Council chamber direct action

Submitted by Matthew on 2 March, 2011 - 3:34

Following previous actions in Islington, Lambeth and Lewisham, London activists have taken more direct action against council meetings as councillors of all main parties push on with passing cuts budgets.

In Haringey, activists stormed a council meeting on Thursday 24 February, forcing council business to be suspended and councillors to leave the chamber. The council eventually manage to conclude its business, passing a budget including £34 million of cuts. Labour councillor Sheila Peacock claimed it “broke [her] heart” to pass the cuts, but clearly the situation was not heartbreaking enough to motivate her to act or vote against them. Local press reports of the action have shamelessly focused on the traumatic effect the action may have had on councillors and the police rather than on the devastating effects the cuts will have on local working-class communities.

In Camden, activists took control of a section of Euston Road after they were denied entry to the council chamber. As Camden’s Labour council pressed ahead with making £100 million cuts, the police and security guards put Camden Town Hall on Judd Street on effective lock-down. Following a protest by a delegation from Camden United Against Cuts (which had been allowed inside), the meeting was suspended and some activists were let in.

A heavy presence by police and support officers prevented an occupation of Brent town hall on Monday 28 February as the council set its cuts budget. Activists shouted “let us in!” as police barred all but a small number from entry.

Protesters at an action in Newham report that cops beat a 14-year old activist as the Labour council made nearly £50 million of cuts.

Spineless Labour councillors have desperately attempted to jump on the anti-cuts bandwagon, claiming that their sympathy is with the protesters but they have no choice but to make cuts. If this were true, one might imagine that letting those protesters into their meetings to scrutinise the process by which they are making these cuts they have no choice in might be a reasonable request, but even that is an act too far for the poor dears.

The recent wave of direct action directed against councils’ budget setting meetings has been met with an increasingly heavy-handed response by police and council authorities. While this kind of lightning-strike action will not stop cuts by itself, it will send a clear message to councils that activists will not limit themselves to polite lobbying.

Councillors are taking direct action against our jobs and services; taking direct action against their meetings is the very least we can do in response.

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