Library occupation in Lambeth enters second week!

"An occupation of the historic Carnegie Library in Lambeth, south London is about to enter its second week, as half the libraries in the borough face closure. 

The dozens of protesters – including many children – have the support of 220 authors in their fight to keep the libraries open and their fight has made waves in the national media. The occupation began on 31 March, the day the library was scheduled to close, when a farewell party planned by the Friends of Carnegie Library refused to leave the building. 

The council's plan to turn Minet, Carnegie and Tate South Lambeth libraries into 'Healthy Living Centres' – that is, gyms – has no community support, despite a ludicrous pledge to put bookshelves in the gyms. This was actually the least popular option on the table during a shambolic consultation. 

'We keep going because we can see how many people come to the front gates of the library to support us,' said Dorothea, one of the occupiers. 'They bring food, blankets and hot water bottles because they want to be part of this. They are angry about this silly decision... All they want is to keep their library – nobody wants a gym!' 

Thanks to the brilliant news coverage of the occupation, the Lambeth Council spin machine has been forced to go into overdrive. They are calling the occupiers misguided because, they claim, the 'libraries will re-open in 2017'. But unions and the community are clear – 'libraries' in gyms, without librarians, are not libraries. As one campaigner put it: 'I have a bookshelf on my mantelpiece – that doesn't make my living room a library.' 

The council cannot even confirm if children can use these 'bookish gyms', because of the presence of gym equipment. These ridiculous plans expose a council that don't use libraries or understand what they provide for the community. When we lose our libraries we also lose the chess groups, the reading groups, dementia club, English conversation groups and many others. 

Johanna, 13, and Sarah, 12, describe how the library 'beams… with students revising, children reading and toddlers playing and taking part in activities'. 'Every Saturday there is a free chess club for all ages,' they wrote – and that continued even as the council tightened security around the occupation. 'Today chess club was being played through the bars on the steps.' 

Continuing fight 

The occupation is the latest phase of a continuing struggle by unions and the local community to defend local library provision. Strikes by the Unison union received widespread community support – despite one councillor calling them a 'disgrace' – and moves towards a council-wide ballot against job cuts have been supported by 85 per cent of union members at Lambeth council. 

There are a growing number of campaigns, protests, petitions and meetings in Lambeth, on a range of issues including gentrification and the tearing down of housing estates, the forcing out of local businesses in the railway arches, the new Garden Bridge vanity project and all the destructive and vindictive cuts coming from central government. 

Yet our council remains thoroughly Blairite, once described by Blair himself as 'more New Labour than New Labour'. Liz Kendall even came down to Brixton to launch her failed Labour leadership campaign – the only political meeting I've ever been to where someone in the audience wore Google Glasses. 

The library campaign has scored some notable successes: we saved Tate South Lambeth library, and Jane Edbrooke – the cabinet member responsible for this debacle – has been reshuffled out of her post. It has also bought to light many of the problems around Greenwich Leisure Ltd (GLL), the firm that would be running the gyms. 

GLL is a 'social enterprise' set up by former Labour councillors in Greenwich to take advantage of the privatisation of libraries and council leisure centres. Despite its alleged ethical basis, GLL extensively uses zero-hours contracts, has a two tier workforce and even planned strike-breaking in Greenwich when Unite members took strike action earlier this year against the closure of the mobile library service. 

Many local people feel that the library cuts are politically motivated. The libraries are the best-organised section of the union, and have fought off repeated restructuring attempts over the last few years. 

No need for closure 

An alternative proposal was put to the council by Susanna Barnes, head of the library service, back in early 2015, to spin the libraries off into a staff and community mutual which would keep all the jobs and all the libraries open. The council sat on it and delayed a response, before finally rejecting it last month because 'it wouldn't make the necessary savings'. The details of what revenue savings will be made through the GLL deal, however, are not public. 

The truth is many councillors seem to see this crisis as an opportunity to get their feet under the table with their own Community Trust for Carnegie. A shadowy cabal of former and current councillors are proposing to take over most of the Carnegie building – with GLL in a refurbished basement at the cost of £2 million. In the last weeks of Carnegie being officially open, librarians reported Labour councillors coming in and gloating that 'this [building] will be ours soon'. It appears the Blairite Third Way limps on in Lambeth. 

