WITHIN days of worries being expressed by Simon Danczuk, MP for Rochdale, about the delays in Rochdale town council publishing a report into child sex abuse, and disputed concerns on a website about the investigations of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) into the former Rochdale MP, Cyril Smith; the Greater Manchester Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood this week gave a warning to child sex abusers at a conference in Middleton to mark the first anniversary of the jailing of a Rochdale grooming ring. Last May, nine Asian men got jail sentences of between four and 19 years for offences against five girls, aged between 13 and 15, during 2008 and 2009 in the Rochdale area.
The Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Heywood, said:
'Our number one priority at the moment is CSE (child sex exploitation). It is now ahead of gun crime. Expect a lot more convictions. I have got more detectives working on CSE than I have on gun crime.'
A report of the conference in tomorrow's Rochdale Observer states:
'Police are now working to construct cases against other potential offenders in the town (Rochdale) going back to 2003... We are dealing with an avalance of child sex cases'
Recently local social workers, the police and the Crown Prosecution Services have all been criticised as a consequence of both last year's horrific case of sexual grooming, and the earlier historic cases relating to the former powerful politician Sir Cyril Smith, for not treating the allegations of victims sufficiently seriously.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Latest on last night's attack on George Tapp
Witnesses say the car drove deliberately and at speed into a crowd of protesters who were leafletting at the BAM construction site. BAM paid £38,371.85 to the Consulting Agency, a firm that ran anti-union blacklists, between 1996 and 2009. Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey said: 'blacklisting ruins lives and we believe it is continuing today on Crossrail because of contractors like BAM.'
Dave Smith, Secretary of the Blacklist Support Group, said:
'George is a blacklist hero who has been campaigning with Steve Acheson for many years. He recently attended the Blacklist Support Group AGM and led a delegation of blacklisted workers who encouraged the Mayor of Salford to ban blacklisting firms from publicly funded contracts. We wish him a speedy recovery.'
Messages of support should be sent to George via 07949 335 390.
Blacklist Campaign latest:
Friday 17th May - London:
Demonstrate to Vince Cable blacklisting still exists
8am
Business Innovation & Skills,
1 Victoria Street, (next to parliament square)
Saturday 18th May - Liverpool
Construction National rank n file meeting
12noon - 4pm
The Casa Bar, Hope Street, Liverpool,
All building workers welcome
Tuesday 21st May - London
Frank Morris v Crossrail & BFK Employment Tribunal
9am demo - court case all day
Central London Employment Tribunal,
Kingsway,
Holborn,
London
Saturday 25th May - Glasgow
March & Rally - No Public Contracts for Blacklisters
11:30am
Holland Street,
Glasgow
Please get along to this event and share as widely as possible.
Demonstrate to Vince Cable blacklisting still exists
8am
Business Innovation & Skills,
1 Victoria Street, (next to parliament square)
Saturday 18th May - Liverpool
Construction National rank n file meeting
12noon - 4pm
The Casa Bar, Hope Street, Liverpool,
All building workers welcome
Tuesday 21st May - London
Frank Morris v Crossrail & BFK Employment Tribunal
9am demo - court case all day
Central London Employment Tribunal,
Kingsway,
Holborn,
London
Saturday 25th May - Glasgow
March & Rally - No Public Contracts for Blacklisters
11:30am
Holland Street,
Glasgow
Please get along to this event and share as widely as possible.
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY at Royal Exchange
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
By Harold Pinter
Directed by Blanche McIntyre
Designed by Dick Bird
The Royal Exchange Theatre
St Ann’s Square, Manchester
Wednesday 5 June – Saturday 6 July
Press Night: Monday 10 June at 7.30pm
Classic Harold Pinter play THE BIRTHDAY PARTY continues the current season at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre from Wednesday 5 June to Saturday 6 July.
A surreal celebration where nothing is certain, the drama centres on Stanley Webber. He is possibly a pianist. He is lodging at Meg and Petey Boles’ seedy boarding house in an English Seaside town – which is possibly on the South Coast.
It is also possibly Stanley’s birthday, although he’s adamant it’s not. When two sinister strangers, Goldberg and McCann, arrive to stay and demand a celebration, his birthday party turns into a nightmare.
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY is Nobel Prize winner Pinter’s first produced full length play that went on to become one of his best-known and most popular.
This powerful, absurd and unsettling story is directed by Blanche McIntyre (winner of the Critics Circle Most Promising Newcomer 2011 for the critically acclaimed ACCOLADE and FOXFINDER).
The cast includes Maggie Steed as Meg. She is best known on television for PIE IN THE SKY, SHINE ON HARVEY MOON, BORN AND BRED and JAM AND JERUSALEM. Film work includes Terry Gilliam's THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR PARNASSUS with Heath Ledger (she was working on the film when he died) and her extensive theatre credits include the Broadway production of Alan Bennett's THE HISTORY BOYS.
Also appearing are Desmond Barrit as Goldberg; Keith Dunphy as McCann; Paul McCleary as Petey and Danusia Samai as Lulu. The creative team is completed by Dick Bird (design), Malcolm Rippeth (lighting) and Gregory Clarke (sound).
The PRESS NIGHT for THE BIRTHDAY PARTY is on Monday 10 June 2013 at 7.30pm.
