A success story in community self-defence for London

Now a year old, LCAP are still expanding

The London Coalition Against Poverty, based mainly in Hackney and Haringey, has just passed its first anniversary, and the mood is upbeat.

(From Freedom, Issue 6904, early 2008)

Not only have LCAP continued to attract members and support from around the inner-city area for their campaigns, but as of March 2nd, Edinburgh is setting up its own parallel initiative - ECAP.

Alongside this expansion the group, which has a dozen core members and claims several times that in active supporters, is instigating training days in its methods for anyone who wants to get active.

The training days are the result of a long and arduous process for the group, which spent nearly six months in the planning stages and has seen members effectively training themselves and each other in the six months since.

LCAP, which is organised on libertarian lines, focuses on using direct action to back up vulnerable people who are being let down by the state, taking on case work primarily from the London boroughs' homeless population.

Jane, an activist with the group, said: "We've concentrated on Hackney, leafleting outside the homeless person's unit and offering help. The borough hasn't provided enough space and people are being turned away, even though they have a right to be housed, so the department can meet their targets.

"Direct action tactics are what we are about and the cases we take on tend to reflect that. At the minute tactics might begin with writing letters, demanding to see their manager and generally pressuring people to adhere to their responsibilities.

"It's not a revolution but it's a growing campaign and we think it's working well for the homeless, empowering people to assert their rights."

LCAP has taken a strongly consultative approach to its activities, asking homeless people not just for their stories but their suggestions. Matt, an LCAP member, said: "The nature of the ideas and needs of the people we have come into contact with has definitely helped to shape our development - it's all very well us sitting in meetings and coming up with ideas based on our politics, but once you actually talk to people about what they want you are bound to come to some different conclusions.

"We believe in self organisation by the people directly affected by poverty, and direct action backed up by demands based on people's real needs. Direct action casework is an important part of this - it's one of the things that separates us from both mainstream advice agencies and lefty campaign groups."

LCAP are looking towards widening their scope as their size grows, with both lobbying work and training on the agenda.

"Recently we have been going to the soup kitchens, asking people about their experiences in conjunction with North London Action For The Homeless." Jane explained.

"One of the ideas is to get the council to pass a motion accepting that 'gatekeeping' (the practice of knocking people off the homeless register to meet targets) is unlawful and that they won't do it.

"We don't think that will change things, but we do think we can then use that motion as a weapon, both to publicise the issue and when pressuring them in future.

Matt also listed some of the other issues LCAP have recently been involved in: "Like all activist groups we are limited by our numbers and resources, so we can't get involved in everything we'd like to. Also I can't talk about all our upcoming projects because we don't want to tip our targets off too early.

"However some of us who live in Haringey are involved in a local project with Haringey Solidarity Group to provide support around debt issues, this has included a debt advice surgery and leafleting.

"LCAP has also made links with a broad-based grouping called London Citizens (including trade unions, and church groups) that is campaigning for genuinely affordable housing, and we have supported the "Justice for Cleaners" campaign.

"We were also involved in a last minute mobilisation to prevent Westminster council proposing making the distribution of free food (soup kitchens etc) illegal - they seem to have dropped that threat for now, following an extensive letter writing campaign, and a demo outside the meeting that discussed it."

Using the skills built up over the last few months, LCAP are also starting to do outreach work in the form of training days, helping people to learn about the complex issues surrounding homelessness and poverty.

Some of the lessons they are now passing on are more than just legal, they include a social element – for example when it was suggested by a homeless person that meetings and even fundraisers be held in 'dry' venues, to help any recovering alcoholics who are involved to stay on the wagon.

Training days are though going to encompass a wider remit, as LCAP activists reach out to a wider audience where possible.

Jane said: "We do want to break out of the activist community. Our meetings have been getting new people in and people still seem enthusiastic. While some London groups seem to be having trouble with membership numbers we are doing quite well at the moment.

"We had a training day in Stepney recently which 25 people showed up for, and we had someone from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP, whose highly successful methods in the Canadian city were a strong basis for LCAP) and a person from LCAP talked there.

"Workplace organising is coming up in May, that's part of a programme of training sessions, including for people who want to help us once they've been housed etc with things like translations and interpreting."

"We are also trying to campaign over debt problems at Brighthouse (a hire purchase company which is very aggressive about repayment), which has been very difficult.

"We feel it's exciting but it does take a long time to build up a new organisation and we still need to build up more capacity. Even though OCAP have done very well already their legal issues are different to ours, it's much less down to individual workers in the UK how people are treated.

"Our main thing is getting more people to identify areas in which our tactics can work and we want it to work in Hackney before trying it anywhere else.

Matt agrees: "We have concentrated on Hackney homeless person's unit, and temporary housing in the same borough - while also being involved with various campaigns and support work, but if we don't have the manpower to get involved in broad campaigns with long term and frankly hard to achieve goals, and it would mean we had to reduce our practical work, then we prioritise."

LCAP's focus on practice first has brought it to the attention of activists in Edinburgh, who are having a launch meeting for a similar initiative at 7.30pm on March 2nd at the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, 17 West Montgomery Place (call 01315 576 242 for more information).

In a statement, organisers of the event said: "The tabloids and some politicians try to divert attention away from the system which is really responsible for our problems. They go on about asylum seekers, dole scroungers, immigrants from Eastern Europe, and so on. This is just divide and rule.

"All over the world governments are privatising essential services and attacking hard-won rights. Organised struggle won these concessions in the first place, and only organised struggle can defend them and extend them, and put profiteers in their place. Society should be organised for the greatest happiness of everyone, not for private profit."

Ellen, from LCAP, will be there to talk about the group's experiences thus far. She said: "I'm in touch with the Edinburgh Claimants Union (who are helping to organise ECAP) and they've been really enthusiastic, they have been looking at how LCAP are doing this sort of organising and they want to start doing more action.

"We're not the first people to be doing this. I think there has been a bit of a lull in the last few years in this sort of activity and when we first started a lot of people who had been active in this sort of stuff in the 70s and 80s wanted to get involved."

Both Jane and Ellen were keen to stress that LCAP has not been a lightning fast process. Before they were able to build a reservoir of support (which now counts in the low hundreds), they had to do a lot of preliminary strategising and buildup work. Ellen remarked: "I think it's been a slow process, which is a good thing because we are building up in a strong way. The first steps have been made and we have learned a lot from that, we basically trained ourselves and now we are trying to train others, which means more people will be able to take on the case work."

To get in touch with LCAP, contact: 07932 241 737 or email londoncoalitionagainstpoverty@gmail.com. They are also online at lcap.org.uk