Sanford's founder John Hands returns

Sanford's founder John Hands came to visit on our recent open day (7th Sept 2013). This report about his talk is by current Sanford resident James McDonald.

John Hands is one of the founders of Sanford and several other housing co-operatives in London.  He is the author of Housing Co-operatives, a seminal work about housing co-ops in Britain and abroad, and was Director of the Government's Co-operative Housing Agency and a member of the Working Group on Co-operatives, appointed by the Secretary of State for Industry.

The event took place in House 0, the portacabin in Sanford's south garden, at around 3pm in the afternoon on the 7^th September 2013 during the Sanford Open Day. The room was packed with Sanfordians and non-Sanfordians alike, who came to hear the enigmatic John Hands tell the story of the founding of Sanford in the 1970’s, and his current thinking on human evolution. The following is a brief transcript of John’s speech, which can also be heard in full below.

The year was 1968, and John and a handful of housing/ student activists were seeking ways in which they could take back control over their own lives and avoid the isolation of the big city. Having examined the terrain, they founded Student Co-operative Dwellings (SCD), whose vision was to work together to create housing co-ops, designed and operated on a basis of mutual aid, not economic exploitation. At the time co-ops meant anything to anybody, and John wanted to know what worked and didn't with regards housing co-ops; he found that co-ops that worked were those that followed the seven co-op principles set out by the 19^th Century Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers: 1) Voluntary and Open Membership, 2) Democratic Member Control, 3) Member Economic Participation, 4) Autonomy and Independence, 5) Education, Training and Information, 6) Co-operation Among Co-operatives, 7) Concern for Community.

So with a practical idealism, John and his colleagues set out to set up more housing co-ops against a background of a non-existent co-operative culture, no legislative framework, a housing market dominated by fuedal landlord-tenant relationships and individual ownership, no money (since they were students), and no support organisations; SCD campaigned hard for 5 years, lobbying parliament and looking for land. Finally in 1973, the government agreed to a pilot project and a piece of derelict land on Sanford Street, between the two railway lines, was identified as a potential site; Lewisham Council agreed to hand over the land on condition that no families were housed on the ex-industrial land. SCD leapt into action: it registered Sanford Co-operative Dwellings as its own entity, got building plans drawn up, and even though the council was dilly-dallying with the lease, instructed the builders to start building. SCD put out a press release, that they were building the first purpose-designed co-op scheme for the young and mobile, and within days Lewisham gave them the lease; the Housing Corporation and another provided the finance.

It was during this phase that the BBC made a documentary film about the project called “More Than a Place to Live”. Sanford opened in October 1974 (which John suggests should be our 40th Anniversary), and in 1975 SCD transferred collective ownership of the buildings to the members. Sanford Housing Co-op held its first general meeting at Lewisham town hall, and it was packed. Sanford had made a surplus, because its members had carried many of the services/management functions over the year, thus saving the co-op money; there was a huge discussion about what to do with the surplus, whether it should be divided between the members, or be donated to other groups; in the end the general meeting voted for half the surplus to go to further co-op education, and half to a local homeless charity. It was at this moment that John saw the fruition of SCD’s hard work: members who understood the value of democratic decision-making and self-organisation. That spirit has continued and grown over the last 40 years, with John coming back to visit every 10 years or so; the transformation has been thrilling, from the retrofit of eco-efficient housing to the vegetable gardens, walking through the gates and feeling the sense of community. He was seen his vision become a reality.

Since 2006, John has been writing a book, about what we are, looking at the science of evolution from the start of the cosmos. Current orthodoxy in biology argues that the Darwinian struggle is the key to evolution, with the most successful species passing on their advantageous competitive genes to their progeny. However, evidence proves this wrong, and rapid changes cause extinction, rather than evolution, of species; it is collaboration that has created the evolution of more complex systems. 19^th Century anarchist and biologist, Kropotkin, found that Darwin's ideas were invalid by examining the eco-systems in Russia under harsh environment conditions. A rise in consciousness, and humans with their reflective consciousness - we know that we know - have given humans a psychosocial advantage, allowing us to decide how we should behave towards one another, and not to follow competitive instincts. The level of aggression in early human societies was higher than it is now, and it has gradually reduced even though it has a long way to go. Those who co-operate in providing for their social and economic needs (in worker and housing co-ops, in credit unions, farming co-ops, etc), are at the leading edge of human evolution.

After the main speech, John took questions from the audience. What transpired (but not captured in the audio) was the story of how the British government attempted to buy John off with the trappings of money and power; John was adamant about the benefits that well-run, independent co-operatives could bring, did not succumb to the pay-offs and was thus marginalised from the sector by the government. As John put it: “There’s one thing government hates, and that is losing its hold and control over any project.”

Some useful links:

A Case Study of Sanford by Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS)

“More Than a Place to Live” (BBC Documentary, 1974)

Part I 

Part II 

Part III 

Part IV