Continued from Page L While the tenants of these buildings assume that they are on a housing list, many of them are sot, nor ever will be. They only get their on the list if the welfare officer ecommends them; and they are therefore in his The tenants were understandably guarded when they spoke of Mr Bruthy and of Mr Cable, the supervisor (rent collector from the Council. Nonetheless, we heard a lot of tales about these two. We heard tell of the threats that Cable has made against the tenants who get mixed up with the squatters.
Some said that both Bruthy and Cable were reasonable men who didn't interfere with them - the women were speaking here of direct interference; it emerged, for instance, that Bruthy knew every time one of the women spent an hour or so in the pub across the road. They are pleasant enough until you cross them. It's then that you have to watch out.
Six of us (reporter, photographer, and four from Camden United Tenants' ROCKLIOn were standing outside the Buildings talking to some of the tenants, when Cable drew up in his car. The photographer ran forward.
'If you take that photo, mate, you won't be around for long'.
He took the photograph.
*If you print that photo, you'll live to regret it. And if you enter these buildings you are trespassing and will be prosecuted.
After we had been inside the Buildings, Cable re-appeared.
Who's in charge of you lot?' We said we were a group of citizens and therefore no one was in charge Well, I warn you that if you publish this photo I'll sue vou' What would he sue us for?
*For taking my photo without my permission" -and, to the photographer -You're lucky I didn't smash that camera over your head'.
One squatter described the welfare department responsible for the tenants as a "breeding ground for thugs', but their problems extend beyond the narrow world of Mr Cable and his friends. It is almost impossible for a man to get work once his employer hears where he is living. A woman who e If you ever feel exploited, victimised, rejected, study these figures and reflect upon the chances which working class girls have to get trained Apprenticeships, 1966-1967.
Males Females scienusts and technologists 9,630 Draughtsmen 17.450 Other Technicians 12,150 Clerical and Office Staff 3,150 1,410 Other Administrative Staff 3,300 Skice Craiworkers 271,650 5,430 (Source: Ministry of LabourGazette, January 1967)
Only about 7 per cent of girls CHILCE apprenticeships (predominantly hairdressing), compared with 43 per cent of boys.
In 1967, in the engineering industry, the Training hospital to have her baby finds the doctors | horrific set-ups like Council Buildings, Poplar, helpful until she reveals her address "then they go unfriendly and don't want to know any They cannot get hire purchase terms. Mrs Beresford was told in the TV rental shop that it was company policy not to instal televisions in Council Buildings.
They are regarded on all sides with disfavour. A girl from the United Tenants' Association was told by a member of Camden Council that the families living in Council Buildings aren't fit for human society. They have be re-educated before they suituable. It is not mere prejudice alone. Redbridge Council offered the empty council houses which it had to other London councils, to use for housing homeless families. Camden was one of the councils which turned the offer down, on the grounds that it had quite adequate housing to offer to its tenants.
Ilford squatters have cut through this bureaucracy and cant Three months ago they helped Mr and Mrs Beresford and their seven children to move from Council Buildings and squat at Cleveland Road, Ilford. On April 16, the Bereford family was due for eviction. At 4 am that morning, however, the Ilford Squatters evaded the possession order by moving the Beresfords into another empty house in Grosvenor Road; the Flemings, an Irish family of five, were immediately moved in, and, since a possession order applies only to a family by Redbridge Council will have to go through the legal process all over again. Nor will the council find it worthwhile so doing, Bailey suggests, because, unlike the Beresfords, the Flemings have never been the council's responsibility: to evict them would incur the obligation to rehouse them.
The Beresfords are the first family to be successfully moved by Ron Bailey and the squatters from Council Buildings, Poplar. The tenants welcome the squatters, but many are scared to become too involved. Obviously the fear of intimidation by the authorities is very real. Ron Bailey, whose name was constantly coming up as someone the tenants rely on and trust, and whom the authorities are wary of crossing, said there was one important thing that had to be done for more and more Is to go into people to squat. Which is the way to put straight out of business.
Janet Ree (This article was written before the Ilford evictions./ Late News. - Subsequently, and out of concern for the condition of Mrs Jean Montgomery Council Buildings resident whom the Council is harrying, and a group of people from the St Pancras Tenants' Association, led by Mr. Bill Wood, went down to the Council Buildings (April 19). After a long discussion, it was agreed that the residents of Buildings should form a committee, affiliated to St. Pancras TA, whose aim would be to evacuate the people living in the Buildings and to insist that these people should be found permanent homes not "temporary accomodation. Later in the evening, Mr Wood told a meeting Hackney Tenants' Federation of the decision to establish the Poplar committee. Representatives of ten estates in Hackney, reacting to the news from Poplar, proposed an immediate demonstration outside the Council Buildings. Mr Wood suggested the adoption following plan: the removal of families in the Council Buildings to decent homes where they will not be subject to jobs discrimination; the demolition of the buildings; a demonstration to be held outside Camden Council's Bidborough House. Mr Wood then proposed that the meeting of Hackney Federation adopt this statement 'We ask you to consider that the Rents battle is directly related to a system which makes people "problem cases" and then dares to condemn them for being so. It then inflicts upon them a "welfare" system which degenerates them even further, takes them from the areas in which they became homeless but had employment and puts them into hovel where there is no employment worth having. It further dares tell these people that cheap rents will enable them to buy a home when they finally leave It is only by understanding the root causes of our fight, uniting with all the victims of such a system, that we will be able to obtain security of tenure, abolition of the housing debt, and complete victory.
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WOMEN WORKERS 11 E