London Public Forum Saturday 7th November 12-6pm
South Camden Community School, Charrington Street NW1 1RG (nearest tube Kings Cross) see map here
Open to everyone and free to attend, hosted by the Campaign against Climate Change the Public Forum will bring together leading figures to discuss and debate the Climate Emergency and what we can be doing to tackle it. See below for the programme for the day.
This event sees a great variety of speakers including Aubrey Meyer (Global Commons Institute), Oliver Tickell (author Kyoto 2), Andrew Simms (new economics foundation), John Stewart (HACAN), Johann Hari (journalist), Jean Lambert MEP (Green Party), Damian Carrington (Head of Environment, the Guardian), Alexis Rowell (Camden Council), Chris Baugh (Public and Commercial Services Union) and Dr Stuart Parkinson (Scientists for Global Responsibility) as well as workshops with Biofuelwatch and the Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union Group.
Please pass on this email to your family, friends and networks – this is one of our last chance’s to get together before we hit the streets demonstrating in December.
Programme
11:45 Doors Open
12:15-13:15 Session 1 "10% Cuts by end 2010: the case for emergency action"
13:15-13:45 Break and Workshops including:
Introduction to campaigning against Agrofuels, hosted by Biofuelwatch and Food Not Fuel
13:45-14:45 Session 2 "Green Jobs Now - a million climate jobs by end 2010"
Thursday, 29 October 2009
CWU:Royal mail is claiming that we walked away from talks. This is not true.
DISPUTE UPDATE: PLEASE GIVE THIS MESSAGE THE WIDEST POSSIBLE CIRCULATION:
Royal mail is claiming that we walked away from talks. This is not true. It is also not true that there was an agreement. The union submitted a set of proposals yesterday morning that royal mail had still not responded to at 5 last night - in fact they still have not responded to those proposals. There is no split on the pec. They are 100% behind the industrial action. Royal mail are still insisting that we sign up to a pre xmas no strike deal. They are also still refusing to compromise on any of the issues at the heart of the dispute. Royal mail are likely to continue with their lies over the next few days to try and undermine the union and paint us in the worse possible light.
Royal mail is claiming that we walked away from talks. This is not true. It is also not true that there was an agreement. The union submitted a set of proposals yesterday morning that royal mail had still not responded to at 5 last night - in fact they still have not responded to those proposals. There is no split on the pec. They are 100% behind the industrial action. Royal mail are still insisting that we sign up to a pre xmas no strike deal. They are also still refusing to compromise on any of the issues at the heart of the dispute. Royal mail are likely to continue with their lies over the next few days to try and undermine the union and paint us in the worse possible light.
Tuesday, 20 October 2009
Support for CWU
“The London Federation of Green Parties states its support for a universal postal service and its support for CWU in its dispute with Royal Mail management.
Royal Mail management are using the 10% fall in postal communication relative to digital to force through cuts to postal workers earnings often using threats and intimidation and wrecking conditions of service. This is a difficult time to be a postal worker, but postal workers continue to deliver a vital public service. They are through their Union willing to negotiate reforms but are not prepared to be bullied.
The national agreement that resolved the 2007 dispute stipulates the continuing provision of reasonable local earnings levels and that to assist development of a fourth Phase of Royal Mail modernisation, consultation and negotiation will take place. Management are not currently complying. GPTU therefore supports the CWU decision to ballot on national strike action.
In the event of a CWU national strike we call on GP members to support CWU picket lines “
Royal Mail management are using the 10% fall in postal communication relative to digital to force through cuts to postal workers earnings often using threats and intimidation and wrecking conditions of service. This is a difficult time to be a postal worker, but postal workers continue to deliver a vital public service. They are through their Union willing to negotiate reforms but are not prepared to be bullied.
The national agreement that resolved the 2007 dispute stipulates the continuing provision of reasonable local earnings levels and that to assist development of a fourth Phase of Royal Mail modernisation, consultation and negotiation will take place. Management are not currently complying. GPTU therefore supports the CWU decision to ballot on national strike action.
