This Is Not A
BLOG!
Date: 13/03/09
Keeping The Roof Over Our Heads
Alan Walter
Political activist and campaigner
b. 8 October 1957, d. 7 March 2009
I never met Alan Walter, and I wouldn't have shared all of his political positions. But he and the organisation he helped found, Defend Council Housing (DCH), were crucial sources of information for me and many others when the then-Labour-controlled Wrexham County Borough Council were using a barrage of misleading statements, half-truths and outright lies and threats (all paid for out of our taxes) to try to force us council tenants to hand over control of our homes to a private company back in 2003/4.
That we faced down New Labour's monomania and persuaded a clear majority of tenants to tell the privateers to sod off was not only a victory for the tenants ourselves; it marked the beginning of the end of the Labour party's grip on Wrexham Council. They were thrown out of power just a few weeks later and have never returned.
(The story of that is here)
For more, here's DCH's memorial, and here's the obituary from the Independent (*).
Thank you, Alan; may your work for justice in housing continue.
(*) Historical Note: The obit in the Independent has now vanished from their website. Here's the one from the Guardian instead.
