Weekly Links 22/02/2009

International
Internationally the political temperature continues to rise, particularly for the Sarkozy regime in France, in Ireland, where 100,000 took to the streets and the inspiring Waterford occupation continues, in Latvia where the government has just fallen, and around the world as governments and their finances begin to look increasingly wobbly.


British Politics
The PCS union is mobilising around the proposed Labour Governmnent Welfare "reforms", with a lobby planned for next week.

Also this week, the Independent revealed the sorry tale of the possible destination of large quantities of British toxic waste.

On his Euro election blog this week, Derek Wall reports on the nasty effects of some EU policies on peasants and workers in Colombia.

There was a good turnout of Greens from London area (with some good work in achieving this from Green Left and the Campaign Against Climate Change)at the Downing Street demo last week against Heathrow expansion.

Peace
More details came out this week on the potentially disastrous crash between British and French nuclear submarines in the Atlantic. BBC report here and CND commentary here.

Gender Politics
For readers in England I have received the following about forthcoming events in Wolverhampton for International Women's Week -

A unique opportunity to listen to two prominent women leaders will take place in Wolverhampton on 12th March 2009. Ludmila Ermakova: Director and founder of the Crisis Centre “Ekaterina”, Ekaterinburg, Russia and Mavluda Shirinova: Director and founder of the Socio-Economic Development Centre “SABR”, Samarkand, Uzbekistan will be presenting their work together for the first time. You will also have the opportunity to listen to a contribution from Natalia Sukhareva, Head of the Sverdlovsk Regional Guild of Lawyers and her colleague Marina Zakharova, who were the first women in Russia to develop a training programme on domestic violence for lawyers.

The presentations will provide an opportunity to discuss the development of services for women abroad as well as debate and bring women’s issues to the forefront. The presentation is organised by The Haven Wolverhampton which has worked in partnership with the above organisations for over a decade and helped to support their work with vulnerable women and children (read more on http://www.havenrefuge.org.uk/International/International.htm).

The presentation will take place on 12th March 2009, from 1.00pm-4.00pm at the Light House Media Centre, Fryer Street, Wolverhampton. The event is free and open to anyone who wishes to learn more about women’s organisations in post-Soviet society. The presentations will be in Russian and in English. Please hurry, as places are limited.

On the same day the Light House will be hosting The Women’s Fair (11am-4pm) organised by WOW, The Haven Wolverhampton, YWCA and V Involved. This is a free event entitled ‘What Women Want’ which will include information stands, workshops covering everything from self defence and confidence building to pampering sessions, a children’s area and a large number of stalls from local groups and organisations. Free snacks and drinks will be provided. What’s more, the night will be rounded off with an evening of comedy from some of the UK best comediennes, courtesy of the Light House.

The events will take place as part of the City celebrations for International Women’s Week 2009 which was supported and managed by Wolverhampton City Council. All International Women’s Week events taking place in Wolverhampton are included in a programme which has been published by Wolverhampton City Council.

Weekly Links 26/10/2008

Climate Change Campaigns
Preparation is well under way for this year's global Climate Change demonstrations in December. The London demo, organised by the Campaign Against Climate Change is scheduled for Saturday 6th December and will take the form of a march on Parliament. Before then there is a meeting on the topic of "Is the Government failing us on climate change?" (7pm, Thursday 16th November, Friends House, 173 Euston Road) to be addressed by George Monbiot, Bob Crow, Zac Goldsmith, Ann Pettifor and Phil Thornhill.
There is also going to be a climate conference in Cambridge at the end of January 2009, supported by the Cambridge Climate Coalition and Workers Climate Action, who have their national gathering planned for 15th/16th November.

Unions and Work
British Public Service Union Unison has moved to get a European investigation into the situation of workers and their rights in Colombia.

Peace Movement
Stop the War have a meeting scheduled for 3rd November, just before the US elections. More here.

Weekly Links 12/10/2008

British Politics
An article has been posted on UK Indymedia regarding the Government's new Green Paper which includes "workfare" proposals.

The Government has been exposed as completely misquoting a couple of researchers whose report they have used to justify the new workfare proposals in the Green Paper — “No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility”, where the report based on a study of the effect on the labour market in Australia of the introduction of a workfare scheme there actually found that as a result, the very long term unemployed in fact grew by 68%!

More here.

Green Politics
The UK's Green Party MEPs, Jean Lambert and Caroline Lucas have called on governments and the European Commission to legally recognise trade union green workplace representatives.

Jean Lambert, who sits on the Employment and Social Affairs Committee in the European Parliament said:

"Dedicated union green reps have the potential to raise awareness of environmental issues and help to change behaviour in the workplace. They would also help deliver significant environmental improvements through engagement between employers and the workforce that will help the UK shift to a low carbon economy.

