GREEN LEFT

New PCS booklet for campaigning :

2012-01-29T11:58:00.000-08:00

for your information - new PCS booklet for campaigning :

Welfare reformPCS has launched a pamphlet on the need to defend and strengthen the welfare state.The 24-page booklet was unveiled at a public meeting in Brighton – during PCS’s conference in the city.The aim is to arm activists with the information needed to campaign against attacks on benefits – and to put forward ideas for the future of the welfare state.

http://pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/welfare-reform/index.cfm
acknowledgements to Romayne Phoenix

Stop War on Iran before it starts

2012-01-26T09:06:00.000-08:00

Hands Off Iran and Syria
Protest Saturday 28 January
US Embassy 2pm-4pm
Grosvenor Square London W1

The new year opened with further threats against Iran and Syria. Israel is talking more and more of an attack to ‘deal with’ Iran’s nuclear capability, even though Israel is the only country in the Middle East that actually
has nuclear weapons. In an election year for the US, tensions around this issue are almost certain to grow.

Following a year when Britain and France led the intervention in Libya the dangers of further western attacks in the region are very real. Under the guise of ‘humanitarian intervention’ there are already signs of covert intervention in both Iran and Syria.

An attack on either country would set the middle east on fire. Now is the time to start building opposition to these new wars. Join with us to say no to western intervention.

Stop the War Coalition
020 7801 2768
www.stopwar.org.uk

Coalition of Resistance Spring tour

2012-01-26T06:35:00.001-08:00

Coalition of Resistance

Spring tour

It seems the government couldn't be happier right now. There's been

a slow down in the pensions dispute and Miliband / Balls have

declared that they wont reverse any spending cut or oppose a public

sector pay freeze (see article by Lindsey German here) which has led

to a hike in the polls for the Tories.

However the massive anger from millions of people we saw last year

has not gone away! The 500,000 that demonstrated on March 26th or

the million plus that went on strike in November still wan't to see the

back of this government.

The unions who rejected the governments offer over pensions are set

to meet to discuss further action. Our job is to get the movement back

on the streets.

This is why Coalition of Resistance is planning a national speaking tour,

to discuss these issues and to draw new layers of activists into the

movement.

The tour will run through February - March. We are currently working with

a number of anti-cuts groups and Trades Councils to get more of these

meetings set up across the country.

Dates confirmed so far include:

Birmingham
with Owen Jones, Clare Solomon, George Barrett
7pm, Thursday 9 February
Committee Rooms 3 and 4, Council House,
Victoria Square, Birmingham, B3 3BDBirmingham
with Owen Jones, Clare Solomon, George Barrett
7pm, Thursday 9 February
Committee Rooms 3 and 4, Council House,
Victoria Square, Birmingham, B3 3BD

Birmingham
Banner Theatre – Fight the Cuts
MC: Paul Mackney
7:30pm, Friday 10 February
Library Theatre, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham

Barking
with Councilor George Barratt, Karena Johnson, Paul Mackney, Local speakers tba
7:30pm, Thursday 16 February,
Broadway Theatre, Broadway, Barking, IG11 7LS

Liverpool
with James Meadway, Chaired by Romayne Phoenix, others tba
6:30pm, Friday 24 February
Adelphi Hotel, Ranelagh Place Liverpool, Merseyside L3 5UL
(Green Party Conference fringe meeting - open to all)

Newcastle
with Owen Jones, Lindsey German, Speaker from Greece
7pm Wednesday 14 March
Newcastle Arts Centre (Black Swan)
67 Westgate Road. NE1 1SG

Glasgow
With Owen Jones, others tba
7pm, Thursday 15 March
STUC Centre, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow, G3 6NG

Please check the website for details of other meetings

Haringey anti-academies demo 28th jan

2012-01-23T16:22:00.000-08:00

Green Left statement re Brighton& Hove Budget 20/1/2012

2012-01-20T01:23:00.000-08:00

Green Left welcomes the “Message to Unite” from the national leadership of the Green Party, which calls on Britain’s largest trade union, and the trade union movement as a whole, to back the Green Party’s programme to transform economy and society through a Green New Deal. We have always argued that the Green Party can be both radical and successful if it is seen to fight for the interests of ordinary people, and those of future generations, against the greed of deregulated financial capitalism and self seeking politicians who are in awe of it.

It is therefore particularly disturbing to learn that Green Party councillors in Brighton and Hove intend to proceed with budget plans that will cut millions of £'s from local services. The Green Party has an opportunity to put itself at the forefront of opposition to public spending cuts. Austerity measures will do nothing to lift the economy out of recession but threaten the very fabric of society. The first Green led council should be drawing up a budget which not only defends existing service provision but which also reverses the cuts made by previous councils, and begins to develop the high quality public services which are required.

Occupy LSX succeeded in bringing radical ideas into the news and into everyday conversation. Concerned with the current economic crisis they have been changing the debate. They now face eviction from their camp outside St Paul's Cathedral. Elected Greens and members have been actively engaged with their debates and actions. Green Left believe that the Green Party of England and Wales can play a significant role by proposing our alternative economic analysis and plans for a programme of recovery. We can effectively work to help build a mass movement against austerity measures. We have the policies. We have the philosophical basis to attract many supporters who are rejecting the traditional political parties.

Ed Balls and Ed Miliband have boldly declared that the coalition cuts would not be reversed under a Labour government at the next election. 'Too far, too fast' is still their most damning criticism of the current austerity measures.

Len McCluskey, General secretary of Unite has said "real points of differentiation between Labour and the government on the economy are now very hard to identify". Paul Kenny of the GMB is openly talking about cutting financial and political ties with the Labour Party.

We have one Green MP. The work that we do at a local level is crucial. The actions of Brighton and Hove Greens will affect not only the local communities, but all members of the party and our supporters and potential supporters. If Brighton and Hove Green councillors take a stand against cuts they would offer an example to everyone.

Green Left believe that Brighton and Hove councillors can show that an alternative is possible. However carefully considered the proposed cuts may be for this year or next, these follow years of previous cuts and are in addition to wage freezes, redundancies and benefit cuts. Their effects will be devastating, especially on the poorest and most disadvantaged, who as ever will be the hardest hit. Why not take advantage of our electoral success and use this opportunity to build support for an alternative economic plan , and an ecologically and socially just future ?

Green councillors in Brighton must ask themselves now how "we will fight them all the way" as promised during the election. These are desperate times with darker days ahead. Brighton and Hove Greens have the opportunity to spearhead the political battle for a progressive and radical alternative.

Maite's victory

2012-01-19T13:36:00.001-08:00

Maite De La Calva and her lawyer, Emma Norton from Liberty, met Wandsworth Council today and were told that the Council are not going to go ahead with the eviction process they started straight after last summer's riots. Maite and her eight year old daughter were to be evicted because of her son's minor involvement in the Clapham Junction riot.

However other political evictions are threatened and Wandsworth Against Cuts and the anti-eviction campaigners will organise further activities against these.

Maite's victory is a credit to her own courage and honesty faced with a very stressful situation. It was helped by her many supporters on the Doddington Estate, by the work of Wandsworth Against Cuts, Defend Council Housing and Liberty, as well as the support of Battersea & Wandsworth Trades Council, local residents, trade unionists and socialists.

acknowledgements to Martin Francis

The End of the Opposition by matthew butcher

2012-01-18T05:49:00.000-08:00

From http://segmentpolitics.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/the-end-of-the-opposition/

The End of the Opposition

Posted on January 15, 2012 by matthew butcher

Yesterday the official opposition gave up. In a packed room at The Insititute for Education Ed Balls finally confirmed what many of us have been thinking for a while: The Labour Party aren’t the alternative.
As the cuts continue to bite, the wages of workers remain stagnant and the economic outlook for the UK remains gloomy you’d be forgiven for thinking that the official opposition might just step into the breach and make a stand. You’d be wrong. Yesterday Ed Balls capitulated to the most ruthlessly pro-market government we’ve had in many years. The Labour Party, he said, would not reverse any of the Tory cuts or tax raises if they won the next election and they’d keep the freeze on public sector pay.

The reason given for the capitulation – and we heard this time and time again at yesterday’s Fabian Conference – is that the Labour party must be “trusted on the economy”. In the main plenary Chukka Ummuna MP, the pollster Deborah Mattison and the former economic secretary to the treasury Kitty Ussher clambered over each other to proclaim the need for policies that look sensible to the public. Later in the day Polly Toynbee suggested that the Labour party must look tough on the economy now in order to gain power and do the things they really believe in.

The state of our parliamentary democracy could hardly be more dire. We have three parties who are singing off the same orthodox hymn sheet. The official opposition, lying down to die in the face of focus group studies and opinion polls which suggest the public believe cuts are necessary, have given up making the case for doing things another way. The few dissenters who remain, like the single Green parliamentarian, are accused by the Labour party of ‘playing into the Tories hands’. The cuts, we are told by all three main parties, will continue, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Instead of providing political leadership Ed Balls is using the public’s fear about the economy as a starting point for his party’s policies.

Let’s be clear: The Labour Party have hardly been a shining light of independent thought and radical ideas in their time in opposition. But Ed Balls’ rather sudden lurch to the right is still hugely disappointing. Defending public spending, while the government spew bile about a ‘bloated state’ and ‘extraordinarily levels of debt’, was hard enough already. But now, with the Labour Party abandoning the hope of persuading the reluctant public of any alternatives to austerity, those of us still calling for a change of course are set to become more marginalised than ever.

It’s all about looking like a party of government they say. But what the Labour leadership fail to see is that they are just looking like a less enthusiastic version of the Tories. The choice for the electorate will be between a party who sound convincing while they make cuts and one who look guilty while they do it. The promise is that once they’ve seen the destruction of many of the services upon which people rely, they’ll reshape the economy to a fairer form of capitalism. It looks to me like the Labour party have run out of ideas.
Austerity isn’t working. The Labour Party have been saying it for months. But somehow, after an all-to-close analysis of the polls, Britain’s second biggest political party have done a monstrous u-turn. They’ve let down their members, many of whom must be questioning why they’re still in the party. They’ve let down the left, whose battle has just become ever more difficult. But mostly The Labour Party have let down the British public who will now be blindly led down the path of ignorance to austerity, with no-one in parliament fighting their corner.

The battle for Brent schools - which side is Labour on? Martin Francis writes

2012-01-18T05:42:00.000-08:00

The battle for Brent schools - which side is Labour on?
The battle against academies and free schools has reached a tipping point, author and campaigner Melissa Benn told the AntiAcademies Alliance AGM yesterday. The battle being waged by teachers, parents and governors of Downsides Primary School against enforced conversion to an academy had exposed the contradiction between Michael Gove's rhetoric of freedom and autonomy and his actual use of coercion.

Benn said that the over-funding of 'good schools' converting to academies or of parents setting up free schools was the government 'empowering the affluent'. She said that there were three main element's in Gove's programme:

1. A fundamental change in the provision of state education with the academies' links to outside bodies separating them from the local community. Despite government denials the long-term aim, via the 'educational chains' such as E-ACT, ARK and Oasis was privatisation and profit-making. She said that there was no evidence that autonomy itself led to improvement. Where there was improvement it was probably due to increased funding, however that was drying up and the Financial Times recently revealed that the DfE had to bail out eight financially failing academies at the cost of £10m to the tax payer.
2. Gove wants to preserve and expand all forms of current non-LA provision including the expansion of grammar schools via 'satellite' schools and changes in the Admissions Code. This will increase selection and social class and religious segregation.
3. Fundamental changes in the learning culture of schools. She contrasted the broad and creative curriculum and relaxed learning culture of Eton and Wellington public schools which she had visited recently with the narrowing of the curriculum in academies (depth replacing breadth) and a coercive ethos producing a climate of fear. Academies had in effect 'captured' children for longer hours (often 8.30am until 5pm) and teachers, parents and pupils were often frightened of the management as the school pursued its aim of 'results at all costs'. Anyone arguing against this culture was told that they were supporting failure.
Melissa Benn advised the audience to keep an eye on the US Chartered Schools which served as a model for Gove. We need to argue that some of the most successful schools internationally are non-selective and make the case for increased government funding, small classes, time for teachers to prepare lessons and ongoing teacher assessment rather than SATs. Subsequent discussion focused on how Ofsted was being used as a political weapon against local authority schools with the appointment of ARK adviser Sir Michael Wilshaw as Chief Inspector.

A group of parents from Downside Primary School started by extolling the virtues of a school that did not just concentrate on SAT results but had a broad and enriching curriculum in a child-friendly atmosphere. The children had recently won a national art prize. They were shocked at the enforced academy move by Michael Gove based solely on SAT results but quickly organised, speaking personally to members of the different communities of the school, publicising the issue and using social media to spread the word, They have been lucky in that local MP David Lammy was an ex-pupil of the school and although pro-academy had been against enforcement and had spoken at their public meeting attended by more than 600 people LINK as well as raising the issue in the House of Commons. LINK The parents said that the under-funding of Haringey schools compared with neighbouring boroughs was of fundamental importance and a campaigning on the issue would appeal to parents. There will be a demonstration on Saturday 28th January at noon in support of Downside. I will post details when they are available. It seemed to me clear that primary schools with their strong parent links, good school gate communication opportunities and community ethos will be in a good position to fight academy conversion compared with the more isolated secondary schools.

In my contribution from the floor I drew the meeting's attention to the importance of making the link between cuts and academy conversions. Conversions took money away from the local authority while the cuts in services made by local authorities made arguing for the benefits of remaining a local authority school harder.In Brent the council in planning to set up a 'public enterprise' provider along the lines of the Cooperative Trust offer, was undermining its own existence.

Alasdair Smith, National Secretary of the AAA, said that Gove was pursuing a full 'for profit' agenda. The shortage of school places was being used as an argument for more 'energetic providers' (private chains) to move in. He felt Downshill was a turning point with Michael Gove worried about the slow down (perhaps because of forecasts that extra money was drying up) in conversions that had taken place since October 2011. He said that he had addressed 50 meetings on the issue over the lasy year but that we now needed a mass movement against Gove's policies. He praised the Green Party for its consistent anti-academies policy.

The last session was devoted to a discussion on the Labour Party and Academies. There was recognition of the divergence of local Labour group's attitudes with some fiercely for academies and some militantly against (The Brent Executive has both within its ranks). Stephen Twigg, the Labour shadow had avoided the issue by saying that he did not want to 'get into a hackneyed debate about structures' while Labour was not saying the same thing bout the NHS. Labour needed to live down its pro-academy history and think again, adopting a clear policy against academies and free schools. A Labour councillor said that we should beware of 'friends' such as the Cooperative Trust with their ethical cooperative claims when schools had always been cooperative institutions. Local authorities needed to come out and defend their role rather than be supine in the face of the Coalition's attacks.

Richard Hatcher (joint author of No country for the young: Education from new Labour to the Coalition- Tufnell Press) said that Labour needed to fight on both structure of education and content of education, support campaigns against academies and free schools , and debate what a Labour government would do with what it will inherit in 2015 if elected. One speaker from Unison said that she had joined the Labour Party in order to influence their education policy. Other speakers aid there was a need to focus on the huge salaries paid to academy headteachers and chief executives as well as the amount of public money being spent of academies and free schools as a whole.

All these issues are extremely pertinent as Brent Labour has organised a meeting for Labour nominated governors and anti-academy teachers on Wednesday, 7.30pm at the Stonebridge Hub which will be addressed by Melissa Benn.

Melissa Benn, School Wars-The Battle for Britain's Education, Verso

Message to Unite: Green Party are the alternative

2012-01-18T05:29:00.000-08:00

Message to Unite: Green Party are the alternative

17 January 2012

The Green Party urges unions to back the positive Green alternative.

The Guardian article by Len McCluskey, General Secretary of the trade union Unite, has reaffirmed Labour's failure to stand up for ordinary people. Labour's biggest financial supporter has publicly acknowledged their party's abject failure to oppose neoliberal austerity.

All three main parties now seek to protect the vested interests of deregulated financial capitalism - and in doing so they endorse an economic model that squeezes the poorest in society to sustain their broken system.

The public sector pay freeze will strip £2,600 off the wages of a teaching assistant. Pension reforms will see the average pension for a female public sector worker slashed to just £4,000. And cuts to education force students to pay £9000 a year, placing an entire generation in systemic debt.

Opposition to unfair and economically illiterate austerity must now unite around a Green New Deal for Britain. Green Quantitative Easing is needed to act as a direct stimulus to fund the jobs that create long term assets in the real economy. The UK needs a plan to reverse the unemployment that is driving up the welfare bill, and which instead gets people back into work and paying taxes.

The Green Party calls on Trade Unions to back the Green alternative that is now the only voice standing up against an economic system designed to place the tab for 2008 on the UK's public services.

LEAMINGTON SPA cuts protest Friday, JANUARY 20th

2012-01-17T15:54:00.000-08:00

JOIN US TO PROTEST AGAINST CUTS TO DISABLED PEOPLE’S BENEFITS AND SERVICES AND THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR NHS ON WHICH ALL OF US WHO ARE NOT MILLIONAIRE POLITICIANS RELY.

SAY “NO” TO THE WELFARE REFORM BILL,THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR WELFARE STATE AND “NO” TO WORKFARE

What Cuts do Disabled People Face?

▼Closure of the Independent Living Fund supporting those with high support needs, proving that the government’s rhetoric of supporting disabled people is as empty as their souls

▼Movement from Incapacity Benefit to Employment Support Allowance through punitive and unfair compulsory Work Capability Assessments carried out by Atos, a private for-profit company who are declaring those who need 24-hour support and those with terminal cancer ‘fit for work’ in order to meet government targets and reduce disabled peoples’ income drastically

▼VAT increases and benefit rates linked to CPI not RPI which is likely to cost disabled people an extra £800 per annum.

▼Cuts to social care budgets, cuts to housing support, cuts to Access to Work programme (helping disabled people with any equipment they might need to compete on an equal basis with non disabled employees), constant attacks on disabled peoples’ integrity by the Tories and others suggesting we’re not really disabled but ‘just pretending’ to get meagre benefits which they’re going to abolish anyway.

Where – LEAMINGTON SPA, WARWICKSHIRE

At CHRIS WHITE, MP’s office, 43a CLEMENS STREET, OLD TOWN, CV31 2DP, not far from railway station.

When – Friday, JANUARY 20^th, meet outside constituency office at 1pm.

www.dpac.uk.net, mail@dpac.uk.net, http://twitter.com/Dis_PPL_Protest

Guantanamo: 10 years is enough

2012-01-12T12:47:00.000-08:00

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TO J.HEALY & AVAAZ
Dear friends,

Hundreds of men at the US military Guantanamo Bay camp have faced sexual humiliation, long exposure to intense heat and cold, sleep deprivation, and chaining in painful positions. 10 years on, the US has defied all
attempts to close it, but now an international solution is in sight -- together we can make it happen.

170 men are trapped in this judicial black hole and the US has failed to resolve it. If other countries step up now it could be persuaded to end this shame. Qatar has already offered to take innocent prisoners. And the
UK, a close US ally, could give the remaining prisoners a fair and public trial in civilian courts. All that's missing is the political will and public mandate to do it -- and that's exactly what we, together, can
create.

Today, let's mark Guantanamo's shameful 10th birthday with a massive global call to US, UK and Qatari leaders to do an international Close Guantanamo Deal and finally slam the door on this horror story for good.
Sign the urgent petition and send this to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/close_guantanamo_10th_anniversary/?cl=1513375788&v=12005

After 10 years of injustice and broken promises, the US has not shown willingness to close Guantanamo. Both the Obama and Bush administrations and the US Congress and military have obstructed all meaningful moves to release the innocent, try detainees in fair and public trials, move detainees to civilian prisons and shut the prison down. With so many pledges and failures, a creative solution is urgently needed. If we don't act now to force a global solution, the US may operate Guantanamo indefinitely.

