Creative Forum

We would like to invite you to the OPEN FORUM ON SPECULATION,HOUSING,LAND AND CIVIL / SOCIAL RIGHTS.

The event is organised by London Social Forum as part of international
support for World Habitat Day on Monday 2nd October 2006.

Housing and Land Rights Campaign

DIVIDED CITY
Sunday 1st October
12.30pm - 6pm
Limehouse Townhall
646 Commercial Road
London E14 7HA

Admission free but Donations are most welcome to cover costs.

The Programme:

12.00 Doors Open Food and Refreshments

12.30 Key Note Panel Discussion
Doreen Massey (Open University) London as Financial Hub
Ana Sugranyes (Habitat International Coalition) Social Impacts on Habitat
Sebastian Mueller (Dortmund University) Impacts of privatisation and
speculation
Fred Harrison (Land Research Trust) The Property Bubble
Open discussion

14.00 Privatisation, Development and Large-Scale Speculation
Chris Shirley Smith (Independent Water Consultant) - Thames Water
Speaker from WDM (tbc)
Martin Slavin (Journalist) - Impact of 2012 Olympics on London
Knut Unger - European global investments
Open Discussion

14.45 Workshops
- The Lea Valley, impact of the Olympics, Gentrification and Displacement
- Networking on Housing Rights and Finance

15.45 Workshops
- London Effect on Property Markets
- A Right to Land

16.45 Open Forum (including ) :
- Introduction to Urban Watch and Mapping (Citymine(d), NodeL), L-Atlas,
Cartograhy of Resistance, Violation Database and Real Estate Corporate
Watch and Greek Initiative for the Right to the City.
- London Campaign Roundup
- The Democratic Deficit, including speakers on:
Democratic Audit (Manchester Open City) and London GLA, Sustainable
Communities Bill (Steve Shaw), Inclusive dialogue on rural inhabitants,
farmers and public lands and Perspectives from the South (Angie Balata)
and the North (Simon Fairley)

18.00 Summing Up and Close

————————–
Then afterwards at rampArt,
15-17 Rampart Street, off Commercial Road, Whitechapel, E1 2LA
http://www.rampart.co.nr/

_____Divided City, films and discussion, 7.30pm to 11pm

Network and support for the World Habitat Day of direct action on Monday 2nd
October.

Film screenings as an aftermath to ‘Divided City: an open Forum on speculation,
housing, land, civil and social rights’ at Limehouse Townhall earlier the same
day.

Featuring films from Spectacle community-led documentary;

‘2012′
about the pre-olympic bid.

‘Olympic Stories. Clay’s Lane’
Clays Lane housing co-operative, situated in the future Olympic Village in
Newham, is facing an inevitable eviction. This is the story of Clays Lane
residents and their claim for fair treatment.

‘Despite the City’
A scurrilous and irreverent investigation of the City and its colonisation of
London’s docklands. Community based video at it’s best.

>From the Free Cinema Movement;

The Vanishing Street (dir. Robert Vas, UK, 1962)
Refuge England (dir. Robert Vas, UK, 1959)
O Dreamland (dir. Lindsay Anderson, UK, 1953)
more..

Plus feature length film -

‘London’ (1994) Directed by Patrick Keiller
A travelogue of London in 1992. Concentrating on locations and issues within
London precious to the commentator, and also on the political and social events
of the time. Shot mostly as stills of the locations visited, with a very well
observed commentary.

Open Forum
Achieving Civil and Social Rights
Towards a 21st Century Constitution
Wednesday 26th July 6.30pm
D2 - Diorama Arts Centre
3-7 Euston Centre, Regents Place, London NW1 3JG

nearest tubes: Warren Street, Euston

In the present climate of a failing British state and creeping authoritarianism we need to find a way to work together as individuals and groups to transform our political culture. Recent reports indicate that both the major political parties are now considering constitutional reform, and there are even hints of support for a written constitution. We propose a series of alternative events aimed at a grassroots campaign around:

1. an inclusive written constitution that embraces the aspirations of the powerless majority and
2. a civil and social rights mobilisation in support of its terms.

You are invited to attend the launch of our Open Forum on 26th July to debate these goals, share campaign stories and help plan future events together. We hope you will be free to come and join us.

Organisers and sponsors so far include: Mark Barrett (People in Common); A World to Win; Dr Ghayasuddin Siddiqui (Muslim Parliament of Great Britain in a personal capacity), The Creative Forum.

More information: info@aworldtowin.net 07871 745258 or marknbarrett@googlemail.com

As those of you who saw Greg Palast speak at the NUJ last week will know, the recent presidential election in Mexico was marred by blatant vote rigging and Florida-style fraud.

An emergency picket outside the Mexican embassy has been organised for tomorrow, Friday July 14, from 1pm to 2pm to support the demand by social movements in Mexico to count each and every vote. These pickets are taking place in many different countries around the world.

In front of half a million supporters last Saturday, the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador formally challenged the July 2 election results, charging fraud and citing other irregularities with the electoral process.

Without a doubt, the elections were rigged to prevent the PRD from winning the elections. The Mexican ruling elite are prepared to go to any lengths to prevent Lopez Obrador from becoming the next president of Mexico.

We must protest against this attack on democratic rights. Please join the picket of the Mexican embassy tomorrow and pass this info on to anyone else you think might be interested. The Mexican Embassy is situated at 16 St George Street, Hanover Square, London W1 (nearest tube: Oxford Circus).

Letters of protest should be sent to the embassy at mexuk@easynet.co.uk - and see www.gregpalast.com and www.narconews.com for the latest news from Mexico.

Then this Saturday July 15 from 1pm to 7pm there is the Radical Activist Network conference on Latin America: Social movements fight back, at the University of London Union, Malet Street, London WC1 (nearest tube: Goodge Street).

Oscar Olivera, spokesperson for the Coalition in Defence of Water and Life in Cochabamba, Bolivia, will be speaking, as will Hilary Wainwright (Red Pepper), Andy Higginbottom (Frontline Latin America and Colombia Solidarity Campaign), Sue Branford (Latin America Bureau and War on Want) and Jorge Martin (Hands Off Venezuela).

Sessions and workshops will include: Social Movements and Left Governments, Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, Social movements in Bolivia, Brazil’s Landless movement and the continuing Zapatista revolt in Mexico. Entry by donation (£2 suggested), more info: http://www.radicalactivist.net/latinamerica

Finally, next week’s Wednesday meeting will be from 6.45pm at The Inn On the Green, 3-5 Thorpe Close (under the Westway), Portobello Green, W10 (nearest tube: Ladbroke Grove), where we will be holding the British premier of the new documentary Five Factories, about workers’ control in Venezuela, followed by a debate and social. We hope you can make this special event, more info at
http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/index.php?option=com_events&task=view_detail&Itemid=&agid=4&year=2006&month=07&day=19

Best Bolivarian wishes everyone from the London Hands Off Venezuela crew.
Via the Creative Forum list