Anti-Fracking Info and Resources

As the anti-fracking battle in the UK and elsewhere heats up, here are a few of the useful resources and web pages that activists can use to keep up to date and informed:

A good source of news on developments in Britain is Drill or Drop

For the currently immediately threatened areas in the UK - Lancashire, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire - there are the following campaign websites:

Frack Free Lancashire

Frack Free Ryedale

Frack Free South Yorkshire

Frack Free Notts

Here are the big environmental campaigns Fracking pages:

Friends of the Earth

Greenpeace

And for those who can see that direct action may be a required part of the resistance:

Reclaim The Power

Earth First

Corbyn Victory Makes Role of Greens More Important

Leading Greens Caroline Lucas and Natalie Bennett have welcomed the victory of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.

These are very interesting times.

We Greens will continue to have more influence outside Labour than we would have within - we need a distinct voice on Climate Change, the most important issue of our age. Caroline Lucas has held out the hand of partnership to Jeremy and we wish the labour left well, but they still have a massive mountain to climb in the face of an overwhelmingly right wing PLP and councillor base.

The Green surge was partly responsible for Jeremy's rise IMO, with the raising of left green policies to debate in the election and engagement of a new generation. Now Greens must continue to use our leverage to push for commitments on electoral reform and climate change. This is crucial, as without electoral reform, if the establishment manage to defeat or more likely sabotage the Corbyn movement to reclaim Labour from the Blairite cuckoos it will be back to neo-liberal business as usual. With electoral reform Tory majority governments will hopefully be a thing of the past (24% of the electorate and falling?) and radical left and green views will be much much harder to push to the margins where FPTP and neo-liberal "consensus" in the corporate media have managed to contain them for so long. The left wing lever that the Greens, and to some extent the SNP and Plaid have applied to Labour can be continued and strengthened and a progressive alliance will be able to take on the Tories and their corporatist backers effectively across all the country and all its diverse sections.

If we play this right we can park our ecosocialist tanks on the lawns of the establishment and the corpocracy and build the kind of Parliamentary/extra parliamentary alliance that is required for the next stage....This will not be easy, mind. The ruling class can see the threat. Expect dirty tricks from the corporate media/foreign and domestic intelligence services.....

The fact that Caroline Lucas and the SNP and Plaid may now be able to attack the Tory Corporatist agenda in concert with a Labour Party Front Bench is immensely encouraging however.  The fightback just stepped up a gear.  A key aspect of the coming period will be to unite forces on the ground to fight things like fracking, Trident replacement and the anti-trade union bill.  There is everything to play for.

"Rise like lions out of slumber, 
Ye are many, they are few...."

After the election - get organised and resist!

Now that the general election is over and we face the full horror of a Tory Government, the Green Party are well placed to be a vital pole of attraction and organising base for oppostion to what the Tories aim to do.  I urge everyone who has supported the Greens in the election campaign to sign up, get involved locally and help build effective coalitions of opposition and resistance.
From the Human Rights Act to Hunting, from Trade Union Law to massive welfare cuts and from fracking to cutting renewables support the stage is set for mass opposition and anger against what this government of corporate shills and chancers have planned for us all.
Join the Green Party here: https://my.greenparty.org.uk/civicrm/membership/joining
Support the coming demonstrations organised by the People's Assembly and the actions arranged by UK Uncut and get active in your local community to build solidarity networks.
There is hope!  The Greens are committed to long term change, and to resisting every mean spirited, nasty, selfish and authoritarian move the Tories make.  Join us.

Three excellent books to read to understand politics before the election

Three books are doing very well in the bookshops at the moment in the run up to the General Election in the UK on 7 May.  This is a really good thing if it means people are getting a more accurate view of the issues and the system we face than that offered by the supine (oligarch owned and controlled) media and the muck-raking tabloids.

The three books are the paperback versions of Owen Jones The Establishment - and how they get away with it and Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything  and finally Caroline Lucas' account of her time as an MP since being elected as the sole Green MP in the UK in 2010 - Honourable Friends

I urge anyone wanting to prime themselves about the big questions facing us, the obstacles the establishment throw in the way of even the most modest attempts at change and the absolute necessity of quite radical and far reaching change to read these three books before they vote!

