Save Sheffield's Street Trees

Demonstrate at Sheffield City Hall at 10am this Saturday, 7 April.

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/jarvis-cocker-to-speak-at-major-sheffield-tree-protest-rally-this-weekend-1-9096116

United Against Fracking National March & Rally - Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, Saturday 12th November, 11am

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

UK Fracking Battle About To Step Up A Notch

The battle against Fracking in Britain appears to be about to become more heated and urgent as the destroyer corporations target pilot areas for exploration and development.  Amongst these are
 North Yorkshire:

http://frack-off.org.uk/event/km8-fracking-d-day-demo-north-yorkshire-county-council/
 
and North Nottinghamshire:

http://frackfreenotts.org.uk/objections-to-misson-springs-exploration-application/

and further down the line - Sherwood Forest:

http://frackfreenotts.org.uk/sherwood-forest-threatened-by-fracking/

It seems like the Spirit of Robin Hood may be needed in the David against Goliath struggle to come.

Support Frack Free Lancashire

From 9am on Tuesday 23rd June, Lancashire County Council will be deciding on whether or not to approve two of the biggest fracking tests ever contemplated in the UK. If allowed to happen, each site would have 4 horizontal wells, producing tens of millions of gallons and radioactive and toxic waste and opening the door to thousands more wells to be drilled across Lancashire, and the rest of the UK. Preston Council have just recommended objection to the plans for Roseacre Wood.
Come down to County Hall, Preston, where Lancashire County council are due to decide on Cuadrilla’s fracking applications. Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire PR1 8RL


On the first day (and on subsequent days), concerned communities from around the UK will descend upon Lancashire County Hall in Preston for a peaceful show of solidarity and resistance. This is a huge deal that has implications for the entirety of the UK. It’s also a great chance to showcase the strength and solidarity of the of the UK anti-fracking movement by standing with the people of Lancashire!
Full Event Details Here!https://www.facebook.com/events/833975066650397/
Wear Yellow & Bring a Home Made Banner!
Register your Objection to Cuadrilla’s plans now!!!

Support the People's March For The NHS

Support The People's March for the NHS

The march leaves Jarrow on 16th August and Arrives in London on 6th September - more information here -
http://999callfornhs.org.uk/home/4583720355

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.

November 5th Blog

A new blog has been started to give links and info on the civil disobedience and protest being prepared for 5th November.

http://civildisobediencefifthnovember.blogspot.co.uk/

COMMUNIQUE

A communique from person or persons unknown.

COMMUNIQUE 1

THEY WILL NOT WITHDRAW FROM CUTS AND AUSTERITY UNTIL THE CONSEQUENCES OF CUTS AND AUSTERITY BOTH IN THE SHORT AND LONG TERM HURT THEM AS MUCH OR MORE THAN THEY HURT THE REST OF US WHO ARE THE WORST AFFECTED BY THEM.

THE AUSTERIANS ARE BEAN COUNTERS, CALCULATORS, PEOPLE WHO KNOW THE PRICE OF EVERYTHING AND THE VALUE OF NOTHING.  LET US BEGIN TO FORCE THEM TO ADD THE POTENTIAL COST OF CONTINUING ON THEIR CURRENT TRAJECTORY BEING AT LEAST SERIOUS DIFFICULTY, WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF THEIR TOTAL AND UTTER DEFEAT AND THE OVERTHROW OF THE CONDITIONS THAT EMPOWER THEM.  WE MUST CHANGE THE NATURE OF THEIR CALCULATIONS SO THAT THE ONLY QUESTION IS WHETHER THEY WILL ATTEMPT TO BUY TIME OR BE DESTROYED.

POWER YIELDS ONLY TO POWER.  THE POWER OF NUMBERS, OF THE MASS OF THE POPULATION IS GREATER THAN THE POWER OF NUMBERS ON BALANCE SHEETS AND IMAGINARY FORTUNES THAT CAN BE ERASED IN DAYS, MINUTES OR HOURS - BY MAN OR NATURE!

REMEMBER, REMEMBER, THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER..................

1 14 15 14

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.

Action For Rail Day of Action

Action on Wednesday 27th March :
Action for Rail campaigners will be meeting passengers at stations around the UK, to put the case against cutting vital staff roles at stations, on trains, and in maintenance and safety. Please join us at your local station on the day.

