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Mipim property fair only benefits the rich – Collective statement

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This Wednesday the Mipim property fair returns to London, celebrating a housing system that puts an obsession with profit over people’s right to a decent home. By promoting this unsustainable approach to housing and land use, Mipim benefits the global rich whilst destroying our communities. Mipim brings global property development companies together with local authorities and other “partners wanting to close deals”, often selling public land and assets. Barnet council gave the West Hendon estate, worth an estimated £45m, to Barratt for just £5. This approach is being enabled by a government whose policies are exacerbating the housing crisis, as the Tories’ new housing bill shows. We condemn everything that Mipim stands for, and join communities and campaigners to say no to Mipim, yes to housing justice.

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Why Food Sovereignty is also about the Sovereign Soil

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by Mama D – Community Centred Knowledge // @indigenousknow // http://www.symphonyofthesoil.com/

When we, as Earth’s inhabitants, gain a clear understanding of the roots of Food Sovereignty and its role in bringing freedom from systems of food oppression to cultivators of the Global South, we will stand a greater chance of also understanding how well aligned it is with the call for all of humankind to take better care of the fragile skin that adorns the planet: this skin is called the soil.

Food Sovereignty exists as a statement of clearly articulated rights in the face of economic and political and cultural oppression and it militates against the structures – legal, political and economic – that arose out of colonisation, slavery and ‘entrepreneurial’ adventurism in the Global South, chiefly undertaken by men of means from the Global North.

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UK Food Sovereignty Movement Gathering: Programme Highlights + Info

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Highlights of the gathering 23rd – 26th October 2015

  • There will be international speakers from Mozambique, Uganda and Spain.
  • Local hosts Incredible Edible Todmorden will be introducing us to their project and offering workshops, workaways and tours.
  • Joined by speakers from the Bakers Union (the union at the heart of the fast food rights movement in the UK), the Land Workers Alliance, Community Supported Agriculture UK and a range of other organisations fighting for a better food system.
  • The Real Junk Food Project will be running a communal cooking session (using waste and surplus food from the local area)
  • Entertainment, bar and dancing

Time for food sovereignty (priority)

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MIPIM in London – 21st – 23rd October – the Poverty Developers are back

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Re-posted from Radical Housing Network website

In 2014 a motley crew of private developers, speculators, councils and politicians met in London to carve -up and sell -off our city. But activists from housing campaigns, tenant organisations and trade unions were there to meet them. Our message was ‘Homes for Need not Greed!’ We made a big impact, with lots of news coverage, and we managed to close down their junket for a while. Twelve months later, the housing crisis has got worse and they’re coming back. We need to be there too!

What is MIPIM?
MIPIM (Le marché international des professionnels de l’immobilier) proudly describes itself as a gathering of ‘the most influential international property players, looking to close deals in the UK property market’.

Why Join the Protest?
We’re facing a major housing crisis. Rents and mortgages are out of control and there are five million people on council waiting lists. Public land that should be used to build the homes we need is being sold off or given to speculators at rock-bottom prices (public land worth £45million was given to Barratts for £5 by Barnet council without the knowledge of the council tenants living on it). Our neighbourhoods are under threat from estate demolitions and displacement. Entire communities are facing eviction. The wealthiest 1% – whose interests are represented at MIPIM – are profiting from the struggle of ordinary people to afford their basic housing needs, many of whom are now being made homeless as a direct result of the regeneration projects.

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