Solidarity with striking workers!

2 11 2010

FBU picket line

Firstly, solidarity to RMT and TSSA members on strike today and tomorrow.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said:

“All we have been asking is that the London Mayor stick to the pledge he made during his election campaign, when he too recognised that people wanted to see stations staffed properly. The message is simple: suspend these cuts and we will suspend our action.

“Only last week Tube workers were commended by the inquest into the July 7 bombings for their selfless actions in rescuing victims, yet among them are the very grades that the mayor is now intent on cutting.

“Far from keeping his word, the Mayor now has more than 2,000 Tube jobs in his sights. He now has a choice. He can either be rembered for devastating Tube safety and the fabric of the network or he can work with us to defend it.”

TSSA general Secretary Gerry Doherty said:

“Boris has broken his word to Londoners on delivering a world class Tube in time for the Olympics in 20 months time.

“He has also broken his word on keeping full staffed ticket offices open. Instead of trying to impress the Tory shires with his anti trade union rhetoric, he should be sitting down with us to work out a fair solution to this dispute which no one wants.”

Secondly, solidarity to FBU members striking on Bonfire night. It’s shocking as well reading the vicious and violent tactics being used by scabs (see Madam Miaow’s post as well). There’s also been debates about the rights (Go Simon!) and wrongs (So wrong an article penned by David Allen Green) about FBU members taking strike action on 5th November.

I wholeheartedly support strike on 5th November. Why is it when workers take action against injustice, unfairness and attacks on pay and conditions they get vilified and demonised? Who started this ‘abuse of power’ (to use David Allen Green’s phrase)? The likes of Brian Coleman and Ron Dobson, they are the ones who have started this by threatening to terminate contracts.

This meant sacking all firefighters, and only re-engaging those who signed up to Mr Dobson’s requirements.

The bully boy tactics shown by management by trying to crush resistance and create a compliant workforce. Well, courageous FBU members have shown what they think of these tactics by striking. We should support striking workers taking a stand against management. And with the massive cuts to the public sector there will be an industrial fightback, expect to see more strikes are workers take a stand against these austerity measures expect to see more dirty tricks and lies peddled about strikes in the right-wing populist media as the heat builds up.

It also reminds me of someone (anti-union scab btw!) who said to me that she was “sick and tired of the likes of Bob Crow” bringing the transport system to its knees. My reply went….” So, it’s OK for capitalism to bring workers to their knees but once workers fight back through collective action they’re condemned. All power to the unions”!… I also recall me and another work colleague (union rep) walked out of the office as we couldn’t stomach listening to her anti-union rhetoric.

So…….Solidarity to FBU, RMT and TSSA!

Viva resistance!

See Jon’s blog and Marsha-Jane’s as well.


Comments : 3 Comments »

Categories : Strikes, Trade Unions

Damn statistics and ideology

31 10 2010

Churches are concerned that the exaggeration of benefit fraud stigmatises the poorest and most vulnerable in society. According to a Department of Work and Pensions report published in the same week as the spending review, welfare fraud accounts for £1bn of money lost, while tax-credit fraud accounts for an additional £0.6bn. That’s £1.6bn in total. What the chancellor may have tried to do is add departmental error into the equation. But even if he had done that he would not have arrived at the £5bn sum he gave in his speech.

Where does this £5bn come from? It comes from the fact Osborne has added up both fraud and error (from both DWP and HMRC) to give the total of £5bn. HMRC, incidentally, maintain that there’s no such thing as “administrative error”…cos they never get it wrong, apparently! Fraud comes to £1.6bn while error is £3.7bn. The two figures are different, unfortunately Osborne, for ideological reasons, has been lumped them together to further stigmatise and vilify the poor. Frankly, the two categories, fraud and error, should have separate reports. Also, they should break these statistics down further into the types of fraud as opposed to these generalised figures.

