Brent

Drivers and station staff walked off the job for 24 hours at 10pm last night (Thursday) over management plans to reduce the number of station staff available to remove passengers from trains. This has caused the closure of the Bakerloo line between Queens Park and Harrow and Wealdstone.

The protestors, including teachers, parents and sports ground users have set up tents on the field with the intention of staying there permanently until the proposal is dropped. Funded by the DfES and private sponsor Andrew Rosenfield, the Academy was approved in January by Brent Council and would sit on what is currently Bridge Road Recreation Ground.

There were mass pickets, sometimes violent, in support of the strikers. They eventually became disillusioned with the half-hearted and obstructive role of the unions and, towards the end of the defeated strike, conducted a hunger strike/picket outside the TUC headquarters.

From 'A Different Hunger', A. Sivanandan, Pluto Press, 1982.

Councils are repossessing all their properties, effectively making Co-op tenants homeless. Traditional social housing stock is disappearing, Co-ops are facing critical times.