“We are not prepared to stand by and allow London’s young people lose their jobs” says GMB
GMB London’s youth wing, GMB Young London, has launched a campaign to protect London clubs after the closure of London super club Fabric.
The campaign will organise demonstrations, discuss the issue with key political figures and support the pre-existing #savefabric campaign to fight further nightclub closures and avoid job losses.
GMB Young London will attend a protest to save London’s night-life community on Saturday, 8 October from 1pm
Ryan Maynes, c Young London, said:
“The last few weeks have seen London lose one of its last, true super clubs: Fabric. This is another disaster on par with the loss of Turnmills, Plastic People, The End and many other clubbing institutions that have closed their doors in the last few years. With the introduction of the night tube, young people should be enthused at London becoming a truly 24 hour city, yet with closures like these young people will have nowhere to go. These closures are devastating, yet they are just the tip of the iceberg. In 2005 there were 3,144 clubs in the UK. By 2015, this was down to 1,733. Nowhere has felt this harder than London.
Alongside the cultural and social aspect of closing these clubs is the very real effect it has on youth employment. The Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR) has stated that these venues “generated 37,000 new jobs with over 80% of these for 18-24 year olds.” Fabric’s closure alone has meant 250 individuals, mostly young people, lost their jobs in the space of one council hearing. At GMB Young London we are not prepared to stand by and allow London’s young people lose their jobs.
At GMB Young London, we intend to use the full strength of our young members to organise demonstrations to campaign against further closures of nightclubs, as well as supporting the #savefabric campaign with all of the support we can provide. We will be contacting all of the figures involved in these decisions to discuss how we can rectify this process, which will include liaising with Sadiq Khan’s new Night Czar to ensure this never happens again.
Closing clubs like Fabric is not the answer to drug related problems, nor is it the answer to opening up large spaces for investors. London’s nightlife should be celebrated like it is in Berlin, where clubbers are compared to concertgoers enjoying a symphony.”