Reading this report on “tackling benefit fraud” where one of the author’s is David Freud, it goes about about proposed measures in dealing with benefit fraud:

DWP will therefore introduce a wide range of tougher powers to deal with welfare cheats. For those individuals who fail to take reasonable care of their claim, perhaps knowingly letting a change in circumstance run on and incurring a small overpayment, we will seek powers in line with HMRC to apply a swiftly administered £50 civil penalty as a punishment, and to deter them from such action in the future.

Are there appeal rights to these decisions?

Where we are able to prove criminal intent, we will aim to ensure that no fraudster escapes without receiving at least a tough minimum penalty. This means that DWP will no longer issue cautions. Such fraudsters will also be subject to four weeks loss of benefit payments.

Four weeks loss of benefits. Again, will there be right to an appeal? Will there be a proper investigation process?

And so on…. read the report it’s the shape of draconian things to come…

While the ConDems seek to use the poor as an ideological distraction to the economic crisis. Little is said about benefit underpayments…

Total underpayments in 2009-10 are estimated at £1.3 billion (2008-09 – £1.2 billion), which equates to 0.9% of total benefit expenditure (2008-09 – 0.9%).

And little of the state’s attention is given to statistical investigation into benefit underpayments, or indeed just how much money is saved through benefits not being claimed. Instead there is an obsession and a concentrated effort of fraud and error. These statistics aren’t used to look at the problem in an honest way they are used for dishonest purposes such as waging an ideological war on the poor. Something which NL were also very guilty of.




Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Con/Dem right-wing lash-up, Welfare Benefits, Welfare Reform

UFFC protest

30 10 2010

Today was the annual protest by the UFFC against deaths in the custody of the state. I saw people like Joan who was a very good friend of Pauline Campbell, carrying the banner showing Sarah Campbell, Pauline’s daughter, who died in Styal Prison in 2003. I was pleased to see her but it’s under poignant, tragic and sad circumstances (I still miss Pauline, she was brilliant). Again, I saw banners of people who have died at the hands of the state, families still waiting for justice.

We marched from Trafalgar Square to Downing Street armed with a letter from the families. Representatives walked to the gates of Downing Street but the heavily armed cops behind the gates wouldn’t accept the letter. So we stood there protesting our anger that the agents of the state wouldn’t take the letter.

Before going across to Downing Street there were speakers powerfully yet painfully talking about the death of their loved one, the injustice they have experienced by the state. We were standing in the road and this cop came out of nowhere and shouted,  ”Move onto the the pavement”. This exposed the utter insensitivity and lack of concern, nor showing any respect to this protest. As one of the protesters shouted in response to the cop’s demand, “Not until you stop killing people”!

Quite!

And then across the road further injustice along with no dignity nor respect shown by the cops, heavily armed they were too! It’s just a letter…. Show some humanity and humility. But no….they wouldn’t. Instead the letter was pinned to the gate with the flowers. I remember the days when you could walk down Downing Street yet now its gated. And you have to ask permission for the cops to take the letter. It’s only a letter, what are they scared of? Did they think the letter was a WMD?

A senior cop blustered excuses to families about procedure and bureaucracy but that further excuses and further ignores the rights of the families. I was livid, angry …so bloody appalled by the actions of the police and so were the crowd. We are meant to live in a democracy where a letter should be accepted without any problem but instead the closed off gate leading to 10 Downing Street is symbolic to the remoteness of democratic procedure, and not being part of this whole process.

Left outside the gate refused entry treated like invisible nobodies. Treated with contempt. Democracy was obstructed by the behaviour of these police today.

The refusal to accept the letter adds insult to injury to these families whose loved one has died in the custody of the state. No justice. No Peace.

More pix on my Flickr page



Comments : 5 Comments »

Categories : Deaths in custody

Boycott the 35

28 10 2010

Kate Belgrave has hit upon a great idea. One in which all of us should support.

A day or so before Osborne’s slash-fest, 35 companies wrote a letter to the Torygraph:

Addressing the debt problem in a decisive way will improve business and consumer confidence. Reducing the deficit more slowly would mean additional borrowing every year, higher national debt, and therefore higher spending on interest payments.