"There is huge potential for trade union members to play a significant role as green representatives at work, but to perform their role effectively they need legal recognition and the right to undertake relevant training and duties."

Unions and Work
The following are action alerts from Labourstart -

SOUTH AFRICA: WOOLWORTHS ENGAGES IN UNION-BUSTING

South African unions have asked for our help to bring pressure on
Woolworths to recognize the right of their employees to join trade
unions. They say that Woolworths in engaging in Wal-Mart style
union-busting and are hopeful that a big global campaign can bring
pressure to bear on the company. Please send off your message today --
and spread the word:

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=435

COLOMBIA: STRIKING SUGAR CANE WORKERS NEED YOUR SUPPORT

Some 18,000 sugar workers have been on strike since 15 September. The government and employer response was to use police violence to clear the mills of striking workers. The IUF is requesting international support for their struggle. For full details, including the chance to send off your messages, go here:

http://www.iuf.org/den5409

Climate Change

This is the latest from the Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group in Britain, including dates of the next big demonstration in December and the CCCTU conference in March 2009:

As you can see, the date of the second CCCTU Conference is Saturday 7th March 2009 and it will be in London (possibly Kings College.) Please put this date in your diary and send it around your contacts so that we can try to ensure that other organisations don’t arrange anything else on that day.

We also discussed the National Climate March (which is part of the Global Day of Action on Climate, to coincide with the UN climate talks in Poznan) on 6th December 2008. It is of course very important that we get plenty of trade union contingents with banners on that march. Please try to ensure that your branch is represented, but also phone round others to ask them to do the same. Those of you who are members of UCU, PCS, CWU, FBU and Connect may be able to get assistance with transport to the march from your union since those unions are affiliated to the campaign nationally. For more details, and to download a leaflet, see: http://www.campaigncc.org/

Blogging
Sean Thompson of Green Left has written an appraisal and critique of the "Green New Deal" proposals which is posted at the Green Left blog here and at Socialist Unity blog here.

Molly at Gaian Economics has been commenting on the global financial situation as it developed this week. On the same subject, Andy C has linked to some of the humourous explanations of Bird and Fortune.

Finally, a plug here for GreenFeed which re-posts the postings of a whole spectrum of Brit Green blogs.

Ingrid Betancourt And Other Hostages Are Free

In a mercifully bloodless security forces operation Ingrid Betancourt and other hostages held by the FARC in Colombia were freed last night. Let us hope that this signals a new era in Colombian politics and that Ingrid (former Presidential candidate for the Green-aligned Party in Colombia) can be a voice for peace, justice and freedom in the days ahead. As the FARC wanes the emphasis must be on the release of all other hostages, cessation of terrorist actions and the cessation of the fascist terror against trade unionists and progressives in Colombia, (that along with the Cocaine trade has fed the cycle of violence and hatred). There must be no repeat of the previous ceasefires and "normalisations" where the fascists and elements of the secret state used the cessation of armed conflict and leftist engagement in the electoral process as an opportunity to massacre former guerillas or anyone unfortunate enough to be seen by them as being on the left.

There is a real opportunity for normal civil society and free trade union activity to resume in Colombia and for openness about the effect of the drugs industry on the society and ecomomy. The hope is that this opportunity will be seized. It will entail an accurate appraisal of the Uribe regime which has hitherto not been on the agenda of many Western regimes and their tame journos who have presented him and the regime as a liberal bulwark against narco-terror rather than something more complicated and dubious, with various connections to the rightist terror and narcotics industry that complete the bloody equation of Colombia today. The West could in theory force Uribe to be more like what he likes to be seen as rather than this dubious reality, but let us not raise false hopes. What is needed is global political pressure, and solidarity with the Colombian people who have had enough of the narcotics dealers and terrorists and their apologists, "left" and right. Whilst Uribe and the dubious Pinochet-esque elements that hide behind him may today revel in the reflected glory of the hostage release operation, and whilst Ingrid and her supporters may be extremely grateful for the action of the security forces that rescued her; a time is coming for a more realistic appraisal of the way forward in Colombia and a popular democratic approach that addresses many of the remaining issues that have driven conflict there.

When this new situation comes about leading elements of the regime may have less reason to be cheerful - let us hope that these elements do not act to sustain the conflict, and the FARC, in an attempt to avoid their own position becoming less secure.

More on the situation from Richard Gott here

Timeline here

Global Greens Resolution from May on Ingrid Betancourt here.
( "Ingrid Betancourt, delegate to the 1st Congress of the Global Greens in Canberra 2001, founder of the Green Party Oxigeno de Colombia, member of the Federation of the Green Parties of America, is nominated President of Honor of the Global Greens and of the Coordination of the Global Green parties.")