Greater Manchester Respect

Bin these rubbish changes

2011-08-02T14:46:00.000-07:00

PROTEST
Saturday 6 August 2011
1.30pm
Albert Square
Outside Manchester Town Hall

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 ARRESTED - URGENT ACTION ALERT

2011-06-29T12:43:00.000-07:00

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

Leading Labour activist joins Respect in Rochdale

2011-04-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

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.’

Save Manchester Advice

2011-03-09T12:55:00.001-08:00

Does my society look big in this?

2011-03-09T12:53:00.001-08:00

Mr Cameron and his very junior partner Nick Clegg would have us believe that our society can do just fine with fewer nurses and teachers, cuts to the emergency services and tripled university tuition fees. Closing down schools, hospitals, childrens' centres and services for the elderly adds up to a smaller, worse society, neither big or better. All in the cause of deficit reduction? How about taxing the bankers' bonuses and closing down corporate tax evasion. Wear Philosophy Football's 'Does my Society Look Big in This' T-shirt on the 26 March TUC March for the Alternative, the brilliant direct action of UKUncut or wherever and whenever the protest takes you. Available in sizes S-XXL, plus women's skinny fitted. From www.philosophyfootball.com at a SPECIAL CAMPAIGN LOW PRICE. JUST £12.99!

'We have shown the power of protest': Levenshulme Baths to stay open

2011-02-28T07:04:00.000-08:00

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.

‘Manchester and Britain needs an alternative to the destruction of our services and communities. The Save Our Baths campaign will keep pushing for a better service that is publicly funded. We want to produce alternative proposals for keeping and improving services in Manchester and for strengthening our communities rather than letting them be destroyed.

‘Levenshulme Baths is not just a swimming pool. It is like a community centre with a gym, sauna, steam room, massage room, clubs for women, over 50s, children. It has the only training pool in South Manchester for children to learn to swim and four local schools use it for lessons. Because of previous closures, it serves people across South East Manchester and requires expansion not closure. Our community has demonstrated that it deserves a better future than has been offered and we will keep fighting for it.’

There is a protest planned against cuts in Manchester on Saturday 5 March at 11.30am meeting at All Saints Square off Oxford Road. There is also a lobby of the full meeting of Manchester City Council on Wednesday 9 March at 9am in Albert Square outside the town hall.

Save Levenshulme Baths

2011-02-16T10:41:00.001-08:00

T-shirt raises solidarity with democracy campaigners in Egypt

2011-02-16T10:32:00.000-08:00

"You are the generation that will overcome defeat" Arab poet Nizar Qabbani

For eighteen days so many of us were glued to the TV screens as a revolt unfolded that shook the Arab world , and beyond. When Murbarak finally resigned Philosophy Football were inspired to produce a

fundraising solidarity T-shirt by an article Tariq Ali wrote in the Guardian .

The article quotes one of the great Arab poets of the modern era, Nizar Qabbani. Writing in the aftermath of the 1967 six-day war and the coming to power in Egypt of the US-backed dictators, first Saddat, then Murbarak, the poem's prophecy was finaly fulfilled in 2011 " You are the Generation that will overcome defeat."

Philosophy Football's T- shirt is produced in association with the publishers Verso. It will raise funds for Egypt's pro-democracy campaign groups. Groups already active in solidarity with Egypt, Stop the War and others, as well as Verso authors who know the protest movement very well, including Tariq Ali, will be asked to nominate recipients who will make the most effective use of the resources. And generosity is rewarded with the offer of The Verso Book of Dissent at half-price, usual price £12.99, when bought with the shirt.

Available from Philosophy Football

Mubarak Goes! Let Tyrants Tremble.

2011-02-11T09:29:00.001-08:00

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

While US politicians toyed with the idea of democracy, as a stick to beat their enemies, they resolutely turned they back on democracy when it can to supporting their own puppet presidents and princes. Today the democratic demands and heroic bravery of the Egyptian people have begun a process of genuine people's regime change.

The victory in Egypt today - despite the fact that there is so much further to go - is already fueling further revolutionary developments across a region. These developments will have the US and its allies quaking as their imperial order, so secure for decades, is now under threat.

The Egyptian revolution is a glorious advance. Everyone who believes in genuine progress owes the Egyptian masses a profound debt of gratitude. There is much yet to do, but for the moment we join with the celebrations of the Egyptian people on this historic day. Victory to the Eyptian Revolution.

