Can the #Azerbaijan #Eurovision be a tool for change & should we be taking it more seriously?

Azerbaijan is using Eurovision to nation-brand in its bid to be the next Dubai, but at what expense?

Eurovision has long been subject to ridicule by much of western Europe with its trashy and manufactured pop considered far below our musical tastes with audiences consisting of largely excitable teenage girls and members of the gay community.

But as this year’s competition in Azerbaijan is used as a platform by human rights and pro-democracy campaigners to highlight abuses largely ignored by the western media until now, should the conscientious among us be taking it a little more seriously as a tool for change?

The oil-rich state in the south caucus was barely known to most before reports began to emerge of families being evicted from their homes to make way for the glittery Crystal Hall, which hosts this year’s show.

But a simple Google search will unleash a torrent of articles offering an insight into the authoritarian regime’s crackdown on independent media, opposition parties and human rights activists.

Fuad Hasanov, director of the Azeri human rights and democracy organisation Democracy Monitor, said before last week it was almost impossible to get any media attention to cover their plight. Now he’s juggling more international journalists than he can manage.

Previously the competition has been used by other former soviet states to promote themselves to a western Europe who barely knew they were there.

When Estonia won in 2001 the government launched a multi-million pound nation-branding campaign on the back of it and Ukraine specifically entered the competition to improve its international image, according to Paul Jordan, who recently completed a PhD on the Eurovision and state-building and branding by former soviet states.

Dr Eurovision, as he is also known, said: “It’s not seen as a tacky contest as it is in the west. It’s seen, for some countries, as the only way of promoting themselves – along with the European football championships and the Olympics. Estonia’s [Eurovision] was called Return to Europe distancing itself from its soviet past, but tragically, its also a way of getting themselves on the world map.”

Azerbaijan is also clearly taking it very seriously, spending more than a billion dollars on the event – the most expensive contest ever, and equally hoping to put themselves on the map, bolster tourism and prove they are capable of putting on prestigious international events.

But the government clearly didn’t bargain on the attention given to its human rights record with activists getting almost as much attention as the 56-year-old event.

The European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision and is made up of each member’s state broadcaster, has also come under criticism for failing to put pressure on the Azerbaijani government or for even allowing it to compete.

Jordan said: “Eurovision is first and foremost a television show and EBU is not a political organisation, but there are questions when the organisation has survived on a free press and Azerbaijan has journalists in prison for criticising the government. There is no free press here, and they have not addressed that at all. I would say the EBU are at fault, but it’s maybe not a question for now, it’s a question for who they let in to the EBU in the first place. These sort of questions are for when they joined in 2008.”

Despite his political interest Jordan is also a fan of the competition, but says he has given up on predicting the winner, however, while the Russian entry is clearly an obvious choice he would love to see Ukraine’s entrant take first place after an MP described the mixed-race singer as ‘unorganically Ukrainian’.

Whether you love it or hate it, he said, the Eurovision has at least created a dialogue on the issues facing Azerbaijan. However it remains to be seen whether once the Eurovision road-show moves on, the media circus moves with it.

Police crackdown on ‘unauthorised’ #Eurovision demo in #Azerbaijan

Police arrest and disperse activists on the pro-democracy demo in Baku

22nd May 2012

Dozens of pro-democracy campaigners were arrested in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, yesterday as they took part in an unauthorised protest to highlight human rights abuses in the run-up to Eurovision.

The Sing for Democracy campaign, which organised the rally outside the old city, also called on performers to speak out during live performances and interviews against the lack of political and media freedom the country endures.

The authoritarian government has been highly criticised by human rights organisations and some foreign governments for rigged elections, clamping down on independent and critical media, false imprisonment, and even torture.

It is the first time the former soviet state and little-known country in the south Caucasus has hosted an international event of this size and activists hope to take advantage of the presence of the world’s media to get their message out.

Visitors to the newly developed capital could be forgiven for being oblivious to the country’s ills, but those who organise, speak-out or stand against the regime of the oil-rich state have found themselves publicly smeared, viciously attacked, jailed on trumped-up charges and even murdered over the years.

