The difficulty of activism

For myself activism is a challenge constantly. I am not part of any political party or organisation of any sort but this shouldn’t exclude me and doesn’t but getting into activism is not easy. Ever since I’ve left the socialist party due to bullying and other such nastiness I’ve found myself re-examining my politics and where I go next. I have not changed my political ideas on the whole I still am a socialist and want to see a fairer society based on needs not profits. But I have not been on a protest or a picket line for a good while now for many reasons. Political parties are not for everyone and I have found myself moving more away from a formal top down leadership which many left parties use with a small group of leading figures making and calling the shots while the rest follow orders and the party line. I am someone who likes to think for myself and always have done and this I found became increasingly incompatible with a political party but I would still love a place to discussant develop my ideas. I have not found anything to replace this yet, if I ever will. Confidence for one. Since leaving a political party I have felt a little isolated and links to networks of activists is limited. Also due to being visually impaired there is a natural difficulty of reaching places and groups of people unless I had a really good friend. So as a result I am limited to online things including this very blog and my social media activity. I follow Novara fm every week which is an excellent radio show discussing radical politics and the world we live in today. I do however still challenge racism and other such discriminations wherein an and do still speak up for others who are suffering from the cuts and the austerity package raining down on many today. I see many people struggling around me and even in my town a Tory town in Hertfordshire called Ware has its own food bank which serves 200 odd people every week which is substantial even for there. There is much that I can still do don’t get me wrong but mainstream activism of attending meeting after meeting and going on every protest is just not easy for me and to be honest I do not feel that many of these events are made accessible for those with disabilities and other such difficulties. I think as a labour movement it is still very much a hallmark of the white male and I still do not see equality and a wide range of different people. This needs to change and I believe will change. For many the labourmovemnt is irrelevant and just does not speak for them and I can fully understand this this must change as I say. Likewise our language and our behaviour of becoming an open, welcoming and fair place for all to enter and participate in. My difficulties are one thing but others who are more capable to protest, stand up and fight back gains the cuts are amazing in my view and I have a lot of respect for them. I do what I can and others have criticised me for just sitting on facebook and discussing stuff but this is one way of getting the message out there and if others put themselves in my position they too would find things a challenge to make any real impact with their activism. I do think we need to be more understanding about others who have a passion to help out and get involved but feel unable to for a multitude of reasons. It is not good enough to just say oh well you can do what you can we need to be saying how can we involve more people from more backgrounds to get involved and support them in what they wish to do to help. Activism at the end of the day is not everything there are lotsof ways to be involved and contribute to a better society be that helping at your local food bank or offering support and ideas to a movement and a campaign. I do think we see activism in a very one dimensional way and we do need to broaden out our understanding to involve more of us to boost our own ideas. Lots of people’s talents and skills are being missed out on due to a movement largely white and male who marginalise others who are not like them and this is a toxic mix of disenfranchisement and apathy of totally giving up on any form of political thought or activism of any variety. We can do better, I can do better don’t get me wrong but we also must help each other out to embrace our differences and challenges and involve more of us all. Organising is not easy at all and is a lot of bloody hard work. There can be no shortcuts to changing society to benefit all but including all who wish to change is something we must start to do now not after the revolution .

This week: take action to stop workfare and sanctions

The Week of Action Against Workfare and Sanctions begins tomorrow (Monday December 2nd) with a noise protest outside the annual welfare-to-work conference. There will be online actions everyday, announced on the Boycott Workfare website (and probably here a bit later). Tomorrow will see online action aimed at the ERSA conference where delegates will be tweeting using the hashtag #ERSA2013 – more details are to come on how to challenge the poverty profiteering conference online. Please help spread the word and share, tweet and blog details of all events both on and offline! Here’s the list of what’s taking place so far via Boycott Workfare: Things are very wrong: each month 70,000 people face hunger and hardship due to benefit stoppages – ‘sanctions’. Millions of hours of work which should be paid are being replaced by workfare. But we’re taking action and having an impact. This week, from 2-8 December, join thousands of others across the UK to push back against sanctions and workfare – with action online and on your high street. Here’s the latest list of actions planned across the UK. Let us know if you’re planning something too and check back here Monday-Friday to take online action every day. Edinburgh: flyering all week and a demo on Saturday 7th Cardiff: Wednesday 4 December at 6:30pm, Marks and Spencer – 72/76 Queen Street, Cardiff London: • Noise Demo at workfare industry conference at the University of London, 12.30pm 2nd Decemeber • Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group demo at Hammersmith Job Centre against the introduction of Universal Credit. Meet 11am on Wednesday 4th December at Hammersmith Job Centre, Glenn House, 22 Glenthorne Road, W6 0PP • M&S picket, Islington – Sunday 8th December 1pm outside Holloway Road M&S • M&S picket, Wood Green – Sunday 8th December 2pm outside Wood Green High Road M&S (Nearest tube: Turnpike Lane) Reading: Saturday 7th 4pm at Reading town centre. Planning meeting for the action on Tuesday at 7pm. Please sign/share/tweet the petition calling for all benefit sanctions to be scrapped without exceptions: http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/benefit-sanctions-must-be-stopped-without-exceptions-in-uk?bucket&time=1385073159

solidarity with disabled people protesting at the BBC today

Disabled activists from grassroots campaigns Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Black Triangle and Mental Health Resistance Network have occupied the BBC building in London to protest against the role the media are playing in worsening attitudes towards disabled people and a complete failure to give space to the realities of what this government are doing to disabled people. Ironically just last week the BBC reported on a research report by Scope which highlighted how things have got worse for disabled people since the Paralympics, but the BBC themselves have contributed to this situation by a lack of balanced or accurate reporting. In fact their coverage of the research angered disabled people by spectacularly failing to draw any links between the worsening conditions disabled people are facing and government policy. Despite the fact that Iain Duncan Smith has been pulled up before the Work and Pensions Select Committee for misrepresentation and manipulation of figures and statistics, the BBC continues to report information released by the DWP as fact. This resulted in a situation over Easter weekend where disabled people, about to face an austerity armageddon with benefits and income essential for their survival brutally slashed away, also had to contend with national media coverage that encouraged a view of us as benefit scroungers and cheats. It has since been proven that information released by the DWP ahead of the changes in April such as the figures for all of those who had supposedly stopped ineligible claims for incapacity benefit due to the tightening up of the benefit system, were misrepresentations with no basis in evidence. Just the smallest amount of research would have revealed to the BBC that they were about to report lies as objective fact. In addition to the misrepresented figures and statistics which the BBC promoted, further weight was given to the government’s propaganda by the succession of government ministers who were then given air time to continue to peddle their falsheoods. Where people were invited on to present an alternative view, they were non-disabled people from national charities. Firstly these people do not represent us, and secondly there are many more informed disabled campaigners who could have exposed the lies and misrepresentations. Time and again the government and front bench Ministers have lied to justify policies which are causing the deaths of disabled people. Only last week the Disability News Service has had to raise formal complaints against the DWP press office for deliberately presenting false information about the level of spending on disability in the UK. Meanwhile the situation in the UK has gained international notoriety. The UN are currently in the UK to investigate and report on what the UK is doing through its housing policies. Solidarity protests outside the British Embassy have been organised by supporters in Canada. Yet time and again the BBC have not only failed to report on what is happening but to contribute to public ignorance of what is going and to inflame hostility with questions such as “Why can’t disabled people take their fair share?” It is well evidenced that disabled people are bearing the brunt of austerity measures with those with the highest level of support need being hit nineteen times harder than the average citizen. To even put the question why can’t we take our fair share is damaging and in contempt of disabled people’s basic rights to be treated with respect and free from hostility. For more information please contact Rosa Wilkinson on 07505144371. Notes for editors: 1) Disabled People Against Cuts was set up in October 2010 to oppose the government attacks on disabled people. Our week of action last year highlighted the hypocrisy of Atos’ sponsorship of the Paralympic Games and culminated in a protest of 700 people outside Atos headquarters and the occupation of the DWP building by disabled activists and a guide dog for 2 1/2 hours. We are now in the middle of our week of action for 2013: Reclaiming Our Futures, which is focused on the wide range of attacks that are pushing back disabled people’s rights be decades. 2) DPAC report on DWP abuse of statistics: http://www.scribd.com/doc/149776210/DPAC-Report-on-DWP-Abuse-of-Statistics-Final-22-June-2013 3) http://disabilitynewsservice.com/2013/08/ministers-silent-after-being-caught-pulling-lies-out-of-thin-air/ 4) Campaign for a Fair Society: how the cuts are targeting disabled people revealed the extent to which austerity is disproportionately impacting on disabled people with thanks to DPAC for the press release

