Greens Slam Government U-turn On Gay Civil Partnerships

Green Party slams government u-turn on Gay civil partnerships


The Green Party yesterday slammed the government's decision to lend its support to EU countries that do not offer gay civil partnerships, and questioned its commitment to LGBT rights after it back-tracked following pressure from the House of Lords.

Despite the UK 's own recognition of civil partnerships, the government made a submission to the European Court of Human Rights saying Austria should not have an obligation to provide the same rights to same sex couples. The opinion was submitted as part of a case brought by an Austrian couple who argued that Austria had violated their right to a private and family life, the right not to suffer discrimination, and the right to marry.

Green Party MEP for London , Jean Lambert, said:

"Across the EU and in the European Parliament we are pushing for the equal recognition of civil partnerships in all member states. However, it seems that the UK government voluntarily lent its support in this case to EU Member States who do not wish to allow the same rights to same sex couples as heterosexual couples.

"One would hope that a government supposedly committed to equal treatment would also promote the principle outside its own borders.

"This clearly displays the government's own confusion with what it hopes to achieve for LGBT human rights. Human rights are meant to be universal and indivisible, however, it would appear that the British government does not think so and is making it more difficult for those at the EU level who are arguing for the mutual recognition of civil partnerships and marriages."

http://www.lgbtgreens.org.uk/

Peter Tatchell To Speak After John Osborne Play In London

A Patriot for Me – by John Osborne

Followed by

The State of the Queer Nation - with Peter Tatchell

The New Players Theatre
Thursday 30 October 2008


7.30pm: A Patriot for Me – by John Osborne

10.30pm: Peter Tatchell Q and A on the play and on the unfinished battle for LGBT human rights.

Ticket price includes admission to both events.

In the post-performance Q and A, gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell discusses the issues raised in John Osborne's acclaimed play,
A Patriot for Me. He offers a perspective on the cultural changes since the play was written, and the still unequal status of LGBT people in contemporary Britain.

This new version of A Patriot For Me by John Osborne is directed by David Harris. It is set in the 1900s. Alfred Redl is an exemplary Austro-Hungarian soldier, working up through the ranks to Colonel whilst battling with his homosexuality. His struggle takes him on a riveting journey, through turbulent relationships, drag balls and espionage.

First performed in 1965, this play met huge opposition from the chief censor, the Lord Chamberlain, who only allowed it to be performed to membership club audiences. It went on to win The Evening Standard Best Play of The Year and crossed new boundaries in the representation of gay lives and loves.

Peter Tatchell praises the huge gains in equal rights for LGBT people over the last decade, but identifies key areas of discrimination that remain to be rectified. He is the Green Party's parliamentary candidate for Oxford East, began campaigning for queer freedom in 1969, aged 17. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, Sylvia Pankurst, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, he adapted their direct action methods and invented a few of his own.

The New Players Theatre
The Arches

Villiers Street

London

WC2N 6NG
www.newplayerstheatre.com

Box Office: 020 7478 0135
Tickets: £20, £15 (concs) & £12.50 for 10+

Peter Tatchell's website is here.

Weekly Links 21/09/2008

British Politics
It is the annual Party conference of the ruling Labour Party in Manchester this week - long term Labour MP and media personality Diane Abbott explains why she won't be going here.

John McDonnell MP reports on his hopes for the parallel Convention of the Left.

On the same site David Lowry has an article on the nuclear commitments of the Prime Minister.

Red Pepper have established a blog for the Convention of the Left.

Human Rights
Peter Tatchell has alerted us to several significant cases of human rights abuses in recent days. First he had an article in the New Statesman on the situation with Balochistan activists in Pakistan and the UK. Secondly he had an article on low caste Dalit people in India on the Guardian Comment pages. Finally he alerted us to an urgent action alert over the treatment of sexual minorities in Uganda.

Another Green activist has alerted us to the case of Annociate Nimpagaritse, who has been in danger of being deported to a very hazardous situation in Burundi.

On 29th September Mark Thomas has a Book Launch with Amnesty International of his new book, Belching Out The Devil - Global Adventures With Coca Cola.

Green Issues
Helpful news items from EUWID, a site that gives news for the recycling industry - a study has shown that recycling PET plastic bottles is much more environmentally friendly than incinerating them.