Vote Green 2015

New book: VOTE GREEN IN 2015

Green Party Included In Election Book Series

The Green Party is pleased to announce its inclusion in the Why Vote book series, aimed at introducing the general reader to party policies ahead of the general election 2015. In the Greens’ edition, out on 29 January, Deputy Leader Shahrar Ali has recruited some of the Greens’ leading thinkers and activists to explore how the party provides a credible left-wing alternative to Labour in 2015. 

Darren Johnson, Green Party London Assembly Member said: 

“Green politics in the UK has been gaining rapid momentum in recent times. Membership and public support for the party is growing and voting Green is becoming a viable option for more and more people. Read Why Vote Green 2015 to find out what makes the Green Party tick and what its vision for the future looks like.” 

Among the contributors are Molly Scott Cato Green MEP for the South West on Economy, Sarah Cope, Chair of Green Party Women on Women's Politics, Deputy Leader Amelia Womack on Young People and Politics, Adam Ramsay on Constitutional Reform, and former Labour minister Tony Clarke on International Affairs. 

Baroness Jenny Jones, writing of the three crises in the Foreword, said: 

“Increasing numbers of people are mobilising against climate change. Increasing numbers of people reject the austerity agenda. Increasing numbers of people see the inadequacies in our political system. These people often think that all the parties are the same and that there is no one to vote for. Fortunately, they are wrong. The Green Party sees the crises clearly and has the policies to address all three of them.” 

Shahrar Ali, Green Party Deputy Leader and editor of Why Vote Green 2015 said: 

“It’s vital for Greens to be included at every turn, from the leader debates to an election book series. I feel proud to share with you our party’s key policies, commitments and ambitions in the voice of some of our leading spokespersons and activists. Why Vote Green 2015 creates a compelling case for the Greens as a party of government.” 

Dame Vivienne Westwood said: 

“There’s absolutely no other choice but Green. The others are all the same.” 

NOTES 

1. Full list of chapters and contributors: Foreword – Jenny Jones, Green Values - Shahrar Ali, Climate Change - David Flint, Economy - Molly Scott Cato, Education – Martin Francis, Women’s Politics – Sarah Cope, Welfare – Noel Lynch, Home Affairs – Peter Cranie, Young People and Politics – Amelia Womack, Constitutional Reform – Adam Ramsay, Housing – Tom Chance, Transport – Caroline Russell, Environment – Shasha Khan, International Affairs – Tony Clarke, Animals – Caroline Allen.

2. Why Vote Green 2015 https://www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/why-vote-green-2015

Green Party in Brighton Votes to Defy LibLabCon Austerity

BREAKING NEWS! Brighton Green Party passes motion supporting 'No Cuts' budget - Join the resistance

(Hat tip to Wembley Matters Blog)

Breaking news from Brighton

This is the full and final text (below) of the No Cuts motion passed by a large majority at a quorate and wellattended meeting of the Brighton and Hove Green Party today.  The General Meeting sets policy for the party, but cannot "instruct" Green Councillors. However, given that the General Meeting is "the prime decisionmaking and organisational body for the BHGP", and has now made this vital policy decision, the party expect Green Councillors to abide by it, and if they feel they cannot, to step down.  It remains to be seen what will happen when the Budget comes up for decision in late February, but the local party has now made its position very clear - Green Councillors should not vote for any cuts budget or abstain so as to allow one to pass; and after this the party and councillors should lead a campaign of resistance to imposed cuts. If Green Councillors vote for a cuts budget of any kind, then they would be defying the clear and democratically expressed wish and policy of the local party.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This General Meeting notes the Motion passed unanimously (with one abstention) at the December 2015 General Meeting that the Brighton & Hove Green Party supports the production of an alternative Budget for 2015-16 that would protect local services and employment, not cut them.

The cuts to local services required to "balance the budget" for 2015-16 are the direct result of massive and unprecedented cuts by central government to the local government support grant, cuts which could mean a further cut to the Brighton & Hove budget of over £100 million by 2020.  This will effectively destroy local services as we know them.

The cuts required to balance the budget for 2015-16 alone would require  a restoration of more than £20 million of government grant or a Council Tax rise of over 20%. The proposed 5.9% Council Tax increase is therefore not viable as a means to fight the cuts or defend the vulnerable. It is a regressive tax on the poorest, and it would hardly dent the massive cuts still required. To propose this rise in Council Tax in conjunction with a cuts budget would fatally undermine the Green Party's anti-austerity stance locally and nationally.  It is the worst of all worlds.