For further information, images, or for interview / press review ticket requests, please contact JOHN GOODFELLOW (Press & Communications Manager) on 0161 615 6783 / john.goodfellow@royalexchange.co.uk.
Production photos for THE BIRTHDAY PARTY will be available for download from the Royal Exchange Theatre Online Press Office from Friday 7 June 2013 at www.royalexchange.co.uk/press
More information available about this production at http://www.royalexchange.co.uk/event.aspx?id=656
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY - Listings Information
The Royal Exchange Theatre
Evening Performance Times: Monday – Friday, 7.30pm (except Tuesday 18 June, no evening performance), Saturday, 8pm
Matinee Performance Times: Wednesday, 2.30pm, Saturday, 3.30pm. Extra matinee performance on
Tuesday 18 June, 2.30pm
Press Night: Monday 10 June, 7.30pm
Half Price Previews: Wednesday 5, Thursday 6 & Friday 7 June
Ticket Prices: £10.00 – £35.00 (Concessions Available)
Happy Mondays: Tickets £5.00 for 25-year-olds and under, Mondays Only
Audio-described Performance: Saturday 29 June, 3.30pm
BSL Interpreted Performance: Friday 5 July, 7.30pm
Captioned Performance: Thursday 27 June, 7.30pm
Backstage tours: Wednesday 12 June, 11am (this tour is BSL interpreted)
After-show Discussion: Thursday 20 June after 7.30pm performance
Box Office: 0161 833 9833.
On-line: www.royalexchange.co.uk/bookonline www.royalexchange.co.uk
Blacklist Campaign Veteran Knocked Down at Manchester City Ground
LAST night, 64-year-old UNITE member, and leading blacklist campaigner, George Tapp (who recently moved a motion supporting Northern Voices), is in Manchester Royal Infirmary hospital last night, and has been reported to have broken both his legs and to have a fractured knee cap after a car drove through a crowd of protesters at full speed outside Manchester City FC.
George was at the Blacklist Support Group AGM and alongside Steve Acheson negotiated a blacklist ban at Salford Council last month. Two other blacklisted workers protesting against blacklisting company 'Bam' were reported to have also been hit by the 'hit and run' driver but they only suffered minor injuries.
George was at the Blacklist Support Group AGM and alongside Steve Acheson negotiated a blacklist ban at Salford Council last month. Two other blacklisted workers protesting against blacklisting company 'Bam' were reported to have also been hit by the 'hit and run' driver but they only suffered minor injuries.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Film Night - Manchester and Saint Petersburg Friendship Society.
The Manchester and Petersburg Friendship Society have organised a showing of the classic film 'Ivan the Terrible' (part 1 1943), which will be shown at the Cheadle Hulme Methodist Church, Ramillies Ave, Cheadle Hulme, on Saturday 1st June 2013, at 6.30 pm.
As well as the film, there will be musical entertainment by the Kalina Balalaika Ensemble and Russian refreshments. An introduction to the film and disucussion afterwards, will lead by historian Catherine Danks.
Tickets (£6) can be obtained from the church (0161 485 1605), or reserved through Kalinka84@live.com
The evenings entertainment is in aid of the 'Silver Strings Project', who are sending the Kalinka Youth Balalaika Orchestra on a study trip to St. Petersburg.
The Bedroom Tax & 'Austerity Kills'
SINCE the suicide of the English lady in Solihull concerned about her 'bedroom tax', reported by Blanco on this Blog last Sunday, David Stucker and Sanjay Basu have written an article in the Global Edition of the New York Times (yesterday) entitled 'How austerity kills'. It seems that early last month a triple suicide was reported in the seaside town of Civitanova Marche in Italy, where a married couple, Anna Sopranzi aged 68, and Romero Dionisi aged 62, had been struggling to live of her monthly pension of 500 euros (£590), and had fallen behind with their rent. Their problem was that the Italian government had suddenly raised the retirement age and MR. Dionisi, a former building workers had become one of Italy's esodati (exiled ones) - older workers plunged into poverty without a safety net. On the 5th, April, he and his wife left a note on a neighbour's car asking for forgiveness, then hanged themselves in a storage closet at home. Then when Ms. Sopranzi's brother, Giuseppe Sopranzi, aged 73, heard the news, he drowned himself in the Adriatic.
Mr Stuckler and Mr. Basu claim:
'The correlation between unemployment and suicide has been observed since the 19th century. People looking for work are about twice as likely to end their lives as those who have jobs.'
They maintain that this is not just a story of suicides being an 'unavoidable consequence of economic downturns', but that in 'countries that slashed health and social protection budgets, like Greece, Italy and Spain, have seen starkly worse health outcomes than nations like Germany, Iceland and Sweden, which maintained their social safety nets and opted for stimulus over austerity. Mr Stucker and Basu note: 'Germany preaches the virtues of austerity - for others'.
Stucker and Basu argue:
'What we have found is that austerity - severe, immediate, indiscriminate cuts to social and health spending - is not only self-defeating, but fatal.'
If Stucker (senior researcher in sociology at Oxford) and Basu (an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford) are right, then this may raise problems for anarchists, like Chris Draper, who insist that to be consistent the anarchist movement must detach itself from the andencies of the state through a program of cuts in state spending. Chris Draper opened up a valueable debate for anarchists which must be confronted if an alternative vision for society is to be presented.
