Just updated my Flickr account haven’t done in ages…..
Oh well!
Monthly Archives: July 2009
LRC vs HOPI cricket match
Fundraising cricket match tomorrow between LRC and HOPI. John McDonnell will be captain of the LRC side (go LRC, go LRC) and Attila the Stockbroker will be captain of the HOPI side….(go LRC, go LRC)… Well, whatever the outcome it should be a fun-tastic day…
If you want to be a player (batting/fielding/all-rounder) as opposed to spectator then see the websites. The kick-off (is that the correct term for cricket?) is at 12 noon.
Btw: I wonder who is gonna be the umpire.?
Gagging criticism
Blogging about the activities of outsourcing companies used by government and local councils seems to be a problem. It seems to be likely to get you gagged if you criticise them. It is also more difficult to get hold of information about what they are doing and why they are doing it.
Government bodies are not allowed to sue you for defamation. They cannot hide behind “commercial confidentiality”.
In the Bookbinder judgement the courts decided a local authority did not have the right to maintain an action of damages for defamation. The courts decided that it was contrary to the public interest that organs of government, whether central or local, should have the right to sue for libel because any governmental body should be open to uninhibited public criticism and to allow such actions would place an undesirable fetter on freedom of speech.
To reiterate the point, freedom of speech and the ability to criticise is intergral to democracy and that is precisely why central and local government can’t sue for defamation. I am sure the DWP spits venom when it sees the criticism about the department but they cannot sue.
But with the continued privatisation and contracting-out, with the creation of a dystopian present/future, freedom to criticise is under threat. Again, an important part of our civil liberties is to be able speak out without the worry of being gagged and therefore denied a voice, silencing critics into submission. Surely private companies should be, rather like central and local government, be exempt from the libel laws?
And with both the Tories and NL desperately selling out the welfare state to the preferred bidders then the freedom to criticise will be curtailed. Private companies will be able to gag you with the bourgeois defamation laws and corporate confidentiality, combined with wielding power and control over people and what they say/write (claimants who speak out and expose the behaviour of contracted-out providers of the benefits system… and the result being they get gagged…)
There will be increased secrecy, transparency and accountability will be fundamentally eroded.
The exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 are likely to maintain high levels of secrecy. Corporate financial reporting requirements are virtually irrelevant to gaining information concerning investment strategies, supply chains, subcontractor relationships, employment practices and contract performance. (New Labour’s Attack on Public Services, Dexter Whitfield).
And that’s what the future holds….
An appalling shocking judgement
An absolutely appalling judgement regarding the 4 Unison activists. Utterly wrong, wrong, wrong… Sorry I can’t make the lobby today but good luck with the protest. This judgement makes a mockery of union democracy.
And as Jon says: As a former General Secretary nearly said to National Delegate Conference in 1998, if it walks like a politically motivated witch hunt and it quacks like a politically motivated witch hunt…
—————–
SENTENCE HAS BEEN PASSED ON THE FOUR
A BAN FROM OFFICE FOR THREE YEARS !
PROTESTS URGENTLY NEEDED
Please inform other trade unionists about the disgraceful punishment of the four. Protest letters to Dave Prentis are needed. Please see background information for details of the charges.
LOBBY UNISON HQ
A lobby will take place on Thursday 30th July outside the Unison HQ Mabledon Place, London WC1H at 12 noon.
Other protests and meetings will be announced shortly.
Donations to the campaign are also needed.
Please make cheques payable to: ‘Stop the Witch-hunt’ and post to: Defend the Four Campaign, PO Box 858, London, E11 1YG
SEND YOUR PROTESTS TO:
UNISON HQ
1 Mabledon Place
London WC1H 9AJ
Telephone: 0845 355 0845
e-mail: d.prentis@unison.co.uk
Please Send copies of protest statements
Defend the Four Campaign, PO Box 858 London E11 1YG
or email info@stopthewitchhunt.org.uk
http://www.stopthewitchhunt.org.uk/
http://jonrogers1963.blogspot.com/2009/07/draconian-punishment-for-ill-judged.html
http://unionfutures.blogspot.com/2009/07/defend-4-suspended-for-3-years.html
Second son of Ralph on Newsnight….
Just watched Ed Miliband on Newsnight regarding wind turbines and Vestas. He’s one plodding pedestrian-style political operator who says sod all. He said it was up to Vestas and not the government… He’s an idea Ed, nationalise Vestas! Ed was matched against Greenpeace and a speaker from an organisation called Stop the Spin that campaigns against turbines in Northamptonshire. Apparently the problem is this: the opposition to wind turbines (which do represent an industrial intrusion into the countryside) means that there is not the market for onshore turbines so the company walks (as it can with Britain’s rubbish employment protection laws).
Dealing with these conflicting pressures will take co-ordination and co-operation: not the cut throat competition that both NL and the tories love so much. At present the wind farm industry is driven by profit: people will feel that they are having their environment wrecked for others to make a quick buck: that is what neo-liberalism does all the time. The second son of Ralph is not up to providing this kind of leadership and going against the dogmas of neo-liberalism
Blackpool: suspended in another time
Someone recently described to me Las Vegas as Blackpool on acid, or was that Las Vegas on acid…? Either way it was wet, wet wet, windswept and I got soaked in Blackpool.