The UK and Qatar are well positioned to help the US close Guantanamo. The UK is the US's closest ally and may be the only country it would trust to try the detainees that have not been cleared. And the UK public has
strongly opposed Guantanamo Bay, and could support the UK playing a critical humanitarian role to close it. Qatar has already shown willingness -- when Obama came into office, Qatar made a quiet offer to
resettle cleared Guantanamo detainees. It is also a wealthy nation that could cover the costs of resettlement and its leaders are known and trusted for mediating complex diplomatic issues.

It will not be easy to persuade these nations to negotiate a deal. But if we all raise our voices it is possible. We cannot leave the US to clean up this blot on our global conscience any longer. On this shocking anniversary, let's show the world that there is a way to close Guantanamo. Sign the petition and send this to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/close_guantanamo_10th_anniversary/?cl=1513375788&v=12005

The US has destroyed thousands of families' lives and trampled on international justice. Guantanamo has already gone on 10 years too long. The world can't wait for another decade to pass in the hopes that the US
might eventually right this international outrage. Over and over, we have pushed through difficult solutions, united behind a shared responsibility for our world and a commitment to fight for what is just. Let's do it
again today. The nightmare of Guantanamo won't end, without us.

With hope and determination,

Dalia, Alex, Laura, Alice, Ricken, Pascal, Shibayan, Rewan and the rest of
the Avaaz team

More Information:

CCR Justice: GuantÃ¡namo by the Numbers: What You Should Know & Do About
GuantÃ¡namo
http://ccrjustice.org/files/9.15.11_Guantanamo%20by%20the%20Numbers.pdf

New York Times: My GuantÃ¡namo Nightmare
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/my-guantanamo-nightmare.html

Human Rights Watch: Guantanamo, Ten Years On
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/01/06/guantanamo-ten-years

ACLU: Guantanamo by the numbers
http://www.aclu.org/national-security/guantanamo-numbers

Kuwait Times: Arab families of Guantanamo detainees tired of waiting
Ten years in jail without trial
http://new.kuwaittimes.net/2012/01/09/arab-families-of-guantanamo-detainees-tired-of-waiting-ten-years-in-jail-without-trial/

Human Rights First: Retired Generals and Admirals Urge Obama to Fulfill
Guantanamo Promise
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2012/01/09/retired-generals-and-admirals-urge-obama-to-fulfill-guantanamo-promise/

Ex-Guantanamo guard tells of violence against detainees
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/28/world/meast/guantanamo-guard/index.html

Christine Blower of NUT on academy schools

2012-01-11T09:56:00.000-08:00

Rousing 7 minutes on all that's wrong with academies
FROM:
Martin Francis

http://www.wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2012/01/rousng-seven-minutes-on-all-thats-wrong.html

ENGAGED ISLAM ~ CONTEMPLATIVE ACTION IN OUR CHANGING TIMES

2012-01-08T14:19:00.000-08:00

ENGAGED ISLAM ~ CONTEMPLATIVE ACTION IN OUR CHANGING TIMES
Date: Sat 21st January 2012
Time: 3.15pm to 5.30pm
Venue: 4th Floor, Muslim World League, 46 Goodge Street, London, W1T 4LU (entrance on the corner of Charlotte Street); Nearest Tubes: Goodge Street (Northern Line), Euston Square (Hammersmith & City, Circle, & Metropolitan Lines) & Warren Street (Victoria Line).

Speakers:
Dr Shumaisa Khan, (Food & Ecological Justice Researcher & WIN activist);
Dr Muzammal Hussain, (WIN activist);
Dr Derek Wall, (Green activist, writer and economics)

On the one hand we have corporate domination, economic marginalisation and climate change; on the other, we have spontaneous movements such as 'Occupy', community food growing/permaculture, consensus-decision-making, and a thirst for alternative currencies and economics. In the context of bottom-up, 'non-hierarchical' movements for social change, this public meeting will consider, 'what contribution can be made by Islam and Muslims?' It will include short talks from our speakers, a chance for participants to share their own reflections and experience, and time to hear about volunteering and networking with like minded people in the context of an engaged Islam for our times.

Snacks will be available. This is a free event, with optional donations.

More info including speaker bios: http://wisdominnature.blogspot.com/2012/01/public-meeting-sat-21st-jan-london.html?utm_source=BP_recent

2012-01-07T12:16:00.001-08:00

Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Meeting on JNF 19/1/2012

2012-01-06T00:57:00.000-08:00

Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Presenting monthly discussion meetings and film:

Thursday 19th January 7pm Friends Meeting House Mount Street Manchester

Speakers: John Nicholson and Norma Turner participated in the Stop the JNF Campaign fact-finding visit to Israel-Palestine to provide an overview of the issues affecting Palestinian land rights, the modes of illegal appropriation of Palestinian land and the role of para-statal organisations, especially the Jewish National Fund (JNF), in supporting and maintaining Israel's apartheid policies.

The JNF claims to be “Israel’s leading humanitarian and environmental charity”, a claim rejected as ‘greenwash’ by environmental charities across the world. There is increasing uneasiness about the organisation’s role in the Israeli government policy of discrimination against non-Jews, particularly in the destruction of Palestinian Bedouin villages in the Negev, the forced removal of the villagers to what campaigners refer to as a process of concentration and their replacement with Jewish-only settlements. Campaigners have called this process ‘ethnic cleansing’ and point to the effective subsidy of the JNF’s activities through its charitable, tax-exempt status here in the UK

Come to the meeting to discuss the role of the JNF and how we can campaign to Stop The JNF

January screening double bill - 'The Take' and 'New Pioneers'

2012-01-05T22:16:00.001-08:00

January screening double bill - 'The Take' and 'New Pioneers'
Public Event for Just Film for a Fairer World • By Hilary Topp

Thursday, January 12, 2012 6:30pm until 9:00pm

The Birmingham and Midland Institute,, Margaret Street, Birmingham B3 3BS

The January screening is a co-operative extravaganza to launch the UN International Year of Co-operation. It is a double bill guaranteed to challenge and inspire

New Pioneers - A five minute animation telling the story of the co-operative movement from the first co-operative in Rochdale to the multi-billion pound global movement it is today

The Take - Written by Naomi Klein (Author of 'No Logo'), this inspiring film follows a group of factory workers who occupy their old workplace and set the machines going.... will their co-op survive or will the state shut down this emerging workers democracy?

Doors 6.30pm for 7pm

Anti Academies Alliance AGM, on Saturday 14th January 2012.

2012-01-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

Annual General Meeting
2012
Saturday 14th
January, 1pm – 4pm
Chancellors Room, Hugh Parry Hall
19-26 Cartwright Gardens London WC1H 9EF
close to Euston and Kings Cross stations
Introduction by: Melissa Benn, author of School Wars & Alasdair
Smith, national secretary Anti Academies Alliance
There will be sessions on
• Forced academies
• Labour and academies
• ‘Free’ schools
Motions and elections to the National Steering Committee
To register for the conference please register online, return
the form below, or email your details to
office@antiacademies.org.uk
Please register me for the Anti Academies Alliance AGM, on Saturday 14th January 2012.
Name ..................................................................................................................................
Address ..................................................................................................................................
Postcode .....................................
Phone ...................................... Email ...............................................................................
Organisation (if any) ..............................................................................................................
●PO Box 14412, Birmingham, B11 9DZ ●office@antiacademies.org.uk ●07528 201 697

Organising conference: DEFEND PENSIONS - ESCALATE ACTION - NAME THE DAY!

2012-01-02T09:24:00.001-08:00

- me
  11:00am until 4:00pm
Where
Friends Meeting House, 173 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ

Description

The PCS Left Unity National Committee invites all activists from all unions to an organising conference on the 7th of January to debate how we can build the campaign to defend our pensions and fight the cuts and prevent any unacceptable “deal” that makes us work longer, pay more and get less.
http://www.leftunity.org.uk/
CONFIRMED SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Mark Sertwotka PCS, Roger Bannister Unison NEC member (personal capacity), Kevin Courtney NUT, Mark Campbell UCU and John McDonnell MP.
CHAIRED BY Janice Godrich, PCS President

This will be an organising conference, not just a debating forum. It is intended to arm activists with the issues so they can go back to their workplaces and into their unions in order to build a campaign that will secure justice on pensions.

November 30th was the biggest show of strength from Britain’s trade unions in living memory. It shook the coalition government and provided a firm foundation for the escalation of industrial action to defeat the unjustified attack on pensions and to challenge the coalition’s pay freeze, cuts and privatisation programme.

At the TUC’s Public Sector Liaison Group Mark Serwotka on behalf of PCS argued the TUC should set the date for a further day of nationally coordinated strike action to bring the government into serious negotiations. Although there was some support for this position the TUC general secretary Brendan Barber argued that all the unions should sign up to a so-called “Heads of Agreement”, this means the core issues, on which we took action, working longer, paying more and getting less, are surrendered, just as the government have wanted. Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, argued for acceptance of this “deal”.

It is almost beyond belief that when the confidence of the movement is at its highest point in decades as a result of November 30th and with an additional 100,000 recruits due to the action such an abject surrender is being considered. Now is the time to set the date, as early as possible in 2012, preferably January, for a further day of nationally coordinated industrial action which can be escalated by bringing even more unions on board including workers, like those in Unilever, fighting to defend private sector pensions.

To cover costs there will be a registration fee of £5 for waged delegates.

Brent Libraries Update

2011-12-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

Dear Supporters

You will know from the Christmas Update that our legal team have applied for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. This - and the injunction application - will be considered by the Supreme Court early in the New Year.

However, despite protests from campaigners and passers-by from the local community, library staff and contractors removed books and equipment from Preston Library today . You can see a film of the removal and reports in the local press at -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3IFHaEmy6A&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.harrowobserver.co.uk/west-london-news/local-harrow-news/2011/12/29/protesters-held-back-by-police-as-preston-library-is-cleared-116451-30029056/

http://bl164w.blu164.mail.live.com/default.aspx#!/mail/InboxLight.aspx?n=726113167!n=506765296&fid=1&fav=1&mid=504feab1-324c-11e1-af01-00215ad73a6c&fv=1

This was very disappointing as we had hoped that Brent Council would not take such action while the legal action was still continuing. However, this move is not irretrievable and both the legal campaign and the pressure on Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sports, to hold an enquiry into the Brent library closure plan will continue.

We will keep you informed of any new developments - but stay in touch through our website http://brentlibraries.wordpress.com and the Facebook pages [see below]

Unsurprisingly, Brent has won Private Eye's 2011 Rotten Borough award for its "Library Transformation Plan" ! See...

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/sections.php?section_link=rotten_boroughs&

Good wishes for a better library service in 2012

Chris Coates

On behalf of the Friends of Preston Library

(Acknowledgements to Martin francis)

National anti-Fracking Meeting: Saturday 17th March

2011-12-18T00:51:00.001-08:00

Campaign against Climate Change www.campaigncc.org

National anti-Fracking Meeting

Saturday 17^th March,

Methodist Central Hall, Oldham Street, Manchester. Map and Directions here.

circa 11.00 am to 6.00 pm

Help build a National Campaigning coalition/organisation against Fracking.

Meet anti-fracking campaigners from all around the country and get together to stop fracking in the UK NOW, before it gets a hold and becomes unstoppable…..

Put this date in your diary.

REAF, The Vale Says No, Frack off, FOE Groups, the Coop .....and many more..

More details soon.

www.campaigncc.org/nationalantifrackingmeeting

Portsmouth People's YouNiversity

2011-12-16T08:30:00.000-08:00

Please try and support the new Occupy Portsmouth and its People's Free University THIS WEEKEND at Victoria Park in central Portsmouth where a number of Occupiers are now encamped.

Free University programme follows.

Tim Dawes Co-Ordinator, South East Hampshire Green Party

SATURDAY 17th December 11.00-12.00 Planning Meeting– what kind of Youniversity do we want – facilitated by Tim Dawes

14.00-15.00 Capitalism is broken– fix or throw away? Ben Norman, from the Socialist Party gives a Marxist analysis.

5.15-16.15 Housing – why such a problem?John Buckley (former CEO of Portsmouth Housing As

14.00-15.00 Ethical trading– Philip Warren (Trustee of mutual company, Trade Craft, and long term campaigner for fair trade with the Developing World) talks about ethical trading and the fair trade movement.

15.15-16.15 Money Madness– What needs to be done to make Banking work for us. Owen Devine from the monetary reform organisation Positive Money.

Portsmouth People's YouNiversity Occupy Portsmouth is hosting a Free University on the 17th and 18th December in Victoria Park, Portsmouth, called The People’s YouNiversity. If you want to get on our mailing list, email us at wearethe99percent@hotmail.com or join us on FaceBook – search for People's Youniversity.

LONDON KEEP OUR NHS PUBLIC MEETING TUESDAY 13 DECEMBER

2011-12-09T17:41:00.000-08:00

GOOD NEWS FROM KEEP OUR NHS PUBLIC

From: LondonKeepOurNHSPublic

Sent: Friday, December 09, 2011 11:32 AM

To: Londonkeepournhspublic@gmail.com

Subject: Exciting news! Meeting Tuesday

LONDON KEEP OUR NHS PUBLIC MEETING

TUESDAY 13 DECEMBER

Camden Town Hall, Judd St, WC1 (Kings X tube)

The meeting will discuss these important and exciting developments and draw up an action plan for the New year:

1) NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION AGAINST HEALTH BILL

It seems likely that a national demonstration against the Health Bill will be called in January or February, backed by the Labour Party, Unite and hopefully the TUC. This is something we have been campaigning for, and will be a fantastic opportunity to mobilise the massive opposition to the Health Bill. We need to start planning now to make it a huge show of strength demanding that the Bill is dropped.

2) BMA OPPOSES BILL AS GOVERNMENT FIGHT TO PUSH IT THROUGH LORDS

As the evidence mounts that the Health Bill means the privatisation of the NHS, the BMA has now come our in total opposition to the Bill in a vote that piles even more pressure on the government. Meanwhile the government has been struggling to push clause by clause of the Bill through the Lords.

BMA votes total opposition to Health Bill

Leaked document confirms government plans for private companies to run commissioning

NHS reforms already causing chaos

3) 400,000 HEALTH WORKERS TAKE STRIKE ACTION

Hundreds of thousands of health workers joined the massive public sector strikes last week laying down a gauntlet to the government over pensions and the future of public services. Hundreds joined picket lines outside hospitals, clinics and ambulance stations across London reawakening trade union organisation in the NHS. The strike had fantastic support from members of Unison, Unite, the Society of Radiographers and Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, and may be joined by the RCN and BMA next time.

SOLIDARITY WITH LANGDON SCHOOL STRIKERS - STOP THE UNION BUSTING

2011-12-05T14:03:00.000-08:00

"We are appalled at developments in the dispute at Langdon School in Newham, east London, which started over issues of workload and oppressive management.

The head has employed up to 46 scab supply teachers and brought them in to try to break a lawful, balloted strike by NUT members at the school. Worse still the local authority, and a Labour one at that, has put this strikebreaking force on temporary local authority contracts when they scab.

This shocking move is unprecedented in education disputes and the employment of a strike breaking force has shades of Rupert Murdoch's union busting tactics under Thatcher's government in the mid 1980s.
We totally condemn this move and see it as a threat to every trade unionist.

We call upon all our unions and organisations to ensure the widest possible condemnation of the head and Newham local authority and to work for the fullest possible solidarity with the Langdon School NUT to beat this attack on the basic trade union right to take legal industrial action."

Signed

Noel Lynch - Chair, London Green Party and Green Party London Assembly Candidate
Peter Murry - Secretary, Green Party Trade Union Group, UCU
Martin Francis - NUT, Brent Green Party, School Governor.
Doug Rouxel - South East Essex Green Party, UCU NEC.
Joseph Healy - Green Party Trade Union Group Treasurer, UNITE Voluntary Sector.
Paul Philo - Brighton Green Party.
Owen Clayton - York Green Party.
Lynton North, West Devon Green Party
Tom Maltby Green Party TU Group / Hackney. UNISON /TUC
Will Duckworth - NASUWT member
Derek Wall Green Left Committee
Malcolm Bailey Green Left Committee
Romayne Phoenix Green Left Committee, Coalition of Resistance Chair, Lewisham GP
Howard Thorp Green Left Committee
Jim McGinley Green Left, GPTU, NUT
Josiah Mortimer University of York Green Party
tony matthews cardiff and vale GP

Threat to jobs at Carillion solar panels

2011-12-04T12:42:00.000-08:00

from: Martin Empson, Treasurer, Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union group

With all the activity around the strikes last week and the demonstration this weekend, the news about 1000 jobs underthreat at Carillion in Newcastle may have been overlooked. Carillion is one of the largest installers of solar panels and with government reductions to the "feed in" tariff - the amount of money that is given to those who sell electricity from renewable sources, back to the national grid, there is likely to be a drop in demand for the panels.
There is a BBC report here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-15992506
and a Guardian report here
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/dec/01/carillion-job-cuts-solar-energy?newsfeed=true

As part of the climate jobs campaign, I think it is important that the CaCC TU group stands with those workers who face losing their jobs. If anyone on this email list is in the Newcastle area, or has contacts with the Carillion workers (or their trade union), or indeed knows of any campaigns, public meetings etc that we can publicise, please drop me a line off list.

My contact details are below,
Thanks

Martin Empson
Treasurer, Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union group
www.climate-change-jobs.org
079 585 35231
swpmre@yahoo.com

Strike! Wednesday’s events around London

2011-11-27T11:46:00.000-08:00

Strike! Wednesday’s events around London

Wednesday sees the largest UK-wide strike for decades, if not ever. If you’re on strike best of luck to you – if you aren’t here’s a list of things you can do around London on the day to show your support.

There are also hundreds of picket lines, far too many to list so if you want to visit one just stumble about and you’re bound to trip over one sooner or later!