G8 Summit, no to austerity, for a socialist alternative

www.socialistworld.net, 17/06/2013 website of the committee for a workers' international, CWI End the rule of big business, poverty and war Article courtesy of comrade Niall Mulholland, CWI The leaders of the most powerful nations in the world will soon descend on Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, for the 17-18 June G8 Summit. We can expect much empty rhetoric from David Cameron, Barack Obama and other world leaders about how Northern Ireland is a model for ’peace, stability and growing prosperity’, which the G8 wishes to emulate on an international level. Nothing could be further from the truth. Northern Ireland has some of the highest rates of poverty and joblessness on these islands and society remains divided along sectarian lines. The huge security operation surrounding the summit is like the worst of the ’Troubles’. Thousands of armed police and military equipment will flood Fermanagh. These repressive measures are an attempt to intimidate workers and young people from protesting against the G8’s policies. And there is a lot to protest! The G8 heads of state lead the way in making the working class pay for the crisis of their capitalist system. Austerity policies have caused Depression-era conditions in Greece, which will soon be repeated in Cyprus. Mass unemployment stalks the EU, officially at nearly 20%. Youth joblessness in Spain is over 60% and around 80% in Greece. The G8’s austerity policies are not working. Most of Europe is in deep recession or facing economic stagnation. The US has feeble growth but also falling wages and rising social inequality. The G8 represents the opposite of ’prosperity, peace and stability’. Under the capitalist profit system, almost half of the world’s population struggles to live on less than $2.5 a day. The G8 represents the super-rich 1%. The ’great philanthropist’ Bill Gates, of Microsoft, has total wealth estimated at $66 billion, which is enough to end world poverty and still leave him with change. One of the G8’s stated purposes is to "save" African people from starvation - by corporate land grabs and control of the continent’s markets! The G8 also represents a system that causes war and environmental destruction. Since the economic crisis began, a staggering $1.75 trillion was spent by world powers on the highly lucrative arms industry. Working class The current Turkish uprising, which started in Taksim Square, is encouraging anti-G8 protesters in Belfast and Fermanagh, despite the security clampdown. The magnificent movement in Turkey has the potential to bring together working people across ethnic and national divisions, linking up with the organised working class, to become an unstoppable force to change society. The ’G8 Not Welcome’ campaign, initiated by the Socialist Party in Northern Ireland, will hold a demonstration in Enniskillen on 17 June, the first day of the Summit. This protest, with trade union backing, will bring together Catholic and Protestant youth, socialists, trade unionists and others. But marching together is not enough. A workers’ alternative to the G8 and pro-big business parties is needed in Northern Ireland, Britain and everywhere. The Socialist Party in Northern Ireland, like the Socialist Party in England and Wales, is an affiliate to the CWI. It calls for mass opposition to G8 policies and the local sectarian-based parties and their cuts. The CWI campaigns for jobs, homes, a living wage and decent benefits. It fights for socialism - democratic public ownership and planning of the major industries and banks which would unleash colossal wealth and resources for the benefit of the ’99%’ - to end the rule of big business, poverty and war.

Solidarity with Turkish protesters facing brutal police oppression

• ter Beaumont in Istanbul • The Observer, Su Thousands of people took to the streets of Istanbul overnight on Sunday, erecting barricades and starting bonfires, after riot police used teargas and water cannons to clear the protest camp at the centre of Turkey's anti-government unrest. In a night of chaotic violence large areas of the city around the now symbolic area of Gezi Park were engulfed in plumes of tear gas, while protesters opposed to the government of Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan attempted to push back to the city's central Taksim Square. The continuing protest through the night, and calls for fresh demonstrations at 4pm on Sunday suggested that despite the clearing of the encampment in the park, Turkey's crisis was far from over. In the immediate aftermath of the police operation trade unionists called for a national strike on Monday. Which internationalists and socialists around the globe should support in anyway they can. Underlining how deeply personal the issue has become for Erdogan, a spokesman for his AKP party blamed the protesters for allegedly reneging on a deal with Erdogan thrashed out two nights before. "A country's prime minister meets you for 10 hours, you reach an agreement then say something else behind his back," Huseyin Çelik said in a TV interview defending the assault. "Wouldn't you feel cheated?" he told the private broadcaster Habertürk. The lightning evening assault on the park and nearby square followed a warning from Erdogan that protesters should quit Gezi Park or be removed by security forces ahead of a rally of his supporters in Istanbul on Sunday. Protesters took to the streets in several neighbourhoods across Istanbul following the raid on Gezi Park, ripping up metal fences, paving stones and advertising hoardings to build barricades and lighting bonfires of rubbish in the streets. During the raid police fired tear gas against the volunteer doctors manning a clinic in the park who have been working anonymously for fear of losing their jobs. In the early hours of the morning groups of demonstrators blocked a main highway to Ataturk airport on the western edge of the city, while to the east, police fired tear gas to block protesters attempting to cross the main bridge crossing the Bosphorus waterway towards Taksim. Thousands more rallied in the working-class Gazi neighbourhood, which saw heavy clashes with police in the 1990s, while protesters also gathered in Ankara around the central Kugulu Park, including opposition MPs who sat in the streets in an effort to prevent the police firing teargas. In the last 18 days Gezi Park, with its tented encampment occupied by an umbrella of groups including football fans, nationalists, environmental campaigners, Kurds and young Turks from many walks of lives, had come to represent a new spirit of social resistance to what many fear is the increasingly authoritarian style of Erdogan and his moderate Islamist AKP. Erdogan had delivered his warning at a rally of tens of thousands of AKP supporters in Ankara, the national capital, promising that Taksim Square would be cleared by Sunday in time for a second rally there. "We have our Istanbul rally tomorrow," Erdogan warned. "I say it clearly: Taksim Square must be evacuated, otherwise this country's security forces know how to evacuate it." Barely two hours later white-helmeted riot police assaulted Gezi Park shortly after a concert attended by protesters and tourists drew to a close. Protesters had vowed earlier to continue with their occupation, although they had promised to remove barricades and reduce the number of tents in the park. Police had given 15 minutes' notice to clear the park and the adjoining Taksim Square before storming the protest camp. Police warned protesters: "This is an illegal act, this is our last warning to you – evacuate." The speed of the move to seize the square and park caught protesters by surprise. They were quickly scattered by teargas canisters and rubber bullets. Within 20 minutes a bulldozer had moved in to demolish structures and tents that had been used by the anti-government movement. A little later police and municipal workers could be seen tearing down fences around the park and removing tents. Children and tourists were among those caught up in the assault, amid reports of many injuries. But despite quickly taking control of the park, running battles between police and thousands of protesters, driven back into the warren of side streets beside the square, carried on for hours afterwards. At one stage a bearded middle-aged man draped himself over the plough of one of the water cannons to try to prevent it moving forwards before he was beaten back by batons and gas. Protesters sought refuge in hotels and cafes, including hundreds in the Divan hotel, which was stormed by police. Later police stormed the hotel beating protesters, while a later assault left the lobby of the luxury hotel thick with gas. The Guardian saw two elderly women who had passed out being carried out on stretchers to an ambulance. Earlier riot police had stormed into the lobby, beating those inside. Many had been expecting a final move to clear the park after Erdogan's speech. But none had anticipated the action would begin so quickly. Tayfun Kahraman, a member of Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella group of protest movements, said an unknown number of people in the park had been injured, some by rubber bullets. A leading public-sector union alliance, KESK, said it would call a national strike for Monday. NUT executive and Socialist party member Martin Powell-Davies was part of a British trade union delegation that had approached the fringes of the square as police moved in. He said: "There was a concert by a well-known musician with hundreds of people and families in a festival atmosphere in the square and then suddenly from all sides the police came with water cannons and teargas." He struggled to speak as he choked on teargas and protesters regrouped to chant anti-government slogans. He said: "There are hundreds of Istanbul residents who have come out on to the streets to show their opposition. They are banging the shutters in protest at the sides of the streets." The assault followed Erdogan's defiant message delivered in a suburb of Ankara, depicting those on the streets as "traitors playing a game", "looters" or part of a conspiracy against the government. "Anyone who wants to hear the national will, should come and listen to [Ankara]," Erdogan said. "We are not like those who took molotov cocktails, or honked their car horns. I tell you it's a crime to violate order." He insisted, once again, that he and the AKP had a clear mandate to govern. Oguz Kaan Salici, Istanbul president of the main opposition People's Republican Party, said: "The police brutality aims at clearing the streets of Istanbul to make way for Erdogan's meeting tomorrow. Yet it will backfire. People feel betrayed." Solidarity with all there on the ground I’m following this very carefully indeed. References Sunday Observer http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/15/turkey-police-clear-gezi-park?guni=Keyword:news-grid