Cuts Crisis: the gutting of Manchester

2011-02-09T15:29:00.000-08:00

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.

These cuts will kill our communities. It is not just the 2,000 city council jobs being axed in Manchester or the 1,500 in Liverpool but services in every area of the city are being destroyed.

Six libraries are being shut while all will close on Friday and Sunday.
Two swimming pools in Levenshulme and Miles Platting will close. This is despite £250,000 of refurbishment on Levenshulme Baths recently, money now wasted.
Leisure centres in Levenshulme, Ardwick and Newton Heath will be shut along with Debdale Sailing Centre. Abraham Moss leisure centre is also under threat.
Black bin collections will no longer be weekly. Overnight street cleaning will end.
Lollipop staff for schools are being axed.
All public toilets except one are being shut.
Every Sure Start and youth centre is being given up by the Council with 30 posts being lost.
The cost of childcare will increase for council staff.
Manchester Advice is being abolished.
300 homes for vulnerable adults requiring care are being stopped.

More jobs will be lost in the private sector as a result. Youth unemployment is already topping 1 million nationally and these cuts are the destruction of hope. Alongside the increase in tuition fees and the abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), young people are being left without facilities, jobs or even the chance of education. This is a recipe for social explosion and despair.

Manchester returned no Conservative MPs at the General Election. Manchester is a solidly Tory free zone and the people of Manchester are being punished. Across the country, money is being pushed to Tory areas and taken from those that voted against them. In London, the situation is blatant with boroughs that voted for Ken Livingstone losing out to those that voted for Boris Johnson. How dare they play politics with our services and our kids’ future?

The government says we need these cuts to pay the deficit. The deficit was created by bankers that gambled with other people’s money. When they lost, the government stepped in to pay the debt. Now, we are asked to sort out the mess with our services and our jobs. Meanwhile, the bankers continue to get untaxed bonuses and carry on gambling.

The Liberal Democrats posed as an alternative to the Tories in urban areas but sold themselves for high office and free market economics. Now, they scream about the gutting of our cities while propping up a Tory government.

There is an alternative that does not involve cuts to the services we all rely on. Closing the tax loopholes that allow the very rich to avoid paying, taxing financial transactions (Robin Hood tax) and higher corporation and income tax on the richest in our society. With a deficit four times larger than now, the 1945 government was able to build council houses and form the NHS.

The deficit is not the reason for this ‘austerity’. It is much more about a Tory ideological hatred of the state supporting the poorest and providing basic services – the Tories want all this privatized so that the state only does the things that help them get richer. There must be a campaign for this alternative.

Labour’s argument that we can only implement cuts will destroy our communities. It is not enough. We need to stand up for people of Manchester, Liverpool and the towns. We need to stand up for our public services. Even Manchester City Council’s leader, Sir Richard Leese, argues that the people of Manchester should ‘vent their anger’. In every city and every area of the cities, we need to launch campaigns that bring the community together against the butchery of our services. We need councillors that will stand up for local services.

Robert Tressell Centenary Today

2011-02-03T03:04:00.000-08:00

100 years ago today Robert Tressell, author of the inspirational Ragged Trousered Philanthropists died. Poshtumously published, his book was described by Robert on the title page as " Twelve months in hell, told by one of the damned." A tale of agitation and organisation, battling against the tide of apathy, confronting the small-time capitalists who seek to keep their employees in line.

The main character of the book, Frank Owen, seeks over and over again to win his fellow workers to the socialist cause, most famously with the 'money trick', perhaps the best, certainly the most entertaining, explanation of Marx's theory of surplus value! Owen doesn't always win the argument but he never gives up believing in "the Golden Light that will be diffused throughout all the happy world from the rays of the risen sun of Socialism."

To mark the centenary Philosophy Football have produced a special Ragged Trousered Philanthropists T-shirt and mug depicting the workers, the agitator and the capitalist. Available from www.philosophyfootball.com

Support the Egyptian rising and the Tunisian revolution

2011-01-29T11:59:00.000-08:00

Support the Egyptian rising. Support the Tunisian revolution.
Solidarity Vigil
Sunday 30 January 2011
12noon

BBC building
Oxford Road Manchester
M60 1SJ

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.

Respect Party supports Green candidate in Oldham East by-election.

2010-12-23T07:27:00.000-08:00

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.