On the same site, news that the European recycling rate for paper and board has now hit 64.5%, on course for the 66% by 2010 target that the industry set itself. Good news for all those campaigning on these issues, but we need to keep up the work and pressure for higher rates of recycling in the UK.

Unions and Work
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) report for the UNI global union network on their action at the 2008 European Call Centre Awards Ceremony.

International
Greek ecosocialists (working within the broad left electoral coalition SYRIZA)have organized and now have an excellent website in several languages.

I have had the following solidarity request from the IWW International Solidarity Commission -

Dear friends and comrades,

For two week in late-April and early-May four members of the Industrial Workers of the World traveled to Haiti to meet with labor leaders and document the plight of the Haitian working class. During our trip we encountered a Haiti still reeling from food riots which had gripped it just weeks prior. We found the workers and organizers that we met with to be extremely competent and passionate, but almost completely immobilized by a severe lack of resources.

Now a new crisis grips the Haitian people in the form of over a thousand dead and one million out of a total population nine million people displaced as a result of the recent hurricanes which have battered the island.

Haiti's government struggles to respond to what can only be called a humanitarian disaster, but no longer has the infrastructure after years of brutally enforced hollowing out as a result of neo-liberal economic policies. With the shell of the government unable to respond, and profoundly corrupt and bloated NGOs unable deliver aid to where it is needed, the best hope for Haiti lies in the response of citizens and organizers who live and work in the country.

The Haitians themselves have the skills, the energy, and the organization to accomplish this task, what they lack is the resources.
We are making this urgent appeal for aid in order to help those we met in Haiti, who hosted us in their homes, who fed us when they were hungry, who showed us that they have the know-how and the energy, they just need the resources to get the job done. The International Solidarity Commission of the IWW has established a fund to help get money and aid to the people on the ground that need it most. Please send your donations to
*IWW Haiti Fund c/o General Headquarters
PO Box 23085,
Cincinnati OH 45223*
USA

Latest from Peter Tatchell

Two recent pieces from Green Party left campaigner and human rights activist Peter Tatchell have come to my attention. In the first he looks at the attacks of the Ahmadinejad regime on trade unions in Iran -

Iran's war on trade unions

President Ahmadinejad is intensifying the repression of labour activists. We should support them in their fight for basic rights.

By Peter Tatchell

The Guardian – Comment Is Free – 18 August 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/18/iran.middleeast

There is a petition on this subject on the Labourstart website that Peter links in his article.

Secondly this week Peter commented on the passing of the former Labour MP Leo Abse who spearheaded changes to the law on homosexuality in Britain in the 1960s -

Leo Abse – Appreciation and disappointment

London – 20 August 2008

"Leo Abse will be remembered by the gay community with a mixture of appreciation and disappointment," said gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.

He was commenting on the death of the former MP, Leo Abse, who helped secure the partial decriminalisation of male homosexuality in 1967.

"Although gay people felt huge relief following the passage of his
1967 gay law reform, we were also angry because his bill perpetuated the criminalisation of many aspects of gay life. It was not the liberation that many of us had wanted and expected," added Mr Tatchell.

"His homosexual law reform bill decriminalised sex between men, but only in narrow circumstances. It retained many discriminatory
provisions, such as the unequal age of consent of 21. These
inequalities were not finally repealed until 2003.

"The Homosexual Law Reform Society was often exasperated by Leo's expectation that it should lobby MPs to win support for his bill, while he ignored their concerns that his limited reform proposals maintained homophobic discrimination.

"Mr Abse could be quite arrogant and patronising towards gay people.
He had a sometimes dismissive, disapproving attitude towards the gay human rights movement; believing that law reform should be left to politicians like him and that gay organisations should play, at best, a marginal, backroom role," said Mr Tatchell.

Chris Moncrieff's Press Association obituary for Leo Abse on the Guardian website is here.

Weekly Links 09/08/2008

Climate Camp Links and Commentary
Jim at Daily (Maybe) has been monitoring developments at and around the Camp For Climate Action all week. Derek reported on an amusing miniature protest at Legoland.

War and Peace
Commentary on the Georgia-Russia conflict from Andy Newman at Socialist Unity Blog here, with "full and frank debate" in the comments section as is usual on SUB!