Spain, property bubble explosion and the aftermath

I watched a BBC documentary this week by Paul Mason one of the BBC’s better political correspondents on Newsnight this week. The show took you right from when Spain had its first democratic elections after the fall of Franco right up to the present day post 2008 housing crash where all of Spain’s huge property bubble went through the floor in a spectacular way. Spain was rocked to its very foundations when the sub prime mortgage effect of property in Spain crashing and huge debts were mounted up when people simply could not pay back the interest let alone the re payments. Thousands upon thousands of workers in the construction industry were thrown out of work into poverty those who had stable jobs earning a decent wage in construction found themselves right up against it and now Spain unemployment stands at 25 % and a lot higher for young people who have felt this harder than most. The biggest crisis in Spain is currently the housing crisis where forced evictions are occurring regularly. I wonder myself if our comrades in Spain could take a leaf out of our American comrades who used the occupy movement to defend families being forced out of their homes by big banks. In recent weeks Amaia Barakaldo Egaña climbed onto a chair and jumped from the fourth floor of her building. This was the second high-profile death related to mortgage foreclosure in only a few weeks. The outstanding debt default which led to the eviction was less than € 214,000. José Miguel Domingo, 53, was found dead in the courtyard of his home in the neighbourhood of Chana in the city of Granada. Joseph had a loan for 240,000 euros. A man also jumped from a balcony in Valencia before being evicted. He was hospitalized with serious injuries. They are the last three known cases of a social drama that is taking place in the Spanish state, a graphic reflection of the barbarism of the system and the crisis of capitalism. Every day of the first half of this year (2012) 500 evictions were executed in the Spanish state, a social drama that overflowed into a people’s revolt with the second suicide in 15 days. These tragic cases have caused widespread shock and anger. In Madrid, about 50 people threatened with eviction for non-payment of their mortgages were sleeping rough in a camp in front of the main branch of Bankia in Celenque Square, near the Puerta del Sol One of these protestors said: "People are extremely angry over the issue of evictions" In Barakaldo where Egaña Amaia lived thousands, 8,000 according to organizers, marched directly following her death, under the slogan "No to unemployment. No to evictions. Yes to Social protection.” During the march, protesters chanted slogans against the banks and financial institutions daubed "murderers" on their windows. Paint cans were thrown at the bank ‘La Caixa’ where Amaia had her mortgage. The demonstrators chanted slogans: "Not a suicide, a homicide," "They have the money; we have the dead", "No eviction without response" or "Stop financial terrorism". The public reaction has shaken both the PP and PSOE and they have been forced to be seen to be ‘doing something’ about the issue, entering emergency negotiations to agree on a “humanitarian” bill to stop executions in very limited extreme circumstances. It was the pressure from social movements and the street that has obliged them. PSOE particularly must be condemned particularly for its opportunism. During last PSOE government issue was repeatedly raised IU / ICV and measures were put forward to end the drama of evictions. These measures were repeatedly rejected by PP and PSOE. The Police Trade Union (SUP), adopted a semi-revolutionary decision in response to the movement. They said they would legally support agents who find themselves unable to execute evictions. It also requested that the Government take measures to stop the evictions. Other police unions branded the eviction orders as "barbaric" and "very difficult to implement." The Basque Police union, Erne, also said that the organization will support and provide legal defence to members who refuse to participate in evictions. Judges also denounced usury, unjust enrichment and abuse by banks. A judge said: "Judges are not the mere appliers of the letter of the law." The reactions of the police and the judges in the face of the protests are very significant. The PP policy of cuts and attacks on living standards of workers is reaping a whirlwind of opposition. These cracks are the first to be seen in the state machinery. Clearly many in the police and judiciary have no desire to continue with the policies of the PP and its consequences. The TV channel La Sexta has shown images of police actions in which they resemble an occupation army. They are seen going from house to house throwing families out of their homes. The feeling of great injustice is a very bitter taste in the mouths of millions in Spain. Even the Queen daytime television presenters, Ana Rosa Quintana, dared to call for civil disobedience! Because of this social pressure, in Euskadi, Kutxa and Caja Laboral had to immediately suspend all evictions, even before the PP government announced their measures. Although clearly insufficient, the temporary measures that the PP government have announced can be considered a victory since they would never have been implemented without pressure from below. The anti-evictions movement also shows that a sustained and determined movement can force the government to back down. However, the fight should not stop here. The conditions of the two year moratorium are very restrictive and the problem is far from solved. The consequences of evictions and the opposition will continue. Mortgage law and the law of civil procedure will be untouched. People who are evicted in Spain face abusive default interest charges and court costs. As well as losing their homes they also have to keep paying the mortgage even though the bank can sell their property! The PP Economic minister, Luis de Guindos claims that people have to rely on the Banking Code and the willingness of the banks to follow ‘good practice.’ Some hope! There is one law for the working class and another for bankers and big business. Since 2008 bankers and politicians have ruined building societies and banks yet have received multi-million euro payoffs while in the same time period half a million working class families have lost their homes in Spain. Perhaps the saddest aspect of Amaia case was that she was a PSOE member along with her husband and a former councillor. A party with ’Socialist’ in its name should offer a vision of the future and have a programme to fight the injustices of capitalism. However, these tasks are on the shoulders the left real. Our challenge is to completely stop ALL EVICTIONS and nationalise the banks and use their enormous wealth and empty housing stock to ensure the right to adequate housing through social rents for all workers and their families. Second part of this post taken from www.socialistworld.net the homepage for the Committee for workers international CWI

International disabilities day but we are going back not forward

Today is international disability day, whatever that means in the capitalist form of the term. Many today have been highlighting the disgraceful treatment of disabled people at the hands of this system and the Tories who look to manage it. In many ways the disabled are the hardest hit with cuts attacking them disproportionally than others. With DLA being phased out and the introduction of the Universal credit to come in next year many people are disgusted with the attacks on the disabled. Yet the media true to form continue with their anti scroungers, anti disabled benefits lines as if nothing had changed. Even just on Saturday night I stumbled across Ian Collins on LBC a presenter I used to respect but his show on Saturday night was all about our bloated welfare system. He moaned and moaned about students getting EMA why don’t they get a Saturday job he cried despite not realising how many young people struggle to get a job today. Such ignorance in the media is toxic as this feeds a political agenda to turn the non disabled against the disabled, the working class against the working class not in a job, public vs. private and so on all to create division and resentment the age old tactic of divide and conquer which the ruling class have employed for many many years. But the media focus heavily on benefit cheats and the disabled are lumped in with this never separated in my experience yet tax evaders of the super rich big business evade 120 billion a year more than enough to cover the deficit in one go if it was properly collected. This is a political decision not an economic one. We’ve had bigger deficits in the past yet built the NHS and a huge number of council housing. No one is standing up and putting an alternative in the media. Labour who presided over 13 years crows about tax evaders now but what did they do in their 13 years of government sweet nothing I would suggest. In fact one of their high profile figures Peter Mandelson was once quoted we are relaxed about the rich getting filthy rich in this country. But as for the international day of disability it’s a huge disgrace that the closures of the last remaining remploy factories that employed disabled workers will be closing very soon. This is a national disgrace in my view. This is not just limited to Britain either in Spain over the weekend over 50 thousand disabled people and friends and families marched in Madrid demanding an end to cuts to disabled people. All over the globe disabled people are treated with contempt and disrespect under capitalism there can be no fairness for the disabled or any section of workers. It’s got to be up to us to organise and build a movement which can remove this rotten exploitative system once and for all. Only a truly democratic socialist system can provide for the needs of everyone including disabled people to meet their daily needs to fulfil their potential in life in any way they can.

Does protest work ?

This is the question I get asked a lot.

Oh so you’re off on another pointless protest I’m asked regularly.
Yes I say another one of those that we seem to be doing more and more of these days. Not that protest has ever gone away but the concept seems to becoming a bit more mainstream again dare I say.

Since the students demonstrations of 2010 and the march for the alternative on March 26 and the subsequent strikes that followed now with the workfare protests protests seem to be cool again for want of a better word.

No longer just for the far left but many different sorts of people seem to be getting seen on protests.

So do they work ?
Protest works! With the right action on the right issue at the right place and time, a small band of people can win the day – or at least strongly influence the national debate. That's the message after the recent workfare protests.
Trotsky called it the little lever and he was right a small group of people who have the right ideas at a certain time can catch that wave and gain a larger influence than they may otherwise be able to. As socialists due to a mass movement at the moment developing and the ever evident absence of a mass workers party putting forward the arguments of true opposition to capitalism we are having to use tactics as catching the right mood at the right time to propel ourselves forward in the struggle and get a hearing.

