HALF- WAY HOUSE REVOLT IN SOUTHWARK

CHILDREN have died, marriages have broken up and bro: epidemic proportions among 96 families living in a damp, epidemic proportions among 96 families living in a damp, d nid tenement in Lahour-controlled Southwark — represented old tenement in Labour-controlled Southwark — represente ex-Labour MP Ray Eighty per cent of the tenants in the ghetto block are unemployed. Milk, bread, coal and postal services refuse to deliver to the 112 flats which cost £2.65 a week to rent.

Chaucer House, Tabard, was taken over in 1965 by Southwark council as stage three accommodation for London homeless awaiting permanent rehousing.

Hundreds of windows are either gaping holes or boarded up with wood and corrugated iron, there are no baths and only cold water in damp, crumbling and often barely - furnished rooms.

In some cases up i to five children-including teenagers—are forced to sleep in the same room with their parents in the same bed as their brothers and sisters.

The families were all told they would be there for a few weeks, but stays of two and three years are common and at Teast 20 families have been there for more than five years.

On Tuesday morning tenants, at the end of their tether, driven to desperation with unfulfilled promises of new homes from the Labour council staged a dramatic protest.

A car was overturned and rammed in behind giant garbage tins forming a barricade across entrance to the flats. Flames leapt 20 ft into the air from piles of burning rubbish.

Tenants claim health Limited but important TUC link with unemployed THE TUC has recommended that a delegate should represent the unemployed on local trades councils.

An important step forward in linking the employed with the Gunter. and social workers take next to no notice of the damp and dirt in which they are forced to live.

They prevented the council - employed workers from entering the flats and council officials were booed.

Tenants' Association chairman John Riches Rehousing promised, but nothing given.

(34), married with three children, told me:

'We have been promised that we will be rehoused over and over again, but nothing has ' "The council just stick us in here and forget about us. They • don't care how many children you've got or what ages they are. You can all be sleeping in the same room as far as they are concerned.' Three of Chaucer House's 315 children have died in the last 14 months from diseases tenants claim are brought on by the cold and . damp.

Said Mr Riches: 'Because we live in these conditions, we can't have anything. We're jobless, the decision with the snow-balling the nationwide ma Young Socialists dem: right to work.

With 13 men helpless. We're worth nothing. If you go for a job, as soon as you say you live here they turn you down.

'It's not a crime to be homeless. It's not our fault. 78 per cent of the families here have been turned down or evicted by private landlords. If you've got children they don't want to know you.' Mr Riches pointed towards London Bridge: 'We live like this, but there are new blocks of offices over there they want £10 a sq. ft. for and which have never been occupied. They've got guards and dogs to make sure nobody gets in.' He added: 'We feel we're at the bottom of the ladder. We've got nowhere we can. go. MRS EDIE JOHNSON: Children taken away.

We're right up against the wall.' Not all the tenants agree that nightly protest bonfires will solve anything, although it served once to draw attention to their plight.

Many tenants stressed that what was at stake coin ides succe ; ol ches nding hitis has reached lapidated century in parliament by was the local authority and Tory. government housing policies.

Said Mr Riches: *As far as the Tories are concerned, it's one law for the rich and another for the poor. They are looking after the rich While other tenants lit more protest fires on Wednesday night, Robert Byles told me: 'This is nonsense. It's a political question. We'll sit down, march or strike, but just burning everything will get us nowhere' And Alfred Turner, an ex-soldier who served in Ireland only to end with his wife and family in one of London's worst slums, said: "This is ridiculous. Something has got to it done but this isn't Just how vicious the housing circle is was shown by 23-year-old Mrs Edie Johnson.

She told me: 'I came to Chaucer House two years ago with my children (then 12 weeks and The delegate system would operate in tandem with trades councils' unemployed committees, which would have three aims. Last in the TUC list of functions, but most important of all,