I have just been alerted to this by way of Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group e-list:
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| Camden New Journal home page leads with Kingsgate Community Centre closure while rolling home page headline reads: 'Experts warn of a catastrophic economic event that may hurt economies financially' |
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| CNJ: Kingsgate Community Centre to close down due to Covid losses: Sad day for Camden as association's board of directors file for liquidation |
USERS and supporters of a community centre in West Hampstead have been left shocked this evening (Thursday) after its board of directors announced it will not re-open after the coronavirus crisis.
The Kingsgate Community Association had largely relied on hiring out its building – the Kingsgate Community Centre in Kingsgate Road – but saw its revenue wiped out by the pandemic and is now filing for liquidation.
The nursery on the site will also remain closed.
Camden Council owns the building and said this evening that it was determined that it would be used for community use in the future....
[More at http://camdennewjournal.com/article/kingsgate-community-centre-to-close-down-due-to-covid-losses ]
As I see it, it's in line with 'The Shock Doctrine: Disaster Capitalism'
and how the Central
Government diktat that community centres should act "more like
businesses and less like charities [code for less like the 'charity
cases' Disaster Capitalists attack as they set about the Corporate
Demolition of the Welfare State
)
In
early 2017 before I left London, the CEO of Kingsgate Community
Association gave a talk to Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG, aka
'Kwug') about Government demands that local community centres should
"act more like businesses" while expecting less subsidisation from local
government. When I moved to Tory-controlled Herefordshire later that
year, I got a taste of the prospective consequences for places like
Kingsgate Community Centre, and why it was unlikely that community
facilities in a Tory-borough would be hosting meetings of 'the
underprivileged of working age'. The frontage of my new local community
in one of Hereford's lower income areas cried out for volunteers.
Kingsgate CC as a hub for personal transformation for the least privileged
Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group's regular meetings on a weekly basis at Kingsgate Community Centre while I was with them from early 2012 to the time I left London gave my life a renewed sense of purpose after my years of jobsearch as a disabled jobseeker proved fruitless in terms of 'getting me a job', and my disappointments as an activist within political parties.
Before
lockdown, Kingsgate Community Centre was fully accessible to people of
limited mobility at least, and quite a few attended the weekly term-time
meetings of Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG). KUWG activists had
demonstrated volubly outside Kilburn and other local jobcentres and the
phony 'disability assessment centres', talking with people at risk of
benefit cuts who then attended our meetings at Kingsgate CC, got support
with their claims and returned to us at Kingsgate CC as satisfied
customers while too many going though what they would have otherwise
gone through were at much greater risk of corporate homicide dressed up as suicide.
My last official role other than Web Log editor within Kwug was as attendance monitor, in line with the Equality & Diversity criteria of LB Camden as principal funder of our meeting facility and the responsibilities imposed upon Kingsgate Community Centre as a beneficiary of public funds.
My last official role other than Web Log editor within Kwug was as attendance monitor, in line with the Equality & Diversity criteria of LB Camden as principal funder of our meeting facility and the responsibilities imposed upon Kingsgate Community Centre as a beneficiary of public funds.
The
then newly appointed CEO of Kingsgate Community Centre told us he was
delighted by the diversity he saw before him at that meeting.
Further, people incapable of using a computer unaided were compelled to claim benefits online by default, while cuts in council funding led to loss of Social Services for the most vulnerable, as KUWG's friend Kate Belgrave has highlighted.
Thursday, 19 October 2017
Toghether we are stronger. Join us!
Together we are stronger. Join us! Some equality & diversity attendance statistics from when this blog editor was Kwug's attendance monitor
KUWG meeting attendance figures, 6 Jan-to-28 Apr 2014
KUWG meeting attendance figures, 14 Apr-to-14 Jul 2014
KUWG meeting attendance figures,24 Jul-to18 Sep 2014
Closure of accessible public facilities highlights the government lie that they will protect the most vulnerable
That was before the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) closed Kilburn and other local jobcentres, isolating disadvantaged claimants more and more while making them travel further as a Kwug-led demonstration outside DWP HQ highlighted.Save Our Job Centres — a 1 minute 45 seconds video by Shootroot
Video of demo outside DWP HQ, Caxton House, Monday 6 November 2017
This video was originally posted at https://youtu.be/p8jnYVjqtfQ ...
Further, people incapable of using a computer unaided were compelled to claim benefits online by default, while cuts in council funding led to loss of Social Services for the most vulnerable, as KUWG's friend Kate Belgrave has highlighted.
Learning/literacy difficulties & can’t use online Universal Credit? “Find a friend to help,” says DWP. This is dire
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Yesterday, I rang the Universal Credit helpline number (0345 600 4272) to ask about DWP support for Universal Credit claimants who have learning and literacy difficulties, and who struggle to use computers. (I’ve posted a transcript of a recording I … Continue reading
What now?
I would advise those with reading speed and stamina and sufficient Internet Literacy to download a free Portable Document Format (pdf) copy of Kate's book that results from her talking with people facing benefit cuts.
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| National Union of Journalists Code of Conduct |
One of the most dreadful things about closure of public facilities for the most vulnerable is that isolating vulnerable people is in tandem with the capacity of the 'austerity state' and its lies to go unchallenged as the lies about 'strivers and shirkers' continue to be financed by public funds. As someone has said, democracy presupposes information.
And yes, it is very much a time to get more active in supporting the future of Kingsgate as a community resource, and people giving personal testimony regarding how Kwug's ability to meet regularly at a local community facility was a life-saver and life-transformer for them that should be extended to others. But I also believe that the campaign should be wider than just the London Borough of Camden, and be a national one.