We are now seeing a "Green surge" and rising membership especially amongst younger voters, the primary reason for which is our inspiring anti-austerity message. If the only example in the UK of the Green Party in office were to implement a large cuts budget just before the 2015 General Election that would disillusion and alienate many of those new supporters. It is likely it would severely damage not only the local party but the national party's prospects in the election.   The Brighton & Hove Green Party will not support any Brighton & Hove Council Budget for 2015-16 that makes further cuts to local services. We support a no cuts budget identifying how much government grant now needs to be returned to Brighton & Hove to avoid horrendous damage to local services. It is therefore the policy of Brighton and Hove Green party that any budget that makes further cuts to local services should not be voted for by the Green Group of Councillors, nor abstained upon to allow it to pass.

The Brighton and Hove Green Party advocates a strategy of complete resistance to implementing further cuts to local services, including

·         A massive communications campaign to explain a) why the Green Party is adopting this policy, b) the devastating effect of the level of cuts suggested for 2015-16 and the years beyond, and c) that Labour and the Conservatives will deliver those cuts because they have no policy or strategy to resist them. 

·         Refusal to assist any officials sent by DCLG to enforce a cuts budget upon Brighton and Hove, and wide publicity to explain this refusal.

·         Working with the Brighton and Hove People's Assembly, local campaign groups and trade unions to publicise and implement this strategy and to create a focus of resistance to cuts and the austerity agenda.

Green Surge!

This is an exciting time to be a member of the Greens in the UK.  Starting with the upsurge in political debate around the Scottish Referendum this summer and leading into autumn and the major parties' panic over the rise of UKIP there has been a marked surge in Green Party membership and support on both sides of the border.

This has been recently assisted by the massively supported online campaign for Greens to be represented in forthcoming UK election debates on TV and radio.  The desire of the Tories and Labour to ape UKIP (to - so far unsuccessfully - win over some of their support) and the continuing decline of the Lib Dems as the coalition "mudguard" have played a part in this.  Another factor is the increasing move amongst left of centre younger people to see the Greens as a viable expression of many of their progresssive and egalitarian views.  The unfortunate floundering of the "Left Unity" project (sadly locally now tagged "Left Disunity" due to ongoing quarrels) has led some towards, or back towards, the Greens as a relatively well established and internally democratic option  that can actually have some success in local politics.  It is my opinion that Leninism is a long term brake on the development of left and progressive politics in the UK and all projects that allow Leninists of whatever stripe to take a dominant role are doomed to failure.  The Greens do not have this baggage and the main left currents in the Greens are eco-socialist and libertarian socialist - currents that are far more in tune with the online, connected and eclectic activist world of today than the centralism and sectarianism of UK Leninists.

Whilst problems remain in the Greens in England and Wales (lack of political education, a shoestring organisational budget, off message councillors and the odd careerist,  and some infuriating administrative and financial communication barriers would be my personal bugbears) the Party remains the best short term option for anyone wishing to make a noticeable impact on British politics and create a space for dissemination and discussion of ideas outside the neo-liberal consensus.

The Greens face a major struggle to keep Caroline Lucas MP in Parliament (largely due to Labour now openly targeting the Greens for "elimination" - perhaps resenting us as an unwelcome reminder of the Labour Party's increasing inadequacy as a Party of the Left - and also some of the aforementioned "off message councillors"in Brighton).  But it should be possible to retain her seat and possibly even gain more next year if the current momentum can be maintained or improved upon, and particularly if we can get Natalie and/or Caroline onto televised and radio debates.

Austerity, fracking, attacks on civil liberties and sucking up to corporate and financial interests remain very unpopular despite the efforts of all the recent "governmental" parties to support them.  The reservoir of Green support is there for tapping into and articulating.  A key aim should be to strengthen all the movements fighting these things regardless of the election result next year.  So the Greens can play a key role in both building the fightback and putting forward positive alternatives.   Come and join us....

