North East anti-cuts rally set for 20 October

'The Northern Public Services Alliance is holding a rally at Newcastle Civic Centre at 5.00pm on Wednesday 20 October, just after the Comprehensive Spending Review is announced in Parliament.

Public spending cuts are not the way to tackle the deficit, says the alliance leaflet backed by UNISON and 15 other unions with the Northern TUC.'

Via Unison Active blog

Later the same day, Tyne and Wear Coalition of Resistance (which will be actively supporting the earlier rally) has an organising meeting. Open to all supporters, the meeting is designed to plan the next campaigning steps in the light of cuts announced by George Osborne. The meeting is at 7pm at Gateshead Civic Centre. See Facebook Event

A key focus of the meeting will be organising and building the public meeting set for 3 November, as well as linking with and supporting other local networks and campaigns.

Next Wednesday marches and rallies are taking place in London and around the country - see HERE for more on the London protests.

Share

Food for thought: a few tasty morsels

All thought-provoking, interesting commentaries - check them out:

A little speculative futurology (Liam Macuaid)

Communities of resistance: how should we fight the cuts? (Sean Thompson at Socialist Resistance)

Lord Browne review: why not free education? (David Osler)

Frank Field and 'tough love' (The Third Estate)

It goes against our nature, but the left has to start asserting its own values (George Monbiot in The Guardian)

Share

Mutiny presents 'Education on Trial'

Mutiny: 'Education on Trial'
Thursday 4 November, 6-11pm, University of London Union (ULU)

'Mutiny is about activists coming together to share ideas and practical skills. The audience define the event.

So we are actively seeking speakers, school students, contributors, artists, primary school teachers, professors, trade union leaders and members, historians, social scientists, filmmakers, students and everyone who wants to fight the cuts. So join the mutiny!

The event will be held days before the ‘Fund Our Future: Stop Education Cuts’ demonstration, called by the National Union of Students and the University and College Union, on Wednesday 10 November 2010 in central London.

Mutiny will discuss the future of education and help mobilise a huge and united march. University of London Union president Clare Solomon will host the Mutiny event on Thursday, November 4 at The Venue, ULU, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HY.

Mutiny is a loose collective of activists, academics and artists, students, union members and freelance trouble makers. We have come together to debate the key ideas and strategies around grass roots campaigning and direct actions.

The “On Trial” events are a hybrid of entertainment and discussion centred around a ‘pub table setting’ in which all members of the audience are able to participate by joining the discussion. This is a safe space for intelligent and frank debates, music, films and art.

Every event starts with speed debating and contains three main sessions. The first tends to centre of people’s lived experiences, the second opens up an anaylsis while the third is a space for looking for solutions and sharing skills, ideas and tactics. We also have art exhibited, films projected, DJs and a bar.'

Via Facebook Event

Also see: 'Mass movement needed to stop this attack on students'

Image from Saturday's 'Rethink Education' event at ULU

Share

Mass movement needed to stop this attack on students

Sometimes being vindicated is an unpleasant experience. When I started university in the late 90s - when tuition fees were introduced and student grants were scrapped by the incoming Blair government- I (and others like me) marched and protested and campaigned to save free education.

We warned that it could, if this was imaginable, get even worse in the years ahead. The politicians might not stop at that initial level of fees - and they might find further ways of marketising higher education, or extend the same logic to other sectors of education.

We have, sadly, been proved right. Free education has become an ever more distant memory. The terms of debate have shifted from 'Should there be fees?' to 'At what level should fees be set?' Arguing a principled defence of free education has been caricatured as pie-in-the-sky utopianism.

The Browne Report today - advocating unlimited fees - is a further leap in the wrong direction. I'd be lying if I claimed it's what we predicted over a decade ago - I don't think any of us imagined things getting this bad.

There is one huge reason why the previous government got away with moving so far in the wrong direction on this issue, and why the current government feels it can push even further: there has been no effective resistance. The official student movement, in the form of a National Union of Students led by right-wing Labour Students, capitulated to the idea that fees were 'necessary' and turned itself into a polite lobbying organisation.

There is one great lesson from this experience: fail to resist and your enemy will attack and attack and attack until they destroy you. They will do it through 'consultations' and 'partnership' and all that horrible Blairite crap, but underneath the seductive PR it's utterly ruthless. 

So here we are. People like me who graduated nearly a decade ago are still paying off debt, but we're lucky compared with the current generation - and, if the Tories get their way, truly blessed compared with the next generation.

Is it too late for the student movement? Absolutely not. There's a shock quality to the Browne review that can either paralyse or galvanise. Which of those happens depends partly on leadership - it's hopeful that NUS President Aaron Porter has so far proved superior to his predecessors (though that's not difficult) - but more importantly on the grassroots movement.

Students up and down the country will need to build bigger protests than we managed when fees were introduced. The national demonstration in November to oppose education cuts will have to be a launchpad for a mass anti-cuts and anti-fees movement, not a routine one-off gesture.