Of course as Marxists these conditions don’t just come about like that on a whim they are brought about due to a specific set of circumstances and events of consciousness. But as I say having the right ideas and programme at that time can really push you forward. Take for example Youth fight for jobs during the recent workfare protests we had a representative asked on to news night to speak on the actions. That would not have happened if they didn’t think we had a point even if they didn’t fully agree they clearly saw us as a credible opposition rather than the labour party and asked us to put someone forward which we gladly did.

Also take UK uncut which I do have reservations about but even still you can’t deny they have got tax justice back firmly on the agenda and now it may or may not be linked but tax does now a big issue once again with the recent budget and George Osborne have to take tax evasion a bit more seriously. Now I don’t seriously think he is suddenly going to go all anti capitalist tax the rich till the pips squeak on us but certainly the level of consciousness has shifted towards a feeling that the rich do not pay their fair share and even among reformists of capitalism are having to admit maybe the financial sector has gone too far and they do need a good spanking or we could have a mass uprising on our hands. Which clearly the ruling class do not want. SO we may see an attempt to go after tax evaders as an attempt to quell descent and curb the financial mercantile sector of capitalism as Karl Marx called them. A move back to more industrial sovereign wealth based capitalism may be their preferred way out of this crisis with a move back to state capitalism to keep their system alive in a critical stage. All this is theoretical and may not happen but just some possibilities as capitalism will look to see off an uprising and mass anger anyway it possibly can. As the old phrase went its reform or revolution if we don’t give them reform they will over throw us and it may get to that point where big reforms may be granted in the face off a crumbling system.

But be under no illusion protest does work and on a small or large scaled certainly has the power to change things but it has to be linked to a clear programme, a programme of Marxism with a end goal of changing society to benefit the millions not the millionaires. For a better fairer socialist society.

Solidarity with students walking out today fighting fees and cuts

Today is the long awaited walk out of students in colleges, schools and universities across the country. Announced by the NUS but poorly organised by the layers of bureaucracy of course.
I wanted to put up a message sending my solidarity and thoughts with all students walking out and taking action today. Whether you are walking out of classes, marching to a city/town centre or engaging in other forms of protests occupations etc.
In Harlow the socialist party went down to the local college earlier this morning to hand out leaflets on the day and our material offering an alternative. Youth fight for jobs and education fight for a return of EMA end to cuts and fees and free education for all as a right.

We don’t expect today to be a victory or a huge success due to the failure of the NUS to properly build for the day but socialist students and other comrades from the socialist party will be doing all they can to assist and lend support to students wishing to take action to defend education.

The campaign needs to be stepped up with further action needing to be called very soon the student movement needs that spark again and this day of action could be it if militant layers of students take control of the movement and push for further action.

Good luck to all those taking action today. Although I can’t be with you in person due to work commitments I’ll be there in solidarity with you all.

Supporting the sparks

Rob Williams, Chair, National Shop Stewards Network
Electricians working for Balfour Beatty (BBES) have spoken for all electricians in the construction industry and voted overwhelmingly to strike to defend their national pay agreements - the Joint Industry Board (JIB).

BBES has an order book of £15 billion and had made nearly £100 million in profits in the last six months but they want to slash wages by 35%.
This is a disgrace and i hope all those who lent their support in the private sector to public sector workers under attack over pensions will recieve support back from public sector workers in return.

Facing all the obstacles and complications that have given the employers such an advantage for years - low union membership, lack of shop stewards, agency labour, the blacklist etc, Unite and especially the Rank and File Committee have pulled off an incredible result.

Unsurprisingly, BBES has sought and secured a legal injunction against the ballot to stop the strike on 7 December - the day that BBES workers face having the new contracts (BESNA) imposed on them.

This has caused the union to call off the strike and re-ballot. But even if Unite re-ballots, the dispute must continue and escalate unofficially. Whatever the law says, the massive YES vote has legitimised this struggle.

Meetings in London and Glasgow on 3 December put the call out for unofficial strike action at BBES and the other companies looking to withdraw from the JIB and impose the BESNA terms. It's been reported that workers are joining the union in the next two companies to be balloted, NG Bailey and Tommy Clarkes. This shows the potential for a national stoppage in the industry.

The best signal yet are the stoppages that have already taken place over the last four months and are actually escalating. Corus Teesside, Lindsey, Saltend, Ratcliffe, West Burton, Carrington, Farringdon, Blackfriars, Kings Cross and countless more sites have seen walkouts.

In Glasgow on Saturday, 150 sparks met to decide that there will be an unofficial strike in Grangemouth on 7 December. They then marched through the city singing and occupied the NG Baileys site off George Square.

In Cardiff over 50 electricians met to decide that there'll be action that day at Llandough Hospital.

BBES, on behalf of all the 'Dirty 7' construction contractors, are using the Tory anti-union laws to stop this strike, democratically voted for by a four to one margin, on a spurious technicality. Unite must now call for a national stoppage in the construction industry, even if unofficial.

BBES are panicking because of the threat of strike action and the unofficial stoppages that are taking place every week around the UK. There should be no secret deals to end this dispute but a total retreat by BBES and the other six companies. There has to be transparent negotiations in full view of the BBES workers and the members of the union.


It is excellent that this unofficial action is spreading and continueing despite anti trade union laws and a lack of union membership at a rank-and-file level it shows the level of anger out there over this proposed cut in pay.

During times where we are all under attack public and private sector workers must support eachother in struggles and stand together. We cannot allow ourselves to be divided over claims that pit public and private against eachother. We the "workers" are all in this together not the rich and the polititians who earn a nice pay packet each year with no threats to their pensions at all.

Balfour Beattie and other firms need to feel the heat from the organised workers at a grass roots level and by this action spreading to other cities and towns this can only lead to more pressure on the unions and BB as a result.

I support the sparks and construction workers taking action ripping up agreements and going against what was agreed is undemocratic and unfair to workers who are struggling by as it is.

The need for a second Egyptian revolution to hand workers power

There has been some brutal scenes over the weekend of riot police violently clamping down on protests rising up in the squares of the city from the people who helped over throw their previous dictator Hosni Mubarak

From the BBC:

Clashes are continuing between demonstrators and security forces in the Egyptian capital as protests enter a fourth day.

At least 13 people died and hundreds were injured over the weekend as troops launched a major assault to clear Cairo's Tahrir Square of protesters.

Efforts to clear the square appeared to continue on Monday, with tear gas canisters being thrown at protesters.

The unrest casts a shadow over elections due to start next week.

It is the longest continuous protest since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February.

Demonstrators say they fear Egypt's governing Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is trying to retain its grip on power.

The council, led by Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, is charged with overseeing the country's transition to democracy after three decades of autocratic rule under Mr Mubarak.

Calls for his resignation could be heard during th
Parts taken from www.socialistworld.net CWI committee for workers international.

Eight months after the overthrow of Mubarak, workers and youth still face poverty, unemployment, corruption and repression

The court trial of Mubarak continues, together with his sons, Gamal and Alaa, and some of their cronies. Ahmed Ezz owns 70% of Egypt’s iron and steel production (bought cheaply when state-owned industries were privatised) and 50% of ceramics. He was a leading member of Mubarak’s National Democratic Party, senior member of the National Assembly and friend of Gamal Mubarak. On 14 September, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a fine of LE660million ($111m = £70m) for corruption. For a man reported to own $1.5billion in 2008, the fine is small change. All privatised industries should be renationalised, without compensation to the owners, who made fortunes while paying low wages.

It is estimated that corruption - including bribery, tax evasion, theft, nepotism and extortion – may have cost the economy as much as $57 billion in 2000-2008, or an annual average of $6.4 billion. That’s about $800 a year for every man, woman and child while 40% live on less than a dollar a day.

Unemployment rising
The economy has been hard hit by the fall in tourism, one of Egypt’s largest employers. Revenues are down $1billion a month. Egypt Air is losing 56% of its passenger traffic. This is partly because of fears of insecurity following the violent attempt of the old regime to hang on to power, but also because of the global financial crisis, with falling living standards in many countries.

Withdrawal of foreign capital in the six months after the revolution totalled about $16 billion. A 7% fall in GDP during the first quarter of the year was the equivalent of a $30 billion loss to the economy. These factors have resulted in unemployment, already high, growing to anything between 10-20%. Rising prices also make life a growing struggle.