Mr Stuckler and Mr. Basu claim:
'The correlation between unemployment and suicide has been observed since the 19th century. People looking for work are about twice as likely to end their lives as those who have jobs.'
They maintain that this is not just a story of suicides being an 'unavoidable consequence of economic downturns', but that in 'countries that slashed health and social protection budgets, like Greece, Italy and Spain, have seen starkly worse health outcomes than nations like Germany, Iceland and Sweden, which maintained their social safety nets and opted for stimulus over austerity. Mr Stucker and Basu note: 'Germany preaches the virtues of austerity - for others'.
Stucker and Basu argue:
'What we have found is that austerity - severe, immediate, indiscriminate cuts to social and health spending - is not only self-defeating, but fatal.'
If Stucker (senior researcher in sociology at Oxford) and Basu (an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford) are right, then this may raise problems for anarchists, like Chris Draper, who insist that to be consistent the anarchist movement must detach itself from the andencies of the state through a program of cuts in state spending. Chris Draper opened up a valueable debate for anarchists which must be confronted if an alternative vision for society is to be presented.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Sexual Grooming: Yesterday & Today
Man Abused by Cyril Smith says Manchester police 'have let the victims down'
JUST as tomorrow's Rochdale Observer carries a front-page story on the recent scandal of the 'nine men [who] were jailed for rape and sexual abuse of a number of vulnerable young girls in a horrific case which shocked the nation', a report on the Exaro website yesterday suggesting that the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were winding down their investigation into Cyril Smith historic crimes has now been vigorously challenged by Chief Superintendent Mary Doyle of the GMP as 'misleading and inaccurate'.
Last week, on behalf of Northern Voices, I asked Stefan Jarmolowicz of the Greater Manchester Police Press Office as to what progress the police had made with regard to their investigations into the allegations against Cyril Smith and he told me that they 'had only ever had one complaint to the Greater Manchester Police'.
And yet, DCS Doyle on behalf of GMP, said yesterday:
'To say that we have abandoned our investigation into allegations concerning the late Sir Cyril Smith is misleading and inaccurate'
and that
'From the outset, we have always stressed that if anybody wished to come forward and make a complaint, GMP would record this to recognise the abuse that victim has suffered. We have publicly said just how important it is for victims that any such abuse is recognised because as Sir Cyril Smith is deceased, no criminal prosecution can be brought against him. Since last year, we have only had a very small number of people come forward to report any abuse by Sir Cyril Smith, and we have had no new reports since then. We are still actively investigating the incidents reported to us.'
All of this contrasts somewhat with the tenor of the statements put out by the GMP Press Department last week about their investigation into the Cyril Smith scandal, and someone in that department giving his name as 'Mark' told me:
'I think from what I know we're not looking into it'
and when I asked Mark if the GMP had looked into the allegations of Eddie Shorrock made in relation to Smith when he went on TV last November, Mark even suggested:
'If this guy went on TV we might not have seen it.'
Mr Ronald Alan Neal, now a baker from Whitworth, who has made statements to GMP and who was abused by Smith at Cambridge House in the 1960s, has told me today that he has made precise complaints to the police that raise concerns about the way this investigation has been conducted into Smith's activities. Mr Neal has also questioned the conduct of the police in relation to Smith in the 1960s. When I spoke to Ronald Alan Neal today and asked him how he felt about how the police had handled his case he told me:
'The Greater Manchester Police have been less than helpful, and once again they have let the victims down.'
But Mr Neal was anxious to praise both the Lancashire police and Tony Lloyd's Police & Crime Commissioner's Office:
'The Lancashire police have less of a budget than the Greater Manchester Police, but they have done far more'
and
'Tony Lloyd's Office have been far more helpful than the GMP'.
As the Savile case is now being pursued with a passion it is strange to encounter so much apparent passivity by the Greater Manchester force over the issues surrounding the now disgraced former Rochdale politician, Sir Cyril Smith.
Iberia, the CGT & Unite: Fighting Redundancies
THREE years ago members of the Spanish ('anarcho-syndicalist') CGT trade union at Iberia in Madrid contacted Northern Voices, and through us got the Bury branch secretary of Unite to fix up a meeting with the regional officers of Unite at their office at Salford Quays and with the Unite union's representatives at Manchester Airport. At that time the CGT (General Confederation of Labour) and its members were concerned about the consequences of the then forthcoming merger between British Airways and Iberia: the desire was to exchange information over wages and conditions etc. in the hope of co-operation between labour in both countries. In the end two representatives of the CGT from Madrid came over and held talks with representatives of Unite the Union, and later representatives from Manchester went to Spain.
Recently the secretary of Bury Unite Branch was contacted by Carlos Figueroa from the Spanish CGT asking for information regarding any developments or signs of activity with regard to British Airways because the situation for the workers at Iberia had deteriorated somewhat of late. Last Saturday, the Financial Times reported that 'International Airlines Group's [IAG] pre-tax loss widened to 670 million euros in the first quarter, as more restructuring costs were revealed yesterday (last Friday) at Iberia, its Spanish unit'. IAG was formed in 2011 from the merger of British Airways and Iberia: it is now reporting 'operating losses at both its subsidiaries', and the group's results fell below analysts expectations. Yet, Willie Walsh, the group's chief executive, described IAG's first-quarter performance as 'encouraging'.
