Belgo Geordie: MILLERS POINT: Getting in the way of progress: The Liberal gutting of a Sydney community

Eee up, it's two years since we kicked the good folk inta touch by sellin' off yon Millers Point. Of course for those not blessed with living' in Sydney; Millers Point is the last small pocket of a working class community livin' close to watta by Sydney harbour. Can't be having' that and with a dose of Thatcher like logic - kick out the poor and replace them with a crew of capitalist screw doctors. If you have not visited this part of Sydney it is yon streets around the new vaunted Bangaroo park. Of course the Libs dress it up as freeing money into the public purse to build more public housing...but thus far all it has done is fed deeper into the maw of greed. As evidenced in the symbol of the still rising monolith of the casino. Packer and Ashley? Root an Branch! Both greedy pricks screwing over their workers as they build their empires. As Clover Moore (Mayor of Sydney) pointed out one speculator bought a seized house off the NSW government then nine months later sold it making 700,000 grand profit. In Balmain today, a once workers cottage sold for over one point one million dollars..A former workers cottage which as was pointed out by one speaker today - was not a flash build in the first place. Real estate agents, the consummate bottom feeders of today's society, crow about the once mean (read working class) streets now gentrifying-a better class of punter is occupying the burb and drinking in the pub-sorry family friendly bistro/hostelry. And all those lot are being forced out far, far way - out of sight of the monied classes and so it goes...

Now there is romanticism attached to some of the rhetoric around working class communities of the past. The ones I grew up in in sixties Britain were mean, hard places. Violence, alcohol, gambling were common. There were crooks and weasels aplenty. Housing stock was often near derelict and the new estates quickly became slums. Ignorance was at times summat to be proud of like in racism - its alreet they're wor blackies; views about the place of women, homosexuality (the opposite of being a real man and capable of carrying out a full day's hard wurk) and sadly at times, learning-particularly studying past fifteen. And hypocrisy sufficient to water the eye of an onion. Read Orwell and even thirty years after the time he was writing about-the changes were minor. But they were communities and that included a strong streak of decency. Socialism was in my blood. My great grandma, half blind, brought in anyone who needed feeding to her table. She gave away more than she ever had in her lifetime. She did this because it was the right thing to do and she could do it and she expected her children to follow suit. And many did. Great uncles were in the pits and at sea, were labourers - were union men until their last breath. Not because what was in it for them but because again, it was the right thing to do. And they went on strike in the days when the polis bashed your head with wooden truncheons and kicked you with steel toe capped boots and if you were seen as a 'trouble maker' e.g. a union person-then jobs were hard to come by.

But Newcastle Upon Tyne lost its industry, its jobs and bit by bit its community and with that a sense of identity with deep roots. And money came to town, invested in the nice areas and turned estates into no go ghettos. And this is Millers Point. The same story. Once a thriving area of workers for the wharves it has slowly declined as shipping moved over to Botany. But kept alive by the mix of housing commission housing - but with people living there who had been there for most of their lives. With a village green it has its own unique identity. And because of the rich mixture of people it was alive and vibrant in ways long lost in the more affluent harbour suburbs. This is something hard to quantify with money - but money can quantify profit and fat profit at that. Along came O'Farrell and later the Baird gravy train with their belief profit should always come before people (unless the people are your mates from the top end of town). And so two years ago began the great eviction and carve up. And today a march to commemorate the fighting spirit of this community who although punch drunk is still standing and facing forward. 200 people came out and it was good to see the turn out from the Maritime Union of Australia and the construction workers unions.
An why is this so important? Social housing. Did sum-un fart in church? Like socialism - a dirty word these days. The late great socialist warrior Tom Uren understood the need to support social community and mixed housing (Glebe) which these muppets in Liberal 'if it can make us money then sell it' twats don't get. And after Millers Point- all housing commission properties in areas where developers scent greed; will be up for grabs. La Pereuse, Alexandria and Glebe were mentioned. Good on the pollies who turned up to speak and be part of this. So big hug to all who turned oop at this small but quality protest on Saturday. And Jimmy Donovan and Ken Canning you are the men! Support Ken in his stand on the Socialist Alliance election to NSW senate. Enjoy and use the photographs.