Send a delegate!

The next Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition delegates meeting is TOMORROW! Make sure your union branch or campaign group sends a delegate.

7.30pm Wednesday September 7
at the Phoenix Community Centre
Phoenix Place, Brighton. Disabled access. All welcome!

In just three hours 2,500 Brighton residents sign petition against the Health and Social Care Bill.

   (Photo from the BBC's report)

In just three hours 2,500 Brighton residents sign petition against the Health and Social Care Bill.

Over 50 campaigners from Brighton Keep Our NHS Public, Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition and Brighton Trades Council received an overwhelming response despite the rain when campaigning against the Health and Social Care bill on Sunday September 4.

2,500 people signed the petition, in just three hours, against the government's plans to privatise our NHS, making it clear that the people of Brighton and Hove do not want their NHS broken up and run by private providers.

Phil Clarke from Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition says: "We urge the two Conservative MPs in our city to remember that they stood in the election on a promise of 'no more top-down reforms of the NHS,' but are now planning to vote through the biggest and most destructive ‘reform’ of the NHS since its inception.’ Locally, only Caroline Lucas has currently pledged to vote against this bill."

The petition was handed in to the local Conservative Party on Monday September 5 by Brighton Trades Council President Holly Smith and Russ from the Unemployed Workers Centre.

Whichever way this week’s parliamentary vote goes, we will continue to campaign to defend our NHS and fight for a publicly run, publicly owned health service.

The next Brighton Keep Our NHS Public organising meeting is at 7pm Monday September 12 at Wagner Hall behind St Martins church, Lewes Road, Brighton.

Stop the Bill! Join the Keep Our NHS Public mass street petition protest!

Assemble 11am Sunday September 4

Brighthelm Gardens, Queens Road, Brighton

Rally 3pm at the War Memorial, Old Steine, Brighton

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=152272458187468

Health workers and NHS patients are uniting with anti-cuts campaigners this Sunday to take part in a mass street petitioning protest in opposition to the ConDem government's plans which will open up our publicly owned health service to privatisation.

Brighton Keep Our NHS Public activists and Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition campaigners will be stationed across the city with petitions and thousands of leaflets to distribute highlighting the threat poised by the Health and Social Care Bill being voted on by Parliament the following week.

Signed petitions will be collected at a rally to be held at 3pm at the War Memorial on the Old Steine on Sunday afternoon before being handed in to the two local Conservative MPs on Monday, at the start of the week in which they discuss the Bill and vote on September 6 and 7.

Key parts of the Bill will allow "any willing provider" to profit from carrying out NHS duties, along with government attempts to wash its hands of any responsibility for providing health services, leaving unaccountable private firms and the failed free market to rule.

The campaign event has the support of Brighton, Hove and District Trades Union Council and Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition, with activists taking part from a wide range of groups including trade union branches and community campaigns working in solidarity against all government cuts, including NHS pension changes and the threatened loss of £20 billion of NHS funds over five years. Phil Clarke from BSCC says: "Privatisation and cuts are two sides of the same coin. This is why Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition stands fully behind the campaign against the government's white paper. The NHS is ours, and there is no support for a move towards a US-style private system. We encourage everyone to get behind the campaign and join us on Sunday."

David Babbs from online campaign site 38 Degrees, which has collected almost 500,000 signatures against the Bill, says: "The so-called 'hands-off' clause... removes political accountability, which is the only real control voters have on the way the NHS is delivered. None of us voted for these fundamental changes to the NHS. They weren't in any party's manifestos, or the coalition agreement."

Peter Knight from Brighton Keep Our NHS Public says: "If this Bill is passed, our NHS will cease to exist as we know it. It will no longer be publicly owned. Voters will have no say in how services are run. We will be left with private firms sucking vital funds away from frontline services, with profits and shareholders' interests being put before patients' needs, as we recently witnessed with catastrophic results in the Southern Cross care home scandal. This government of the rich for the rich has no mandate to do this."

"If passed, this Bill will destroy our NHS. Why should the failed private sector be trusted to provide vital health services when the chaos and greed of the free market is to blame for the economic crisis? There is a very good reason why we have a publicly owned NHS - leaving people's health in the hands of corporate profit vultures did not help to look after the sick and vulnerable before the NHS was fought for and won 63 years ago. The NHS belongs to all of us and we urge everyone to oppose this Bill to help save our NHS."

