If you haven't already done so, please remember to register your attendance at the public event at UCL this Friday - you can do so by replying to this email.
Please also circulate this advert to anyone else who may be interested.
With best wishes
The Bolivia Information Forum
www.boliviainfoforum.org.uk
enquiries@boliviainfoforum.org.uk
+44 (0)20 7503 4163
Indigenous leaders will share inspiring examples of environmentally sustainable alternative development models based on millennia-old indigenous ways of life.
Bolivia's social movements are demanding climate justice for the world's poor who are most impacted by climate change, which they recognise as being caused primarily by industrialised countries.
Event open to all, to register please email:
enquiries@boliviainfoforum.org.uk
See also:
www.boliviainfoforum.org.uk
PUBLIC EVENT:
“Bolivian indigenous leaders taking action on climate change”
Friday 4 Dec 2009
6.30pm
Darwin Lecture Theatre
University College London
Gower Street,
London WC1E 6BT
(entrance via Malet Place)
Speakers including:
Ever Choquehuanca - CSCIB (peasant social movement)
Cristian Domínguez - CSUTCB (peasant social movement)
Rafael Quispe Flores – CONAMAQ (indigenous social movement)
Elyzabeth Peredo (Fundación Solón)
Marcos Nordgren (Climate change
expert from Bolivian NGO CIPCA)
The Bolivia Civil Society Platform on Climate Change is an initiative coordinated by the key social and indigenous movements of Bolivia and is supported jointly by the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), Christian Aid and Oxfam.
Bolivia Information Forum (BIF), Unit 3 Canonbury Yard, 190a New North Road, London N1 7BJ www.boliviainfoforum.org.uk
Posted by DODO MODERN POETS at 14:42 0 comments
Monday, 30 November 2009
NATIONAL CLIMATE EMERGENCY DEMO this SAT 5TH DEC 2009
NATIONAL CLIMATE EMERGENCY DEMO this SAT 5TH DEC 2009
BRING YOUR LOCAL PARTY BANNERS
We have hundreds of placards to hand out. A new leaflet on the way.
We will be joining hundreds of Trade Union members and setting up a stall at the
CLIMATE EMERGENCY RALLY
SPEAKERS CORNER
HYDE PARK
NOON
The main body of the demo will leave from Grosvenor Square, and the trade union march will feed into this one.
Cyclists may wish to join the Climate Emergency Bike Ride. This assembles at Lincoln's Inn Fields at 10 am. It looks as if this will feed into the demo at Hyde Park Corner.
There will be a stall at Parliament Square at the end. Come and say hello / help out / collect placards / sticks for re-use and £ saving .
SEE YOU ALL THERE- BRING YOUR LOCAL PARTY BANNERS
BRING YOUR LOCAL PARTY BANNERS
We have hundreds of placards to hand out. A new leaflet on the way.
We will be joining hundreds of Trade Union members and setting up a stall at the
CLIMATE EMERGENCY RALLY
SPEAKERS CORNER
HYDE PARK
NOON
The main body of the demo will leave from Grosvenor Square, and the trade union march will feed into this one.
Cyclists may wish to join the Climate Emergency Bike Ride. This assembles at Lincoln's Inn Fields at 10 am. It looks as if this will feed into the demo at Hyde Park Corner.
There will be a stall at Parliament Square at the end. Come and say hello / help out / collect placards / sticks for re-use and £ saving .
SEE YOU ALL THERE- BRING YOUR LOCAL PARTY BANNERS
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
schools and Copenhagen
Anon - a real teacher - from Islington, London says;
"There is a push on from the Islington sustainable schools group for schools to take their own demonstrative action for a proper deal at Copenhagen on Friday 4th Dec.
One of the year 5 classes at my school discussed this this morning and are proposing that we have a whole school demo round the block (a mini wave, maybe a ripple), make posters, send letters to Downing Street, get a petition up for parents, write to the local MP, do press releases. Good start. Shows what one lesson/discussion can do. There are only about a dozen schools signed up to the sustainability group, but there's no reason why others shouldn't join in too. How many school demos can we get on the day?
