"Round up the mandem, plottin’ the move, taking over and cleanin’ up". How to protect London's "ends" against gentrification
We’re always on the look-out for new forms of community ownership - where command of land, buildings and green spaces, ideally redistributed from the grip of property elites, gives a basis for agency and vision. See some recent examples we’ve been posting - Scotland, London, Belfast, Glasgow, Grimsby and many more here.
Here’s a challenging model from activist-scholar Nabil Al-Kinani, based around a publication he’s produced, titled Privatise the Mandem. The pitch begins intriguingly:
“… The process of renewal and rebuilding, accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.” - Furious Styles, Boyz n the Hood (1991)
Better known as, gentrification. These past couple decades have seen the UK's cityscapes changing at an increasingly rapid rate.
The "ends" (social housing estates) are being replaced with glossy gated-communities, complete with futuristic living facilities, logos and colour palettes to market a glamourous “inner-city living” lifestyle experience— at the expense of the mandem.
So, how do we preserve the ends?
The answer: we privatise the mandem.
How do we “privatise the mandem”?
The answer: we buy the block.
If you’re not up to speed with London street vernacular, “mandem” normally stands for your group of close male friends. But we assume that what Al-Kinani means is a more general definition of the community that seeks to empower itself. We take this definition from Gal-Dem’s article on the booklet ("gal-dem” being the usual term for a female group):
Nabil Al-Kinani is a 26-year-old Londoner who grew up in north-west London’s Chalkhill Estate, which was demolished and refurbished in the 1990s. His vision is shaped by his experience of growing up in the ends and landing his first job in urban development.
It was here where he witnessed the lack of representation of working-class communities in the sector, despite many of them directly bearing the brunt of gentrification. “The mandem aren’t involved in the space game,” Nabil says. “When it comes to urban development, it’s more politics than bricks and mortar.”
Al-Kinani’s approach is cultural and creative. From The Face:
He collaborated with art college Freedom & Balance on the 200-page Authors of the Estate in 2019, a project that asked “How do you turn council houses into publishing houses?” and compiled the work of 22 writers who live on the Chalkhill Estate into a book. [Ed: We blogged here on F&B’s creative place-making a few months ago]
In an interview, Al-Kinani’s collaborator André Anderson said: “‘Author’ is now a title in the ends. That language gives people a new framework for how they see the estate.” In 2021, Al-Kinani released Pipe Dreams, a zine exploring the Park Royal area of West London by telling the stories of shisha cafes as cultural hubs of Arab diasporas. Now, he’s working on Castles, an upcoming visual essay that showcases “the majesty of inner-city social housing estates across the city,” repositioning spaces once perceived to be disempowering and ugly.
Gal-Dem describes what the Privatise the Mandem booklet is trying to do:
Drawing on the existing UK legislation around collective enfranchisement – where leaseholders of flats can join together to buy their building – with Right to Buy council homes and Right to Acquire housing associations, Nabil has created an accessible and practical seven-chapter book for those looking to protect and preserve their ends.
Printed on blue paperback he designed and self-published in May 2022, Privatise the Mandem gives communities the tools necessary for them to take back control back of their spaces. He sees it as the democratisation of urban development.
“In short, it is providing a structure for the mandem to follow, and providing them with the legislation required to acquire the freehold of the ends,” Nabil says. “What you come out with is an organisation made up of the mandem who own the freehold of a block.”
Gal-Dem goes on to explain Al-Kinani’s use of the term “privatise”. It’s a provocative recapturing of a political term:
Privatisation is a term that has become tied to neoliberal interests of profit accumulation, with dispossession being an integral aspect of this process. Margaret Thatcher’s government spearheaded an era of privatisation that launched an assault on railways, utilities, telecoms, water and more.
In the 21st century, gentrification has become a pivotal symptom of the commodification of the pursuit of capitalist interests, which eradicates social housing and displaces local communities in the process. Since 1997, 161 London council estates have been demolished, with roughly 131,000 people being displaced in the process.
But Nabil says he intentionally chose the word ‘privatise’: he defines it as reclaiming ownership of what is rightfully yours. “The fact that I’m saying ‘Privatise the Mandem’ is with purpose,” he says. “It’s using the language that I’ve been exposed to, in order to benefit my lot.”
Nabil reflects on how social justice movements have always had to utilise the existing system and infrastructures available in order to create transformative social change.
With the ownership of space being an integral step to enabling our communities to flourish, he sees privatisation as a way to fight gentrification. By seizing the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house, Privatise the Mandem is a tactical strategy for self-empowerment.
…Privatise The Mandem details the steps to acquire the freehold of entire estates, block by block. Using legislative tools such as collective enfranchisement, which means tenants of long leases of flats may have the right to acquire the building on a collective basis, the manifesto visually lays out the plan via a detailed timeline diagram.
It’s pretty technical, but Al-Kinani summarises the basic steps: “One: round up the mandem, Two: plottin’ the move, Three: taking over, and Four: cleanin’ up.” Rather than Al-Kinani’s vision being a quick fix, he sees it as something “that must outlive us. We won’t reap the benefits of privatisation. Our children will and their children will.”
In the spirit of sharing knowledge and preserving community, Al-Kinani has also set up a “privatisation hotline” (+447554658435) where people can ask logistical questions on Whatsapp and Telegram. Give him a shout, Al-Kinani says, and he’ll come to your block to discuss the plan with you.
More from The Face and Gal-Dem articles. Al-Kinani’s Instagram page is also full of slogans and messages. And to repeat, the booklet is available at www.privatisethemandem.com.
UPDATE: We’ve also discovered this essay from Civic Square, written by one of Al-Kinani’s collaborators Andre Anderson of Freedom and Balance, titled: What if we became the creative directors of the estate?Addressing the Mandem, a design fiction