To help the campaign to save Lambeth libraries, you can join us outside Carnegie Library this Saturday (9 April) at 11.30am to march to Brixton, past Minet Library. Please tweet Jack Hopkins, the new head of neighbourhoods, @JackHopkins_Lab or email him on jhopkins@lambeth.gov.uk 

And beyond Lambeth, make use of our experiences: the united fight between the unions and the community, the strikes and occupations, the protests at every council and cabinet meeting, the linking of campaigns around housing and gentrification with local service provision. Lambeth's libraries don't have to be unique: occupations like these could be repeated across the country and help kick start a new anti-austerity movement that helps bring an end to the Tory nightmare. It can be done – it must be done."

JOBS FOR THE BOYS -

 ISN`T IT ABOUT TIME WE STOPPED THE COUNCIL GRAVY TRAIN!

MANY front-line public services in Tameside (Greater Manchester) face being cut or closed down as the council seeks to make savings of £100 million over the next four years.

Next week (Tuesday 22/2/11), the leader of Tameside Council, Kieran Quinn (pictured), will announce this year`s budget and the cuts that the council are proposing to make to public services. Already, it has been revealed in the local press that libraries and culture could be hit hard by savage cuts. The council have already announced that they are proposing to cut the culture budget by more than £3.36 million or (40%) of the total budget. Museum and countryside centres could be closed or sold off. Libraries are also facing budget cuts of £0.9 million which could see branch libraries closed and staff replaced by volunteers.

Other proposals involve cutting concessionary bus passes for children;cutting the number of lollipop ladies; reducing the number of pensioners' luncheon clubs; reviewing community centres and moving activities to schools and cutting the budget for road repairs.

Of course, over the years, while many council employees have seen their wages cut and their jobs made redundant, quite the reverse seems to have occurred when you look at the pay and allowances of the top dogs and councillors who run many of these councils. According to recent press reports, thousands of local councillors have seen their allowances soar in the last five years. Over the same period, Town Hall payouts have risen by up to 150% to a total cost of more than £200 million. Figures taken from local authority accounts also show that a substantial number of council leaders such as Richard Leese, of Manchester City council, claim more than £50,000 a year in allowances. The average councillor's allowance can now be more than £20,000 a year.

In Tameside, over £1 million a year is spent by the tax-payer on councillor's expenses and allowances. Councillors`s are even entitled to claim a £250 Broadband Allowance. Ten of the top executive officers who work for Tameside Council, earn more than £100,000 a year. The Chief Executive of the council, Steven Pleasant, tops the list with a salary of £166,929 which is over £24,000 more than the Prime Minister receives. Research undertaken by the Tax Payers' Alliance in 2007, revealed that Tameside councillor`s had the 9th highest average allowance per councillor in the country.

Last May (2010), the council enlarged its Labour cabinet system to include 12 cabinet members and 9 assistant executive members. Almost half of the Labour group of 47 members are now in paid cabinet posts with fancy titles claiming in excess of over £30,000 a year. The cost of running this cabinet system in Tameside has been steadily increasing since 2003 when £232,180 was paid out in special responsibility allowances. In 2010/11, the cost had increased to £326,859.

We should not forget that not so long ago, being a councillor was a voluntary job.  Local councillors were not paid until the 1970s. Expenses for attending meetings were introduced by the Heath government in 1972 and in 1995, the Tory government under John Major, allowed council`s to set up their own payment schemes for councillors allowances. In 2003, councillors were given another perk when they were given membership of the pension scheme for local government workers. The effect of these reforms has been to create full-time well paid fuctionaries and a culture of jobs for the boys.

At Tameside Council`s meeting on Tuesday, don't expect the leader of the council, Kieran Quinn,(his wife Susan is also a Tameside councillor) to announce in his budget speech that they will be cutting councillors allowances and expenses and the wages of the top executives in order to save public money. It is more than likely that it will be the librarian and lollipop lady who are facing the chop. While Richard Leese at Manchester City Council claims his £52,000 a year allowances, the council has just announced that it will be closing all its public toilets bar the one on Mount Street, which the public will now have to pay to use because the council says it has got no money. Perhaps if we got rid of some of these mendicants (politicians), more money could be spent on front line services.