Friday, 31 January 2014

The People's Assembly Against Austerity newsletter


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In this newsletter:
1) Hands off our Unions: Defend our right to resist
2) Save Our London Underground
3) Student week of action

1) Hands off our Unions: London Rally

Join us to launch the campaign to defend our trade unions and
our democratic rights to resist austerity. This meeting is organised by
the People's Assembly, Campaign for Trade Union Freedom and
Institute of Employment Rights.

When: Tuesday 11 February @ 6:30PM
Where: Camden Centre, Bidborough Street, London WC1H 9JE

This is a free event but please rgister your place here: http://handsoffunions.eventbrite.com/?aff=efbevent

Speakers include:Len McCluskey, Unite the Union
Mark Serwotka, Public and Commercial Services Union
Francesca Martinez, Comedian
John Hendy QC
A striking transport worker
More tba

The last few weeks have seen a range of strike action including:
university employees strike in an ongoing dispute over declining real wages, outsourced university staff striking for their rights to a London
living wage, pensions, holiday and sick pay.

The RMT and TSSA will be striking over cuts to London Underground
 next week and the NUT are discussing strike action in the coming weeks.

But the government’s announcement of an inquiry into trade union tactics
is further proof of its determination to undermine the right to protest against
its austerity programme.

On top of this, the so-called "gagging bill", which will have disastrous
consequences for trade unions, their members, and non-party campaigners
and organisations, was voted through the House of Lords this week.

In a time of "austerity", Boris is now planning to spend £90,000 on three
water cannons for use on protestors in London, a draconian, dangerous
and violent means of crushing resistance.

The campaign being launched by the People's Assembly to defend our
trade unions and our right to resist is more important than ever.

2) Save London Underground 

As part of their industrial campaign to stop cuts and job losses, members
of Tube unions RMT and TSSA working on stations will be taking strike
 action starting on 4 February.

As part of this, station staff will refuse to carry out “revenue duties”,
including selling and checking tickets. Ticket office windows will be closed
and ticket machines will be powered down. Revenue Inspectors will not
conduct checks and issue penalty fares, and, except in cases where crowd 
control means it’s unsafe to do so, ticket gates will be kept open. 
In other words… free travel!

The revenue action takes place between 9.30 and 11.30am and 6.30 
and 8.30pm on Friday 7,Monday 10, and Friday 14 February.

Please join the Hands off London Transport (HOLT) campaign by:
  
a) Signing up to spread the word
Sign up to and share the Thunderclap message, which will be sent out
on Tuesday 4 Feb at 12PMvia Twitter/ Facebook by everyone who signs
 up. Let's support the striking staff by hitting Boris where it hurts: travel
for free.

To sign up, click here:
 http://thndr.it/MzKHMy
b) Joining a public meeting tonight, Friday 31 Jan at 6PM outside
 Kings Cross to raise awareness about the planned cuts. See here 
for more public meetings.

To find out more about the strike action and how to support it, please
visit theRMTTSSA and HOLT websites.


3) Student Week of Action, 3-7 February 2014

Stop the sell-off of student loansNext week (Monday 3 – Friday 7 February) students from 50 campuses
 across the UK are uniting together to take on the government’s latest
 attack on students and education: their attempts to sell off the student
 loan book. Protests, rallies and creative direct action is set to take place
 all over the country. Here are a couple of key events happening in
London during the week:

RALLY: Right to resist – hands off our student loans! Tuesday 4 
February at SOAS JCR, 5-7pm.
Featuring: Francesca Martinez (comedian, writer), Clare Solomon (People’s Assembly Against Austerity),
Aaron Kiely (NUS Black Students’ Officer), Sean Vernell
(UCU) and a SOAS StudentAssembly Against Austerity speaker. 
Facebook event for more info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/204673989730213/
PROTEST AND ‘DEBT IN’: action to stop the student debt sell off
outside the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills on Friday
7 FebruaryAssemble on the steps of SOAS at 12noon or join us
 outside BIS at 2pm
Join the facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/611710122215534/
For further details check out the Student Assembly website: www.thestudentassembly.org.uk.


In solidarity,

The People's Assembly Against Austerity

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The People's Assembly Against Austerity · United Kingdom
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