On Facebook? To keep in touch with the KONHSP campaign and for local events, 'like' our Brighton Keep Our NHS Public page and spread the word.

Who are we? Brighton Keep Our NHS Public has been campaigning against attempts to sell off our NHS since 2006. We are health workers, patients, trade union members, welfare campaigners and individuals hoping to bring as many people together effected by the government's plans. Please get in touch if you would you like to find out more, or if you'd like to help organise or come to a local meeting to discuss ways we can stop the Bill. Email brightonkonhsp@gmail.com. Thank you.

Trade unionists welcome Green council's decision to avoid workfare slavery contract

[The unedited Argus letter, by our president Holly Smith, GMB]

We welcome the announcement by the Green Party administration of their decision to not enter into a contract with the welfare-to-work provider Avanta (Argus, Wednesday 3rd August).

Avanta, along with A4E, TNG, G4S, Maximus, Serco, and Working Links among others, are private companies who are creaming profits from our public services. They enter into contracts with Jobcentres and then receive payments based on how many benefit claimants they can put into work placements. Whilst on the surface this may sound like a good idea, the reality is that these placements are often low-quality jobs, and often are actually unpaid positions, and if claimants refuse these placements they face sanctions, which means their benefits are stopped.

Apart from the ethics of forcing people into what is essentially slave labour, most working people don’t realise that schemes such as this actually serve as a mechanism for keeping wages low, and puts their own jobs at risk, for why would a private company keep employing a unionised workforce who have fought for a decent salary and terms and conditions, when they could simply sack them all and rely on an army of free labour willingly provided by these companies?

The actual effectiveness of these companies should also be questioned. Research conducted by Cardiff University found that: “Whenever Jobcentre Plus has been allowed the same flexibilities and funding as private sector companies it has been able to match, if not surpass, the performance of contractors”, which was echoed even by the National Audit Office. Because these private companies are paid by results, the profit motive dictates that they will pick the claimants easiest to place into work, and leave behind those deemed more difficult, thus victimising those who need the most help. Therefore, finding people employment should be left to the workers in the DWP, who are highly-skilled, with expertise in supporting people back to work and in helping people to receive the payments they deserve.

At a time when there are currently over 2.5 million unemployed and less than 500,000 vacancies, we of course welcome a scheme that aims to get people back to work, but it is essential that this is quality, sustainable employment. For example, compliance officers in HMRC bring in over £658,000 in revenue per employee, so creating thousands of these positions could go some way in collecting the billions lost in tax avoidance by large companies and wealthy individuals (leaked Treasury documents in 2006 estimated the tax gap at between £97 and £150 billion). Or with over 4 million people currently on council housing waiting lists, a mass social housing building programme could provide decent sustainable housing for those in need, would stop housing benefit being used to subsidise the lifestyles of wealthy landlords, and would reduce unemployment by providing thousands of skilled jobs.

We need to ensure that the greed, corruption and prioritisation of profit above human need that sits hand in hand with free market capitalism does not taint our welfare state. Public money should be ploughed back into investing in and improving our public services, and job creation, rather than being used to line the pockets of the shareholders of these private sector parasites.

Holly Smith
Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition
GMB Trade Union representative for Brighton and Hove City Council
President, Brighton Trades Council

[And Tony Greenstein's unedited letter]

The Green Administration of Brighton Council is to be congratulated for scrapping a workfare scheme with a private company Avanta. Not only could this have cost the council tax payer up to £0.5 million but there was no discernible benefit for those who would have been forced on to these schemes.

If the past 15 years have proved one thing it is that all these make-work schemes, New Deal, Work Programme, Project Work etc., have made no difference to the level of unemployment, which is dependent on the economic cycles of capitalism not individual culpability. Despite Gordon Brown telling us that he had ended boom and bust, that is indeed what we have.

Over a week ago I wrote to the Green councillors pointing out a number of problems with this contract, not least the fact that Avanta didn’t seem to be doing anything in Brighton other than taking on sub-contractors like the Council to do their work for them, whilst ensuring that whatever else happened they would make money. Subsequently a whistleblower came forward with further allegations.