June 21st Anti Austerity Demonstration

Join the Saturday 21st June Anti Austerity Demonstration and Festival organised by the People's Assembly:

http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/national_demo_21_june

Centenary of the First International Syndicalist Congress

100 years ago this week there took place in London the first International Syndicalist Congress, this came in part as an initiative of the Industrial Syndicalist Education League of Tom Mann, Guy Bowman and others who held a significant conference in Manchester three years earlier...It is interesting that on this anniversary weekend of an event that had so much promise, and that have might have led to great things had not the First World War intervened, the Unions in Britain are supporting a major demonstration in Manchester outside the Tory conference.  If workers wish to rebuild organisation and take the fight to the enemy in the era of zero hours contracts, exploitative agencies, workfare, poverty pay and food banks, they could do worse than look to the example of the industrial unionists and syndicalists of 100 years ago.  Reading facsimiles of Tom Mann's Industrial Syndicalist bulletin of that period, and the famous Tressell novel The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists that also grew out of early Twentieth Century social conditions the relevance to today is clear.

"The First International Syndicalist Congress was a meeting of European and Latin American syndicalist organizations at Holborn Town Hall in London from September 27 to October 2, 1913. Upon a proposal by the Dutch National Labor Secretariat (NAS) and the British Industrial Syndicalist Education League (ISEL), most European syndicalist groups, both trade unions and advocacy groups, agreed to congregate at a meeting in London. The only exception was the biggest syndicalist organization worldwide, the French General Confederation of Labor (CGT). Nevertheless, the congress was held with organizations from twelve countries participating. It was marked by heated debate and constant disagreements over both tactics and principles. Yet, it succeeded in creating the International Syndicalist Information Bureau as a vehicle of exchange and solidarity between the various organizations and the Bulletin international du mouvement syndicaliste as a means of communication. It would be viewed as a success by almost all who participated."

More here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_International_Syndicalist_Congress
and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Syndicalist_Education_League

The leading and growing advocates of radical Industrial Unionism in Britain today are the Industrial Workers Of The World  who will be represented on this Sunday's demonstration.  The current IWW pursue a strategy both inside and outside the existing TUC unions.

Support The People's Assembly

Unfortunately I cannot attend the People's Assembly Against Austerity on 22nd June due to family commitments, but would urge anyone who can get along to do so as this is an important opportunity to show that there are alternatives to the austerity drive and to network and build a stronger movement of resistance.

More from Owen Jones here

The Nottingham Assembly, which I went along to, was well attended and a good start locally.

The Welfare Cuts Tsunami Arrives

To the accompaniment of criticism from the churches, disability groups, charities, voluntary organisations, political parties outside the coalition and decent fair minded folk everywhere, the Government's welfare cuts regime is upon us - arriving at the same time as the implementation of the "NHS dismemberment legislation" and attacks on legal aid.

The welfare cuts include the hated bedroom tax which will face many low income families with the choice of going without or moving (perhaps away from friends, family, jobs, schools etc) into more expensive private sector accommodation (that will also raise rather than decrease the government's required expenditure - so will not succeed even on those terms, though perhaps one government aim is to further enrich their friends in the Rachmanite community).  There simply is not enough smaller property available in the Social Housing Sector to accommodate all those affected that are being expected to move. This will cause widespread hardship and anguish.

At the same time there is a 1% cap being put on increases in benefits which will reduce the income of poorer people in real terms.

This is not to be confused with the cap in overall benefits which is encountering problems in roll out through pilot areas but the government is still determined to bring in.

There is also the farming out of Council Tax Benefit payments to Councils with a cut in their funding which will lead to people who have never had to pay Council Tax before having to fork out large sums from limited and fixed or decreasing (see above!) incomes.

There is also the moving of many disabled people from DLA into the new PIP regime, again likely to cause disruption and potential hardship. (Not to mention the ongoing war on the disabled being conducted by ATOS and their ilk.)

Taken as a whole this is a wide ranging and multi-faceted, disgusting attack on the most vulnerable in our society and should be opposed - it is all the more sickening when coming from a government of Millionaires, most of whom have never had to suffer any kind of deprivation.

Councils must be encouraged to follow the lead of those Green, SNP and (few) Labour councils that have said that they will not evict tenants who fall into arrears as a result of the Bedroom Tax.  Local campaigns must be built to resist bailiffs and fight people's corners.  The hypocrisy of the well heeled,  expenses- claiming, generously pensioned, extravagantly paid and often multiple job holding political classes must be exposed.