No, it wouldn’t be a decisive way to ‘improve business and consumer confidence’!

The private sector should be more than capable of generating additional jobs to replace those lost in the public sector, and the redeployment of people to more productive activities will improve economic performance, so generating more employment opportunities.

And that’s a load rubbish as well, the jobs just AREN’T THERE in the private sector. The private sector cannot rescue the public sector, it’s a myth and a big fat utter LIE!

Also, many of these companies sell items like expensive coffee, clothes and other commodities which public sector workers buy. Hasn’t it occurred to these 35 companies that their profits are gonna sink as the cuts in the public sector will have an inevitable knock-on effect to the private sector? Because many ordinary workers won’t have the money to buy a double Latte from Costa, clothes from Next or some delightful £10 quid value meal from Marks and Spencer…..

So let’s put the boot into Boots etc. Boycott these greedy companies. They want a recession, let’s give it to ‘em.

As a trade unionist I fully support Boycott the 35!


Comments : 3 Comments »

Categories : Cuts

Blasted: revisited

27 10 2010

I felt sorry for Sarah Kane when I read the original reviews of her powerful yet controversial and violent debut play “Blasted” at the Royal Court Theatre in early 1995. Howls of shock, derision and horror from the theatre critics who penned their collective disgust, there was this cacophony of condemnation for Kane. Nothing like this seen since The Romans in Britain. I was surprised by Michael Billington (Guardian) who I always had down as someone sensible but he too jumped on the “shocked and disgusted” bandwagon. “I was simply left wondering how such naive tosh managed to scrape past the Royal Court’s normally judicious play-selection committee . . . the reason that the play falls apart is that there is no sense of external reality – who exactly is meant to be fighting whom out on the streets?” Though Billington had the good grace to retract his review later.

My thoughts at the time that even though I hadn’t read the play I did want to see it. I was amazed at this crescendo of stark criticism as it drowned out Kane’s words and what she was actually trying to say. It was a case of let’s ignore that and just concentrate on the gore and violence. The play has much to say about violence against women, rape, warfare, torture and violence. No wonder it shocked the sensibilities of your average respectable theatre critic. Also, haven’t these learned critics read their Greek mythology or Shakespeare (King Lear? Titus Andronicus?). I was living in Bristol at the time and did make a mental note that I had to; a)read the play and; b) see the play. Well, that’s taken me 15 years as Blasted is being revived at the Lyric Hammersmith.

Fifteen years on I read the play too. After that experience of reading the howls of outrage directed at Kane and her debut play, I was kinda interested what she would do next. Therefore I was shocked and saddened when I read she committed suicide back in ’99. She left a number of plays, her legacy, her final one 4.48 Psychosis is seen as a final suicide note as it was finished just before she died. I do wonder what further plays she would have written if she had lived.

I think it is a point worth making as would this play have conjured up so much apoplexy and disgust had been written now? Post-2001? The era known as ‘War on Terror’ where the graphic horrors of war, torture and death penetrate our general consciousness causing us to realise the brutalities, devastation and barbarism of war. Not in my name. Rendition, Abu Ghraib and  Guantánamo Bay. Violation, humiliation and the degradation of Iraqis. US soldiers committing acts of torture, rape and violence against Iraqis which was captured in photographs makes me think of the encounter Ian (one of the main characters in Blasted) has with the anywhere soldier who casually and in a matter-of-fact way talks about the torture, rape and murder he has witnessed or has been involved with. He seems detached, and it’s this banality that makes it more shocking….and real. Reading the soldier’s account can be imagined in any war-torn country. Kane would have been well aware of the atrocities and genocide committed in the former Yugoslavia.