Conditions in the country have deteriorated over the past decade since Ilham Aliyev took over as president from his father and former Russian politburo member and Azerbaijani communist party leader and KGB chief, Heydar, in a dynastic handover in 2003.

British entrant Engelbert Humperdink perused old carpets and trinkets in Baku’s Old City as pro-democracy campaigners were arrested metres away.

At the time of writing there was no news of those arrested today, but last week a student and bass player of an Azeri rap band, which played at an opposition rally, was illegally drafted into the army after its rapper, Natiq Kamilov, criticised the President’s wife.

Kamilov, who was released after ten days following international coverage of his arrest, said he was tortured during detention and has since fled the country convinced it’s unsafe for him to remain.

Relatives of arrestees working within government or government-controlled companies – of which there are many – are also targeted and forced out of their jobs as punishment and to scare others from standing-up against the corrupt regime.

Azerbaijan’s most famous investigative journalist was recently viciously smeared after highlighting massive corruption at the highest levels of government where family members and trusted friends of the president are given plum positions in state departments and companies.

Khadija Ismailova, who reports for Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, was threatened with blackmail after, she believes, state security services filmed her having sex in her apartment.

However the plan backfired after she went public, despite the risk of a backlash amongst the socially conservative population, with even the most religious groups defending her and lambasting the government for such low tactics as the video was published on a fake opposition website.

Billions of pounds have been spent making central Baku into a picture of modern capitalist happiness

And when two activists, Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade, posted a video on Youtube in 2009 of a press conference mocking government corruption after it listed the purchase of two donkeys from Germany for £40,000, they were set-upon by thugs a week later as they ate in a restaurant.

They were subsequently arrested and charged with violent behaviour when they reported the incident to police while their attackers were released without charged.

The pair were sentenced to two and two and a half years respectively until they were released last year following huge international pressure.

Thousands of people have also been evicted from their homes, often with little notice or compensation and nowhere to go, by representatives of the state to make way for new buildings and infrastructure including the fancy new hall the Eurovision contest will be held in.

Only recently a journalist was beaten unconscious as he documented such evictions by the state oil company SOCAR in Baku.

Idrak Abbasov believes the private security guards intended to kill him while police watched on.

While those arrested yesterday can expect to be dealt with more leniently or have any court cases delayed until after Eurovision it is far from clear whether the international media’s attention and scrutiny will have a lasting impact beyond next week without further international govermental pressure.

However, if past performance is anything to go by the Council of Europe, which sets democratic and legal standards to its member states of which Azerbaijan is one, should not be relied on to act.

Despite regular reports to its parliamentary assembly on the state of affairs in Azerbaijan, the CoE has reduced its criticism and even begun praising the President for his attempts at reform despite the special rapporteur charged with assessing the treatment and situation of political prisoners being denied a visa for the past two years.

A report is due out imminently revealing why the CoE has failed to act, however, its author, Gerald Knaus of the European Stability Initiative, warned it was not just a matter of lobbying and free trips to MPs that is keeping them quiet, but refused to be drawn on the cause before publication.

It should not be forgotten that Azerbaijan, sandwiched between energy suppliers Iran and Russia, is proving to be an attractive and reliable alternative to its soon-to-be sanctioned and unpredictable neighbours.

Naturally, the government denies it rigs elections and abusing its citizens’ human rights while accusing the media of failing to meet moral standards, but with defamation being a criminal offence it essentially makes criticising members of the government illegal.

London Ted talk reflects on the highs and lows of club & DJ culture

Dr Karenza Moore reveals ecstasy is still the clubbers' choice after 20 years

IT was supposed to be a reflection on all things good about DJ and club culture; the music, the technology, the history, but journalist and blogger Joe Muggs wanted to add a touch of dark reality to the special Tedx event Redefining the DJ.

‘DJ Culture is appalling; it’s people who are just a set of cogs playing the same old tracks again and again’, he said.

The audience laughed nervously as he continued lambasting the romantic ideas of kids in a hedonistic daze believing they will find all they are looking for in a dark and sweaty room.

Naively turning your back on education, work and relationships thinking you don’t need anything else except a good time before, years later, crashing back to reality unable to do much more than flip burgers or pull pints is not big, clever or underground.

