|
|
 |
| |
We owe it to Tommy to give our kids hope
Tommy Winston’s death is the tragic outcome of young lives abandoned to the streets, argues Alan Walter
THE apology from Ty Anderson on the CNJ front page last week just adds to the bewilderment. It would be easier to understand if Tommy Winston had been killed by a deranged stranger from another planet. It’s harder when his attacker was a life long best mate.
I watched Tommy and Ty growing up on Peckwater. They were serious about their football but also spent many of their teenage hours hanging out.
Tommy’s wasn’t the first life to be lost on the streets of Kentish Town – Frankie Kyriacou was stabbed to death in May 2002 as was Jahmai Conquest in July 2002. All three murders were prompted by the kind of petty disputes that might have left bruises or broken noses in times past but now increasingly involve stabbings.
Previous generations met up with their mates but they could optimistically plan about getting a job, maybe going to university first and setting up their own home. Even if you didn’t have academic qualifications there were proper jobs (often with the opportunity for a formal apprentiship) with major local employers like the council, post, railways and NHS. With money in your pocket and a sense of status and purpose in life you could start relationships and plan your future.
The choice Blair’s Britain confronts most teenagers with on leaving school today is short term contracts and part time employment on poverty pay and conditions (that my generation would have angrily rejected) or a college course they’re often not sure they want – and even less sure where it will get them.
Many don’t even get that far. One thoussand pupils a year get excluded (a tag that often sticks for life) from Camden schools ‘incentivised’ to improve their exam results which in turn makes non-academic kids viewed even more as a ‘problem’.
The chance of growing up, moving out and setting up your own home seems beyond reach. This reality is having a devastating impact. The stabbings are just the most brutal evidence. Whilst previous generations have been confident that their kids will go on to have a better life than themselves most parents today are worried sick about what kind of life their kids can look forward to.
I often boil with rage as a ’ped races up and down outside when I’m trying to relax at home. Of course it’s anti social: it’s thoughtless and dangerous. But carefully watching kids organising themselves to take turns on a ped makes me direct my anger elsewhere too: why aren’t there any decent local facilities providing an alternative venue? Why doesn’t the council create an off road facility and provide popular motor mechanics workshops that would take the problem off our estates?
It’s clearly not about money. Politicians now compete with each other over plans to spend huge sums on ‘community safety’ and an increasingly right wing agenda that seeks to criminalise many young people. It’s a choice: they could instead fund neighbourhood teams of professional youth workers to engage our kids, advise on education and employment opportunities and introduce them to the wealth of London resources that tourists come to enjoy but most Camden kids never get a taste of. ‘Inclusive’ rather than ‘divisive’!
A couple of pool tables won’t miraculously solve the problem but the Caversham Youth Club we’ve demanded for years would provide a safer and more productive environment to hanging out on the streets. We need permanent facilities. The short term funding we get now is next to useless – here today and gone tomorrow.
The King’s Cross development offers real opportunities to provide new council housing, community facilities and proper skilled jobs for local kids. If the council lacks the resolve to win more through ‘planning gain’ then perhaps the ‘community’ needs to negotiate direct with the developers – and threaten them with mass disruption on site if they won’t negotiate a better deal for local people?
This is a class issue. Those with wealth are confident that their future is secure. And, in the meantime, there are plenty of exciting ways to spend an evening, weekend or school holiday that they can easily afford. If you have a big house there’s room to hang out with your mates but if you live in an overcrowded flat you have no alternative but to meet up on the street.
Karl Marx, the 19th-century political philosopher, used the term ‘alienation’ to describe the despair caused by a growing chasm between an individual’s needs and aspirations and their daily experience. It sums up the problem for many young people today.
Marx also argued “Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past”. Society shapes how individuals react but we don’t have to put up with the crap. If we organise collectively we can demand changes to how society is run and how resources are used.
Candidates standing in the Kentish Town council by-election must be challenged to directly address these issues and the lack of opportunity for many kids growing up in Camden instead of hiding behind sound bite politics.
One way we can honour Tommy Winston is by helping young people in the area to organise a major Kentish Town event on the anniversary of his death. They could take the floor to put forward the changes they want to make Kentish Town a better place to grow up in.
The community – including local elected representatives of all kinds - could listen first, and then discuss what we can do to support them. A big public event would give young people a real voice and respect and I’m sure there are plenty of big names (football and hip-hop stars) who would agree to take part.
We owe it to Tommy and the rest to do more than just spectate. Teenagers and parents from Kentish Town have descended on the Town Hall before to demand youth services and facilities. If they’re not listening now we’ll do it again! Our kids deserve a better future!
• Alan Walter is a tenant activist on the Peckwater Estate. |
 |
|
|
|
