Now -read the book!

Here is a link to my memoirs which, if you are a glutton for punishment, you can purchase online at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history.
Men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name. (William Morris - A Dream of John Ball)

Thursday, September 30, 2010

The ALMO's Alamo?

The Alamo was the site, of course, of a defiant and doomed last stand against overwhelming odds (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Alamo?wasRedirected=true).



Somehow I thought of this yesterday evening at the AGM of our local ALMO, Lambeth Living.



There had been a larger number of people outside Stockwell YMCA in the pouring rain at the UNISON lobby than were at the subsequent AGM - even though half a dozen UNISON members also attended the meeting.



The lobby - our local contribution to the ETUC Day of Action yesterday - was a lively, if damp, affair helped on by a kind donation of inflatable UNISON "thundersticks" from Regional Office.



The complete absence of local support for the existence of the ALMO was obvious to all those not in possession of rose-tinted spectacles, to which ALMO Chair and former local MP, Keith Hill, referred more than once as he laboured the point that Lambeth's Housing stock had not been well-managed before the advent of Lambeth Living.



Like Jim Bowie at the Alamo, ALMO management may have drawn a line in the sand and pledged to defend the top heavy management structure from which they do so nicely. Lambeth's Labour Councillors should act now to stop this self-interested waste of public money.



Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

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