Manchester marches again

2010-12-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

Free Education now
Our children deserve a future

Demonstration
Wednesday 8 December 2010
11.30am
University Place, Oxford Road
M13 9PL
March to Piccadilly Gardens

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.

Chasing the tax dodgers

2010-12-05T05:09:00.001-08:00

Is this the end of the Euro?

2010-11-25T12:21:00.000-08:00

A new phase in the financial crisis

The Euro currency is counting numbered days. Angela Merkel, the German government leader, put an optimistic spin on events of the last week by declaring ‘we're in an extraordinarily serious situation, as far as the situation of the Euro is concerned.’

When the global financial crisis burst into the open with the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank in September 2008, the immediate reason was the unregulated nature of the global banking system and the property market speculative bubble that had burst in the United States. Banks had been bundling up and selling mortgage debt to each other and using it as a form of speculation. Then, the U.S property market overreached itself and prices started to fall. No one wanted to be left holding the mortgage debt. The bigger problem was that such a huge amount of unregulated speculation had built up across the globe that most banks did not even know how much debt they held.

When the dog days of the Bush government let Lehman Brothers collapse in the belief that the market solves all problems the banking system panicked. The result was wholesale nationalization of collapsing banks such as Freddie Mac, Fanny Mae, Citigroup and AIG. British banks were also involved and RBS and Lloyds TSB were nationalized along with the earlier victim, Northern Rock. The governments agreed to underwrite the debts of the banking system without knowing the full extent of the debt crisis. In Britain, banking debt was estimated to be over £2 trillion. This spectre of the government acquiring a huge debt mountain is the engine behind the ConDem austerity programme alongside its ideological belief in the free market.

‘The Sickbed of Cuchculainn’

The Irish banking system was also exposed and the Irish government lent £100 billion from the European Central Bank to cover the bank debts before the latest phase of the crisis began. The combination of very low corporate taxes and a collapse in the Irish property market has left the Irish government bankrupt. International lending markets started refusing to lend money to the Irish government and the result is the proposed deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank. This will loan €85 billion to the Irish government but at a punitive 7% interest rate, which increases the likelihood of Ireland defaulting on this debt in the near future. British banks have £140 billion of loans to Irish banks, placing the British government in a difficult position. For all the talk of ‘helping a neighbour’ and offering £7 billion, the prospect of paying for a new £140 billion hole in the British banking system is terrifying Whitehall.

The Irish government has been caught playing the free market speculation game. Since the initial phase of the crisis struck in 2008, it has cut public spending and attacked the living standards of the poor. The result has been economic stagnation as the majority has no money to spend. Its response to this new phase of crisis is to repeat the mistake by cutting jobs, public service spending and increasing taxes on the poorest in society while leaving the rich untouched. It will make the problem worse and the government is likely to fall within weeks.

‘Spanish bombs’

For Europe, the situation is even worse. The Irish financial crisis and the bailout was intended to create a ‘firewall’ to stop the spread of financial panic across Europe, just as happened with Greece. Larry Elliot described it as a new ‘Lehman Brothers moment’. However, all the indications are that the panic is spreading to Portugal, Spain and Italy. Portugal, Belgium and Spain have found the cost of insuring their debts have risen dramatically since Sunday and Spain has found it impossible to raise money. This is highly significant. While Portuguese and Belgian debt can be bailed out, the Spanish debt is more than Portugal, Ireland and Greece combined at £478 billion. It already has 20% unemployment rising to 40% among young people. The international financial markets are already attacking confidence in Spain bringing a major crisis closer. If it happens, there is no certainty that a bailout can be achieved.

As Phillip Booth of the Institute of Economic Affairs noted ‘Europe is trapped in a cycle where debt is being passed round and round in circles – the banks are bust so the Irish government bails them out; the Irish government's debt is owned by other banks and if the government defaults, they go bust’
The common factor in the economic problems in Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Greece, Italy and Ireland is that these countries joined the Eurozone. One of the conditions for Euro membership is that national debt should be 3% of national income (Gross Domestic Product) or below in order to get the Eurozone economies to work in the same direction. None of these economies can do this and it is now clear that they will not be able to without destroying their economies – defaulting on debt repayment is far more likely.

As Graham Turner of GFC Economics noted, the Euro conditions are part of the problem now so it would be better if these countries were no longer linked to the German economy so that they could devalue their currency and invest their way out of the crisis. He noted that ‘it has to be a better option than the present straitjacket of a single currency.’