In the event of a CWU national strike we call on GP members to support CWU picket lines “
Sunday, 18 October 2009
NUT motion: Mobilise for UN Climate talks in Copenhagen, December 09
This motion was agreed unanimously by the National Union of Teachers National Executive Committee on 8 October 2009
Mobilise for UN Climate talks in Copenhagen, December 09
“This meeting believes that we need a just, global and collectivised transition from a greed economy to a green economy. Sustainability rather than profit should be the hallmark of success as we recover from economic crisis.
This requires government investment in green industries such as renewable energy, insulation of all homes and workplaces, re-skilling of workers and research into further technological development. This will create or save tens of thousands of jobs at a time when many workers and students are concerned for their own future employment.
We congratulate workers at the Vestas wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight, who highlighted this issue so well by occupying their factory during August 2009, and who continue to campaign for the nationalisation of wind turbine and other green production since its closure.
We believe that the United Nations Climate Talks in Copenhagen from 7 to 18 December 2009 could be our last chance to secure such a global, democratic commitment to measures that might avert climate catastrophe, before our planet’s ecology destabilises irreversibly.
Therefore we call on the national bodies of all TUC affiliates, and the TUC itself, to support a demonstration in London on Saturday 5 December 2009, and mobilise for an international workers’ and students’ presence throughout the Copenhagen talks, especially on 12 December.
We ask all such bodies to work with Stop Climate Chaos (www.stopclimatechaos.org) and the Campaign Against Climate Change (www.campaigncc.org) in planning and preparing for these events.”
Mobilise for UN Climate talks in Copenhagen, December 09
“This meeting believes that we need a just, global and collectivised transition from a greed economy to a green economy. Sustainability rather than profit should be the hallmark of success as we recover from economic crisis.
This requires government investment in green industries such as renewable energy, insulation of all homes and workplaces, re-skilling of workers and research into further technological development. This will create or save tens of thousands of jobs at a time when many workers and students are concerned for their own future employment.
We congratulate workers at the Vestas wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight, who highlighted this issue so well by occupying their factory during August 2009, and who continue to campaign for the nationalisation of wind turbine and other green production since its closure.
We believe that the United Nations Climate Talks in Copenhagen from 7 to 18 December 2009 could be our last chance to secure such a global, democratic commitment to measures that might avert climate catastrophe, before our planet’s ecology destabilises irreversibly.
Therefore we call on the national bodies of all TUC affiliates, and the TUC itself, to support a demonstration in London on Saturday 5 December 2009, and mobilise for an international workers’ and students’ presence throughout the Copenhagen talks, especially on 12 December.
We ask all such bodies to work with Stop Climate Chaos (www.stopclimatechaos.org) and the Campaign Against Climate Change (www.campaigncc.org) in planning and preparing for these events.”
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Demonstration against Baghdad deportations - Wednesday 14 October 2009
Dear all,
If you can make it to this (5 pm, Wednesday, Communications House) please do!
Best wishes, Matt Sellwood
********************************************************************
URGENT: Stop the first mass deportation flight to Baghdad
First demonstration at Communications House, London, on Wednesday 14th October, 5pm.
The Stop Deportation network and other groups and organisations are demanding that the first mass deportation flight to southern Iraq, expected to leave on Wednesday, is suspended and the detainees threatened with forcible removal are released immediately. Over the last week,
detainees in various immigration detention centres have been given 'removal directions' clearly stating they will be removed to Iraq, rather than the Kurdistan Regional Government-controlled region, which was stated in previous removals.
Deporting people to a war zone like Iraq would put the lives of many deportees at risk. As recently as the 11th October, three car bombs exploded in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, killing at least 19 people. Violence and bloodshed continue throughout the country, which saw 1,891 civilian deaths in the first six months of this year alone. There are also widespread food shortages, lack of access to clean drinking water and other grave humanitarian crises in many areas.
