Greenwich council tenants: We won't pay! We won't move!

200 trade unionists, community campaigners and service users marched in Greenwich borough, south London, against the local council's brutal cuts package in 2011, photo Lorraine Dardis (Click to enlarge)

Around 20 people met in Eltham on 20 August in response to a letter from Greenwich council threatening 22,000 Greenwich council residents with a rent increase in April 2017. The council has indicated that it will implement the housing act, including 'pay to stay'. This means that those in council housing in London earning over Ł40,000 a year will have to pay market rents.

Nancy Taaffe, a housing campaigner and Socialist Party member, spoke about the need for a mass campaign like the poll tax. When 18 million refused to pay the tax, which was eventually beaten. She pointed to the campaigns in London at Fred Wigg and John Walsh Towers and Butterfields as models we can use to fight this attack on council and social housing.

It was agreed at the meeting that we would hold a demonstration on 10 September marching from Archery Road in Eltham at 11.30am to Woolwich to kick start the campaign.

Greenwich Socialist Party

Donate to the Socialist Party

Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.

Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.

We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to click here to donate to our Fighting Fund.