Reactionaries
A very amusing, but unfortunately only too accurate A-Z of (right-wing) message board commenting was published by Anton Vowl on Enemies of Reason blog this week.

Green Politics
Jim at Daily Maybe has been previewing the forthcoming Autumn Conference of the Green Party of England and Wales. An encouraging development this week was the formation of a Green Left grouping amongst Scottish Greens.

Human Rights
Green Left's blog this week publicised the work of the Green Party LGBT group on Home Office approaches to LGBT asylum claims in the light of several recent high profile cases.

Unions
The Green Party Trade Union blog this week publicised the repression against workers in South Korea by publishing an appeal from Eric Lee of Labourstart.

Fascist Attack in Huddersfield

An anti-fascist has been attacked by fascist thugs on her way to work in Huddersfield. Here is the statement from Kirklees Unity:

Kirklees Unity Statement:

On Friday morning a young female student was attacked on her way to work by three armed members of the far right. They pulled her to the ground, kicked her repeatedly in the ribs and slashed at her head with a knife. Whilst attacking her they called her “A Dirty red” and “Filthy lesbo”, the latter being a reference to the victims sexuality.

She suffered a fractured rib and severe bruising, but given the severity of the assault the injuries could have been far worse.

The attackers singled out this student because she campaigns on her campus to drive out the BNP. The victim is also a member of Unison and the NUS.

They knew her name and route to work, and deliberately targeted her to intimidate her and others campaigning against the far right.

The incident has been reported to West Yorkshire Police and they are currently investigating the attack.

More from Workers' Liberty here.

Weekly Links - 16/03/2008

Peace
Reports on the weekend peace demonstrations in London and Glasgow can be found here , here and here.
There was a good Green presence on the London demo in terms of numbers and propaganda.
More pictures from London here and here. Indymedia has a report of an incident involving a Police Forward Intelligence Team.

Human Rights
In light of recent cases, like the one I blogged on within the last fortnight, where LGBT people are being threatened with deportation from Britain to countries where they face persecution, or even execution, a petition has been started - http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Stopdeportinggay/

London Green MEP Jean Lambert has been speaking out over deportations to Iraq and also raised the case of Mehdi Kazemi who was threatened with deportation to Iran, in the European Parliament.

There was disturbing news this week of further violence and murder directed at trade unionists in Guatemala.

Pollution
Peter Tatchell, (who had a bit of a row this week with George Galloway over Galloway's comments about the Kazemi case) posted an interesting piece on Comment Is Free about pollution and the Beijing Olympics

Workplace Struggle and Climate Change
More has been posted on Notts Indymedia about the Nottingham Library uniforms dispute that I have mentioned before.

Workers' Climate Action this week alerted me to an interesting article from The Nation about US unions and climate change.

Space
On Space issues there is a piece this week on Cedar Lounge Revolution.

Activism
US IWW member and environmental activist Marie Mason has been detained after a raid on her home - more info on Indymedia here and here.

Urgent Action - Britain and Iran

A gay teenager from Iran, whose boyfriend was hanged for homosexuality in his own country is now being threatened by the British Government with deportation to almost certain persecution and probably death. More at the Independent here.

Peter Tatchell, of the gay rights campaign group Outrage, described the Government's policy as "outrageous and shameful". He said: "If Mehdi is sent back to Iran he will be at risk of execution because of his homosexuality. This is a flagrant violation of Britain's obligations under the refugee convention.

"It is just the latest example of the Government putting the aims of cutting asylum numbers before the merits of individual cases. The whole world knows that Iran hangs young, gay men and uses a particularly barbaric method of slow strangulation. In a bid to fulfil its target to cut asylum numbers the Government is prepared to send this young man to his possible death. It is a heartless, cruel mercenary anti-refugee policy."

More, including action that can be taken, from LGBT Greens here.

We urge everyone to contact the Home Secretary at smithjj@parliament.uk and 020 7035 4848 and to sign the online petition at www.ipetitions.com/petition/UKMADHI/

Peter Tatchell also posted on the Guardian Comment is Free site yesterday about the campaign to free jailed Iranian Trade Unionists, with plenty of links for further info and action. I did think Peter's condemnation of the "revolutionary" left for not being involved in this campaign was a bit "broad brush" - some groups have been, others haven't. By all means criticise the spinelessness of some elements of the left eager to appease dubious temporary allies, but we must try not to use the tactic we criticise in them of tarring everyone who shares similar politics with the same brush on a particular issue or campaign. Things are more complicated than that. That aside, well done to Peter for highlighting this important campaign.