Students will need to forge stronger-than-ever connections with university staff, and seek broader public support. They will need to reach out to FE and school students who potentially face a bleak future, but who can play an active role in changing that future.

They will have to link the issue of fees with the cuts in both the further and higher education sectors, making the opposition to fees part of a bigger movement against the government's assault on the public sphere. Today is meant to be a turning point in the 'reform' of universities. It also needs to become a turning point in their defence.

Share

Lowkey: American power and the legacy of war

'Over 120 people packed out yet another Stop the War Coalition meeting, this time in Tower Hamlets.

The war in Afghanistan is in crisis. Talk of withdrawal dates is an admission of failure. But there are more NATO troops in Afghanistan than ever and the violence is growing. Meanwhile, for all the talk of a peace process, the Israeli occupation of Palestine continues to cause misery for the Palestinians and anger across the Middle East.'
 

 
Share

Tyneside Stop the War rallies opposition to Islamophobia

Roger Nettleship, longstanding convenor of Tyneside Stop the War, has posted recordings of the speeches from Friday's public meeting on the local Stop the War website, with this short intro:

'On Friday October 8th a varied audience of around 80 students and people from the community attended a public meeting on Islamophobia and the Media, organised by Tyneside Stop the War Coalition and hosted by the Politics, Militarism, Space Research Cluster of Newcastle University's school of Geography, Politics and Sociology.

4 speakers addressed the meeting, chaired by Tony Dowling (Tyneside Stop the War). The speakers were Dr Nick Megoran (Lecturer in Human Geography), Hazera Begum (former head sister for Muslim students at Northumbria University and supporter of Stop the War Coalition), Zeinab Raza (InspireMe Islam, Newcastle) and Yvonne Ridley (writer, campaigner and broadcaster).'

The importance of the issue of Islamophobia, for us in Tyneside, has recently been highlighted by the EDL attack on a left-wing meeting and the 'Koran burning' incident.

Share

Disgraced Phil Woolas appointed to shadow Home Office team

Phil Woolas, Labour MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth and a former immigration minister, has been appointed to Ed Miliband's shadow ministerial team. Incredibly, the man notorious for playing the race card in May's general election is in the new shadow Home Office team, responsible for immigration, race relations and other matters.

This leaflet was issued on polling day itself - 6 May. The text reads:

'Extremists are trying to hijack this election. They want you to vote Lib Dem to punish Phil for being strong on immigration. The Lib Dems plan to give hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants the right to stay. It is up to you? Do you want the extremists to win?'

This is tastefully placed alongside images of what appear to be Islamic extremists brandishing placards with slogans like 'Kill those who insult Islamism'.

Voters are urged: 'Please get out. Vote for Phil Woolas. Stop the extremists in their tracks. Now.'

As the Political Scrapbook blog previously highlighted, the Ritchie Report - which investigated the circumstances behind violence and rioting in Oldham in 2001 - included this paragraph:

'The BNP has exacerbated problems and undoubtedly by distribution of crude leaflets and other activity done much to stir up tensions. The mainstream political parties have a big role to play in countering this threat, as do churches and other organisations.'

Less than a month ago Liberal Conspiracy published an article called 'The Labour Party should expel Phil Woolas.' Ed Miliband has instead given him a job as a junior shadow minister.

Share

Tyneside glass workers: two more weeks of strike action

'Glass workers in Tyneside voted today for a further two weeks of strike action.

The striking workers at Tyneside Safety Glass in Gateshead will commence another fortnight of strikes on Monday October 18, their union Unite said.

They began their strike on Monday September 20 after the company imposed a second year of pay freezes as well as changes to shift patterns that added 10 hours to the working week in some cases.

Unite regional officer Bill Green said: "Over the past two years our members have been intimidated and bullied.

"The employer has openly informed our shop stewards that it intends to break the union on site. Basic pay is not that far above the national minimum wage and a further year of pay freezes will see their pay fall closer to the minimum wage."

Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke said members have been magnificent in "standing up to a bullying management and defending our union." '

Via Morning Star

Share

Ken Loach and Michael Heseltine on Newsnight

The man who brought me into political activity for the first time - when he closed the pits and threw 30,000 miners on the dole (in October 1992) - loses his temper, as Ken Loach ("We should talk about the undeserving rich") is a model of restrained, focused anger.

Well done, Ken!  You spoke for millions of us.



See also:
Lindsey German debates child benefit cut on Jeremy Vine show
John Rees debates Lord Digby Jones

Share

Benn and Galloway in Gateshead

Via the Northern Echo:

'THE annual tribute to the leader of the first miners’ union will be held on Saturday.

Former Labour, and later Respect, MP George Galloway will attend the Thomas Hepburn commemorative service along with Tony Benn, the former Labour MP who attends each year’s Durham Miners’ Gala.

