Dear Supporters, News Update Number 4 1) David Lammy signs our Pro Bono Form!! Despite voicing reservations about taking a legal route in order to get the Council to listen to us David Lammy has signed our pro bono application and we have now sent it to the Bar Pro Bono Unit. This Unit is a charity which helps organisations to find free legal assistance from volunteer barristers. It is doubtful that they will be able to respond before the MGL is closed on Sunday 30th August but that does not mean we cannot launch a legal challenge to what they are doing. So the fight will continues and as you will see below we have made significant progress. Our campaign is now the centre of debate amongst the Haringey Labour Party. 2) Public Meeting Saturday 29th August 2015 The Campaign continues with a Public Meeting and Rally on Saturday 29th August. The meeting will be a chance for us to review everything that has happened and to plan for the future. We will then have a Rally in front of the Marcus Garvey Centre. The meeting will be from 2-3 pm at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre and the Rally will be from 3 pm. Copies of the Poster advertising the rally are attached to this email as PDF and .doc Make banners, make placards, be CREATIVE let the world know how important Marcus Garvey Library is to you! Come one come all, tell your friends bring your family bring whistle, bring drum. Let us make noise!! 3) Response from Leader of the Council and the Assistant Director of Customer Service. On the 19th August 20 members from FOMGL met with officers from Customer Services and asked them many difficult questions. They have now finally responded and as expected they have failed to provide the documentation that we requested including the raw data from the ‘engagement’ process, copies of tenders issued and a list of the books originally held in the Marcus Garvey Collection. However it was clear from the meeting that no Equality Impact Assessment was undertaken or used in making their decisions about their supposed ‘refurbishment’. 4) Response from Claire Kober We have finally had a response from Claire Kober who has ignored our demand for the closure of the Marcus Garvey Centre on the 30th August to be stopped. But she has finally admitted that there will be a 20% loss of library space which is a departure from the consistent claim that there would be no loss of library space and she states that the ‘improvements’ do not require planning permission as the installing of a customer service centre falls within the Public Libraries Act 1964. She also claims to care about the Marcus Garvey Library Collection and has refused to address our enquiry about why these books were being sold off. 5) Councillors Response Some Friends have contacted their local councilors and the response has been subdued but there has been conflicting information about whether or not the library space will be affected with some councilors stating that there will be no difference, others a 20% reduction and yet others a 30% reduction. However our analysis of the plans indicate the loss would be nearer 50%. Please contact your local councilor. Let them know you care about Marcus Garvey Library. Let them know how much MGL means to you. 6) Labour Meetings Our campaigning is definitely having an impact! The Bruce Grove Branch Labour Party will be having a meeting on Wednesday 2nd September and the main item on their agenda is to debate the following motion: ‘We call on Haringey Council to halt the works to enable a full review of the plans to be carried out based on full consultation with users and engagement with the needs of the community.’ If you are a member of the Labour party then please attend this meeting. Make your vote count!! Jason Arthur Speaks! On the Tuesday 8th September Jason Arthur will be presenting the Council's position on the proposed changes to Marcus Garvey Library. He will be called to account. Again we ask all Labour Friend members to attend this session and together we will expose the contradictions and shortcuts that the Council has taken in order to push through their plans. The meeting will be held at Beehive Pub, Stoneleigh Rd/Tottenham High Road at 7.30 pm. 7) SOAS SOAS has publicized our cause on their website ! 8) Narrative Eye Narrative Eye who deliver Black History Month workshops have requested a presentation about our campaign. A Friend will provide a presentation on Saturday 5th September, the event will take place between 4-9 pm at the Lord Morrison Hall, Scales Rd, N17. Please support this event, Narrative Eye are also fighting to keep their Hall from being closed by the Council. 9) Marcus Garvey Tenders We have been undertaking extensive research into all aspects of our cause and one major issue has been a lack of information about the awarding of contracts in relation to Marcus Garvey Library. In fact the only document we have found so far related to the amendment of the previous tender e.g. the addition of the door. A message has been sent to Susan Edgar, the stated contact, asking for copies of all previous tenders. Predictably we have yet to have a response. 10) Online Petition Our online petition has now approximately 1,900 signatures. This added to our paper petition of 250 signatures brings the number of signatories to over 2,200 people who are concerned and against the changes to Marcus Garvey Library without proper consultation. The Council claims that 300 people attended their ‘engagement’ and that they were overwhelmingly supportive of the changes proposed by the Council. We have repeatedly asked the Council for the raw data collected during their ‘engagement’ but as usual they have not provided us with any documentation, instead all we have are hollow words. We however can prove that six times the number of people had no idea what was going on and that these 2000+ regular users of the Library somehow failed to see the publicity that the Council claim they distributed. The petition is still online. Please sign it if you haven’t already. Tell your friends, tell your neighbours, tell your family, tell the Council what we really think of their plans. Make some noise people make some noise! ‘Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm.’ Marcus Garvey
 Ayah Jahan, Vice-chair, The Friends of Marcus Garvey Library P.S.: If you do not want to be on our mailing list, please let us know by sending a mail to friendsofmgl@gmail.com