Checking out the Islington Council website, they signed up to the 10:10 campaign in September (one of the first to do so). Amongst other stuff in their statement they claim that all schools in Islington are going to get their roofs insulated "in time for winter". As winter is about a week away, has anyone seen any sign of this initiative?
I've asked the sustainability group for a brief summary of their initiatives/action plan so we can have a look at it at the meeting."
Let's have thousands of schools doin stuff during Copenhagen week!
Change our Climate
Change our World
"There is a push on from the Islington sustainable schools group for schools to take their own demonstrative action for a proper deal at Copenhagen on Friday 4th Dec.
One of the year 5 classes at my school discussed this this morning and are proposing that we have a whole school demo round the block (a mini wave, maybe a ripple), make posters, send letters to Downing Street, get a petition up for parents, write to the local MP, do press releases. Good start. Shows what one lesson/discussion can do. There are only about a dozen schools signed up to the sustainability group, but there's no reason why others shouldn't join in too. How many school demos can we get on the day?
Checking out the Islington Council website, they signed up to the 10:10 campaign in September (one of the first to do so). Amongst other stuff in their statement they claim that all schools in Islington are going to get their roofs insulated "in time for winter". As winter is about a week away, has anyone seen any sign of this initiative?
I've asked the sustainability group for a brief summary of their initiatives/action plan so we can have a look at it at the meeting."
Let's have thousands of schools doin stuff during Copenhagen week!
Change our Climate
Change our World
Petition for minimum wage for UCL staff
Petition for minimum wage for UCL staff
Please could you take a few moments out of your day to sign this petition;
As things stand, a significant number of contract staff at University College London receive the national minimum wage, £5.80 per hour, which is simply not enough to survive in London. Other University of London colleges such as SOAS, LSE, Birkbeck and Queen Mary’s have already adopted the London Living Wage (LLW), while UCL lags behind.
Former UCL cleaner Juan Carlos Piedra Benitez was dismissed from his job at UCL by contracted cleaning company Office & General. Recordings exist between Mr Piedra and O&G managers which prove that Mr Piedra’s trade union activity, especially in campaigning for the LLW, played an active role in his dismissal. This is not only unfair, but illegal.
Mr Piedra’s case attests quite clearly to the part that the out-sourcing of jobs plays in ensuring staff receive no better than poverty wages. Further, recent events at SOAS have proven contracting companies’ willingness to collude with UK Borders Agency to set up aggressive immigration raids and deportation programmes against cleaners.
Link here;
http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/a-living-wage-for-all-at-ucl.html
Please could you take a few moments out of your day to sign this petition;
As things stand, a significant number of contract staff at University College London receive the national minimum wage, £5.80 per hour, which is simply not enough to survive in London. Other University of London colleges such as SOAS, LSE, Birkbeck and Queen Mary’s have already adopted the London Living Wage (LLW), while UCL lags behind.
Former UCL cleaner Juan Carlos Piedra Benitez was dismissed from his job at UCL by contracted cleaning company Office & General. Recordings exist between Mr Piedra and O&G managers which prove that Mr Piedra’s trade union activity, especially in campaigning for the LLW, played an active role in his dismissal. This is not only unfair, but illegal.
Mr Piedra’s case attests quite clearly to the part that the out-sourcing of jobs plays in ensuring staff receive no better than poverty wages. Further, recent events at SOAS have proven contracting companies’ willingness to collude with UK Borders Agency to set up aggressive immigration raids and deportation programmes against cleaners.
Link here;
http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/a-living-wage-for-all-at-ucl.html
Monday, 23 November 2009
JERRY HICKS to stand for Unite Gen Sec
Dear Friends,
After careful consideration and taking into account all the excellent offers of support from every section within Unite I have decided that it would be the right decision to stand again in the election for General Secretary.
