”WE are determined not to get evicted. We are determined to fight and we are determined to get a permanent place for me and my family,’ Aminata Sellu said to cheers, as a crowd of over 40 supporters successfully drove the bailiffs away yesterday morning from her council flat in Camberwell, south London.
Bailiffs were due to evict Aminata and her family at 11am yesterday morning. Police and a bailiff turned up but after seeing the crowd of supporters they left.
Aminata continued: ‘Members of the community, members of my family and my friends, I am so proud today as we have stopped my family from becoming homeless. In this I have to thank you, I am so grateful to you today. I am a single parent and I am a care worker. Evicting a family from their home is against the basic foundation of human rights. Your home is everything. Without a home you can not do anything.
‘As we all know, evictions are something which are happening a lot in this area. So many families have become homeless. This will not be the first or the last time that we will join our hands together to stop a family from being evicted by the council.’
Joshua Ogunleye, WRP candidate for Peckham also addressed the crowd: ‘We have stopped the eviction of Aminata and her family today. We should not accept under any circumstances, working class families being treated in such a deplorable way. Not a single family must be evicted and council housing must be defended. We need a workers government to address the housing crisis and build a million new homes. We have to get the trade unions involved in this fight, take the fight into the unions to build quality council housing for all.’
Liam Sheehan from Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL) said: ‘People must be able to stay in their homes. Aminata’s daughter posted a letter online and we felt it was important to show support and come down and stop the eviction.’ Joe West said: ‘I came down to stop the eviction because people are getting turfed out for unjust reasons.’
Louise Robinson said: ‘I am here because quite a few people in this area are being evicted. This is social cleansing. That is why I have come to show support. What they do is refuse to carry out repairs and allow the building to go to wrack and ruin. Their true intention is to demolish council flats to build private.’
Frank Sweeney, WRP candidate for Hornsey and Wood Green, said: ‘The defence of council housing and the rights of tenants are one of the main issues the Workers Revolutionary Party are campaigning for in this election. Every council is trying to evict tenants and demolish council housing, replacing them with private homes and an ever smaller amount of “social housing”. There has been a good turn out here today. Tenants have come from the Aylesbury estate in Camberwell and from as far as Tower Hamlets to stop the eviction of this mother of four. The working class is sick and tired of councils assisting property developers to sell off public land and build private homes.’
Sarah Lee told News Line: ‘There is a housing crisis and it seems ridiculous to me that there are so many empty homes. Families are living happily in their homes and then they are moved out so that estates can be demolished and replaced by luxury flats.’
Carlos Castro said: ‘I have been living in Madrid and they are doing the same. They are driving working class families out. This is how capitalism works across the world.
‘Here in London more than half of what you earn goes to pay your rent!”
