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...

Our September trades council meeting - Tonight!

8pm Wednesday September 14
at the Iron Duke pub, Waterloo Street, Brighton/Hove

Pensions battle, anti-cuts campaigning and trade union learning all on the agenda. Email brightontradescouncil@gmail.com with your union news and for more info.

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.

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

Our August trades council meeting...

Our next trades council EC meeting - open to all interested trade union members who live or work in the area - will take place this week.

8pm Wednesday
August 10
at the Iron Duke pub, Waterloo Street, Brighton/Hove
Click here for a map

Please email us at brightontradescouncil@gmail.com with agenda items, motions and trade union news you'd like us to discuss. Send a delegate and get your trade union branch affiliated!

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

Trade unionists alert Green councillors to prevent cuts to union facilities time

A recent news story regarding threatened changes to trade union facilities time negotiated with Brighton and Hove City Council got plenty of coverage in The Argus, The Leader and on various online bulletins, as the right wing attempt to impose vicious cuts and ideological attacks upon the organised working class. However, the defeat of this threat was not adequately covered in the local press with trade unionists and labour movement groups still concerned that such cuts were still to be carried out.

The initial story reported that: "Opposition councillors have welcomed a commitment from council chiefs to review spending on union officials. After the issue was raised by Conservative councillors, finance cabinet member Jason Kitcat confirmed the issue would be reviewed in the coming months."

This update from our president and GMB delegate Holly Smith should clarify the situation.

Please be assured that the Local Government trade unions, UNISON and GMB, have already raised this with the new Green administration.

I am a GMB rep for Brighton and Hove City Council, and I sit on the 'Staff Consultation Forum', which is a meeting that is held with Councillors, Directors, and the trade unions, which is the forum where we bring up any concerns we have about the Council as a whole, and they are discussed.

At the last forum, obviously we bought up this issue, and we had assurances from the Greens that they are definitely NOT going to change our facilities time. We got that commitment in writing, and also, a UNISON rep who was present informed the Council Leader, Bill Randall (Green) that he had received a letter from HR removing his facility time. The Head of HR was present, and Bill was quite angry this had been going on, and instructed her to inform all HR staff that no such letters are to go out, and an immediate retraction of all those that already had.

I am confident that we have a firm agreement and commitment from the Greens regarding our facility time, and we have a written contract saying that this will not be changed.

All Kitcat pledged to do was to answer the question about how we compared to other authorities with regards to our facility time. This article is misleading in that it sounds like the Greens were going to conduct some massive review of it, with the aim of lessening facility time. That was never the case. All elected members are entitled to enquire about spending levels, he simply said he would find out. Even with the extra facility time granted to the unions for the single status issue, we still came out with less time than some other authorities, which shut the Tories up. And we have an agreement from the Greens that they will certainly not be looking to attack our facility time.

Please contact us at brightontradescouncil@gmail.com if there are any further concerns or questions, thank you.

Defend our pensions! June 30 strike rally speech by Brighton NUT rep Hazel Rees

 

(Top: Police estimate 4,000 people took part in the magnificent strike demonstration, and below: Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas speaks to the strike rally in Hove Town Hall, alongside striking ATL, NUT, PCS and UCU delegates) 

Hello, it is a privilege to have been asked to speak to you this afternoon.

I want to dedicate this speech to two people. This is dedicated to you if you are taking action for the first time today. And it is dedicated to you if you are the only person from your school here today. Can we give those people a huge cheer?

I want to talk about why we’re are all here today, striking and marching together in the centre of Brighton. We are not here just because of our pensions. We are here because we care about our schools, we care about our profession and we care about our children.

Do we want our children to be taught by 68-year-olds trapped in their jobs by the pension system?

Do we want teachers to face crippling increases in their monthly contributions? For some teachers, like single parents, these hikes will genuinely mean them no longer being able to make their mortgage payments.

Do we want young teachers to leave the profession? For newly qualified teachers, already entering the profession with massive debts, being asked to pay 10% of their salary in pension contributions will be the last straw.

I am still paying off £90 every month to the student loans company. The government now want me to pay over £60 more in pension contributions each month. I am already paying £144 in pension contributions. Altogether, this would mean paying £294 every month, just on my pension and student loan, before I’ve even looked at paying the rent or feeding the cat.

I know that if I had been faced with that in my first year, I would have had no choice but to opt out of the pension scheme. I imagine most teachers starting out would be forced to make the same choice. With the majority of new entrants opting out, the very stability of the scheme will be threatened.