Disestablishment and secularism needed more than ever!

An interesting article on the Guardian Comment is Free site today from Terry Sanderson, long time Gay Times columnist and elected President of the National Secular Society in 2006. Terry focuses on the recent off-the-cuff comments of the Bishop of Carlisle who let slip that the leaders of the church have been in a prolonged conversation with the government about the church taking over the running of a range of services :

Dow revealed that the government had, for more than two years, "been in conversation with church leaders about the possibility of the church providing extensive welfare services, rather in the way that the church plays a major part in education". Part of this, apparently, is a 20-year contract for "Christian groups bidding to deliver dentistry".

Not only does the bishop envisage the church taking over welfare provision with the use of public money, he doesn't want that provision to be regulated. "Church projects of course would be audited, but not controlled. My opinion is that, recently, we have been building a society that is very low on trust and very high on inspection and control," said his reverence.

But we've trusted churches before to carry "faith-based welfare" provision without regulation, and we got the Magdalen laundries.

Indeed!

It seems like it is high time that those who are serious about a tolerant and progressive secular society in Britain stepped up their support for the likes of the National Secular Society and others campaigning for the disestablishment of the Church of England and the complete separation of Church and state.

It seems clear to me that some in government and ruling class circles are intent on moving to a situation of modern corporate feudalism - where, as in the previous feudalism services are the preserve of the church and religious charities and absolute power lies with the modern barons - the banks, transnational corporations and their political and media puppets.

One does not have to be a rampant atheist to feel angry at the government conspiring to bring the church back into a position of power over people's lives, nor to believe that it is perfectly possible to have a good and moral society where religion has no official or specially protected status.

World AIDS Day 2007 - Peter Tatchell Protests Over HIV Prevention Funding Cuts

HIV funding for gay men slashed

One-third cut from London budget

Group at highest risk loses £650,000 in funding

No proper consultation, expert advice ignored



"NHS chiefs plan to slash funding for HIV prevention work among gay
men in London by 36% - a cut of more than £650,000," said gay human
rights campaigner Peter Tatchell of OutRage!

He was speaking ahead of World Aids Day, which is this Saturday, 1 December.

"If this cut goes ahead, it will mean that the NHS money allocated for HIV prevention work among gay men in London next year will be less than half the money invested in 1997," added Mr Tatchell.

"The London NHS is spending over 200 times more on HIV treatment than
on HIV prevention. This is a perverse, distorted health-care
prioritisation.

"Cutting finance for prevention work among the highest HIV risk group
is just plain ignorant. Prevention makes more sense, and is more cost
effective, than treatment.

"These proposed cuts have been announced without proper consultation
with gay and HIV organisations, and against the advice of expert HIV
agencies and professionals, such as the Terrence Higgins Trust and Gay Men Fighting Aids.

"London has a huge concentration of gay and bisexual men. One in 12
male Londoners have acknowledged having had a same-sex experience,
according to the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles
(1994). The real current figure is probably much higher.

"It is crazy to undermine life-saving health promotion work. This cut
is a short-sighted move that is likely to result in more HIV
infections, more illness and death and, given the high treatment
costs, more NHS expenditure in the long term.

"It is a short term budget gamble that is putting at risk the lives of gay Londoners.

"Gay and bisexual men remain the highest risk group for HIV in the UK, accounting for 80% of all domestically-acquired HIV infections.

"The rate of HIV infection in our community has risen by 20 per cent
in the past five years. The need for education and prevention work is
still very great.

"Condom use and safer sex messages are not reaching many men who have
sex with men, especially teenagers and members of minority race and
faith communities.

"There is an obvious and urgent need for more and better HIV
prevention campaigns for gay men, rather than these penny-pinching
cutbacks.

"Yet again the Labour government reveals its Jekyll and Hyde attitude
to the gay community. One minute they are repealing homophobic laws.
The next minute they are undermining life-saving HIV prevention
programmes.

"I urge people to write letters of protest to the Health Minister,
Alan Johnson MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA," said Mr Tatchell.