Mr. Walsh said:
'These results are encouraging, with underlying revenue strength in strategic markets' but he added 'while the first step towards restructuring Iberia has been taken, there is more work to be done.'
The Financial Times reports:
'IAG recorded 311 million euro exceptional items in the first quarter relating to the restructuring of Iberia, which had been running up losses as it struggled to compete with more nimble competitors.'
This means that the group has accepted a Spanish government mediator's proposal that Iberia cut 3,300 instead of 4,500 that the bosses had originally planned to make redundant in November. IAG's plan to cut the workforce by 22% had run into strong opposition from the Spanish trade unions, which had launched 10 days of strikes in the first quarter of the year. Never-the-less, Mr Walsh said that he intended to pay shareholders a dividend in the future.
Recently the secretary of Bury Unite Branch was contacted by Carlos Figueroa from the Spanish CGT asking for information regarding any developments or signs of activity with regard to British Airways because the situation for the workers at Iberia had deteriorated somewhat of late. Last Saturday, the Financial Times reported that 'International Airlines Group's [IAG] pre-tax loss widened to 670 million euros in the first quarter, as more restructuring costs were revealed yesterday (last Friday) at Iberia, its Spanish unit'. IAG was formed in 2011 from the merger of British Airways and Iberia: it is now reporting 'operating losses at both its subsidiaries', and the group's results fell below analysts expectations. Yet, Willie Walsh, the group's chief executive, described IAG's first-quarter performance as 'encouraging'.
Mr. Walsh said:
'These results are encouraging, with underlying revenue strength in strategic markets' but he added 'while the first step towards restructuring Iberia has been taken, there is more work to be done.'
The Financial Times reports:
'IAG recorded 311 million euro exceptional items in the first quarter relating to the restructuring of Iberia, which had been running up losses as it struggled to compete with more nimble competitors.'
This means that the group has accepted a Spanish government mediator's proposal that Iberia cut 3,300 instead of 4,500 that the bosses had originally planned to make redundant in November. IAG's plan to cut the workforce by 22% had run into strong opposition from the Spanish trade unions, which had launched 10 days of strikes in the first quarter of the year. Never-the-less, Mr Walsh said that he intended to pay shareholders a dividend in the future.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Bristol Radical History Group Events
BRH Mob,
Two events you might like?
The Great Housing Rip Off
Monday 13th May 8.00pm
The Cube, Dove Street, Bristol.
Entry £3/£4 (But nobody turned away due to lack of funds)
As part of co-ordinated action by the International Workers' Association across several countries, Indymedia and Bristol Solidarity Federation are hosting an evening of film and discussion on housing matters. Using film footage from the 1930s and 1970s, the struggles of ordinary people to live in a decent, affordable and secure home will be remembered. The talks and discussions will focus on the present day, providing: an overview of current national and local housing issues; an analysis of the expanding private rented sector; an insight into the tenants movement in Bristol; and a first hand account of DIY housing in the form of a local co-operative. Related Link: http://www.solfed.org.uk/local/bristol
Presented by PCN, Bristol Indymedia & Bristol Solidarity Federation (this event is not organised by Bristol Radical History Group)
And.....
A Marxist History of the World in 45 Minutes
Tuesday 21st May 7.00pm
Hydra Bookshop, 34 Old Market St., Bristol, BS2 0EZ
with Neil Faulkner
We face the greatest crisis in the history of humanity. Economic depression, imperialist war, climate catastrophe, and grotesque social inequalities threaten to tear the world apart. What is to be done? The lesson of history is that human beings make their own history.
Launching his new book, A Marxist History of the World: from Neanderthals to Neoliberals, archaeologist and historian Neil Faulkner argues that history is open and contested. It is an active process of creation in which different futures are possible. It depends on what we do.
Powered by the interaction of technological change, wars between rulers, and class struggle from below, history is a constant struggle for control over society’s wealth. For 5,000 years, that wealth has served greed and war. Now, in the great crisis of the early 21st century, we must act to create a different future.
The meeting will include plenty of time for questions and discussion. All welcome. Join us.
Described by The Guardian as ‘enlightening and apocalyptic in equal measure’, Dr Neil Faulkner is a research fellow at Bristol University, a revolutionary socialist activist, and the author of numerous books, including Rome: Empire of the eagles (2008). He was a lead consultant and contributor to Sky Atlantic’s The British.
Cheers,
BRHG
_______________________________________________ Brhmob mailing list Brhmob@brh.org.uk http://www.brh.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/brhmob
Dates With Blacklist Campaign
Tuesday 14th May - 11am - Birmingham
Dianne Hughes - Deputy Director of Human Resources at The Big Lottery Fund - is listed as the main contact for blacklisting at Costain.
Big Lottery offices:
Apex House,
Embassy Drive,
Calthorpe Road,
Edgbaston,
Birmingham,
B15 1TP
Wed 15th May - 5.30pm - Manchester
Man City FC Academy construction project - being built by proven blacklisters Royal BAM
Ethihad campus (next to the stadium)
Man City season ticket holders are on the blacklist
Date for the diary:
Saturday 25th May - 11:30am Glasgow
Anti-Blacklist March & Rally
Holland Street
Glasgow
https://www.facebook.com/events/310572919072903/
Some press from last week:
http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/10412882._/
http://www.andrewdismore.org.uk/home/2013/05/08/dismore-backs-anti-blacklist-campaign-in-barnet/
http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hro/news/1077124/blacklisting-protest-targets-manchester-citys-training-ground
http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/2013/05/08/unite-union-demonstration-outside-may-gurney-refuse-depot-59067-33301237/#.UYrIGb3s3Xk.email
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95565889@N03
Dianne Hughes - Deputy Director of Human Resources at The Big Lottery Fund - is listed as the main contact for blacklisting at Costain.