I am pleased Labour’s Warren Morgan has welcomed the decision of the Council not to sign a contract with Avanta. However this contrasts with their silence over the past two weeks and their previous support for just such schemes.

We are in the midst of the worst recession in living memory. Whole economies are threatened with collapse and bankruptcy, the Euro is under dire threat and with it possibly the European union itself. The idea that schemes whose only purpose is coercion, where people gain no skills other than obedience, form part of a solution to unemployment is crazy.

We are seeing all the benefits of free market capitalism coming home to roost. There is work available, there are people willing to do it, we need massive investment in for example alternative energy technologies, yet speculators have brought us to the precipice because they preferred to ‘invest’ in the toxic American housing market and similar financial instruments.

Yours faithfully,

Tony Greenstein
Brighton and Hove Unemployed Workers Centre

Mernet Solidarity Appeal

[An appeal by a valuable resource service, part of the Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition, evicted from their offices due to cuts to the voluntary sector. Please help by making a donation. Thank you]


Mernet became a 10 years-old, on 10th July this year! However, we are going through a difficult phase and we urgently need your help and support.

Mernet has received an eviction notice this month and we were asked to move out of our office by Monday, 01 August 2011, as we failed to pay our rent for the last few months.

Please let me explain as to how we came to this point today:

ALL WORK FOR FREE AT MERNET:
Mernet has no paid staff members and over 50 people running the organisation are all volunteers. Our only costs are the quarterly rent (which is inclusive of everything e.g. electricity, rates, broadband connection, and the phone line rental), photocopying/printing, postage, and telecommunication costs. The organisation always survived and can survive with an income of less than a thousand pounds per month.

NO MAJOR FUNDING:
Our main source of funding is the smallest local authority grant, namely the “Annual Discretionary Grant Aid for Small Organisations”, awarded by the Brighton and Hove City Council. The maximum amount is five thousand pounds but we have been receiving, on average, two thousand pounds per year. We can apply for it only once a year and we always apply for the April round. We have not heard the outcome of our April 2011 application yet. We hope to hear the outcome any day now.

EFFECTS OF GOVERNMENT’S CUTS POLICY ON MERNET:
Our two very hopeful grant applications, as well as a few other micro funding applications failed to materialise this year. As the government’s policy on cuts in public spending has become a priority since last year, the size and number of the available funds are drastically reduced, but the number of existing and newly-founded organisations who look for funds are always on the increase. This means that the cake is reduced in size but the number of slices has increased and it makes the fundraising more competitive than ever.

Another unfortunate fact this year was to see that some of our regular supporters also stopped making donations.

OUR MORAL OBLIGATION TOWARDS THE COMMUNITY BASE:
The Community Base, the charity which owns the freehold of the building has been very kind and supportive of Mernet. They rely on our rent payments from the tenants like us so that they can pay to their three staff members and pay their mortgage of the building. They are a not-for-profit organisation like Mernet. They kindly agreed to wait for the outcome of our fundraising efforts for the last few months. But it will be unfair to ask them let us continue to have our office without any rent payment for a longer period. Therefore we accepted to receive the eviction notice.

THESE SERVICES WE HAVE BEEN PROVIDING WILL BE UNDER THREAT:
All our services are free and provided by the volunteers free of charge: general citizens’ advice, referral to specialist agencies, personal and professional development courses, weekly community radio broadcast, film screenings, festivals, impartial news and information from Mediterranean countries, literary and academic talks, public seminars, and incubation and mentoring services for emerging community groups.

YES, THERE IS HOPE!
Our final hope is to launch this solidarity fundraising campaign to see if we can succeed in raising a minimum of four thousand and eight hundred pounds as urgently as possible. This aimed amount will enable Mernet to pay off all the pending rental invoices and continue its work without further disruption until at least January 2012. We are now being assisted by a funding specialist (who is allocated to us by the Heritage Lottery Fund) and we are realistically optimistic about our chances of securing around ten thousand pounds through “Heritage Lottery Fund”. We are also advised that we appeared to be in an advantageous position for securing an “Awards for All” grant (the smallest Lottery grant) of around ten thousand pounds.

We will be grateful if you can spare a few minutes of your time and make a small donation to support the survival and continuation of our work during our most difficult times. Suggested desired donation is ten pounds (or more, if you wish!) per supporter. Of course, if you cannot afford this suggested amount, you can pay five, three, or two… We will still be grateful to you even if you donate just one pound.