The British government, through its participation in the war on and occupation of Iraq since 2003, is responsible for these crises and the consequent displacement of millions of Iraqis. Instead of helping accommodate refugees fleeing war and violence, it is now is planning to
send them back en masse to face their possible death.
Deportation charter flights limit refugees' access to due legal process. The UK Border Agency states that "charter flights may be subject to different arrangements where it is considered appropriate because of the complexities, practicalities and costs of arranging an operation." Charter flight deportees are told that "removal will not necessarily be deferred in the event that a Judicial Review is lodged." The emphasis, thus, is on filling the flight rather than ensuring the appropriate legal avenues have been exhausted. Detainees have also lost the right to know the date and time of their removal, making it more difficult for their legal representatives to act properly and leaving deportees in fear and uncertainty for days or weeks.
Iraqi refugees have been forcibly deported to Iraqi Kurdistan (northern Iraq) since November 2005. Mass deportation flights to Kurdistan have been removing 50-60 men almost once a month since June 2008, with the Home Office arguing that, unlike the rest of the country, the Kurdistan area is 'safe'. The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees estimate 1,000
people have been deported to Kurdistan from the UK since 2005. Despite these claims of safety, however, several people have died or disappeared following their forcible return, including Hussein Ali who killed himself two days after his arrival in 2008. Many others have been forced into hiding.
The Stop Deportation network calls upon all groups, organisations and individuals opposed to this brutal action by the UK government to stand with us in calling for all deportations to Iraq to be stopped. Join us on the first public demonstration against mass deportations to Iraq this
Wednesday, at 5pm, at the local immigration reporting centre, where many deportees are first arrested without prior warning whilst signing on (Communications House, Old Street, London, EC1).
If you would like to add your or your organisation's name to this statement, or for any further information, please email
stopdeportation[at]riseup.net.
Other things you can do to help stop this flight:
Contact your local MP and ask them to put pressure on the UK Border Agency
to cancel the deportation. You can find your local MP at
http://findyourmp.parliament.uk
Contact the UKBA directly to demand the deportation be cancelled:
Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Contact the minister for borders and immigration Phil Woolas:
House of Commons phone number: 020 7219 1149
House of Commons fax number: 020 7219 0992
Constituency phone number: 0161 624 4248
Constituency fax number: 0161 626 8572
If you can make it to this (5 pm, Wednesday, Communications House) please do!
Best wishes, Matt Sellwood
********************************************************************
URGENT: Stop the first mass deportation flight to Baghdad
First demonstration at Communications House, London, on Wednesday 14th October, 5pm.
The Stop Deportation network and other groups and organisations are demanding that the first mass deportation flight to southern Iraq, expected to leave on Wednesday, is suspended and the detainees threatened with forcible removal are released immediately. Over the last week,
detainees in various immigration detention centres have been given 'removal directions' clearly stating they will be removed to Iraq, rather than the Kurdistan Regional Government-controlled region, which was stated in previous removals.
Deporting people to a war zone like Iraq would put the lives of many deportees at risk. As recently as the 11th October, three car bombs exploded in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi, killing at least 19 people. Violence and bloodshed continue throughout the country, which saw 1,891 civilian deaths in the first six months of this year alone. There are also widespread food shortages, lack of access to clean drinking water and other grave humanitarian crises in many areas.
The British government, through its participation in the war on and occupation of Iraq since 2003, is responsible for these crises and the consequent displacement of millions of Iraqis. Instead of helping accommodate refugees fleeing war and violence, it is now is planning to
send them back en masse to face their possible death.
Deportation charter flights limit refugees' access to due legal process. The UK Border Agency states that "charter flights may be subject to different arrangements where it is considered appropriate because of the complexities, practicalities and costs of arranging an operation." Charter flight deportees are told that "removal will not necessarily be deferred in the event that a Judicial Review is lodged." The emphasis, thus, is on filling the flight rather than ensuring the appropriate legal avenues have been exhausted. Detainees have also lost the right to know the date and time of their removal, making it more difficult for their legal representatives to act properly and leaving deportees in fear and uncertainty for days or weeks.