Main march: 12 noon, Lincolns Inn Fields march to rally on Victoria Embankment
Education feeder march: 12 noon, ULU, Malet Street, WC1E 7HY
Barnet Hospital protest 12 – 2pm
Brent – 9.30am, rally at the Torch Pub, 1-5 Bridge Road, Wembley, HA9 9AB. Backed by ATL, GMB. PCS. NAHT, NASUWT, NUT, UCU and Unison – the bar will be open!
Brixton: strikers’ breakfast 9-10.45am, Vida Walsh Centre, Windrush Square, SW9 7AA
Brixton: 10.45—11.30 Local Rally, Windrush Square, SW9 7AA
Camden: rally 11am Camden Town Hall
Croydon – 10.30am, assemble in Queen Elizabeth Gardens, Park Lane, Croydon, CR9 3JY, for rally and march.
Croydon Hospital Protest 12 – 2pm
Ealing – 10.30am, assemble at Ealing Town Hall, W5 2BY.
Euston - Noon to 2pm, protest outside UCLH, 235 Euston Road, NW1 2BU.
GLA buildings: protest 12 noon
Gravesend: 12 noon rally Three Daws Pub, Gravesend, South East DA11 0BJ
Greenwich - noon to 2pm, protest outside Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Stadium Road, Greenwich, SE18 4QH.
Hackney - noon, protest outside Hackney Town Hall, Mare Street, E8 1EA.
Haringey: 10.00am, CONEL (College of NE London), Tottenham High Rd: UCU, Haringey TUC and Haringey Alliance for Public Services
Haringey - noon, protest outside Haringey Civic Centre, High Road, N22 9SB.
Harrow - noon to 2pm, protest outside Northwick Park Hospital, Watford Road, Harrow, HA1 3UJ.
Hillingdon: High Street, Uxbridge, Hillingdon, Greater London UB8 12 noon
Islington: UNISON Circle House, 1-3 HIghbury Station Road, N1 1SE 7am
Islington: Islington Green Protest 12 noon
Kingston upon Thames: Outside Kingston University, Penrhyn Road, Kingston upon Thames KT1 9.30am: Called by Hands Off Our Pensions in Surrey (HOOPS), Kingston GMB, Kingston Anti-Cuts Group, Surrey UNISON and Surrey Save Our Services.
Lambeth Protest 10am, Windrush Square
Lambeth - noon, protest in Windrush Square, SW2 1JG.
Lewisham - noon to 2pm, protest outside Lewisham Hospital, Lewisham High Street, SE13 6LH.
Paddington - Noon to 2pm, protest outside St Mary’s Hospital, Praed Street, W2 1NY.
Southwark ‘Strikers canteen’ 10.30 – 11.30 London Rd, Elephant & Castle then march to Lincolns Inn Fields
Tooting - Noon to 2pm, protest outside St George’s Hospital, Blackshaw Road, Tooting, SW17 0QT.
Tower Bridge - noon, protest outside Greater London Authority, Westminster Bridge Road, SE1 2AA.
Tower Hamlets - noon, protest outside Tower Hamlets Town Hall, 236 Cable Street, E1 0BL.
Wandsworth – 11am, rally outside Wandsworth Town Hall, High Street, SW18 2PU.
Westminster - noon to 2pm, protest outside St Thomas’ Hospital, Westminster Bridge Road, SE1 7EH.
London Hospitals

Blood Transfusion, Oxford Street 12 – 2pm
Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, Fulham 12- 2pm
LAS HQ, Waterloo 12 – 2pm
Lewisham Hospital protest 12 – 2pm
London Hospital, Whitechapel 12 -2pm
Northwick Park Hospital protest 12 – 2pm
Queen Elizabeth Hospital protest 12 – 2pm
Queens Hospital protest 12 – 2pm
St Pancras Hospital, Camden & Islington 12 – 2pm
St Thomas’ Hospital protest – 12 – 2pm
St Mary’s Hospital 12 – 2pm
St Georges Hospital Protest 12 – 2pm
UCLH protest 12 – 2pm

Brent & Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Meeting on protests against Veolia's links with the Israeli occupation of Palestine.22/11/2011

2011-11-23T10:28:00.001-08:00

Introduction by Martin Francis , Chair of B&H PSC and speech by Michael Deas Europe Coordinator of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC)

Questions and discussion 1

Simon Natas, Human Rights Lawyer (ITN Solicitors)

Questions and discussion 2

Salim Alam, West London Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Questions and discussion 3

Green Left/Socialist Resistance seminar: Feed the world –without destroying the planet

2011-11-17T02:28:00.001-08:00

A GL/SR SEMINAR on FOOD SOVERIGNTY WITH: MARIA NERI FROM CONZARRD, AN NGO FOCUSING ON AGRARIAN REFORM AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES.12TH OF NOVEMBER 2011

Rapidly rising food prices are one of the most immediate ways that the economic crisis hits the poorest people. It led to riots in many parts of the world in 2010 and was a significant factor in igniting the Arab Spring. Millions are dying of starvation in Africa and it’s easy to assume that this is because we aren’t
producing enough food to feed everyone. In fact food production has become increasingly globalised and distorted since the 1970s with the result that a handful of countries now dominate the trade in staple foods.

This leaves the most vulnerable countries at the mercy of those who dominate the trade. Global warming
compounds the problem through drought. The rich countries of the north have imposed so called “liberalisation” on poorer countries – often through institutions like the International Monetary Fund –
and subsidising agribusiness at the expense of the most vulnerable.

Agribusiness and GM crops have pushed up yields in a way that destroys the environment and denies food to hungry people. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez hit the nail on the head when he said that the food crisis is “the greatest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model.

Socialist Resistance and Green Left argue for an ecosocialist approach to the problem where the people who produce food have the right to determine their own agricultural policies, free from interference from the
multinationals or international institutions with their neo-liberal policies such as the IMF and the World Bank.
These issues are not discussed enough on the left and this seminar gives us a unique opportunity to do so.

Reshad Desai: Introduction by Alan Thornett

Graciela Romero; Director of International Programmes War on Want

Pierre Roussel of NPA

maria neri

Supermarkets & Agribusiness. Workshop led by Derek Wall part 1

Supermarkets & Agribusiness. Workshop led by Derek Wall part 2

Supermarkets & Agribusiness. Workshop led by Derek Wall part 3

Derek Wall speaking at the final plenary.

Terry Conway speaking at the closing plenary off SR/GL Food Sovereignty seminar 12/11/11

Maria Neri speaking at the closing plenary off SR/GL Food Sovereignty seminar 12/11/11

Food, Floods and Climate Change

2011-11-07T23:51:00.001-08:00

Introduction and Jonathon Essex Reigate Green Councillor

Barry Gardiner MP for Brent North and Opposition Climate spokesperson

Questions and discussion part 1

Questions and discussion part 2

Green Left puts full support behind Mark Campbell as a candidate in the up coming UCU General Secretary Election.

2011-11-06T11:34:00.001-08:00

"Green Left puts full support behind Mark Campbell as a candidate in the up coming UCU General Secretary Election. The group recognises the need for trade unions to have active, rank and file leadership, responsive to grass roots activists and that as a General Secretary candidate, Mark embodies this within UCU.

We welcome Mark’s decision, if elected, to only draw his lecturer’s salary, and only to accept increases which have been won for union members. We feel that this is an important connection between the union’s apparatus and the members. We are disappointed that Mark has been portrayed by other candidates as an “SWP candidate” and want to make it clear that he commands support from a significantly wider constituency."

CAROLINE LUCAS at St PAUL'S

2011-11-06T06:49:00.000-08:00

Caroline Lucas speaking at the St Paul's occupation.http://www.eco-tube.com/v/ACT/Caroline_Lucas_at_Occupy_LSX_St_Pauls.aspx

DEREK WALL at St Paul's

2011-11-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

I have organised the following event.

'What is capitalism and what are the alternatives?' Discussion Tuesday, 8th Nov at 14:00 Occupy the London Stock Exchange St Pauls

Caroline Lucas has been down to speak a couple of times.

Incidentally my argument is for common pool property rights see Karl Marx and Elinor Ostrom.

A good discussion can be found here if this is a new concept http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/resource/reclaiming-commons

And I wrote a think piece here for the Sustainable Development Commission http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications.php?id=771

And there is a video of my main thoughts on all this here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIjRo-HEZbE

Indigenous and Workers to power!

Trade Union Pledge in support of the St Paul’s Occupiers

2011-10-30T11:22:00.001-07:00

Launched by the initial signatories given below at a general assembly of the St Paul’s Occupation on the evening of the 27th October 2011.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

‘As trade unionists we express our support and admiration for the activists taking part in the occupation at St Paul's. We believe that they deserve the support of all those who think that we need a fairer and more just society.

‘The occupiers represent the rage against the bankers and a government that puts the interests of the rich before the interests of ordinary people.

‘We welcome the occupation’s statement giving support to the public sector pensions strike on 30th November. The support that the occupiers have given to the demonstrations by electricians facing huge attacks to their pay and conditions has also been magnificant.

‘We support Reverend Giles Fraser, a man of principle, forced to resign due to his opposition to the possible threats of violence against the occupiers. His resignation must not be taken as a green light for the police to step in to clear the occupation.

‘We pledge to stand with the occupiers against any attempt to physically remove them.

‘The right-wing media and politicians may seek to vilify the occupiers, but we stand firmly with them. We are heartened by the growth of a new, young and vibrant movement that, like us, seeks a better society - one that puts human need before bankers' greed'.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Initial Signatures (all in a personal capacity):

Mark Campbell, UCU National Executive Committee, and London Metropolitan University UCU
Jess Edwards, Assistant Secretary, Lambeth NUT
Ian Bradley, Unite London Rank & File Committee
Andy Reid, PCS National Executive Committee
Nick Grant, NUT National Executive Committee
Richard McEwan, UCU National Executive Committee, and Tower Hamlets College UCU
Simon Hester, Prospect, Vice-chair, HSE Branch
Jeni Reid, PCS, Asst Branch Secretary, HSE National Branch
Rachel Eborall, Unison East London Mental Health Branch
Matt Saywell, GMB Holborn Branch Secretary, and GMB London Regional Council
Keith Crane, PCS, DEFRA Group Executive
Craig Farr, Lambeth NUT LGBT Officer
Ursla Hawthorn, NUT Waltham Forest
Luke Evans, Goldsmiths UCU Executive Committee
Des Freedman, Goldsmiths UCU Executive Committee
Ken Muller, Islington NUT Assistant Secretary
Mandy Brown, UCU Branch Secretary, Lambeth College
Peter Coville, Vice-chair, Reading College UCU
Jake Douglas, Asst Branch Secretary, CONEL UCU
Jim Wolfrys, UCU National Executive Committee, and Kings College UCU
Kelvin Smith, Queen Mary University London UCU
Charlie Kimber, NUJ
Matthew Myatt, NUJ Hampshire Chapel
Richard Willis, GMB Redbridge
Maureen Taylor, GMB Redbridge

Feed the world –without destroying the planet

2011-10-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

A TALK WITH: MARIA NERI FROM CONZARRD, AN NGO FOCUSING ON AGRARIAN REFORM AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES.

7:15PM THURSDAY 17TH OF NOVEMBER

FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE, JESUS LANE, CAMBRIDGE.
OPEN TO ALL – FREE FOR ALL.

Rapidly rising food prices are one of the most immediate ways that the economic crisis hits the poorest people. It led to riots in many parts of the world in 2010 and was a significant factor in igniting the Arab Spring. Millions are dying of starvation in Africa and it’s easy to assume that this is because we aren’t
producing enough food to feed everyone. In fact food production has become increasingly globalised and distorted since the 1970s with the result that a handful of countries now dominate the trade in staple foods.

This leaves the most vulnerable countries at the mercy of those who dominate the trade. Global warming
compounds the problem through drought. The rich countries of the north have imposed so called “liberalisation” on poorer countries – often through institutions like the International Monetary Fund –
and subsidising agribusiness at the expense of the most vulnerable.

Agribusiness and GM crops have pushed up yields in a way that destroys the environment and denies food to hungry people. Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez hit the nail on the head when he said that the food crisis is “the greatest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model.

Socialist Resistance and Green Left argue for an ecosocialist approach to the problem where the people who produce food have the right to determine their own agricultural policies, free from interference from the
multinationals or international institutions with their neo-liberal policies such as the IMF and the World Bank.
These issues are not discussed enough on the left and this seminar gives us a unique opportunity to do so.

A Red/Green Forum Meeting

TAX JUSTICE e-petition

2011-10-26T11:21:00.000-07:00

Subject: [London] Sign the TAX JUSTICE e-petition started by Caroline Lucas
MP - cascade to all Greens and all others

Sign the TAX JUSTICE e-petition started by Caroline Lucas MP : Just 100,000 signatures and there will be ructions in the House - that is, a guaranteed debate in the House of Commons.

Use all your groups / email lists to share the link :

Sign the petition here:http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18996

CoR had the story up and posted a few days back, and now has the direct petition link on the website : http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/2011/10/tax-justice-epetition-by-car
oline-lucas-mp/

Romayne Phoenix

OLSX event "Your workplace: cuts, grievances and organising resistance"

2011-10-26T07:56:00.000-07:00

From: Pete Firmin
Occupy London Stock Exchange (outside St Pauls Cathedral) are hosting an event on Thursday (27 Oct) evening entitled
"Your workplace: cuts, grievances and organising resistance"
The occupiers would like to invite as many trade unionists and workers to come along.

We would also like to get people from different trade unions speaking, in particular about Nov 30th strikes and the preparations for it.

It will go on from 5 until 6.30pm in front of the steps of St Pauls.
After which they would like to take anyone who would like on a tour of the camp.

Please come down and support the event, bring people from your workplace and union and if possible collections.

TV discussion on Occupy movement

2011-10-25T09:19:00.000-07:00

Mike Shaughnessy
To: greenleftdiscuss@lists.riseup.net
Sent: Tuesday, 25 October 2011, 11:20
Subject: [greenleftdiscuss] Occupy London SX TV Debate

This is a short discussion on the Occupy movement, between an oaf from the Tax Payers Alliance, which is a right wing pressure group, close to the Tory party, and Guardian journalist, Polly Toynbee. In my view, Polly spoils it a bit with her talk of 'good' capitalism, which is rather a contradiction in terms, but she shows up the the bloke from Tax Payers Alliance as a shallow apologist for corporate capitalism.

http://haringeygreens.blogspot.com/

Jean Lambert MEP, statement on Occupy London Stock Exchange

2011-10-19T16:34:00.001-07:00

*** NEWS RELEASE ***
From the office of Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London

19th October 2011

Green MEP for London, Jean Lambert, has issued the following statement on the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest currently taking place in the City of London:

“The vast majority of people demonstrating over the last few days want to take part in a peaceful protest to voice their concerns about corporate greed and growing inequality, both at home and around the world. I wholeheartedly support their calls for an end to global tax injustice, independent regulation of the banking industry and concrete action to repair and protect crucial public services. Indeed, these are principles that many would support.

“With unemployment now at its highest level for almost twenty years and the financial system in crisis, it is no wonder that so many people feel betrayed and let down by the governments and the financial sector. The system has, for far too long, been unaccountable and irresponsible and now we are all paying a heavy price. I hope that the UK Government listens to the messages of discontent being aired and realise that the public demand positive change.

“Over the coming days, it is crucial that those participating in the Occupy London demonstration are able to exercise their right to peaceful protest, unhindered by inappropriate policing. I urge police and authorities to show restraint and maintain a low profile presence in the absence of any significant disorder.”

Notes to Editors

Jean Lambert is one of eight MEPs representing London and one of two UK Green representatives in the European Parliament. Jean was first elected Green Party Member of the European Parliament for London in the 1999 European elections and was re-elected in 2004 and 2009.

For an interview with Jean or for further information please contact: Anna Rutter, Media & PR Officer to Jean Lambert MEP: 020 7164 2152 / 07917 881648 / media@jeanlambertmep.org.uk

www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk

China Miéville at Brent CCC meeting 17/10/11

2011-10-18T07:05:00.000-07:00

China Miéville lives and works in London. He is three-time winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award (Perdido Street Station, Iron Council and The City & The City) and has also won the British Fantasy Award twice (Perdido Street Station and The Scar). The City & The City, an existential thriller, was published in 2009 to dazzling critical acclaim and drew comparison with the works of Kafka and Orwell (The Times) and Phillip K. Dick (The Guardian). The City & The City recently won the British Science Fiction Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award and was also shortlisted for the Nebula and Hugo prizes.

See http://www.panmacmillan.com/features/displayPage.asp?PageID=7881 for details of China Mieville's books.

China Mieville introduced By Ken Montague. Brent CCC meeting 17/10/11

China Mieville questions and discussion 1. Brent CCC meeting 17/10/11

China Mieville questions and discussion 2. Brent CCC meeting 17/10/11

Caroline Lucas will visit London protest camp

2011-10-17T06:10:00.001-07:00

Lucas speaks out in support of Occupy London protest
17 October 2011

The Occupy London Stock Exchange protest has entered its third day today, with a number of activists having established a tented encampment outside St Paul's Cathedral in the City.

Pavilion MP and Green party leader, Caroline Lucas, is planning to visit the camp later today. She commented:

"As awareness increases of the injustice and unsustainability of the global economic system, more and more people are taking to the streets in opposition.

"The camp that has been set up a stone's throw from London Stock Exchange is an opportunity to explore a different kind of future to the one the mainstream political parties have constructed.

"The authorities must now respect the right to peaceful protest.

"If they have any sense, they will also start to listen to the voices of those ordinary - and extraordinary people - who want to invest in a greener, fairer future rather than the stocks-and-shares house of sand that sustains corporate capitalism."

ENDS

Green Left statement supporting Occupy London

2011-10-16T15:09:00.000-07:00

"Green Left commends those in London and elsewhere who are engaged in ongoing public protest against corporate greed and for a fairer world. They are an example to us all. We are proud to publish the initial statement of Occupy London"

#OccupyLSX initial statement
Posted on October 16, 2011 by occupylsx
At today’s assembly on the steps of St Paul’s, #occupylsx agreed the initial statement below. Please note, it’s a draft statement at this stage and it will always be a work in progress.

1 The current system is unsustainable. It is undemocratic and unjust. We need alternatives; this is where we work towards them.

2 We are of all ethnicities, backgrounds, genders, generations, sexualities dis/abilities and faiths. We stand together with occupations all over the world.

3 We refuse to pay for the banks’ crisis.

4 We do not accept the cuts as either necessary or inevitable. We demand an end to global tax injustice and our democracy representing corporations instead of the people.

5 We want regulators to be genuinely independent of the industries they regulate.

6 We support the strike on the 30th November and the student action on the 9th November, and actions to defend our health services, welfare, education and employment and to stop wars and arms dealing.

7 We want structural change towards authentic global equality. The world’s resources must go towards caring for people and the planet, not the military, corporate profits or the rich.

8 We stand in solidarity with the global oppressed and we call for an end to the actions of our government and others in causing this oppression.

9 This is what democracy looks like. Come and join us!

A seminar on food sovereignty

2011-10-16T14:44:00.001-07:00

Feed the world without destroying the planet

November 12, 11-5.30
Registration 10.30.

University of London Union,
Malet Street, London WC1

Organised by Socialist Resistance and Green Left
http://socialistresistance.org/ http://greenleftblog.blogspot.com/

Agenda11- 1.30 Introductory plenary
1.30-2.30 Lunch
2.30-4.00 WorkshopsWomen and Food Sovereignty
Agribusiness and the supermarkets
Land rights not Land grabs
Food Sovereignty and Climate change4.15-5.30 Closing Plenary

with Maria Neri Pampilo

Maria has worked for CONZARRD since the mid 1990’s.

CONZARRD is a grouping of popular and non-governmental organisations working on agrarian reform and rural development in Mindanao, in the Philippines. For CONZARRD organic farming is not a luxury – but essential to the survival of the famers.Organic rice for example is more resilient against both disease and flooding as well as cheaper. Organic fertiliser, produced locally enriches the soil rather than depleting it in the way chemical fertiliser does.

Other principal speakers include: Graciela Romero War on Want International Programme Director and author of their report on Food Sovereignty
Rehad Desai: South African climate change activist and documentary film maker, visiting Britain to build support for the climate justice protests in Durban to coincide with the COP 17 summit in December
Derek Wall, Green Left – former principal speaker of the Green Party, author of the No Nonsense Guide to Green politics
Pierre Rousset : Noveau Parti Anticapalist (NPA), France, and Europe-Asia social forums – Editor of www.europesolidaire.com, has written extensively on Asia particularly the Philippines, Vietnam and Japan
Terry Conway: Socialist Resistance Editorial Board

Food sovereignty not `food security’ is answer to world hunger

One and a half billion people are at risk from rising food prices. This is the dramatic conclusion of the report by UN food agencies; The state of food insecurity in the World today. The report talks of a triple crisis of food, climate change and depleted natural resources, which could affect 1.5 billion people across 10 countries. It says: “having 600 million people suffering from hunger on a daily basis is never acceptable”

But the way the UN agencies focus on the concept of “food security” is fundamentally flawed. They promote private investment and increased agricultural productivity – both of which are part of the problem. They have contributed to the development of widespread hunger, rising food prices and small producers being forced off the land by increasing power of agribusiness and the supermarkets.

