Greater Manchester Respect

Longsight and Levenshulme residents have called a protest on Saturday 6 August 2011 at Manchester Town Hall against Manchester City Council’s changes to rubbish collection in the city.

Residents are concerned about the Council’s decision to move to fortnightly rubbish collection which impacts upon the local environment, creates loss of pride and hygiene in the area and places an increased work load on rubbish collection workers.

Residents want to know why council tax bills are calculated with weekly rubbish collections which are no longer delivered. Residents want to know why the obvious cost of an increase in the number of vermin and rats in particular is being placed upon residents in the form of a charge for extermination services when the increase is a direct consequence of council policy.

Rubbish is already piling up in Longsight and Levenshulme with a large number of grey bins overflowing for a week. This means the rubbish will pile up in alleyways, by alley gates (making them useless) and in the street. Neighbourhoods become a health hazard to children as a result.

The council decision is creating greater long term costs to the city so any savings are illusory. There must be weekly rubbish collection in the Manchester city area. Public health is more important and the council tax is paid for this reason.

Sheikh Raed Salah, one of the most prominent campaigners within Israel for Palestinian rights, has been arrested in London. The Sheikh was invited by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to speak at the launch of 'Building Peace and Justice in Jerusalem' Campaign in Parliament tonight (Wednesday 29 June), alongside MPs and other prominent speakers. He is the leader of a legitimate political party in Israel, representing Palestinians, and an outspoken champion of Jerusalem. The meeting will still go ahead.

The Sheikh entered the UK openly on 25 June and his schedule was known well in advance by UK authorities. This included a meeting in Parliament on 26 June and a public meeting the same night at Conway Hall, London, organised by PSC and MEMO on the subject of the Arab Spring and its impact on Palestine.

Despite this, the Sheikh was arrested in his hotel room last night under section 3 of the Immigration Act 1971. The Home Secretary, Teresa May, subsequently announced in the House of Commons that he was excluded from entering the UK. The government has not made clear when the ban was issued, and the Sheikh's legal team had not been contacted.

The Sheikh has appealed against the deportation in court. His team had already begun legal proceedings against Daily Telegraph and Jewish Chronicle journalists for printing false allegations about him last week.

Deporting, and subsequently banning, Sheikh Raed from the UK will be a violation of his right to free speech, his right to speak out on behalf of Palestine, and a victory for those who have spread the baseless rumours defaming his reputation. It is also notable that this ConDem government is trying to change the law to allow Israeli war criminals to enter the UK without fear of arrest. This is hypocrisy of the worst kind.

TAKE ACTION

Protest today/Write to the Home Secretary

Call or email the Home Secretary asking her to reconsider the decision. An Israeli court cleared Sheikh Raed of charges of making anti-Semitic comments. The Sheikh has reiterated that charges were dropped because there was no evidence against him. On what basis is he being excluded from the UK? Email: mayt@parliament.uk T: 020 7219 5206

A leading activist in Rochdale Labour Party has resigned and joined the Respect Party. Mohammed Doulot Miah, 36, joined the Labour Party in 1995 but decided to leave after witnessing involvement in the selection of local election candidates by Labour’s Simon Danczuk, MP. This occurred in the Kingsway ward where Mr Danczuk’s partner, Karen Burke was selected.

Mr Miah described his activism for Labour in an email outlining his resignation sent to Colin Lambert on 3 April 2011: ‘I… have campaigned in Wardleworth and Smallbridge ward (Central Rochdale) to regain the lost Labour councillors. As a young Bangladeshi I have been very active in voluntary and community work where I grew up. Currently I live in the Milkstone and Deeplish Ward. Again, I have helped in the Labour campaign. I contributed to gain a Labour MP too. I did also stand as a candidate in 2004 in the Healey Ward.’

Mr Miah has joined the Respect Party and will contest the Kingsway ward for the party on 5 May 2011 on a platform of opposition to the public service cuts and the rundown of Rochdale Infirmary. He is proud to stand for a party that expresses values he feels the Labour Party has ditched locally and nationally. He joins Javed Iqbal, standing in Milkstone and Deeplish ward, who led a mass resignation from the Liberal Democrats in 2008.

Chris Chilvers, Respect Party National Treasurer, explained Mr Miah’s experience was not unique. ‘There have been mass resignations from Labour and Liberal Democrat parties in Rochdale in recent years. Even councillors have resigned from the Liberal Democrats. Why? There is a growing distance between the three main parties and their supporters. The people of Rochdale want regeneration and investment not cuts and job losses. To keep their candidates ‘on message’, the big parties increasingly reject basic democratic procedures and values. Respect is about defending our communities from cuts, job losses and division. We want community leaders like Mohammed Miah to open up an alternative politics based upon keeping promises and dignity not abandoned when power beckons.’

Manchester City Council has reversed its decision to close Levenshulme Baths. It has admitted that it misjudged the level of anger and opposition the closure provoked. Its Finance Committee has produced a solution whereby the Baths will be kept open for the next two years and then replaced with a new facility. This was agreed on Monday, 28 February.

Marie-Angelique Bueler, Friends of Levenshulme Convenor and Chair of the Save Our Baths campaign that has mobilized the community, said, ’the people of Levenshulme, Longsight and Gorton have won a hugely significant victory in stopping this public service cut. It shows the power of protest to shift the agenda away from simply asking which service should close to an alternative option of ways to keep our communities alive when the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition government tries to ruin Manchester.

‘Every person that has spoken out against the closure of the Levenshulme Baths has won today. However, celebration is premature. We know that the ConDems want to cut for years to come and no public service is safe. We know that the Labour council has been trying to close Levenshulme Baths for twenty years. We know that other services are threatened across Manchester and every one that is closed will increase the pressure to close more.

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!