Iraqi refugees have been forcibly deported to Iraqi Kurdistan (northern Iraq) since November 2005. Mass deportation flights to Kurdistan have been removing 50-60 men almost once a month since June 2008, with the Home Office arguing that, unlike the rest of the country, the Kurdistan area is 'safe'. The International Federation of Iraqi Refugees estimate 1,000
people have been deported to Kurdistan from the UK since 2005. Despite these claims of safety, however, several people have died or disappeared following their forcible return, including Hussein Ali who killed himself two days after his arrival in 2008. Many others have been forced into hiding.
The Stop Deportation network calls upon all groups, organisations and individuals opposed to this brutal action by the UK government to stand with us in calling for all deportations to Iraq to be stopped. Join us on the first public demonstration against mass deportations to Iraq this
Wednesday, at 5pm, at the local immigration reporting centre, where many deportees are first arrested without prior warning whilst signing on (Communications House, Old Street, London, EC1).
If you would like to add your or your organisation's name to this statement, or for any further information, please email
stopdeportation[at]riseup.net.
Other things you can do to help stop this flight:
Contact your local MP and ask them to put pressure on the UK Border Agency
to cancel the deportation. You can find your local MP at
http://findyourmp.parliament.uk
Contact the UKBA directly to demand the deportation be cancelled:
Privateoffice.external@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
UKBApublicenquiries@UKBA.gsi.gov.uk
CITTO@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
Contact the minister for borders and immigration Phil Woolas:
House of Commons phone number: 020 7219 1149
House of Commons fax number: 020 7219 0992
Constituency phone number: 0161 624 4248
Constituency fax number: 0161 626 8572
Monday, 12 October 2009
The rise of the far right in Britain today. What it is, and how to fight it 04 November
Message from Brent & Harrow UAF , details below (acknowledgements to Andy Hewett & Martin Francis):
"We've just published this report of last weekend's mobilisation against the EDL in Manchester - http://socialistresistance.org/?p=689 Alf Fidler was an organiser of the counter-mobilisation in Harrow. Come along and join the discussion!".
The rise of the far right in Britain today
"What it is, and how to fight it. With Alf Filer (Brent & Harrow UAF)"
04 November at 19:30
Indian YMCA, Fitzroy Square, London
Manchester anti-fascists confront English Defence League
October 12th, 2009 • Related • Filed Under
Filed Under: Anti-racism • Featured
On Saturday October 10, around 2000 anti-facists mobilised in central Manchester to prevent the English Defence League from marching through the city centre. According to this report from a local Socialist Resistance supporter, the police greatly over-estimated the number of EDL supporters (closer to 100, not 500 or 700). There were 500 police.
The response to the EDL was organised around the United Against Fascism rally in Piccadilly Gardens which started at 12.00. The EDL had been shifting the time of their march backwards and forwards, mainly forwards from the morning to later in the afternoon so they could get tanked up in the pubs first. Eventually they, the EDL, had to respond to the UAF rally, and they did not actually march at all.