The People's Assembly Against Austerity gives an opportunity for uniting much of the rising tide of opposition to the Coalition's policies and both the local and National events should be supported and built.

The local elections in May will give an early opportunity to show the Coalition parties the contempt that millions of ordinary people now hold them in.

Brighton and Hove Green Party Draw Welcome Red Lines

Encouraging news from Brighton, where the local Green Party have passed a number of resolutions to guide their councillors in ongoing negotiations with staff, including this one:


*The Brighton and Hove Green Party wishes to make clear that under no
circumstances whatsoever will it agree with or support dismissing and
rehiring staff, who on the advice of their union negotiators, reject new
pay and conditions unilaterally imposed on staff by the Council
management side. The party therefore asks the Green Group to make it
unequivocally clear to the CE and other officers leading the
negotiations on "Pay Modernisation" that both the activation and/or the
threat of the activation to dismiss/rehire is completely unacceptable,
and should this  nevertheless proceed the party will publicly dissociate
itself from such an action and will actively campaign against it.

This is in relation to the argument over the ongoing "revenue neutral" pay modernisation negotiations in Brighton which had the potential to be very difficult, as "Single Status" agreements have been for many Labour Councils and Labour linked unions around the country.

It is very important that local Green Parties maintain strict scrutiny and regular contact with their elected Councillors to guard against the temptations and incentives to "go native" in the Council chamber.  The Green Party in England And Wales has a very good policy platform, and now, following last conference, a good Philosophical Basis statement favouring social justice.  Members should not allow the desires of individuals to appear "pragmatic" or "reasonable" to establishment politicians and media to damage our public image as a party firmly on the side of workers and their families.

Eastleigh By-election

The Green Party in Eastleigh have decided not to stand a candidate in the forthcoming by-election brought about by the downfall of the disgraceful Chris Huhne.  The main reason is that the local Party need to concentrate on the forthcoming Council elections and do not have the funds to run in the crowded by-election field as well.

As this was a "safe" Lib Dem seat with a majority Lib Dem Council, where the main challengers are the Tories, it is safe to say we do not have a horse "likely to win" in this race.  The likely victors seem to be the Treacherous Quislings or their Dark Overlords!  However, the lack of a Green candidate and the lack of any pressure for "tactical" voting gives an opportunity to look at the other alternatives on offer.

The preferred alternative candidates of many former Green voters look likely to be either Dr Iain Maclennan of the National Health Action Party, (a former Green Party member and local election candidate)  Jim Duggan of the Peace Party (whose policies are very similar to the Greens), or Daz Procter of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) (who comes from the TU side of that coalition)

These candidates all offer a good opportunity for a meaningful protest vote highlighting the Coalition Government's continuing attacks on the NHS, their overseas warmongering and their horrendous attacks on working people, benefits and the welfare state in general.

As far as Labour is concerned, it is interesting that they are standing a comedian/humorist - one might say that they are joking if they think that people have forgotten the wars, the privatisations, and the craven crawling to corporations and banks that led us to having to suffer the current ghastly Coalition.  Truly, as far as this election is concerned, a plague on the houses of all three main parties.

Of course, the gutter media favourite contenders are UKIP.  The vote of this Party of climate change denying conspiracists, xenophobes and ill-informed bar room ranters continues to rise.  This is no coincidence.  The right-wing media barons and their attack dog commentators and journalists who are promoting them see UKIP as a useful tool to drag the Tories even further to the right.  Once this is achieved, I predict that UKIP will be very quickly cut down to size, with the right wing vote directed back home to Toryland.  The yellow press have ample dirt on Farage and co (not least the behaviour of their hypocritical MEPS) to bring them down to size when required. Consequently, expect the Thatcherite droolers to poll well, for now, in Eastleigh.  Politics - it's a dirty game.....

Mobilise Against Austerity - And For Peace!

