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Bell’s Newsletter

3rd June 2023

Dear *|FNAME|*,

May was our last full month in the current constituency office on Brixton Hill, which closed on Wednesday whilst we prepare to move a few hundred metres down the road to new premises. It’s hard to believe it’s been three and a half years since we first set up shop here during the general election. I will be in touch with up-to-date details when the new office is fully open and operational. My team will be working the regular office hours (9:30am-5:30pm) whilst we relocate, and you can contact me by telephone or email in the usual way.

Police Walkabout on Rush Common

It was good to start the week out and about on Brixton Hill for a walkabout with Superintendent Gabriel Cameron and our Councillors for Brixton Rush Common. We discussed a range of issues, including local concerns around antisocial behaviour on Rush Common.

Visiting Brixton Hill Studios

I visited Brixton Hill Studios this week, a vital community hub for local musicians, providing them with affordable recording and rehearsal spaces and supporting our vibrant live performing arts scene. Like many creative industries, they were hit really hard by the pandemic and are now grappling with a cost of living crisis. Thank you to Stephen and the team for inviting me to visit and discuss their work.

Rallying to Save Jobs at LSBU

On Tuesday, I joined London South Bank University (LSBU) staff at a rally to save jobs and fight outsourcing. The university recently proposed 66 redundancies of mostly low-paid essential workers, the very same people who put themselves on the line during the pandemic. Solidarity with Unison members refusing to be forced onto worse terms and conditions.

Learning from the First Unionised
Amazon Workers in America

On April 1, 2022, Amazon workers at a Staten Island Warehouse became the first unionised Amazon workers recognized by the National Labor Relations Board. This week, I joined an event hosted by the trade union Unison featuring some of the workers behind this historic organising effort. It was great to hear from Chris Smalls, Gerald Bryson and Jordan Flowers, from the Amazon Labor Union and The Congress of Essential Workers. Together, these workers have helped initiate a union that is now taking on one of the biggest, most powerful companies in the world, challenging a company that has been able to get away with exploiting workers, avoiding taxes, and destroying the planet for too long. As UK Amazon workers undertake similar strike action, they can learn a lot from these important victories for their American counterparts.

Visiting the Somali Embassy

Thank you to Second Counsellor Abdi Musse for hosting me at the Somali Embassy this week. Our area is blessed with a significant Somali community, something particularly reflected in the array of independent Somali-run businesses in the south of the constituency. It was great to talk about how we can ensure the voices of the Somali community are properly represented and heard across our political system.

As ever, if you have any questions about the work I’m doing as MP, please get in touch at this address: bell.ribeiroaddy.mp@parliament.uk.

Best wishes,

Bell Ribeiro-Addy,
Labour MP for Streatham

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