Its so important to get out there and let hard-pressed passengers know that we are there to speak up for an affordable, people-centred rail service that puts passengers before train company profits.
We will be handing out postcards to passengers, that they can send to their MP, demanding better services.

Find an event near you

In addition to this, there will also be strike action on Wednesday by workers employed by Churchills on the Arriva Trains Wales contract.

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.....

IWW Cleaners Strike at John Lewis

Inspriring stuff - the cleaners at the flagship John Lewis store in London have gone on strike for the London Living wage.

The cleaners, organised in a branch of the famous, historic international union, the IWW, are treated differently to all the other staff in the "mutual" retail chain and have the backing of many of the store workers, some of whom are also in the IWW.

The IWW continues to expand its organising efforts amongst exploited workforces in the UK, notably cleaners and catering workers and sectors where there is much precarity.

More from the Guardian including a short film - here

The British regional administration of the IWW is here - http://iww.org.uk/

The international and US IWW website is http://www.iww.org/en

Reinstate Alberto Durango!

Reistate Alberto Durango! On the February the 23rd there will be a important event at Heron Tower: http://www.doitforcharity.com/heron-tower-run-2012-69396.aspx And we as a trade unionists will be there to say "doitfortheunion" and Reinstate Alberto! Alberto Durango is the Industrial Workers of the World Cleaners and Allied Trades Branch Secretary He was sacked from his job at Heron Tower by the contractor Incentive FM Group Ltd. This was a raw act of victimisation of a leading union activist well known for campaigning to defend and improve the conditions of workers in the cleaning industry. In August 2011 the IWW gained a significant victory in securing the London Living Wage for the cleaners working at Heron Tower, and in defence of victimised staff. Ever since then, mangement has been seeking revenge against Alberto and the IWW. In November 2011, Alberto was suspended for using a service lift used daily by other staff. The same month IWW negotiated an agreement with the cleaning contractor LCC that there would be no compulsory redundancies and that any staff reductions would be by transfers to alternative posts. A new contractor has taken over at Heron Tower and has not recognised this agreement which continues under TUPE. Incentive has singled out Alberto for redundancy without any objective justification. The company Cushman & Wakefields, which manages Heron Tower, also manages Exchange Tower where the IWW has been campaigning for the London Living Wage. This company has taken an excessively aggressive stance against the IWW and our members, preventing leaflets from being distributed and threatening IWW members with investigations. The Industrial Workers of the World is based on the principle that an injury to one is an injury to all. We call on all workers to show their solidarity with the Cleaners Branch Secretary and demand the immediate reinstatement if Alberto Durango and no compulsory redundancies.

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!

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.

Demonstrate On 26 March

Day by day the "Coalition" look less and less like a democratic elected government and more and more like a slow motion corporate coup.....

We need to stop them.

Hands off our public services.

Hands off our jobs.

Hands off our pensions.

26 March - For a united resistance!

April 10th - We Won't Pay For Their Crisis!

There is a major demonstration scheduled for London on April 10th in the probable run up to the General Election - a general election where all 3 main pro-capitalist parties are signalling their intentions to make cuts in public services and welfare. The protest, originating in the National Pensioners Convention, is backed by all main unions, coaches are being organised by Trades Councils and union branches from most areas of Britain.
Assemble 12 noon for 1pm Temple Place, Embankment, London.
Rally in Trafalgar Square.
Lets show the politicians we are not going to pay for their incompetence and the bankers' gambling! Let us remind them that whoever is in power after the election, we are not going to let them reverse what remains of the gains made by working people in Britain since the Second World War.

The RMT's Bob Crow on the demo - here.

International day of action: solidarity with UBS cleaners

International day of action: solidarity with UBS cleaners
Friday, 19 March 2010
17:00 - 18:00
London demo starts at UBS, 100 Liverpool Street

Friday 19th March is the international day of action against UBS, demanding the reinstatement of sacked shop steward Alberto Durango and the reversal of cuts in cleaners' conditions by contractor Lancaster.

Protests are planned for the USA, Sweden, Switzerland and around the UK. There has been regular leafletting outside UBS offices, let's keep up the pressure and build solidarity with these exploited migrant workers.

The London protest will kick off from 5pm outside the UBS building at 100 Liverpool Street. Come, bring friends, bring stuff to make a noise, bring placards!