The Rites of Spring in Broken Barnet

Springtime in Broken Barnet is not marked by green shoots, and swollen buds on branches, and frogspawn in the pond. There are no rites of spring, no ceremony of beating the bounds.

It is a problem: how to honour the triumph of light over darkness, the turning of the season, in a borough where spring is already a metaphor, a symbol of resistance to the dark tyranny of our corporate masters, and their new suitors at Crapita?

We marked our territory today, anyway, and celebrated the renewal of the spirit of resistance which is the strength of Barnet uprising, in our own ceremony, a march in March, followed by hundreds of supporters from our borough and beyond, walking from Finchley, past the former constituency office of Margaret Thatcher, and the charitable accommodation of our erstwhile Tory AM and Cabinet member, Brian Coleman, to the place that represents so much to the people of the Barnet Spring: the People's Library, in Friern Barnet. 

The day we chose was as far from spring as could be imagined, a day of blizzards, biting cold: one might have expected everyone to stay at home, but that they did not, and came out in such numbers to attend this march says everything about the determination of the residents of Barnet to demonstrate their opposition to the iniquitous policies being wreaked on the most vulnerable members of our society, our community, both here and elsewhere in the country, as a result of national and local Tory and Libdem policies.

Gathering at Finchley Central station, the demonstrators heard addresses by a number of speakers, including MPs John McDonald and Jeremy Corbyn. One speech which caught Mrs Angry's attention was by local Labour activist Alon Or-Bach, who reminded us all that One Barnet, the infamous programme created to pimp our local public services to the private sector, and currently the subject of Judicial Review, is in fact the parting gift of our former council leader, now Finchley and Golders Green MP, Mike Freer. Let's not forget our debt of thanks to him, as we pass the half way mark of one government and move down the hill to a new election.

Other familiar faces at the rallying point included Labour List's Mark Ferguson, fresh from a twitter telling off from Mrs Angry, (and he deserved it):

and look, here follows an incredibly diverse selection of Barnet activists - warning, may contain women:
 
Barrister Sarah Sackman, Adam Langleben and AM Andrew Dismore

(Note that Mr Dismore removed his top hat and replaced it with a flat cap for the photo opportunity).

Barnet Alliance activist Julian Silverman

One of Tory leader Richard Cornelius' eccentric socialists, and fellow blogger Citizen Barnet (look, and a woman, too ...)

 

Cafe owner, parking campaigner and expert trouble maker Helen Michael 

Maria Nash, who brought the One Barnet programme to the High Court this week:

 

And Mrs Angry, making a silly face, as usual:

Off we went, then, walking into the driving snow and sleet, through Finchley Central, to North Finchley and up to Friern Barnet.

Reaching Friern Barnet, we paused for a moment by the cherry tree on the green outside the People's Library. Mrs Angry thought of last year, and the pop up libraries, next to the tree in full, glorious pink blossom, outside the building closed by Barnet Council. How far we have come since then.

Inside the library, as many of the frozen marchers packed inside for hot drinks, soup, somosas or cake, and listen to a number of speakers, from Barnet and from all over the country: Andrew Dismore, referring to the winter of our discontent, former occupier Phoenix, John Sullivan, speaking on behalf of those affected by the financial disaster that is the 'Your Choice' Barnet private partnership company, Maureen Ivens from the Save Friern Barnet Library Campaign, and two hospital campaigners, Dr O' Sullivan from Lewisham and Shirley Franklin from the Whittington. Playwright Fiona Evans came to speak about the fight to save Newcastle libraries, and the shameful behaviour of a Labour administration set on forcing residents to 'choose' between shutting libraries or respite care centres for disabled children.

Most interestingly, perhaps, was a short but effective speech from Owen Jones, who said that campaigns like ours inspired others to take the same action, and that the tide was now turning: as we stood there, in the library closed and reclaimed by the determination and ingenuity of ordinary people, the majority of them taking part in direct action for the first time in their lives, after days spent in the High Court, fighting to stop the £1 billion exploitation of our local public services by profiteering outsourcing companies, certainly it felt as if some fundamental shift of power has taken place. We have remembered who we are, and our place in the world, and we are taking back control of our lives.

As the marchers' chant asked: 

Why are we marching?

To save our public service. 
To save our NHS. 
To save our libraries. 
To save our loved ones who need care. 
To stop the council wasting our money. 

Who are we?

We are the people. 
We are the carers. 
We are the voters. 
We are the cared for. 
We are the council taxpayers. 
We are the patients. 
We are the library users. 
We are the people.

And so here we are, look: the People's Library, the Barnet Spring: signs of new life - and a new beginning.  

March on.

The Library that Lived: Victory for the people of Friern Barnet

The tale of Friern Barnet Library: what can you say that has not already been said? 

Perhaps today we'll let the pictures speak first. 

