Grenfell: two years on – where’s the justice?
Two years after the Grenfell fire of 14 June 2017, delays and inaction continue. Survivors of the fire, families of the 72 people killed and the wider community of north Kensington are still being consistently failed by the state and the local Kensington and Chelsea council.
The Grenfell Inquiry chair, Martin Moore-Bick, has once again delayed publication of his report into the first phase of the inquiry. Originally due out in spring, it will now not appear before October. The inquiry itself will not resume until next year, and the police say they do not anticipate bringing any criminal charges until 2021 at the earliest. After two years, a dozen families have still not been offered new permanent accommodation – and the inadequacies of working class housing in the borough have barely been addressed.
At the 14 May monthly Grenfell Silent Walk, a loud cry of ‘No justice, no peace!’ rang out at the closing rally. At the end of the 14 April Silent Walk a local man spoke eloquently about the frustration that has been felt in the heavy shadow of the fire and accompanying failures of the state, and was loudly applauded. There is a deep anger still simmering in the community in the face of justice continually postponed.
The RCG continues to stand with those demanding justice. To mark two years of council inaction over the Grenfell fire and its aftermath, we have once again called a protest outside Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall, on Wednesday 26 June at 6pm. We demand criminal charges now against all those individuals and companies complicit in the failures that led to the Grenfell fire, and secure, affordable, decent homes for all. Join us.
Fred Carlton
One year of Newham’s new Labour Mayor: plus ça change…
On 7 May, East London RCG joined Focus E15 campaigners and residents of temporary accommodation block Brimstone House in Newham on a protest outside the council building, and inside the public gallery, to hold Labour Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz to account.
Last May, Fiaz was elected in place of the hated Robin Wales, promising her priorities would be: ‘addressing poverty, tackling inequality and sharing economic prosperity’. A year on, her words ring hollow, especially with residents from Brimstone House – a council hell-hole with overcrowded rooms and no end to their supposedly ‘temporary’ stay – and those decanted from the Carpenters Estate over ten years ago who still see their flats lying empty and no right of return as promised.
Newham Council recently released its estimate of costs for the Carpenters Estate – conveniently it argues that full refurbishment to bring the council estate back into use would be £70m, versus demolition of all blocks £17m. These figures are contested by Architects for Social Housing, who have proved that refurbishment is always cheaper than demolition.
Fiaz has attempted to sugar the pill, saying 50% of all new-build homes would be ‘genuinely affordable’, which as we know is a slippery term that can mean anything up to 80% of market rent. The only answer must be refurbishment, bringing hundreds of council homes back into use. Fiaz says that tackling the housing crisis is her priority and has boasted that 200 council homes were begun in Newham in the last year. This is a drop in the ocean in a borough which had 26,000 households on the council housing waiting list in 2018 – the highest figure in London.
The RCG will continue to fight with the Focus E15 campaign for decent housing for the working class in Newham. For details of our street stalls and campaign meetings, see p15.
Hannah Caller
Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! 270 June/July 2019
