On Wednesday 26 June, RCG comrades and supporters demonstrated outside a public meeting of the council that has ultimate responsibility for the death of 72 people in the Grenfell fire of 14 June 2017, but has never been held to account for its criminal negligence of the local community both before and after the disaster. Two years on, there are still households from the Grenfell Tower who have not secured permanent, safe and suitable accommodation within the borough, and hundreds more from the surrounding buildings which are still not safe. The soil around Grenfell remains toxic, and homelessness across the borough is increasing – yet this is the richest council in London, with hundreds of empty homes.
The protest was addressed by speakers from the Focus E15 campaign, that fights for housing in east London, and Architects for Social Housing, who have consistently called for those complicit in turning Grenfell Tower into a death trap be held to account. Two years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the fire, hundreds of rightly angry and grief-stricken members of the community occupied the town hall, demanding justice. Since that time, no real pressure has been put on the council to meet even the most basic demands of the working class of North Kensington. We continue to demand criminal charges against the guilty, decent homes for all, and a people’s inquiry into the Grenfell Fire.