When I finally get to draw my actual pension it will have been cut 15%. This cut was slipped in during April this year when the interest rate was changed from RPI to CPI, and has been applied to all pensions retrospectively.

How MP Danny Alexander could stand up last Friday and say: “No ifs, not buts, your accrued rights will be protected,” when they have already been savagely attacked, frankly beggars belief.

I despair for the children in my class – I spend so long impressing upon them how important it is to tell the truth, and then the leaders of our country behave like this.

As if that wasn’t hypocritical enough – guess which inflation measure is used to calculate my loan? No surprises, it’s RPI.

Where is this £60 they want to take from me actually going to go? The changes made in 2007 are on track to make the necessary savings – even Hutton admits that! As Mary Bousted from ATL says, the money they’re taking from us isn’t going into our pension scheme, it’s being used to plug the deficit caused by the bankers gambling recklessly with our economy. This is not our crisis! We will not pay for it!

As a Year 1 teacher, I keep a stack of spare pants outside my classroom, they often come in handy. I was chatting to another Year 1 teacher this week who does the same. In fact, she said she’s started collecting a second bag of pants, but this one is for all the 68 year old teachers the government wants in school!

Seriously though, just because we are living longer, 65 is still 65, and teaching is still a mentally and physically exhausting job. For me the most important reason for taking action here today, is for the future of the children in our schools.

I believe that we are in the most important profession in the world. Children deserve excellent teachers. Teachers, forced to stay in the classroom beyond 65 because they are financially trapped will not be excellent teachers.

Yes, Danny Alexander, we do have a pensions crisis in this country. The pensions crisis is in the private sector. Was it caused by hard working teachers, nurses, social workers? Or was it caused by the big companies taking long pension contribution holidays when the stock market looked good? Everyone deserves a decent pension, and I am here today to demand decent pensions for every worker – in all sectors!

In the 1940s in this country, the focus was on welfare and building better communities. We built the National Health Service, we built new universities, and we built a rail service that worked and didn’t treat people like cattle. This philosophy, of building societies for our welfare has all but gone, replaced with the drive to continually maintain our competitive edge and become ever more efficient. I am here to say enough is enough! Life should not be judged by shareholder profits – it is time we returned to welfare and compassion.

Teachers, we are the first domino. If we fall, others will fall. If we stand up to the government and refuse to be knocked down, if we win this fight, we are helping every other worker in this country stand firm.

Finally, I have a message for Mr Gove, who seems so concerned about teachers’ reputations. Mr Gove: Parents won’t lose respect for people who stand up for what is right.

Colleagues, I know that making the decision to strike today is not easy. I know it is difficult to be under pressure from the likes of the Daily Mail and to be face to face with that one unsupportive parent, but I’m here to say that doing the right thing is not always easy.

Across the world, teachers' trade unions understand that difficulty. Four years ago, the government in Iran banned the teachers’ trade union. Did they take the easy option and give up? No, they have continued to fight against low pay, despite facing beatings and detentions.

Last year one of the activists from the union in Iran was secretly executed. His name was Farzad. He was given the death sentence in 2008 after a trial lasting five minutes. He won the right to appeal, and yet before reaching the Supreme Court, his lawyer was told that his file had been ‘lost’ and Farzad was still executed.

I want to read you an extract from a letter which he sent whilst in prison. At the time of writing this, he had been tortured so badly that the last time his family saw him he couldn’t walk. The letter was addressed to other teachers who have been imprisoned, and I read it to you today to applaud you for joining other teachers around the world who don’t take the easy option but do what is right.

Farzad starts his letter with a little black fish. The little fish lives with his mother but decides to travel away from his stream and has adventures in the river. His adventure continues until lots of rivers join together and become the sea. Farzad then says, suddenly, he spotted a large group of fish. There were 10,000 of them, and one said to the little black fish, “Welcome to the sea, comrade!

"Is it possible to be a teacher and not show the path to the sea to the little fish of this country? Is it possible to be a teacher and be responsible for spreading the seeds of knowledge and still be silent? Is it possible to be in the year of no justice and fairness and fail to teach the H for Hope and E for Equality, even if such teachings land you in prison or result in your death?"

Farzad was 32 when he was executed and had been a teacher 12 years. His only crime was being a trade unionist. Yet despite that, he was prepared to swim against the current and stand up for what is right.

I am proud to be a teacher. I am even more proud to be a trade unionist teacher. I am proud to be in a school where every single member of full time staff is out on strike today. I am proud to be marching in Brighton where nearly 90% of schools are closed. I am proud to be standing here together alongside members of ATL, alongside members of UCU and alongside members of PCS.