An opinion poll, last April, found that 63% felt unemployment was the biggest issue facing society. Eighty percent expected their household’s financial situation to get better in the next year. Seventy five percent were confident that the new government was able to address the main issues facing the country. Of those who participated in protests during the eighteen days that overthrew Mubarak (one quarter of respondents), 64% said unemployment and low living standards were their main reasons for doing so, compared to 19% who said lack of democracy and political reform.



Now that it is becoming clearer to working and middle class people that the economic situation is getting worse, and that the government is unable to improve living conditions, growing numbers of workers are taking strike action. They are realising that it is only by their own action that conditions are going to improve and that they cannot rely on the government to change their lives for the better.



Many are angry at the slowness of change and how the military rule are hanging on to power an d the democracy they were promised is simply not happening as far as they can see.
Some weariness after eight months of weekly demonstrations, many of them enormous, is to be expected. But there is also a growing realization that demonstrations are insufficient by themselves to change the situation. Working class solidarity and struggle by striking, and in some cases occupying workplaces, is growing and has the power to force concessions from government and employers. Momentum towards a national general strike needs to be built, to draw all sections of workers and youth together to win real democratic, workplace and social gains. This entails rank and file, democratic control of mass action and creating mass committees of action in the workplaces, communities and colleges that are linked up at local, regional and national levels.

Democratic socialist programme
But wage rises will not last long while prices continue to rise, and do not directly benefit the unemployed, poor farm workers and other sections of the poor. The capitalist system will always try to take back whatever it is forced to concede, while ever it remains in place. The task of active trade unionists, youth and socialists is to raise the idea of a government of workers and the poor to complete the revolution started on January 25th.

The strike wave raises the need for workers in different industries, both public and private sector, to organise their own mass workers’ party. Activists from different struggles need to join together. Youth and students, those fighting for democratic rights and other social and community campaigns also need to join with organised workers.

A democratic socialist programme would include a decent minimum wage of at least LE 1200 linked to rising prices, decent education and healthcare systems, a massive house-building programme and a shorter working week to provide jobs for the unemployed. These must be linked to nationalisation under democratic workers’ control and management of all big companies, large estates and banks. The economy could then be planned to meet the needs of the majority instead of the profits of a tiny minority.



It is time the Egyptian people were given what they demanded in the first place. Freedom, real freedom. Freedom from capitalism and repression .

As youth unemployment tops 1 million join youth fight for jobs and the jarrow march to demand jobs

In Japan they call them freeters, an amalgamation of "freelance" and the German word for workers arbeiter. The Tunisians opt for hittistes, a slang Arabic phrase which roughly translates as people who lean against walls. In Britain we prefer NEETs, the term we use to describe the depressingly swelling ranks of our young who are not in education, employment or training.

But whatever you call them and wherever you are, the youth unemployment time bomb is ticking and in Britain there are few signs of things getting better.

Today the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will release the latest employment figures from the past three months, with most analysts expecting the number of under-24s out of work to pass the one million mark for the first time since the early 1990s.

According to the figures covering May to July this year, unemployment among under-24s officially stood at 973,000, but the growing belief among some economists is that over the past three months – with scores of new graduates flooding into the job market over the summer – the figures might have risen by as much as 90,000 taking them into seven figures for the first time since 1993. For the pessimists it heralds a return to two decades ago when the young were hit disproportionately hard and suffered for years afterwards.

Young people are feeling desperate and hopeless unfortunatly as a result of this long term unemployment.
The Jarrow march 2011 which is backed by 8 national trade unions which is no small feet at all including
RMT, PCS, UNITE, UCU, FBU, BECTU,CWU, TSSA
is trying to do something to raise awareness and hope for young people. The march which Has recieved big backing all the way so far. You can keep up to date with the march as it winds itself down the country at :
www.jarrowmarch11.com
and on our twitter page @youthfight4jobs for updates.

With youth unemployment set to fly over the 1 million mark whenofficial figures are announced this week, the worst unemployment since the early 90s, the Tories have decided to attack young unemployed people marching to London and following in the tradition of the 1936 Jarrow March. Robert Goodwill the Tory MP who has been quoted in the press saying the marchers were not fit to follow in the footsteps of the 1936 marchers is the same MP who’s constituency has the highest unemployment in the North East and who has claimed £145,387 in the expenses scandal. In contrast Stephen Hepburn, the MP for Jarrow has declared support of the new Jarrow March against youth unemployment and the cuts.

Stephen Hepburn MP for Jarrow said:

“I am delighted these young people are highlighting the pressing issue of unemployment in the UK. The government need to respond positively and not be arrogant and shut the door in their face” Stephen Hepburn MP has also accepted an invitation to speak onthe last day of the Jarrow March on the 5th November which is being organised as a national demonstration.

Matt Dobson – Unemployed from Dundee said:

“As a long term unemployed layabout I will be joining the Jarrow March to London organised by Youth Fight for Jobs.

On 17 October I’ll be abandoning my feckless lifestyle to join the march in Leicester after a seven hour train journey from Scotland. I’ll just have to tape Jeremy Kyle for a couple of weeks!

I am sure myself and Robert Goodwill will have a lot in common. I can explain what is like to live in one room when you are too young to receive the full amount of housing benefit for a flat. He can describe his 250 acre country estate which I’ve no doubt is very stressful to manage.

This year as to raise the ideas and contiousness of people out thre and to comemorate the 75 year anniversary of the original Jarrow Crusade Yought Fight For jobs are recreating this march in their fore fathers footsteps.

This summer our streets exploded with the fury and frustration of young people who have had their future torn away from them. These new Jarrow marchers are offering an organised alternative, with clear demands and a determination to link up with organised workers in trade unions.

The Jarrow March will end in London with a mass demonstration on 5 November, assembling at Temple Embankment at 12 noon.

We will hand in a petition to Downing Street as we pass.
demanding :
■A massive government scheme to create jobs which are socially useful and apprenticeships which offer guaranteed jobs at the end – both paying at least the minimum wage, with no youth exemptions.
■The immediate reinstatement of EMA payments, expanding them to be available to all 16-19 year olds.
■The immediate re-opening of all youth services that have been closed, including reinstating sacked staff.
■The scrapping of ‘workfare’ schemes – benefits should be based on need not forced slave labour.
■A massive building programme of environmentally sound, cheap social housing.

We will then have a rally in Trafalgar Square

Speakers include:

■Jarrow Marchers,
■Bob Crow – RMT General Secretary,
■Matt Wrack- FBU General Secretary,
■Paul Murphy- MEP (Socialist Party Ireland),
■Lizi Gray- Descendent of 1936 Marcher,
■Stephen Hepburn- Jarrow MP,
■Young Deacon- Rapper (performing his track about the riots called ‘Failed by the System’),
■Ed Marsh- NUS (VP Union Development),
■Day-Mer Youth Speaker.

please join us and give us your backing as these people are not how the media like to portray them they have feelings and real hopes and ambitions in life.
lets not loose a generation of young people to the scrap heap again.

links, quotes and snipets taken from
www.jarrowmarch11.com
with special thanks to youth fight for jobs for organising this and to Matt Dobson for the quotes !

Why this years 75th anniversary of the Jarrow march matters today

Next weekend the weekend of the 1st of October protesters who are working class and many unemployed will be marching to London from Jarrow 75 years after the original Jarrow march. Where in their area where there was 90% unemployment to demand jobs for youth and decent pay. It is with great saddness that todays youth have to go through this and march again due to the lack of jobs and opputunities for young people still exists today in Britain as we sit on the edge of yet another financial crisis set to engulf the world once again.

Youth Fight for Jobs will bring the issue right to the fore by holding a march from Jarrow to London, starting on 1 October and ending on 5 November. We will be holding the protest to demand decent jobs and a free education for young people.

Youth Fight for Jobs National Organiser Paul Callanan says: “Young people now face the worst attacks on our rights and living standards we’ve seen in generations. The government is determined to push through cuts that will limit opportunities for youth even further. They also want to see unemployed youth used as slave labour for big business by putting people on work for dole schemes. With the brutal attacks being made on the right to an education as well, we really feel that every avenue is being closed off for people who want a decent future.

Youth Fight For Jobs 2011
“We will be marching from Jarrow to London in October to show this Con-Dem government that we will not see all the gains made by working class people over the last century blotted out of existence. We want to put the issue of youth unemployment right at the top of the agenda. As well as the march we will be building protests, demonstrations and rallies up and down the country in solidarity with the march, with the aim of linking up student activists, trade unionists, those fighting against the cuts and the unemployed.

“This is the time for young people to say; “we won’t be a lost generation! Fight for jobs and education!”