Big Lottery offices:
Apex House,
Embassy Drive,
Calthorpe Road,
Edgbaston,
Birmingham,
B15 1TP
'You've more chance of being blacklisted than winning the Lottery'
Wed 15th May - 5.30pm - Manchester
Man City FC Academy construction project - being built by proven blacklisters Royal BAM
Ethihad campus (next to the stadium)
Man City season ticket holders are on the blacklist
Date for the diary:
Saturday 25th May - 11:30am Glasgow
Anti-Blacklist March & Rally
Holland Street
Glasgow
https://www.facebook.com/events/310572919072903/
Some press from last week:
http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/10412882._/
http://www.andrewdismore.org.uk/home/2013/05/08/dismore-backs-anti-blacklist-campaign-in-barnet/
http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hro/news/1077124/blacklisting-protest-targets-manchester-citys-training-ground
http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/2013/05/08/unite-union-demonstration-outside-may-gurney-refuse-depot-59067-33301237/#.UYrIGb3s3Xk.email
http://www.flickr.com/photos/95565889@N03
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Solihull single mother commits suicide over 'bedroom tax". She could not afford to live!
Amid all the brouhaha about Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement and Michael Gove's call for a referendum on Britain's continuing membership of the European Community, the tragic suicide of 53-year-old Stephanie Bottril from Solihull, was squeezed into a three minute slot on Sky TV.
Last Saturday, Stephanie left her home on Meriden Drive - Solihull, where she had lived for the past eighteen years - and walked to Junction 4 of the M6 motorway, where she threw herself under a lorry. Before killing herself she told neighbour's that she "simply couldn't afford to live anymore" and posted her keys and a suicide note through a neighbour's door, blaming the government's 'bedroom tax' for her death. "I don't blame anyone for me death expect (sic) the government" she wrote.
Under 'bedroom tax' rules, Stephanie was facing a welfare cut in her housing benefit because she had two spare rooms and she could not afford the extra £20 per week she was required to pay in order to retain her home. She told neighbours that she was 'tortured' about how she could afford the extra £20 per week and knew that she would have leave the home she loved, after losing a quarter of her £320-a-month housing benefit when her 23-year-old daughter, left home to live with her partner. Shortly before her death, a neighbour had taken her some barbecue food because she had not eaten for three days.
Mrs Bottril suffered from an auto-immune system deficiency condition known as Myasthenia gravis, which impacted on her ability to work but she was not receiving disability benefit. In a letter to her 27-year-old son, Steven, she said:
"Don't blame yourself for me ending my life, it is my life, the only people to blame are the government."
Although Mrs Bottril had been offered another property, she felt this was unsuitable because of poor transport links and she felt this would have isolated her from her family. Following Stephanie's death, the family issued a statement. Her son Steven told the Sunday People:
"She was fine before this bedroom tax. It was dreamt up by people living in offices and big houses. They have no idea the effect it has on people like my mum."
At a time when this verminous Tory government are taxing poor people for having so-called spare bedrooms, they have cut taxes for the rich and corporation tax for their business chums. As from April, anyone earning over £1 million-a-year will get an annual tax cut of at least £42,295.00. Yet there has been a five-fold increase in food banks since this government came into power in May 2010. The Labour MP Luciana Berger, recently told Parliament that 350,000 people had accessed emergency food aid this year in Britain.
While the government pursues its billionaires agenda of less tax for the rich, less regulation for business, less spending by the State and no cap on bankers bonuses, children are going hungry in Manchester. It is estimated that 91,000 children are living in severe poverty throughout Greater Manchester.
In the local authority area of Tameside, which according to figures published by the trade union UNISON, is one of the hardest places to find work in the North West, the registered social landlord New Charter Housing Trust Ltd, has already started to send out letters to their tenants who are in arrears with their 'bedroom tax', threatening legal action. These 'recovery proceedings' are being made in spite of comments made by New Charter boss, Ian Munro, that the tax should 'axed' and that it is both 'unfair and incompetent'. The housing boss has also stated that the housing company is in no position to rehouse many of its tenants, who are being forced to downsize. It is estimated that two-thirds of people affected by the bedroom tax nationally, are disabled.
In Solihull, the council Labour group leader, David Jamieson, said he was 'appalled' by the death of Stephanie Bottril and he urged the government to reconsider its 'bedroom tax' policy. Figures released earlier this year, show that UK suicide rates have markedly increased since the Tory government came into office. Just how many suicides it will take, before this government scraps this vile and iniquitous tax, remains to be seen.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Savile: West Yorkshire Police Clear Themselves
IN a report into themselves the West Yorkshire Police said that they found 'no evidence' that Jimmy Savile was protected from arrest or prosecution by his pally relations with the force. However, it admitted that there had been an 'over-reliance on personal friendships' between Savile and some officers, and that 'mistakes were made' in the handling of intelligence. Tons of allegations of abuse had come to light after his death in October 2011.