Let the Daily Mail rant about our holidays and Gove imagine that parent helpers can run schools – we will stand together and stand up for what is right. To those of you little fishes who are taking action for the first time today, welcome to the sea!

I am proud to be part of a profession and trade union movement which stands up for what it believes in. I am here to stand up for the public sector, and I say to the government:

FAIR PENSIONS FOR ALL!

Worthing TUC launched!

[by Richard Jones, CWU]

50 Trade Unionists, representing unions including PCS, NUT, Unite, Unison, GMB, UCU, NAPO, CWU, along with concerned citizens and community activists, came to the initial meeting of the re-launched Worthing & District Trade Union Council which brings together workers belonging to Trade Unions in and around Shoreham, Worthing, Adur and Littlehampton to coordinate campaigns of common interest, and to offer support and solidarity to one another and to the wider community.

Worthing has not had a Trades Council for more than 20 years, and so this new initiative is a highly significant one. It came about from local Trade Unionists working together in local anti-cuts group Worthing Solidarity Network, and the new Trades Council has pledged to help unite workers in the area against the Con-Dem government's programme of austerity measures aimed at ordinary people, from cuts to public services, wage freezes and benefit cuts, job losses, and privatisation.

The meeting was addressed by Laurie Heselden from the South and East Region of the TUC, Hector Wesley from the NEC of the PCS union for low-paid civil servants, and Tom Hickey a lecturer at Brighton University and NEC member of the University and College Union.

A collection was carried out for striking council workers in Southampton, and those in attendance were urged to support the Worthing Trade Union family fun day on 30th June, supporting strike action by NUT PCS UCU ATL - the unions of school teachers and government workers in HM Revenue, Job Centres and courts. (9.30am Steyne Gardens - speeches, info stalls and kids; activities, all welcome).

The Con-Dems are waging an ideological war on working people, but there is a positive to be found, and that is that this government is responsible for the re-vitalisation of the organised Labour movement. Anti-cuts groups and new Trade Union Councils are forming across the country, the fightback is gaining in strength and momentum, Worthing Trades Union Council is proud to be another addition to that list.

Thatcher once said that her greatest achievement was New Labour, Cameron's greatest achievement will be the rise of the re-vitalised Labour movement, his government has ignited a flame that will spread into an inferno of resistance, they will burn. So thanks Cameron, Clegg, Cable et al we couldn't have done it without you! Ring the alarm another Trades Council is rising!

RIP Alf Filer

[from Andy Richards]

My friend and comrade Alf Filer has been tragically killed in a car accident last Thursday evening.

Alf had only moved to Sussex in the last year or so and had made his home in Worthing having previously lived in London. Alf was meant to be (semi) retiring to the south coast but, characteristically, that was never going to happen.

Alf was a committed socialist, anti-fascist and anti-Zionist. He campaigned locally and nationally against cuts (he was a prime mover in the formation of the Coalition of Resistance) and he organised against the EDL and the BNP, both here and in Brent and Harrow where he spent the greater part of his life.

Others have written tributes and appreciations from a perspective of having known him for a long time, but you did not need to know Alf for long to appreciate his passion for politics and campaigining. This is shown in the tributes which have been paid from activists in Sussex.

Alf was a member of Socialist Resistance, and he played an incredible part in revitalising us locally. He started a local blog and his main activity was to try to bring together the forces of the left in Worthing. Not, you might think, the most fertile of ground, but that sort of thing never deterred Alf. He was passionate about left unity, and was possible the most non-sectarian socialist I have ever known. He worked with and helped to bring together the different parts of the Worthing left into regular meetings. A meeting which he organised, on Ecosocialism, is happening this Tuesday. Everyone involved is of the view that this meeting must go ahead as a tribute to Alf.

Alf was serious about his politics - but he was also a joker. I shall miss, as much as anything, his wisecracks and his wind-ups.

A truly brilliant, dedicated and lovable man.

Below, Holly Smith, President of Brighton and Hove Trades Council, gives her own memories of Alf, and below that are links to other tributes from people who knew Alf longer for me.

I, along with many, many others, am saddened to hear of the death of Alf Filer. It feels like those of us in Brighton and the South East were only just getting to know him. After retiring as a lecturer he moved down to Worthing last year from London, and didn’t hesitate in getting involved in political activity down here.

The first time I met him was at a public meeting to oppose a local school becoming an academy. He had only just moved to the area and was keen to know about all the events and groups that existed down here so he could get stuck in.

