Amu Gib for Finsbury Park
This election campaign is about giving a voice to people who governments and big businesses want to silence – those who are trying to build futures shaped by love, not racism, war and greed. The people who won’t take ‘No’ for an answer any more.
- Yes, we can fund public services if we take back power and resources from greedy corporations like Palantir.
- Yes, we can stop the racists who want to rip apart our communities through deportations and division.
- Yes, we can expose how the criminal justice and prison system is utterly broken. It destroys lives, fails victims of violence and abuse and has criminalised thousands of people for political dissent.
- Yes, we will work to stop genocide in Palestine and stand up to the arms companies profiting from death and destruction across the globe.
All politics is local. This vision for society is one we can fight for here and now in Finsbury Park and across Islington. Some of the solutions to the problems which residents face can only be solved at national or international level – but we are working with Islington Community Independents on this election campaign because we believe that committed individuals can make a difference locally.
Welfare not Warfare
One in three children in Finsbury Park Ward live in poverty and the area is one of the most deprived in Islington. More than a third of residents live in overcrowded housing, according to Islington council. This is a direct result of decades of devastating cuts to public services and welfare, affecting everything from access to decent homes, education, health services and social care. Islington’s Labour Council made £14m of cuts to local services last year alone. Central government under both the Tories and Labour has slashed budgets for local councils since 2010. But there is an ever-growing pot of money for weapons manufacturers: BAE Systems announced record profits in 2026 of £3.3 billion. This has been boosted by Keir Starmer’s government buying nuclear-armed F-35 fighter jets which will carry bombs which can destroy a whole city.
Palantir, a weapons manufacturer and surveillance company which is complicit in genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, has received privileged access to our health data through massive government contracts. The company charges public sector organisations £3m per year just to use its software and up to £20,000 per month to run projects built on Palantir’s platforms. That costs about the same as 81 teachers or 162 healthcare assistants, or 135 youth workers.
- Whittington Hospital must not adopt Palantir’s software and we don’t want this company to profit from access to other public services.
Migration is Life
Finsbury Park is home to Algerian, Bangladeshi, Kurdish, Caribbean, and West African communities. Migration has made Finsbury Park what it is. It offers shelter from the storms of war and poverty abroad but is also a place where residents face daily struggles against racism, injustice and inequality. Amu’s candidacy speaks to the reality of their lives, connecting local battles for housing and survival to the global struggles against imperialism and dispossession. Now our community faces a growing threat from the rise of the far-right and the Labour government’s scapegoating of refugees and migrants following the lead of Nigel Farage, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick. We’ve all see the terrifying pictures on the news of the deportation machine built by Trump and his ICE thugs in the US. Farage and Reform want to do the same to families and communities in Britain. We need strong, clear voices like Amu’s opposing their racist schemes and working with residents to organise and resist Reform in their neighbourhoods and workplaces. The other side of Trump’s America is the inspiring solidarity in Minneapolis where residents walked out and shut down the city, forcing ICE to withdraw.
In a world where billions are threatened by climate breakdown, we say that border guards don’t protect our communities. It isn’t the people fleeing disaster in small boats we should be afraid of, but the billionaires in their luxury yachts.
- We are backing policies to stop landlords hoarding empty properties
- We support Islington as a Borough of Sanctuary – everyone in our community should be able to access vital services without fear
Prisons don’t work
Amu and other prisoners for Palestine are experiencing the failures of the criminal justice system from the inside. They have been imprisoned on remand before trial because the government is cracking down on protest and dissent. Thousands of people have been arrested on terrorism charges in the last year because they expressed solidarity with Palestine and challenged government repression. Beyond activism, prisons exist to lock up working class communities and disappear them as they do with dissent.
The prison system isn’t working for anyone. It punishes people who are already vulnerable and doesn’t protect victims of crime. Prisoners are far more likely to have experienced unemployment, mental health crisis or been homeless than the general population before going into custody. One third of women convicted by the courts in 2019 had failed to pay their TV license. If you are black or brown you’re far more likely to end up in prison than if you’re white. Pre-trial detention or remand is at crisis levels as the numbers locked up before trial has almost doubled since 2019. There are alternatives to prison: funding for services in the community can address the causes of violent and abusive behaviour.
- Our campaign will fight for more resources for mental health services, youth services and for an end to the criminalisation of hunger and poverty.
- Let’s start talking about how to create justice from the ground up.
Free Palestine
The genocide in Palestine has brought millions onto the streets over the last two years. Here in Islington residents and councillors are working towards divestment from companies complicit in the dispossession and massacres of Palestinians. Amu is committed to Palestinian liberation. They took part in a hunger strike for 49 days, risking their life to demand an end to UK government’s relationship with Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.
Get involved!
Amu stands for these principles and invites everyone in Finsbury Park and beyond who wants to build a better world to join the campaign.
Email us at electamugib@proton.me or follow on instagram @amugib4liberation
Promoted by David Renton on behalf of Amu Gib and Islington Community Independents all at PO Box 79971 N5 9FL