In today's Jarrow, u­nemployment is 5.7 per cent. Within a few miles are pockets of extreme poverty where a quarter of ­people are out of work. Like the rest of the country, the young are ­worst hit. UK ­unemployment among under-25s is 973,000 - and there's little to inspire hope at ­the nearest job centre.


Minimum wage jobs. Little aboutabout careers or ­apprenticeships. ­ Nothing to nurture young dreams.


Today's Jarrow still recalls the time when Michael McLoughlin - who died in the Seventies - and many like him made their voices heard.


A monument to the ­marchers stands outside ­Morrisons. In the town hall they keep one of the crusade ­banners in a showcase, its blue letters stitched on to white canvas, strung between two red poles.


But the efforts of the original ­marchers were ultimately futile. When they reached London with a 12,000-name petition, the Tory-led National Government refused to meet them.


And Matty Meaughan, 67, a former ­shipbuilder killing time with friends in Jarrow, fears history will be ­repeated for fellow marchers.


He says: 'Look at us, we're old blokes sitting on a bench. The sad thing is when you see youngsters doing the same because they've no jobs to go to.


'I wish them well on their march. It's great to see some fighting spirit. But will they listen to Jarrow this time? It would be a miracle if they did.'



The march this October has also found support from the national media including the Daily Mirror this is excellent news and we need all the publicity we can get for the march. Not just the march but the point it is sending to this con-dem government.

Kevin Maguire, columnist with the Daily Mirror, has praised the organisers of Youth Fight For Jobs the Jarrow March 2011, which is setting off on 1st October and should arrive in London on the 5th November, to raise awareness about soaring unemployment and the Conservative-Liberal complicity in axing jobs, services and opportunities for young workers and students. This follows previous positive coverage in the Sunday Mirror.

Walking in the footsteps of the Jarrow marchersby Kevin Maguire, Daily Mirror 21/09/2011
footsteps-of-the-jarrow-marchers-115875-23434822/#ixzz1YcCPqmTS

THE Jarrow Crusade, 75 years old next month, is an inspirational chapter in our country’s history.
In the Great Depression, 200 hungry and desperate jobless men went on a 300-mile walk for work to London. Tories and Liberals on Tyneside and along the route backed the 1936 protest which, unfashionable as it remains to say, was an utter failure. PM Stanley Baldwin refused to see them and ironically it was Hitler who saved the shipbuilding town, war requiring warships.
I wish the best of luck to the plucky young people who, a week on Saturday, begin walking in the footsteps of the Jarrow men. Nearly one in five young people are on the scrapheap. But this trek doesn’t have the support of the Cons. Cameron’s Big Society only has room for the successful and well-to-do.

http://jarrowmarch11.com

Why i feel banning the far right EDL would be a dangerous precedence to set

As i'm sure you are all well aware over the last week or so the far right and their activists have been thrown into the spotlight following the horrific murderings in Norway of young innocent teenagers and the bomb attack in Osl city centre.

There has been increased calls from the EDL to mount demonstrations and march's to stand with the person who performed these horrific actions.

Likewise many are also calling for groups like the EDL who are anti muslim and oppose islam and would be considered far right to be banned from marching and protesting.


Who are the EDL ?

The EDL has now organised around 15 principal figures loosely based around the football firms providing the most support. Not all of those involved are from a football background, and many of the men have yet to meet each other face-to-face. But they are mobilising for each other on trust, using websites including Facebook and YouTube.

The British National Party has distanced itself from the EDL, but anti-racism campaigners have named party activists they have photographed at demonstrations. They add that some demos have included people with a record of football violence.

Each demonstration has led to confrontations. But leaders like Tommy are appealing for demonstrators to avoid drink because they don't want to be written off as racist thugs.

In Birmingham last week, the BBC filmed black and white men alongside each other on EDL's lines.

So if it's not exclusively white, is it just a cover for a wider Islamophobia?

"People aren't against Islam, they aren't against anything else other than the funders of terrorism, the sworn enemies of Britain," says Tommy.

"For 10-15 years these groups have gone unchallenged in our towns and cities. Those days have gone now. We will challenge them. Wherever there are terrorists, we will be there."

Street army

Nick Lowles is the editor of Searchlight, which campaigns against far-right extremists.



Whilst i do not agree with a thing the EDL stand for or their actions at all i do feel that stifling their right to protest as much as we disagree with them and what they stand for would be undemocratic and set a dangerous level of precedence for other protests.


I could see a situation if a call to ban protests by the EDL was stretched to cover all politically motivated or any supposed politicaly motivated protests. Any that are deemed provocative in any such way would be banned.

This is not the country i'd like to live in. Whilst i do feel we should all have the right to protest which is still a very hot potato at the moment especially on the left right now with police brutality called into question on several ocasions i would not like to see riots either. A peaceful protest with banners loud noise and well mannered protest is fine i'd say but trying to stir up racial hatrid or inciting violence is something the labour movement cannot support or condone .

So i do feel going forward that peoples right to protest should be upheld and respected while respecting peoples rightto disagree and form a counter demonstration which we are happy to do on the left to offer people a alternative a working class alternative to unite us all whichever race, creed, religion or nationality you happen to be.

At the end of the day we are all workers and facing the same challenges for jobs, food, housing and living conditions so i feel we would be better placed uniting as the working class than as a nationality or a race or anything i feel it is counter productive and only turns us further against eachother, playing right into the ruling class's hands.

The hardest hit march, May 11th Disabled people fighting for dignity

This wednesday myself- hhopefully if i can get there and thousands of other disabled people will be marching in centrel London organised by several disabled groups including Scope, RNIB, MENCAP amoung many many others.

Disabled people will sadly be the hardest hit when these cuts start to bite. We are already seeing cases of some on disability support benifits being hounded to come off of their benifits to go ona much lower job seakers allowance. In some cases this is causing so much stress it is leading to patients wanting and in some rare cases taking their own life as they feel sucha burden to the state and others around them.

This i find absolutely disgusting and our polititains should be utterly ashamed of themselves. The rich greedy bastards want to make the people who are worst off in society pay for the mess they had nothing to do with creating. It is a outrage in my opinion and this government needs to be shamed. Not only this government but the one before was no better.
The previous labour government, the one who claimed to care so much for the poor and disabled people were the ones who started this ball rolling. The tories and the lib dems are just carrying this program through a lot quicker.

So if we want to look at who started this we can look no further than those smug labour MP's some who have gone on to get nice jobs in teh lords now for starting a attack on the working class and most notably the disabled of us out there.

I myself wrote a little piece in the socialist paper last week i do hope you can read it. It not only features me but has some excellent points in the article too.

a
But as for the march on wednesday we aim to tell this government they are wrong and shame them for their inhumane actions of making the working class and the disabled pay for this mess while their rich friends in the city get off scot free and even get themselves tidy little tax breaks. How nice for them !!

So much for making those with the broadest shoulders shoulder the burden ay Mr Cameron ?

Everything that comes out of a tories mouth is a lie i'm afraid and they cannot be trusted so they must be opposed and stopped.

SO please do join us if you can on Wednesday 11th of May.

The march will begin on Victoria Embankment between Horseguards Avenue and Bridge Street and will assemble at 11.30. There will be a rally on Victoria Embankment with speeches between 12.00 and 12.30 before the march sets off. The march will then begin at 12.30.

The march will take about an hour. It will take in Victoria Embankment,Parliament Squareand Millbank and finish in Dean Stanley Street.

Methodist Central Hall, which is near the end of the march route, will be available as a quiet space during the day.
The lobby

After the march the group will be lobbying MPs as the Welfare Reform Bill reaches a critical stage in the House of Commons. They will be sharing their stories, making sure that Parliamentarians understand the combined impact of the cuts on their lives and futures. Crucially, they will be asking MPs to challenge policies that will push disabled people further into poverty and isolation. The lobby will take place in Westminster Hall and Methodist Central Hall between 13.30 and 17.30.

Why are we not getting more angry about the cuts ?

I personally believe we have yet to see the full force of the cuts program from teh tories. We have seen budgets being passed up and down the country in local council chambers by Labour, liberal and tory councillors. All in it together. But as i was returning from the anti cuts protest at the weekend in London urging Labour councillors to join the resistance and vote against cuts i thought to myself this is a very slow burning movement.

Many in the movement are now building up and preparing for march 26 in London where the TUC are holding a march against public sector cuts. I am hoping the confidence that march can give us and the movement will be electrifying. Not in many years have we seen the trades unions in this country rise up and march in big numbers. Even during the poll tax protestsa nd march's in London trades unions never got involved. SO it will be interesting how the TUC respond to the pressure to act. It took a big effort from the likes of the NSSn i'm involved with to force the TUC into action. Argueably we could havea nd should have had something before christmas riding on the momentom that the student movemt and protests have built up.