The next time I met him was at an anti-cuts day school that we had organised. I chaired a workshop on cuts in Local Government and Alf spoke at length from the floor. I remember being impressed with his wide-ranging knowledge on a great variety of topics, and how articulate he was. This was also demonstrated in his blog, of which I was an avid reader - always looking forward to his intelligent analysis of local, national, and international events.

When I was challenging my trade union leadership over an issue a while ago, I was touched when Alf got in touch with me to offer his advice and support. We then got to talking about other issues, and how we could help each other.

Alf and I were both outraged at the recent treatment by local Councils of Travellers and Gypsies in the region, finding it representative of the wider persecution they have been facing across Europe, and we had been in discussion about setting up a local support group for these communities, and together we started letter writing to the EU to ask them for an inquiry around the persecution that these communities faced, especially in Italian cities.

The last time I spoke to him he was incredibly enthusiastic about the recent re-launch of Worthing Trades Council, and he was urging me to attend the public meeting on eco-socialism he was arranging for next week.

Alf was Jewish, and committed to building solidarity between anti-Zionist Jews and Palestinians, and was also well known for his anti-fascist work. He was an intelligent, outspoken, driven, passionate, and warm man, and I very much regret that I only knew him for such a short time.

To borrow some words from another comrade who has written about him, “The best tribute we can pay to you is to keep the flame alight and the struggle for justice undimmed.”

Rest in peace comrade, you will be missed.

http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=8253

http://azvsas.blogspot.com/2011/06/alf-filer-jewish-anti-zionist-and.html

http://randompottins.blogspot.com/

Worthing TUC launch meeting!

Worthing & District Trades Union Council
7.30pm Wednesday June 22
Labour Hall, Lyndhurst Rd, Worthing BN11 2DE

[From Worthing & District TUC]

Dear Comrade,

On 16th May a local group of Trade Union activists including Unison, GMB, CWU, PCS, Unite and UCU held an organising meeting in Worthing with a view to re-establishing a Trade Union Council for the Shoreham, Adur, Worthing and Littlehampton areas. We are supported by SERTUC.

We are inviting Trade Union Branches with members employed in this geographical area, to attend the above dated open launch meeting, hopefully with a view to affiliating.

For more information please contact:

Richard Jones
rjonescwu@hotmail.com
07931 682996

Lee Billingham
lee.billingham@gmail.com
07733 151116

The NHS is not for sale! March in Lewes! This Saturday!

[From Lewes Stop the Cuts Coalition]

Will you march through Lewes to show how much you care about the NHS? If not now, when? It’s not safe yet!

10.30am Saturday June 25

Assemble at the Gallops, near Lewes Prison
Rally Lewes Precinct at the end

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111862998903279

"The NHS will last as long as there are folk left with the faith to fight for it" Aneurin Bevan

"This bill whether substantially amended or not is going to alter the face of the English NHS forever." Dr Laurence Buckman BMA

The fight is set to go on. We can't let our guard down before amendments to the act have been put in place. We are the folk with the faith to fight for it. Laurence Buckman of the BMA said this week: "[Andrew Lansley] has still not taken away the duty to promote competition. I want politicians of every stripe to understand that we do not need competition to run the NHS. It creates duplication that is wasteful."

The NHS is not safe by any means and Lewes Stop The Cuts call on everyone who cares about it to take to the streets on Saturday 25th to defend it and all the people who work for it. Bring along friends, family and colleagues and help make this the biggest march in Lewes ever.

http://lewesstopthecuts.wordpress.com/

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_129870227072859&ap=1

Overwhelming majority vote to strike to save pensions!

Britain's public sector workers have voted overwhelmingly for industrial action in defence of our pensions - to take place on Thursday June 30 - which face an unjust attack by a government attempting to force working people to shoulder the burden of an economic crisis caused by the failure of the banks and the capitalist system.

The government's attack on our hard won, yet poverty level £3,000 a year on average, public sector pensions include forcing workers to contribute up to £100 more a month for a smaller final pension settlement with an increase in the retirement age - pay more, get less and wait longer for it!

So far, union members balloted include ATL, NUT, PCS and UCU.

ATL: 83% for strike (turnout: 35%)
NUT:92% for strike (turnout: 40% state, 27% private)
PCS: 61% for strike (83.6 for industrial action, turnout: 32.4%)
UCU: Already taking industrial action

Help build support for the workers' action and come along to these events to find our more:

Why We're On Strike Public Meeting
7.30pm Monday June 20
Speakers from all unions involved
Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=135553419855931

Co-ordinated Strike Day March and Rally
10.30am Thursday June 30
The Level, Brighton - marching to Hove Town Hall

Brighton trade unionists join striking public sector workers of Southampton against pay cuts!