The TUC have arranged a major UK anti-austerity demonstration for London on 20th October.  This is everyone's chance to make a stand against the Con-Dem Corporate Puppet Government and to stand with the people of Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy in their growing resistance to their own corporate puppet governments and the would-be Centralised Corporatist Empire of Europe.  It is abundantly clear that what the elites are about is removing every last one of the gains of European working people since 1945 - pensions, healthcare, workplace and union rights, free education - everything must go! The elite are about the task of creating a finance capitalist's wet dream world of cowed and impoverished workforces too busy struggling to survive to resist or organise,  workers who will be smashed with all the available force of the corporatist state (witness the behaviour of the Spanish State forces of late) if they dare to even complain politely.

And there is more - the storm clouds gathering over the Middle East could lead to horrors beyond imagining if the chain reaction of war is not able to be stopped by organised workers and the mobilised unemployed.  If the forces of opposition are in the field and mobilised it will be that much more difficult for the national ruling classes to rally their national populations, 1914 style, for the planned slaughter.  The lesson of 1914 must be learnt - there will be no excuse this time for not seeing what "rallying round the flag" will lead to.

Everyone who considers themselves an opponent of the current ruling class,  should be doing what they can to move people into action against the Cameron-Clegg Government and the forces they represent. I believe that as a generation we may be soon facing the most serious challenge since 1914 - with the possibility of even more catastrophic events than even the bloody slaughter of the First World War.  Being able to defeat, or at least challenge the current ruling class could well be a life and death matter.

The movement we must build across Europe and the world must have three key perspectives - an end to the power of the finance capitalists, the dismantling and defeat of the military-industrial complex
that is threatening and lobbying for war and a global recognition of the catastrophic climate change situation. 

The recent data on Arctic Sea Ice is truly frightening.  The prospect of runaway climate change, megadeaths and even species extinction becomes ever more realistic.  Equally, those who talk blithely about "surgical strikes", or war with Iran, and think that this could not spin out of control and plunge the whole world into slaughter are knowingly or unknowlingly gambling with all our futures.

All the available forces of humanity need to be mobilised to fight the disaster of climate change rather than be dragged into disastrous war.

Those who are planning for war, and those who are getting in the way of addressing the looming climate catastrophe must be recognised as potentially some of the most heinous criminals in the history of our planet.

It is easy to be cowed by the enormity of the challenges facing us.  It is still, just about, easy enough for many to hide in everyday life and its routines.  But the time is coming when "normal" everyday life will no longer be an option.  If we do not start to act now to halt the multiple threats that loom we may well find ourselves strapped to the runaway train as it heads for the collapsed bridge.

My thoughts and solidarity go out to all those taking up the challenge.  We truly have nothing to lose and a world to win.....

New Version of Green Left Website

Green Left  (The anticapitalist current in the Green Party of England and Wales) have an excellent new Website up and running that can be found here - Green Left
Meanwhile the elections are on for the leader and deputy leader of the Green Party with some very good candidates such as Peter, Romayne, Will, Richard and Alex.  Good luck to all of them.

Coalition of Resistance Spring Speaking Tour

Coalition of Resistance Spring tour this is from the Coalition of Resistance: It seems the government couldn't be happier right now. There's been a slow down in the pensions dispute and Miliband / Balls have declared that they won't reverse any spending cut or oppose a public sector pay freeze which has led to a hike in the polls for the Tories. However the massive anger from millions of people we saw last year has not gone away! The 500,000 that demonstrated on March 26th or the million plus that went on strike in November still want to see the back of this government. The unions who rejected the governments' offer over pensions are set to meet to discuss further action. Our job is to get the movement back on the streets. This is why Coalition of Resistance is planning a national speaking tour, to discuss these issues and to draw new layers of activists into the movement. The tour will run through February - March. We are currently working with a number of anti-cuts groups and Trades Councils to get more of these meetings set up across the country. Dates confirmed so far include: Birmingham with Owen Jones, Clare Solomon, George Barrett 7pm, Thursday 9 February Committee Rooms 3 and 4, Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B3 3BD Birmingham Banner Theatre – Fight the Cuts MC: Paul Mackney 7:30pm, Friday 10 February Library Theatre, Chamberlain Square, Birmingham Barking with Councilor George Barratt, Karena Johnson, Paul Mackney, Local speakers tba 7:30pm, Thursday 16 February, Broadway Theatre, Broadway, Barking, IG11 7LS Liverpool with James Meadway, Chaired by Romayne Phoenix, others tba 6:30pm, Friday 24 February Adelphi Hotel, Ranelagh Place Liverpool, Merseyside L3 5UL (Green Party Conference fringe meeting - open to all) Newcastle with Owen Jones, Lindsey German, Speaker from Greece 7pm Wednesday 14 March Newcastle Arts Centre (Black Swan) 67 Westgate Road. NE1 1SG Glasgow With Owen Jones, others tba 7pm, Thursday 15 March STUC Centre, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow, G3 6NG Please check the website for details of other meetings as they are announced. If you would like to organise one in your area please contact coalitionofresistance@mail.com.