What now?

The major problem is that the dogma that free markets are the best way to give people jobs, homes and a decent living standard is false. The free market has led to unregulated banking system and property markets that have done enormous damage by huge speculation. The response of governments has been to cut public services and privatize, letting the free market loose on our communities. Jobs, homes and services are now being lost as well. The Irish crisis demonstrates that European governments are intent on more of the same, which can be summed up as ‘if the medicine does not work, kill the patient with it.’

There are choices to be made. Elected governments put policies to voters and are elected on the basis of those policies. When the international financial speculators start withdrawing confidence and funds from a country and the IMF comes calling, there is a choice. Does a government abandon all its policies and commitments to comply with the demands of the IMF and the advocates of ‘shock doctrine’ or does it seek an alternative? No Irish voter has supported the new austerity programme that the IMF has demanded or the loss of national independence in the last few days – why should they agree to accept a loan with 7% interest that will ruin its welfare state? Britain faced the same problem in 1976 when Callaghan’s Labour government abandoned all its manifesto commitments to comply with the terms of an IMF loan. The resultant policies paved the way for Margaret Thatcher and the start of banking de-regulation.

The alternative is a programme that invests in jobs and changes our economic priorities away from helping the rich to make a huge mess of our planet. Corporation tax should be raised and taxes levied on financial transactions. The banks have continued to make huge profits and give bonuses while handing debts to the taxpayer – this must be stopped. The attack on the poorest is not only unfair but will undermine economic demand so makes no economic sense.

There needs to be a programme to curtail the power of the banks and the speculators. Regulation is necessary and the debts cannot just be given to the taxpayer. The credit crisis is now likely to intensify with banks refusing to lend to consumers, home buyers and businesses as they panic about their debts. There must be measures to ensure credit keeps flowing into the economy so a people’s bank needs to be established. The privatization of the Post Office is not the way forward; it should become the basis of the people’s bank.

The Euro was built on the foundation of free market ‘neo-liberalism’ and has come unstuck on it. Sticking with it will only increase the pain in our crisis gripped economies and further increase the attack on public services.

Across Europe, people will be fearful and will be protesting against the effects of this crisis. It will come in attacks on the poor and public services. This resistance must be given a voice and can form part of the basis for offering an alternative to the chaos in the world’s financial system. The governments of Europe have choices. They can choose to follow neo-liberal mantras that have failed and will continue to fail. They can choose to slash public services and let the rich get away with gambling with everyone’s future. Or they can choose an alternative model based on taxing the rich, investing in jobs and welfare and defending public services.

UNITE against the CONDEM cuts

2010-11-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

DEFEND PUBLIC SERVICES - NO TO RACIAL DIVISION

Hear George Galloway and special guests

2.00pm, Sunday 14th NovemberPakistani Community Centre, Marlborough Street. Glodwick, Oldham, OL4 1EG - All welcome

Phil Woolas has been found guilty by a court of telling lies about his Lib-Dem opponent in the General Election. Woolas’ grubby attempts to stir up racial tension can only weaken us all in the face of the terrible ConDem onslaught on our public services.

Yet the LibDems have been caught lying to all voters. They promised to oppose tuition fee rises but are tripling them to £9,000 a year. They promised to help poor families but are abolishing the Education Maintenance Allowance and attacking Child Benefit and Housing Benefit. They promised to oppose Trident and more nuclear power stations but have now voted for nuclear power and weapons. They have even pushed for more school academies and NHS cuts and prop up the Tories in government.

You simply can’t trust the LibDems - vote FibDem and get a Tory government.

Respect stands for investment not cuts and we have a proud record of opposing racism and Islamophobia.

Come and hear our alternative - it’s time for unity to stop these ConDem cuts.

Support our access to justice

2010-11-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

The South Manchester Law Centre’s judicial review of the Legal Services Commission immigration tendering process is to be heard on Monday, 8 November at the Civil Justice Centre, on Bridge Street, next to the Peoples History Museum.

There will be a protest outside the civil justice centre at 9:30am, before the JR hearing. The hearing is due to start at 10:30.