SUPPORT MERNET WITH A DONATION

You can make an online money transfer to Mernet's bank account. Here are the details:
Bank: HSBC
Account Name: Mediterranean Resources Network
Sort Code: 40 07 15
Account Number: 21560980

By donating any amount securely through PayPal:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=SXRXVAUV24NPQ

You can send a cheque, payable to “Mernet”, to our office address: Mernet, Community Base, 113 Queens Road, Brighton, BN1 3XG.

For those of you in the UK, you can send a text message to the mobile number below (70070) and donate us by text. Please note that there is one space between 12 and the £ sign:

Type this:
MERN12 £10 (for a £10 donation)
MERN12 £5 (for a £5 donation)
MERN12 £4 (for a £4 donation)
MERN12 £3 (for a £3 donation)
MERN12 £2 (for a £2 donation)
MERN12 £1 (for a £1 donation)
Text it to: 70070

ASKING YOUR FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES, CONTACTS TO DONATE:

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you wish to discuss anything about this appeal letter.

Many thanks for your support. On behalf of Mernet, I would like to express our gratefulness to you,
dear friends.

Best regards,

Umit Ozturk
Co-founder & Chairman of the Management Committee

Office : 01273 234040
Mobile : 07769 206044
Email : umit@mernet.org

Send a delegate!

The next Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition delegates meeting is:

7.30pm Wednesday August 3 
upstairs at the King & Queen pub
The Old Steine, Brighton (disabled access)

Main agenda items so far include saving our NHS and stepping up the fight to defend our pensions! Email brightontradescouncil@gmail.com with ideas and suggestions for further items.

Come along and make sure your union branch or group is affiliated to the anti-cuts movement. Find out more at www.stopthecutscoalition.org./brighton or sign up to the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/115148898535213/

Brighton Disabled People Against Cuts campaign group launched

[Thousands of disabled people took to the streets of London to protest on the Hardest Hit demonstration against the government's cuts earlier this month. Photograph - Sarah Lee]

“It’s the mark of a civilised society to support people when they are in need, whether they are ill, disabled or unemployed. Welfare is there to provide a decent existence. Coming from the South Wales valleys and working in a DHSS office I saw the importance of the social security system before my eyes every day.” Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS.

The Con-Dem government's systematic assault on the post-war social consensus and its attempts to dismantle the welfare state is facing a growing army of resistance.

Following the public launch of the PCS trade union guide Welfare - An Alternative Vision at its conference in Brighton last week, disabled people from across Brighton and beyond gathered to launch Brighton Disabled People Against Cuts to unite all those locally facing damaging cuts to support services and benefits that enable people with disabilities of all kinds to lead active lives.

Over 20 people listened to national campaign group Disabled People Against Cuts speaker Linda Burnip and activists from the Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition, who offered solidarity and support for the group.

With £18 billion cuts to welfare services and benefits, it is society's most vulnerable and lowest paid that are hardest hit. In fact, 75 per cent of disabled women and 70 per cent of disabled men are already at the bottom end of Britain’s income distribution scale living in poverty, as highlighted in the PCS booklet.

The Con-Dem assault on disabilities goes far beyond any falsely portrayed economic necessity. Alternatives provided by the PSC's research demonstrate how £120 billion can be collected in taxes that are avoided by the rich each year, or how a reversal of the £25 billion corporation tax cut would cover the amount being slashed from welfare.

Instead, the government's attack stems from an ideology of profit and big business that puts the needs of a few above the welfare of many, assisted by the victimisation in the capitalist press of those who most depend on our right to social security.

"The demonisation of those on benefits has become commonplace since the period of mass unemployment in the 1980s. But no area of welfare has been subjected to such vitriol recently as disability benefits. Phrases such as ‘swinging the lead’, ‘on the sick’, and ‘dependency culture’ dominate popular media coverage." Welfare - An Alternative Vision booklet by the PCS.

The reality, however, is filled with stories of depression and suicide for those affected by cuts, and these will only continue to spread unless we can unite to use our strength in numbers, to offer the hope of working together, to defend our hard won rights and begin again to improve the lives of all working class people.