Socialist Resistance and Green Left say that the answer is food sovereignty; that is the right of the people who produce food to determine their own agricultural policies, free from interference from either multinationals or from international institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF. The promotion of neo-liberal deregulation by these institutions has been one of the key factors leading to today’s food crisis.

We say no to the power of the supermarkets. Food producers are at the mercy of the supermarkets who dictate what is grown and what price they will pay. Tesco makes two thirds of its sales and profits in Britain. In the second quarter of this financial year like for like sales in British stores fell by 0.7% while profits increased by 12% in the first half of the year!

These are not issues that the left in Britain often addresses – we hope you will join us to hear Maria and other speakers discuss why they are vital to us all

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I want to register for the Feed the world without destroying the planet seminar

Name----------------------------------------------------

Address--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Email-----------------------------------------------------------

Phone ---------------------------------------------------

Send £7 or £4 unwaged to PO Box 62732, London SW2 9CQ or by paypal.com to pay resistance@sent.com

Vigil at Kensal Green Library

2011-10-15T04:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Green Party members,

As you know we have supported the campaign against the closure of 6 out of 12 Brent libraries. Following the High Court ruling in favour of Brent Council earlier this week they have immediately closed all six
libraries and boarded up five of them. There is a community vigil outside Kensal Rise Library in Bathurst Road which has so far prevented council workers boarding that library up. I reproduce below an appeal
from the campaigners for support. I hope that you will be able to join in even if if is for only half an hour.

Martin Francis
Brent Green Party Communications Officer

http://wembleymatters.blogspot.com/2011/10/sorry-for-any-inconvenience-caused-by.html
http://brentgreens.blogspot.com/2011/10/failed-by-high-court-sad-day-for-brent.html

Hi all,

Firstly thanks to everyone who has supported the vigil outside the  library (especially all the brilliant kids).  This support has sent out a very important message about how much we care about what happens to our library and community and its  significance has gone beyond our own neighbourhood.‬

‪Lots of library campaigners throughout England have been heartened by our actions and we have received loads of messages of support.‬

Great stuff Kensal Green and Kensal Rise.‬

As you may know our legal team are in the process of lodging an application to appeal the decision handed down by Justice Ousley on Thursday. We should know the result of this application by next week (possibly Tuesday). We would like to maintain a presence outside the library until then, not only to prevent Brent boarding up the library but also because our presence is sending out a powerful message.‬

We really do care about our library and how much it means to this community.‬ ‪So, we need your support. For the next few days we need your help in maintaining a presence at the library. We need you there during the day for whatever time you can spare.‬

If you can be at the library from midnight to 5am that would be fantastic. We have people taking over at 5am.‬
Of course you are welcome to come at any time but midnight to dawn is  when we really need help. I know this is a big, big ask but it is only  for a few days.‬

If you do intend to come make sure you wrap up warm. IT IS COLD. We have a tent. There will be company. You could bring your car.‬

Kind souls have been supplying us with coffee and biscuits and  chocolate.‬If you find that request irresistible see you at the library maybe?‬

Regards and thanks,‬  ‪ Margaret Bailey

Defend Public Libraries: London Events

2011-10-15T02:40:00.001-07:00

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Events
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 22:16:03 +0100
From: Preston Library Campaign
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Dear all,

The events page has belatedly been updated on our website: www.brentlibraries.wordpress.com/events

Although our library has suffered a spectacular act of vandalism, the hundreds of angry emails we have received shows you all still care. We plan to appeal this absurd decision, and continue to appeal to the government to intervene.

Kensal Rise residents have managed to stop theirs being boarded up for more than 24 hours with a wonderful guerilla library - read about it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/oct/14/protesters-resist-library-closures?newsfeed=true

Our library may be boarded up, but it is still there and we will do our best to recover it. Brent council has become famous up and down the country for its mismanagement and anti-democratic nonsense, and they thought libraries would be an easy option. Well no, there is everything still to play for and we haven't raised £30,000 (yes we did it in just 5 months) and gone this far to give up because of one narrow-minded judge.

There are some really good events planned, all detailed below, including a few from friends and supporters. Have a look and please come along - don't let the library-snatchers win!

Thank you all,

EVENTS:

SATURDAY 15 OCT - 2pm - our friends at Friern Barnet Library are having a Party on the Green to celebrate libraries - Free! It's near Arnos Grove (Friern Barnet Road, London, N11 3DS) - Go along and show your support, plenty of kids acitivites planned.

MONDAY 17 Oct 2011 - STAND UP FOR LIBRARIES (Phil Jupitus, Robin Ince, the legendary Robyn Hitchcock and others) - Queens Park Community School - Doors 6.30pm - show 7.30pm - Tickets £10 in advance (email us)

WEDNESDAY 19th OCT 2011 - our new neighbours, the IHCR bookshop on Preston Road are having a fab BOOK event: Kwame Nimako talks about his new book The Dutch Atlantic: Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation - 6.30pm - 8.30pm. Free entry.

MONDAY 24 OCT 2011 - PRESTON PUB QUIZ - The Preston Pub, opposite - 7.30 for 8pm - £5/3

SATURDAY 19 NOV 2011 - DISCO at Mall Community Centre - more information soon

Sparks De-Skilling And Pay Dispute Ballot Or No Ballot All Out To Defend Our Future

2011-10-13T11:25:00.000-07:00

From: noel doyle
To: greenleftdiscuss@lists.riseup.net
Sent: Tuesday, 11 October 2011, 23:14
Subject: [greenleftdiscuss] Sparks against deskilling

Sparks De-Skilling And Pay Dispute Ballot Or No Ballot All Out To Defend Our Future

A sometimes angry and consistently passionate meeting of over 100 electricians, or sparks as they are known in the trade, took place at Conway hall central London tonight to discuss future tactics in their struggle against attacks on their pay and terms and conditions. The sparks are facing an entirely calculated and cynical attack by a cabal of seven construction firms Balfour Beatty, Crown House, Spie WHS/Matthew Hall, Shepherd Engineering Services and NG Bailey. The seven have given workers a stark choice either sign new contracts by December 7th or face the sack, the new contracts downgrade the sparks from skilled to semi skilled workers and includes a hefty 35% pay cut, from £16.25 to £10.50 per hour. With inflation running at 5% and food and fuel prices through the roof, the sparks have been left with no choice by their employers, they have to fight back.
This is quite clearly an attempt by the group of seven employers to take advantage of the current economic environment of high unemployment and falling wages, to drive down wages in order to increase profits, Balfour Beatty the biggest of the firms and the instigator of this initiative made profits of £50 million last year. These firms have seen the actions of the coalition government in attacking the pay and conditions of the public sector workforce and taken inspiration from that, if the Condems can get away with slashing the conditions of such a highly unionised workplace as the public sector then what's to stop the private sector doing the same to their less organised workforce.
The sparks are not taking this lying down though, they have not waited for the Unite leadership to direct tactics, the last month has seen protests outside building sites up and down the country with more planned over the coming weeks. This action seems to have upset some of the Unite leadership with Bernard McAuley - Unite National Officer, who was present at the meeting, coming under particular criticism for an email he sent describing the wild cat protest movement as “cancerous” and “divisive”. The militancy of the rank and file, who are crying out for a national ballot on strike action, was palpable at the meeting, and seemed to be completely at odds with the measured tone of Mcauley and Gail Cartmail Unite Assisstant General Secretary. The Unite leadership still seems to be hamstrung by the high court decision in May 2010 that ruled its strike of BA cabin crews illegal, McAuley stressed the need for Unite to have a proper membership audit before balloting, obviously the fear of another court case stalks them. This is no use to the sparks of course the clock is ticking for them and it looks likely they will have to take action without the explicit backing of the union.
It is clear that this dispute is a tester for the rest of the construction industry, these seven firms are dipping their toes in the water to test the temperature of union resistance. A defeat of the sparks here, who are a relatively well unionised and organised section of the construction workforce, would open the doors to a more general wage reduction for all skilled construction workers.
The sparks are determined to continue the fight with or without an official ballot, more protests are planned in the coming weeks which will hopefully build into wild cat strikes and targeted closures of high profile construction sites up and down the country, building into the biggest mass walkout of construction workers in years on November 30th to coincide with the public sector strikes. To do this the sparks are going to need bodies at the protests and picket lines and money fighting fund is being set up to support striking workers details of which can be found
On their blog http://jibelectrician.blogspot.com/
On twitter http://twitter.com/#!/JIBElectrician
On facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002827871645&sk=info http://www.facebook.com/groups/264935423529258/

Noel Doyle

Scapegoat: Why we are failing disabled people

2011-10-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

Scapegoat:
Why we are failing disabled people
Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS
11.00am – 13.00pm, Saturday 26 November 2011 with Katharine Quarmby, author, journalist and broadcaster
There is no charge for attending this event
Congress House is a fully accessible building
Please register in advance by contacting:
Email:                        sertucevents@tuc.org.uk
Telephone:             020 7467 1220
Post:                          SERTUC, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS
Name
Email
Address

Contact Phone Number
Union, trades council or organisation
Any special access or dietary needs

Why we are failing disabled people

Programme:
10.30am onwards             Tea and coffee will be provided
11.00am                               Introduction by the Chair of the event
11.05am                               Katharine Quarmby
                                                Panel discussion and questions from the audience
13.00pm                               Buffet lunch/reception
13.30pm                               Close

Our society is poisoned by discrimination and prejudice against disabled people. Police crime statistics show that the number of disability hate crimes recorded increased by more than 20 per cent in 2010, to 1569, although that is probably a tiny fraction of the real number that occurred. A recent report by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission found that ‘many disabled people regard harassment as inevitable’.

In a recently published and acclaimed book, Katharine Quarmby, asks what can be done to prevent hate crime being perpetrated against disabled people? In her book Katharine analyses the incidence of such crimes and the motivations behind them. And she finds that all too often the assaults were dismissed by social care agencies, before they culminated in murder. Consequently, she asks how and why we are failing disabled people in Britain? Then we must ask, “So where do we go from here? What concrete steps that we can take to achieve much needed and dramatic change”.
‘Scapegoat: how we are failing disabled people in Britain’, was published by Portobello Press on 6 June. It is the first British investigation into disability targeted violence.

Katharine Quarmby is a writer, journalist and film-maker specialising in social affairs, education, foreign affairs and politics, with an investigative and campaigning edge. She has spent most of her working life as a journalist and has made many films for the BBC, as well as working as a correspondent for The Economist, and contributing to British broadsheets, including the Guardian, Sunday Times and the Telegraph.

Katharine was recently the joint winner of the prestigious 2010 Radar Human Rights Person of the Year award for her work on disability hate crime, with friends and colleagues Stephen Brookes and Anne Novis, for their online forum, the ‘Disability Hate Crime Network’.

More details of Katharine’s work can be found at www.katharinequarmby.co.uk
Seats for this event are limited. To reserve a place please register at sertucevents@tuc.org.uk, or call SERTUC on 020 7467 1220 or register by post at SERTUC, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS
____________________________________________

China Miéville, "FOOD, FLOODS AND CLIMATE CHANGE: PAKISTAN, AFRICA, BRITAIN".,STAND UP FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE on Saturday 3rd December

2011-10-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

BRENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE

Hi - We hope you can join us for our next local meetings and the national demonstration to "Stand Up for Climate Justice" on 3rd December (details at the end):

MONDAY 17 OCTOBER, 7.30pm, WILLESDEN GREEN LIBRARY CENTRE: ENVIRONMENTAL WRITERS MEETING - Acclaimed fantasy fiction author, China Miéville, will be introducing his work and leading a discussion on how creative writers should respond to climate change. A flier with details is attached - please display and pass on.

THURDAY 10 NOVEMBER, 7.30pm, CHALKHILL COMMUNITY CENTRE, WEMBLEY: PUBLIC MEETING ON "FOOD, FLOODS AND CLIMATE CHANGE: PAKISTAN, AFRICA, BRITAIN". Speakers include Brent North MP, Barry Gardiner, who is Labour's international envoy on climate change, and speakers from the Green Party and the RMT trade union, plus a regional activist . The Chalkhill Community Centre is just across the road from Wembley Park tube station - buses 83, 182, 223, 245, 297, 644, PR2. Directions: http://www.imiddlesex.co.uk/profile/106985/Wembley/Chalkhill-Youth-and-Community-Centre/.

Anyone is also welcome to attend our next Steering Group meeting at 7.30pm on 1 November to help decide our future activities. Further details and confirmation of the venue will be circulated nearer the time.

Please put these dates on your diary and try to come along to one or all of them.

Ken Montague, for BCaCC

Campaign against Climate Change www.campaigncc.org

This year the floods in Pakistan have returned displacing 5 million and killing hundreds. Last year's floods were the worst in living memory with 20 million affected and 2,000 killed. Last year also saw record breaking temperatures in Russia with wildfires and crop failures while this year we have seen the latest in a series of exceptional droughts in East Africa causing famine in Somalia.
The frequency and severity of weather related disasters is on the increase and scientists tell us this is due to human-induced climate change caused overwhelmingly by the high emissions and high consuming lifestyles of richer countries like our own. Its the poorest and most vulnerable around the world - many of them in Africa where this year's climate talks are being held - who have done the least to cause the problem but who are suffering the most. And all this is set to get worse. Yet climate change and the conversion to a low carbon economy are routinely dismissed as minor concerns.
Join us and STAND UP FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE on Saturday 3rd December midway through the Durban Climate Talks. Put the date in your diary now. Watch out for more details at www.campaigncc.org/standupforclimatejustice
If you are up for spending the night (2nd -3rd December) out at a symbolic "climate refugee" camp email climatejustice@campaigncc.org
Download a fler for the 3rd December (pdf) here.
Download a Climate Justice information flier (pdf) here.
PLEASE PASS THIS EMAIL AROUND

Disability: The Impact of the Cuts. Workshop at Coalition of Resistance Europe Against Austerity conference 1/10/2011.

2011-10-05T05:02:00.001-07:00

Introduction (Richard Farnos) and Roger Lewis (Disabled People Against the Cuts)

Speaker from Health Resistance

Richard Reiser, co ordinator for UK Disability History Month

Questions and discussion

Green Left statement on BAE redundancies

2011-10-03T08:46:00.000-07:00

Green Left offers its support and solidarity to the BAE workers facing redundancy. We believe that everyone has the right to work in secure and rewarding employment and we actively campaign with others in the struggle to make this a reality.

However, we do not mourn the loss of jobs in the defence industry . Rather than producing weapons of war workers at BAE should be employed in the war against Climate Change. We support the policy of a Just Transition to a greener economy where workers wages are protected as they make their transition into new areas of industry - even if this covers a period of unemployment or retraining. Just Transition schemes have been shown to be cost effective and also prevent the destructive wider effects to families and within our communities.

The Green Party, at its recent conference, unanimously expressed support for the One Million Climate Jobs Campaign. The campaign booklet, which we recommend everyone to read, and which is available here "http://www.climate-change-jobs.org/node/14" sets out clearly and coherently how one million climate jobs could be planned and paid for as part of the UK’s contribution to dealing with the international climate change emergency. Employment would be secure and sustainable, in the transformation of the transport, power generation and housing stock. The initiative would dramatically reduce carbon emissions and dramatically increase employment.

We have no doubt that the skilled workforce at BAE would be valuable in various roles throughout the new and necessary green industries , as could members of the armed forces who are also facing redundancy.
Workers for the World Unite !

Green Left and other banners at Manchester demo against cuts at Tory Conference 2/10/2011

2011-10-03T07:18:00.001-07:00

See video clip below

http://video.ak.fbcdn.net/cfs-ak-ash4/348823/883/2437249854645_22.mp4?oh=411ff5c24d60876e6e52a9d090bca736&oe=4E8B6900&__gda__=1317759232_4df3c0e9ca3b91abecac3e0a5d3a1b44

PETER ALLEN WRITES
Howard and I carried the Green Left banner. Len McCluskey thanked Green Left for coming and took a copy of Watermelon from us. A good number of Greens from Manchester area marching with the Manchester GP banner. Lesley H came from Yorkshire with her local party banner.Didn't see any others. Green Left provided 10 "One Million Climate Jobs" and "No Public Service Cuts" placards. A noisy, lively march

Comprehensive report from local radical newspaper ; Manchester Mule http://manchestermule.com//?p=11133&preview=true"

Manchester GP banner

Martin Francis of Brent GP and Green Left with CCC 1m Climate Jobs banner, in vanguard position in front of Brent Left.

Parliamentary Rally to save Bombardier Jobs

2011-10-03T04:30:00.000-07:00

Martin Empson
Treasurer, Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union group
www.climate-change-jobs.org
079 585 35231
swpmre@yahoo.com

Subject: Support the Parliamentary Rally to save Bombardier Jobs, Wednesday 12th October, 12.30, Committee Room 10, House of Commons, London: PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY

Dear Colleague

Support the Parliamentary Rally to save Bombardier Jobs

Wednesday 12th October, 12.30

Committee Room 10, House of Commons, London

Bombardier trade unions are urging support for the Parliamentary rally to save Bombardier jobs on Wednesday 12^th October.

It is vital that we keep up the pressure in the campaign.

At the Parliamentary Transport Committee on 7^th September both the Secretary of State for Transport and representative of the European Commission admitted it was legally possible to reverse the decision to award the Thameslink trains contract to Siemens of Germany.

Last week the TUC unanimously agreed to back the campaign and there is now overwhelming political, media and popular support for the government to reverse their disastrous decision.

And we know if it is allowed to go ahead the impact of the government’s decision will go beyond Derby. Tens of thousands of supply chain jobs in nearly every constituency in the country will be affected. See attached list.

That is why every single MP in the country has been invited to the rally on 12^th October to hear how the threat to Bombardier in Derby could also threaten the livelihoods of their constituents.

Answers to a parliamentary question last week (below) have further demonstrated the scandalous nature of the government decision. Ministers have admitted that almost £20m has been spent on consultants to provide advice on a process that could spell the end of UK train manufacturing

Please support the rally on 12^th October and ask your MP to attend. Please also ask your MP to sign the parliamentary motion below tabled by Chris Williamson MP. You can check if your MP has signed by visiting http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2010-12/2059

The contract is still at preferred bidder stage. There is still time to reverse this decision. Please support the rally on 12^th October.

