Save Our Square E17

Today we launch the next stage of the Save our Square campaign
This fight is only getting started and we can win!
As Save Our Square chair Nancy Taaffe has written: “If you didn’t already know, that disgrace of a politician, Sadiq Khan, sanctioned the monster block plans today ”

“Save Our Square met tonight and we will be issuing a press release tomorrow as an official response to the news. The one thing we need to tell people is that we will fight for every blade of grass in that square, and we will resist all forms of social cleansing“.

“Let your first act of defiance to this bad news be joining us on Saturday at 2pm in the square at the Save Our Trees event. Please get involved in the fightback against mass displacement and social cleansing. It ain’t over…”.

Upcoming events

This Saturday’s Save the Trees event
Meet in the Square at 2pm, 24 March. If you can, bring a message and some ribbon to tie to a tree. But if you can’t there will be loads of ribbons, paper and pens available. Why not write a message to the mayor, council leader or the developers about why we are protesting? Take a photo. Let’s hit social media too. And let’s make it clear that we are not going away!

Next open organising meeting
Tuesday 27 March, 7.30pm, William Morris community centre, Greenleaf Road, E17 6QQ
Come along and bring your ideas. We will discuss all the next steps. Decisions are normally taken by consensus. Some great ideas came up for us to explore including how to target Capital and Regional the developer, a focus on elections, an appeal to art teachers to have a ‘save our trees’ poster competition. Join the discussion – and the action!

Public meeting – how can this campaign win
Thursday 5 April, 7.30pm
Harmony Hall, Truro Road, E17 7BY
Chaired by Nancy Taaffe, Save Our Square committee
Speakers:

  • David Gardiner, Save Our Square committee
  • Sam Mason, Walthamstow South Labour Party
  • Theo Sharieff, SOS youth campaigns officer
  • Melissa Freidberg and Joy Wallace, Stop HDV in Haringey

Please circulate this leaflet

Save Our Square fundraiser 12 April
Rose and Crown, details tbc

SOS hustings
We agreed last night to have a hustings for all High Street candidates. We are looking for a venue for the week commencing Monday 23 April. Details tbc

Campaign strategies

Sadiq Khan has lobbed this right back into the council and Capital and Regional’s court. Pressure must be applied to the council to reverse the planning permission which they have the power to do and to C&R to pull out.

Council can stop this – let’s use election period
We have heard that all canvassers are getting on the doorstep is this. There is rage in Walthamstow that this is being imposed against our will. We therefore agreed to:
Write to all candidates asking them very direct questions so we can establish who is on the side of Sadiq Khan and the billionaires and developers and who is on the side of the families and young people in housing need in Waltham Forest. We will publish the list and consider no answer as the same as supporting the development.

We will also host a hustings for all High Street candidates which will include Clare Coghill, council leader and chief proponent of the campaign

Unite the London tribes against the London clearances
We agreed to make a call out to all the land, housing, gentrification and regeneration campaigns in London to appeal for a joint demo on City Hall. Please consider yourself a representative of this campaign and speak to anyone you know that is relevant to this! We will discuss the responses we get next week.

Pressure on Capital and Regional
On 14 March SOS campaigners were blocked by security from delivering a letter to C&R. we will come back to discussing whether to call a follow up mass action at next week’s meeting – come and join in the debate!

Expose the Mayor
Outrageously Sadiq Khan has claimed that his sanctioning of the development was based on his listening to local people! This is a lie! He is claiming that because we have concerns about affordable housing he has slightly reduced the number that are unaffordable from 80% to 70%! And there are still no homes for social rents, and the attack on our public space, trees, skyline, etc, continues. It reminded us that when he stood for election he said: ‘I welcome the fact that we have got 140-plus billionaires in London; that’s a good thing. I welcome the fact that there are more than 400,000 millionaires; that’s a good thing.’

He agreed to meet campaigners but then ignored all attempts to follow up. He has previously indicated that he would support Jeremy Corbyn’s enormously popular call for referendums on regeneration but this gives the lie to that! And the Labour council officers won’t even let us have a petition calling for a local referendum. It means the local election are our only vote on this block. Please click here for a ‘no one voted for this Sadiq’ image that can be shared on social media.

Ask Stella what she thinks
Here is the link to Stella Creasy MP’s latest email. But what does she actually think? Why not ask her?

Architects and planning students
Last night we were delighted to welcome architects and planning students into the campaign who had some great ideas for raising awareness of what alternatives are possible to this scheme. More on that as we discuss with them.

What you can do:

  • Involve every group, everyone – please share the posts on the Facebook page and cascade all the info here to friends, family, neighbours, workmates, vague acquaintances, etc!
  • Contact RMT members – we want to discuss with them about the plans for the tube
  • Activities
    • Join in if you can
      • Monday 5pm at Walthamstow Central
      • Tuesday 7.30am at the bus station
      • Wednesday lunch time – meet at ????
    • Or do your own by collecting leaflets from:
      • Rose and Crown Pub, 53 Hoe St, E17 4SA on leaflet table
      • Today Bread, 6-10 Central Parade, Hoe St E17 4RT in leaflets corner
      • Star of India, 875. Leytonstone High Road, E11 1HR
  • To donate to our Fighting Fund please go to https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/adrian-stannard 
  • Please follow us @SaveSquareE17
  • Please bring this model motion to your trade union, trades council, Labour meeting or other labour movement bodies