The attacks on disabled people's conditions and quality of life affect not just those immediately harmed by the cuts, but all workers and their communities who rely on the support that the welfare state provides when the contradictions of capitalism inevitably fail to provide the basic necessities for our existence.

Many ideas and issues were raised at the inaugural meeting, including suggestions on using the visible power of physical impairment as a protest tool, but how both visible and non-visible disabilities should not be separated to divide us.

Plans for an initial protest against private welfare provider ATOS were raised, along with linking up with the Brighton Benefits Campaign and the umbrella anti-cuts group Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition to help organise a July Brighton Demonstration & Rally Against Benefit Cuts. Material to publicise the group and to explain how the cuts are affecting disabled people were organised.

A donation of £50 to begin campaigning was offered by Tony Greenstein on behalf of Brighton & Hove Unemployed Workers Centre along with funds and assistance from BSCC. If anyone knows of any suitable meeting room that is free and accessible for wheelchair users, please get in touch as soon as possible.

The ConDem cuts are not inevitable, and if everyone affected joins together and unites the cuts can be stopped and defeated for good.

Join the Facebook group here and invite people you know to join.

Discuss and organise at the Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition delegates meeting

How can we help support workers building to fight to defend all of our pensions? Will the new minority Green-led council stop the cuts or keep any of their election promises? Opposition to the destruction to our NHS is mounting, how can we help to save it? How can we link up and support workers and campaigns in the growing anti-cuts movement?

This Wednesday evening is an important opportunity to discuss and plan answers to these questions and all trade union branches, workplaces, resident groups, community campaigns and all anti-cuts supporters are encouraged to attend so that all our voices can be heard and all our battles can find support. Send a delegate or come along yourself, and help spread the word. Email brightontradescouncil@gmail.com for call Peter on 07788 744120 more info.

Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition delegates meeting!
7.30pm Wednesday May 18
Upstairs above the courtyard in the King & Queen pub, the Old Steine, Brighton

May Day fundraisers!

International Workers' Day and May Day weekend events raised over £300 for the Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition campaign against cuts with hundreds of people taking part.

The May Day football tournament involved ten teams and was won by women's team The Criminals and by men's team Workers Of The World Unite from the Brighton University Stop the Cuts campaign. Two evening gigs provided a delightful distraction from the Royal Wedding and celebrated workers' past achievements, and rambling for access in East Sussex gave us an excuse to check out wild bluebells while highlighting the need for us all to defend our common land.

Many thanks to all the organisers for all the events that took place, with special thanks to Kit Ashton, Jon Mason, Ben Raikes, Tony Greenstein, Chris Smith, Kim Turner, Carly North and Trailer Trash, Gerry Hyde and the excellent socialist choir Strawberry Thieves.

Further donations from trade unions and community groups were made to the Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition funds and more plans for fundraising and awareness raising of the fight to stop cuts are underway. Get in touch via brightontradescouncil@gmail.com if you have any unwanted belongings for an upcoming car boot sale or ideas for any other great events. Thank you.

A-star anti-cuts day school unites South East activists

Bright sunshine shone a light on the anti-cuts movement in Brighton on Saturday as campaigners from across the region came together to share and discuss ideas to defend jobs and public services across Sussex and beyond.

Over 80 people took part in the South East Day School event hosted by Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition, with anti-cuts activists from London, Redhill, Lewes, Brighton, Worthing, Eastbourne and Horsham all represented.

A variety of sessions saw a wide range of informative debates on defending the NHS, welfare services and education, along with UK Uncut workshops and anti-privatisation and anti-academy campaigning, all with plans to put into action.

An outside afternoon session explaining the economics of the cuts was introduced by lecturer/journalist and former Green Party principle speaker Derek Wall with an intelligent analysis on the contradictions of the capitalist system broken down into basic points on the real causes of the crisis. One contribution from a visitor stated simply that "it all boils down to working people not being given the full value of the wealth they produce."

Labour Party and Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts candidates in the upcoming May elections went head-to-head in a debate about fighting job losses and privatisation in the council chamber and parliament, with many of those who joined in the discussion critical of Labour's "not anti-cuts" position and agreed on the need to build a new, independent political working class voice.

