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

GPTU Appeal; New Leaflets and a New Banner for Xmas

Happy Winterval, Give us a fiver for a banner and some leaflets,

The Green Party Trade Union Group is festively begging for your dosh. Our new leaflet has been successful and much demanded, but we are running out of replacements. You can print out from the on-line pdf accessible via the blog at http://gptu.net/gptuleaf.pdf. But we still need a stock of printed out leaflets for stalls, events etc. We also need a new banner after the old one vanished last March. Ideally we’d like to commission a hand-made William Morris style job, but all we can probably run to is a cheap plastic one using a design by Romayne Phoenix.

Currently we are not getting any financial support from GPEW, we’ll keep asking but I doubt if we’ll get much or if we get anything that we’ll get enough for what we need to do now, so please fish us out some money from your copious pockets, wallets and purses.

Happy winter solstice (to those who celebrate it)

P.Murry

GPTU Secretary

Please send donations to GPTU Treasurer Joseph Healy at 98a Grosvenor Terrace, Camberwell, London SE5 0NW.

Or direct to the The Green Party Trade Union Group account , Royal Bank of Scotland, Hoborn Branch, 127-8 High Holborn, LondonWC1V 6PG

A/c No: 10144969 Sort Code: 160053    

NUJ Release: Stop calling disabled people scroungers

acknowledgements to Alan Wheatley

NUJ Release: Stop calling disabled people scroungers – Disability Alliance UK by carerwatch

Disabled People are being demonised in the press as “work shy” and “scroungers” and as a result are facing hostility from the public and in some cases physical attacks.

In response, the NUJ’s Disabled Members Council has issued a statement urging journalists to operate within our recognised code of ethics, which calls in all NUJ members and media colleagues to “support and sustain fair and balanced reporting of matters relating to disabled people”. 

The council talks of a drip feed of stories relating to incapacity benefit fraud, when the facts show it is, at 0.3 per cent, the lowest of all welfare benefit frauds. 

NUJ Release: Stop calling disabled people scroungers - Disability Alliance UK (United Kingdom)

carerwatch | 16 November 2011 at 18:39 | Categories: benefits, Disabled, welfare reform | URL:http://wp.me/pHmFD-Nj

SERTUC LGBT Network is leafleting for 30 November this Saturday in Soho and Shoreditch

SERTUC LGBT NETWORK

Sent on behalf of SERTUC LGBT Network Secretary, Thierry Schaffauser

SERTUC LGBT Network is leafleting for 30 November this Saturday in Soho and Shoreditch, meet -
5:30 pm outside Clone Zone, Old Compton St London

The Morning Star is the Voice of Our Movement - it is our daily paper. It is vital our paper continues - therefore we ask all Trade Unionists of good will to make a donation to support our paper -

You can make a donation by credit / debit card by ringing - 020.8510.0815 or by post to -
Morning Star, William Rust House,

DEREK WALL at St PAUL'S

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!

Rally over fire station closure

Firefighters in the West Midlands are staging a rally against the possible closure of Halesowen Fire Station.Supporters of the campaign will be gathering in Somers' Square in Halesowen town centre.

Andy Dennis, secretary of the Fire Brigades Union said: "This is about community and public safety, we don't want to see that cover disappear."

 The West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority said the merger of Halesowen and Cradley Heath would go ahead. Speaking on Monday, John Edwards, chair of West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority, said: "The decision to create an alternative single station for the Halesowen and Cradley Heath area was taken in 2009.

"The merger of the current two stations into one single facility will go ahead."

He said the authority had lost £10m of its budget since 2009 because of government cuts and expected to lose a further £20m over the next three years.

"Staying as we are is not an option as we prepare for the biggest financial reductions we have ever faced," added Mr Edwards.

Mr Dennis said 500 people had signed a petition against the closure of the stations. A final decision on creating a single station in the area served by the two current stations will be made on 28 November.

(acknowledgemnts to http://www.bbc.co.uk/  and Ged Hickman)

Save UEA Music Deptartment

Taken from UEA UCU - please try and get there/sign the petition etc.

last week, the Vice Chancellor at UEA made an announcement about plans to close the School of Music. The reasons that were cited were mainly financial, although, very disturbingly, the department's predicted REF rating was mentioned as a factor (raising worrying questions about the ways that the REF can be used to discipline employees). The news also came as a shock, as staff and students weren't aware that a review was underway. Ironically, "creativity" is a supposed to be one of UEA's virtues (http://www.uea.ac.uk/hum/creativity)!

Since then, a vibrant campaign to save the School of Music has now developed. The campaign now has the endorsement of Jools Holland, Brian Eno, Lauren Laverne and the Musicians' Union - and it would be brilliant if you could support it too. You can join the Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/SaveUEAMusic), follow the campaign on Twitter (http://twitter.com/saveUEAMusic) and sign the petition at http://www.scribd.com/doc/70769414/SAVE-UEA-MUSIC-External-Petition. You can see the union's statement on the closure at: http://uea.web.ucu.org.uk/?p=108

For those of you in the Norwich area, a rally is planned on Wednesday, 9 November at 12:30PM on the main UEA campus square, followed by a march around campus at 1:30PM, ending at the Registry building where the Senate will meet to discuss the fate of the School of Music.