AGM

Brighton and Hove District Trades Union Council 

Annual General Meeting

 

Monday 13th February 7pm Trades and Labour Club, Lewes Road

 

All Trade Union Members Welcome

Guest Speaker - Mark Serwotka 

PCS General Secretary and viewed by many as the real leader of the opposition to the Tory/Liberal Government

The Trades Council has continued to grow this year in representation from branches and in its campaigning activities. It has been a key organising point for unions organising against cuts and particularly in the pensions campaign. On 30th November through the Trades Council local unions organised, according to the Argus, the biggest demonstration in the history of Sussex.  

 

The AGM will hear from Mark Serwotka and will elect new Trades Council Officers and committee. We encourage all branches to affiliate and send delegates. A form is attached, Please contact your Branch Secretary in the first instance to become a delegate or if you would like to come on to the committee or be nominated for an officer's role. All Trade Union members are welcome at the AGM.

 

There will be a short Trades Council meeting directly after the AGM business.

 

For more information please email BrightonTradesCouncil@gmail.com

Stop the Cuts New Year New Resistance!

Happy New Year From Brighton Trades Council

Sadly the government’s slash and burn of our public services and welfare state looks set to continue so if you haven’t yet made a resolution yet maybe getting stuck into the fight back could be one!

Below are upcoming events. Many are to do with the local council cuts, where we will be organising lobbies of the council meetings and a public meeting on defending our council services.

Also this Saturday coming we would very much encourage all trade unionists to head up to London to attend the PCS Left Unity Conference on Defending Pensions. With the fantastic united front from virtually all unions on November 30th looking shaky this conference has been opened up by Left Unity (which much of the leadership of PCS belong to) to all trade union members to plan how we can push all our unions to fight to win. This conference has the backing of a whole number of the left groups of various unions and there is no need to register in advance. More info is here http://www.leftunity.org.uk/

A group will be heading up from Brighton meeting at the station at 9:20am on the 7th Jan, please feel free to come along and join us, the conference starts at 11am at Friends Meeting House by Euston Station.

Please sign this petition to save Sussex Uni's Centre for Community Engagement

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/community-engagement-at-sussex/

Upcoming
Events
Saturday 7th January PCS Left Unity Open Conference - Defend Pensions, Name the Next Strike Day 11am, Friends Meeting house Euston.

Saturday 7th Jan Brighton Labour History Workshop Planning Meeting, Midday, Friends Meeting House Brighton

Monday 9th Jan Stop the Cuts Organising Meeting 7:30pm Phoenix Community Centre (Venue TBC)

Saturday 20th January Just say no to Dorries' abstinence education bill! Organised by a Brighton Anti Cuts Activist 10:30am Houses of Parliament, London http://www.facebook.com/events/195189847230161/

Thursday 26th Jan Council Meeting Lobby and Pension on Music Service Cuts goes to Council Time TBC

Thursday 2nd Feb Stop the Cuts Council Budget Public Meeting why we must and how we should defend our council services. 7:30pm Friends Meeting House (TBC)

Monday 13th February Brighton Trades Council AGM King and Queen Brighton 8pm

Thursday 23rd Feb Council Budget Meeting Lobby Time TBC

30th November Public Sector Strike - Brighton United!

A fantastic response to the strike was seen across Brighton and Hove. Across schools, council workplaces, job centres and a multitude of civil service workplaces the strike was solid. At the universities the response was the same, with Brighton University shutting completely for the first time during industrial action together with large pickets on NHS workplaces and across the city.

With an unprecedented level of coordination, three major feeder marches from large picket lines joined with thousands more at Victoria Gardens to form up for the main march. In what the local paper described as ‘Sussex’s biggest ever protest’ the GMB delegation led up to 10,000 strikers and supporters through the city. The atmosphere was lively and determined and many thousands stayed on at the Level to hear speakers from Unison, GMB, Unite, NUT, PCS, UCU, NASUWT, Brighton Benefits Campaign, local MP Caroline Lucas, and a student activist from Sussex Uni. Thanks to support from Unite conferences being held in Brighton this week, strikers were also treated to a rousing speech by a leader of the US Teamsters union. The message of the day was clear; the workers of Brighton and Hove are determined to do what it takes to defend our pensions, and if necessary, strike again.

Unison Deputy General Secretary, Jon Richards, summed it up - “what a fantastic response by Brighton and Hove – second to none”.

10,000 March In Huge Strike Demo

MASS STRIKE THIS WEDNESDAY JOIN THE PICKETS AND DEMONSTRATION.

THE MAIN DEMONSTRATION MEETS 11:45am, VICTORIA GARDENS, GRAND PARADE.

Please make sure you show your support for the massive strike action this Wednesday  30th November. This is not only a chance to defend public sector pensions but to stop a race to the bottom, for fair pensions for all and to expose the real scandal of lack of decent pensions provision in the private sector.

This huge show of strength will enable us to go on to stop the government’s slash and burn attacks on our public services, jobs and benefits.
Details of pickets you are welcome to attend to show support are below, as well as feeder march details.

