The centre reached out to the community as the bailiffs came knocking

The time was ripe for community campaigns to act (Photo: SUTRNewham/Facebook)

The Hibiscus Caribbean Elderly Association (HCEA) is a community centre that has been serving the needs of a much neglected sector in Newham, east London, since 1994. 

Earlier this year, it was threatened with closure due to unpaid bills. 

Expecting the bailiffs any time, members started to sleep overnight on a Thursday in May and reached out to the community. 

Newham Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) and the local London Renters Union (LRU) branch got on the case. 

On the following Monday at 6am bailiffs arrived. But LRU members who had joined the sleepover were ready for them. Newham SUTR members rushed over.  

As the day went on, more support came. A gazebo was provided and food. 

Emails and calls were flying to councillors. At 4.30pm the email from newly-elected Labour mayor Forhad Hussain came, announcing that the London Borough of Newham was suspending the eviction action and was inviting HCEA to a meeting. Victory. 

Cliff, HCEA’s elderly staff member, addressed a meeting of 28 of us inside the centre after four nights with little sleep spent protecting the centre. 

Determined to ensure HCEA continues, supporters planned to be at the meeting with the council and get numbers to lobby outside the meeting. 

We discussed ideas to escalate the action—maybe hold a public meeting, a fundraiser, get press coverage and mobilise others. 

Newham is one of the London boroughs where Labour’s decades-long rule is over. Newham Independents and the Green Party between them now hold the majority. Maryland ward, where HCEA is located, has new Green councillors. 

Many of us had given up on trying to influence the old council. 

But this feels like a time ripe for community campaigns to act. 

Miriam Scharf, east London

Unions take on Reform

Writing in The Guardian newspaper recently, Owen Jones presented a horrifying picture of what a Reform UK government would look like.

It is a prospect that is becoming more and more likely.

Our side will face the biggest challenge in our history with a far right government controlling a centralised state, backed up by a far right street movement coming for each and every one of us.

But Jones underplayed the resistance to a Reform UK government. He didn’t mention the trade unions who Reform UK will try to ban from striking.

A Reform UK government will see the union leaders enfeebled, caught between protecting their organisations and bloated salaries and respecting the elected government.

From below, the union leaders will have to be pushed and pulled kicking and screaming into taking the lead, pulling behind them all of Reform UK’s opponents.

Within the unions we should be raising the demand now that on day one of a Reform UK government the trade unions should call a general strike.

John Curtis, Ipswich

Lee Jeans sit-in showed women’s great resolve

This year is the 45th anniversary of the Lee Jeans Factory Occupation in Greenock, Scotland.

It is a timely reminder of the support given to the Lee Jeans workers, mostly women, by the good folk of the Highlands.

The workers occupied the factory when the American owners decided to move the plant.

The owners had not taken into account the formidable and committed resolve of the workforce and of union rep Helen Monaghan.

At the time a small branch of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) was active in Easter Ross in the Highlands. The branch arranged for a delegation from Lee Jeans to come to hold a collection outside the gates of the Nigg Oil Rig Construction site.

They raised over £3,000 in today’s money.

The young women then went on to hold a collection at Ardersier Oil Rig Construction site.

They had great difficulty sleeping at night as they had never had cows mooing outside their windows before—well worth the trip though!

Lorne Anton, the Scottish Borders

Reform’s dry spell

It’s barely the summer, but 37 years of privatisation has left Kent bereft of water. People’s taps are running dry.

Green Party councillors on Kent County Council recently brought forward a detailed plan for combating the emergency.

But rather than address it, the Reform UK council majority opted for interminable discussion on reciting the Lord’s Prayer and singing God Save the King at every meeting instead.

This is a warning of what Reform UK will bring.

John Murphy, Kent