Fortunately he made an exception of those present, but his points were a valid and an important reminder of the collateral damage that goes hand-in-hand with the electronic music and party scene.

But it wasn’t all bad news at the seminar, at the Truman Brewery, in East London, organised by Tunde Olaoye, a promoter, DJ and Ted lecture fan, who wants to see more serious discussion on what he says has been a marginalised part of British culture, the economy and even education.

The speakers covered a broad range of subjects and histories that have informed and split the scene over the decades as well as offering personal examples of how to get on in a difficult industry.

Jerome Sydenham, who moved to New York in the eighties as a young Nigerian to follow his dream of becoming a successful DJ and producer, told how he nearly threw it all away partying seven nights a week before waking up to what he could lose – his green card and residency at one of New York’s most exclusive clubs.

Being a success in this industry is down to the individual remaining focused, he said, just look at Jeff Mills who’s in his fifties and still cutting it at the top.

Sydenham went on to give a fascinating insight into the world of A&R at Atlantic records explaining how the big labels’ failure to nurture and give a public face, through video and radio coverage, to the new house and techno producers they signed in the late eighties meant there was little return on their investment.

Released from their contracts the new wave of producers returned to the independents where they enjoyed considerable success.

But this left it to the club DJs playing the records, often producers themselves, to soak up the credit and become the face of the new sound.

He also revealed how bosses at the major labels made a concerted effort to kill off vinyl in favour of CDs by buying up presses around the world before literally dumping them in the ocean.

Fortunately independents took up the mantle, printing the records themselves, leading to a resurgence in vinyl in recent years, although print runs are notably counted in their hundreds rather than the thousands of yesteryear.

The move from vinyl to CDs and more latterly MP3s was the subject of Tony Andrews’, founder of the legendary Funktion-One sound-systems, talk on the quality of music.

His message was simple: don’t touch MP3s with a barge pole!

He said: “Sound quality and our hearing isn’t given the attention it deserves … and it’s really got worse since the advent of digital and the overuse of gain – particularly by DJs.”

Andrews said he wasn’t against digital and that if WAV files, the digital format on CDs that stream at 1440kbps, are used it could be better, but so-called high quality MP3s (320kbps) are being recorded at a quarter of that.

Staying on the technology tip the audience saw the first public demonstration of the Alphasphere, which evolved from a bunch of polystyrene coffee cups, balloons and a hacked midi-keyboard five years ago to the fully functioning prototype (see below) completed last week.

Creator Adam Place, of Nu Desine, said he was inspired to make a new interface to replace the midi-keyboard that felt ‘unnatural’ for playing anything other than piano.

There were also talks on setting up a radio station that morphed into a record label and more – the message being don’t tie yourself down, the history of the record, looking at copyright and how it restricts progress, but the underlying theme and lesson was one of originality, non-conformity, freedom of expression, re-inventing yourself and strength of mind.

However it would have been a fallacy to suggest that it’s all highbrow and drugs weren’t a fundamental part of the scene – for good or for bad – and so it was entirely appropriate that Dr Karenza Moore, of Lancaster University, spoke about their role in club culture.

A party girl herself, she has been officially researching club and drug culture for the past six years but unofficially for more than 20.

She took the audience through the explosion of the rave scene back in the late eighties and the moral panic that surrounded it – fuelled by the red-tops and the death of Leah Betts – before the Criminal Justice Bill largely put an end to outdoor raves forcing them into restrictive clubs.

The move was ‘coincidentally’ mirrored by an aggressive marketing campaign by the alcohol companies, which had seen a massive decline in sales, with alco-pops and energy drinks pitched as the new ecstasy.

Moore also reminded us of the lesser-known Criminal Justice (Raves) Bill 2008 that made it illegal to even look like you were setting-up a rave!

But ultimately her research revealed that 20-years-on ecstasy was still the clubbers’ drug of choice despite it’s disappearance between 2008 and 2010 and the increased use of drugs like ketamine and mephedrone.

And despite warning of the consequences of young people being criminalised by drug convictions she stopped short of calling for legalisation.