RMT president Alex Gordon and the Brighton and Hove TUC Unemployed Workers Centre's Tony Greenstein rallied those in Mandela Hall at the University of Sussex venue in the final plenary with a fighting strategy of uniting communities and campaigns in preparation for an all out public sector general strike.

Alex said: "This fight can't be won without co-ordinated industrial action by the trade union movement. But it is vital that it is linked up to stop the cuts campaigns and working class communities if we're to defend our schools, health and public services for our children and future generations."

In the final discussion Brighton, Hove and District Trades Union Council president Holly Smith proposed setting up a region-wide committee to continue sharing ideas and to help co-ordinate the anti-cuts fight back across the South East - a motion that was unanimously agreed.

Upcoming events include the April 14 National Day of Action Against Benefit Cuts and a Hastings Against Cuts demonstration next Saturday April 16. Click on the links or get in touch with us at brightontradescouncil@gmail.com for more info.

International Workers Day events taking place in Brighton to raise funds and awareness for the stop the cuts campaign were advertised, with other stop the cuts groups encouraged to put on similar fundraisers to help build the fight back.

Come along to the Brighton trades council meeting this Wednesday April 13 for more information on the campaign with an opening discussion on the fight to defend our pensions. All trade unionists welcome - 8pm upstairs in the King & Queen pub, Old Steine, Brighton.

South East anti-cuts dayschool!

Unite with anti-cuts campaigners, trade unionists and stop the cuts groups and individuals from across the South East!

The Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition Anti-Cuts Day School is shaping up nicely. We would very much encourage activists from across the South East to come along, share ideas and step up the struggle against cuts after the huge TUC demo.

Saturday April 9
Falmer House, University of Sussex
Open from 10am for a 10:45am start.
Its free and open to all!

Speakers include Alex Gordon RMT President, Derek Wall Green Economist, speakers from Keep the NHS Public, Defend Council Housing, Unions, campaigns across the area + much more. The day will include many different sessions with plenty of time for debate and discussion.

Sessions will include:

• Fighting Cuts in... Education/Health/Councils/Benefits


• Anti-Cuts economics


• Political representation


• Building anti-cuts groups in your area


• The case for public ownership

Contact brightontradescouncil@gmail.com for more information, or add yourself to our Facebook event page here. Spread the word!

Join us on March 26!

[From Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition]




Thousands of anti-cuts campaigners from across Sussex to travel to London on March 26 for the TUC demonstration

Real alternatives to these cuts exist and this government must listen!

Thousands of stop the cuts campaigners from across Sussex and beyond are preparing to unite with hundreds of thousands of people from up and down the country in London on Saturday March 26 in opposition to the government's cuts for what is anticipated to be the largest trade union-led demonstration in decades.

With the harshest government cuts to public services, welfare and jobs ever witnessed, raining down upon the lowest paid, unemployed and most vulnerable, Saturday's demonstration is a massive and vital opportunity for people to unite to voice their anger at politicians' lies of “being all in it together,” and to display unity in fighting for an alternative that will make the wealthy bankers and the rich pay for the crisis they caused.

At Brighton's city council meeting on March 3 a Labour and Green amended Tory cuts budget tore away £23 million of local funding for crucial youth support services, care and education. The Tories voted for the budget, the Greens voted against it to against the cuts, and Labour cowardly abstained and betrayed its working class supporters by letting the cuts go through. Hundreds of jobs are threatened to make working class people pay for preventable cuts to public spending viciously swung at us by this hated government. Teachers, nurses, carers, unemployed, students, pensioners, council workers, and people going on their first demonstration, will all be travelling up from Brighton and along the south coast to demonstrate.

“Can you afford NOT to be on this march? The ConDem government is set to roll back the welfare state decades - all to pay for the bankers' crisis. Don't let them get away with it!” Andy Richards, Brighton Town Hall Unison branch.

“The cuts are totally unnecessary, an excuse to slash or privatise every public service to serve the interests only of the well-off. Over the last few years there has been a vicious assault on the unemployed, the sick and disabled, single parents, carers and those on low incomes, launched by New Labour and now accelerated by the Con-Dems. The attack on benefits affects us all, whether in work or not. Benefit levels are a floor for wages, and many workers depend on benefits to top up their low incomes. Forcing more and more people into the dole queue creates an army of cheap desperate labour, and workfare will enable the bosses to replace their organised workforce with dole slaves. The government via the right wing press would have us believe that they are attacking 'scroungers' and that the 'genuine' claimants will be safe. We say the real scroungers are the rich who want to profit from our suffering, the bosses and bankers who avoid their taxes. It's time to stand together in solidarity and fight back against these wreckers before our welfare system is destroyed completely, along with public healthcare, education and all other public services.” Pip Tindall, Brighton Benefits Campaign.