Yours sincerely

Bob Crow

General Secretary

Parliamentary Answer 14 September 2011

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport which external consultants were contracted to advise his Department on the (a) design, (b) tendering and (c) award of preferred bidder status for the Thameslink rolling stock contract; and what the cost to the public purse was of each such contract. [R] [68716]

Mrs Villiers: The cost of each contract against the categories requested up to June 2011 is as follows:

£ million
Vendor	(a) Design	(b) Tendering ⁽¹⁾	(c) Award of preferred bidder status
Arup	2.53	2.86	0.14
Booz and Company	0.22	0.49	0.09
Freshfields	2.44	5.31	0.18
Interfleet	0.16	1.49	0.02
PWC	0.77	2.26	0.26
Total	6.12	12.4	0.69
Total	19.2

EDM 2059 Tabled by Chris Williamson MP

“That this House notes the commitment given by the Prime Minister in Derby earlier in 2011 that his administration would support local manufacturing jobs; is therefore dismayed and appalled at the implications for UK manufacturing of the Government's decision to make Siemens of Germany the preferred bidder for the 1.4 billion Thameslink rolling stock contract and to reject the bid from Bombardier of Derby; is alarmed that this decision has already led to the announcement of over 1,400 job losses at Bombardier and also threatens at least a further 12,000 jobs in the UK supply chain; is further concerned that the decision could adversely impact on the prospect of a UK-based train manufacturer bidding to supply trains for Crossrail or for high speed rail; supports Bombardier's rejection of the Department for Transport's claim that jobs at the company were under threat irrespective of the destination of the Thameslink contract; acknowledges that EU competition law has not dissuaded the German or French administrations from awarding 100 per cent. of their lucrative domestic rail contracts to domestic bidders; further notes that the contract is still at preferred bidder stage; and calls on the Government immediately to review this decision to take into account the value for money implications of the loss of tens of thousands of UK jobs”

James Croy,

Political Officer ,

RMT,

Unity House ,

39 Chalton Street

London,

NW1 1JD

j.croy@rmt.org.uk

Tel: 020 7529 8822, Fax: 020 7529 8808

The Imprisonment of Ed Bauer

2011-09-28T13:42:00.001-07:00

Letter to Guardian: Arrest Threatens Right to Protest

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/25/protest-students-higher-education

Edd Bauer, vice-president for education at Birmingham Guild of Students and well-known anti-cuts activist, was arrested on 16 September for suspending a banner protesting against university fees and education cuts above a public highway during the Lib Dem party conference. He was refused bail and has been held in Winson Green prison since last Monday. His detention for a minor act of civil disobedience represents yet another attempt to criminalise peaceful protest and to dissuade other young people from taking part in movements to defend education, services and jobs. At a time when prison governors are complaining that they cannot cope with the huge increase in custodial sentences after the disturbances of the summer, what purpose is served by locking up Edd Bauer?

If the objective is to frighten others, Edd’s detention has enraged and mobilised a new layer of young protesters. If the plan is to “take out” key individuals to disrupt protest movements, the result has been to give a new set of activists a crash-course in campaigning against injustice. Edd Bauer will appear in Birmingham magistrate’s court on 26 September at 3pm. We call for his release – and the right to hang our banners in peaceful protest whenever and wherever we choose.: baseline;"

Prof Gargi Bhattacharyya UCU NEC

Clare Short

John Smith General secretary, Musicians Union

Michael Rosen

Paul McNab Public Interest Lawyers

Mark Thomas

Michael Chessum NUS NEC and NCACF

Prof Bill Bowring

Dr Sue Blackwell Birmingham UCU

Zita Holbourne Co-chair BARAC

Daniel Guedalla Birnberg Peirce

Leslie Manasseh Deputy general secretary, Connect

Prof Alex Miller

Manuela da Costa-Fernandes NUJ Black Members Council

Prof Avtar Brah

Lorna Campbell PCS

Prof John Gabriel

Wilf Sullivan TUC

Bethany Shiner Stop Kettling Our Kids

Dr David Bailey Birmingham UCU

Dotun Alade-Odumosu GMB

Dr Sarah Amsler Campaign to Defend the Public University

Mohammad Taj Unite

Prof Les Back

Freddie Brown Prospect

Winston Phillips Bectu

Statement from Edd regarding his suspension from work today
Thanks so much to everyone who showed their solidarity and support for me over the last week, hearing you all on the street outside, your chanting filling the court room, was one of the most moving moments of my life.
But, unfortunately not everyone has shown solidarity to me. I came back to work this morning at the guild of students to find I have been suspended. This is a undemocratic suspension and I will continue with my work campaigning to defend education at the University of Birmingham, which continues to face grave difficulties .
The current suspension against me has been called undemocratically and unjustly before any investigation has taken place. It currently “indefinitely” bans me from using my work phone, e-mails or even entering the guild of student premises.
However, it is important we don’t lose sight of what really matters; not me keeping my job but carrying on campaigning and representing students in matters concerning their education. Being suspended massively undermines my ability to fulfil the pledges that I was elected on; ensuring that the guild organises for the NUS backed national demo on November the 9th, building the postgraduate association, reforming and empowering the student representative system.
I’m still a student at the University of Birmingham and I will continue to campaign for these causes and believe that students coming together to campaign and reform collectively are infinitely more powerful than one sabbatical officer in office can ever achieve alone.
I will willingly submit to any vote of no confidence in student council. I’ll only stop campaigning and fighting if I’m removed by the same democratic structures that put me in place.
We have let democracy in the guild slide out of the hands of students and currently the appointed; majority non- student trustee board can remove me without any vote at guild council and the current investigation against me will be reported to the trustee board not guild council for a decision.
There are three fights we now face. Firstly, the on-going campaign to defend education against fees and cuts. Secondly, the battle to democratise the guild of students and put decision making powers back into the hands of the student body. Thirdly, the battle to ensure that the decision whether I should be commended and kept on or condemned and removed is made by students at the first guild council of term, not by the unelected and unaccountable trustee board.
Myself and friends will be door knocking and petitioning all week organising campaigns to 1, defend the university against cuts 2, democratise the guild of students, every night. Join us, sign up to the phone tree, text “no fees” to 07988056967
We are meeting next Monday at 5pm in the Nuffield Learning Centre (R28 on campus map) to discuss the continued campaigning. Please spread the word.
—————-
Please support Edd by signing this petition calling for his reinstatement
You can also keep in touch with campaigning on campus by joining the Stop Fees and Cuts Birmingham Facebook Group

acknowledgements to Roy Sandison

Africa demands climate justice

2011-09-23T02:01:00.001-07:00

acknowledgements to Douglas Rouxel

There will be a series of meetings organised by the World Development Movement taking place in October that could provide an opportunity to link up with students and other climate activists. In London and Leeds they will be taking place in University buildings. UCU’s motion on Education for Sustainable Development was adopted at the Education International Congress this year. Branches are urged to support their nearest event.

http://www.wdm.org.uk/events/africa-demands-climate-justice

Africa demands climate justice

More than ever before, rich industrialised countries are using the UN climate talks as an excuse to advance corporate interests. In the run up to the climate talks in Durban, South Africa, this December people across Africa and the world are demanding climate justice.
Join us to hear speakers from social movements on the front line of the campaign in Durban. Find out how you can take action against the UK’s unfair policies that are prioritising corporate profits via discredited institutions such as the World Bank. Not only will this fail to tackle climate change, but it will also deepen existing global inequalities.

3 October: Milton Keynes
4 October: Leeds
5 October: Lancaster
6 October: Derby
6 October: Glasgow(linked event)
10 October: Brighton
11 October: Bristol
12 October: Eastleigh
13 October: London

Bandile Mdlalose is general secretary of Abahlali baseMjondolo, a shack-dwellers’ movement in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. She represents Abahlali on the civil society committee set up in response to the coming UN climate talks in Durban, working on mobilisation and education. She will be speaking in Milton Keynes, Leeds, Lancaster and Derby on WDM’s speaker tour.
Desmond D’Sais coordinator of South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, which mobilises local people against industrial pollution. A veteran campaigner on local and global environmental justice issues, he’s centrally involved in organising the alternative civil society space during the UN talks. He will be speaking in Brighton, Bristol, London and Eastleigh.
Milton Keynes: Monday 3 October
7pm at Madcap Theatre, Creed Street, Wolverton, Milton Keynes MK12 5LY. [Google map]
With Bandile Mdlalose and Deborah Doane (WDM director).
Leeds: Tuesday 4 October
5.30pm, Geography Lecture Theatre (G23), University of Leeds East Building, University Road, Leeds LS2 9JT [Google map]
With Bandile Mdlalose, Murray Worthy (WDM policy officer) and Simon Lewis (climate scientist, Leeds University).
Organised jointly with Leeds University Union and University of Leeds School of Geography
Lancaster: Wednesday 5 October
7pm at Gregson Community Centre and Arts Centre, 33 Moorgate, Moor Lane, Lancaster LA1 3PY. [Google map]
With Bandile Mdlalose and Sarah Reader (WDM climate justice campaigner).
Derby: Thursday 6 October
7pm. Central United Reformed Church, Becketwell Lane (off Victoria Street) Derby DE1 1JW. [Google map]
With Bandile Mdlalose and Kirsty Wright (WDM climate justice campaigner).
Organised jointly with Derby Climate Coalition
Glasgow: Thursday 6 October
Linked event:Climate justice now: climate change, debt and Scotland’s role in global justice
With Lidy Nacpil from the Philippines. More information
Invite people on Facebook here.
Brighton: Monday 10 October
7pm at Brighthelm Centre, North Road, Brighton, BN1 1YD. [Google Map]
With Desmond D'Sa and Deborah Doane (WDM director).
Bristol: Tuesday 11 October
7pm at Unitarian Meeting House, Brunswick Square, Bristol BS2 8PG. [Google Map]
With Desmond D'Sa, Murray Worthy (WDM policy officer), and Alice Cutler (Trapese Collective).
Invite people on facebook here
Eastleigh: Wednesday 12 October
7pm at The Point Theatre, Leigh Road, Eastleigh SO50 9DE. [Google Map]
With Desmond D'Sa, Sarah Reader (WDM climate justice campaigner) and David Lane (Eastleigh Transition Network).
Invite people on Facebook here.
London: Thursday 13 October
7pm at University of London Union, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HY. [Google map]
With Desmond D'Sa, Maria Adebowale (director of Capacity Global) and Kirsty Wright (WDM climate justice campaigner). Plus poetry from Selina Nwulu.

EMERGENCY MOTIONS PASSED AT GREEN PARTY CONFERENCE 9/2011

2011-09-17T07:49:00.000-07:00

Legal Aid and Justice for All Motion

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill is at the Committee Stages of the Commons. If passed, it will remove access to advice for 650,000 people a year in employment law, welfare benefits, housing, debt, immigration, etc. In light of this, Conference calls on the Green Party Campaigns Committee to support the "Justice for All" campaign which campaigns for everyone, no matter what their financial means to be treated fairly under the law and for free legal advice.
PASSED

Robin Hood Tax Motion
Conference welcomes the endorsement of a Robin Hood Tax by Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy and calls on the UK Government to follow the lead of France and Germany in regulating speculation on international financial markets and generating the revenue needed to fund public investment. Conference calls on Green Party Parliamentarians to raise this with the UK Government in advance of the G20 meeting in
November at Cannes.
PASSED

Anti - ATOS Motion
Conference expresses deep concern at the use of ATOS to assess incapacity benefit receivers for their ability to return to work. As evidence continues to mount that the work capability assessments are being used politically to remove Employment and Support Allowance payments, with 12 doctors referred to the General Medical Council in August, Conference calls on the party leadership to demand that the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions removes ATOS as its assessor of benefit claimants.
PASSED

Nuclear Waste Disposal Motion
We call on policy committee to develop a policy on legacy high and intermediate level radioactive waste in time for Spring Conference 2012. The policy to be based on best environmental practice, not political expediency We also call on Conference to support Allerdale and Copeland Green Party and other local groups, including West Cumbria Friends of the Earth, Radiation Free Lakeland, and CORE in their work to oppose the deep geological disposal plans and to call for alternative disposal methods to be revisited. In
particular lobbying local authorities not to proceed to the next stage of the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) process (January 2012), at which stage the right of withdrawal would be severely compromised.proposed -
PASSED

NHS Listening Exercise Motion
The Green Party reaffirms its commitment to a fully publicly funded NHS and its opposition to the Health and Social Care Bill, deplores the fact that the Conservative / Liberal Democrat government ‘listening exercise’ has (unsurprisingly) proved to be a sham, and demands that the Government abandon forthwith in its entirety this Bill which, if passed, will lead to the marketisation and privatisation of the NHS, having no lesser ultimate
consequence than the complete destruction of our National Health Service. Conference calls on GPEx to make active campaigning against this Bill a priority.
PASSED

Emergency Motion on National Planning Policy Framework
Conference condemns the Coaltion Government's proposed National Planning Policy Framework. The Green Party believes a function of the planning system is to protectpeople and the environment not to generate unsustainable economic growth. The abolition of targets for building on brownfield land, the lack of any understanding of sustainabilitycoupled with a presumption in favour of development will make it a developers' charter.Conference calls on elected Greens at all levels of government to campaign vigorously
against the NPPF and for the Green Party as a whole to campaign against these proposals to ensure we protect our communities, countryside and quality of life from unrestrained development.
PASSED

Bombardier - Rail jobs
The Green Party condemns the Tory/Lib Dem coalition government decision to give the order for new rolling stock for Thameslink to Siemens. This failed to take into account the effect on the UK economy and jobs.
Derby-based Bombardier, the last remaining train builder in this country has announced the loss of 1400 jobs as a result of not winning the bid. The Bombardier factory in Derby is now under threat and so are thousands more jobs in the Derby area in other rail businesses that supply the factory. We need more train carriages for our railway , both to replace those that are life-expired and to increase the size of the fleet in order to reduce overcrowding and carry more passengers.

Conference instructs GPEX to write to the Sec of State for Transport requesting him to reconsider the allocation of the Thameslink trains contract to Siemens and to ensure that British jobs in the industry are protected.
PASSED

Emergency Motion on the English Riots

Conference is appalled at the outbreak of violence, looting, arson and murder that took place in English cities in August. The riots were a manifestation of anger that has deep roots and obvious triggers. The roots include inequality, loss of social cohesion, cuts in local public services, unemployment, increasing poverty, resentment against the police,consumerism and gang culture. The triggers were the Police’s killing of Mark Duggan and
their exceptionally inept handling of its aftermath. To address these problems we advocate immediate action to reverse the cuts in public services, increase support for disadvantaged communities and provide a 100% earnings disregard for work of local benefit. In punishing rioters there should be more use of restorative justice and community payback orders. There must also be an independent inquiry into the death of Mark Duggan and its aftermath.

These measures, however, will not deal with the roots of the problem. We call for a public inquiry into the deeper causes of social breakdown which lie as much in the excesses of the powerful as in the conditions of the powerless. This inquiry should seek to create a consensus for remedial actions which need to be as radical as those that created the welfare state 60 years ago.

Conference calls upon our elected representatives put forward these measures at every relevant opportunity.
PASSED

Fringe on the working class and the Greens at Green Party Conference 9/2011:

2011-09-16T14:47:00.001-07:00

Karen Bell part 1

Karen Bell part 2

Questions and discussion

Greens and Capitalism: Fringe meeting at Green Party Conference autumn 2011

2011-09-16T11:54:00.000-07:00

Introduction and Councillor Jonathon Essex (Redhill)

Derek Wall

Jane Ennis

Questions and discussion

EUROPE AGAINST AUSTERITY CONFERENCE: 1 OCTOBER, 10AM - 5PM

2011-09-06T06:23:00.000-07:00

Coalition of Resistance Against Cuts & Privatisation | 27 | Sep 5th

EUROPE AGAINST AUSTERITY CONFERENCE
SATURDAY 1 OCTOBER, 10AM - 5PM
CAMDEN CENTRE
BIDBOROUGH STREET
LONDON
www.europeagainstausterity.org

WHY YOU SHOULD BE AT THE CONFERENCE
Those who were hoping that the summer would bring some relief to the
crisis must be cruelly disappointed. Share values continue to fall and the
Eurozone bail-outs are hitting the rocks. In Britain, the political and
social crises roll on with the revelations about News International and
the riots in August. The outlook for the ruling class is bleak as they
have no solution, and the economies are teetering on the edge of a
recession. We can expect more appeals that “we are all in it together”
and that there is no alternative to a radical programme of austerity. As
the crisis is international, so must be the response of all those who
refuse to make the working class and society pay for this crisis.
That’s why the Europe Against Austerity conference in London on 1st
October is so important. It will be the first event since the start of the
crisis in 2008 where all those who want to oppose the attacks will meet.
The conference will not only issue a declaration against the austerity
programmes but plan a movement of resistance across Europe.
The Coalition of Resistance is hosting this conference jointly with the
other organisations and individuals sponsoring the event. These include
the European Left Party, Die Linke, Attac, CADTM, Union Syndicale
Solidaires, Ken Loach, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Caroline Lucas MP, Len McCluskey
Unite, and Bob Crow RMT. The full list can be seen here.

SATURDAY 1ST OCTOBER
1.    Agenda: there will be plenaries and workshops on topics such as The
Crisis and the Debt, Ending the War, Students and Youth Fighting for a
Future, Women against Austerity, and Mobilising against Austerity. The
information on agenda will be updated on the website. The day will start
at 10am promptly and be concluded at 5pm by the adoption of a declaration.
2.    Main speakers include: Pierre Laurent (president of the ELP), Marisa
Matias (Bloco MEP, Portugal), Jeremy Corbyn MP, Sevim Dagdelen (Die LInke
MP, Germany), Annick Coupe (Solidaires, France), Piero Bernocchi COBAS,
Italy, Elizabeth Gauthier (Transform), Costas Lapavitsas, Len McCluskey,
UNITE, Sinn Fein speaker and others.
3.    Practicalities:
a.    the venue is the Camden Centre and the Argyle Street primary school,
directly opposite St Pancras station, London;
b.    there will be simultaneous interpretation in English, German, French
and Castillian (in the main hall only) through radio-linked headsets;
c.    food and drinks will be served all day in the cafeteria of the Camden
Centre
d.    one of the rooms will be set aside for the showing of films all day;
e.    there will be stalls from campaigns and other organisations in the main
hall.
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE:
1.    Continuing to seek sponsorships from organisations and individuals.
2.    Leafleting every event with the publicity now available.
3.    Feeding to the website news and letters of support for the conference.
4.    Registering now for the event both as individuals and as delegates from
organisations. You can register online, but even better print off the form
and get the money or cheques from people.
5.    Seeking donations from organisations and individuals to pay for the
costs not covered by the registration fees (our costs will total at least
£10,000).
6.    Offering bed or floor space for those attending the conference from
outside of London and across Europe.
7.    Volunteering to interpret on the day.

Manchester Rally 2nd October

2011-09-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

What do the Coalition government cuts mean for us? The Con-Dem Coalition government wants to boost profits for the wealthy by cutting £87 billion off public services and the welfare state. These cuts will wreck millions of lives through: Mass job cuts - ½ million jobs are set to go in the public sector alone.

For every job lost in the public sector at least one is also lost in private sector, effectively doubling the damage done by public sector job cuts.

A devastating loss of public services with closure of social care services, youth centres, libraries and much, much more;

A massive assault on pensions and wages;

Cuts in housing and disability benefits and tax credits;

Forcing people to work for pittance wages;

Forcing young people to give up their education or face life long debt;

Making people work longer for smaller pensions;

Allowing private companies to take overthe NHS to run for their profit and not patients’ needs.

If not stopped the cuts will decimate the welfare state for us and for future generations and risk plunging the British economy into further difficulties and another round of cuts as has already happened in Greece and Ireland. The government claims cuts are necessary to reduce the debt created by bailing out the banks. Yet this debt is only one fifth of what it was after WWII when the NHS was formed and millions of council homes were built.

The Con-Dem Coalition could pay the debt back over a longer period without slashing jobs and the welfare state - instead they are using the problems in the banking system as an excuse to fundamentally change our society to meet the wishes of big business.

There is an alternative We could raise revenue by:

Progressive taxation;

Plugging tax loopholes;

Collecting the tens of billions of pounds

of unpaid corporation tax and taking the bankers bonuses.

If the government can support money being spent to bail out negligent bankers it could boost the economy, protect public services and end mass unemployment by creating a million green jobs.

