The inhumanity of high-rise living

The burning of the Grenfell tower block in London on the 14th June 2017 is of course a tragedy for the people who have lost their lives, or have lost loved ones.  But beyond the human tragedy, the burning down of a massive residential block of flats, raises issues which need to be addressed:

• Firstly, the question of the very existence of cattle-pen accommodation for the Working Classes;
• Secondly, the over-population problem for the UK, with the serious problem of massive urbanisation and the destruction of nature;
• Thirdly, the complete lack of control over the borders, which is driving the demand for more high rise slum dwellings

All these factors exist in combination, and all need to be approached with the end goal of returning the UK to a natural order in which the people live in harmony with nature and not as mere pawns of the global finance-capitalist oligarchy.

There has been a great deal of comment about the fact that a considerable number of the people housed in Grenfell Tower were illegal immigrants, and that many of the tenants illegally subletted their flats, leading to an already densely populated block of flats becoming dangerously overcrowded. These are certainly significant factors in the high death toll, but the fact remains, that regardless of the backgrounds of the people who occupied the flats at the time of the fire, they were built to house Working Class people.  Fire does not check for immigration status; fire kills indiscriminately.  The death-trap tower blocks which the Working Class have been forced into for decades, remain death-traps, and the tory medias obsession with the origins of the residents of Grenfell, is a distraction from the cold hard fact that buildings like Grenfell exist all over the country, and the Ruling Class could not care less who perished in the fire - a fire which could have occurred at any time in any tower block.

The blaze in London could have occurred in any other block of flats which had been coated in highly inflammable cladding.  At present, it has been found that every single sample of cladding submitted for testing has been found to be potentially deadly in case of fire.  The number of tower blocks thus far tested numbers nearly 100 at the time of writing - and it is certain to be much higher.  That number represents tens of thousands of people who are at risk if a fire should start, and numbers only a tiny percentage of the total tower block stock, putting the number of people at risk into very high figures.

The number of tower blocks and related social housing developments in the UK is testament to the arrogance of government in creating accommodation for the Working Class which they would not consider fit to house their own families.  There are literally thousands of tower blocks in the UK. They were sold to the public as 'vertical streets', but are nothing more than high rise slums. For those of us who currently live (or at some time have lived) in such buildings, no amount of mealy-mouthed propagandising will cover up the reality we know of high rise living: Flats are antisocial places where there can be no privacy, no respite from noise, no escape from the lumpen-proletarian dross who are crammed into such places alongside good people who the Ruling Class look down upon with equal bile.  They are not vertical streets - they are vertical prisons.

The Ruling Class created the Tower Block system of accommodation with no care for how it would affect the people who had to live in them.  It doesn't take a genius to work out that cramming people together in blocks of flats, disconnected from access to nature, sharing a typically urine-soaked lift to get from the ground to where you live, with junkies and alcoholics partying at all hours with relentless shouting and 'music', with prostitutes/burglars/thieves and other scum for neighbours, doesn't do much for the mental health of anyone living in such places. Local authorities put single mothers in the same blocks as paedophiles, good people who are in need of housing in with criminal rubbish who have been released from prison and have to be housed somewhere.  To the powers that be, we are all scum, and we are all to be dumped together in inhumane accommodation where rampant criminality and antisocial behaviour cannot fail to cause depression, feelings of hopelessness, and pave the way for the decline of the ordinary Working Class into adopting some of the ways of the lumpens.

The tragedy of Grenfell could have happened anywhere, and could happen again at any time. But more than this, the tragedy of forced cohabitation and dislocation from the natural way of living, is a sure path to degeneracy and despair.  SWPE demands that all people be housed in a manner which is fitting to human beings, having land to produce food, space to live well (not just exist), with buildings made to be not only homes, but potential workshops.  Homes should be places which encourage the human mind to grow and inspire the individual and family to develop and create works of art/culture, and works of labour which are good for the individual/family and also for the community as a whole.  We demand that all tower blocks (housing and business) be brought down by controlled demolition, and the people be rehoused in ways which are good for humanity - in purpose built small towns with adequate land per dwelling and adequate space for work, dwelling, art and leisure.  We demand an end to cities and a restoration of the bond between people and the natural world.

What we are calling for cannot happen until we take back control over our country and make it a place which works for the people.  The globalist capitalist system relies on open borders to drive down wages and crush cultural homogeneity, making the whole world a bland uniform mass of indistinguishable robot-like people who care nothing for life other than the basest hedonistic pursuits, including the cut-throat accumulation of trinkets and gadgets obtained by stepping on people who are less willing to exploit other people than they are. We demand the borders be tightly sealed - which for an island nation with a navy, is not a major challenge.  We demand that our land be protected, which means the population explosion be reversed.  The Ruling Class and their collaborators must go! The lumpen-proletariat are in many ways as much a problem as the rulers, and they too must go.  We want nothing short of a total revolution.  We are not democratic socialist reformers, happy to tinker with a few minor points of living, but essentially keeping the system intact.  We have a vision of a better world, built upon the concept of Socialism in One Country, one country at a time.

Grenfell happened because the Ruling Class and its Capitalist system see the Working Class as desposable and replacable, seeing us of no more value than an old pair of shoes.  We say that we are humans and that we matter far more than the puruit of profits.  The entire focus of life has to be shifted, and those who cannot become useful members of a non-exploiting Socialist society, need to be swept away just like their anti-human buildings and their anti-human ethos.