"The blunt facts of media monopolies and huge pay increases for local newspaper bosses while more and more staff at the Argus and local media are abandoned to the brutal attacks on unemployment is the edge of an axe slicing away local news resources up and down the country in order to protect profits. Argus workers and many other working class journalists will be travelling up from Brighton to march alongside thousands of others who are facing attacks like ours on their jobs, pensions, communities and public services - in the same way each worker and department of a newspaper or printshop works together to provide news, ideas and information, we can show that same unity in London on Saturday 26 by working together to voice our stop the cuts demands and for a just alternative." Peter Knight, Brighton & Mid Sussex NUJ branch.

"While the top bankers and big businesses that caused this crisis enjoy their huge salaries and bonuses, we are faced with an erosion of our rights, job cuts and cuts in services. This crisis of capitalism is being placed onto our shoulders to bear. The demonstration on March 26 will be the first of its kind in over a decade. It will be a chance not only to express anger at the austerity of the ConDem government, but also to discuss the fight-back in the weeks and months to come. The demonstration should be a launchpad for further action, specifically a 24-hour public sector general strike, probably over pensions. The Socialist Party will be arguing for a socialist solution to cuts and the crisis, with a public meeting on the March 28 at 7.30pm in the Phoenix Community Centre." Jon Redford, Socialist Party

Coaches are assembling at St Peters church from 8.30am on Saturday morning to take campaigners to the demonstration and more are being booked for everyone who wishes to come. Contact Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition campaigners via brightontradescouncil@gmail.com or call 07709 696561 if you, your workmates, friends and family would like to come. Real alternatives to these cuts exist and this government must listen.

This Saturday! Brighton March For Public Services

Organised by Keep the Post Public CWU campaign, this will be a great opportunity to protest against unjustified cuts to our jobs and communities, as a build up for the March 26 TUC demonstration, and to support a campaign in the forefront of defending public services. No to Privatisation! Click here or on the image for more information!

No to ALL cuts! Unite! Demonstrate!

No to council budget cuts!
Protest today!
3pm Kings House, Grand Avenue
March to Brighton Town Hall 4pm rally!
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=142929202435835&index=1

Brighton and Hove council is aiming to pass a £24m cuts budget on 3rd March. In response Brighton and Hove UNISON have called a demonstration and rally, supported by Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition.

These cuts are a response to the economic crisis, caused by bankers and speculators who continue to make huge profits, salaries and bonuses. And yet, we are made to take the burden with cuts in public services, jobs and benefits.

Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition is clear: no to ALL cuts, make the rich pay for their own crisis!Councillors are not administrators for government policy, they have a choice!

www.stopthecutscoalition.org/brighton

Oi, councillors...

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition
The following has been sent to all Brighton and Hove City Councillors and is endorsed by GMB and UNISON local government branches.

Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition Election Pledge

The biggest cut to any government department is 27% to local council funding. The responsibility for implementing Westminster’s austerity package is being passed on to local government. In Brighton and Hove this will mean an overall cut of £28 million according to the budget strategy, which will be voted on in March 2011 by the full council.

With the national debt having been higher for 200 of the last 250 years, tax evasion and avoidance running at an estimated £120 billion a year and as the richest 1000 people in the UK have increased their wealth by 33% in 2010, it is very clear these cuts are not driven by economic necessity.

The Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition therefore asks every candidate to agree and adopt the following pledge as part of their election commitments:
__________________________________________________________
During my election campaign I pledge to:

■Publicise the fact that public service cuts are wholly unnecessary and driven by political dogma;
■Publicise the fact that alternative and just sources of income are readily available to central Government to fund public services;
■Work for the anti-cuts vote to be maximised;
■Work proactively and vigorously with ward and city anti-cuts campaigns;
■Oppose all use of discrimination and division to promote a cuts agenda.
If elected I pledge to:

■Oppose and vote against any attempts to set Council budgets which will result in cuts to public services and local jobs or a worsening of terms and conditions for council staff;
■Oppose and vote against any attempts to cut or privatise individual public services;
■Oppose any above inflation increase in council tax and instead campaign for a progressive national tax system where the rich pay more;
■Propose an alternative ‘no-cuts’ budget which could involve use of reserves and/or council borrowing powers and a campaign against the government to replace the funding they are cutting from local government;
■Fully support industrial action taken by trade unions to defend their members’ jobs, terms and conditions from cuts;
■Use my position to argue against all cuts and support and publicise campaigns against privatisation and cuts in jobs, services or benefits.

Great gig, thank you

Thank you to everyone who helped make Rock The Cuts a great success on Sunday, especially Kit Ashton for being particularly ace as organiser-in-chief. £460 was raised for the Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition campaign! Plans for a May Day rally and music extravaganza already on the way...

Brighton Benefits Campaign performed their satirical play criticising the stitch up that is the Atos system of denying welfare. Watch it here...

Rock The Cuts Part 1...

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=185497914814803

All day fundraiser for the Brighton Stop The Cuts Coalition

Featuring: Mark Chadwick (The Levellers)...

Thomas White (Electric Soft Parade, Brakes)

Chris T-T

Clowns

Restlesslist

The Adam Kidd Band

Kit Ashton

DJ set from Esben and The Witch

Raffle with lovely prizes

And more...

27th February 2011

3pm - 10:30pm

£8.00 (£5.00 unwaged/concessions)

The Con-Dem government is pushing through the largest cuts to our public services in living memory. Nothing is safe - schools, hospitals, pensions, police, benefits... the entire welfare state is being stripped and privatised.

We are told there is no alternative. But this is not true. £billions in tax from the super-rich goes uncollected, while the deficit that is used to scare us into accepting cuts could get even bigger as public investment is slashed and jobs are lost, just like in Greece and Ireland. Even the very bankers that caused the financial crisis are back to business as usual, instead of paying to clean up the mess... This is simple injustice. The Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition is a broad group of unions, local campaigns & sympathetic political groups brought together to protect public services, jobs & communities from the huge funding cuts that will affect so many in our city and beyond. Don't just get angry and frustrated - help take a stand! All proceeds from this event will go to the Brighton Stop The Cuts Campaign. Buy tickets online here!http://www.wegottickets.com/event/108208http://stopthecutscoalition.org/brighton/http://falseeconomy.org.uk/http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/

Hollingdean meeting against the cuts!

Hollingdean hosts an excellent meeting against the cuts with 47 local workers, residents and campaigners discussing how we can fight back. First Hollingdean planning meeting Wednesday 2 Feb 6pm at the Unemployed Workers Centre...

Speakers on the platform included Phil Clarke (Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition rep), Jack Upton (chair of the meeting, Solfed), Dave Russell (GMB rep at Hollingdean Depot) and Tony Greenstein (Unison, Hollingdean Unemployed Workers Centre).

Help plan for this year's Brighton May Day Workers Festival

International Workers' Day and May Day weekend is a beacon in our year of struggle for us to join together to celebrate our working class history and achievements and to protest against oppression and injustice.

This first meeting is being held to get a list of events we can plan together so that finances/venues/advertising can be initially worked out. So come along bristling with ideas for... Venues, bands, talks, demonstrations, publicity stunts, plays, etc...

The more people who each organise an event, the bigger the festival shall be! Up the workers of Chicago 1886! Join the Facebook event and group here!

Save EMA - Brighton protest!

[From Sussex No Cuts]

Assemble 4pm

Wednesday January 19

The Old Steine, Brighton

The Education Maintenance Allowance has just been closed to new applicants and on Wednesday MPs will debate scrapping it altogether.

If you think education is a right that should be defended as such, bring your family, friends and colleagues, your banners, chants and drums and join us this Wednesday! There will be simultaneous demonstrations in London, as well as in Manchester and other cities accross the UK that have been supported by the NCAFC, the EAN, the Free Education Campaign and the London Student Assembly.

Join the event and show your support here.

Unison are also holding an EMA day of action. Join their campaign stall at

12 midday Tuesday January 18 outside City College, Pelham Street