Police were a massive presence before 12.00, including up and around the Canal Street gay village area, and were lining the streets every ten feet or so as we arrived. The rally was just about to get going after 12.00 when the EDL appeared at the north east of Piccadilly Gardens, at the bottom of Newton Street, and the rally crowds rushed over to confront them, with police in between, and then it went on like that through most of the afternoon with the fascists moving around the back streets to appear at the top of Market Street north west of the Gardens, then around to the south where the bus ranks are, and so on. It was a mixture of tense and tedious. The rally dispersed around 4.30, and police escorted the EDL to coaches and trains around 5.00. Some of the police accounts reflected a change in political climate over multiculturalism over the last few years, along the lines that trouble-makers shouting racist taunts would be dealt with, but things felt a little more like the old days when police dogs and horses were used to push back the Rally into the Gardens. Protesters on the rally side were injured, including with dog-bites. I don’t know about the EDL. The EDL numbers looked quite small, perhaps under a hundred, and we were, as the reports said more like 2000, mainly the white left, fellow travellers and liberal allies of different kinds with sizeable proportion of more anarchist type students. There were some Asian and black youth, but not really organised as such, and it didn’t seem like these communities had mobilised for it. Support for the EDL right to march, in texts and emails to local newspapers and blogs, has been quite high, and the BNP, who are behind the EDL, have been trying to pretend that the EDL includes liberals fearful of ‘islamification’, perhaps with some success (and the BNP have even suggested that the EDL is a Zionist front designed to cause race war, which has caused some confusion). But the EDL did not march and the Gardens were held all afternoon, which is something.
"We've just published this report of last weekend's mobilisation against the EDL in Manchester - http://socialistresistance.org/?p=689 Alf Fidler was an organiser of the counter-mobilisation in Harrow. Come along and join the discussion!".
The rise of the far right in Britain today
"What it is, and how to fight it. With Alf Filer (Brent & Harrow UAF)"
04 November at 19:30
Indian YMCA, Fitzroy Square, London
Manchester anti-fascists confront English Defence League
October 12th, 2009 • Related • Filed Under
Filed Under: Anti-racism • Featured
On Saturday October 10, around 2000 anti-facists mobilised in central Manchester to prevent the English Defence League from marching through the city centre. According to this report from a local Socialist Resistance supporter, the police greatly over-estimated the number of EDL supporters (closer to 100, not 500 or 700). There were 500 police.
The response to the EDL was organised around the United Against Fascism rally in Piccadilly Gardens which started at 12.00. The EDL had been shifting the time of their march backwards and forwards, mainly forwards from the morning to later in the afternoon so they could get tanked up in the pubs first. Eventually they, the EDL, had to respond to the UAF rally, and they did not actually march at all.
Police were a massive presence before 12.00, including up and around the Canal Street gay village area, and were lining the streets every ten feet or so as we arrived. The rally was just about to get going after 12.00 when the EDL appeared at the north east of Piccadilly Gardens, at the bottom of Newton Street, and the rally crowds rushed over to confront them, with police in between, and then it went on like that through most of the afternoon with the fascists moving around the back streets to appear at the top of Market Street north west of the Gardens, then around to the south where the bus ranks are, and so on. It was a mixture of tense and tedious. The rally dispersed around 4.30, and police escorted the EDL to coaches and trains around 5.00. Some of the police accounts reflected a change in political climate over multiculturalism over the last few years, along the lines that trouble-makers shouting racist taunts would be dealt with, but things felt a little more like the old days when police dogs and horses were used to push back the Rally into the Gardens. Protesters on the rally side were injured, including with dog-bites. I don’t know about the EDL. The EDL numbers looked quite small, perhaps under a hundred, and we were, as the reports said more like 2000, mainly the white left, fellow travellers and liberal allies of different kinds with sizeable proportion of more anarchist type students. There were some Asian and black youth, but not really organised as such, and it didn’t seem like these communities had mobilised for it. Support for the EDL right to march, in texts and emails to local newspapers and blogs, has been quite high, and the BNP, who are behind the EDL, have been trying to pretend that the EDL includes liberals fearful of ‘islamification’, perhaps with some success (and the BNP have even suggested that the EDL is a Zionist front designed to cause race war, which has caused some confusion). But the EDL did not march and the Gardens were held all afternoon, which is something.
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Green leader visits Vestas "magic roundabout" camp
Caroline Lucas, Green Party MEP for the South East region, which includes the Isle of Wight, visited the ‘magic roundabout’ today, Friday 9 October, the camp outside the Vestas plant in Newport, Isle of Wight.