Speaking after publication of the report, Assistant Chief Constable Ingrid Lee said:
'They didn't know, the people engaged with Jimmy Savile, that actually there were these allegations against him... There clearly was information available that we should have tied together and we did fail victims in relation to tying that evidence together and we should have done. If he were alive today, there's absolutely no doubt that he would have had a number of questions to answer.'
The West Yorkshire Police report reveals Savile was used to front a number of the force's campaigns, including one called Talking Signs, where a recording of his voice was broadcast from lamp posts offering crime prevention advice. The report claimed that at the time he was 'seen by most of the public as a man who did good work' and it concluded there were concerns about what it described as 'the over-reliance on personal friendships that developed between Savile and some officers over a number of years': furthermore it stated - 'He (Savile) was able to manage his public persona in such a way that he deceived most people he met' and that 'he was a manipulative man who exploited to the worst possible degree the trust people placed in him.'
A lawyer, Alan Collins, who is a specialist in child abuse, and who is representing 40 of Savile's victims together with a number who claim to have been violated by the former Rochdale Liberal - Democrat MP, Sir Cyril Smith who died in 2010, said today:
'It's protection by inadvertence. It's all about failing to join up the dots. There was intelligence, but that intelligence wasn't shared or used, so Savile was able to run rings around police forces. I think if that relationship [with Savile] wasn't there, and the police officers were not blinkered in who they were dealing with because of his celebrity, then maybe the evidence that was available would have been looked at with a sharper eye.'
This report does not inspire much confidence in the ability of the West Yorkshire Police to manage their records. In the recent past Northern Voices has had experience in a minor case of assault of certain slip-ups with regard to the storage and exchange of evidence between the police and the CPS. The solicitor Alan Collins says 'maybe the evidence that was available would have been looked at with a sharper eye' if some of the West Yorkshire police had not been so cosy in their local relationship with Savile; this may have been so but the documentary sloppiness that has been demonstrated in the Savile case also prevailed in some of the other cases including that of Sir Cyril Smith which now seems to have slipped off the radar.
Speaking after publication of the report, Assistant Chief Constable Ingrid Lee said:
'They didn't know, the people engaged with Jimmy Savile, that actually there were these allegations against him... There clearly was information available that we should have tied together and we did fail victims in relation to tying that evidence together and we should have done. If he were alive today, there's absolutely no doubt that he would have had a number of questions to answer.'
The West Yorkshire Police report reveals Savile was used to front a number of the force's campaigns, including one called Talking Signs, where a recording of his voice was broadcast from lamp posts offering crime prevention advice. The report claimed that at the time he was 'seen by most of the public as a man who did good work' and it concluded there were concerns about what it described as 'the over-reliance on personal friendships that developed between Savile and some officers over a number of years': furthermore it stated - 'He (Savile) was able to manage his public persona in such a way that he deceived most people he met' and that 'he was a manipulative man who exploited to the worst possible degree the trust people placed in him.'
A lawyer, Alan Collins, who is a specialist in child abuse, and who is representing 40 of Savile's victims together with a number who claim to have been violated by the former Rochdale Liberal - Democrat MP, Sir Cyril Smith who died in 2010, said today:
'It's protection by inadvertence. It's all about failing to join up the dots. There was intelligence, but that intelligence wasn't shared or used, so Savile was able to run rings around police forces. I think if that relationship [with Savile] wasn't there, and the police officers were not blinkered in who they were dealing with because of his celebrity, then maybe the evidence that was available would have been looked at with a sharper eye.'
This report does not inspire much confidence in the ability of the West Yorkshire Police to manage their records. In the recent past Northern Voices has had experience in a minor case of assault of certain slip-ups with regard to the storage and exchange of evidence between the police and the CPS. The solicitor Alan Collins says 'maybe the evidence that was available would have been looked at with a sharper eye' if some of the West Yorkshire police had not been so cosy in their local relationship with Savile; this may have been so but the documentary sloppiness that has been demonstrated in the Savile case also prevailed in some of the other cases including that of Sir Cyril Smith which now seems to have slipped off the radar.
Jerry Hicks, Unite the Union & the Awkward Squad
FROM Jerry Hicks:
Please forward to all your contacts / Facebook / Blogs / Twitter /all other stuff. Contact me about what's happening where you are email jerryhicks4gs2010@yahoo.co.uk
Tel: 07817827912 Ta Jerry.
Our 'mini tour' round the country continues a pace, to discuss how to organise and build on the magnificent 80,000 votes and continue the fight to make Unite a better union for the members. So far already taking in Birmingham, London and Plymouth.
The accute need for something better has for this has been brought home to us with a 'BANG'........................ [See attached leaflet for full explanation]. London & Eastern Regional Council at its April meeting has decided to close 100’s of branches throughout the region with effect from May 15th. There has been NO consultation in advance of this sudden move. No one has even been informed which branch they will become a member of.
A meeting about the Branch closures in London & Eastern Region has been called [by supporters of Jerry Hicks] for next Thursday 16th May 7-30pm to 9-30pm at the Friends Meeting House Rainsford Road, Chelmsford; CM1 2QL. All Unite members welcome to attend.
