Scottish housing policies ?

[Bob Young]

M_Andreis Allamandola [suburban_studio at riseup.net] wrote:

WE could start a serious campaign against the Neo-Lib pro poor
campaign that SHELTER is booming in UK with the solidarity and earthed
approach of Abbe Pierre !


Jock Coats wrote:
> Do you not think they may be (mistakenly) using the community buy out  
> legislation in Scotland as their "precedent"?
>
> Not exactly applicable to urban areas or housing shortages but the  
> principle is sound enough - access to land - and you could argue that  
> the community land trust legislation in Scotland makes it legally  
> enforceable.
>
> If France *are* looking at a similar sort of principle in urban areas  
> it could be very interesting.
>
> Jock

IN REPLY

Dear all,
 Are we not confusing the patronizing attempt to 'deal' with the homeless
with something altogether more radical i.e. the right to self-determination
and the reform of land law to restore the human right of access to land and
therefore to the possibility of a livelihood which is not valued/priced by
the state?

This is from 'The social structures of the Economy' by Pierre Bourdieu
[2005] which highlights the obstinacy of supply side politics:

"To explain why the public authorities have chosen, in the case of housing,
to co-ordinate production and distribution through administrative regulation
rather than to leave matters to market forces, we must further take into
consideration, first, the state of social representations, whether implicit
or objectified in law or regulations, which lay down that certain
non-substitutable services are to be provided for all; and, second, the
imperfections or shortcomings of competition and the logic of the market
which, in a determinate state of the social awareness of what is tolerable
and intolerable, makes necessary an intervention aimed at protecting the
interests of users of the services against unacceptable discrimination
through the price mechanism." 
http://www.pembs-segal.org.uk/documents/Construction.competition.privilege.d
oc


This next quote is from Alastair McIntosh in "The Scottish Highlands in
Colonial & Psychodynamic Perspective"

"But landlordism perverts the person-place relationship. Like a priest
claiming to mediate between humankind and God, the laird bolsters his
virility through theft of the vitality that belongs to those who live on,
work with, cherish and feel themselves to be cherished by a place. The laird
then claims to be the true steward of the land and, of course, the generous
benefactor and arbitrator of its communities."
http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/articles/1994_interculture.htm


My dilemma, in attempting to deal with the monopolization of the housing
'market' is that we are stuck in the protestant ethic of provision - the
economic commodification, not just of land, but of human identity, disallows
participation as part of the ecological cycle. I cannot help believing that
we are, like the Palestinians, being forced from our homes by the process of
globalization. 

This next quote is from Democracy Now on Israeli Immigration Policy. The
quote is by Leah Tsemel, Israeli Human Rights Lawyer.

"There is a need increasingly in Israel to segregate the Palestinians, to
isolate them. And every educated, well-known people with impact or
connections are not welcome. And I think this is the basis of this policy.
They don't want all these powerful foreigners, some of them with money, some
of them with education; they don't want them around. They want to have poor,
needy Palestinians, who would sell their power of work cheaply, and that's
it. This is the main purpose, to isolate the Palestinians and to impoverish
them. Therefore, it's not a surprise that even the higher education policy
is very clear. They don't want to have those foreigners to teach in the
different universities. They want to dry up the education, to dry up the
economy, and to turn the Palestinians into even poorer and more needy
people."
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/18/1621247
  

Yes I am all for campaigns - but I think we have to be pragmatic about what
we hope to achieve - I have been campaigning for land for self-build and
Community Land Trust for a while - now we need to form groups and decide on
some formulas for action - I don't think we are going to get anything handed
to us on a plate - not to belittle the achievement of Abbe Pierre.

Unite and organize - we are everywhere!

Bob Young

http://green-culture.blogspot.com/
http://www.aradicalblackfoot.blogspot.com/
http://ehrenreich.blogs.com/barbaras_blog/
http://www.moneyasdebt.net/