We would appreciate your attendance at the protest and also in the court for hearing so that the Judge hearing the case can see its not just about legal issues: the case is of great importance to the people of Manchester.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Protest
Monday 8 November 2010
9.30am
Civil Justice Centre
1 Bridge Street West
Manchester
M60 9DJ

For more information on the campaign to keep the South Manchester Law Centre open go to www.smlc.org.uk

South Manchester Law Centre has been providing free legal advice and representation to the Manchester community for the last 35 years.

Our expertise is in Women's rights, Immigration and Asylum Law.

The problem...
The Law Centre's ability to provide these services is under threat because of a severe reduction in its funding from both Manchester City Council and the Legal Services Commission. Funding for Welfare Rights, Housing and Employment has already been withdrawn.

The Result...
As you may have guessed, the result of these cuts will be severe. The Law Centre is now faced with closure. This will mean the death of an organization that has, for 35 years been a pillar of the community, helping the most vulnerable members of society to access advice and and protect their rights. This will leave;

* NO Free court representation for employment law or benefits issues

* NO Free Asylum and Immigration advice in South Manchester

* NO Choice of providers for free advice

* NO Law Centres in Manchester

Why we need you...We now need members of the community to help us fight these cuts. We demand that Manchester City Council and the Legal Services Commission continue to fund the Law Centre to help us deliver services to the most vulnerable in YOUR community.

Jerry Hicks on the ConDem spending review

2010-10-21T12:37:00.001-07:00

‘BA workers are pawns in an election chess game - used by Bayliss and McCluskey, abused by Willie Walsh, let down by New Labour.’

2010-10-20T07:47:00.000-07:00

The day before half a million public sector workers are told they will lose their livelihood and after 100,000 finance workers have already lost their jobs, Les Bayliss, Assistant General Secretary of UNITE, chooses to direct his attack at workers brave enough to resist and fight for a better future – the BA cabin staff. He should be ashamed of himself.

A year ago, Len McCluskey was parachuted into the BA dispute, probably believing it would be a quick victory and a launch pad for his own election ambitions.

UNITE’s leadership, including three of the four candidates in the current General Secretary election who are Assistant Secretaries, has failed to secure the repeal of the laws against trade unions while funding New Labour to the hilt with £ millions of UNITE members money. They were too close, too cosy, paying too much for too little and are collectively responsible for that failure. Tens of millions of people within and outside the union have been left angry and vulnerable as a result.

They feign anger while posturing in the election campaign but no amount of angry words will stop these public service cuts. Only if the unions fight will we stand a chance. In France, the unions have responded magnificently to the assault on pensions. If they can do it there, we can do it here!

It is all very good for Les Bayliss to talk of negotiation when it’s someone else’s pay, pension and job, whilst he and other appointed senior officials face no such threat to their six figure pay packages and jobs for life. Negotiation is always useful but it will not save half a million public sector jobs and it has not stopped the wave of sacking and suspensions of BA workers. How does Les Bayliss propose to negotiate with employers that illegally blacklist 3,200 construction workers?

Willie Walsh’s blatant attempt at union busting has resulted in 14 sacked union members and 70 suspended while on a legal legitimate strike. It has reduced terms, conditions and pay for the BA cabin crews. The outstanding response from cabin crews has not been built upon by the UNITE leadership. It is not the strikes that are disastrous but the failure to extend the action might turn out to be. White flags and retreats send all the wrong signals to bullying bosses.

Instead, Les Bayliss is trying to promote his own ambitions at the expense of thousands of members facing an employer hell-bent on breaking union organization and undermining hard-won rights at work. I don’t think anyone with a huge pay package and an appointed job for life can possibly be fully on the same side or at least in the same boat as their members. This is precisely why I am standing - a member of the union and not an official, free of the infighting and independent of the union’s machine.

Woodley, McCluskey and others are expressing outrage at Bayliss’s latest antics. They could debar Bayliss from the union election for his alleged breach of union protocols and the Data Protection Act. Despite their consternation and for whatever reason, they choose not to do this. I call for him to be censured and removed from the ballot paper.

Jerry Hicks

SAVE SOUTH MANCHESTER LAW CENTRE

2010-10-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

Lobby Manchester Council

Town Hall, Manchester
Wednesday 13th October 2010
9.30 am

We want to have as large a lobby of the Manchester Council as possible so please spread the word to those who may not know. We want to send a message to the councillors within Manchester of the widespread anger that there is to the cuts to funding South Manchester Law Centre along with the other Law Centres and immigration advice services.