Is it possible to stop the cuts?

Absolutely. Over the last year the outrageous lie that we need to sacrifice jobs, wages, pensions, benefits and public services to pay off the public debt caused by bailing out the banks has been met with waves of protest. From the rallies against the austerity budget in October 2010 the resistance has grown to include students demonstrating and organising mass walk-outs and occupations against rises in tuition fees; half a million people joining the biggest trade union-called march the country has ever seen, and 700,000 teachers, lecturers and

civil servants striking in defence of pensions and jobs.

The next TUC March for an Alternative will take place outside the Conservative party conference and provides a huge opportunity to destroy any illusion that there is any public support for the government

imposing austerity on us, and to show the scale of the resistance.A massive show of opposition will help

inspire more action to stop the cuts.

The Trial of Andrew Lansley; Wednesday 7th September

2011-09-01T04:24:00.000-07:00

The Trade Union Group voted last night to support this important demonstration at a critical juncture for the future of the NHS. It is important that there is a strong Green presence on this. The protest is being called ‘The Trial of Andrew Lansley’.

Joseph Healy

Green Party Trade Union Group Treasurer

Wednesday 7^thSeptember

Action to mark the Third Reading of the Health & Social Care Bill.

6.30 pm Demonstration assembling at St Thomas’ Hospital; Called by UNITE the Union, KONP, Health Workers Network, Right to Work

9.30 pm Torchlight vigil for the NHS at Houses of Parliament (More information at the ‘Join the vigil for the NHS’ website.) Called by UNISON and the TUC.

Celebrate the life of Alf Filer: Saturday 10 September, 7-11 p.m

2011-09-01T02:54:00.000-07:00

Celebrate the life of Alf Filer: Saturday 10 September, 7-11 p.m

The Tin Tabernacle, 12-16 Cambridge Avenue, NW6 5BA

very near Kilburn Park tube (Bakerloo line) and Kilburn High Rd overground stations

and 6, 16, 31, 32, 98, 206, 316, 328, 332, 632 bus stops

You are invited to celebrate the life of Alf Filer together with friends, family and comrades.

Alf was tragically killed on June 24 - this is an opportunity to remember him and share those memories with others that knew him and miss him.

The evening will commence at 7pm and hot food from the excellent local Indian restaurant Shamrat will be served at 8pm at a cost of £7 per person. There will also be a bar run by the people who run the Tin Tabernacle (which hasn't been a religious building for many years) at below pub prices.

Following the food there will be a series of tributes from people who knew Alf well - and space for those who decide they want to add something on the night.

There will be entertainment from Ian Saville and music to end the evening.

There will also be a memorial book available for people who want to write their tributes (in addition to or as well as speaking them) which will be given to Alf's sons, Lawrence and Leon, afterwards.

We will be decorating the hall with photos of Alf and also appropriate banners. If you have photos you want us to enlarge please email to terryconway@tiscali.co uk by the end of Wednesday 7th - otherwise bring what you have along with you

There is no admission charge for the event but we are asking those who can to make a donation with the money going to Leon and Lawrence to defray any outstanding funeral costs and to donate to whatever cause(s) they think would be closest to Alf’s heart.

Because we are ordering food, we are asking people to RSVP if they can to petefirmin@btinternet.com by Thursday 8th

If you are not able to join us on the night but would like a tribute to be read out or entered in the memorial book please send it to: petefirmin@btinternet.com

Please circulate this email to anyone who knew Alf

Feral Capitalism Hits the Streets by David Harvey 11 August 2011

2011-08-26T15:29:00.000-07:00

“Nihilistic and feral teenagers” the Daily Mail called them: the crazy youths from all walks of life who raced around the streets mindlessly and desperately hurling bricks, stones and bottles at the cops while looting here and setting bonfires there, leading the authorities on a merry chase of catch-as-catch-can as they tweeted their way from one strategic target to another.

The word “feral” pulled me up short. It reminded me of how the communards in Paris in 1871 were depicted as wild animals, as hyenas, that deserved to be (and often were) summarily executed in the name of the sanctity of private property, morality, religion, and the family. But then the word conjured up another association: Tony Blair attacking the “feral media,” having for so long been comfortably lodged in the left pocket of Rupert Murdoch only later to be substituted as Murdoch reached into his right pocket to pluck out David Cameron.

There will of course be the usual hysterical debate between those prone to view the riots as a matter of pure, unbridled and inexcusable criminality, and those anxious to contextualize events against a background of bad policing; continuing racism and unjustified persecution of youths and minorities; mass unemployment of the young; burgeoning social deprivation; and a mindless politics of austerity that has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with the perpetuation and consolidation of personal wealth and power. Some may even get around to condemning the meaningless and alienating qualities of so many jobs and so much of daily life in the midst of immense but unevenly distributed potentiality for human flourishing.

If we are lucky, we will have commissions and reports to say all over again what was said of Brixton and Toxteth in the Thatcher years. I say ‘lucky’ because the feral instincts of the current Prime Minister seem more attuned to turn on the water cannons, to call in the tear gas brigade and use the rubber bullets while pontificating unctuously about the loss of moral compass, the decline of civility and the sad deterioration of family values and discipline among errant youths.

But the problem is that we live in a society where capitalism itself has become rampantly feral. Feral politicians cheat on their expenses, feral bankers plunder the public purse for all its worth, CEOs, hedge fund operators and private equity geniuses loot the world of wealth, telephone and credit card companies load mysterious charges on everyone’s bills, shopkeepers price gouge, and, at the drop of a hat swindlers and scam artists get to practice three-card monte right up into the highest echelons of the corporate and political world.

A political economy of mass dispossession, of predatory practices to the point of daylight robbery, particularly of the poor and the vulnerable, the unsophisticated and the legally unprotected, has become the order of the day. Does anyone believe it is possible to find an honest capitalist, an honest banker, an honest politician, an honest shopkeeper or an honest police commisioner any more? Yes, they do exist. But only as a minority that everyone else regards as stupid. Get smart. Get Easy Profits. Defraud and steal! The odds of getting caught are low. And in any case there are plenty of ways to shield personal wealth from the costs of corporate malfeasance.

What I say may sound shocking. Most of us don’t see it because we don’t want to. Certainly no politician dare say it and the press would only print it to heap scorn upon the sayer. But my guess is that every street rioter knows exactly what I mean. They are only doing what everyone else is doing, though in a different way – more blatently and visibly in the streets. Thatcherism unchained the feral instincts of capitalism (the “animal spirits” of the entreprenuer they coyly named it) and nothing has transpired to curb them since. Slash and burn is now openly the motto of the ruling classes pretty much everywhere.

This is the new normal in which we live. This is what the next grand commission of enquiry should address. Everyone, not just the rioters, should be held to account. Feral capitalism should be put on trial for crimes against humanity as well as for crimes against nature.

Sadly, this is what these mindless rioters cannot see or demand. Everything conspires to prevent us from seeing and demanding it also. This is why political power so hastily dons the robes of superior morality and unctuous reason so that no one might see it as so nakedly corrupt and stupidly irrational.

But there are various glimmers of hope and Light around the world. The indignados movements in Spain and Greece, the revolutionary impulses in Latin America, the peasant movements in Asia, are all beginning to see through the vast scam that a predatory and feral global capitalism has unleashed upon the world. What will it take for the rest of us to see and act upon it? How can we begin all over again? What direction should we take? The answers are not easy. But one thing we do know for certain: we can only get to the right answers by asking the right questions.

—
David Harvey is Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His latest book is The Enigma of Capital, and the Crises of Capitalism.
Aricle originally posted at http://davidharvey.org/2011/08/feral-capitalism-hits-the-streets/#more-962

Unison will challenge its Plymouth derecognition

2011-08-25T16:04:00.000-07:00

by Tom Walker

The Tories want to break the Unison union at Plymouth council—but workers say they won’t let them get away with it.

Bosses derecognised Unison last week after the union refused to sign up to job and pay cuts.

Unison branch secretary Darren Turner said, “Unison’s position is, and always will be, to defend and improve the pay and conditions of our members.

“They do not join because they want us to sign away hard-earned benefits at the first sign of pressure from the employer.”

The bosses want to force out the union so that they can push through new contracts.

The Unite and GMB unions at the council have made a formal protest over the derecognition.

“Selective derecognition threatens the future of collective bargaining across the country,” Unison branch chair Jeremy Guise told Socialist Worker.

“If the employers are allowed to get away with this kind of divide-and-rule there will be a significant weakening of trade union power and influence in all multi-union workplaces.

“That’s why we have to come together to fight it.”

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said the union “will not be pressured into signing an agreement that discriminates against some groups of staff”.

The council withdrew all facility time for Unison branch officials and kicked them out of their union offices.

But the union’s members are keeping up the fight.

Ballot

white

On Wednesday Unison members will hold a union general meeting to consider a ballot for industrial action.

This must be turned into a reality. Activists must go all-out to win support for action across all three council unions.

white

Workers were set to join a solidarity rally outside the council’s offices on the same day, called by Plymouth trades council.

There was also to be a public solidarity meeting that evening.

Tony Staunton, secretary of the trades council and chair of the council Unite branch, said the derecognition fight is “of national significance”.

“We’re calling for full support for the Unison branch,” he added.

The branch has been flooded with messages of support from other unions.

PCS civil service workers’ union general secretary Mark Serwotka said, “PCS and, I’m sure, the whole labour movement is 100 percent behind Unison members in Plymouth as they fight to win back their union rights.”

Send messages of support to office@unisonplymouth.net and dturner@unisonplymouth.net

Article from Socialist Worker 27^th August 2011

Tony Dyer: Confessions of a failed Bristol rioter

2011-08-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

By Tony Dyer

Aug 15, 2011 from bristol24/7 http://www.bristol247.com/2011/08/15/tony-dyer-confessions-of-a-failed-bristol-rioter-33879/

I grew up on the Hartcliffe council estate which is where I was on April 2, 1980 when news came through of rioting in St Paul’s. Unlike my parents, who were shocked, their 15-year-old son’s reaction was somewhat different. My sympathies were with the youths throwing bricks at the police.

My friends felt the same way. Our view of the police was a negative one. In our experience, their main objective appeared to be simply to harass us on the apparent assumption that because we were young and from relatively under-privileged backgrounds we must be up to no good.

We felt that the police simply didn’t like us – and we felt the same way about them.

In addition those of my friends who had left school were either signing on or worked for companies that were cutting their workforce. The Thatcher government had been elected the previous year, helped by an advertising campaign that showed a line of unemployed signing on and the slogan “Labour isn’t working” – but under the Tories the dole queue was getting even longer.

Our futures looked bleak – even our parents with their years of experience were losing their jobs, and struggling to find new ones. We had no experience and few, if any, qualifications. Who’d employ us?
We felt that the rest of the country didn’t care about us – so why should we care about the rest of the country?

So when it was suggested that we pile down to St Paul’s and join in the rioting nobody objected. As a result, we made our way to the city centre. For most of us, including myself, this simply turned into a game of cat and mouse as we tried to join in the rioting – only to be blocked off by the police at every turn.
In my own case I returned to a grilling from my parents about where I had been that evening and a warning that if I ever got involved in the sort of events that were now being shown on the TV, I would get the hiding of my life.

Fast forward a decade. It’s July 1992, and another riot erupts in Bristol. This time however it is not in St Paul’s but Hartcliffe.

In the intervening years, my circumstances have changed completely. The 1980 riot in St Paul’s had been followed by a copycat riot in Southmead and a series of riots the following year across the whole country, as the UK entered into full-blown recession.

In the immediate aftermath, some additional funding had been made available for deprived areas and my father, increasingly worried about the direction his son was taking, got me on to a computer training programme.

By 1992, I was married and living in Portishead and had recently been recruited by one of the largest computer companies in the world. Despite the country once again being in recession, my own economic and personal situation was an almost complete contrast to 1980.

The dichotomy is that if I had been arrested for rioting in 1980, it is unlikely that my future would have been so successful, but if those same riots had not taken place it is just as unlikely that the training programme that kick-started my change in fortune would have been available to me.

Meanwhile back in Hartcliffe, that same programme that had helped me start a successful career had been the victim of cuts. In addition it was clear from talking to my young cousins that their relationship with the police was as bad as ours had been in 1980, and that, if anything, job opportunities were even worse as another recession began to bite with youth unemployment already high. In hindsight, the ingredients for a riot were all there, all that was needed was a spark.

My own involvement was brief. I received a phone call from my mum asking me if I would drive over to Hartcliffe and pick up my cousin and her two young children from their flat above the shops in Symes Avenue. A crowd of youths had set fire to some of the shops below and she was in a state of panic. Thankfully, by the time I got to Hartcliffe, my brother had already picked her up and taken her to my parents.

I was angry. A close relative of mine and her two young children had been scared out of their wits and their lives put in danger by a bunch of “mindless thugs” who had decided to set fire to property and throw bricks at the police.

I then realised what a hypocrite I was.

Because if the same riot had broken out in Hartcliffe in 1980, my 15-year-old version would have been among those throwing bricks. I might tell myself that I would not have set fire to property but I had also seen plenty of evidence close up of how recklessly individuals can behave within a mob situation with no thought of the possible consequences.

Once again, when the riots were over, and the usual sound-bite of politicians had had their say, public funding was made available for the sort of programmes and initiatives that had changed my own life.

By 2011, yet again many of those programmes had been cut largely due to a financial crisis not of the making of those most affected by the cuts. Instead, those responsible either fiddled their expenses, or pocketed their bonuses, as they told us we were all in this together. Once again jobs are in short supply, and this time it is my nephews and nieces who see little future for themselves.

So when I watched the news coverage of the riots in recent weeks, I found myself experiencing contrasting feelings; anger at the destruction of people’s livelihoods, and disgust at the loss of life.

But underlying it all there was intense anger that we, as a society, appear to have learned almost nothing over the last 30 years and continue to make the same mistakes – and that as a result it is only a matter of time until the next outbreak of violence.

So what is Plan B? *( An article on local government and cuts by Sean Thompson )

2011-08-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

In an interview in the August edition of Environmental Health News, Bill Randall, Leader of Brighton Council, said that while the Green Party in Brighton won with a manifesto that promised to resists the cuts to the greatest possible extent, the council cannot actually stop them. He said he is not going to defy the government, adding ‘I am not going to be a George Lansbury.’

Of course, he was referring to the 1921 Poplar Rates Revolt - the refusal of Poplar councillors, led by George Lansbury, to collect a precept for the LCC and other London wide bodies in protest against the unfair burden the then rating system placed on a desperately poor borough like Poplar. The majority of the borough’s councillors were committed to prison for contempt, but after six weeks, in the face of huge public support for the councillors and other councils starting to threaten to take the same action, the Government backed down, releasing the councillors and rushing a Bill through parliament which effectively equalised the burden of rates between rich and poor boroughs.

‘I think times have changed a bit since George Lansbury’ said Bill and of course he is right. Up to a point. The situation is different in two significant ways. First, subsequent to the failed rebellion by various Labour councils against the 1984 Rates Act, the law has been changed to make such another such rebellion physically impossible. Chief Finance Officers effectively have a power of veto on council budgets and are, legally, ultimately accountable to central government rather than local councillors. Councillors might set a deficit budget but would be completely unable to put it into action and would rapidly be suspended from office by the Standards Board for England for even attempting it. Second, although popular opposition to the cuts is growing, it is - as yet - largely at the level of unfocussed resentment. Willingness to take on the government is very patchy among trade unionists and within local communities organised opposition is still focussed on saving specific services rather than more generalised resistance to the cuts.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that councillors shouldn’t ever consider open defiance as a tactic; but that’s what it is - a tactic, rather than the only correct strategy. For example, when Poplar councillors defied the Tory Government (and the leadership of the Labour Party) on the issue of rate equalisation they knew that they had huge support that extended well beyond the boundaries of Poplar. While Lansbury and his comrades were undoubtedly brave and principled, they were not just striking a heroic pose when they marched to the High Court led by flying banners and a brass band. They knew that the rebellion was likely to spread if they were prepared to be bold, and that the government was on shaky ground and could be forced to retreat. However, the other issue of dispute with national government was Poplar’s policy of paying a minimum wage of £4 a week to its workers. When this was finally ruled unlawful in 1925 the Council, realising that it could not mobilise any support among other councils to spread the dispute and that the unions were not going to take on the government on the issue, gave in and cut wages. But that was not a betrayal of principle, it was a tactical retreat.

Now, I happen to think that as cuts start to really hurt in the coming year there will be a need for some local authorities to take a lead in challenging the Government. The role of the union leaderships is obviously critical, but they will only, at best, take up a defensive posture (and I still doubt the resolve of many of them to do anything at all). Local campaigns are likely to remain fragmented - and it any case, by and large, don’t have much leverage (unlike the poll tax campaign) beyond occupations and similar militant protests. In this context, councils moving into open defiance and challenging the Government to close them down if it dares could provide a dramatic focus of opposition an already slightly shaky Coalition.

However, it is tactically quite legitimate for Green councillors in Brighton and those Labour councillors elsewhere who genuinely want to fight the cuts (and there are some of them) to respond by saying that one local authority can’t defeat the Government. And, of course if that was all that was happening, they would be right.

But I think that it is tactically quite legitimate to respond by asking ‘so what is Plan B? How best, then, can we set about organising popular opposition in order to defeat this Government’s plans to ravage public services?’ My fundamental criticism of all Labour councils and Labour councillors (and, I fear, most Green councillors I have talked to) is not that they are too cautious in their tactics for fighting the Government but they do not have a strategy of fighting the government at all. They don’t have a Plan B; their strategy is simply to manage things as best they can and minimise the damage that the cuts they are forced to impose are causing.

I have no wish to put our comrades in Brighton on the spot and certainly not to criticise what they have been doing in their first few months in office - they seem to be doing an good job in difficult circumstances and are proving to be a breath of fresh air in the musty corridors of municipal administration - but history has put them, as the first Green Council - on the spot. The municipal Labour Left, if it exists at all, has completely failed to develop a strategy for taking on the Government (or rather, it has a strategy of not taking on the Government). So that leaves us in Brighton.

I would suggest a twin track approach over the coming months. First, in Brighton itself, our Councillors could engage in a genuinely joint budget setting process with the unions and local community organisations based on two pledges; first, to have a genuinely open books policy, with all financial information open to the unions and the community (senior officers will fight this tooth and nail), and second, not to implement a budget until there is a broad consensus on it with the unions and local community organisations. If such a consensus budget proved to be unnacceptable to the Government through its proxy, the Chief Finance Officer, it would mean that if the Green Councillors were forced towards confrontation they would do so not isolated, but at the head of a wave of both local and national support.

Second, on a national basis, the Green group could attempt to organise a national conference aimed at establishing an alliance of all local authorities who want to find viable ways of subverting, sabotaging or out and out defying the Governments plans. Such a conference could also aim to drag in the leaderships of the main unions involved - Unison, Unite, GMB and the teaching unions in order to develop a united front with a common programme of action. Such a programme would most likely be very cautious, but it would be a start in establishing the idea that local authorities can and must start to fight back rather than just acting as the Coalition’s (reluctant) local agents.

No local council can, on its own, take on and defeat the Government. And the Green Party, on its own, can’t mobilise a mass movement which can bring the government down. But the Green Party in Brighton, and nationally, is in a position to play a key role in establishing a real opposition to the Government that can stop it in its tracks. It is a responsibility that we just can’t shirk.

"Diggers' Festival"

2011-08-17T08:49:00.001-07:00

Wigan's first "Diggers' Festival" will take place at The Old Pear Tree, Frog Lane on Saturday 10th September 2011.

