By Jim Lotz
Published in September 2008
Liverpool, home town of the Beatles, became the cultural capital of Europe in 2008. The city’s history has been marked more by poverty, unemployment, industrial decay, religious tensions and racial discrimination in the past than by concern for the arts.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the British economy went sour. Factories in Liverpool closed, thousands of workers lost their jobs, riots erupted and the city’s population dropped. The Vauxhall area, near the docks, housed large factories owned by Tate and Lyle and the British Tobacco Company. They have vanished, and in the place of a sugar factory stands the Republic of Eldonia, as it is known locally.
Last year I returned to Liverpool, my home town, to meet Tony McCann, the founder of this republic, an urban village run by the residents. Liverpudlians — scousers — have a reputation in Britain as tough, tenacious, articulate individuals with a subversive sense of humour. Tony demonstrates all these qualities. At 70, he retains the visionary zeal of a social entrepreneur and the hard common sense of a community organizer. He worked for 22 years as a forklift operator, lost his job and found himself overwhelmed by the massive changes sweeping over his community and the city:
“I’d always lived in the Vauxhall area. People lived in slums, in houses without running water and worked in poorly-paid jobs. But we were happy and had a great sense of community. In the early l960s, city council pulled down homes, re-housed some of the residents in tenements and council houses, and sent others to new developments in the suburbs. They did not consult with the local people as they tore the heart out of the community. In 1968, some of the new housing was demolished for the entrance to a new tunnel under the Mersey River. Old people died of a broken heart as urban renewal proceeded through the l97Os and industry left the Vauxhall planners and that to keep area. When we objected, the politicians told us that we had to broaden our horizons – they knew what the people wanted. We had to fight our community together. In 1978, a group of us decided to develop our own community and build our own houses. We became known as the Eldonians from the street on which many of us lived.
“I had been active in the Catholic Men’s Society at the local church and was shoved into leading the housing group. No one else wanted the job We brought in a housing association, experienced people, to help us to design housing and the sort of community we wanted.
“We took our plans to city council. It was dominated by members of the Liberal Party who supported community development. It agreed that half the housing scheme would be owned by the municipality and half by a co-operative. We redrew our plans, formed the Portland Gardens Housing Co-op and built 130 houses. Things were going great – until the Liberals lost control of the council in 1983. The Militant Tendency, a hard-left Marxist group, put organizers in the wards and took over the council. We were told that our housing co-op would be taken over by the city. We tried to work with the new council, stressing that our approach to housing formed the backbone of socialism. When we took our proposal for building more co-op housing to council, the members tore it up and threw it into the wastepaper basket. If you want anything for the Vauxhall area, we were told, you have to go through the ward.
“I had no interest in politics. I copied the tactics of the Militant Tendency, joined the Labour Party, signed up 150 Eldonians and we took over the ward. We were the only ones standing up to the Militant Tendency. It had wiped out our co-op, but the Eldonians kept together and stayed the course. We were determined to have a stake in our own lives and we weren’t going to be stopped by anyone.
“In the 1980s, no one would invest a penny in Liverpool. When Tate and Lyle closed its factory, throwing hundreds out of work, I said: ‘We’ll build houses on that land.’ I’d been threatened lots of times. Now people laughed at me. We contacted English Estates, a semi-governmental body. With their help we secured an option on the Tate and Lyle land in 1989. Local residents, ordinary people, did a survey to determine housing needs. They were surprised that they were not being told what to do. We came up with an innovative scheme for a mixed population of owners, renters and seniors.
“I commuted to London and met Patrick Johnson, Secretary of the Environment. He backed our scheme and we became friends. We originally had 150 families in the project, but that number had dwindled to 27, making our original scheme unviable. In 1991 we created the Eldonian Community Based Housing Association to carry out our project, and looked for money. A government task force set up to revitalize Merseyside provided a grant of £7.5 million ($15 million). About a third of this went for decontaminating the Tate and Lyle land.
“When we went to city council for planning permission, its members tried every dirty trick in the book to stop us. We got a top barrister for our presentation, support from the Catholic and Anglican archbishops and won planning permission for Phase One of our venture.
“The central government created the Merseyside Development Corporation to revitalize the docks. We asked it to include the Vauxhall area in its boundaries and the corporation did so, taking us out of the claws of the Militant Tendency. We set about looking for funds for Phases Two and Three of our project. We were told that a government minister would visit Vauxhall. This turned out to be Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. I was invited to dinner at No. 10 Downing Street, and told: ‘Don’t ask the PM for money.’ As I left, someone assured me: ‘We’ll be in touch.’ Shortly after this, we learned that our housing association would have £15 million ($30 million) available to it.”
George Evans, the association’s housing manager, takes up the story:
“We recognized that Phase Two was more than about housing. It was about education, crime, health, jobs and making the community a safe place. We developed a number of enterprises including the Village Hall, a Business Centre, the Nursery, the Old People’s Home and a land bank. Profit used to be a dirty word. Profit means sustainability – it goes back into the project. Break even is too fine for us.
“Tony is the ideas man and we follow in his wake.
“You have to give people hope, give them an alternative, and then you need 100% effort to be the best and have to sustain high levels of competence. We’re a family-oriented community and crime free.”
Shareholders in the housing association pay £l ($2) a year. A third of the board resigns each year. Tony still chairs the board: “I put myself up for election and tell members they can vote me out if I’m not doing my job.” The Eldonians have won many awards: a sign greets you as you approach their community: “Welcome to Eldonia Village…It’s a World Habitat Award Winner.”
Tony McGann sums up the essence of this unique venture in self-help and community development:
“It grows on you. You find you can make things happen. You’ve got to be passionate about it. You have to have a vision of a better life for all. Our people did not have a clue about how to create a community they could run themselves. Neither did I. You have to do it yourself, set up ways through which people can educate themselves in their own way and enjoy doing so. You can’t wait for the professionals – the experts learn from us. You have to stop feeling sorry for yourself, get off your backside and make things happen.”
Liverpool University Press will publish The Rebirth of Liverpool: The Eldonian Way this year. More information on the Republic of Eldonia can be found at www.eldonians.org.uk.
Jim Lotz is a freelance writer, teacher at the Coady Institute, consultant, and independent researcher who has garnered wisdom watching and describing how community development, governments, and individuals can work together to create better societies. Jim Lotz will give a talk at The Working Centre in April 2009
