Haringey's Lost Hospitals with Sue Hessel

Wednesday 9 September at 8 pm
Meetings for the autumn will be at a new venue; the North London Community
House, 22 Moorefield Road, N17. [The old Post Office
building] This is just around the corner from Bruce Grove British Rail
Station, where Bruce Grove meets the High Road in Tottenham.]


Following the vicious round of hospital closures in the 1980s , resisted by several NHS hospital occupations [see our The NHS is 60 booklet], Haringey has suffered from a less dramatic but equally damaging losses of hospitals. In Tottenham High Road both the Prince of Wales and Jewish Hospital were shut, Despite the opposition from campaigners. The Haringey Health Emergency committee , part of the still existing London Health Emergency, was set up with support from Unison Heath branch and the Trades Union Council. HHE campaigned on health issues for some years and several RaHN supporters were part of this. The health provision for residents in the borough took a severe dip from the closures. Sue Hessel describes the events round the Hornsey Hospital closure. In 1998, when the health authorities first tried unsuccessfully to close it, the then health spokeswoman was quoted as saying (People Power saves Hospital", Hornsey Journal, July 23rd 1998) We listened and learned that the hospital was loved and extremely popular, and an essential requirement in the area".

They didn't listen for long. However it would truer to say that the hospital, our last in Haringey, was left to crumble by the Haringey Primary Care Trust. It cost the taxpayer a fortune over the years in security fees, as it lay idle, leaving our community with no services on the site for nearly a decade.

But what is just as scandalous is that when they did manage to close our cottage hospital in 2000 it was with a promise that it would be used to care for the elderly. They silenced much of the opposition saying that there would be sheltered housing, and then that 64 rehabilitation and respite beds would be provided.

The sad tale of Hornsey Central Hospital is a cautionary one, and shows that people should never believe what they are told ! We were never told it was going to be a glorified GP centre with add-ons until recently and certainly not at the time we were "consulted" on its closure. We were not told that it would require the closure of Middle Lane Health Centre or sale of Fortis Green clinic.

A more successful campaign has been described in the RaHN booklet The NHS is 60, published in May last year. Peter Sartori and Paulette Case Robinson were part of a joint action committee working to oppose the closure of Haringey Mental Health Day Hospitals from June 2003 .

The Day Hospital Campaign Group again supported by Unison and HTUC - managed to reverse the loss to MH Users and get one unit re-opened. The campaign has gone on and as the ACTive EIGHT group has functioned as a Europe-wide body advising hospital and health authorities, and generally promoting the interests of Service Users. Again, RaHN supporters were active in this, making history as well as celebrating it.

Haringey Solidarity Group - some activities past and present [1990-2005]

In an attempt to look forward at where HSG fits into any political strategy in Haringey, we first thought we would look back. So, here is a look at what we have done over the last 15 years based on the minutes of our monthly meetings. The information is huge, so this can be no more than a brief and a bit chaotic look. I have tried not to see things as “successes” or “failures”. Where one person will see failure, another will see success. And vise versa.

The obvious place to start, as it was the forerunner of HSG, was the anti Poll Tax Campaign. Much has been talked about this campaign [see our booklet], so I won’t say much. However, we were one of the only local anti Poll Tax groups who stayed together after the defeat of the poll tax. This was a very positive decision. It’s a shame more groups didn’t do likewise. If they had, maybe……. In 1998 we played a large role in organising a national gathering in Bradford, and more recently the local groups Community Action. If the 100 or so anti poll tax groups around London had formed into independent community action/solidarity groups back in 1990 maybe we wouldn’t be reinventing the wheel as we seem to be doing. But, hey, we live and learn…

In April 1991 we had the first meeting as Haringey Solidarity Group and by January 1992 we had formed three separate groups around the borough in Tottenham, Green Lanes, and Wood Green. Not being able to sustain three separate groups we all came back together as HSG in September 1994. I have attached the first (and present) set of aims and principles of HSG. In 1991 we had sub groups of HSG for: the environment; housing; publicity; transport; women; anti racism; industrial; police monitoring; council monitoring; and disability issues. There were something like 30/40 active people though. In the early days we were using an office in West Green Road. Later 1997 we opened up our own office just of Green Lanes, which we have just decided to give up due to the costs involved..

Looking back it’s ironic to see present day issues cropping up. In 1993 we were campaigning (and won) against the council taking parts of our parks for financial gain. In 1994 we were already trying to stop the slow invasion of Controlled Parking Zones and Red Routes. And in 1995 we talked about the future of the Independent Working Class Association (IWCA), which the Hackney Independent group has recently formed out of. Then there is the continual racist attacks we have been a small part in trying to fight: Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign; Tottenham Three Campaign; Joy Gardner, Michael Menson, Roger Sylvester, Winston Silcott Campaign, and most recently the police harassment of Delroy & Sonya Lindo and their family. After 15 years: same harassment different targets. But, at least we have been there to help where we can, sometimes in fairly minor ways.