However despite Muggs’ annihilation of much of club culture, Moore’s academic research decreed it’s effects had been largely positive; a point supported by the agreeable crowd.

Pirate Bay founder warns of consequences of cashless society

WHILE Swedish authorities dished out sentences of between eight months and a year yesterday to the three founders of illegal file-sharing website The Pirate Bay, a relaxed Peter Sunde was at the London Web Summit warning of the risks of the continuing push towards a cashless society.

Sunde, who was given eight months for copyright infringement but plans to appeal, told delegates at the £1,000 a ticket event that with all current digital transactions being traceable, and with no anonymous alternative, people could start to change the way they behave for fear of having their spending habits exposed (not withstanding embarrassing expenses claimed by MPs).

He predicted people will avoid spending their money on potentially controversial transactions. “If you want to give money to the Red Cross that’s fine you can stand up for it, but if you want to buy porn or give money to left or right wing extremist parties because you really believe in their cause, [while] it’s not illegal, everyone can see that you did that and that is the problem.”

With only nine per cent of transactions in Europe being made with cash and the number shrinking he called for an urgent discussion on the matter.

Sunde issued the warning as he sat alongside John Lunn, director of innovation at Paypal, who he accused, along with the major credit card companies, of being able to essentially close down companies by blocking payments, as experienced by Wikileaks, without legal direction because of political or financial pressures.

The Swede said: “Companies like Paypal aren’t helping either. They still owe me £4000 which they kept in one of our accounts because they didn’t like the cause and that is a big problem you wouldn’t have with cash.”

Lunn refused to comment.

Alternative payment systems such as Bitcoin – where virtual cash stored on an electronic device can be sent directly to recipients without being easily monitored – could help solve the problem was it not for the mountain of expensive legislation between those wanting to enter the banking sector and operating legally, Sunde said.

“When I talk about Bitcoin some people get upset that I say it’s probably illegal because in-order to have some sort of currency you have to have an anti-money laundering scheme, an anti-terrorist scheme … and if you don’t you’re breaking the law.

“As long as Bitcoin is very small no one would really care but with Wikileaks and big brands using it, it becomes more obvious and is going to be a big attack on the system and if you are not aware of that being a problem you are going to have a problem yourself.”

Sunde, who has recently set-up micro-payment site Flattr, acknowledged the need for some monitoring and legislation of financial transactions but said there needs to be a compromise.

He also pointed out the lack of outlets to exchange Bitcoins into some other form of useful currency.

Meanwhile Paypal are set to bring there far from anonymous online payment system to the high street using smartphones.

Lunn said: “Paypal Here allows you to check into a store using the App so you don’t need to take your phone out of your pocket to make a payment because they can see your Avatar on their till; you pay, you leave.”

The PH device, similar to the iZettle card-reader that has just launched in the UK, can also be plugged into a smartphone allowing mobile card transactions but charges a hefty 2.7 per cent per swipe.

Upstart Ben Milne, founder and CEO of the US internet instant payment system Dwolla – which charges a flat 25 cents per transfer over $10 – believes, like Sunde, people should have cheap and direct control over their money.

He said: “Everyone should be able to exchange money with virtually anyone in real time virtually free. It seems illogical that money should be worth less because you exchanged it.”

Sunde added: “It doesn’t cost that much any-more [to transfer money electronically] even though the banks and credit card companies believe they can charge that.”

However Milne dismissed the idea of anonymous transactions indicating a cashless society will soon be upon us, but did call for the banks to improve data protection.

Paypal’s John Lunn went one further questioning the need for banks.

He said: “[With chip-and-pin the banks] have completely divested all their responsibilities in looking after your data so why bank with them, what are they giving you? I stopped using my bank when they gave me a 13-digit password.”

Finklestein: a reasonable solution is needed to get people’s backing to force Israel-Palestine Settlement

Prof Norman Finklestein delivers his solution to the conflict

FOR decades people have been calling for a just solution to the Israel-Palestine saga but there has been little consensus on what it should be.

One-state or two, bi-lateral or federal, Jewish or Islamic; these options are the subject of fierce debate between commentators and supporters of both camps, but with little agreement.

“It always comes up. Do you support one state or two? It’s completely irrelevant. The question is what is the public prepared to support.”