FOr myself attending march 26th i will be marching against all public sector cuts not just cuts that are too far and too fast as Ed miliband likes to eral off liek a broken record. The working class wont accept cuts from labour either but they dont seem to realise this that labours cuts were estimated to be further than Maggie Tatcher went in the 80's. They would have been equally as devastating to the public sector and jobs and livliehoods as a result.

So why are we not getting more angry ab out all these cuts ?

I personally think just like with TUSC's decision not to stand in teh recent Barnsley central bi-election on a anti cuts banner was right not to as it is a little premature i think the cuts have just been voted on. Its when they are started to be implimented the real anger will come i believe .

Likewise when John Mcdonald called for people attending march 26th that we must ask ourselves do we go home that night or not. urging people to bring their sleeping bags and camp at parliament. I think John is a good socialist and i quite like him but seriously john i think yuor jumping the gun a little with those calls. I think its all a bit premature.

TUC estimates at present upwards of 200,000 people who will be attending the march already 600 coaches have been booked out with over two weeks to go to the march. Numbers on the day could be unpredictable as it really does depend on the weather, people in and around Londons desire to mobilise and get out there to join it and also the publicity it gets. I would hope we could get half a million out any more will be a big bonus i'd say.


But i do think as we progress through this year the anger towards cuts and a anti cuts - no to all cuts narrative will grow and grow. Labour i'm afraid will be left in the dark as their idea of lesser cuts and not as fast will fall on deaf ears as the anti cuts movement grows and labels them same as the tories for being pro cuts.

The public want to see a real alternative to cuts. If any party stood out today and said no more cuts, no to cuts and we have another way they will rocket in popularity i can assure you. Alot of people still are getting by and coping but when the real cuts start to b bite i really think the movement will take off in a b ig way.

The question is are the trades unions and TUC and labour crucially ready for teh anger coming their way when people/workers are calling for action. I mean industrial action.

It seems clear to me that alot of people n the march on the 26th will be there to help labour get re-elected rather than fighting against the cuts. So i do think labour may gain from this movement in a opputunistic way sadly. I just hope people can see them for waht they are that they are also for cuts. Just not as fast or as far apparently.
I think if labour appear to be being over taken by thea nti cuts movement they may try and stiffle it or risk being totally washed over and anger of non action against the cuts may come back to bite them.

Interesting few months ahead with a lot to prepare and build for. This is just the start and we must have a plan of action co-ordinated action to take after the 26th. I think it is looking increasingly likely that will be in teh forms of strikes. But lets not rule out other forms of protest and resistance.

What UK Uncut have been doing must continue and grow highlighting teh role of the banks in all this whilst individual groups should look to occupy council buildings and make them councils for the people. Preventing these cuts being implimented. Its militant but it is what it is going to take i'm afraid as the anger grows.

my 1st NSSN anti cuts demo

So today I have just returned from London and Lambeth where the NSSN, the national shop steward’s network made up of socialists and trade unionists.

Today the 5th of March a whole load of anti cuts protesters from various different unions, anti cuts campaigns and organisations came together to march on the labour party local council conference meeting at transport house the old TUC building ironically.

As you may or may not know I’m registered blind and my first big demo was a real experience so I thought I’d do a write up of my experiences from a blind activists perspective and how I saw the day.

So Myself and other comrades from Stevenage arrived just after 11 am at Lambeth north tube station and assembled together not far from the Imperial War museum as we set about signing the petition that was to be handed to Labour Party delegates attending the conference I believe everyone who attended signed the petition to urge labour councillors to vote against the cuts.
As we were waiting for clearance to start our march from the police we had the pleasure to listen to several excellent speakers before we took off.

Many good speakers, some with real stories and tails of struggles over the years. We heard from Martin Powell Davies of the NUT who is very active in his area of Lambeth not far from where this march was taking place. He reminded us of some great battles the left had won back in the 1920's in Poplar and in the 1980's with inspirational moves by militant lead Liverpool and Lambeth councils who were both labour at that time. Martin reminded us of the bravery of those councillors standing up to the Tories back then when it was the iron lady we were up against in Maggie Thatcher.

Today it is the condem government made up of the Tories and the liberal democrats who are enjoying taking on the working class it would seem with George Osborne and David Cameron making the ordinary working people of this country including the old, young, disabled, women, men, unemployed and many other areas of society to pay for the mess the bankers in this country caused.

Other speakers of note were Linda Taaf of the Socialist party who I had never heard speak before and thought she came across very well

Linda really got the crowd going several times and received big applause when she raised the statement that the Tories are coming for us, our jobs, our pensions, our benefits, our working conditions and then the phrase that will stick with me from the day was that what they don’t realise is that we are coming for them.

This line was repeated several times later in the rally and was an excellent point to make.

A special mention must go to full time socialist party employee and now NSSN organiser Rob Williams who I always enjoy listening to him and his views really deserves a lot of thanks and praise for help to organise today and keep everyone’s spirits high whilst on the march.

We had other speakers from the likes of RMT who are one of the more left wing unions going and have a strong record of ballot action when job losses are on the cards or working conditions are under threat. Some great points made here with a lot of emphasis on the big demo on the 26th of March we must all now look to build towards.

As for the march we got the go ahead to march at a little after 12 and we took off with a excellent set of drums leading the way who as I understand have been hired in also for the march 26th TUC demo in London with 3 times as many drummers, that should sound excellent I think.

The noise they gave off and the whistles and continuous chanting from up and down the strong march of what I’d estimate to be about 4 or 5 hundred maybe.
I'm a big football fan so love a good sing song and chant so some of the chants today lead by Rob Williams doing a top job on the megaphone really got the crowd going. Chants of no it’s no butt’s, don’t pass on Tory cuts and when they say cutback we say fight back really sent shivers down your spine to know that real working class ordinary people are finally finding their voice to these vicious cuts package.

I was guided along the whole route from a good friend who has his own work related troubles where he is set to be made redundant from Glaxo Smith Klein in Ware in Hertfordshire due to his so called "union activity" as they put it.
Every person on the march today had a reason to be there and to be fighting back against this horrible right wing government

But of course the real reason for us marching on the Labour local councillors conference was handing in a petition urging them to vote against the cuts and to not do the Tories dirty work for them
The march route took us up out of Lambeth up towards Southwark where the meeting was taking place at Transport house an old TUC building I do believe.

When we reached our destination we paused for breath as it was quite a long route I thought and I felt tired after I got home for sure.

We congregated in a small square just near where this labour conference of councillors was taking place where we heard more excellent speeches from Dave Nellist a socialist party councillor in his home town of Coventry. Dave who I follow on twitter @davenellist I’d been looking forward to hear speak for a long time really raised the assembled crowd’s spirits once again after a good march and put the blame for the financial crisis firmly in the hands of the greedy rich capitalist bankers who have drained this country bare. Dave also made a excellent point that forget any trade union strikes over the last few years the bankers have been on strike for a good while now refusing to lend money and spend and help the country out of this mess that they caused. I felt this was very relevant as there is money about and the bankers are sloshing around huge profits and bonus's to each other but we as ordinary working class people are seeing none of it. Only cuts to our public services to pay off the bankers mess.

Dave Nellist also highlighted some of the excellent work Uk Uncut have been carrying out over recent months in highlighting tax avoidance and evasion from big big corporations and banks. Dave said that Barclays bank and HSBC who are two of the worlds biggest banks who reported huge profits in the last year returning almost to pre banking crisis figures avoid paying tax like the plague they will employ hundreds of tax experts to find loop holes and financial experts to work out where they can get away with paying little or no tax to the British treasury. This is frankly disgusting in my opinion and is an absolute insult to the rest of us hard working citizens.

We heard further speeches from Rob Williams again giving us news that in Cardiff today 2000 people had marched on the Tories and liberal democrat spring conferences in the city to highlight how wrong these cuts are and how they should think again.
This was met by big applause too as Rob began to highlight major struggles happening around the world today from Egypt to Libya and even in the belly of the capitalist world America where trades unionists in the state of Wisconsin where they are putting up a excellent fight back against anti trade union laws their US government is trying to enforce. We will not be silenced came the crowd.

There was a call from one of the speakers to request a trades union worker involved in the protests and strikes in Wisconsin to be there on the March 26th demo in London and to speak to the crowd. This was a popular move and I do hope this can happen.