The hotel room smelled of extreme damp and twas dank, I changed room only to discover the handle on the toilet had fallen off …. with a fantastic puddle on the floor….
Outside hotel window
It didn’t stop raining, grim, depressing and kinda soul destroying. You woulda not been mistaken if you believed this was autumn/winter months as everywhere was deserted and boarded up, the roads around the centre were being dug up, so was part of the beach/pier. I really did feel like suspended in time …. and I had snatches of memories from my childhood of the promenade (it felt like the 1950s then when it was the late 1970s!). Blackpool seems to be pickled in aspic….
Waiting for the train to take me back to the metropolis I was sitting with other people from the conference I attended. One of them said, ‘Don’t you write for Labour Briefing?’
‘Yes I do’…. I replied.
Ahhh the memories
Kinda nice to be recognised, was indeed flattered and uplifted my spirits, it gave a glimmer of light to a rather desolate dismal day.
Vestas: case adjourned until 4 August
Just back from Blackpool…. and heard while on the train back that the judge refused to grant Vestas a possession order.
We live to fight another day – next Tuesday, to be precise. More days to build the solidarity! Send messages to savevestas@gmail.com, sign the petitions on the 10 Downing Street site and the FoE site, visit the plant, organise a protest in your town, follow Miliband!
Oh, and many thanks to tonyb for his report from the Vestas protest yesterday while I was getting soaked in windswept Blackpool….
Vestas in Whitehall Place
Harpy has got camera problems!
The Vestas demo outside the Dept of Energy & Climate Change was small but vocal: about 200 people chanted in support of the Vestas workers. A number of speakers including Oliver New from the RMT, Jean Lambert MEP and Drew who is a Vestas worker spoke.
Oliver from the RMT mentioned that the Vestas workers are not the only people in green jobs that are facing the sack as ordinary people are made to pay for the bosses’ crisis. The RMT is having to defend thousands of public transport workers from the dole queue.
Jean Lambert and speakers from the green movement highlighted the urgency of the situation. There is a climate change emergency. As the summner sea ice disappears the Artic Ocean will absorb solar radiation instead of reflecting it out into space. This will have a knock on effect with the permafrost in the land around the ocean releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gas. Even a small amount of these gases will outweigh the tiny amount of carbon savings made so far.
Drew’s contribution was inevitably the most moving. The Vestas factory is vital to the Isle of Wight. Employment on the island is otherwise poorly paid seasonal work in the tourist trade. Other factories on the island and nearby on the mainland depend on the Vestas plant. He described the way that a small committee had formed itself to oppose redundancies through a workers occupation. This was in a company that was and is bitterly hostile to trade unions. They outwitted the management in actually getting into occupation of the management block at the front of the company. There has been a huge level of support both from local people and from far and wide. Drew described how when the occupiers where suffering from not having a hot meal the crowd outside crushed the barriers around the building and demanded a hot meal to be provided. A little while later some spaghetti bolougaise was sent in by management! The pizza delivery though showed Vestas to be a small-minded little company to work for…in with the pizza’s were 11 dismissal letters.
It was pointed out that although the trade union movement and the green movement should be natural allies they have too often been on opposite sides. Vestas is as Drew said in the middle of a perfect storm…if trade unions are at the forfront of defending existing green jobs and demanding more the potential for positive change is unlimited.
Blackpool: here I come..
Well, I am off to Blackpool very soon. Thankfully, I should be receiving a report about the Vestas occupation tonight as I can’t go (darnit… clone me now….).
Anyway, saw this on the F Word regarding feminist art.
Interesting and fascinating website. Indeed feminist art exploded on the scene during the late 60s onwards yet kinda stayed on the margins. Very exciting and creative times. Shame they didn’t include the wonderful punk artist Linder (or maybe they have and didn’t spot her) who depicted the commodification and oppression of women by using collage and photomontage as her medium.
The exhibition Panic Attack, which took place two years ago included many of the artists named in the Wack website.
Reminds me as well of the Linda Nochlin groundbreaking essay on women and art.
See you later….
Olympics: the countdown is upon us…
So the pomp has started, along with the countdown. Boris is chipper, so is Tessa….. Oh yes, the Olympics are on track….London 2012. And the various talking heads spouting forth about what legacy this sporting event will leave.
Well, I can think of one in an instant…debt. Originally the Olympics was supposed to cost the taxpayer something in the region of £2.4 billion. It now stands at an astronomical £9.3 billion (and it could go beyond £10 billion). Oh, and private finance was supposed to sub the rest…but there’s an economic crisis. Yes, there’s smiles from Boris and Tessa while the costings spiral out of control.
But once the Olympics have been and gone, what then? What will happen to the venues and apartments (half, apparently will be ‘earmarked’ for social housing).
And well I never…someone is making a profit…!
The other legacy coming out of the Olympics was grassroots sports projects but funding has failed to materialise. And lets not forget the raids on public money to fund this 2 week elitist spectacle.
Well, I for one will be definitely out of London come the grand event…..