Arriving at the Library today: proof that direct action works - a stunning victory for and by the people of Friern Barnet, acheived by a partnership of local campaigners and the occupy movement.

Inside the library it was packed with residents, activists, occupiers, campaigners, camera crews, journalists - and one solitary representative from Barnet Council: Bill Murphy, another of our interim consultants, working as Assistant Director of Customer Services.

Where was Councillor Robert Rams, who has responsibilty for libraries? Or Leader Richard Cornelius?

TV news crew filming Barnet officer Bill Murphy as he was explaining that the council had found a new source of money from One Barnet 'savings' and could now manage without selling the library. (Mrs Angry making impertinent faces behind his back, and observing loudly that this was 'RUBBISH' ... )

 

 Residents made a ritual tour of the village green and cherry tree outside the library

Rabbi Jeffrey Newman,  trustee of the new community library

                                                         and we did, didn't we?

 

Occupier Phoenix addresses the crowd 

In his address to the gathering, Phoenix spoke passionately about the wider issue of the threat to libraries, and the need to preserve our public library service. He has always urged everyone to continue to fight for the retention of professional library support from Barnet, and this is a crucial point for many of us who celebrate the saving of the library building, but furiously condemn the actions of Barnet Council in their assault on our library service, and the removal of professional posts from the library structure. 

At the moment, after a humiliating and protracted restructuring process, Barnet librarians are facing the loss of their jobs in what amounts to the most savage cull of professional staff, and a degradation of the standard of service provision. This policy is an act of cultural obscenity, and it is a mark of the sheer philistinism of the Tory administration in Barnet that for a negligible amount of money they are prepared to sanction an act that will destroy what has been,  until now, one of the best value and highest standards of library service in the country. 

As Maureen Ivens, campaigner and Chair of the local library campaign group observed later, in a world beset by recession, only in Britain are we destroying our public library system: all part of an assault on the principle of easy and fair access to education.

Phoenix also reminded everyone of the fact that squatting is a survival mechanism for the poor and dispossessed members of our society: criminalising such action has had a brutal impact on those who otherwise have no access to housing. 

In his own speech, Rabbi Jeffrey Newman, one of the new trustees of the library, also commented on the neat irony that this successful occupation by community squatters should have taken place in the borough which is part of the constituency of MP Mike Freer, the instigator of the new anti squatting legislation. 

He looked forward to the time when these new laws were overturned. He mentioned this, he said, not to be party political, but to broadcast on behalf of humanity. Earlier, in fact, he had commented that a result of the experience of the library campaign was a recognition of our humanity, that we can learn from one another. 

Looking on at the diverse collection of new friends which this story has brought together, one can only conclude that he is absolutely right.

Friern Barnet Library: closed by the Tory council in 2012, reopened by a Labour councillor, Pauline Coakley Webb, in 2013

Barrister Sarah Sackman, who acted for residents and occupiers in the court case, spoke about the campaign: what has happened here, she said, is extraordinary - it demonstrates the value ordinary citizens place on shared and public spaces, and a willingness to fight for them. Together, we saved this library: it was a perfect illustration of what grassroots politics can achieve.

A resident and local mother who has two children who are regular users of the library read a really touching poem she had written, 'The Book Thief' ... when you steal a book, she said, you steal it again and again from every child, from his children, and his children's children.

Mrs Angry looked around the room at the ten thousand books placed on the library shelves by residents, in lieu of those stolen by our Tory councillors. It is a magnificent sight.

                      Maryla Persak-Enefer and a special cake by Emily

                    
                Reema Patel blows out the candles on the bookworm cake

  
Residents and campaigners Keith Martin and Fiona Brickwood


Will Self came to the occupied library late last year to give a reading from his book 'Umbrella', which is set in the former Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum, just across the road from the library. 

He explained that he had been shown round the building, now converted into luxury housing, by a woman from the site developers. As she took him around the former asylum, she had expressed the hope that he was not one of those people who believe in pyschic phenonema, and the presence of spirits ... 

In fact, he told us, he thinks everything has a pyschic presence, even crumbs ... Mrs Angry thought to herself that he was right, and the idea of the asylum being cleansed of all its history, and emptied of the full significance of its history, might well be one which the developers might want to believe in, but is unlikely to be the truth.

And surely, as Mrs Angry has observed before, there would appear at times to be some indefinable, pyschogeographical explanation for the curious events which occur in parts of our borough. And the retaking of Friern Barnet Library has been one of those events. 

It is curious to reflect upon the thought that the library was closed on the 5th of April, occupied five months later on the 5th of September, and officially reclaimed for the people of Friern Barnet, after another five month interval, on the 5th of February. And the new licence for the library was agreed on the palindromically notable date of 31/1/13.
  
In an attempt to deny the power of place and time, of course, here in Broken Barnet our Tory councillors have tried to expunge the mark of history from our borough. 

