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'We Put the Emergency Brake on the Runaway Train' ‘We put the Emergency Brake on the Runaway Train’. Politicised community resistance to exclusionary regeneration in Haringey, London Author: Megan McDermott (11723262) Supervisor: Dr. Polly Pallister Wilkins. Second reader: Dr. David Laws. June 2018. MA: Conflict Resolution and Governance. Graduate School of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam. Word count: 29,400 1 Conflict is the essential core of a free and open society. If one were to project the democratic way of life in the form of a musical score, its major theme would be the harmony of dissonance. - Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals. ******* Acknowledgments. To the people of Haringey for opening their doors and minds to me. To Dr. Polly Pallister Wilkins for bringing me to this case and being so energised by its story. To Dr. David Laws for his advice and patience with us all. To Dr. Michelle Parlevliet for bringing alive for me the centrality of socioeconomic rights. To my mother for transferring via years of osmosis an excitement for sensible urban planning. To Nicky and Alice for being my home away from home. Go raibh mile maith agaibh go léir. ******* Cover artwork: View of Broadwater Farm estate in Haringey. Kindly contributed by Inga Bystram, Broadwater Farm resident. 2 Table of contents. Maps of Haringey ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5 List of interviewees and affiliations ……………………………………………………………………………………… 6 List of Persons mentioned …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 8 List of organisations and groups mentioned ………………………………………………………………………… 8 1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 10 1.2. Organisation of thesis and research questions …..…………………………………………………………. 11 2. Background ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 12 2.1. The democratic deficit in UK local councils …………………………………………………………..………. 12 2.2. The ‘depoliticisation’ of local councils …………………………………………………………………………… 13 2.3. A shortage of housing and social housing ………..……………………………………………………………. 14 2.4 The managed decline of council estates …………………………………………………………………………. 14 2.5. The demunicipalization of council housing ………………………………………………………………….…15 2.6. Stock transfers as an example of demunicipalization ……………………………………………………...15 2.7. Council estate demolition ……………………………………………………………………………………………..16 2.8. An ideological policy of central government ……………………………………………………………….... 17 2.9. A lack of options for local councils ………………………………………………………………………………... 18 2.10. London’s housing activism ………………………………………………………………………………………… 19 3. Defining Stop-HDV as a social movement ………………………………………………………………………… 21 4. Structural challenges to the anti-HDV movement …………………………………………………………….. 22 5. Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 23 5.1 Political mediation ……………………………………………………………………………….……………………… 23 5.2. Strategic Networking ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 24 5.3. Framing …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 25 5.4.Summary of theories and their connection .….…………….…………………………………………………. 26 6. Research Design ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 27 6.1. Why a case study? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 27 6.2. Why this case? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 28 3 6.3. Research method: interviews and observation ……………………………………………………………. 29 6.4. Ethics and limitations ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 31 7. Introduction to case ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 32 7.1. Activist’s description of case ………………………………………………………………………………………… 33 7.2. Barriers to the campaign outlined ………………………………………………………………………………... 38 7.3. Politics as a strategy: Engaging political opportunities ………………………………………………….. 41 7.4. Summary …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 43 8. Analysis ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 44 Chapter 1: Political but not party political …………………………………………………………………………… 44 1.1. Structuring the campaign to attract a certain network ……………………………………………... 44 1.2. United behind Corbyn: a politically mediated frame ………………………………………………... 47 1.3. Broad network providing protection from criticism ……………………..………………………….. 48 1.4. Harmony at the expense of debate ………………………………………………………………………….. 49 1.5. Summary ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 50 Chapter 2 : Keeping politics grounded in the community ……………………………………………………... 51 2.1. Importance of community involvement ………………………………………………………………….. 51 2.2. Challenges to affected population involvement ……………………………………………………….. 52 2.3. Examples of potential for local involvement …………………………………………………………… 53 2.4. Strategies for involvement ………………………………………………………………………………… 54 2.4.1. Ambassadors of the community……………………………………………………………………..