Lili and Ari are the co-founders of a group that’s trying to “cause as much trouble for the formal authorities as humanly and legally possible.”
Lili and Ari, the co-founders of the People’s Republic of Southwark
The group is the People’s Republic of Southwark and they have been working with the community of Southwark for seven years to give a voice to the opinions that matter. After seven years it’s clear to see that their passion for this cause has not dimmed as Lili discusses the effect the group has had in Southwark; “we don’t get funding for anybody so we don’t have the business of having to tread carefully so we say it as we see it or the people around us see it which I think is precious really.”
There is no denying that Southwark has an abundance of problems such as “housing, the economy, councillors and land robbery” and they certainly have some ideas of how things could be improved. In the London Bridge area, Ari thinks that getting rid of Boris’ cycle routes is the best way to begin the improvements.
It’s certainly a well thought out set of improvements; “If you have a look at the figures, which we did a couple of years ago, there’s far more cyclists who use London Bridge than Southwark Bridge so one of the things we suggested was if you make Borough High Street for buses, bicycles and people you can still use Southwark Bridge for cars to go on so you have more space to put flats and shops on London Bridge.”
The People’s Republic of Southwark has organised so many events that seek to bring things to light that the local council are choosing to ignore. One of these community events was a bike ride around Southwark’s most dangerous cycle routes to highlight the number of deaths caused due to dangerous driving and transportation policies in Southwark.
Typically activist groups are dedicated to fighting for once cause and they put all of their efforts into achieving a goal based around that cause, however the People’s Republic is fighting for all causes in the area. Being made up of a number of Southwark’s activists groups they have a lot of different areas to work on; “Every now and then themes will occur but not because we decided these should be the themes. Back in 2010 we set up the Southwark Planning Network so obviously the theme was on planning. Right now, housing is the main theme.”
Housing in Southwark is certainly a big issue. The group recently occupied the Aylesbury estate after the council announced plans to demolish it. Lili remarks that “the first thing Cllr Mark Williams said was that ‘the occupiers do not represent the residents’ and I was just thinking ‘and you represent who?’”
This isn’t the first time that they have had a difference in opinion with the council. They originally worked together with the council, however the alliance did not last long after refusing to change a comment from a publication that did not make the council look good. It’s clear that Lili and Ari are advocates of bringing council injustice into the public domain as they discuss the local media and how “they will never be as critical as they could be or maybe as they should be” due to council funding.
If you’re interested in getting involved with the People’s Republic of Southwark and their fight for a better Southwark then get in touch through Twitter or Facebook. Alternatively, check out their newsletter to find out what the current biggest issues are in Southwark.
