Joseph Healy Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Vauxhall at the next general election - the green, socialist alternative writes
Yesterday was the launch of the Green Party's European election campaign in the London region and I was there with Jean Lambert MEP and six of the other candidates. We appeared last night for probably a little over a minutes on the BBC London television news, which is in stark contrast to the publicity given to the BNP etc.
We were positioned beside an air quality monitoring station on Marylebone Road to make the point that it is EU Directives on air quality which are pushing the UK and London authorities to clear up their act in what is Europe's most polluted city. Mayor Johnson has done little so far to address the issue and the UK could be receiving a massive fine soon from the EU for not doing something about it. Latest figures show that several thousand people die every year in London as a direct result of this air pollution. I am the one holding X marks the spot.
Several of our candidates were also interviewed for Radio 4's 'PM' programme and we were told that it would be broadcast on Friday week, but why so late in the campaign seems a mystery to me. Perhaps it will be broadcast this Friday instead. AP News were also there.
It's off to hustings in Lambeth for me tonight and tomorrow night I will be appearing at a hustings in the Students Union Bar at Goldsmith's College, New Cross at 6.30pm, at the invitation of the Battersea & Wandsworth Trade Union Council, South London Anti-Fascist Group and the PSC Union, where issues around employment, trade union rights, etc will be discussed as well as how best to combat racism and Fascism.
1ST OXFORD WORKING CLASS BOOKFAIR
ReplyDeleteSATURDAY 20TH JUNE, 11 am - 6 pm at Ruskin College, Walton Street, Oxford
Supporters of the event include Oxford & District TUC & local IWW
Books, talks, badges, workshops, posters, postcards, DVDs, CDs, music, culture, short films, magazines, lectures, warm atmosphere, fellowship, meet new people, education, entertainment, magazine, newspapers etc. To book a stall/more info. email us!
Includes 100th Anniversary of 1909 RUSKIN COLLEGE STRIKE meeting, the first radical student uprising in English history that saw students breakaway to form radical & anti-capitalist educational networks such as the PLEBS LEAGUE and CENTRAL LABOUR COLLEGES + Talks/workshops on anti-fascism & anti-racism, situationism/dada/surrealism, anti-capitalism, people’s history, trade unions, war, peace & empire, radical bookselling, bash the rich marches, psychogeography, feminism & women’s equality, social ecology, popular & radical education, poetry/culture/art, music etc
Speakers include -
COLIN WAUGH Radical educator/FE teacher, active on the Post 16 Educator journal, recently author of pamphlet on the 1909 Ruskin College Student Strike & Plebs League
IAN BONE English anarchist associated with Class War group. In 1984 he was labelled ‘the most dangerous man in Britain’ by a British tabloid newspaper & was involved in the legendary Bash the Rich marches on wealthier areas of England such as Kensington, Henley-on-Thames & Hampstead.
RICHARD SEYMOUR Author of ‘The Liberal Defense of Murder’, a searing critique of the B52 liberals and pro-war left & the brains behind Lenin’s Tomb, one of the best-known political blogs in Britain, listed in 2005 as the 21st-most-popular blog in the country.
ANDREW BURGIN Radical seller/collektor of books, badges, posters, pamphlets & other emphemera. As press officer for the Stop the War Coalition he has worked particularly closely with the Military Families against the War campaign. He has also been linked to the Public Reading Rooms in London . . .
JUDITH ORR Author of ‘A Rebel’s Guide to Women’s Liberation’
MALCOLM HOPKINS Our man from Housemans, London Town’s oldest radical bookshop who boast the largest range of radical newsletters, newspapers and mags of any shop in Brtain! He also does talks on situationism, dada, and surrealism - top bloke!
Cllr JOHN TANNER Lefty Labour Councillor supports good causes like the Palestinians and anti-fascism - top bloke!
DAVID RENTON Independent writer & historian. Written extensively on the history of anti-fascism including ‘When We Touched the Sky’ a history of the Anti-Nazi League & ‘Red Shirts & Black’ (Published by Ruskin College Library) the story of how the facist Blackshirts were driven out of Oxford in the 1930s.
CIARAN WALSH IWW/Wobblie Member involved in Traveller education. ‘The IWW is a union unlike any other. It is a grassroots, democratic and militant union that seeks to organise ALL workers in ALL industries in ALL countries’ … Sounds like a good idea!
PETER DWYER has done many silly and good things including working with NGOs and the labour movement in South Africa and speaking at World Social Forums in Rio, Mali and Kenya. During the daytime he teaches radical economics at Ruskin College
GUY DEBORD Sadly Monsieur Debord can’t make this festival, but we have received a copy of The Society of the Spectacle - The Movie that will receive a free screening and Ruskin College premier during the course of the bookfair
LUCY PARSONS once described by the Chicago police as ‘more dangerous than a thousand rioters’, Parsons died in 1942, she will be brought back to life for one day during the bookfair with a public reading of her infamous address To Tramps
Also for OUR FRIENDS IN THE NORTH, there is another WORKING CLASS BOOKFAIR THE WEEK BEFORE IN SUNDERLAND!
http://workingclassbookfair.vpweb.com/
For more info. - www.oxfordworkingclassbookfair.blogspot.com or oxfordworkingclassbookfair@googlemail.com