The festival aims to celebrate the life, ideas and actions of the Wigan born and bred Diggers' leader Gerrard Winstanley who died on 10th September 1676.

Issued by Stephen Hall on behalf of the Festival Organising Committee

01942 886645/07724 139278

39 Spa Road, Atherton, Manchester M46 9NR.

Riots, Recession and resistance; CoR/BARAC meeting ULU London 11/8/11

2011-08-12T03:27:00.000-07:00

Introduction by Romayne Phoenix

Symeon Brown, Tottenham Youth Worker

Clare Solomon (ed Springtime, the new student rebellion)

Andrew Murray (Unite and STW)

Josie Fraser (mother of Demetre Fraser death in custody)

Merlin Emmanuel (Smiley Culture)

Zita Holbourne (PCS and Barac)

James Meadway (chief economist New Economics Foundation (personal capacity))

Lee Jasper (BARAC)

John McDonnell MP

Questions and discussion

CAMP FRACK 17th-18th September

2011-08-08T09:44:00.000-07:00

Campaign against Climate Change www.campaigncc.org
CAMP FRACK

Weekend of 17th-18th September

Join the resistance to the “fracking” invasion! Stop the imminent expansion of shale gas extraction all around the UK! We need renewables - sacrificing our countryside for every last drop of of fossil fuel is crazy!

Camp Frack will be in the Blackpool/North Lancashire area near the ongoing exploratory drilling activities.

It will involve workshops on shale gas, and on planning the campaign against it. It will involve raising local awareness about the problems with shale gas and an action day of peaceful protest against the drilling activities currently in progress in the Blackpool area.
Register your interest by filling in the form at www.campaigncc.org/campfrack. We will send you more information as soon as it is available.

If you are interested in getting a coach from London then please tick the box. This will give us an idea of numbers and help us plan transport.

If you are able to spare a bit of time to help the camp run smoothly, tick the corresponding box and we will get in touch.

Camp Frack has already amassed interest from the media, including The Guardian and the Blackpool Gazette.

See our shale gas page here and download a PDF flier for the camp here.

Listen to the recording of our London Public Meeting on 19th July with Kevin Anderson from the Tyndall° Centre, Caroline Lucas MP, Michael Meacher MP and local Blackpool campaigner, Phil Mitchell.

Put this date in your diary – more info to come soon.

Please forward this e-mail to everyone you know!

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Campaign Against Climate Change Anti-fracking meeting 19/7/2011

2011-07-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

Introduction by Fiona Brookes of Campaign Against Climate Change

Caroline Lucas: Green Party MP

Caroline Lucas is the UK’s first Green MP (Brighton Pavilion) and leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. She has supported the call for a moratorium on shale gas and condemned a report from the Energy and Climate Change Committee which concluded there was no need for a moratorium.

Professor Kevin Anderson

Professor Kevin Anderson is Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research which has recently produced a report “Shale gas: a provisional assessment of climate change and environmental impacts” which recommends a moratorium on drilling shale gas in the UK. Kevin Anderson has been outspoken on the need for scientists not to pull any punches in communicating the gravity of the climate crisis to policy makers.

Michael Meacher MP

Michael Meacher, Labour MP for Oldham West and Royton, was Minister of State for the Environment May 1997 to June 2003. He has long represented the environmental conscience of the Labour Party and has outlined in his blog the case against shale gas.

Phil Mitchell

Phil Mitchell is chair of the Blackpool Greens and has headed the local campaign against the exploratory drilling for shale gas, that has already started in the area. Cuadrilla Resources is already at work with two drilling rigs in the area – the first in the UK.

Anti-fracking campaigner, Andy Chyber from "The Vale Says No" campaign, South Wales.

Questions and discussion part one.

Questions and discussion part two.

Green Left sends its support and solidarity to Francis Fernie.

2011-07-20T04:21:00.000-07:00

Green Left sends its support and solidarity to Francis Fernie.
STATEMENT by Peter Allen Green Left Co-convenor

Green Left sends its support and solidarity to Francis Fernie, a York-based anti-cuts protestor who is beginning a 12 month jail sentence. On March 26^th 2011, Frankie threw a couple of sticks at riot police in full armour, after having been hit over the head by them repeatedly. He pleaded guilty and hoped to be treated leniently due to contrition and previous good character. Frankie is a hard working student, with no previous offences, and a solid background in voluntary and community work. He has been treated extremely harshly for a minor act of “violence” whilst protesting against the far more destructive acts being carried out by the Condem Government in its assault on Public Services.

Owen Clayton, a member of York Green Party and York Stop the Cuts, said: ‘Frankie may have committed an offence, but there is no evidence that he injured anyone. Giving him 6 months per stick thrown is highly disproportionate, given that a police officer in Lambeth recently assaulted a man whom he had handcuffed and was fined £750 and placed on an eight week curfew. Anyone looking at it dispassionately can only conclude that a political message is being sent, which is totally contrary to our legal and democratic ideals.’

Other activists have also been arrested. Charlie Gilmour has been sentenced to sixteenth months for sitting on a car bonnet. Others arrested on March 26^th had been peacefully occupying Fortman and Masons. It appears that the police were anxious to “teach a lesson” to these primarily young protesters in an attempt to put them off future political activity. Most of those arrested at F&M have now had their charges dropped. Let us hope that the spirit and enthusiasm they showed on the day will be maintained for the battles ahead.

If anyone wishes to write to Frankie, they should address letters to prisoner A7663CE at Feltham YOI.

You can sign a petition asking the Home Secretary to ‘end the use of political sentencing’ at http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/free-francis-fernie/sign.html

You can also join the Facebook group to support Frankie here https://www.facebook.com/groups/137693436309374?ap=1

Save Derby Railways Rally

2011-07-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

Fracking Hell: Public meeting this Tuesday 19th July 2011

2011-07-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

Fracking Hell? What will shale gas mean for the UK?
Public Meeting, this Tuesday 19th July, 6.45pm in the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, (Holborn tube), London.

"Fracking" is coming to the UK! Will we be able to set light to our tap water as has happened in the US? Will we see contamination of groundwater, exploding basements and all the rest? Is this the time for the UK to be developing a new source of fossil fuel anyway? What will the exploitation of shale gas mean for the UK and the world? What should we do about it? What can we do to stop it?

With...

Kevin Anderson

Professor Kevin Anderson is Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research which has recently produced a report “Shale gas: a provisional assessment of climate change and environmental impacts” which recommends a moratorium on drilling shale gas in the UK. Kevin Anderson has been outspoken on the need for scientists not to pull any punches in communicating the gravity of the climate crisis to policy makers.

Caroline Lucas
Caroline Lucas is the UK’s first Green MP (Brighton Pavilion) and leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. She has supported the call for a moratorium on shale gas and condemned a report from the Energy and Climate Change Committee which concluded there was no need for a moratorium.

Michael Meacher
Michael Meacher, Labour MP for Oldham West and Royton, was Minister of State for the Environment May 1997 to June 2003. He has long represented the environmental conscience of the Labour Party and has outlined in his blog the case against shale gas.

Phil Mitchell
Phil Mitchell is chair of the Blackpool Greens and has headed the local campaign against the exploratory drilling for shale gas, that has already started in the area. Cuadrilla Resources is already at work with two drilling rigs in the area – the first in the UK.

“Hydraulic fracturing” or “fracking” for shale gas is taking off in the UK. This newly developed technology allows the exploitation of previously untappable reserves of natural gas. Its already big in the US but it has caused a storm of protest there, which has even inspired an Oscar-nominated film.

We are just seeing the start – up in the Blackpool area – of something that could get much, much bigger in the UK Will we see the many cases of contamination of drinking water and other pollution incidents that we have seen in the US, here in the UK? Will we, too, be able to set fire to our tap water because it contains so much methane?

But more worrying still, will we see a diversion of resources and investment away from renewable energy to the development of another source of fossil fuel? Will we be investing in infrastructure that will lock us into a fossil fuel economy for yet longer into the future? On a world wide scale are we going to see the development of more and more unconventional fossil fuels increasing the total amount of carbon we can spew into the atmosphere and delaying until far too late the clean break we need to make away from the fossil fuel economy and into the green renewably-powered economy? Is shale gas, in other words, just another part of our recipe for global climate suicide?

And dont forget coming up in September......

CAMP FRACK Weekend 17th-18th September.

Join the resistance to the “fracking” invasion ! Stop the massive expansion of shale gas extraction in the UK.! We need renewables - not another source of fossil fuel !

Camp Frack will be close to the operating rig at Singleton, near Blackpool. It will be organised with the support of a local landowner. It will involve workshops on shale gas, and on planning the campaign against it. It will involve raising local awareness about the problems with shale gas and an action day of peaceful protest against the drilling activities currently in progress in the Blackpool area.

Anne Gray: Report back from Palestine

2011-07-16T02:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry to be so long about informing people.

Several people have been absolutely wonderful this week. It was great to have friends meet me at the airport. Many thanks to you and to those who blogged the story on Green Party sites, helped with press contacts and tracing lost luggage. Thanks also for the supportive messages from friends of friends whom I never even met, and for passing them on.

As you can imagine, since the Israeli jail story hit the news it's been a full time job keeping up with media enquiries and endless PR drafts, not to mention supporting the last few who came out of detention and flew back to Luton Weds and Thursday nights. So my apologies to anyone whose phone calls and messages I have missed or have been slow to reply to, and I hope to catch up with you in due course.

I have tried to tell the story on my personal blog, a relic of last year's election campaign which had been dormant for some time. Feel free to share this around and recommend it to media or to e-lists if you wish. It's at http://agtottenham.blogspot.com/2011/07/released-from-israeli-jail.html. Lots of links there to other informative sites (although for some reason the html editing 'wizard' wouldn't permit me to click-link them properly.)

The most important people to remember in all this are not a few Brits who were detained for only a few days, but the Palestinian people themselves. Let's hope this incident creates greater awareness of the Palestinian situation and the need for peace and justice in their troubled land.

love and peace

Anne

The New College of Resistance - EAN Conference on October 29

2011-07-16T01:04:00.000-07:00

The government wants to divide students and education workers in order to impose its austerity measures.

But from the UCU picket lines on 24 March to the coordinated strikes on June 30, students have stood alongside staff in defece of education, just as lecturers have supported their students since the occupation of Millbank on November 10.

Demonstrations, occupations, and strike action have turned our universities into bastions ...of resistance against the Con Dem Coalition.

Cameron, Clegg amd philosopher-profiteers like AC Grayling want to turn our universities into ivory towers, bastions for the wealthy and privileged. The government has scrapped EMA, trebled fees and is cutting jobs, pensions and courses as it seeks to privatise education.

The Education Activist Network is organising a one-day conference under the banner of 'The New College of Resistance'. It will equip activists, educationalists, and trade unionists with the tools and knowledge to tackle and fight the assault on further and higher education and put forward an alterbative to elitism and austerity.

Workshops include: Crimes against Humanities - from London Met to AC Grayling; The movement one year since Millbank; Alternatives to austrity; Organising casual workers; Protest and the police; Gender inequality in education; Building universities of international solidarity; ESOL, EMA and the fight for FE; Points-based immigration and the racist clampdown; Jobs, pensions, pay and the defence of education; Exposing the new managerialism

workshops include: Crimes against Humanities – from London Met to AC Grayling, What would democratic universities look like?, The movement one year since Millbank, Alternatives to austerity, .Zero hour contracts = Zero future: Organising casual workers, Protest and the police, Building universities of international solidarity, Cuts, EMA and the fight for FE, We Are Not Your Spies: points based immigration, prevent and the racist clampdown
speakers include: Ilan Pappe, John McDonnell MP, Laurie Penny, Peter Hallward, Alex Callinicos, Liam Burns NUS President, Alfie Meadows, Mark Campbell, Jacqueline Rose, Albert Toscano, Katy Clark MP, Owen Jones, Guy Aitchison, Zita Holbourne

initial supporters: UK Uncut, UCU Left, NUS Black Students', Action for Esol, SBL, Woodcraft Folk (16-21s), Golsdmiths SU, Birkbeck SU, Sussex Stop the Cuts, Manchester University against Cuts and Fees, Defend the Right to Protest as well as Stop kettlin

Acknowledgements Martin Francis

Flytilla returnees at Luton Airport, Tuesday night/Wednesday morning (12-13/7/2011)

2011-07-15T04:31:00.000-07:00

Flytilla returnees at Luton Airport, Tuesday night/Wednesday morning (12-13/7/2011). Photo by Alan Wheatley. Anne Gray of Haringey GP is on the left of the flag.

Pippa Bartlotti is now reported to be on her way back to the UK.

GUILDHALL CLEANERS STRIKE TODAY (15/7/11)

2011-07-15T02:26:00.000-07:00

Copied and pasted from another TU list: acknowledgements to Douglas Rouxel

Map: http://www. britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/ en-199506-guildhall-city-of- london/map

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Guildhall, London according to its own website was designed to show the power of London's ruling elite. This tradition is continued today by annual speeches by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Governor of the Bank of England. The most recent event was a dinner in tribute to the new Ronald Regan statue attended by the Foreign Secretary, Condoleezza Rice and other dignitaries.

Though regulary hosting wealthy patrons of this ancient and prestigious venue, the cleaning staff are failing to be paid for the actual hours they work. Whilst their hourly rate are far below the London Living Wage.

In June of this year, 34 cleaners employed by Ocean Contract Cleaning London struck for 2 days because of many workers receiving underpaid wages over the last 3 months. On average 2 weeks of wages were missing. The company promised to pay the overdue wages by the 20th of June and so the dispute was suspended.

However when the cleaners received their last pay packets, the company failed to keep their promises which resulted in the cleaners calling a new strike day for 15th July with a picket outside London Guildhall 5:30am to 10:00am.

The workers raised a collective grievance to review the salaries for the past 6 months but Ocean Contract Cleaning London are have ignored this and refuse to participate in any collective bargaining process.

The cleaners of Guildhall are on poverty pay rates of £5.95 per hour, whilst working in one of the most expensive cities in Europe and receiving no sick pay or pension. According to the London Living Wage Unit this is officially poverty pay and the London Living Wage has been set at £8.30.

There will be banners and support by fellow trade unionists including Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

For more details contact cleaner-organiser Alberto on 07946735141

Green Left Supports Political Protesters thrown out of Israel

2011-07-12T13:09:00.000-07:00

Green Left welcomes the swift response from Caroline Lucas (in sadly predictable contrast to other Party leaders), to the detention of 12 human rights activists from Israel. Calling for their immediate release , in a letter to Foreign Secretary William Hague , Caroline points out that the 12, including Green Party members Pippa Bartolotti and Anne Gray were merely trying to travel to the West Bank, which is supposed to be permitted for British citizens.

It is not yet known whether Hague responded to Caroline’s call but word is that all 12 are to be deported.

Peter Allen, co-convener of Green Left says “Anne is a member of Green Left and well known as a campaigner for social justice both at home and abroad. We are very proud of her “.

Welsh Green Party Deputy leader Pippa Bartoli and London Green Party activist and Green Left supporter Anne Grey amongst those arrested by Israeli authorities.

2011-07-09T22:52:00.000-07:00

Welsh Green Party Deputy leader Pippa Bartoli and London Green Party activist and Green Left supporter Anne Grey amongst those arrested by Israeli authorities. Acknowledgements to Nick Foster.

http://www.scottishpsc.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3653:update-12-british-nationals-amongst-internationals-arrested-a-detained-in-israel&catid=500:news&Itemid=200433

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14095375

Demonstration against the loss of 1400 jobs at the Bombadier factory in Derby.

2011-07-06T23:36:00.001-07:00

Dear all,

Please see the press release from the RMT below, containing details of a demonstration against the loss of 1400 jobs at the Bombadier factory in Derby. I believe that these jobs, workers involved in the manufacture of trains, are climate jobs and must be saved. I encourage environmental activists, campaigners and trade unionists to join the demonstration.

Martin Empson
Treasurer, Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union group
www.climate-change-jobs.org
079 585 35231
swpmre@yahoo.com

"UNIONS REPRESENTING the Bombardier workforce in Derby confirmed today that they will be mobilising a mass demonstration on Saturday 23rd July in the city in protest at plans to axe over 1400 jobs as a result of the Governments’ refusal to award the company the Thameslink carriage contract."

http://www.rmt.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=147208

Romayne Phoenix

Afghanistan Withdrawal Group Public Meeting: Tuesday 12th July 2011

2011-07-05T13:51:00.000-07:00

Afghanistan Withdrawal Group Public Meeting

Tuesday 12th July 2011

7.30pm to 9.00pm

Committee Room 15, House of Commons, SW1A 0AA

PLEASE ARRIVE EARLY, THERE MAY BE A DELAY GETTING IN TO PARLIAMENT

Af-Pak War

THE DESTABILISATION OF PAKISTAN

Speaker: Tariq Ali

Chair: Caroline Lucas MP

Tariq Ali is a writer and activist. An editorial board member of New Left Review, he is a regular contributor to the Guardian, CounterPunch and London Review of Books. He is a British Pakistani and author of The Duel: Pakistan on the flight path of American power.

His other books include: Can Pakistan Survive? (1991), Clash of Fundamentalisms (2002), Bush in Babylon (2003) and The Obama Syndrome (2010).

Supported by Stop The War Coaliltion

Scotland, Brighton and the role of Green Left by Sean Thompson

2011-07-05T02:06:00.000-07:00

The election results last month were remarkable and instructive. At opposite ends of Britain there were victories that indicated the potential hollowness of the parties of the status quo, particularly Labour. In Scotland, a social democratic party committed to the break up of the British state won an outright majority in the Scottish Parliament, while in Brighton an environmentalist party with a radical leftwing agenda became the dominant political force in the city. There are some similarities in the development of the Scottish National Party and the Green Party in recent years which, I believe, have been significant and are worth examining.

Though it was established in 1934, the Scottish National Party languished on the margins of Scottish politics until Winnie Ewing won a by-election in 1967. This followed a gradual move towards more cautiously left wing policies and a realisation among key sections of the party’s leading activists that it had to aim to replace Labour in Scotland. Such developments were not universally popular in the party and following its crushing defeat in 1979 a civil war broke out between the ‘neither right nor left but Scotland’ elements of the party, who blamed the defeat on the party’s left of centre policies and the socialist 79 Group, who argued that the party should move further to the left and emphasise its social policies rather than its long term separatist
goals.

Interestingly, among this group - who were all expelled at one point - was Alex Salmond and several other members of the current leadership of the party. Since then the party has become clearly social democratic, has been (fairly) consistently to the left of Labour for years and has become increasingly identified with its shrewd and politically popular leader. Without trying to push the parallels too far, this has clear similarities to the development of the Green Party over the past few years.

Since the election of the Blair government in 1997 the vacuum on the left created by New Labour has tended to drag the Green Party to the left. I think that this has been due to three main factors. First, the New Labour’s lurch to the authoritarian free market right has forced some (but by no means all) of the party’s longer term members to move towards a more generalised critique of capitalism. Second, the failure of the various attempts at a regroupment of the non Labour Left and the utter inability of the traditional far left sects to get their act together has to some degree forced the Party to take a more active role on some issues - most
importantly, opposition to the cuts and proposals for an alternative economic strategy. Thirdly, there has been a steady trickle of refugees from the Labour Party and/or the far left into the Party, bringing with them elements of a far more focussed political/economic analysis of society and a more disciplined approach to political activity.