If the cuts are not overturned, the Manchester Council and Legal Service Commission (LSC) contracts will mean NO LAW CENTRES at all in Manchester.

If the immigration cuts specifically are not overturned, there will be NO PUBLICLY FUNDED IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM ADVICE services based in the city of Manchester.

The loss of the free legal aid through the South Manchester Law Centre and the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit represents an attack on the most vulnerable within our community. Free legal aid is an essential part of the welfare state. Cuts will hurt the poorest and weakest the most.

Over 200 people came to the Public Meeting in Longsight Pakistani Community Centre on Thursday (7th October) and heard from people who use the services of the Law Centre, including the Somali community, the Sudanese community, local councillors, other referring advice agencies and everyone who has used the Law Centre for the last 35 years.

The message was clear: if the funding bodies truly want local accessible quality services, as they say they do, then they must STOP THESE CUTS NOW.

SAVE THE LAW CENTRE!

What you can do to be involved in the campaign

1. Sign the online petition at
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savesouthmanchesterlawcentre/ or take the petition around your workplace. You can download a petition from the South Manchester Law Centre's website ww.smlc.org.uk. Return any petitions to South Manchester Law Centre, 584 Stockport Road, Longsight, Manchester, M13
0RQ

2. Contact your MP or local councilor. You can find your local councilor on this link http://www.manchester.gov.uk/site/scripts/council_democracy_index.php.
You can find your local MP http://www.theyworkforyou.com/.

3. Come to the weekly campaign meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays at South Manchester Law Centre, 584 Stockport Road at 5.30pm.

Ring 0161 225 5111 for more information - contact Sukhdeep Singh - Sukhdeep@smlc.org.uk - or Paul Morris - pmorris@smlc.org.uk 07831576121

Time to Take our Unions Back

2010-10-04T14:13:00.000-07:00

As of the beginning of next week every member of UNITE will receive direct from the union a 'mail shot' containing a six hundred word statement from the four candidates. Though the other three candidates' statement will highlight different things, none of them, say what we do.

They will mention a 'democratic union' but deprive members the chance to choose who represents them by continuing with the appointment system. I believe that a democratic Union includes election of all officials.

They may talk about the crisis and the fat cats that created it, yet none of them will mention how much of our members' money they will gladly pocket if they become General Secretary. I would only take an average wage, living the same lifestyle as that of the members.

They may mention the need to fight for jobs, pay and pension, and they are right but we are shackled with anti union legislation brought in by Thatcher and the Tories left unchanged by Blair, Brown and Labour. Though our union's policy is repeal of those laws, not a finger has been lifted to do it. The other candidates, all currently Assistant General Secretaries, have been part of the leadership that has to shoulder the responsibility of where we find ourselves now. Angry and vulnerable and in need of something very different.

I say that when the need is so great, when the occasion requires, when something is so obviously wrong we must confront the anti union laws head on.

Please email jerryhicks4gs2010@yahoo.co.uk for copies of the leaflet with an address to send them and how many you need. Then take them to every High Street bank and every Bus driver, we have members in every hospital and local council. Plus the factories and..... well you will find them.

A member led, member controlled 'Unite'. Lets get the union back to hand it back!

Jerry Hicks

Save Manchester Law Centre

2010-09-30T13:06:00.001-07:00

Child M and family lose final legal appeal.

2010-09-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

The fight to save the family continues.
The situation is now desperate. We may have only 72 hours to save the family and prevent their deportation to Iran .
Child M and his family have thousands of supporters. Their plight has received wide spread media coverage.

What next?

The legal process has ended. The Home Secretary and Immigration Minister can still halt their deportation and give the family the right to remain in the UK .
The only chance for this family now is that the Home Secretary and Immigration Minister agree to discuss the case with the family's constituency MP, Sir Gerald Kaufman.
We ask all supporters of Child M and his family and those sympathetic to their case to do two things;
Urgently contact Damian Green and Teresa May and state that the family cannot be safely returned to Iran. They face certain imprisonment and worse.
Contact your own MP and Councillors and ask them to do the same and to contact Sir Gerald Kaufman to offer their support.
It’s not over yet. Together we can still save this family. Please do all you can.
Please see http://www.childm.org.uk for updates
Child M Campaign
See also:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/22/child-m-deported-iran-protests

Viva Palestina Convoy 5 on the way to Gaza

2010-09-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

For more information and to donate visit www.vivapalestina.org