Jeremy Corbyn, pictured with Jon Glackin of Streets Kitchen and, right, Luke Daniels from Islington Pensioners Forum and chair of Caribbean Labour Solidarity, at the first ‘people’s forum’ which drew an audience of more than 150 people

MORE than 150 people gathered last night (Thursday) for the inaugural Islington North “people’s forum” organised by their newly-independent MP Jeremy Corbyn.

The meetings were promised by Mr Corbyn during his election campaign, marketed as a democratic forum for community members to discuss the problems they faced in their daily lives. Mr Corbyn said he was “delighted” that the first was “oversubscribed”, having been fully booked after only five days.

Introducing this first forum at Brickworks Community Centre, Mr Corbyn said: “It’s about us coming together and empowering ourselves to try and bring about a better society… that’s why we’ve brought everybody together tonight”.

Each meeting will focus on a different issue that impacts residents in Islington North, with housing selected as the first topic of discussion. Sitting at round tables, attendees, led by a trained “facilitator” were encouraged to talk about how accommodation issues impacted their lives, and envisage what housing would look like in their perfect society.

Neha Kagal, a resident of Junction ward, acted as a “facilitator”, and said the forum made her “excited” and “hopeful”. Ms Kagal told the Tribune: “communities know what they need, they always have, and it’s about how we come together and build solutions. Forums like this are so invaluable because we’ve almost forgotten what it means to operate in solidarity, and that’s very exciting”.

Locals asked questions about how to hold housing associations to account, get landlords to fix repairs, and deal with anti-social behaviour on estates where they live.

Speaking to the Tribune after the meeting, Mr Corbyn said: “I promised that we’d have a different way of doing politics after the election [one] that is inclusive of people and their different views and their different demands and needs. I want people to be organised, to be mobilised, and to be empowered”.

Mr Corbyn’s campaign team had delivered 50,000 leaflets to residents in the borough, thanking them for their support during the election and inviting them to participate.

“If you want ideas to be successful, you’ve got to mobilise people, you can’t just be chaotic”, Mr Corbyn said.

Miriam Stewart, Mr Corbyn’s chief political organiser added that the meetings were a “different way of doing things”. She said: “It’s an organising model that is driven by people, and that is very campaign and action focused. It’s about building power in our communities as opposed to sitting in meetings and passing motions”.

Asked whether the meetings had limited power given that Mr Corbyn remains a voice outside the government, Ms Stewart said: “The point of this meeting isn’t about Jeremy and the power he holds, it’s about the people in the room and in the community”.

Mr Corbyn added that he knows “very very well” that he is an independent, but referenced his willingness to work alongside MPs from the Green Party, SNP, and Plaid Cymru as a way to exert power on a Labour government with a huge parliamentary majority.

“We’re going to be very powerful”, he said of the alliance, “We’re going to push hard on the issues of child poverty, on the issues of rent controls, we are not an isolated voice, we are the voice of ordinary people”.