To put it mildly, the world out there in 2014 has been a bit fucked. Injustice, violence, war, poverty, inequality, racism and powerful people who are either incapable of doing anything about all of this or have no interest in doing so. I refer to these things in broad terms partly because there have been so many examples, but also because others have written – and will write – on these subjects far more knowledgeably and eloquently than I can.
There have been many things which have brought heart to this heartless world for me in 2014. Some joyful live music in the form of the lovely Gruff Rhys and his American Interior gigs, the pure unmediated joy of Dexys in concert and the Manics just being intense and crazy and making me feel 17 again. Clickhole has brought much delightful silliness into my life (if you haven’t yet taken the Hey Ya quiz, you really should). Sarah Waters finally wrote another brilliant book for me to tear through in two days. And I’ve spent lots of time with brilliant, thoughtful, funny people who I can rant, dance and drink with and laugh at life’s absurdities with.
Politically, the fucked-up-ness of the world has been challenged by wonderful, committed, intelligent people and I’ve been directly or indirectly involved with three things this year that I want to just briefly give props to.
New Left Project – Contemporary City series
I joined the fantastic New Left Project collective in autumn 2013 and one of the first things I got involved with was putting together this series, which was published early in 2014. Inspired by my massive unease at the grotesque inequalities of my beloved home city London, I brought together articles on urban space and gentrification and housing activism by lots of great writers. I learned an incredible amount editing the series and it made me realise how much important stuff is being done to resist the commodification of urban space and reclaim our cities.
Radical Housing/ Focus E15/ West Hendon / New Era/ Tenants
Partly stemming from the things I’d learned during the NLP series, I got a bit more involved with some bits and pieces of housing activism this year. On a housing bus tour of North West London, part of the Radical Housing weekender, I met activists from Kilburn Unemployed Workers’ Group, and Our West Hendon, who are fighting the eviction of residents by the regeneration of their estate. The amazing Focus E15 Mothers, have been fighting a powerful campaign against evictions and housing inequality in Newham and more widely, and in September occupied an empty flat on the Carpenters Estate and set up a social centre there, which i visited. I made contact with Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth, a group of housing activists who helped me advise a student being threatened with eviction, and who do great work resisting evictions in the area. Others have been more closely involved with all these housing campaigns and written more extensively about them, but the contact I did have with all this was inspirational. The housing situation in London now is beyond critical, but thanks to the hard work being done by these groups it is becoming harder and harder to ignore.
Lambeth Strike
Earlier on this year, while working as an ESOL Lecturer at Lambeth College, I went on indefinite strike with my UCU colleagues for 5 weeks against the imposition of new contracts by management, contracts which brought in substantially worse terms and conditions for employees at the college. (This fight is part of a wider fight against the government’s attempt to screw over education and the support we got from across the sector and beyond was really quite something). Like all similar fights, it was hard work and involved a lot of daily struggle, but within all this I was reminded of the joys of activism – that is, working on a day to day level with committed and principled people, discussing and sharing ideas, and feeling part of something. As a result of the action some small concessions were offered by management. but they were not enough and the fight continues. But campaigns like the Lambeth strike create spaces for good things to happen, for people to act on their principles, share ideas, make alliances and friendships and, in itself, this is an achievement.
So here’s to more fighting in 2015 and sustaining ourselves with bits of fun and laughter and joy on the way where we can. Wishing you all a very happy, successful and fulfilling 2015. Onwards!
Faith of a saint, soul of a gambler 