S.Artesian

From a friend and comrade in London:

It’s owned by one the richest boroughs in the country (The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea), and managed by the Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organization (the council offloaded it like mine did). The building has just been ‘refurbished’ at a cost of £10 million by the same company that ‘refurbished’ my building, Rydon. I think it’s clad in flammable plastic panels that burned and dripped down the side of the building setting the entire fucking thing on fire!

Unbelievable? Nah, this is the consequence of ‘Austerity’, plain and simple.

No fire alarms. no sprinklers. The fire trucks couldn’t get close enough to the building because of all the bollards and street furniture blocking access. All the gas lines exposed to the air running up right through the building in stair well. No fire escape and no sprinklers. Power surges probably triggered the explosion that blew up refrigerator that started it all and the power company, Network Power, owned by a Hong Kong billionaire (fucked up our electric supply last year).

To bring it up to code would have probably doubled the cost. Cheaper to build a new one.

Gangster capitalism bro

Gangster capitalism indeed. Is there any other kind? This is the legacy of Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, and May… of the City; of the mad-cow disease that is capitalism, turning turning turning.

You want to make a revolution? First thing we do is we get rid of the landlords, all the landlords, all the real-estate developers, all the property management firms.

Triangle Shirt Waist Fire, 2012 Dhaka Factory Fire in Bangladesh, Grenfell Tower fire.

Turning breath into ash was, is, and always will be capitalism… until we extinguish it.