Weekly Links - 26/11/07

I have delayed these links from yesterday due to the Australian election post.

Green Party of England & Wales
First of all this week the Green Party of England and Wales Referendum on leadership models enters its final stage this week. The Guardian give their take on it here, whilst Red Pepper have a debate between Shahrar Ali and Rupert Read and a poll on the subject.

Speaking of Red Pepper they currently are also carrying stories on the IWCA in Oxford and the Respect situation.

Biofuels
Biofuels are currently a hot topic on the Ecosocialist International Network E-list and tomorrow sees a demonstration at a Biofuel Finance and Investment Meeting in London. More details here.
I noticed on that leaflet a link to this blog of radical cartoons that is worth a look - http://www.throbgoblins.blogspot.com/

A National Day of Local Actions on Biofuels is scheduled for Saturday 26th January 2008. More info on Biofuels at Biofuelwatch.

Rank and File Organisation
I came across this Rank and File UK Building Workers blog this week.

West Papua
On Friday this week there is a demo and film showing on West Papua in London. More info here.

HIV
Finally this week, the weekend sees the 20th World Aids Day on December 1st. This year is also the 25th anniversary of the Terrence Higgins Trust, the organisation named after one of the early victims of the disease. More from the Green LGBT group here.

A Weekend Of Decisive Events?

A weekend of decisive events looms for Britain. However, most of them are interesting in that they seem all important to the participants, but less important to those outside their circles.

Firstly the football - Scotland take on Italy, which will probably decide whether they go any further in the Euro 2008 competition, whilst the match between Israel and Russia could well seal the fate of England, denying them qualification or giving them a faint glimmer of hope in the lead up to their match against Croatia. For their part, England have the minor distraction of a friendly game against Austria tonight. Meanwhile Northern Ireland take on Denmark and Wales play the Republic. The press guillotine awaits Mr McClaren if the result in Tel Aviv is not favourable.

Turning to matters less sporting, this weekend sees the dramatic climax of the veritable split in Respect, The Unity Coalition. Saturday will see rival conferences of the SWP dominated John Rees-led Respect at Westminster University and George Galloway, Salma Yaqoob et al's Respect Renewal nearby at the Bishopsgate Institute. Green Party Male Principal Speaker and Green Left member Derek Wall has been invited to speak at the Renewal event and was also seeking to speak at the other conference. Derek would be going to stress the importance of working together on key issues like electoral reform, the war and climate change and in support of a no compromise approach on the rights of women and the LGBT community. The Greens remain open to working together with the rest of the left on all the key issues.

Also this weekend, the battered fragments of the Labour Left are brought together at the Conway Hall under the banner of the Labour Representation Committee. Again, it was encouraging to see the latest articles of John McDonnell and others speaking about the importance of building a broad extra-parliamentary left coalition on the key issues of our time.

In my humble opinion, the Left in Britain must focus on the important issues and unity in action in workplaces and communities (including building workplace organisation) - and meaningful, coherent, political organisation will develop from this, not the other way around.

Homophobia and Repression in Moscow

Protesters for LGBT rights in Moscow at the weekend were set upon by neo-nazi, fascist and Orthodox attackers and then arrested in a blatant show of bigoted bias by the Moscow Police. The Russian equality campaigners were being supported by campaigners and elected representatives from Western Europe including fellow Green Party of England and Wales Green Left activist and PPC for Oxford East Peter Tatchell. Peter was assaulted and then he was taken away by police. German Green MEP Volker Beck and Italian Radical MEP Marco Cappato were also detained. The Right Said Fred singer Richard Fairbrass was also attacked. Some of the far right thugs were only detained by police when it was clear that the journalists present had filmed their actions and were filming the lack of Police response.

British Media reports from the Guardian, the BBC and the Independent.

Green MEP Caroline Lucas spoke out earlier in the week about the continued repression against LGBT communities in Russia and Lithuania.

Peter's Guardian Comment is Free article from 25th May, on the situation in Eastern Europe is here.

It is clear that the danger of authoritarianism and bigotry is still very real in Russia, and those fighting it must be supported. Also a look at the comments section of even liberal newspaper articles on LGBT issues shows that homophobia and discrimination are still very much alive in Western Europe too, if less publicly confident.
The struggle continues!