And this marks the crux of Professor Norman Finklestein’s latest analysis: if those who follow the issue can’t agree on a solution, how can the wider public be expected to back one, whom without there will never be one.

So the Jewish-American has set-out to provide a solution so reasonable that it appeals to the wider public’s sense of fairness ratcheting up the pressure on Israel, via their governments, to accept an agreement.

With Israel’s international standing in decline, Finklestein believes the time is right to act.

At a two-and-a-half hour lecture at Imperial College last week, Finklestein, who has spent the last 30 years offering new perspectives and analysis on the subject, outlined his plan.

It essentially offers little new, but meets the majority of both sides reasonable demands, but if adopted by campaigners, could prove to be far greater than the sum of its parts.

It calls for a 1.9% land swap that would make the homes of 300,000 Israeli settlers (60%) part of Israel while allowing for a contiguous and viable Palestine – a proposal made by President Abbas in 2009 during more failed talks.

While the land exchange would still leave 200,000 settlers in the West Bank, he believes the majority would voluntarily return to Israel if a compensation package was on offer – as they are economic not ideological settlers – and the rest would soon leave without protection from the army.

The rest of the agreement is based on international law; right-of-return for refugees, an independent state based on 1967 borders and an end to the military occupation.

All highly disputed issues for Israel, but Finklestein trashes any contention citing rulings made by the International Court of Justice.

He said: “All 15 judges, including two Jews, said the settlements are illegal. They are not controversial, they’re illegal.

“The territories are disputed [according to Israel]. No they’re not. All 15 judges at the ICJ said they are occupied.

“Israel said Jerusalem is it’s indivisible capital but the judges say it’s occupied. There’s no dispute.”

And while the ICJ did not rule on the refugees’ right-of-return, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both acknowledged their right, he said.

The deal is so reasonable and simple, he says, the public’s sense of ethics will identify with and support it.

This was how Ghandi led the Indian revolt against the British occupation in the 40s knowing armed struggle would not work, he said.

“Ghandi said politics is not about changing public opinion it’s about getting them [the public] to change what they know is wrong [but] the public have to agree to your methods and your goal.

“It’s not about your personal morality,” he told the audience, “it’s about the public’s sense of right and wrong.”

Finklestein said with the lift from the Arab Spring and growing resentment over Israel’s behaviour now is the time to build a consensus for a final settlement.

Quoting statistics from BBC and Human Rights Watch polls he said Israel’s international image is consistently declining, even amongst American Jews who are finding it harder than ever to defend the tiny state over its human rights abuses highlighting the use of cluster bombs and white phosphorous against civilians in Lebanon and Gaza.

He said: “Most Jewish-Americans are liberal. It’s become impossible to call themselves liberal and defend that.

“There’s a broad public ready to listen, but we need to present them with a solution to the conflict or they will get frustrated and move on and it would be a wasted opportunity.”

Israel’s insistence that the Palestinians recognise the country as a Jewish state as part of any negotiations is just a reflection of its inability to defend the indefensible, he says, but has an answer for this too.

Egypt and Jordan, which both signed peace agreements with Israel, have never recognised Israel as a Jewish state and were never asked to, so why should the Palestinians?

“Little Israel doesn’t have a leg to stand on,” he said.

It all sounds so simple, but it’s not the first time someone believes they have come up with the solution to the sixty-five-year-old problem and try telling the to more radical Palestine supporters to give more land away, yet Finklestein is upbeat.

“I think we have every reason to be hopeful. People are ready to listen. We just have to get them to act. Our challenge now is to show the broad public we are the reasonable ones. We just want to enforce the law as everyone recognises it to be, with no exceptions. No-one can call this map unfair.”

Woman found not guilty of brothel keeping says law puts women at risk #SheilaFarmer #ECP

A WOMAN found not guilty of running a brothel after the prosecution offered no evidence has called for the law to be changed to legitimise safe working environments for prostitutes.

Sheila Farmer worked from a flat with three others in Bromley, Kent, before police raided it in August, 2010, after complaints from neighbours and was subsequently arrested for brothel-keeping with a colleague.