Also, 1995 was the year of the Srebrenica massacre where thousands of Bosniaks were tortured, raped and murdered by Serbian forces. I remember the articles in The Guardian, what will always be etched in my mind was the picture of a Bosniak woman hanging from a tree. Many women, it seemed, committed suicide then endure the violence of rape.The soldier in ‘Blasted’ could easily exist in this barbaric hell-on-earth world of Srebenica or any other place. He represents an ‘anywhere’ soldier. The play has a political context as David Greig argues in the introduction of Kane’s Complete Plays (just seeing the word ‘Complete’ is very sad coupled with a ‘what could have been been’), “Her simple premise, that there was a connection between a rape in a Leeds hotel room and the hellish devastation of civil war, had been critically misunderstood as a childish attempt to shock”.

Kane was misunderstood and thankfully some realised this. I wonder what Kane would have made of this changed political world and how she would have interpreted it. Though we left with her plays.

Btw… I will be seeing ‘Blasted’ in November.


Comments : 3 Comments »

Categories : Theatre

More bashing the poor from the ConDems

27 10 2010

Well, the poor are getting another bashing. IDS argues ‘get on the bus’ as this magical mystery tour will land you to magical job. Erm no, read this instead as it exposes the realities of IDS’s reactionary guff.

And now this from Chris Grayling….

Three-quarters of people applying for a new benefits programme have been found fit to work, or withdrew their application before having a medical assessment, it has been revealed.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said the figures emphasised the importance of getting people into work if they were fit and able to do so.
A total of 842,100 people applied for the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) programme from October 2008 until February this year, the DWP found. Of that number, 331,100 were fit to work, with a further 307,200 people’s claims being closed before the assessment was completed.
Employment minister Chris Grayling said: “With over two million people trapped on incapacity benefits, these figures underline how important it is that we make sure everyone who has the potential to work gets the right help to move off benefits and into a job.
“However, I am determined that we get the medical assessment right, which is why Professor Malcolm Harrington is undertaking an independent review in consultation with a number of charities representing disabled people and those with mental health issues.

What Grayling is doing is classic divide and rule, pointing the finger of blame to people on ESA. This further demonises and vilifies by throwing myths, distortions and lies into the public domain, and this crap sticks in the public psyche. The Work Capability Assessment is harder to satisfy than the Personal Capability Assessment . However we do not know what percentage of appeals against decisions that people are fit for work under the Work Capability Assessment will end up being successful.

There is anecdotal evidence that the examining medical practitioners who assess people are taking the hint that people should be found fit for work come what may. If this is so you can expect a high percentage of appeals to be successful.

Also as the initial amount of ESA is the same as JSA it maybe that people do not particularly notice the difference. The requirement for a medical certificate is replaced by a requirement for a fortnightly signing on. For a lot of people this may not seem much different as they may be unaware that they are missing out on £25.50 extra each week. Also sooner or later on JSA the Jobcentre will want to know what you are doing to look for work…you are after all fit for work…or so they will say.

Finally, let’s face it these medical assessments are not about what is best suited to the individual based on clinical judgement it is driven by government policy and ideology.


Comments : 4 Comments »

Categories : Con/Dem right-wing lash-up, Reactionary ratbags, Welfare Benefits, Welfare Reform

UFFC march to Downing Street – 30th October 2010

25 10 2010

Have just received this press release from the United Campiagn Against Police Violence regarding the UFFC march. There wasn’t a march last year. I am not sure whether I can go to this one as it clashes with another meeting. But it is important to show solidarity and fight for justice for those who have died in the custody of the state.

————————————————————

United Campaign Against Police Violence is supporting the United Families and Friends Campaign march to Downing Street this weekend for justice for those who have died in custody.

Assemble at 12noon on Saturday 30th October at Trafalgar Square for a march to Downing Street.

UFFC includes members of the families of Roger Sylvester, Leon Patterson, Rocky Bennett, Alton Manning, Christopher Alder, Brian Douglas, Joy Gardner, Aseta Simms, Ricky Bishop, Paul Jemmott, Harry Stanley, Glenn Howard, Mikey Powell, Jason Mcpherson and Sean Rigg – all of whom have died in custody.