We have always tried to support other struggles and all we can do here is name a few. If anybody wants more detail just ask. We have supported workers in struggle for the last 15 years where we can. There has been the Arnaouti bakery workers; council workers; postal workers; Building Workers Group; Hillingdon workers; Liverpool Dockers; and of course one of the major campaigns we were involved in the JJ Fast Food workers dispute in Tottenham (see booklet on this for fuller details).

There have been dozens of campaigns we have been part of as well. As a flavour some are: anti MacDonald’s campaign, endless campaigns and demos against Council cuts, campaigning against harassment of local prostitutes, fighting the 1996 Asylum Bill (Act), against the Private Finance Imitative (PFI), campaigning against the unsustainable redevelopment of the Hornsey Waterworks; anti-war / anti-arms trade stuff; going down to Newbury to support the road protestors; helping set up a Haringey Squatters Group; being par of the group in the 1990s who were fighting the Council’s plans to privatize Alexandra Palace and it’s parklands; police monitoring and publicity; trying to help and support other groups around London and the UK who wanted to form HSG type groups; The campaign against the Child Support Agency in 1993/4; supporting the setting up of the Haringey Furniture Project; and putting teams in for a London wide 7 a side football competition.

There have also been a number of campaigns we have started and run in Haringey (sometimes linking up with other groups to form London or nationwide campaigns). Again, because of space, I will be brief. We had a very active claimants group which not only campaigned against the JSA, New Deal and Project work, but for better conditions for workers in job centres. We were linked with other groups to form the nationwide Groundswell claimants network. We met nationally for 2 or 3 years and organised two large London demos. This was one of the first times we had managed to link claimants and job centre workers in one campaign.

We worked with lecturers and students at the College of North East London in Tottenham to fight both cuts to the college and attacks on staff conditions. Linking staff and students was an important part of this one that came from them not us. Tottenham Law Centre was threatened with closure by Haringey Council. Because of our links with the local community we help over a year or so to fight this closure. Without HSG the campaign wouldn’t have been as effective. In 1995 we were part of a larger Haringey campaign to Fight Against Cuts in Education. Again, we linked with other groups around the borough. We were instrumental in planning & calling the initial meeting of a Haringey Anti Racist Group after a number of racist incidents in Haringey. We planned the meeting (with others and secured the venue so those attending felt safe. Unfortunately this group declined quickly once they sought respectability and became the Haringey Anti Racist Alliance, elected steering committees and wanted a lot of council input. It became no more than a talking shop and soon collapsed.

We campaigned against the destruction of some of Downhills Park to make way for private football pitches which would then be hired back out to the people of Tottenham. And we won this one. We were instrumental in starting and part running the Haringey Local Exchange & Trading Scheme (LETS). This worked independently for a few years but eventually joined the larger North London LETS, as numbers were falling. We started a local anti-advertising campaign, campaigning to get billboards removed whilst encouraging 'subvertising' of them. We have continually, over the last 15 years, campaigned against elections both locally and nationally, by trying to leaflet flypost and inform people as to their pointlessness. Each time we tried to use the opportunity to show local people there is a different, and in our view, better way of organizing their lives and communities.

In 2002 we held a week of events around Mayday week. This included stalls, leafleting and a highly successful local Mayday conference. This included producing 15,000 copies of a new free local paper. We've also publicised and taken part in many London Mayday events and national anti-capitalist / anti-G8 protests, and many other countrywide events and initiatives. Every year we do a national mailout to similar local radical groups and centres to encourage better communication and co-operation.

Five years ago some members of HSG came together to form a housing co-op. Although they still do not have housing, the group have stayed together and tried continuously to find land in Tottenham to build a housing co-op and community space. Most recently, it was HSG who initiated the Haringey Against ID Cards campaign, by calling the first public meeting of the group in Tottenham. Some of us are involved in local residents' associations and the group has been able to support them and the Haringey Federation of Residents Associations.

Just a few of the other things I can think of in no particular order were. Women within HSG formed a successful women’s group for 2 or 3 years. We also formed a men’s group to challenge our attitudes as men and look at claims of oppression and overbearing within HSG. This group didn’t last very long! Michael Portillo dared to have a party to celebrate him being a politician for 10 years in Haringey (at Alexandra Palace). After some fierce campaigning work we got a large noisy crowd to the event. The party was “spoiled” for a lot of those attending as the crowd threw eggs, flour, tomatos and more at those attending. Gordon Brown also attended a meeting in Wood Green and was met with customary eggs and stuff. Oh the good old days! And loads of us raised money for the group by working behind bars at festivals. Money which we used to pay for everything we did and also managed to donate to a lot of other groups who needed it including setting up a 'bust fund' to support any Haringey activists arrested.

Throughout the last 15 years there has been one thing consistent within HSG, although this ebbs and flows depending on how strong the group is. That is our solidarity work and propaganda. HSG has produced dozens of leaflets and posters in huge quantities. We must have produced at least 10,000 posters and 100s of 1000s of leaflets on a huge variety of issues. We have regularly been on street corners, at festivals, going door to door giving out this literature. On top of this we have had two regular newsletters “Haringey Community Action” and “The Haringey Independent”. The former got up to 12 pages and 12,000 copies four times a year. There was also a newletter called “Tottenham Free” but before HSG’s time.

