The mantra of the right wing press in Britain is low taxation. But in reality this low taxation only really applies to the rich. Global organisations investing in large developments in London are given tax exemptions. There are many companies which pay low or no tax by using shell companies, tax havens and expensive lawyers.Continue reading “Solve the housing crisis? Tax the Rich”
Category Archives: Housing
The Domination of Capitalist Relations of Production over the Spontaneous Possibilities of Life
Did London once feel like a more proletarian city? There are still many proletarians. But where is the new working class in the new proletarian city? There are no large organised industries in manufacturing or warehousing. The public sector retains some union organisation, universities too; and transport. But there is little sign of organisation orContinue reading “The Domination of Capitalist Relations of Production over the Spontaneous Possibilities of Life”
Bon Weekend
The train from Reims to Nancy moves in a dream-like state through the French countryside. Waves of hills and hedgerows, yellow fields of rape crop, clusters of trees on the horizon, deep greens of ripening wheat and barley. There are low lying clouds and as the train hits them at speed they burst and fillContinue reading “Bon Weekend”
The Hallucinatory Nature of the Expansion of Capital
Emerging from Vauxhall station is to be switched rather rapidly from the modernism of electrical underground travel to…..what exactly? Wide six lane roads with cars moving in all directions. It is a giant conveyor belt of motorism and stretches all around the world. From the edge of the road it appears to be a swirlingContinue reading “The Hallucinatory Nature of the Expansion of Capital”
Ramsgate, the welfare state and a new born baby
Early Saturday morning. I’m talking to one of the people who works at the station. We are always comparing notes as to when we might be able to retire.‘I just want to go now’, she says, ‘I like my job, but there’s too much politics and too much unfairness’.I totally agree with her. And byContinue reading “Ramsgate, the welfare state and a new born baby”
Siedlung Schillerpark
Most of the good stuff about housing, urban topographies, planning, environments, living space has already been written. Jane Jacobs, Catherine Bauer, Christopher Alexander, Raymond Unwin, William Morris, Bruno Taut, Camillo Sitte and many others. I doubt anyone is going to improve much on that substantial mass of work. And if even 10 percent of whatContinue reading “Siedlung Schillerpark”
Pimlico, revisited
I walked through Pimlico several times earlier this year. Before more war had started. There was the brink of a new war then in those nervous days in January and early February. Threats and violations. No one was sure that it would happen. When it did, I remember thinking, ‘so this is how it starts’.Continue reading “Pimlico, revisited”
Radical St Pancras Walk – Resources
The walk started at the British Library. Not the Thatcher-ite edifice some imagine – she cut the budget so it was never completed to the original design. The British Library was built on land which was once the railway yards of St Pancras station. Those yards were created by demolishing densely packed slums. An estimatedContinue reading “Radical St Pancras Walk – Resources”
St Pancras – Labour vs Capital
At Kings Cross station militant suffragettes handed out leaflets to the crowds of football fans arriving in London for the 1908 FA Cup Final. There were sharp words at times. Local working class women joined in and said to the men that they should listen to the Suffragettes. ‘They’re the only ones who talk sense’.Continue reading “St Pancras – Labour vs Capital”
Radical St Pancras – Part 2
Friedrich Engels lived in 122 Regents Park Road from 1870 to 1895. Jenny Marx, the wife of Karl, had helped him house hunting. Jenny and Karl were frequent visitors, as were many members of the European revolutionary socialist movement. Wilhelm Liebknecht (‘Library’ as he was nick named by the Marx children), August Bebel, Karl Kautsky,Continue reading “Radical St Pancras – Part 2”
Commodity Fetishism 