What the SNP appears to have learnt - and what it seems that a number of the Green Party’s leadership and ‘activists’ may be learning - is that banging on about one’s pet obsession or patent remedies is not likely to build your credibility among the mass of ordinary people but rather the to be involved in the issues that concern them rather than the issues which which we think they aught to be concerned. And more than that;
we have to play an active part in helping embattled communities defend themselves rather than
being content to simply comment and propagandise.

So it is significant that last year’s election campaign stressed the Party’s commitment to economic and social equality and its proposals for an alternative to the three neoliberal parties’policies of cuts to prop up a shaky financial system, rather than some of the more arcane enthusiasms of our various lifestyle lobbyists. But there is still a great deal to do in focussing the Party’s campaigning on the key issues and achieving a balance between electoral work and grass roots organising and agitating - and that’s where Green Left comes in.

A role for Green Left in the coming period

Ian Angus hit the nail on the head when he said that the key task of ecosocialists is to ‘make Greens redder and Reds greener’. The point, however, is how to turn this excellent phrase into concrete activity in the coming period, particularly in relation to the role of socialists in the Green Party.

It seems to me that the interlinked crises facing capitalism - and in particular, the British ruling class - have become chronic in nature. They are not going away, they are going to gradually intensify and there is the possibility of a flair up at any time - for example another major nuclear incident, an intensification and extension of the Greek crisis or any one of the several possible options for another Middle East oil crisis. At the moment though, popular consciousness in Britain has not developed far beyond an unfocussed, though visceral, loathing for ‘the bankers’ and a widespread distrust of politicians and there is no organisation on the left in a position to give voice even to the current grumbling in the ranks - certainly not to give it organised form.

While I don’t think that the Green Party is that organisation, even in nascent form, I do think that the Party could and should play a vital role in moving towards it. The main political weakness of the Green party - its apparent ideological rootlessness, its lack of an easily identifiable historical tradition - is also a potential source of strength. Greens like Caroline are able to argue for some extremely radical policies - and get listened to in a way that the much reduced ranks of the traditional left are not. She is also able to face down red baiting critics by happily saying that she is proud of the Green Party’s ‘socialist principles’ without leading to any outbreaks of panic in the streets - although there were probably some fits of the vapours in some parts of the Party when she said it. However, the dearth of political structured discussion and almost complete lack of any form of political education within the Party is a major weakness which is likely to lead to major tactical and strategic problems for us as the political situation sharpens.

In a recent discussion on the party’s members’ site about whether the party should explicitly describe itself as socialist, our own Roy Sandison suggested that ‘the Green Party can only be described as a left party (this is a positive) in the scale of things and in this context is also an anti capitalist party - especially given our core values and the changes needed to safe guard the planet and to promote real social justice and democracy.’ It seems to me that Roy gets to the nub of things when he argues that the Party’s ethos and policies make us all - no matter from which direction we have come - anti-capitalists. Our central role should be to make that message concrete at every opportunity and spread it throughout the membership.

Gramsci argued that there is a vital strategic distinction between a war of position and a war of manoeuvre. The war of position is intellectual, a war of ideas in which socialists must seek to create a counter-hegemonic block against the bourgeoisie encompassing all popular cultural and political structures - what Rudi Dutschke called ‘the long march through the institutions’. It is that long march we have to undertake in the Green Party.

In 1962, Milton Friedman unwittingly gave what I believe to be the clearest of descriptions of what the role of socialists needs to be in the Green Party (and elsewhere) when he wrote ‘only a crisis - real or perceived - produces real change.When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.’

What does this mean for what Green Left does and how we organise ourselves? At the moment, Green Left as an organised grouping within the Party scarcely exists between conferences. We are too easily obsessed with the success or defeat of this or that resolution, too concerned with (often obscure) constitutional issues and too interested in the real or imagined manoeuvrings of various would be political leaders who are in reality of little or no interest to anyone but themselves. We are too easily diverted into fruitless arguments - about
the errors of this or that councillor or committee member or the latest heinousness of the Party’s tiny and insignificant rump of zionists for example - that tend to demonstrate to many members outside GL that we are as bitter and obsessive as most of the traditional far left sects.

Of course, that is not to say that organising to put our views across at conference is not important, or that conference decisions are irrelevant or that reactionary ideas should not be challenged as and when they arise. But those things are not our raison d’etre and as often as not are a distraction from what really matters.

If the major weaknesses within the Party are the low level of political awareness and consequent low level of political activity of much of the membership, the lack of understanding of the anti capitalist logic of green politics and the lack of political space for debate and education, then we should be organising primarily to address those weaknesses rather than trying to act a politically homogenous faction, which we aren’t and which we don’t need to be - for now. We should be providing the forum for ideas and discussion and political education that the Party corporately fails to do. Concretely, I think that we should set about doing the following things over the next year:

Establish local/regional discussion groups

We should set up regular discussion meetings on a city wide (say, Manchester or Bristol or Birmingham) or regional (London, West Midlands) basis. These should be as open as possible rather than closed Green Party only meetings and wherever possible should seek the involvement of other socialist individuals or groups in the area. The meeting that Pip and other comrades in Brighton organised is a good example of what we should be doing all over the place. While we should endeavour to get as many non GL members from both inside and outside the Party to speak at these events we should also assemble our own panel of speakers.

Establish an on-line discussion magazine

At the moment we have, for reasons I can’t quite remember, two websites. One of those - The Watermelon, I assume - should be transformed into an online magazine with articles of sufficient length to give issues proper consideration. Contributions should be downloadable in PDF. We should have a small editorial group and should produce three or four issues a year, perhaps with each issue having a different theme, as well should be sought beyond the membership of GL (and from both within and outside the Party) and article as a news commentary and reviews. I think we should be regularly publishing policy papers on areas such as workplace democracy, education, transport, housing and so on and so on. In the absence of much planned policy development within the Party, such policy papers could serve to focus discussion within the Party and at Conference on areas we consider important rather than the current rag bag of reactions to current events and random individual obsessions that make up Conference agendas.

We should seek to get articles republished elsewhere and should republish articles from elsewhere that we think worthwhile.

Produce regular bulletins and policy papers

We currently produce a short bulletin for each conference and we have produced one pamphlet. I believe that we should produce an additional two bulletins a year and republish major policy papers from the online magazine from time to time enlarged to become pamphlets.

Raise funds consistently

At the moment, we ask our supporters for at least five pounds a year to cover our running costs. However, that income only barely covers the costs of our two small conference bulletins and room hire for our quarterly meetings. In our recent collaboration with Socialist Resistance on the very successful Hugo Blanco tour we were in the embarrassing position of having to rely on them - with fewer members than us - carrying virtually all the costs of what was supposed to be a joint venture. If we are to undertake any serious political activity, no matter how modest, we must have a significantly higher regular income. If even just 20 comrades contributed just £5 a month - surely hardly any sacrifice for all but our most hard up supporters - we would have enough income to begin to do some of the work outlined above. I suggest that we have set a target of £150 a month by the autumn rising to £250 a month by next spring.

Sean Thompson
June 2011

Vote in the Green Party Conference Prioratisation ballot (GP members only)

2011-07-03T10:53:00.001-07:00

Conference Motions: The prioritisation ballot needs to be sent in as follows
Please either post the form to the convenor of SOC, James Youd, 32 Roseford Road,Cambridge, CB4 2HD to reach him no later than Friday 15th July or email it to James at soc@greenparty.org.uk, to be received by 23.59 on Friday 15th July. Prioritisation ballot forms are on page 39 of the first agenda which is available via the members website.

The GPTU Committee recommends voting for the following motions in the Prioritisation ballot: Section C (Policy Motions)
C21. One Million Jobs
C24. Removing the Special Status of the Corporation of London
C35. Industrial Policy Enabling Motion
Section D (Organisational, and other, motions)
D46. Coalition of Resistance
D48. Making the Green Party a Model Employer

It was felt that the following motions might need strengthening amendments
C21. One Million Jobs
C33. Motion Against an Immigration Cap

Caroline on the Picket line

2011-06-29T16:13:00.001-07:00

“FAIR PENSIONS ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR”: GREEN MP SPEAKS OUT IN SUPPORT OF PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS

Commenting ahead of the public sector strikes across the country tomorrow, Brighton Pavilion MP and leader of the Green party of England and Wales, Caroline Lucas, said:

“Many teachers and other public sector workers have contacted me over the past week to express hope that striking wouldn't be necessary – that the Prime Minister would start taking their pension concerns seriously. Sadly the Coalition Government’s relentless attack on this country’s public servants has left them with no choice.

“We know that public sector pensions are affordable – this is really about piling the UK’s debt burden onto the people who did the least to create it. I believe that fair pensions are worth fighting for, so I will be joining the picket lines in solidarity with my constituents who have been abandoned by the other main Westminster parties.

“This isn’'t something I do lightly. I regret the disruption caused by industrial action and think it must only be used in special circumstances – and would urge trade unions to work hard to ensure support from the wider public.

“Yet when teachers are being expected to pay 50% more in pension contributions, work longer and get less pension when they retire – and when negotiations are failing – targeted and considered action is clearly necessary.”
ENDS

Message from Sally Hunt (UCU) re pensions dispute 30/6/2011

2011-06-23T12:00:00.000-07:00

Dear colleague,

On Thursday 30 June, hundreds of thousands of teachers and lecturers will be taking strike action to defend their pensions. I am writing to ask that you join them in taking strike action and attending one of the scores of rallies that will be taking place around the country. You can see a full list of rallies here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/30June

UCU will be joined by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) in strike action to defend the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, while civil servants who are members of the PCS union will be taking strike action on the same day in defence of jobs, pay and pensions.

30 June will be one of the biggest days of industrial action for a long time and this is a measure of the widespread anger felt about the attack on public sector pensions and on the TPS.

If the government’s proposals go through, it will mean hard-pressed lecturers in Further and Higher Education working longer, paying greater contributions and losing tens of thousands of pounds over the course of their retirement.

We’re told that our members enjoy ‘gold-plated’ pensions. Yet the average man’s pension in FE is only £10,000, while the average woman’s pension is just over £6000 a year.

We’re told that it’s not fair that public sector workers should have better pensions than those in the private sector. I think that’s a scurrilous argument - that we should all embark on a race to the bottom because of the failure of private sector employers. Everyone has the right to a decent pension scheme in retirement.

We’re told that the government can’t understand why we are striking and not negotiating. Like the NUT and the ATL, we prefer negotiation to action and striking should always be a last resort. We’ve been talking through the TUC for months but now the government has made clear, in public, that it does not intend to compromise on the big issues.

That’s why I believe we need to join our colleagues in the NUT and the ATL in taking strike action next Thursday.

Please support the strike on Thursday and let’s help make this a national day of action across education that no one can ignore.

Yours

Sally Hunt
UCU General Secretary

To read our latest leaflet, click here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/g/6/tps_30juneflier.pdf

To read more on the campaign to defend TPS, click here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/tps-underattack

EUROZONE IN CRISIS – SOLIDARITY WITH THE RESISTANCE

2011-06-14T13:11:00.000-07:00

COR MEETING TOMORROW NIGHT : 6.30pm, Wednesday 15 June, University of London Union, Malet Street, London, WC1E (nearest station: Euston).

The EU, the IMF, and the European Central Bank have created a Europe of bailouts for the rich and cutbacks for the rest. But resistance is rising. Hundreds of thousands have joined demonstrations, strikes, and mass occupations of public squares.

Thousands have occupied Madrid’s Puerta del Sol in conscious imitation of the Arab Spring revolutions. The example has been followed by the Greek protestors who have copied them in occupying Athens’ Syntagma Square.

There is a pan-European movement of resistance forming. The Coalition of Resistance has called this meeting in solidarity with Spanish, Greek, and other European protestors.

In the second half of the meeting, CoR activists will discuss forthcoming campaigning and action in Britain, including supporting the pensions strike and building the national conference.

Romayne

CRUNCH TIME NOW FOR THE NHS

2011-06-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

To London supporters of Keep Our NHS Public - Please circulate to others

The government have speeded up the timetable for the Health & social care bill. The report from the so called "listening exercise" will now be today and the government will give their response tomorrow. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13728438

The government was forced to retreat and postpone Lansley’s bill in the face of a huge groundswell of nationwide opposition. But now Cameron and Clegg have cobbled together a deal and hope they can limit the damage to the government by pushing through a revised Bill as soon as possible. It is likely that it will go back into parliament before the summer recess. London KONP has agreed to be ready to call a demonstration at parliament if that happens.

Our NHS is precious and these plans will destroy it
The previewed changes to the bill would alter the wording and the time table, but the plans for commissioning and foundation trusts would still open up the entire health service to the public sector. Health professionals including UNITE, UNISON, RCN and BMA have pointed out that dropping the bill is the only way to safeguard our health service, as have the Labour Party.

How we can step up the pressure to demand the bill is dropped

PICKET ANDREW LANSLEY AT OLYMPIA
WEDNESDAY 15 JUNE 08.30am
At 9am Andrew Lansley will open the 'Commissioning 2011' with over 100 private sponsors. Leaflet here: http://www.keepournhspublic.com/meetings/20110615Olympia.pdf

KEEP UP THE LOBBYING
Attached is a helpful briefing plus template letters for MPs and Lords with a list of marginal MPs and how to contact Lords.
Can you phone your MP today? It's quick and easy. Find their name, number, and tips for what to say, here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/phone-your-mp

30 JUNE PUBLIC SECTOR STRIKE DAY
Local groups and health workers are planning to highlight the attack on the NHS by joining picket lines and the demonstration 11:30 from Lincoln's Inn Fields
Unite the Resistance organising Rally
Wednesday 22 June 6.30pm

Friends House, Euston Rd, NW1
With Mark Serwotka PCS & Tony Benn

TUESDAY 05 JULY NHS ANNIVERSARY DAY OF ACTION
Backed by Unite, Unison and TUC
Turn this call into real national action calling for the Health Bill to be dropped

KEEP OUR NHS PUBLIC NATIONAL AGMSaturday 25 June 10am - 4pmSouth Camden Community Centre, Ossulston St, NW1

NEXT LONDON KEEP OUR NHS PUBLIC MEETINGTuesday 28 June 7pm
Camden Town Hall, Judd St, WC1
ORGANISING KEEP OUR NHS PUBLIC IN LONDON
The suggestion to formalise a London Keep Our NHS Public group was discussed at the meeting on 24 May. It was agreed to circulate a proposal to local KONP groups that a London group should help coordinate the campaign across London. In addition to open organising meetings, a committee of 2 people from each local group could make any important decisions between meetings. Please bring any comments or suggestions from your KONP group to the meeting on 28 June.

USEFUL MEETING DATES

Meeting 18 June 1.30-4pm
Islington Town Hall, Upper St, N1
With Ken Livingstone organised by Labour Party with GMB and Unison

Further information from www.keepournhspublic.com or your local Keep Our NHS Public group
To unsubscribe please email londonkeepournhspublic@gmail.com

GREEN LEFT

New PCS booklet for campaigning :

Stop War on Iran before it starts

Hands Off Iran and SyriaProtest Saturday 28 JanuaryUS Embassy 2pm-4pmGrosvenor Square London W1

Coalition of Resistance Spring tour

Coalition of Resistance

Spring tour

Haringey anti-academies demo 28th jan

Green Left statement re Brighton& Hove Budget 20/1/2012

Maite's victory

The End of the Opposition by matthew butcher

The battle for Brent schools - which side is Labour on? Martin Francis writes

Message to Unite: Green Party are the alternative

LEAMINGTON SPA cuts protest Friday, JANUARY 20th

Guantanamo: 10 years is enough

Christine Blower of NUT on academy schools

ENGAGED ISLAM ~ CONTEMPLATIVE ACTION IN OUR CHANGING TIMES

Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Meeting on JNF 19/1/2012

January screening double bill - 'The Take' and 'New Pioneers'

Anti Academies Alliance AGM, on Saturday 14th January 2012.

Organising conference: DEFEND PENSIONS - ESCALATE ACTION - NAME THE DAY!

Brent Libraries Update

National anti-Fracking Meeting: Saturday 17th March

Portsmouth People's YouNiversity

LONDON KEEP OUR NHS PUBLIC MEETING TUESDAY 13 DECEMBER

SOLIDARITY WITH LANGDON SCHOOL STRIKERS - STOP THE UNION BUSTING

Threat to jobs at Carillion solar panels

Strike! Wednesday’s events around London

Brent & Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Meeting on protests against Veolia's links with the Israeli occupation of Palestine.22/11/2011

Green Left/Socialist Resistance seminar: Feed the world –without destroying the planet

Food, Floods and Climate Change

Green Left puts full support behind Mark Campbell as a candidate in the up coming UCU General Secretary Election.

CAROLINE LUCAS at St PAUL'S

DEREK WALL at St Paul's

Trade Union Pledge in support of the St Paul’s Occupiers

Feed the world –without destroying the planet

TAX JUSTICE e-petition

OLSX event "Your workplace: cuts, grievances and organising resistance"

TV discussion on Occupy movement

Jean Lambert MEP, statement on Occupy London Stock Exchange

China Miéville at Brent CCC meeting 17/10/11

Caroline Lucas will visit London protest camp

Green Left statement supporting Occupy London

A seminar on food sovereignty

Vigil at Kensal Green Library

Defend Public Libraries: London Events

Sparks De-Skilling And Pay Dispute Ballot Or No Ballot All Out To Defend Our Future

Scapegoat: Why we are failing disabled people

China Miéville, "FOOD, FLOODS AND CLIMATE CHANGE: PAKISTAN, AFRICA, BRITAIN".,STAND UP FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE on Saturday 3rd December

Disability: The Impact of the Cuts. Workshop at Coalition of Resistance Europe Against Austerity conference 1/10/2011.

Green Left statement on BAE redundancies

Green Left and other banners at Manchester demo against cuts at Tory Conference 2/10/2011

Parliamentary Rally to save Bombardier Jobs

The Imprisonment of Ed Bauer

Letter to Guardian: Arrest Threatens Right to Protest

Africa demands climate justice

EMERGENCY MOTIONS PASSED AT GREEN PARTY CONFERENCE 9/2011

Fringe on the working class and the Greens at Green Party Conference 9/2011:

Greens and Capitalism: Fringe meeting at Green Party Conference autumn 2011

EUROPE AGAINST AUSTERITY CONFERENCE: 1 OCTOBER, 10AM - 5PM

Manchester Rally 2nd October

The Trial of Andrew Lansley; Wednesday 7th September

Celebrate the life of Alf Filer: Saturday 10 September, 7-11 p.m

Feral Capitalism Hits the Streets by David Harvey 11 August 2011

Unison will challenge its Plymouth derecognition

Tony Dyer: Confessions of a failed Bristol rioter

By Tony Dyer

So what is Plan B? *( An article on local government and cuts by Sean Thompson )

"Diggers' Festival"

Riots, Recession and resistance; CoR/BARAC meeting ULU London 11/8/11

CAMP FRACK 17th-18th September

Campaign Against Climate Change Anti-fracking meeting 19/7/2011

Green Left sends its support and solidarity to Francis Fernie.

Save Derby Railways Rally

Fracking Hell: Public meeting this Tuesday 19th July 2011

Anne Gray: Report back from Palestine

The New College of Resistance - EAN Conference on October 29

Flytilla returnees at Luton Airport, Tuesday night/Wednesday morning (12-13/7/2011)

GUILDHALL CLEANERS STRIKE TODAY (15/7/11)

Green Left Supports Political Protesters thrown out of Israel

Hands Off Iran and Syria
Protest Saturday 28 January
US Embassy 2pm-4pm
Grosvenor Square London W1