We have consistently put up posters all around the borough informing people about a number of issues and generally rabble rousing. Whenever we have heard of racist or fascist graffiti or posters they been removed very quickly. Over the years we have run many stalls, and at our height we had a telephone tree of 40 people so we could react to issues immediately. And every month without fail we mail out our minutes and a range of independent local and national literature to all local residents on our mailing list (currently 120). Lastly the office and our PO Box have come to the rescue of many a group. The office had been used by a number of other groups, as has our telephone, photocopier and postal address.

Venue and Meetings for the Autumn

Meetings of the North East London Radical History Network for the autumn will be at a new venue; the North London Community House. Its address is 22 Moorfield Road, London N17. The venue is just around the corner from Bruce Grove British Rail Station, where Bruce Grove meets the High Road in Tottenham.

The dates for the autumn meetings are Wednesday 9 September, Wed. 21 October, Wed. 11 November and Wed 9 Dec. All meetings begin at 8pm.

Meetings for the Autumn and Winter

Mary Wollstonecraft

Radical History network has several up and coming meetings for Autumn. The subjects will include:

* The Poplar revolt of the twenties, when Poplar councillors refused to abide by the government's rules on the poor rates. Janine Booth, author of "Guilty and Proud of it - Poplar's Rebel Councillors and Guardians 1919-1925", Merlin Press, 2009 will be speaking

* The history of hospital closure in North London, how the decisions were taken and the fightbacks against them

* Housmans, the radical bookshop, began in 1945 and has been selling radical literature ever since. Now one of the very few remaining radical bookshops in London. The meeting will hear how it was set up, its role in the peace movement, the attempts to close it etc.

* After World War 1 the returning service men formed organisations to fight for housing and jobs, what were these organisations and what did they do?

* Mary Wollstonecraft who wrote the 'Vindication of the Rights of Woman', a brilliant exposition of feminism. She lived an unorthodox life and was committed to social change. She also wrote novels and a history of the French Revolution. Her daughter Mary would go on to write 'Frankenstein'.

What next for Climate Change Camps - the history and prospects - next meeting Wed 8 July, Wood Green Social Club, Stuart Crescent N22

The central theme of the climate camps is the ecology of saving the planet and its inhabitants in face of the man-made creation of rising temperatures . To this end , the camps collect together thousands of people to both discuss, and plan for , the need for action of the direct type . The camps are models of consensus and anti hierarchical organisations and are increasingly successful in their initiatives .

Historically battles to save the community have been regular events. Near Wanstead Flats in Leyton, London, residents in 1892 first attacked the railway that had encroached on their common land then wrecked the whole project, lines and all. More recently came resistance to the use of nuclear power for energy production. The 1970s was strewn with pitched battles all over Europe as resisters first advanced factual arguments , and, after their rejection, resorted to mass direct action.
Britain saw action at the nuclear plant at Windscale and disobedience on the streets. Nuclear power ? no thanks was the slogan Even today the Labour government, busy trashing the welfare state and hard earned reforms of the past, hesitates to announce a new nuclear building programme.

Another example concerns personal transport. While this is among the great inventions to benefit humanity, relentless expansion of the car economy and roads with the attendant pollution, ill health and despoliation of town and country, has been strongly challenged in the last two decades. Reclaim the Streets - with its aims for walking, cycling and cheap or free public transport , and against cars , roads and the system that pushes them led many campaigns over 15 years. Any sane system would use renewable electricity cars , collective vehicle ownership, tight regulation of speed , and safe roads, and so on.

However the central problem facing environmental campaigners goes back to 1962. In that year, we saw the publication of two books. Murray Bookchin, the US libertarian , who was an ex stalinist and trotskyist, had investigated capitalisms adverse effect of the environment and published an article, under the pen name of Lewis Herber. Next he produced a full length text Our Synthetic Environment which was
published just before the more celebrated Silent Spring of Rachel Carson. Her volume concentrated on pesticides, especially DDT, and its effect mainly on birds, while Bookchin surveyed the advanced use of chemicals in general.

These two publications were to symbolise the two widely differing approaches to environmentalism. Bookchins belief was that this was a problem that presented a massive challenge to western society, and indeed one that it could not solve. His answer therefore was a social transformation of society .

On the other hand the Carson supporters, and orthodox political theory, held that this was just another aspect of development and one that a production-for-profit system could easily accommodate. So that state action, round modest reforms, was the solution. The present world wide concern over climate change can still be positively analysed into the two quite different perspectives - reform or revolution.

So the dilemma facing climate camp activists is whether to continue the direct action that has proved successful in the past, or to become fully involved in the fighting for small, disconnected and separate reforms and thus risk integration into institutionalised opposition . The meeting invites environmental campaigners of either , or no, sides in this debate with a view to resolving the central problem . But don't hold your breathe for this . . .

Rachel Carson information at Wikipedia

Murray Bookchin essays on revolutionary ecology