Here on details of other Post-election meetings please try to get to one near you:
Saturday 11th May: 2-4pm, Methodist Central Buildings, Oldham Street, Manchester, M1 1JQ (near Piccadilly Gardens and station). Download a leaflet. Facebook.
Saturday 18th May: 6pm, Cambridge
Monday 20th May: 7:30pm, The Old Fighting Cocks, 48 Market Street, Oakengates, Telford, TF2 6DU
Tuesday 21st May: 6pm, function room, O'Neills, 26 Great George Street, Leeds, LS1 3DL
Wednesday 22nd May: 7:30pm, Belle Vue Club, Kedal Road, Hartlepool, TS25 1QU
Thursday 23rd May: 7pm, upstairs room, The Piper on the Square, 57 Cochrane Street, Glasgow, G1 1HL (by George Square).
The discussions at the regional meetings will be followed by a national meeting to take decisions on next steps:
London National Meeting: Saturday 25th May, 1pm, Somers Town Community Centre, 150 Ossulston Street, London NW1 1EE (nearest tubes Euston and Kings Cross). Leaflet. Facebook.
Info: I am in the process of making a number of complaints regarding abuses during the General Secretary election, as soon as there are any major developments I will let you know.
Finally [for now] some brilliant news- Unite member and Grass Roots left Chair Gerry Downing, a bus driver in London for Metroline at the Wilsden garage, has won his reinstatement following his successful appeal against his sacking today [Tuesday 30th April]. Massive congratulations to Gerry Downing and those who joined showed their solidarity support at the picket of his appeal hearing.
Keep on keeping on, Jerry.
For more information go to www.jerryhicks4gs.org
Please forward to all your contacts / Facebook / Blogs / Twitter /all other stuff. Contact me about what's happening where you are email jerryhicks4gs2010@yahoo.co.uk
Tel: 07817827912 Ta Jerry.
'80,000 votes [for Jerry as Unite General Sec.] are not going away & will not be ignored'
Our 'mini tour' round the country continues a pace, to discuss how to organise and build on the magnificent 80,000 votes and continue the fight to make Unite a better union for the members. So far already taking in Birmingham, London and Plymouth.
The accute need for something better has for this has been brought home to us with a 'BANG'........................ [See attached leaflet for full explanation]. London & Eastern Regional Council at its April meeting has decided to close 100’s of branches throughout the region with effect from May 15th. There has been NO consultation in advance of this sudden move. No one has even been informed which branch they will become a member of.
A meeting about the Branch closures in London & Eastern Region has been called [by supporters of Jerry Hicks] for next Thursday 16th May 7-30pm to 9-30pm at the Friends Meeting House Rainsford Road, Chelmsford; CM1 2QL. All Unite members welcome to attend.
Don't agonise, organise!
Here on details of other Post-election meetings please try to get to one near you:
Saturday 11th May: 2-4pm, Methodist Central Buildings, Oldham Street, Manchester, M1 1JQ (near Piccadilly Gardens and station). Download a leaflet. Facebook.
Saturday 18th May: 6pm, Cambridge
Monday 20th May: 7:30pm, The Old Fighting Cocks, 48 Market Street, Oakengates, Telford, TF2 6DU
Tuesday 21st May: 6pm, function room, O'Neills, 26 Great George Street, Leeds, LS1 3DL
Wednesday 22nd May: 7:30pm, Belle Vue Club, Kedal Road, Hartlepool, TS25 1QU
Thursday 23rd May: 7pm, upstairs room, The Piper on the Square, 57 Cochrane Street, Glasgow, G1 1HL (by George Square).
The discussions at the regional meetings will be followed by a national meeting to take decisions on next steps:
London National Meeting: Saturday 25th May, 1pm, Somers Town Community Centre, 150 Ossulston Street, London NW1 1EE (nearest tubes Euston and Kings Cross). Leaflet. Facebook.
Info: I am in the process of making a number of complaints regarding abuses during the General Secretary election, as soon as there are any major developments I will let you know.
Finally [for now] some brilliant news- Unite member and Grass Roots left Chair Gerry Downing, a bus driver in London for Metroline at the Wilsden garage, has won his reinstatement following his successful appeal against his sacking today [Tuesday 30th April]. Massive congratulations to Gerry Downing and those who joined showed their solidarity support at the picket of his appeal hearing.
Keep on keeping on, Jerry.
For more information go to www.jerryhicks4gs.org
Thursday, May 9, 2013
How the NCCL lobbied for Paedophiles!
Athough many of the early novels of the English writer Evelyn Waugh, are exquisitely funny, many people have also found them rude and in bad taste. Had he been writing today, it is doubtful whether a modern-day publisher would have printed some of his works because of their overtly racist nature. Even in his own day, Waugh was considered a risk in certain quarters. When he offered his first novel 'Decline and Fall' to the publishers 'Duckworth', they rejected it on the grounds of 'indelicacy'. The book was eventually published in 1928, by 'Chapman and Hall' whose Managing Director, Arthur Waugh, was the author's father.
Although in the first edition of the novel, Waugh wrote: "Please bear in mind throughout that IT IS MEANT TO BE FUNNY", anyone who has read 'Decline and Fall', would have no difficulty in recognising why some people considered this book 'indelicate' at the time of its publication. The novel is replete with such terms as 'nigger', 'chink', and makes rather unflattering remarks and observations about the Welsh. Take this, as an example:
"I think it's an insult bringing niggers here" said Mrs Clutterbuck, "It's an insult to our own women."