After a long and stressful 17 months she was found not guilty at Croydon Crown Court on Wednesday and can think about getting on with her life.

But she has used the case to highlight the consequences of the government’s ban on brothels which forces women to work alone and put themselves at serious risk.

Assault, rape and murder are occupational hazards of the profession.

According to one report (Hard Knock Life: 2008) 63 per cent of prostitutes are physically assaulted during their working life, 20 per cent of street workers are raped and as a whole are 18 times more likely to be murdered than the general population.

Ms Farmer was viciously attacked herself while working alone when she was tied up and raped repeatedly by a client nearly 20 years ago; she has worked in groups ever since.

A 2002 report into street-workers (Client violence against prostitute women working from street and off-street locations: a three city comparison) said ‘the illicit nature of street prostitution means that the women tend to work alone and sell sex in dark, isolated places. This increases their vulnerability and makes it easier for clients to impose violence. Off-street women have the benefit of knowing their environment and they are often in the company of other women, managers or maids, who can monitor client activity’.

Since her health deteriorated , she suffers from diabetes and more recently battled cancer, Ms Farmer took to running a safe space for others to base themselves until her arrest in 2010.

She said: “The laws are antiquated. It’s legal to work on your own, but you subject yourself to all sorts of dangers. Now I’ve been forced to go onto benefits [since the arrest] because I’m not allowed to run a brothel. I should be allowed to work in safety. It’s my body. No other laws are being broken. I’m just trying to survive.”

But the government say the majority of the 8,000 off-street women believed to work in parlours, flats and saunas in London do not enjoy such an independent lifestyle as they have been trafficked, are controlled by pimps or both.

Many women’s groups agree suggesting that only high-end escorts could possibly choose to work in the industry with the majority that are not trafficked being victims of drug abuse or extreme poverty.

But given prostitution itself is not illegal groups such as the English Collective of Prostitutes and the International Union of Sex-Workers want the laws to be changed to give prostitutes the same rights as other workers not least the right to work in a safe environment and free from the risk of arrest.

The British laws on prostitution are a mess.

The Crown Prosecution Service’s own guidelines states prostitutes should be encouraged not to work on the street, but recommends the prosecution of anyone who manages the premises they use.

Ultimately the case fell through as the prosecution were unable to track down their witness, Ruby X, who also worked at the flat in Bromley, and Ms Farmer is free.

But Cari Mitchell, from the ECP who supported Ms Farmer throughout the case, said: “She, like many other sex workers, should never have been forced to choose between safety and legality. Why is it legal to work alone but not with others. The prostitution laws are endangering women and should be abolished. Why are police wasting time and money prosecuting sex workers while rapists and racists go free?”

#OccupyLondon takeover disused #Hackney courthouse for mock trials of the 1%

Occupy London will stage a series of mock trials of politicians and banks in the coming weeks after occupying Old Street Magistrates Court this week.

A retired judge, along with solicitors and barristers, will oversee proceedings in the Grade II listed building that has lain empty for the past 15 years, according to those behind the action.

Activists are currently cleaning and tidying up the building, but have already assigned the basement cells to those they intend to prosecute.

They include Tony Blair, George Bush, Boris Johnson, Merryl Lynch, Goldman Sachs and the Corporation of London.

The courthouse is the fourth space the London occupy movement have taken over, the others being St Pauls, Finsbury Square, in City Road, and the UBS building, in nearby Sun Street, which they have renamed Bank of Ideas.

Several court cases initiated by UBS and the City of London Corporation are ongoing in a bid to evict the activists.

#Hackney youth charity launches campaign to establish extent of sofa-surfing #homeless problem

Supporters watch the premiere of Sofa-surfer at Boxpark on Wednesday

FOR many young people sofa-surfing is a way of travelling on the cheap, but for others it is a way of life that keeps them off the streets at night.

Unable to live at home the troubled youths seek refuge at friends and relatives’ until the goodwill dries up there too.

Before they know it they can be befriending strangers in the hope of having somewhere warm and safe to stay for the night.

Hackney teenager JRC was one of those having moved between relatives, friends and strangers’ homes for years unable to return home to her mother’s.