[by Andy Richards, Brighton Unison]

On Monday, about 1000 council workers and hospital cleaners marched through Southampton.

The Council workers are striking against threatened cuts in pay and the imposition of new, inferior contracts of employment. The hospital workers are taking action to force their employer, a contractor called Medirest, to honour a pay agreement. Click here to read on...

Send messages of support to:

Unison Southampton district branch, Civic Centre Southampton SO14 7NB.
Mike Tucker: branchsecretary@soton-unison-office.org.uk

Unite union, 15 The Avenue, Southampton SO17 1XF
Ian Woodland, Unite regional officer, woodland_ian@hotmail.com.

Donations to TGWU 2/8 Strike Fund, Unity Trust Bank, Ac No: 20185358 Sort Code 08-60-01.

GMB general secretary Paul Kenny offers his support for the 30 years of the Unemployed Workers Centre

GMB general secretary Paul Kenny (centre) with volunteers and trade unionists Russell, Francis, Ray and Tony (left to right) outside the Unemployed Workers Centre today. Paul offered 30th birthday solidarity greetings from the GMB conference taking place in Brighton this week and discussed various issues affecting the unemployed and local workers with plans for further support from the union.

Brighton trades council president lets Vince know what we think of his threats...

Brighton, Hove and District TUC President Holly Smith, along with fellow GMB activist Daniel Randall, made the national headlines with this message to Vince Cable at the GMB conference yesterday, as the ConDem Business Secretary attempted to threaten changes to already draconian laws to make it harder to withdraw our labour in strike action. You might be a slave to capitalism Vince, but we're no slaves to you and your outdated, parasitical economic system! The banner read: "Vince Cable not welcome, stop attacking workers' rights!" Great work comrades. Further report here...

Celebrate!

Renowned musician Will Kaufman, a professor of American studies, performs his Woodie Guthrie live documentary at a special event as part of celebrations marking 30 years of the Brighton & Hove TUC Unemployed Workers Centre.

7.30pm Saturday June 11 2011
Latest Music Bar, Manchester Street, Brighton

Kaufman brings alive Guthrie's legendary songs, written during the 1930s Great Depression era when a global economic crisis condemned millions to the dole queue and poverty. Today his songs do not feel out of place.

"Not much has changed in the last 80 years," explains Brighton & Hove TUC Unemployed Workers Centre Co-ordinator Tony Greenstein. “We have had a technological revolution but not a social revolution. Today we have the most sophisticated computers but we are still unable to conquer poverty, homelessness and unemployment.

"The struggle remains the same as it was 30 years ago. Nothing has changed except there is now an attempt to roll back the post-war settlement with savage cuts to the most vulnerable, including the disabled.”

Brighton & Hove TUC Unemployed Workers Centre is one of just a handful across the country that continue to remain open. It provides a whole range of services including legal help and welfare support along with organising children’s outings for those on low incomes.

"The centre has been through some tough challenges in its past," says Tony. "When we moved to Hollingdean, the local New Labour councillors did their best to prevent us opening."

On Wednesday GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny will offer his 30th anniversary wishes to the centre with a lunchtime break from the union's conference taking place in Brighton this week. The late Dudley Edwards was one of those who helped to found the centre.

For more information visit http://www.bhuwc.org.uk/

Our June trades council meeting...

With potentially Britain's biggest strike for some time on the cards at the end of the month, our June trades council meeting will take place after Wednesday's strike planning meeting that is being co-ordinated by those unions currently balloting for action...

7pm Wednesday June 8
Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=215547348479435

All trade unionists are encouraged to come along to help organise and spread the word of the battle being fought by our brothers and sisters in ATL, NUT, PCS and UCU, to defend our pensions from attack - increases in retirement age, workers' contributions and a switch to the lower CPI rate of interest are unnecessary cuts to our hard won 'defered wages' that are being used to pay for the government's debt caused by rescuing their capitalist economy with the bail out of the banks.

Leaflets to distribute around workplaces will be available to take away at the meeting, with time for a discussion on how we can build support among all workers and our communities for those preparing to embark on industrial action.

After, executive committee members and all interested trade unionists are invited to gather to discuss all our other trade union campaigns, news and information, as we will have the meeting room until 10pm.