Campaign Statement
by noriotevictions
We oppose the threatened eviction of council tenants where they or members of their household have been associated with the unrest that has spread through the UK.
Politically motivated evictions by local authorities represent a disturbingly crude form of extra-judicial punishment.
Eviction will have a disastrous impact on family members, including young children, against whom there are no allegations of wrongdoing.
Despite attempts by certain elements to distract from this, the rioting had clear roots in poverty and exclusion – and homelessness will only foment and exacerbate these problems.
It is spiteful, and demonstrates a startling lack of maturity on the part of the Council and central government.
Rather than attempting to spread fear or further ostracise, we should be spending our time considering practical ways in which we can ensure that everyone has a stake in their communities.
We pledge to do all that we can to stop these evictions taking place.
Signed
Housing Solidarity
John Rees
Counterfire
Sophie Khan, Solicitor-Advocate and activist
Please sign the statement by leaving your name, and organisation if applicable, in the comments below.
Not content with making most of the Middle East homeless with the constant onslaught against people in their OWN COUNTRY by which you profit as ARMS DEALERS, you now wish to use the same tactics against the dissent shown for your actions. NO.
YOU HAVE NO MANDATE
Agreed.
These riots were caused by the huge inequality in UK society. Making people homeless can only exacerbate the situation.
Evictions are a spiteful, populist response that will only worsen the already insane inequality of British life.
dual punishments for the poor? THAT is a broken society, david cameron.
signed. what is the plan, though?
-DH (journalist)
Hi Dan,
It’s Justin, I’d argue to organise locally to defend communities from evictions and benefit clampdowns.
But also to argue for a positive alternative, the content of the alternative is open for debate, but starting a debate in working class/deprived communities would be a welcome start.
Solidarity!
This policy will create more violence, exacerbate inequality and punish those who need help. It’s not only cruel, it’s astonishingly stupid.
I too am against evictions of people involved, or suspected of being involved in the riots and their families. This could be any of us.
Loraine Hardy of:
Nuneaton Against The Cuts
Brilliant! About time there was something to add my name to show my utter disgust at the complete lack of sane thinking shown by every idiot who signed that e-petition!
Solidarity with the campaign
dark days. way to further fuel the resentment.
The idea of punishing a Family for the crimes of a member is something I would have thought was left to the Nazis and to my generation only a cautionary tale to read in History Books, It is more than ridiculous
James Shaw
Penryn
Whether the accused are guilty of rioting or not this is an extremely regressive way of dealing with the situation. The campaign has my full support.
thankyou for this!!
This campaign has my full support.
I agree. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
Punish the poor twice – while bankers who have looted the country millions of times more than anyone else go unpunished even once.
I support this statement! See Hackney Housing Group and Haringey Housing Action Group’s statement here – http://www.lcap.org.uk
Ellie Schling (London Coalition Against Poverty)
This madness has to be stopped right from the beginning. Thanks for setting up this campaign!
Anger breeds anger. What’s left to say?
Knee-jerk thoughtlessness. No mandate. Shameful.
Signed. Total solidarity!
Agreed. Ill thought out and short sighted but no surprise.
Apart from the vindictive nastiness of this action, which has nothing to do with justice, surely this is illegal collective punishment and must be challenged as such. Are councils able to evict the innocent families of other kinds of criminals, proven or alleged?
I support the statement!
Toivo Hartikainen
There’s so much talk of ‘mindless violence’ how about the mindful violence of making people homeless to spite them (and intimidate everyone else in the process). I feel more unsafe now I know that people are being summarily evicted, than I did last week when people were getting burned out of their homes … Any way of setting up (or joining, if there is one set up already) a fast response network to threats of riot-related evictions and benefit threats? So whenever it happens to a family we can spread the news and all turn up and make our dissent heard.
The authorities should be addressing the social problems behind these riots, not persecuting those involved.
Please keep me informed of any actions i can take to help with this campaign.
All these evictions will achieve is to worsen London’s homelessness problem, intensify the hatred and ambivalence that the disenfranchised feel towards their ‘government’ and their police forces, increase crime as people are forced to struggle to survive, and invite the the disgust of every voter in this country that realises how counterproductive and cruel this idea is.
So that’s actually quite a lot then. Way to draw the battle lines.
If you haven’t already, do please add my name
Rubbish, short termist mindset to do this. Please stop.
Thoroughly agreed.
This has to be stopped.
Sam Ambreen
Post Riot Evictions – Not In My Name http://t.co/L0ND5f1
Evicting people from their homes is only going to fuel people’s anger and divide society even more. It will split apart the rioters who live in council houses from the rioters who can’t be evicted because they are lucky enough to own their own homes. I’m sure everybody can agree that we don’t need any more division and isolation, we need to make people feel accepted and not ignored or taken for granted.
Evictions are not a solution to anything and I agree would only be spiteful and lastingly harmful to the families being targeted. I support this campaign.
talk about bolting the stable door once the horse has bolted. stupid, vindictive and inhumane policy.
We have a court system which (at least in theory…) decides appropriate action following crime. It is not up to anyone else, whether individuals or institutions, to come up with further punishments. Quite apart from the pure injustice, and the fact that it can only make underlying problems worse, this completely undermines the legal system.
It’s absolutely disgraceful to think that we would accept the eviction of innocent people from their homes. This is not a way to respond to the riots and local authorities should be ashamed of themselves. Do they really think that this is the way to build a more equal society and a sense of community in the post-riot period? Or perhaps this is just a way for them to wash their hands of what they misguidedly perceive to be the problem. As ever, tackling the route causes of injustice, particularly poverty and inequality, is getting firmly overlooked.
This statement sums up my thoughts on the ridiculous evictions of alleged rioters. Just another disgusting action from this malicous government.
We all agree it’s wrong, so what are we going to do about it?