Eventually she found local charity Off Centre, which helps 11 to 25-year-olds with domestic or social problems, and with its support moved into supported housing and things began to pick up.

But like many services suffering from austerity measures funding dried up and the teenager was evicted along with the rest of the tenants and is now back to sleeping on sofas.

Delores McPherson, clinical director at the Off Centre, said they are seeing an ever increasing number of young people in similar circumstances as services are cut, but are unable to put a figure on it as there are no official statistics.

Appropriately they are called the hidden homeless flying under the government and local authority’s radar.

In a bid to raise awareness and get a grasp on the size of the problem, Off Centre has launched a campaign; producing a short film, Sofa-surfer, to kick it off.

The film, shot in Hackney, tells JRC’s very real and sad story and was premièred at the Art Against Knives space at the new pop-up mall Boxpark, in Shoreditch, on Wednesday night.

Gail Tavernier, who works at Off Centre and produced the film, said: “It’s a regular problem we face so we thought it was important to voice the problem. Due to the cuts more and more supported housing is closing so we don’t have anywhere to refer young people to.”

The consequences to young people being forced to live so precariously can have serious effects on their lives leading to drugs, depression, relationship breakdowns and giving up on education.

Alastair Murray, deputy director at Christian housing charity Housing Justice, said the problem is only going to get worse when the government’s cap on housing allowance for the under 35s kicks in.

Alastair Murray of charity Housing Justice warns the audience homelessness will get worse as under 35s have their housing allowance capped from April

From April under 35s living alone will have to move into shared accommodation as their entitlement is slashed. “Where will they go?” he asked.

He blames the problem on successive governments’ failure to invest in new housing, instead, relying on the private sector to build.

He said: “We [the government] spend ten-times more on housing benefit than we do on building new homes. A lot of that money is going to private landlords when it could be kept in the local authority if it bought social housing. With an expanding population we need to spend more on housing.”

Murray also called for the private rental sector to be regulated to keep rents affordable as they are in other EU countries.

He said: “Housing should be about having somewhere to live, not an investment vehicle or an aspiration that everyone should have.”

*If you are sofa-surfing or know someone who is you can help build a better picture of the problem by sharing your story at www.sofasurferfilm.com

#OccupyLondon pulls banner stunt under police’s noses after pension’s rally; 21 arrested #n30

Pic: Si Brown: Activists joined the national rally before splitting off to make their own statement

TWENTY-ONE activists were arrested after entering offices believed to belong to the highest paid CEO in the country and hanging a banner from its roof that read ‘All power to the 99%’.

The intervention in Panton Street, off Haymarket, took place following a march through London in protest over cuts to public sector pensions proposed by the government.

The group from Occupy London targeted Michael Davis’ office after he was named as the biggest earning CEO, at mining company Xstrata, in the FTSE 350 (the 350 highest valued companies registered at the London stock exchange) during November having been paid £18.5m over the past year.

Police, who had been keeping an eye on the activists as they congregated in Picadilly Circus supposedly for a general assembly meeting, lost track of them as they left the area following a samba band.

Around 60 people reportedly entered the building before police chased after them, but not before they unfurled their banner much to the delight to those below.

Outside officers blocked the entrance to the building preventing anyone else from entering leading to tussles with protesters as the purpose of the action was spelt out over a loud-hailer.

Within minutes around a further 100 police officers arrived kettling scores of people who were unable to escape despite warnings from fellow activists.

Several people were singled out and arrested in violent struggles as friends attempted to de-arrest them.

A police statement said the 21 arrests were for burglary, aggravated trespass, criminal damage and assaulting a police officer.

Karen Lincoln, a supporter of Occupy London said: “Mick Davies is a prime example of the greedy one per cent, lining their own pockets while denying workers pensions. In this time when the government enforces austerity on the 99 per cent, these executives are profiting. The rest of us are having our pensions cuts, health service torn apart and youth centres shut down.

“We refuse to stand by and let this happen. We call on others to join us in the fight for a more just society. Today we have taken this to one of the offices of the one per cent. This is only the beginning. Come and join us on 15^th December for Occupy Everywhere.”