Gove Must Go

A New Year's resolution of this blog is to seek to end the political career of one Michael Gove, the British Coalition Government's Education Secretary. Gove is well on his way to destroying education in England and Wales for the foreseeable future. He is breaking up the school system, wrecking and vandalising the school curriculum, has destroyed the careers service, is destroying any meaningful democratic oversight at local level and will not listen to anyone who points out the disaster his policies are creating. What is more, he is seen as one of the strongest assets of this evil government, is a Henry Jackson Society Neo-Con, a spawn of the Murdoch media empire, and is tipped by some as a future Tory leader. Ample reason for anyone with a progressive bone in their body to want to stop him in his tracks and end his ascent by any non-violent method possible. I hold him personally responsible for a number of job losses close to home. So to get things started : this was posted on the Guardian CIF site, lifted from the print edition of Private Eye:

A quote directly from the Private Eye, issue no 1304 pg 7. "Gove attracts tens of thousands of pounds in donations(more than any other cabinet minister) to fund his local party organisation in the super safe Surrey Heath constituency. His latest entry in the register of MPs interests includes £3000 from Dilman UK - the name of a village in Azerbaijan - does not have its own address and donated cash through a Surrey account. The company is owned by Mahmoud Zadeh, a member of the Anglo-Azerbaijani Society, a business lobby which promotes a trade links with the oil rich country, BP, Britains biggest investor in Azerbaijan backs this society.....the Eye asked Goves office about the doantion but received no response" So the question is, why does an Education Minister need to have links with an Oil trade links society? What is Mr Gove getting out of this, apart from £3000 Why is Mr Gove being so coy?

Another thing that needs to be widely known about is his behaviour in the expenses scandal, detailed on Wikipedia thus:

Michael Gove reportedly claimed £7,000 for furnishing a London property before 'flipping' his designated second home to a house in his constituency, a property for which he claimed around £13,000 to cover stamp duty. Around a third of the first £7,000 was spent at an interior design company owned by Gove's mother-in-law.[22] Gove also claimed for a cot mattress, despite children's items being banned under the Commons rule. Gove said he would repay the claim for the cot mattress, but maintained that his other claims were "below the acceptable threshold costs for furniture" and that the property flipping was necessary "to effectively discharge my parliamentary duties".[22] While he was moving between homes, he stayed at the Pennyhill Park Hotel and Spa, charging the taxpayer more than £500 per night's stay.

Any further dirt on Mr Gove or directions to online material that can be used against him are appreciated.

Occupy!

Breaking the silence of this blog (Silence due to many commitments including the local anti-cuts group, fighting to save jobs at work and battling against trolls, shills and apologists on many a discussion board)to give my full support to the Occupy Movement worldwide.

One of the most encouraging things about this upsurge is the challenge to the narrowness of the "accepted" political and economic discourse, by which we get the full range of views in the public arena from A to B and everyone with views from C to Z is either ignored, ridiculed or attacked as an "extremist".

Here are some useful links:

Occupy London

Occupy Wall St

Occupy Together website

Occupy Movement Wikipedia Page

Support your local Occupiers! Another World is Possible!

Green Progress

A good Green showing in local elections across the country and excellent Green Party progress in Norwich and Brighton in the face of sustained attack from both Labour and Conservatives and feeble rearguard action from the tarnished Lib Dems:

Norwich results


Brighton Results

A shame about the AV referendum , but with FPTP voting for the foreseeable future the Greens, especially in England, now carry much hope and responsibility as the untarnished left-of-centre alternative in areas where the Lib Dems are crumbling and Labour are vulnerable or unable to make headway. Join us!

Next Up - May Day!

May Day events around the country should be well attended this year - after the 26th March a good opportunity to take protest and a show of unity into local communities.