She discussed with former Vestas workers who had occupied the factory to protest against job losses, their supporters, Isle of Wight trades unionists, and the Island Turbine Action Group (ITAG), which campaigns for a wind turbine on the Island. The roundabout regulars made her soup for lunch, and presented her with a support Vestas workers t-shirt and CD, and she made a donation to the ongoing campaign.
FROM THE GP WEBSITE
Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party, will join ex-Vestas workers today at their ‘magic roundabout' protest camp on the Isle of Wight.
Lucas will meet with workers, community representatives and campaigners at the camp. She will discuss the ongoing protest against the loss of 600 jobs at the Vestas wind turbine manufacturing plant in Newport, which closed in the summer.
Ahead of her visit, Caroline Lucas said:
"The decision to close the Isle of Wight facility represented a spectacular failure by Government ministers to adequately promote green industries, protect the future of manufacturing in this country and safeguard British jobs."
"This was a massive loss for the 600 skilled workers made redundant - and it made a mockery of the UK's attempts to position itself as a leader in green energy and environmental policy. And now, as a reward for trying to defend their jobs, some of these workers are being deprived of their redundancy payouts."
"An invigorated renewable energy industry could provide hundreds of thousands of skilled, green collar jobs, taking full advantage of the UK's proud manufacturing heritage, while simultaneously tackling climate change."
"The local authorities must now continue to push the Government for a Sustainable Community Strategy for the Isle of Wight and ensure that the workers have a direct say in the Council's plans to enhance the renewables industry on the island."
Lucas concluded: "The time for empty promises on green jobs is over. If the Government can channel money into a new North East England wind turbine manufacturing facility, it should pledge financial aid and support for the Isle of Wight - including retraining workers where necessary, and finding new employment opportunities as soon as possible."
Notes to Editors
1) For more information, see: savevestas.wordpress.com
2) Lucas's visit will begin at 11:30am, at the protest site, St Cross Industrial Estate, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 5WU
She discussed with former Vestas workers who had occupied the factory to protest against job losses, their supporters, Isle of Wight trades unionists, and the Island Turbine Action Group (ITAG), which campaigns for a wind turbine on the Island. The roundabout regulars made her soup for lunch, and presented her with a support Vestas workers t-shirt and CD, and she made a donation to the ongoing campaign.
FROM THE GP WEBSITE
Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party, will join ex-Vestas workers today at their ‘magic roundabout' protest camp on the Isle of Wight.
Lucas will meet with workers, community representatives and campaigners at the camp. She will discuss the ongoing protest against the loss of 600 jobs at the Vestas wind turbine manufacturing plant in Newport, which closed in the summer.
Ahead of her visit, Caroline Lucas said:
"The decision to close the Isle of Wight facility represented a spectacular failure by Government ministers to adequately promote green industries, protect the future of manufacturing in this country and safeguard British jobs."
"This was a massive loss for the 600 skilled workers made redundant - and it made a mockery of the UK's attempts to position itself as a leader in green energy and environmental policy. And now, as a reward for trying to defend their jobs, some of these workers are being deprived of their redundancy payouts."
"An invigorated renewable energy industry could provide hundreds of thousands of skilled, green collar jobs, taking full advantage of the UK's proud manufacturing heritage, while simultaneously tackling climate change."
"The local authorities must now continue to push the Government for a Sustainable Community Strategy for the Isle of Wight and ensure that the workers have a direct say in the Council's plans to enhance the renewables industry on the island."
Lucas concluded: "The time for empty promises on green jobs is over. If the Government can channel money into a new North East England wind turbine manufacturing facility, it should pledge financial aid and support for the Isle of Wight - including retraining workers where necessary, and finding new employment opportunities as soon as possible."
Notes to Editors
1) For more information, see: savevestas.wordpress.com
2) Lucas's visit will begin at 11:30am, at the protest site, St Cross Industrial Estate, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 5WU
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