The service will be held at 11am in St Mary’s Church, Heworth, Gateshead. It will feature an address from Mr Galloway and readings from Gateshead Council’s Labour leader, Mick Henry, and a pupil from Thomas Hepburn Community School, Gateshead.

Thomas Hepburn, who was born at Pelton, near Chester-le-Street, in 1795 started work in the mines aged eight and was the leader of the Colliers United Association of Durham and Northumberland, which was formed in 1825. It led to a strike in 1831 which resulted in boys’ daily working hours being reduced from 18 to 12, after which Hepburn and other leaders were victimised.

David Hopper, general secretary of the NUM (North- East Area), said: “It seems ironic that the coalition Government is still attacking trade unions as irresponsible organisations when you look back in history and see why they were formed – namely to protect the interests and safety of working people.

“I dread to think what working conditions in the UK would be in the present day without the unions.’’

■ On Friday at 6pm Mr Benn will give the Thomas Hepburn Lecture in Gateshead Old Town Hall Performance Hall.
Admission is by free ticket, available by calling 0191- 433-3000 or at gateshead.gov.uk'

Share

Shadow cabinet election results: a break from New Labour?

Political Scrapbook has these results from the election for the new Labour shadow cabinet (check Scrapbook in case there any errors that need correcting). There are 19 places, 49 candidates stood, and the voting was by members of the Parliamnetary Labour Party.

Those results in full: Yvette Cooper (232), John Healey (192), Ed Balls (179), Angela Eagle (165), Andy Burnham (165), Alan Johnson (163), Douglas Alexander (160), Jim Murphy (160), Tessa Jowell (152), Caroline Flint (139), John Denham (129), Hilary Benn (128), Sadiq Khan (128), Mary Creah (119), Ann McKechin (117), Maria Eagle (107), Meg Hillier (106), Ivan Lewis (104), Liam Byrne (100)

My initial thoughts:

Who on earth is John Healey? (Google search here we come).

Does this mean Yvette Cooper will be strongly favoured (over Ed Balls) to become shadow chancellor, or does it make no diference that she comfortably topped the poll (and should we care?)

Do the strong votes for Burnham, Johnson, the loathsome Blairite Jim Murphy and others suggest that many Labour MPs are not exactly desperate for change? (yes it does).

Isn't it rather lovely that certain names - Straw, Miliband D, Darling, Brown N - aren't on the list, as they've chosen to stand down? (yes it is).

Is this a radical break from the last 13 years? (Clearly not, considering many of those names, but it's not complete continuity either).

Will I weep because Shaun Woodward and Ben Bradshaw failed to make it? (No I won't).

Also see:
New Labour's Top Ten Shits
Ed Miliband, Labour and the battles ahead

Updates (9.20pm): Healey, it turns out, has been shadow housing minister. There are no North East MPs in there at all - oh so different from the Blair years - and no Welsh MPs.

Paul Mason, Newsnight's economics editor, says on Twitter that it breaks down as 6 Ed Mili supporters, 6 "Brownites for Ed" and 7 David Mili supporters. I've also seen a report that 5 were Ed Mili backers and 10 were David Mili supporters. It's clearly a resolutely right-wing shadow cabinet, with Blairites like Tessa Jowell making it through with ease.

According to the Fabians' Next Left blog, only 8 are new - so there's a great deal of continuity in personnel. Next Left reports the newbies are: John Healey, Angela Eagle, Caroline Flint, Mary Creagh, Ann McKechin, Maria Eagle, Meg Hillier, Ivan Lewis. 11 of the 25 shadow cabinet posts are now taken by women (there are several members, like leader and deputy leader, who weren't elected as part of this process, hence the figure of 25).

Oh, and just realised I was (in my hurry) getting Jim Murphy mixed up with Jim Fitzpatrick, but looked him up and he's almost as bad! The list is a reminder that a) more Lab MPs voted for David M than for any other candidate, and b) almost no Lab MPs voted for Diane Abbott, the only remotely left-wing candidate. So no great surprises, though I imagine some people who cheered Mister Ed's election as a victory for the left will be rather deflated.

And anyone who hoped for a new epoch in foreign policy - following the new leader's declaration that war in Iraq was wrong - should note the fact Eric Joyce was unsuccessful. Joyce resigned from a junior post in defence last year because of his concerns about Afghanistan, and he's become a critic of both Trident and the occupation of Afghanistan. But no, he's failed to get in.

Share

Victory for CLR James Library campaign

A message from Black and Ethnic Minority Arts to supporters of the campaign to retain the name of CLR James Library:

Following a short meeting between representatives of BEMA and Members and officers of Hackney Council, an in principle agreement has been reached that the name of the new facility will carry the name of CLR James Library as per our campaign demand. A formal statement will follow shortly. Many thanks to the thousands who have supported our successful campaign online and in other ways.

Bema will be playing an ongoing role in the development of a permanent CLR James exhibition at the new library as well as the establishment of an annual event commemorating his life and work.

Ngoma Bishop & Andrea Enisuoh
Campaign co-ordinators

Share