Speaking out against social cleansing in Barnet

Kieran Crowe of Barnet Left Unity reports on campaigning against evictions in north London.

West Hendon Estate is a quiet, smallish working class neighbourhood on the old A5 Roman road in what would most definitely be classed as Outer London. It’s not a political hotbed and not the sort of place people ordinarily march on a meeting held by their MP – but then you don’t ordinarily get told you have not much over a year before your homes are demolished and there is no clarity on what, if anything, is being offered to secure your future.

Organised via a Facebook group, Our West Hendon, a group of a few dozen residents and supporters – diverse in race and age but many of them just kids on the estate who’d been enjoying the sunny Friday afternoon – gathered together as a delegation to confront Hendon’s current Tory MP, Matthew Offord, at what was supposedly an open meeting in a nearby church hall. There were hand-painted placards, a cardboard coffin “for the death of the community” and some enthusiastic young school boys leading the chanting: “Whose homes? Our homes! Whose future? Our future!”

Curiously, when the march arrived at the church, the MP was not only reluctant to come out and say a few words to the people, but seemed to think people had misunderstood the ‘public’ nature of the meeting – leading him to get an opposition member of Barnet council physically removed from it. He proceeded to spend almost two hours holed up in a small meeting behind a wall of police officers, while entirely peaceful (and not very scary) demonstrators outside sang and made speeches. Some of the young ones were asked what worried them about losing the estate, and the words of one small boy brought it right home: “I’ll miss my friends. This is the second time this has happened to me, I’ve been here for three years and it’s great…”

This is the reality of eviction, and the way that children in today’s London – with its dysfunctional housing market, absurd prices and grasping institutions – are having to grow up. Unless you are one of the declining population fortunate enough to buy, you simply can’t promise your kids that they’ll be in the same street, the same school or in extreme cases the same town next year.

Eventually, Matthew Offord ran into a police van, apparently terrified that he might have to speak to one of the defenceless kids outside. But the stage is set for a confrontation at the local elections. The Tories, having signed off on the astonishing package of super-privatisation of local services that was ‘One Barnet’ last year, are now in the position of having to defend their council seats. The housing demonstration may have been small in itself, but it is part of a much wider increase in progressive political action the borough has seen in recent years. Left Unity is standing a candidate in the local elections, and the Barnet Alliance for Public Services has launched its ABC (‘Anyone But Conservatives!’) campaign to try and flip the results for the opposition.

Read more at barnetalliance.org