Ever wondered what Rachmanism is?
Simon Jenkins titled his column Once they called it Rachmanism. Now it's being done with taxpayers' money.
What is Rachmanism. I found this story from the good old past after a short google search:
Peter Rachman was a slum landlord in London, who forced sitting tenants with violence and intimidation out of run down houses he bought and then rented the flats to immigrants at extortionate rates. Because of the racist housing regulation that prevented black people from renting in other areas, the immigrants had no other choice. The famous Kray brothers of the London East End also tried to mob the mobster, and apparently succeeded.
Who is the Rachman of today? Is it Lovells who want to take over our houses, or is it New Heartlands who want to buy our houses to give them to Lovells? Who is playing the immigrant's role in this play?
The German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder made a play about a character with some parallels to Peter Rachman: Ignaz Bubis, who lived in Frankfurt of the 1960s and 1970s. Fassbinder's play is titled Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod (Garbage, the City and Death). It is in short about the interaction between property speculators and local authorities. Because the main character, based on the real person Ignaz Bubis was a Jew, the play was attacked as being antisemitic and never made it to the stage during Fassbinder's lifetime.
Now having told you about Fassbinder, I should try and find this play and read it... I know Frankfurt a little, from going there regularly to a big trade show in December each year. Frankfurt is the financial capital of Germany, all the banks have their headquarters there, in huge sky scrapers. I wonder if there is a connection between the play about property speculation and the rise of the bank palaces somewhere?
Peter Rachman was a slum landlord in London, who forced sitting tenants with violence and intimidation out of run down houses he bought and then rented the flats to immigrants at extortionate rates. Because of the racist housing regulation that prevented black people from renting in other areas, the immigrants had no other choice. The famous Kray brothers of the London East End also tried to mob the mobster, and apparently succeeded.
Who is the Rachman of today? Is it Lovells who want to take over our houses, or is it New Heartlands who want to buy our houses to give them to Lovells? Who is playing the immigrant's role in this play?
The German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder made a play about a character with some parallels to Peter Rachman: Ignaz Bubis, who lived in Frankfurt of the 1960s and 1970s. Fassbinder's play is titled Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod (Garbage, the City and Death). It is in short about the interaction between property speculators and local authorities. Because the main character, based on the real person Ignaz Bubis was a Jew, the play was attacked as being antisemitic and never made it to the stage during Fassbinder's lifetime.
Now having told you about Fassbinder, I should try and find this play and read it... I know Frankfurt a little, from going there regularly to a big trade show in December each year. Frankfurt is the financial capital of Germany, all the banks have their headquarters there, in huge sky scrapers. I wonder if there is a connection between the play about property speculation and the rise of the bank palaces somewhere?
posted by cairns at 8:49 PM
1 Comments:
Can you get in touch with me. This kind of thing is going on in Belfast, most infamously in the "Holylands" area. Vast amounts of taxpayers money has been doled out to landlords in "conversion grants" averaging £24,000 per property, but often going up to £36,000. These landlords are running "Houses of Multiple Occupancy": HMO's. Every dirty trick in the book was used to destroy my community. I want to write an in depth article about the "Regeneration" phenomenon throughout the UK and so would like to speak to people on the sharp end. It's important that we exchange experiences and try and develop a broad front against this UK wide phenomenon.
Post a Comment
<< Home