The right to the city
The radical campaigning charity War On Want hosted an inspiring event on November 7th in London which drew attention to a topic that should be of great interest to supporters of Left Unity: the Right to the City. The leading
urban geographer David Harvey defined this as *’far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a right to change ourselves by changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather than an individual right since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective power to reshape the processes of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights*.’
What this means in practice is that buildings should no longer be left vacant whilst tens of thousands of people are left homeless, that everyone should be able to decide how our community, including our schools, hospitals and transport systems, are run and developed, and that all of us should have the opportunity to live in housing that is affordable, secure and that we control regardless of tenure.
A number of speakers including S’bu Zikodeof the shack-dwellers movement in South Africa, London housing activist Izzie Counihan, who is facing the prospect of eviction in Brent, and a number of radical academics, spoke of the increasingly desperate plight of those excluded from access to housing, jobs and public services all across the world (including, obviously, here in the UK), and also of the inspiring movement which is beginning to coalesce around the demand for the right to the city.
What a great deal of the contributions, especially those from the floor, made clear is that there is an urgent need for a political voice to articulate these demands. In building Left Unity we must seek to engage with those many thousands of activists here and elsewhere who are doing heroic and inspiring work combating the increasing attempts to privatise and enclose the city. We must engage with these activists not because we believe that we have all the answers but because we recognise that we have a great deal to learn from and about such struggles.
Richard Willmsden
More information can be found on the War On Want campaign website<http://waronwant.org/righttothecity/index.html>
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One response to “The right to the city”
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it was great to meet you again at this event, Richard, and really glad you wrote it up here. Like you I think this initiative is worth Left Unity’ members’ support and involvement not least because it’s aims echo principles much discussed here, of connecting issues and campaigns and standing together. It was a really inspiring and well planned event although sadly marred by the lack of accessibility. I arrived to find a friend who’s a wheelchair user waiting outside on a chilly night as a makeshift ramp was being assembled. Although both the wheelchair and it’s user are light a hefty push was still needed from behind because the ramp was pretty steep. It was great that wine was laid on, but I know many friends who would not have ventured out because there was no accessible loo on site, or might have come but would have foregone any drinks for 4 or more hours because there are no loos on buses etc. The organisers saw their mistake and I’ m sure they won’t repeat it – particularly if more disabled people get involved, which I strongly hope to see. for me, the segregation of disabled people from non-disabled so-called ‘society’ has surely got to be a major part of why we need to take back our cities: As you say, The Right to the City is all about ACCESS – access to urban resources, jobs, housing etc. All disabled people are de facto experts /survivors here, and not just in terms of the physical barriers such as those mentioned above.
On a more positive note, the event attracted people from a wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds and age groups which many political meetings fail to do. All in all this new campaign is very well worth supporting and I look forward to the next event.