THE MAIN DEMONSTRATION MEETS 11:45am, VICTORIA GARDENS, GRAND PARADE.

Please forward this email on, bring your friends and family and let’s make this the largest demonstration Brighton has ever seen!
Stop the Cuts needs people to volunteer to collect email addresses, collect donations and give out anti-cuts material on the day. Please email BrightonTradesCouncil@gmail.com if you can help.

Main Pickets - If you do not have your own picket, you are welcome at these to show support

Hove Town Hall 7am
Brighton Town Hall 7am
Kings House Grand Ave 7am
Hollingdean Depot 5:30am
Job Centre Edward Street 7am
Brighton Uni Moulsecoomb Site 7am
Brighton Uni Falmer 7am
Brighton Uni Grand Parade 7am
Sussex Uni 7am
Jubilee Library 7:30am
City College 6am
Varndean College 7:45am

Feeder Marches
10:30am from Whitehawk Bus Garage, Hove Town Hall and Brighton University Moulsecoomb Site. These will collect other picketing workers as they make their way towards the:

MAIN MARCH WHICH FORMS UP 11:45AM VICTORIA GARDENS, GRAND PARADE

Support disabled people fighting cuts and abuses!

[From Brighton Disabled People Against Cuts]

Brighton Disabled People Against Cuts (BDPAC) is a local group of disabled people and allies established to oppose the cuts and privatisation of our public services and welfare state.

We reject the demonisation of benefit claimants by mainstream politicians and media, as well as distinctions between the ‘deserving’ and the ‘undeserving’ poor. When benefit fraud is less than 1% of the total revenue lost due to tax evasion and avoidance (leaked Treasury documents in 2006 estimated the so-called tax gap at between £97 and £150 billion), we refuse to accept any of the Government’s austerity measures which target the poor whilst leaving the wealthy unscathed.

The government is reassessing every claimant on IB/ESA in an attempt to reduce the benefit bill. They have set an arbitrary target of moving one million disabled people off benefits, and are paying a private company called ATOS £100 million per year to carry out the assessments, which have been found to be severely flawed. The welfare bill will be reduced by moving people from £97 per week ESA to £65 JSA, whilst 75% of disabled women and 70% of disabled men are already living in poverty at the bottom end of Britain’s income distribution scale.

We therefore welcome the actions of anyone who refuses to stay silent about the injustices committed by wealthy politicians against ordinary disabled people and our lives, and are pleased to see that there is a protest being held in Brighton on Saturday 22nd October called the Hardest Hit to campaign against the cuts to disability benefits.

However, we are concerned to see that one of the organisers of this event is a charity called The Leonard Cheshire Charity. Disability rights activists and groups have long been campaigning against this charity for their record of abusing disabled people in their care. This abuse has been well documented in court and elsewhere. We are concerned that the only interest Leonard Cheshire have in campaigning against Government cuts is a vested one — because they themselves will lose money if disabled people in their homes stop receiving DLA (Disability Living Allowance). In our opinion, Leonard Cheshire continue to undermine disabled people’s rights and consistently act against their interests.

We therefore feel the need to disassociate ourselves from an organisation that participates in the oppression of disabled people. We urge those who want to fight the cuts to participate in user-led, democratic groups.

In these times of austerity, when we are facing severe attacks upon our rights and our lives, it is imperative that we fight for the long-term best interests of all disabled people, which includes independent living and self-determination.

A longer statement is available on the national DPAC website here: http://www.dpac.uk.net/tag/lcd/

Brighton Disabled People Against Cuts hold regular local meetings, have an active Facebook group, send round newsletters and welcome new members.

Our next meeting will be on Friday November 11 at the Phoenix Community Centre, Brighton. Disabled access. Everyone who wants to fight cuts and abuses, and build a democratic user-led group welcome.

For more information, please contact:

Holly Smith 07927 004714 hollysmither@hotmail.co.uk
Jill Goble 01273 705294 jillgoble@googlemail.com

Defend pensions public meeting! TONIGHT!

7pm Thursday October 13
Friends Meeting House
Ship Street, Brighton. All welcome. Disabled access.

On November 30 Britain could witness the biggest strike by trade unionists in a generation. Come along and find out why those organising against this government's cuts agenda are taking action. Speakers include a striking Southampton council worker, representatives from unions balloting to defend pensions and Brighton Benefits campaign organising resistance to welfare cuts.

Check out this fact-based article for more perspective on the pensions battle:

This is not a pension reform – it is simply a pay cut

Few people understand how pensions work. The government is relying on this in their attacks on public sector pensions. Ministers claim that they are gold-plated, unreformed and unsustainable. The right-wing press join in by saying that it is unfair that private sector workers’ tax should pay for public sector pensions.

Yet what the government is doing is simple. It is asking public sector workers – already facing a two-year pay freeze, job losses and inflation running higher than it has for more than a decade – to make a further, and even more unfair, contribution to reducing the deficit.

They are doing this by trying to impose an arbitrary extra pension contribution of three per cent of pay on the public sector. This is not a pension reform – it is simply a pay cut. Click here to read on...