My badge of dissent

I will be wearing my badge of dissent and protest with pride.

Up yours Acpo! 

A private organisation that has so much information at its fingertips yet what they do is confidential and bypasses the Freedom of Information Act. They watch us. We can’t watch them. No accountability or transparency in this ever decreasing democracy. Oh, and Acpo has no single definition (no surprise there…) of extremism. They can infiltrate us and put us under surveillance.

But they won’t stop me protesting and demonstrating no matter how hard they try by labelling, classifying, categorising and criminalising me.

Hat tip: Kevin … Hope you don’t mind me borrowing your ASBO badge of dissent…..

 T-shirts and badges and other commericial bits and pieces will be one great marketing ploy!

Support the postal workers – London meeting last night

Attended the meeting last night regarding the postal workers support group meeting. There were speakers from the CWU and UCU branch from Tower Hamlets College. Alison Lord (UCU) spoke about the events that led up to the members taking strike action. While the strike was happening postal workers stopped post coming into the college and out of the college. Collective action in practice!

UCU members were on strike for 4 weeks, and support and solidarity is vital as that it keeps spirits high, builds confidence and lifts morale. But it also sends a message to management that the strike is solid. They won their demands which meant that management backed down over compulsory redundancies. Speaker from the CWU spoke about the attack on their pensions as Royal Mail may close the pension scheme which means workers will lose their pensions. Royal Mail are cutting full-time jobs, there’s an increase in bullying and harassment of workers. This creates a climate of fear with Royal mail running roughshod through pay and conditions. The postal workers are fighting back.

What does modernisation mean in reality?

Postal workers: threats to job security, compulsory redundancies, cuts in pay.

Customer (i.e. you): Less reliable and later services. More delivery office closures and privatisation that means…. a service based on profit and not on need!

Management: More profit and bonuses.

So while the workers and the public are being shafted, Crozier et al will be doing very nicely thank-you-very-much! And Adam Crozier, the man from the private sector destroying a vital public service. The postal workers are under attack from the establishment, along with the lies peddled in the media.

If you want to show solidarity and ensure a victory to the postal workers this is what you can do:

1. Do a collection in your workplace/college/community.
2. Raise a motion of support at your next TU meeting.
3. There will be a protest outside Dartford ‘outhouse’ scab centre tomorrow (28^th)
4. Protest at Mandelson’s department (Dept for Business, Innovation and Skills)
5. Get involved with local support group.

 The next strike days are:

29^th October – All Maill Centres/Networks

30 October – MDEC – Plymouth, Stoke, Stockport

31 October – All Delivery Offices

Other things: Contact your MP and ask them to support the postal workers

                             Urge them to sign EDM 2035

                              Write to Adam Crozier @ Royal mail, Unilever House, 100 Victoria Embankment, London EC4 0HQ

And download the petition at www.cwu.org.

There was also a suggestion for a London demonstration showing solidarity and unity with the postal workers.

Victory to the postal workers!!

‘Welfare Reform leaves single parents in a one-sided deal’….says Gingerbread

This press release from Gingerbread

Welfare reforms starting today mean 68,000 more single parents will be forced to look for work or risk a benefit cut but new research from Gingerbread shows that Government is not providing the support that parents were promised.

Today’s reforms will see all single parents with a youngest child aged 10 or 11 switched from Income Support to the tougher Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) regime under which they must attend fortnightly jobcentre interviews and show they have applied for jobs between interviews.  Parents will be switched over in phases.

Furthermore and this is contradictory to what Yvette Cooper and predecessor Purnell promising ‘support and help’ in helping lone parents get back to work…

Single parents with a youngest aged 12 were the first to be moved to the new system last year.  But Gingerbread’s in-depth interviews with 34 of these parents – before and after their 2008 switch – reveal that ‘support’ is thin on the ground (summary of research findings attached to this email).

Many have not been offered the meetings with a New Deal adviser they are entitled to.  Many simply feel demoralised by repeated job rejections, even more insecure financially, under intense pressure in a tight labour market  – yet no better equipped to find work.
The charity is calling on Government to commit to its side of the bargain.

So aint it funny….draconian measures are implemented quickly yet the ‘support’ is nowhere to be seen. Penalisation and sanctions will ultimately lead to misery, further debt and poverty.

NL they really beggar belief!

Quick observations….

Well, I will try and organise my thoughts later regarding the postal workers support meeting I attended this evening….too tired at moment. Very interesting meeting along with ideas and suggestions in building solidarity with the striking postal workers.

Had a lovely meal afterwards at a vegetarian Indian restaurant on Drummond Street by Euston Station (great veggie Indian restaurants which I have been frequenting  for years). Just thought I’d add that, like I said am tired.

One thing that made me chuckle before start of the meeting was a comrade who asked me where my camera was as, ‘you’ve always got your camera with you’. Well, I was giving it a day off….for once.

Oh, just finally with all the debate and arguments about no platform for fascists I remember this powerful song from mists of time and it had an impact on childhood/teenage years.

Tom Robinson – Winter of ’79 from the excellent Power in the Darkness.