Laburnum school closed at the end of this term despite the long campaign to keep it open fought by parents, children, the board of governors, the staff and Hackney Independent. In the face of overwhelming objections from the local community, the Learning Trust (a private company set up by Labour to run Hackney’s schools), which has Labour councillors on the board, voted for closure.
FACT: Labour knew about the plans to close Laburnum before ore the local elections last year.
FACT: Local Labour councillors kept quiet about it during the election campaign and, despite assurances from at least one of them, did nothing to help the campaign to keep the school open.
FACT: Had the Labour councillor on the Learning Trust board voted against closure it would have had to be referred to the Government for a final
decision.
Contrast the do-nothing activity of our local Labour councillors with that of Hackney IWCA (Hackney Independent as of summer 2004). The postcard campaign, the campaign video, the press coverage, the open day at Haggerston Community Centre, the Laburnum School reunion and the letters of objection were all financed by Hackney Independent and organised by us together with Laburnum parents and concerned local people.
As Shaun Abrahams of the teachers’ union at the school put it, “The bulk of our support came from Hackney IWCA (Hackney Independent). Labour said they would help but it didn’t materialise”. He went on to add, “The kids are still upset and the parents were unanimous against closure. Where’s the democracy there?”.
Hackney Labour councillors may not care about what is happening to community facilities in Shoreditch but we know that local people do. Hackney Independent will continue to stick up for working class people in this area. We can’t always win, but by working together we can make it a lot harder for them to get away with things like this again. Hackney IWCA (Hackney Independent) spokesperson Carl Taylor said, “Those to blame cannot hide behind the Learning Trust. We all know that Labour closed Laburnum School
and we won’t let them forget it.”
This view of who is really to blame for the closure has also been echoed by the Learning Trust themselves. A spokesman was recently quoted in a national newspaper as saying “…they (Hackney Council) retain ultimate authority for education in the borough”.
 

You have a choice - privatisation or privatisation!

 
Tenants and residents on St Mary’s Estate are saying loud and clear to the council : we want a vote and we want a choice!
The council’s cabinet decided in June that housing management on St Mary’s and Kingsland Estates will be privatised. If our Labour councillors get their way, a private company Pinnacle will take over the management of the estates in November. The council claims to have consulted with tenants but Hackney Independent has found many on St Mary’s who didn’t know about the proposal and the majority of those who did are demanding that they be given a vote on the issue.
They are also asking to be given a real choice, including an option to remain with the council, and an informed choice at that (will Pinnacle be more expensive, for example?). What choice was Hackney Council offering? Privatisation this year... or privatisation
next year!
Hackney IWCA (Hackney Independent) has organised a petition and has been knocking on doors on St Mary’s. This is real consultation, not the sham democracy of the council.
 

CONSULTATION

Consultation is a favourite buzzword of the Labour politicians who run the Government and Hackney Council. When the authorities want to do something that’s going to affect your life they often have a “statutory obligation” to consult. This sounds democratic
enough. Be clear though, you are not being asked to vote, only to give an opinion. If it’ s the same as theirs - all well and good. If not - they just ignore it
Consultation over Laburnum School showed clearly that everyone in this community wanted the school kept open. Having “listened” to this point of view a handful of middle-class professionals and Labour councillors decided to close it anyway.
The same process is at work with the privatisation of
estate management on St Mary’s and Kingsland. At a consultation meeting at Fellows Court, 30 of the 35 people who attended wanted to be given the choice to stay with the council. Two weeks later, their obligation to consult over and done with, a small number
of Labour councillors in the Town Hall decided to give the contract to Pinnacle anyway.
Let’s be clear, consultation is not real democracy. It does not “empower” local people. It is, in fact, the exact opposite. So, the next time you’re being consulted, demand some real power; demand a vote!

 

More Light More Power

In March we started a campaign to force the council to repair street lamps in the area from Laburnum Street to Stonebridge and Haggerston estates. They have now finally fixed most of those we reported including the light on the canal bridge. We will be carrying out further night inspections in the autumn to find other unsafe areas which might be improved by having some light thrown on them, starting with Pearson Street.
We started the campaign because muggers are attracted to poorly lit areas and we know many people in this community who feel unsafe or have been mugged. And we knew the council wouldn’t do anything about it without a push.
This was something we could do to make a difference - however small.
Labour Mayor Jules Pipe has made much of the £200,000 for repairing street lighting in Shoreditch. The fact that he has made this a core plank of his anti-crime strategy shows how Labour is really only paying lip service to the wider issues of addressing crime. They are much more concerned with their real priorities of making life easier for yuppies and developers. And as they do this, they fail to serve the working class majority of Hackney.
 

“O Rose, Thou Art Sick!”Labour newsletter “a sick joke”

When Haggerston Labour councilors finally put out their newsletter I’m sure we were all itching to read it and find out what they were up to.It turns out that their biggest achievement has been to get funds to resurface PearsonStreet. While this is welcome, it is not the worst street in the Ward by any stretch – but more importantly everyone else knows that what Pearson Street needs is better lighting.These Labour councillors really have not got a clue.What was worse was their boast about how Labour have brought in millions of pounds of money to improve our schools in Hackney!This from a council that is closing three schools in Hackney this month! Hackney IWCA (Hackney Independent) Schools campaigner Peter Sutton said. “This newsletter is a sick joke at the expense of the parents, kids and staff of Laburnum School.” The Midas Touch

Hackney’s Labour councillors have their own kind of Midas Touch. The story goes that when the King Midas touched anything it turned to gold. But when our Labour coucillors touch anything it turns into private flats!
Councils have powers to say yes or no to planning applications. So when a developer wants to turn a library into luxury flats, the Council can say “no the site should be used for the community.”
Or when a developer wants to build private flats on a site, the Council can say “you have to build a mix of private flats and flats at low rents.”
The problem is that our Labour councillors don’t say “no” they say “yes, how many private flats would you like to build and would you be interested in developing on the site of any other vital community facility we have closed down?