local struggle continues

one of the reasons the press always want to put a limit on events because they are terrified of the boredom factor and the associated race to the next story.this is one of the distorting factors in reporting news and analysis of events anywhere in the world.

so somehow tunisia has been done,and egypt is quiet.nationally with a focus on the capital there is a media frenzy involing press,politicians and police.this is easier for them to mange as it is on their own territory they do not need to"see it"in the same way.

meanwhile the rest of us are not just sitting around.the struggle continues locally.

in my own community there has been activity late last week around local government plans to introduce substantial,steep parking charges on the strip of street of the shop and business community.whilst there might be a scattering of high street brands here these include franchises,and most of the rest are professionals,like lawyers and opticians or corner stores and/or family businesses.the recession has already led to the clsure of a number of shops not all of which have been occupied.some others are struggling,some indeed have probably always struggled.many provide goos and services directly to the community and represent its life blood.the loss of those shops would have significant impact.the introduction of parking charges would take the convenience out of shopping and would deprive these essentially local businnesses of their passing trade.it would alter and depress the public face of the community.it is obvious that some of those bussinesses are run by families who are also involved in our library campaign.the defeat of one could contribute to the defeat of the other.victory for one could have a similar effect on the other.

last night the council met to decide the fate of the physical site of our local library.it is clear that they want the pay off of the sale of this small chunk of real estate,not to reduce the cuts deficit but to contribute to their own prestige project of a new town hall.

whilst elected to represent our interests as a community,they care not at all that the loss of the library is not about money for this community but about a key element of its quality of life.the children of our nearest school will no longer have access to a library at all.there will be no more bright chatty crocodiles of young children passing by to visit the library and to learn informally about what makes our life and culture,rather than mere existence and wage slavery.lots of imaginations and talents will have one less spring of life to drink from.i hate the prospect of passing by what would become a building site for something for private profit.there would be no place for the old,the isolated to feel they stillconnect with the stream of life.but in the world of capitalist accounting none of this is efficient,and it counts for nothing.

so eager are the council for this little piece of destruction that their meeting to decide its possible sell off is taking place of the legal challenge in the royal courts of justice starting today,to challenge their earlier and appalling and entirely unimaginative so called public consultation.the community has raised over £11,000 in a matter of weeks towards the costs of this hearing.a victory might force the locala uthority to reconsider in total but would give us a toehold of victory to roll their arrogance backwards.a defeat in court,should not in my opinion be taken as the end of the road.for me it will represent a limit to reformist thinking and might well show up that at all stages in thsi campaign that we are not playing with at all fair odds.

i will argue that in a state that not only does not listen but acts wiuthout any mandate,then we too are realeased from any responsibility to their rules of the game.

we should take what is our back-by occupying and turning it into a campaigning base that can add to the life of our community.

in this we will need to draw the links with every other struggle in other enighbourhood.working people have a lot in common.we are not bound by arbitrary lines on maps

enough is enough.we should take back the fruits of our labour.that is not just wages but it is libraries and everything about the quality of our lives.

the court hearing continues today when the 6 local communities in brent who face library closure will be rebutting the defence by the local authority of its "consultation"about library cuts.

the outcome may take some time as after hearing the case,the evidence the judge takes some time to come to judgement.i,among others are aware that such hearings do not take place on equal or fair terms but making and taking every opportunity is of some importance.

several members of the campaign in this particular community have als been working on what might be regarded as afall back position of a community library run independently of the local authority and free(that is without)of local authority funding.

what shows clearly but not openly how disingenouous the current party in "power"in this local authority is the bad faith shown by the labour group.as i understand the situationbn they have legal responsibility to provide advice and assistance to community organistaions in making such applications.not only has this local authority spectacularly failed to provide such assistance but it has failed to answer enquiries from the group thus preventing them creating an adeqaute application.this has thus enabled the local authority to dismiss the alternative plan as "not robust"nor "free of local authority costs".this is plain bad faith.unfortunately it is unlikely that thisaccount wiull see the light of day in the press.it shows up the lying reformism of the labour party to the few making the application and on its periphery.it will be with difficulty that we can show up the nonsense that is reformism to the mass of the community.

come elections,severel revolutionary parties and organisations invite workers to "vote labour,without illusions".im afraid it is at least 20 years since i voted labour on any basis.mostly i "stake"my claim in the election by spoiling the ballot paper.not simply by staying at home.i have often wished i had done more either by campaigning against voting,and putting a case for another position,a lot more powerful argueing both both a radically different electoral system that goes way beyond so called electoral reform.i have even considered standing on the basis that electors should only vote for me if they will commit to taking direct action to take control of our own lives,directly and completely.

two factors are in the way-the financial cost and concern that i or anyone else would then become a target of the kind of press coverage that is now infamous and is now itself spread across the international press.

i have no illusions.the latest investigations will not clear up anything,as the problems are locked into the nature of the current decadent and rotten system.

the solution locally,nationally and internationally is only to smash and abolish it all.and then to build something better on its ruins based on the talents of the working class and others that daily surround us but are suppressed by the very nature of the capitalism that alienates us-seperating us from ourselves and each other.

i am loathe to criticise any initiatives in the community in such difficult times.we need all the allies and firepower we can get in any struggle as i hope,i argue consistently in all my posts not just about local struggles but in everything.

that said there is little point in seeking to use empty holograms.this community has long had a residents association for many,many years.its main public presence is the publications of a small regular newsletter,and a kind of casework visible to the individuals with particular needs of those particularly addected by issues.the newsletter presents an image of a committeee and perhaps a wider body which appears to in some way "mediate"netween the community and the local authority and other bodies on issues.this in turn appears to feed downwards a combination of "tinkering"reform on refusal,nothing at all.it hardly sets the community alight.some members of the association are active in the libraries and other local campaigns but it appears that the wider association prefers to distance itself from the implications of any campaign withanything like"fire in its belly"-but let me be clear that the library campaign is hardly a revolutionary front!

the latest newsletter refers to the library campaign in terms of a report back to a meeting,without reporting anything of substance.it goes on in a mystified style to talk about its own demise unless a new committee is elected in september.the current committee membership may be old,tired and burned out but without a sense of urgency or some flicker of an idea that the organisation has roots,or a record of achievement in the past and present,it is already as good as dead.we do not need to revive such a corpse but could use the organisational opportunity to seek a different kind of organisation that may well need to be mor combative and abrasive.

at the very least it should seek to link the variety of threads in the community and those organisations and campaigns already in struggle.such an organisation should not simply co-ordinate but seek to lead,and to act as an amplifier for the community so that the sum is more than the parts and in turn to seek to strengthen the individual parts.

i will be seeking to contribute to such a way forward.