OVER 1,500 people marched on Saturday to oppose Lambeth Council’s closure of five of the ten libraries in the borough. The people from Carnegie Library in Herne Hill who have been in occupation for the past ten days led the March to the centre of Brixton past Minet Library, another casualty of Lambeth’s closure programme
On Friday Lambeth County Court served them with an Interim Possession Order, pointing out that 24 hours later, occupying the building would become a criminal offence. Michaela Loebner, one of the occupiers, addressing the crowd from the library steps, insisted: ‘We can win. Our campaign continues. We are humbled by the response of so many people.
‘We are proud to be connected to the junior doctors strike. There are junior doctors on the march today. We are meeting on Thursday to plan the next step. We leave the library today but we’re confident we will soon be walking through the door having saved all 10 libraries.’
There were banners on the march including Unison branch banners from Lambeth, Southwark, and Barnet, and many placards made by local people. Ruth Cashman, Unison rep for Lambeth libraries criticised Lambeth’s closure policy, saying library workers have already taken three separate days of strike action, one unofficial, against the closures.
She said Unison library workers will be meeting on Monday (today) to decide on ‘the next strike’ and that the branch will ballot for all-out strike action.