They closed our Church Farmhouse museum, and sold the contents in a village hall auction in the midlands, far away. They would love to have been able to shut Barnet Museum too, but can't find proof of ownership. 

The museum, with its collection and model displays of the Battle of Barnet survives, fiercely defended by its supporters. Elsewhere in the borough, the battle continues.

They shut Friern Barnet library, our Tory councillors - no, not shut it, stole it, like the book thief taking the book from countless generations of children -stole a library built with money from the Carnegie Foundation in an age where philanthropy was a duty, and a privilege, torn away and lined up for development as a mini supermarket or block of flats.

 They tried, but they were stopped in their tracks by the sheer force of will of local residents, campaigners and occupiers, who took back into their possession something which was theirs all along. 

Our libraries, our public places, our public services, these things belong to us already: our elected representatives have no right to take them away, or give them to others to make profit from, at our expense.

Today's ceremonial reclamation was a triumph for the people of Friern Barnet, but not just for the people of Friern Barnet. 

As campaigner Maureen Ivens suggested, this story bears a message for the world beyond: libraries provide a way of bringing people together, and empowering them. People must be encouraged to fight for their public services: scrutinise the actions of your local councillors and hold them to account.
 
And as another speaker commented wrily today, local MP Margaret Thatcher famously remarked that there was no such thing as society: this campaign proves that that was a fallacious statement. 

Or, Mrs Angry thought to herself, perhaps the truth is this: the Tories would like to convince us that what has been created here in Friern Barnet is part of the Big Society. The Big Society, of course is one big lie, a cover for Coalition cuts. 

Here in Broken Barnet, temporarily at least, we lost a library. By default, and in the process of our resistence, we have discovered a community.

Stuck on one of the shelves at the back of the library, there is a small, hand written notice which reads: 

'Stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone'.

The great strength, and the great joy, of the Barnet insurgency is this: we do not stand alone.

Friern Barnet People's Library, February 5th 2013.

This is what community looks like.

Friern Barnet Library: Rising from the Ashes

Keith: local resident, and one of the original occupiers of the library, back where he belongs ...

Another day, another chapter in the increasingly surreal story of Friern Barnet Library: the library that refuses to curl up and die, and has now been given a new lease of life by the occupation of community squatters who have pledged to return the building to the purpose for which it was built, a library for the people of Friern Barnet.

Phoenix and friend: the new librarians

The spokesman of the squatters who have taken up residence in this library is 'Phoenix' - rather an apt identity, in this situation, symbolising a new hope for local residents and library campaigners, rising from the ashes of their proposals which were so contemptuously rejected by the Tory council, in stark contrast to the fawning indulgence shown to the cosseted millionaire residents of Hampstead Garden Suburb, whose volunteer library is being supported at a cost far in excess of the plan submitted by the less privileged residents of Friern Barnet.

After the occupation, local campaigners decided to renew the Saturday pop up library on the green outside the building. The new occupiers announced that they would open up the library to residents, and offer the building to them for the purpose intended, eighty years ago, with the aid of a grant from the trust begun by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie: to provide a resource for the education of the ordinary working man and woman.

Got £400K to spare? Local library going cheap: development potential, subject to pp, of course

The Tory run council of Broken Barnet sees the library building as something rather different, of course. It is not a resource belonging to the community: it is a nascent development opportunity: a branch of Sainsbury's, or a free school. It has an annoyingly beautiful building on the site, but it is not listed, so could be demolished, and take the nominal value of the site from £400,000 or so into perhaps ten times that. Such a sum would be very welcome to our Tory councillors. It might even pay the £275, 000 monthly bill for our One Barnet consultants at Agilisys/iMPOWER.

Mrs Angry went to visit the pop up library today. When she arrived the stalls were outside, but everything was pretty low key. Feeling very naughty - why, Mrs Angry? - she slipped into the building to see what was happening. Was she breaking the law - trespassing? No: as it happens, the council has written to Phoenix and fellow squatters, recognising their occupation and therefore designating them as licence holders. And who cares, anyway? By the laws of natural justice, this building belongs to the people, not to the grubby little Tory council which, in Mrs Angry's view, formed over a long period of contemplation, is morally bankrupt, and has lost all claim to any authority over the electors of this borough.

The newly opened library soon attracted a large number of visitors. Labour leader Alison Moore and deputy Barry Rawlings arrived, with Pauline Coakley Webb and Arjun Mittra. Local residents and traders came in to say hello. Outside a number of residents and campaigners gathered under the cherry tree and discussed the new developments.


the pop up library today

Mrs Angry had a very interesting conversation with Dr Oliver Natelson, a local environmental campaigner who this year was deservedly given an Observer Ethical Award for his many years of community work, and had come to the library to offer tuition to local residents. Mike Gee ran a slide show on local waterways, and ran a Thunderbirds film show for children. A community resource, in other words, was being used by the community.