We were also pleased to have as a speaker a representative from the Right to Work campaign organised by the Socialist workers Party* SWP* who were given a platform to speak despite a lot of their members resigning from the National shops stewards network a few weeks back when the motion was passed to form a anti cuts organisation within the network. But I and many others were glad to see them back on board and having their views heard. They got a good reception and made some excellent points.

The right to work representative also gave us a run down of big protests his campaign are holding in the next few weeks including a big one against cuts to the NHS and the attacks on the excellent work our doctors and nurse's do in this country. That protest will be big I may see if I can go to that possibly.

He also flagged up a big protest in Trafalgar square on the day of the budget to remind George Osborne of his wrong doings and all the people his cuts are hurting. Hopefully this will attract a fair few too.

We also had a speaker from the socialist parties very own campaign- Youth Fight for Jobs. The speaker who is party of the youth and student movement raised some excellent points that the youth today do not know what the future holds for them. Highlighting again the importance of the student movement and the big 50 thousand plus demo's towards the end of 2010 in London as a result of the trebling of tuition fees.
In October of this year several Youth Fight for Jobs activists will be reanacting the famous Jarrow march from Jaro to London many years ago where 200 unemployed youth marched on London in protest to lack of job opportunities and poor working conditions.

The rally was ended with Linda Taaf and Rob Williams handing over the petition that we all signed at the start to urge labour councillors across the country that they do have a choice whether to stand with us and join the resistance to the coalition government or join with the government in voting for cuts.

As there is a choice and I and many others will be hoping that although many of the cuts have been shamefully voted through by many labour councillors across the nation the battle now begins to prevent them from implementing the cuts. That means we must fight for every library closure, every swimming pool closure, every youth connexions scheme, every job and everything that is being cut in the name of cutbacks.

The labour delegate did come out to greet the crowd to a few heckles I must say but I’m not sure what they can expect as currently many if not all Labour run councils are doing the Tories dirty work for them and voting through the cuts. But the delegate took the petition and snuck away quietly back to his members.

All in all a very good day and very enjoyable for me on a personal level. My first real big demo really touched my political senses and enlightened me to the fact there are many people out there, a growing number that share the same views and anger at this government and what it is doing and want to fight back.

It’s now all on to march 26th in London now. See you all there I do hope.

Leader of the NUS Aaron Porter to step down at last

SO news is breaking that the president of the NUS Aaron Porter is to not stand again for re-election in April. After months of dithering and inaction Aaron has taken it upon himself to stand down. This will be greted with relief from many students across the land who now see Aaron as a student hate figure. I do not personally have anything against the guy think he's alright as a person but as a leader of a movement of students he has ultimatly failed. It has not been a easy job of course with the unleashing of a radicailasation within students with teh hiking of tuitian fees to university.

The farce with Lib Dem ministers who signed a pledge not voting for raising of tuitian fees.
What also didnt help his cause was an internal NUS memo urged students to stop protesting against fees and described elements of the Government’s package as ‘progressive’. Vince Cable bragged about this on the BBC’s Question Time, giving Aaron the kiss of death
To date, the NUS Presidency has proved a fairly pain-free launchpad for a glamorous political career that ends in a Labour Cabinet: ask Jack Straw, Charles Clarke and Phil Woolas. Yes, you can expect a bit of sniping from the left, but in the past NUS Presidents have relished it while being easily able to marginalise radical elements.

But Aaron Porter chose the wrong time to be a Blairite at the helm of the student movement. If the joint NUS/UCU demo on November 10th had been half as big, Porter would still be in office. But it lit a torchpaper. No-one on left or right had a real sense of the burning anger on campuses and in sixth forms across the country. Unlike previous generations, many of today’s young people feel they have no future; they feel lied to and betrayed by a cynical political elite; and they believe they’re up against a Government with no mandate.


I do actually feel sorry for Porter in a way he has obviosly been thrusted into a difficult situation he wasnt prepared for but i do think he could have done a lot lot more.

I fully expect him to turn up in a safe labour seat though one day as a MP. He has the air of a careerist polititian to me and that wouldnt surprise me to see him as a MP one day. But for now the NUS must move on and try to fidn its next leader who can harness this growing anger within students at all levels. It will be a tough job for anyone stepping into it. I dont envy them but i do hope they get the right person for the job as the next few years could be crucial.

The alternative march TUC 26th of march should be accessable

As many of you who read this blog know i am disabled being visually impaired and as this little piece below outlines we are under heavy attack from this horribly right wing coalition governemnt trying to take apart the welfar state in the name of deficit reduction. It is a complete lie and is an political ideaology so please read this piece below i had forwarded to me today about making this TUC march in central london on the 26th of March accessable to all concerned.

the TUC have agreed to all coaches dropping people off at Wembley on March 26th. For anyone on a low income this will add £8 to the cost of getting to central London, there are also a number of access issues not only for anyone with a mobility impairment. I am sure for those with MH or ND or visual impairments having to crush onto a very limited range of transport with up to 2 million other people will present a problem too.

Please contact bbarber@tuc.org.uk and complain about TUC agreeing to people, especially disabled people, being dumped at Wembley in this way.

here is DPAC's email fyi
Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) believe it is imperative that disabled and older people are afforded the opportunity to support the TUC ‘March for the Alternative’ demonstration on 26 March in central London. At the latest count it was found that disabled people were facing fourteen separate attacks against our lives and living standards as a result of the Coalition government’s policies. What we are witnessing is our human rights, supposedly guaranteed under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled People, being violated by regressive and draconian cuts to benefit and care funding. Increasing numbers of disabled people are being driven to contemplate suicide; with others actually going the whole way. Members of our community are living in daily terror that they will become further scapegoated, demonised and subjected to hate crime violence.

Against this backdrop DPAC demand the right to be fully included in this march and rally as our non-disabled peers would take for granted. As it currently stand the initial planning for the March is creating unnecessary disabling barriers which will both exclude and marginalise disabled people’s ability to participate. So far however the TUC have not responded to any requests from us for support for accessible transport to attend the march and now we have been told that the TUC have agreed (for anyone who can access coaches) that the coach dropping off point will be at Wembley or some other outlying part of London.

As I am sure you are aware the London underground system is one of the least accessible in the world, only one wheelchair is allowed on each bus at any one time, and disabled people cannot afford to pay extra travel costs from an outlying suburb to reach the centre of London. To agree to this as a dropping off point will therefore exclude us from exercising our right to protest.

It is possible to park in central London without bringing London to a grinding halt. When 2 million marched against the invasion of Iraq in 2003, coaches were parked all around Hyde Park and there were no major problems with people arriving or departing from this historic demonstration. Further we are certain that there must be at least 500 or more tourist coaches entering London on any day which does not seem to cause any traffic problems at all.

We have also asked TUC to organise with the police for us to have a static protest in central London for those unable to march but so far have had no response regarding this. We were able to do this very successfully with forward planning at the Tory Party conference protest in Birmingham.

Further we would wish to be kept updated with details of where the march will be going so that we can check its accessibility for our members with a range of impairments.

Both disabled Trade Unionists and other disabled people who attended The People’s Convention last Saturday asked conference to support a motion that the TUC march would be fully inclusive to all disabled people and that all of the required reasonable adjustments would be put in place by yourselves to fully include all of us.

We are willing to work with you to ensure that our full inclusion can be achieved and to assist you in any way practicable. We look forward to your response which we will pass onto our members.

disabled people join TUC march against the cuts, march 26th, join us

please pass on this information to others



DISABLED PEOPLE AGAINST CUTS



Join us to protest on March 26th, London.



The main TUC march will assemble at Victoria Embankment, 11am to march to a rally in Hyde Park. We are still finalising arrangements of where we can meet beforehand and about a static protest for those unable to march to Hyde Park.



Disabled people are facing continuing attacks against their lives, living standards and basic human rights to live independently from almost every conceivable quarter and it is time for us to fight back against these cuts. Many disabled people are living in fear on a daily basis not knowing when or if their benefits and care funding will be slashed and whether they will be left to rot in their own homes without the support they need to live any sort of meaningful life.



These savage spending cuts damage not only our lives, but our public services, and threaten economic recovery. They're dangerous, unfair and unnecessary.



There are fair alternatives - a Robin Hood tax on the banks, end tax evasion, policies for jobs and green growth, scrap Trident replacement.

We're going to march to tell the government we demand “Rights not Charity” and to show we are not easy victims of their cuts even though they may think we are.



For information about transport to the march (some trains may be accessible) go to www.righttowork.org Transport information will be regularly updated here.



To join our events page

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=122497767819841&index=1



For more information email linda_burnip@yahoo.co.uk , ( underscore) 0771 492 7533, or mail@dpac.uk.net