The action followed a peaceful march by tens of thousands of people from Holborn to Westminster by 29 trade unions representing public sector workers fighting government plans to make staff increase pension contributions by three per cent while being forced to work for a year longer.

The march was part of a national strike that saw around 2m people take part forcing public services to close or run reduced services, however, it was clear that many people chose not to support the action and crossed picket lines to work.

Police arrest 37 for affray outside #Hackney library as borough’s public sector goes on strike over pensions #n30

THIRTY-SEVEN people arrested for suspicion of breach of the peace outside a library in Hackney today have this evening been re-arrested for affray.

It is not clear why the group, that included activists, academics and public sector workers on strike over cuts to their pensions, were initially arrested, but one witness, who arrived as the group were being kettled outside CLR James Library in Dalston Lane, said it seemed unprovoked and unnecessarily violent.

The police, accompanied by around six dogs, were accused of pushing two woman, believed to be in their 50s, to the ground before arresting them for no apparent reason.

The activist, who did not want to be named, said: “I did not see what happened before, but I could see no reason for the kettle, the violence or the arrests.”

He said those detained in the kettle were arrested one at a time before being put into police vans.

The Metropolitan Police said a Section 60 was in place based on intelligence authorising stop and search measures in the area, but gave no further information.

Around 100 activists, friends and family of those arrested demonstrated outside Stoke Newington Police Station tonight over the detentions.

Officers at the station failed to shed any light on the nature of the arrests or who they were detaining.

Earlier Hackney’s dustmen and street cleaners got the national strike under way at the crack-of-dawn as up to 2m public sector workers took industrial action across the country in a bid to save their pensions.

The national strike began early at Homerton Hospital which is also under threat of redundancies

The government wants to increase contributions made by staff by three per cent while forcing them to work a year longer from 2020 for the same payout following retirement.

However, dozens of staff could be seen crossing picket lines at Homerton Hospital, the Town Hall and the Technology and Learning Centre, which houses the library, museum and Education Trust, while street cleaners could be seen at work on Mare Street prompting an angry reaction by a striking teacher.

Karen Lynn, Unison’s education convenor for Hackney, said: “Some people don’t to lose a days pay and some are young and think pensions are so far away that they’re not important to them at the moment.”

Hackney Council said waste services and leisure centres, which are contracted out, would be unaffected by the strike, but all libraries, except Stamford Hill, would be closed and Hackney Homes would only be carrying out emergency repairs.

The majority of schools are also closed due to the action, however, Mossbourne Academy said it was closed for routine staff training while Petchy Academy would be open to three year groups.

Civilian police staff were reportedly also striking along with some PCSOs.

Ms Lynn said: “I hope the government will listen. No one chooses to strike, but people do feel strongly. It’s our money we pay into our pensions. The government has no right to take it. It’s like a savings bond. The average female pension is only £4,000 a year so we can’t afford to have it taken away.”

Paramedics and ambulance drivers kept warm outside their station on Homerton High Street as they huddled round a bin-fire encouraged by cars tooting their horns in support.

However, attempts to prevent a laundry van crossing the picket line at nearby Homerton Hospital failed as a private security guard intervened upsetting one nurse who said non-essential deliveries should be turned back.

Pickets unsuccessfully attempt to prevent a laundry van crossing the picket line at Homerton Hospital

Ruth Woolhouse, Unison’s shop steward for the child and mental health department of the hospital, said the threat of cuts to people’s pensions had boosted recruitment to the union in recent months, but there was still work to do.

She said: “We had redundancies in April and our managers have told us there will be more next April as they need to make a four per cent cut in efficiency savings every year, but we still have the same amount of work to do.”

Back at the waste depot Jim, the Unison shop steward, warned of further strikes if the government did not listen.

He said: “We had a strike two years ago but this is more heartfelt, it’s a popular strike. The union has put forward reasonable options, but they [the government] are just saying no, but I think they [the negotiations] will come to a reasonable conclusion [otherwise] it could happen again in the new year.”

But George Osborne criticised the unions for taking strike action while talks were still ongoing.

A Hackney spokeswoman advised residents with non-urgent enquiries to contact the Council on another day, but would be keeping services in place for its most ‘vulnerable’ residents.