Some suitable literature now available on the shelves of the local library

But here's the thing. As far as Mrs Angry is concerned, Phoenix and his friends are morally justified in what they are doing. He seems to be acting according to a set of values, a moral code - contrast this to the grasping motives of our Tory council, and the way in which they have deceived and betrayed the residents of this borough.

A local resident arrives with some flowers for the library

But the extraordinary fact remains that our Tory councillors have instructed senior officers to engage and negotiate with the squatters who have taken possession of the former Friern Barnet library. Their immediate reaction to the occupation was not to challenge their action, but to offer them another site within the borough for a community library. They have sent a long letter to the new occupants, (* see below for link to Barnet Eye's clip with Phoenix reading this out) which Mrs Angry has seen, going into great detail as to the proposals they have which the squatters might consider. Quite incredible.

Labour councillors arrive to show their support: Leader Alison Moore, Pauline Coakley Webb, deputy Labour Leader Barry Rawlings, and Arjun Mittra

The residents who are members of the Save Friern Barnet Library campaign, and have struggled over so long to defend their library, have been completely sidelined.

What sort of message does this convey?

Time stands still, in Broken Barnet

You might think that a Tory council would be very much on the side of law and order, and refuse to negotiate with squatters. After all, the local MP, Mr Mike Freer, the former leader of the council, the father of One Barnet, and still a huge influence on the empty headed Tory councillors, has just seen his new anti squatting legislation enacted: all inspired, as you may remember, by the appalling shock of a mansion in Hampstead Garden Suburb - owned by the Libyan dictator Gaddafi's son - being occupied by political protesters.

Dear me. But no: it seems the language of force is the only one recognised by Tory Barnet. In fact, it would seem that they even have a sneaking respect for such tactics, and are happy to play along with its rules of engagement.

legal notice displayed by the new occupants of the library

The campaign so carefully and passionately supported by residents over the last year or so, organised by the properly constituted Save Friern Library group, which has widespread support in the community, has been completely ignored. Councillor Robert Rams has no interest in anything they have to say.

He has tweeted misleading comments about engaging with 'a local group' to open a community hub on the library site, as part of a development, but this is hogwash. Having made some enquiries about this, it seems clear to Mrs Angry that this is not being seriously considered, and does not represent the wishes of the wider community, much as a community hub would be welcomed somewhere in the area.

In the meanwhile, interested parties have been reported as making enquiries as to the purchase of the building.

On Monday morning, at 10 am, Captain Craig Cooper, Barnet's Director of Commerce, and two senior officers from libraries, will be meeting not the local residents and campaigners' group, but the activists from Camden who have taken occupation of the library - the squatters - in order to continue negotiations with them over a proposed community library. Phoenix and his friends have asked that local campaigners and residents attend this meeting too.

Yes: the world has gone mad.

Let's leave this post with a picture of two local residents who so desperately want their library to remain in their community: here is Alfred, and his shy, delightful boy Fred. Alfred has come to this country from the unspeakable horrors of genocide in Rwanda, a single parent whose five motherless children loved to visit their local library and indeed spent lots of time here, supported by what he described to Mrs Angry as the lovely library staff, dedicated professionals who saw their role as integral to the local community. Mrs Angry asked if the children were able to travel to any other library now.

No, said their father, sadly.

Alfred, his son Fred, and the empty shelves of their local library

It's all been said, really, hasn't it?

Alfred, who is, Mrs Angry understands, a classicist and academic, mentioned that back in Rwanda now, a library network is being established, as part of the rebuilding of the traumatised country's infrastructure. Back here in Broken Barnet, of course, and throughout the country, under the cultural warfare of our coalition government, we are tearing out the heart of our once glorious library system, just as we are about to destroy our National Health Service, and our welfare state.

The tale of Friern Barnet library tells a much bigger story than it first seems, doesn't it?

The tale continues. What will happen next? Mrs Angry predicts some more surprising developments will enfold.

Councillor Robert Rams, the Cabinet member responsible for libraries, has been away for the last couple of weeks, after his recent marriage.

Congratulations, Robert: but, know what -

I think the honeymoon is over.

Robert Rams, above. Dog shit, below.

Updated again:

just briefly to say if you nip across to the Barnet Eye, here:

http://barneteye.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/friern-barnet-library-occupation-new.html

you will find a clip of Phoenix reading out the astonishing letter from Barnet Council to the squatters, offering to cooperate in their wish to run a community library. Plus Mrs Angry laughing in an unseemly fashion at the side.

Updated Monday:

ok: now I have nicked this clip from the Barnet Eye, for your enjoyment. Listen to the enormous interest our council is showing over the new proposals from Phoenix and his fellow squatters. If only they showed such enthusiasm for the proposals made by the Save Friern Barnet Library campaigners.