……… 54 2.4.2. Dissemination of social justice language ……………………………………………………………….. 54 2.5. Uncovering the political reality …………………………………………………………………………….. 56 2.6. Mutual dependence of political and non-political campaign elements ……………………… 58 2.7. Political dangers of a single issue campaign ……………………………………………………………. 61 2.8. Summary ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 63 Chapter 3: Broadening the impact of Stop-HDV …………………………………………………………………… 64 3.1. Mistaken for Momentum: A hindrance or a boost? …………………………………………………. 64 3.2. Networking via the campaign ………………………………………………………………………………... 65 3.3. Networking via political allies ………………………………………………………………………………. 67 3.4 Challenging the narrative ………………………………………………………………………………………. 70 3.5. Challenging the question ………………………………………………………………………………………. 71 3.6. Challenging the image …………………………………………………………………………………………… 72 3.7 Summary ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 80 9. Conclusions ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 80 9.1. Relevance of research ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 80 9.2. Summary of findings and lessons learned ……………………………………………………………………... 80 4 9.3. Potential future research ……………………………………………………………………………………………... 82 9.4. Reflection and closing remarks …………………………………………………………………………………….. 83 10. Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 85 Map of election wards in Haringey. 5 List of interviewees Florence Allaway - Stop HDV campaigner - Labour Party member - Social housing tenant Paul Burnham - Member of the Socialist Workers Party. - Secretary of Haringey Defend Council Housing. - Former housing officer. - Council tenant. - Formerly worked in the engineering union. Alison Davey - Member of Northumberland Park Decides. - Former children and family social worker. - Organises a weekly community cook-up and housing consultation for local residents in need. - Private home owner in Northumberland Park ward. Simon Hester - Member of the Socialist Workers Party. - Member of Unite trade union - Member of Haringey Defend Council Housing. Sue Hughes - Stop-HDV campaigner - Labour Party member Dave Morris - Secretary of Haringey Federation of Residents Associations. - Defendant in 10 year libel case concerning a campaign against McDonalds which became the longest running libel case in English history. Paul Nicholson - Retired reverend. - Founder of Tax Payers Against Poverty, a protest movement against council taxation of benefits. 6 - commissioned the Minimum Income Standards research from the Family Budget Unity in 1999 which was used by UNISON and London Citizens to persuade Ken Livingstone, as Mayor of London, to introduce the London Living Wage. Gordon Peters - Stop-HDV campaigner who took a judicial review against the HDV. - Former member of the Green Party. - Retired social services director. - Chair of the older people’s reference group, a mechanism for the voice of frail elderly into the council and the health service. - Formerly taught Social Policy at University of West London for social workers and community organisers Phil Rose - Member of the Labour Party. - Former Chair of Haringey Momentum. - Retired Housing officer. - Member of Unite trade union. - Works with homelessness organisation - Degree in Social Policy Gemma Short - Secretary of Haringey Momentum. - Member of socialist movement Workers Liberty - Member of Hornsey and Wood Green Grassroots Left in West Haringey. Franklin Thomas - Member of Northumberland Park Decides. - Council tenant on Northumberland Park estate. Doug Thorpe - Member of London-based Radical Housing Network. - Member of Haringey Defend Council Housing Natasha Sivanandan. - Stop-HDV campaigner - Social justice activist Joy Wallice - Stop HDV Campaigner - Recent Labour Party member - Social housing tenant 7 List of persons mentioned Jeremy Corbyn - Labour Party leader since 2015. Sadiq Kahn - Current Mayor of London. Labour Party. Claire Kober - Ex Labour Party Councillor. Former leader of Haringey Council. Boris Johnson - Former Mayor of London. Conservatives. Alan Strickland - Ex Labour Party Councillor. Former Cabinet member for regeneration and housing for Haringey Council. John Lansman - Founder of Momentum and recent appointee to the Labour Party National Executive Committee. List of groups and organisations mentioned Stop-HDV. - Community based campaign against the Haringey Development Vehicle regeneration project. National Momentum. - A grassroots movement set up to support the leadership and socialist vision of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the face of internal dissatisfaction in the Labour Party after Corbyn’s 2015 election. Originally open to members of any political party and later restricted to Labour Party members. Haringey Labour Momentum. - Haringey’s branch of Momentum. 8 Haringey Defend Council Housing. - Haringey branch of
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