Lindsey German on housing, Labour venality and how anti-imperialism defends itself

It’s hard to imagine what goes through the heads of Labour MPs who are supposed to represent working people. The Bethnal Green and Stepney MP Rushanara Ali is a case in point. She resigned as minister for homelessness last week, when it emerged that she had evicted tenants and then raised the rent on her property by hundreds of pounds. What part of her job as a minister supposed to deal with the housing crisis did she think was compatible with this? Did she realise that a Labour MP should not be profiting from being a landlord? Perhaps she didn’t think about the possibility of homelessness for her erstwhile tenants?

Or perhaps she – like many Labour MPs – thinks it’s ok to be a landlord and to live off the exploitation of her tenants. Because that is exactly how the system works. Ali should resign as an MP and allow a by-election. She’s unlikely to do that but either way she’s toast. She only clung onto her seat by a tiny margin last year in an area which traditionally would pile up a big majority for Labour. There seems little chance she could hope to do so after this.

This is not about one woman, however. Many MPs are landlords, and any attempt to limit the excesses of private landlords through parliament has been delayed or dismissed by this highly effective lobby of already extremely privileged people who will not give up any of their wealth. Shockingly, there are more landlords among Labour MPs than Tories. A total of 83 MPs earn rental income, which is 13% of the total and includes four cabinet ministers. There can be no justification for this. MPs’ salaries are well over double the average wage, even higher when the many expenses are included.

More importantly, housing should be a right not a privilege. After 40 years of ‘right to buy’ massive wealth has been transferred from the public sector in housing to the private sector. More than 4 in 10 former council houses are now owned by private landlords and 100,000 such homes have been lost in the past ten years. This is a direct transfer to the greedy from the needy and has resulted in a new generation of private slums. Rents are sky high, often amounting to 50% of earnings. People are pushed further and further out from where they work, meaning longer and more costly commutes. House buying becomes impossible for many workers, but their condition as renters is almost completely unprotected. This contributes to the levels of insecurity many workers feel.

Council housing is hardly built any more. The laughable levels of ‘affordable housing’ being built by private developers do nothing to even dent the housing crisis. Those developers prioritise larger houses on the edge of towns which are unavailable to many, have few if any local amenities and which are environmentally unsound.  

This Labour government is encouraging these developments and allowing the developers to ignore previous restrictions on building. Angela Rayner has even declared war on allotments. It would have been hard to imagine such a right wing, tone deaf, petty, Labour government which is so obsequious to the rich and powerful and so determined to be so at the expense of its own base. But here we are, with it carrying out policies even the Tories would have blanched at. It only shows how much the elite – and these MPs for the most part are within that elite – has contempt for working-class people and how determined it is to ride roughshod over our rights and priorities.

The gap between rich and poor is wider than ever. Poverty is at huge levels with 4.5 million children living in poverty. That successive governments only make this worse is now impacting on politics with the rise of the far right, the decline of the two main parties and the enthusiasm for a new left party. The housing crisis is fuelling the right and its demonstrations against asylum seekers, who are completely demonised over this question, while the landlords and developers are given a free pass.

Ali’s situation demonstrates the rottenness of Labour and its contempt for ordinary people. The new left party cannot accept such politics. None of its political representatives should be landlords, and that should be made clear at its outset, as should policies including repeal of right to buy, rent controls, secure tenancies, ending evictions and mass building of council homes. Several people on Saturday’s Palestine demo discussed what’s happening with the new left party. One thing that should definitely happen is that it takes a clear stand that we expect better standards from our MPs and councillors, and that they are there to represent us, not the other way round.

Action on Palestine isn’t a crime

Another massive demonstration for Palestine in London on Saturday. Around 300,000 people on the streets of London at two weeks’ notice in August is a major testament to the horror of the situation but also to the strength of the movement here in Britain. It has been met with growing repression at every level. The proscription of Palestine Action last month has been the latest in those, following numerous arrests and charges, including those of four leaders of the Palestine coalition that organises the demos. The Parliament Square protest organised by Defend our Juries in opposition to the ban was met with policing that saw the arrests of nearly 500 people for simply holding placards in defence of Palestine Action.

The whole operation makes the police and Yvette Cooper look extremely foolish. Proscribing such a group under the terrorism laws is a travesty, makes a mockery of what terrorism actually is, and tries to criminalise protesters who are carrying out non-violent direct action. This would have included the Greenham Common women, the Suffragettes (of whom Cooper is supposedly a big fan), and peace campaigners throughout the last half century. Now we see placard-carrying vicars, doctors, pensioners, all arrested for supposed terrorism offences. It would be ludicrous if it were not so dangerous a use of state power. We should all oppose the ban and show solidarity with those arrested, as I made clear in my speech on Saturday.  

The energy on the march was electric with people determined to keep organising. Every week new people are brought into the movement. Across the world we have been inspired by the mass protests – on Sydney Harbour Bridge last week, in Portugal on Saturday, Greece on Sunday. Mass demos have a knock-on effect: they inspire and help organise local and sectional activity and they both give voice to and create new forms of organising. The pots and pans demos are now a regular feature. The Jewish bloc has created a powerful voice to counter those of the Zionists. The health workers have highlighted the plight of those trying to care for the sick and injured in Gaza. There shouldn’t be a counter position between the different parts of the movement. We can support different protests without being part of them, or even if we disagree over tactics, in the face of police repression. There is no doubt that repression is stepping up, fully endorsed by a Labour government. The best way to deal with that is political campaigning plus a determination to use the most militant and effective tactics to win. We will not let the police stop us from protesting over a genocide. This is an authoritarian government supporting a genocidal state and that cannot stand.

This week: I will be mobilising for the next Palestine demo in High Wycombe, part of the military machine, and planning some key activities for what is going to be a very busy September. I’ve been reading Jack Byrne’s Liverpool-set novel Burning Down the House (Northodox Press) about a death in police custody, which I very much enjoyed. Also listening to last week’s BBC Radio 3 Composer of the Week, about Dmitry Shostakovich. It’s on BBC Sounds and I found the history and the music compelling.