IMGpapers

Newspapers of the International Marxist Group and its forerunners, 1968–1988

BACK TO THE GHETTO COUNCIL THUGS IN ACTION

Black Dwarf Vol. 14, No. 16, 2 May 1969 · p. 1 of the scan · 552 words

The scan: v16-n16-2-may-1969.pdf (PDF, Marxists Internet Archive, opens at this page)

Uncorrected machine reading. This text was read by machine (Apple Vision OCR) from a scan of a newspaper page, and the page was cut into articles by machine, at the headlines found by their type size. Nothing has been corrected: expect misread words, text from a neighbouring article, and titles that are the machine reading of the headline, some of them only fragments. Quote from the scan, not from this page.
How this article was cut and titled: headline found by type size in the OCR geometry (split_tabloid.py); 1-3 of 4; machine-segmented newspaper page; uncorrected Vision OCR.

page 1 of the scan

The Black Dwart ESTABLISHED Terror. In Grosvenor Road, Ilford, where a homeless family had been squatting for three months.

At dawn on April 22, thirty bailiffs and attendants broke down the doors, crashed through the house, and evicted the Beresfords - man, wife, and seven children. Their relocation? Council Buildings, Poplar, a Camden Council ghetto from which, three months ago, the Squatters helped the Beresfords move out.

Next stop for the council's thugs: Cleveland Road, Ilford, a house into which the Fleming family had recently moved. Here, they really went to town. One man was injured (broken jaw) as they kicked their way through doors and barricades. Breaking into bedrooms, they ignored the children's screams and hustled all into the street. Then they threw out their furniture and clothes.

A Child Welfare Officer, accompanying the bailiffs, advised that the children be taken to the local welfare office. On arrival, the Flemings found it locked and were left sitting on the step.

MRS BERESFORD

TD RATHER BE DEAD THAN BACK IN COUNCIL BUILDINGS'.

before, Dwarf reporter Janet Ree, plus photographer, had visited the Buildings. Camden Council's supervisor, Mr Cable, drew up in his car as our reporter stood on the pavement chatting. The photographer stepped forward, when Cable cut him short.

*If you take that photo, mate, you won't be around for long'. He took it.

*If you print that photo, you'll live to regret it. And if you enter these buildings, you are trespassing and will be ABOVE: MR CABLE IN FRONT OF COUNCIL BUILDINGS, POPLAR Poplar, East London, April 16 The notorious accomodation known as Council Buildings Poplar, belongs to Camden borough council. It is intended to provide temporary accomodation for homeless people who are waiting for a house.

We spoke to the people who are living there - some of whom have been there for four years. 'It's like a prison, isn't it?' one woman said to us, "Holloway's a palace compared to this'. None of the flats is larger than two rooms; and we were invited into such a bedroom, living room, and kitchen, cupboard-sized and containing a lavatory, a cooker, and a sink.

The arrangement has a certain advantage 'You can sit on the toilet and cook your dinner, and you don't have to stretch out at all', a pregnant woman told us, whose four children live with her in the flat. 'If my baby lives, the welfare may bedrooms, if it dies, I'l have to stay here" me a place two The baby's chances of survival cannot be rated very highly. Mr Byrne, with his family tenants of Council Buildings until the squatters helped them with 'rehousing, told of how he had come home at 10 pm from work to find his flat flooded with sewage overflowing from upstairs. His wife had been trying to bale it out, but the flow had been too great. Byrne telephoned the welfare officer for the Buildings, Mr. Bruthy; getting no response he took a sledge-hammer and smashed the outside pipes. The sewage poured into the courtyard at BELOW: CAMDEN COUNCIL WELFARE OFFICER MR BRUTHY to sending someone over to mend the pipes and clear the place; and when Mr Byrne spoke his mind he was threatened with being transterred to the "problem family unit' at King's Cross

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