 I'm here at Seven Sisters Latin Village on my birthday to A. Score a free empanada and B. Fight gentrification. Seven Sisters Latin Village has been earmarked for redevelopment which means that it will be bulldozed in order to make way for luxury flats built by a company called Granger, none of which will be priced as affordable housing or indeed social housing. This site has been used by migrant market traders since 1972 and the department store that used to occupy this site closed down and because it's been such a vital community resource for the Latin community here in Tottenham, I thought I'd come down and talk to some of the traders, talk to some of the people who come here to find out just what it means to them. I was born here in London and my parents are from Paraguay and Guatemala. It was through this market that I learned about my own background. That's when it all just began for me. I got into sales, I got into all the Latin American music and this is basically where it all started. This is where it all began. It was completely difficult for me to provide for my daughter and then to work at the same time. So I was lucky to find the store here that I started to trade here in the market and everything. That's how my journey began and then that's how I fell in love with the concept that we can have a place to have the community because in reality it did help me a lot. So the community deserved more than than we ever expected and that's why I have been advocating and I've been working really hard to preserve this place. I actually used to live around the corner from here when I was a kid just off West Green Road and since I was little Tottenham has changed a lot. Some of that has been the kind of change that we've seen all over London but the acceleration of gentrification has definitely kicked up a gear since the riots back in 2011. I was actually talking to a mate of mine who is an activist and researcher and he was saying that in 1981 just after the riots in Brixton and Toxteth, Michael Heseltine came out with a report subtly called It Took a Riot and this was the thatcherite agenda of encouraging finance led regeneration in order to break up and diminish the power of working class communities in urban areas. What happened in 2011 after the riots which began here in Tottenham after the killing of Mark Duggan? Well there was another report creatively titled It Took another Riot. The regeneration of Ward's Corner, the destruction of this community resource, this post-riot creep towards getting rid of migrant communities, working class communities from the area and replacing them with well essentially yuppies. They're now thinking about how beautiful the place is and how much you love it. They want money. I do respect them because they're business people but when it comes to support the community and what we've created here we haven't felt that. We're not trusting them because they haven't earned it so let's be real. They never realized that we are going to be such a strong and resilient community and put up with such a big fight. The fact that we are here in London being Latin America for many different reasons like refugees and displacement, you name it, says the Lord like you already you fought before so you and and then you okay the struggle is over. No it's not and you realize that it's it's carrying on I mean sometimes I think when this is going to stop when we're going to be able to relax and have a normal life because at the moment it doesn't seem like none of us is having you are living in limbo you are like a on a dead road all the time waiting for this execution and it's not a way to live. From talking to market traders here they are all bitterly disappointed that the first Corbyn Council in the country which is led by a momentum and NCG member is well and truly behind a project to demolish Seven Sisters Latin Village. That's not what socialism should look like we shouldn't be making it easier for chain stores and corporations to take over markets and high streets in our communities. You might not live in North London you might not have ever been to Tottenham in your life which is kind of a shame but I guarantee you that nearby where you live there is an asset like this market which needs your protection which in five or ten years time if you don't speak up make your voice heard defend it vociferously will be replaced with the same old same old chain stores which will go bust in the next 20 years anyway.