Join the event on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=160780920605213&index=1

What we believe
• That failure of State officials to ensure the basic right to life is made worse by the failure of the State to ever prosecute those responsible for custody deaths.

• That the failure to prosecute those responsible for deaths in custody sends the message that the State can act with impunity.

What We Demand
• Deaths in police custody must be investigated by a body that is genuinely independent of the police.

• Prison deaths must be subject to a system of properly funded investigation that is completely independent of the Prison Service.

• Officers involved in custody deaths be suspended until investigations are completed.

• Prosecutions should automatically follow ‘unlawful killing’ verdicts at inquests.

• Police forces are made accountable to the communities that they serve.

• Immediate Legal Aid and full disclosure of information be made to the relatives of the victims for investigations, inquests and subsequent prosecutions.

• Officers responsible for deaths should face criminal charges, even if retired.

• CCTV to be placed in the back of all police vehicles


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Categories : Deaths in custody

An utter travesty….

23 10 2010

The Tories and Lib Dems today (Fri 22 Oct) talked out the Lawful Industrial Action Bill, proposed by John McDonnell MP, and supported by every trade union – having won the unanimous backing of the 2010 TUC Congress in September.

John McDonnell MP, LRC Chair, said:

“Today we have seen a revisiting of past practices of filibustering to deny the will of the House—practices that brought this House into disrepute and that we thought this new Parliament would put to one side. I believe it is a shame and a disgrace.”

An attempt was made to force a vote on the Bill, which required 100 MPs to vote in favour. Only 87 MPs (82 Labour) turned up to vote in favour.

This an utter travesty. You can see who voted for the Bill here. The Bill would have tackled the increasing practice by employers of using minor technical errors in the balloting process – which have no material effect on the outcome – to take unions to court in order to prevent them from taking industrial action.

As pointed out today during the trade union rally against cuts, Ed Miliband has gone on about the importance of trade unions but didn’t turn up yesterday nor has he appeared on any of the demos in London against the cuts. He certainly aint no friend of the unions. Like I have said time and time and time again Mister Ed isn’t the real deal, he has sold workers out especially those who voted for him. Anyone still have illusions in Mister Ed?


Comments : 5 Comments »

Categories : Trade Unions

Demo against the cuts

23 10 2010

Today when on the demo organised by various trade unions (not by the TUC…..unfortunately!!) against the cuts. Fire fighters were on strike as well today.

Solidarity!

Viva resistance!

Bob Crow - RMT

Matt Wrack - FBU

Update: More pix on my Flickr page.


Comments : 9 Comments »

Categories : Cuts, Trade Unions

Orwell Prize Launch and right-wing economists

22 10 2010

I attended the Orwell Prize Launch for 2011 last night at the Frontline Club in Paddington, amongst the crowd was Madam Miaow, Carl Raincoat and Penny Red. Venue was crowded as Jean Seaton (Director of the Prize) launched the 2011 Prize. So it seems Gabby Hinsliff and David Allen Green aka Jack of Kent will be judges for the blogging prize.

Then there was a debate on Poverty and the Spending Review – panel included Chris Giles (economics editor for the Financial Times), Lisa Harker (former co-director of ippr), Dr Patrick Nolan (chief economist Reform), and David Walker (co-author of The Verdict and Unjust Rewards). The panel represented differing political stripes but there was, ultimately, a consensus, not one of them argued for alternatives. Chris Giles was possibly the most interesting of the panel, he was highly critical of the CSR and gave his own economic analysis of the situation (he has previously undertaken research for IFS…. on a side-issue take a look at their website for the briefing re CSR). But the speaker who raised my hackles and caused my blood pressure to rise was Dr Patrick Nolan…. He works for Reform. Reform stands for:

Our key finding is that the UK public services and economy have structural problems which demand structural solutions. Those people most in need of support public services lose out most from current provision.

