10/04/2021
Today we attended weekly street stall in Stratford, to hand out information and help out in preparation for our upcoming joint action to support the residents of Brimstone House
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Students Not Consumers exists to fight back against the growing costs of education being forced upon us as a collective mass, and UCL’s plans for the Olympic Park area shows a clear case of our higher education system valuing profit over human lives and communities. The almost decade-long campaign for social housing is continuously disregarded by Newham council, who are still pushing public consultations for their plans on how to use the Carpenter’s Estate with the assertion that it will be demolished. Currently under construction nearby is Newham’s flagship “cultural and education centre” that includes new buildings and luxury accommodation for UCL’s Fashion School, which is certain to interest property developers in the Carpenter’s Estate. Despite vague claims of “genuinely affordable” homes being involved in both projects, previous Olympic Park developments with similar claims have both priced out those from lower socio-economic backgrounds with amenities geared towards wealthy middle class gentrifiers, and attempted to physically separate social renters from their neighbours (by floor or building).
We cannot expect to live in a country where equitable access to education is treated as a human right when children from poorer backgrounds are placed into inhospitable conditions, conditions supported by the institutions they are expected to aspire to. Getting an education should not necessitate involving yourself in gentrification and social cleansing, and UCL should not support the actions of Newham Council in destroying communities to make way for what they consider to be a better class of resident. Students are not your pawns, and our communities are not your castles!!!!
@ Wilko