The departure of Hosni Mubarak is a world historic victory for the poor, the oppressed and the exploited of the Arab world - and indeed for the wider world..

For decades we have been told that the Arab masses were apatheitic and impotent, that the best that could be hoped for were venal and autocratic rulers whose job was to support US policy in the region while lining their own pockets. Yet in just a few short weeks the masses of, first, Tunisia and now Egypt have torn this view to pieces

The Conservative-led coalition is a disaster for the people of the northern cities and towns. £109 million is being slashed from the Manchester City Council budget this year with more cuts to follow in coming years. They simply have no right to do this. The government has no popular mandate for trying to wipe out public services to clear the deficit at the expense of the working people of Manchester, Liverpool and the northern towns like Oldham, Blackburn, Burnley and Rochdale.

Called by Egyptians in Manchester and supported by the Respect Party. Bring friends, bring banners, bring flags.
Please forward and circulate by email and text message.

The ConDems are no friends of democracy or democratic process. The manipulation of the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election with the Liberal Democrats choosing the date (it was previously held by Labour so should have been chosen by Labour) was an unpleasant example of the desperation of this government. The date chosen - 13 January 2011 - makes it impossible for an effective election campaign to take place so weakening democratic process and choice.

George Galloway noted that ‘these are the very politicians that pretend they wish to make Parliament more democratic while ignoring their own manifesto and all pledges, especially on tuition fees. The Liberal Democrats want to avoid the consequences of putting the Tories in office and joining them in unholy pact. It will not work’.

The eruption of a student protest movement and against the ideologically motivated austerity programme will destroy the Liberal Democrats in the cities where, like second hand car salesmen, they told voters that they were anti-Tory.

The Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election arises from the disqualification of Phil Woolas after his election campaign circulated dishonest comments on his opponent. The comments were designed to whip up racist sentiment typified when his campaign team talked of ‘getting the white folks angry’. This strategy of deliberately stoking up divisions in the community on the basis of demonizing the Muslim population was for short term electoral gain but does huge damage locally. It is shameful that the Labour Party has not distanced itself from him in Oldham, expelled his campaign team or apologized for the racism of his campaign. As a result, racism will remain a key election issue in Oldham.

The huge assault on our public services is beginning. Already, Oldham council has been told by the ConDems that it will suffer a 19% cut in its central funding from next year. This will be devastating for schools, services, libraries and our council tax. Four hospitals are being told to cut their Accident and Emergency units in the Greater Manchester area, including Oldham. The disaster of the ‘academies’ strategy is dragging down the schools, infuriating parents and teachers who campaigned against it. The cuts so far are ‘Labour cuts’ brought in by the dying Labour government. The situation will worsen for our communities and services unless we protest.

The Tories, Lib Dems and Labour are all wedded to austerity. They all want working class people to pay for the crisis of the banks. Their strategies will increase inequality and poverty. Respect calls for investment in jobs and services as the best way to bring the economy out of recession and increase tax revenues. We also believe in collecting tax from those such as Gideon Osbourne, the Tory Chancellor, who exploited tax loopholes of £1.6 million last year.

The Green Party has declared a candidate. Peter Allen is an active trade unionist, environmental and peace activist. Most importantly, he is opposed to the divisive politics of racism and a supporter of Palestinian solidarity. He has worked with Respect for many years on joint projects and Respect has no wish to compete with such an excellent candidate.

Respect will therefore not stand and will support Peter Allen. We share a common strategy of investment not cuts, investment in green jobs and services and support for the protest movement that can unite the people of Oldham, instead of the poisonous legacy of Phil Woolas.

On Thursday, 9 December, MPs will vote on the ConDem proposal for tuition fee rises that will make it impossible for working class children to attend university.

The ConDems are scrapping Aim Higher, Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) and reducing every other initiative that is part of the ladder for our children to pursue education.

Every parent should be encouraged to join these demonstrations and support the occupations of the colleges. Just the rise in tuition fees is enough to choke off the future for most children. Parents with a five year old child that save £100 each month (how many of us can do that now?) until the child is 18 will still be unable to pay for these fees. Yet the millionaires, public school boys and baronets running the ConDem government received free university education but now want to deny it to working class people.

But the situation is worse than £9,000 per year tuition fees. The abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), the Aim Higher scheme and the slashing of the Future Jobs Fund and Young Person’s Guarantee worsen the position of any working class teenager wanting to study. The Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition is kicking away the ladder for our children in education and creating a new elite system. The future is not education but attempts to find work at a time of mass unemployment and lower incomes.

We know that the Conservative Party is populated by public school boys from wealthy backgrounds. We know that many ministers went to schools such as Eton and then on to Oxford and Cambridge where they did not pay a penny for their education. Worse, we now know how much energy these ministers put into avoiding tax and pushing money offshore to make themselves richer while making the country poorer.

The Liberal Democrats pledged to oppose a rise in tuition fees before the 2010 general election knowing they had already planned to ditch the pledge if entering government. They campaigned for anti-Tory support and then joined the Tories in government. To do so, the Liberal Democrats sold the future of our children. The Labour Party has fared little better, having been left in the pathetic position of being unable to effectively oppose the rises after it brought in tuition fees, ditching its own 1997 pledge.

Salma Yaqoob, Respect Party leader explained that ‘The student protests are piling the pressure on our hypocritical politicians. They are an inspiration to everyone to make their voices heard. It is a disgrace that politicians, who got their university education for free, along with a grant for living expenses that they did not have to pay back, should now deny this to the student generation of today.’

This is why we should support the students and join them in protesting. These protests are about giving our children a future and so are protests for us all. We cannot let the ConDems kick away the ladder for our children. Greater Manchester Respect will be marching with students, FE college students and school children to stop the ConDems kicking away the ladder.