Although there is no date yet for the election it has to happen at some point next year, most likely soon after the General Election.
It is well worth reminding ourselves that our campaign last time went from strength to strength, despite being given no chance of even forcing an election.
We were then given little hope of securing enough nominations when not backed by the Gazette group (who supported Laurence Faircloth). We actually gained far more than he did and he then withdrew, which is something we had predicted but it was not given much credence at the time.
You will probably remember the detractors then went on to say that a 'vote for Jerry Hicks' would let the right wing candidate in (Kevin Coyne). Nothing of course could have been further from the truth. Not only did our campaign lead to Laurence Faircloth withdrawing we then soundly beat both Kevin Coyne and Paul Reuter at the ballot box finishing second only to the incumbent Derek Simpson.
It is my view that since that election things have got much worse, not just the economy but also the union leaderships failure to defend our members. We have also missed opportunities that have presented themselves, quick to make demands but slow to inspire or galvanise our members.
As was with the last election it is likely that all the other candidates will be senior officials of the union, indeed many have already been campaigning and not surprisingly often saying the right things. But its not what someone says its what they do that counts.
I have been a critic of Derek Simpson but truth is he has been allowed to get away with far too much with too little opposition from the same senior officials who would have us believe they should run our union. Our members deserve a better choice than simply more of the same.
Keep on keeping on, and expect the unexpected; Jerry Hicks.
http://jerryhicks.wordpress.com
After careful consideration and taking into account all the excellent offers of support from every section within Unite I have decided that it would be the right decision to stand again in the election for General Secretary.
Although there is no date yet for the election it has to happen at some point next year, most likely soon after the General Election.
It is well worth reminding ourselves that our campaign last time went from strength to strength, despite being given no chance of even forcing an election.
We were then given little hope of securing enough nominations when not backed by the Gazette group (who supported Laurence Faircloth). We actually gained far more than he did and he then withdrew, which is something we had predicted but it was not given much credence at the time.
You will probably remember the detractors then went on to say that a 'vote for Jerry Hicks' would let the right wing candidate in (Kevin Coyne). Nothing of course could have been further from the truth. Not only did our campaign lead to Laurence Faircloth withdrawing we then soundly beat both Kevin Coyne and Paul Reuter at the ballot box finishing second only to the incumbent Derek Simpson.
It is my view that since that election things have got much worse, not just the economy but also the union leaderships failure to defend our members. We have also missed opportunities that have presented themselves, quick to make demands but slow to inspire or galvanise our members.
As was with the last election it is likely that all the other candidates will be senior officials of the union, indeed many have already been campaigning and not surprisingly often saying the right things. But its not what someone says its what they do that counts.
I have been a critic of Derek Simpson but truth is he has been allowed to get away with far too much with too little opposition from the same senior officials who would have us believe they should run our union. Our members deserve a better choice than simply more of the same.
Keep on keeping on, and expect the unexpected; Jerry Hicks.
http://jerryhicks.wordpress.com
Friday, 20 November 2009
German student protests
Link to German student protests that are ongoing:
http://www.euronews.net/2009/11/17/german-university-strike-spreads/
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4901195,00.html
http://www.euronews.net/2009/11/17/german-university-strike-spreads/
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4901195,00.html
Thursday, 19 November 2009
General strike in the Irish Republic next Tuesday (24/11/2009)
There will be a general strike in the Irish Republic next Tuesday across the whole public sector. This is in response to proposed savage cuts in the budget next month and proposals even going as far as reducing the minimum wage and old age pension. The Irish unions are also discussing a further strike in December. The budget proposals in Ireland mirror in some ways the proposals which a Conservative government would be likely to implement in the UK. The EU has also announced that they have given Ireland until 2014 to cut its budget deficit.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1116/breaking52.htm
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1118/1224259043143.html
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1116/breaking52.htm
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1118/1224259043143.html
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