Stop MIPIM 2014 – Update

London Not for Sale Demo – 6th March 2014

6 March

A good turnout outside London City Hall, as the delegates for MIPIM left for Cannes; the best report so far, with pics, can be found here:

“Londoners tell Boris ‘Our City is Not for Sale’” [IMC UK, 11 March 2014]

An exert from the report: “As the ‘MIPIM cycle ride’ set out for Cannes at 9am on Thursday morning housing protestors disrupted the ride with chants of ‘Stop selling our communities!”. The afternoon followed with hundreds of estate agent ‘For Sale’ signs being made into a giant house at the door of City Hall in protest at policy to marketise housing which makes profits for speculators, landlords and developers. The demonstration continued with a ‘speak out’ from London residents sharing their stories of the housing crisis and difficulties to find secure, affordable housing because of contracts between London councils and MIPIM developers.”

Watch the Video here:

From: http://radicalhousingnetwork.org/stop-selling-our-cities/

More Background:
Another video posted on the Radical Housing Network site provides an excellent visual introduction to the MIPIM conference

___________REPORT ENDS_______________

Call-out from Radical Housing Network

MIPIM is the world’s biggest property fair, where our cities and our land are up for sale. It takes place in Cannes, bringing together about 20,000 investors, developers, local authorities, and banks to figure out how to carve up our cities and sell off our land.

The companies which attend MIPIM, and our government “representatives” who share their champagne, are responsible for the eviction of communities, the gentrification of our neighbourhoods, and the housing crisis itself.

This year, on March 12th, people in cities across Europe are taking action to denounce the sale of our cities. The actions have been called by the European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and the City, and is supported here by the Radical Housing Network.

People in London are organising, and plans are brewing. We don’t want Boris Johnson and local councils selling our homes, because we have the rage that comes from our experience of corporate control. We are for quality, secure, truly affordable housing for all, and we will get it.

Join us, 6th March, 2.15pm, outside City Hall, London. Bring stories of your life in the housing crisis, or your struggle against it.

Bring For Sale signs – a prize will be awarded for the borough with the most!

Follow #londonnotforsale for updates

______________CALL-OUT ENDS_______________

Background to MIPIM 2014 Conference

In December housing rights activists from a number of European cities met in Paris to discuss ideas for joint actions in 2014, with one of the main outcomes being a plan for decentralised action against the international real estate fair, MIPIM. MIPIM 2014 will be taking place between 11th and 14th of March in Cannes in the south of France, and is one of global capitalism’s major annual events for all aspects of the property industry, including the buying and selling of land, the planning, construction, financing, facilitation and management of housing and commercial property around the world. There will be some 20,000 participants, from some of the world’s biggest property developers, estate agents, builders and local government, each paying an entry fee of €1,600, coming together to conduct some of the biggest property deals of the decade.

Those attending the MIPIM from public municipalities and councils from around the world, including the UK, will be seeking to sell public land and infrastructure to private companies, directly, as part of development projects or in “private-public-partnerships” (PPPs). They will be approving ‘regeneration’ plans that respond to the interests of speculators: building hotels, offices, luxury housing, and shopping centres. At MIPIM, they will making contact with possible business partners to sell public land in order to make short term monetary gains at the expense of the irreplaceable loss of the commons, vibrant neighbourhoods and much-needed open-access facilities. Ordinary people who will be affected by these decisions often know nothing of these deals until it is too late.

The inhabitants of capitals across Europe will be targeting political representatives traveling to MIPIM to sell off our cities. Over 20 UK and London councils are already confirmed, including the Greater London Authority, which has overall responsibility for housing in London. A list of councils, developers, estate agents, banks and investors who will be attending MIPIM 2014 appears below the article. The London Radical Housing Network in association with the European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and the City (EACRHC) are calling for people to participate in resisting this mass sell-off of public land to private, for-profit interests. For a flavour of the cosy relationship between big business and city councils, here’s a video from last year’s MIPIM, in which London’s vacuous mayor Boris Johnson gave the keynote speech, offering London up to foreign property developers and investors:

Here’s a couple of ways you could help resist against the great sell-off:

1] Scan the list of councils and corporations. Are you struggling against any of them in your community or city? Do you have any information or research which demonstrates their corrupt practices? Let RHN know at the email below. The campaign against MIPIM will be successful if diverse groups already organising against attendees come together and share information, as well as making links across cities and internationally. If enough local case studies are collected, they will be presented as a dossier at a tribunal in Cannes during MIPIM which will put the big companies on trial for their crimes against city inhabitants.

2] The Radical Housing Network (RHN) is pulling together a coalition of housing and community supporters to take action against the UK’s political representatives selling off public assets at MIPIM. RHN are calling meetings for all the constituencies who are affected by transnational real estate, especially those who are facing up to those named below.

For further information, or to get involved in organising for March, contact: londonnotforsale[at]gmail.com

List of those Attending from the UK:

UK Property Developers, Financiers, Housing Associations, Infrastructure Companies

  • Savilles
  • Harrow Estates- Redrow PLC
  • Exemplar
  • Knight Frank
  • Helical Bar
  • Barclays
  • Wilmott Dixon
  • Albany Homes Developments
  • A2 Dominion
  • Travelodge
  • Blackrock
  • Morgan Sindall Group PLC
  • Muir Group
  • Muse Developments
  • British Land
  • Neat Developments
  • Capita
  • One Housing Group
  • Cowell Group
  • Pembroke Real Estate
  • Generation Estates
  • Great Portland Estates
  • Kier
  • Skanska
  • London District Housing Association
  • M and G Investments
  • UBS
  • United House Group
  • Quadrant
  • University of Oxford
  • Axa
  • British Property Federation
  • British Airways Pension Fund
  • Presidential Capital
  • Pricewaterhousecoopers
  • CLS Holidays PLC
  • Bloomberg
  • Reed Elsevier
  • Genesis
  • Goldman Sachs
  • Hamptons
  • Curson Real Estate
  • Shaftesbury PLC
  • ICM Wealth Management Ltd.
  • Hilton
  • Jeffries International
  • Land Securities
  • Langham Estate Management Ltd
  • Landmark
  • Capital and Centric PLC
  • Carillion
  • Logicor Europe Ltd.
  • Royal Mail Group
  • Residential Land Ltd.
  • Terence O Rourke
  • Transport for Greater Manchester
  • London and Continental Railways
  • Lendlease

UK City Councils

  • Bath, Somerset
  • Bolton
  • Bristol
  • City of London
  • York
  • Derby
  • Glasgow
  • Greater Lincoln
  • Greater London Authority
  • Leeds City Region
  • Leicester
  • Ealing
  • Hounslow
  • Scottish Cities Alliance
  • Sheffield City
  • South Gloucestershire City
  • Cardiff City
  • Wakefield
  • Coventry
  • Southwark

Stop the Social Cleansing of Europe’s Cities, otherwise this is our future….>

dystopia