We believe that by liberalising the public sector, breaking monopoly and extending choice, high quality services can be made available for everyone. Reform would remove public services from the escalator of ever-rising costs. It would enable policy makers to aim for a lower level of taxation and public spending which would better suit the UK’s current and future economic challenges.

Just seeing the word ‘liberalising’ kinda explained what kind of organisation it is. He was one speaker with a giant right-wing political axe to grind especially on issues of pensions. He didn’t acknowledge the pain and misery inflicted by these massive deep and oppressive spending cuts, the others kinda did but it was said with an acceptance of the inevitable, some didn’t like the Spending Review evidently (Chris Giles, David Walker and Lisa Harker) but it still came across as muted opposition.  And hey, it probably would have hurt their bourgeois sensibilities.

And I was overwhelmed with anger, armed with one glass of wine on an empty stomach as when it came to questions and contributions my hand went in the air. I tried not to make it a) too much like a rant and b) not to fluff my lines. But booze gave me the confidence to state firmly and eloquently that there is an alternative, this being my mantra and so it should be for others who oppose these cuts:

Close up the loopholes regarding tax havens, tax avoidance and tax evasion.

Scrap Trident

Stop invading other counties, indulging in futile and barbaric wars.

Invest in public services

Stop privatisation

Tax the rich

I also mentioned being sick of hearing about ‘benefits cheats’ as nobody describes Rupert Murdoch as a benefit cheat. Also, said there was real anger about these attacks. And the way to express that anger is to protest and demonstrate, involving yourself in an ant-cuts campaign and/or your trade union as we need to resist this ideological attack on working class people (and nobody on the panel mentioned, ‘ideology’). Also, in response to Patrick Nolan and pensions, I told him what the average pension was for a civil servant (£4,200) hardly gold-plated hardly expensive. Nolan, btw, spoke at length about the need for banks, all areas need a bank… yeah Nolan, along with housing, shops, workplaces other than banks and so on….and he kept emphasising the studies he had done in Cannock Chase and Norfolk, was it?… Blimey, Cannock Case, a real snapshot of Britain

Felt so much better getting that off my chest. And the night got worse for mister Nolan as Penny Red made a great intervention, which also made the panellist very uncomfortable and boy did he get defensive…. and booed for it. Eventually he refused to give a summary instead reacting like a petulant and stroppy teenager. He also said it was ‘irresponsible’ to resist and fight against the cuts. Even the chair, Jean Seaton, interjected at that point and asked him whether he had heard of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. I think mister Nolan just thinks we should suck in our opposition and accept the reality. Er no…. I don’t think so… Oh, and writing of ‘benefit cheats’ and this whole vilification and demonisation of people on benefits combined with this ‘culture of dependency’ nonsense… James Purnell turned up lurking at the back towards the end and he left rather quickly. Dammit….he’s one person who deserves one long rant….and I was on a roll…

Two things I wished I had asked our esteemed panel was this.

  1. Where did the original bank bail-out of trillions go? Chris Giles said that bailout was excluded from the deficit. BUT where did that money go?
  2. And what happens to the money from the cuts to solve the deficit crisis…what are the implications and where will the money go?

One bloke in the audience asked whether an economic crisis will happen again. In my opinion, of course it bloody will,  boom and bust are necessary to create the conditions for the creation of huge accumulations of capital. The next bust will be a nasty big bust as well. More demands for the working class to suffer again to pay for the new crisis.

Overall…great night especially as when the talk was finished, mister Nolan walked past me, stopped and turned, shaking his head at me.

Right-wing economist: 0             Anti-cuts supporters: 1

Result!

Update: Patrick Nolan has written a post which includes mention of my question/contribution last night. Well, the fact he write for the Spectator says it all. Many thanks to comrade Carl who defended me (though venturing onto the Spectator…a very brave thing to do Carl!)

Madam Miaow on the Orwell Prize Launch


Comments : 8 Comments »

Categories : Cuts

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