"Niggers are all right" said Philbrick, "where I draw the line is a Chink, nasty inhuman things. I had a pal bumped off by a Chink once. Throat cut horrible, it was, from ear to ear."
"Good gracious!" said Mrs Clutterbuck the governess. "Was that in the Boxer rising"?
"No", said Philbrick cheerfully. "Saturday night in the Edgware Road. Might have happened to any of us."
In the early novels, this sort of racism coupled with anti-Semitism, is fairly typical stuff from the pen of the author of Brideshead Revisited. But what some people find particularly objectionable about 'Decline and Fall', are the themes of 'pederasty' and 'prostitution' and the way in which, Waugh deals with these issues, throughout the novel. Although the writer, Christopher Hitchens, consider the novel " a miniature masterpiece", in an essay that he wrote on Waugh, he said of the novel:
"I remember being quite astounded when I was first introduced to the novel at the age of twelve, by a boarding-school master who later had to be hastily taken away."
The novel tells the story of Paul Pennyfeather, a theological student and 'innocent abroad', who is sent down from Oxford for indecent behaviour, when he's found without his trousers in the quad of Scone College after being debagged by members of the 'Bollinger Club'. Disinherited by his guardian, Pennyfeather is forced to look for work as a school teacher. He's interviewed by Mr. Levy, of the Church and Gargoyle scholastic agents, who says to him:
"Sent down for indecent behaviour eh? Well, I don't think we'll say anything about that. In fact officially, mind, you haven't told me. We call that sort of thing 'Education discontinued for personal reasons'."
At Llanabba Castle school in Wales, Paul is interviewed by Dr. Fagin, who says to him: "I understand, too, that you left university rather suddenly. Now, why was that?" Paul replies: "I was sent down, Sir, for indecent behaviour." "Indeed, indeed?" replies Dr. Fagin. "Well, I shall not ask for details. I have been in the scholastic profession long enough to know that nobody enters it unless he has some good reason which he is anxious to conceal. But again to be practical Mr. Pennyfeather, I can hardly pay £120 to anyone who has been sent down for indecent behaviour. Suppose we fix your salary at £90 a year to begin with."
A character in the novel, Captain Grimes, is a one legged tutor at the school, who is also a pederast and a drunk. In his diaries, Waugh says that Grime's 'monotonously pederastic' prototype, was one William R.B. Young - 'Dick Young', a tutor who worked with Waugh. In the diaries, Waugh explains that Young had been "expelled from Wellington, sent down from Oxford and forced to resign his commission in the army. He had left four schools precipitately, three in the middle of the term through being taken in sodomy and one through his being drunk six nights in succession. And yet he goes on getting better and better jobs without difficulty."
Nowadays, people might find it quite astonishing that the subject of child sex abuse could be treated so lightly and humorously by an English novelist writing in the late 1920s or that a pederastic teacher, could move from one job after another, after being dismissed for sexual abuse. Yet social attitudes and perceptions do change over time and many people reading the novel for the first time, may not have batted an eyelid about the racism or the awful underlying themes of pederasty and prostitution. Certainly, racism was commonplace at the time and both the novelist Graham Greene and John Buchan, have been accused of anti-Semitism. Nevertheless, the physical or sexual abuse of children can never be justified no matter how long ago it took place, on the grounds of historical relativism, or that it furthers some discourse on sexual liberation.
Yet at a time when the police are conducting the Jimmy Savile inquiry and there are investigations taking place into child sex abuse in children's homes throughout the country, it may seem shocking that as recently as 1976, the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), now known as Liberty, petitioned Parliament's criminal law revision committee and argued for incest to be decriminalised and that sexually explicit photographs of children, should be legal unless it could be shown that the subject had suffered harm. Harriet Harman (pictured), the then legal officer of the NCCL (and now Deputy Leader of the Labour Party), argued that it would "increase censorship". In their petition the NCCL stated that the 'Protection of Children Bill', would lead to "damaging and absurd prosecutions" and stated:
"Childhood sexual experiences, willingly engaged in with an adult, result in no identifiable damage...The real need is a change in attitude which assumes that all cases of paedophilia result in lasting damage."
At the time the NCCL made its petition to Parliament that "caused barely a ripple", both the 'Paedophile Information Exchange'(PIE), and the 'Paedophile Action for Liberation' (PAL), were active members of the NCCL. In the 1970s, when there were campaigns around the theme of 'sexual liberation', both organisations campaigned to have 'paedophilia' (defined as a person who has a primary or exclusive sexual interest in pre-pubescent children) classified as a sexual orientation in much the same way as homosexuality is accepted today. Yet, many professionals working within the field of child protection, regard paedophilia as acquired behaviour rather than innate behaviour - something which is learned and can be unlearned. Chris Wilson, of 'Circles UK', who works with released offenders, is dismissive of the idea that paedophilia is a sexual orientation: In a Guardian article about paedophilia, which was published earlier this year, he told the newspaper:
"The roots of desire for sex with a child lie in dysfunctional psychological issues to do with power, control, anger, emotional loneliness, isolation."
Although there are considerable differences of opinion regarding clinical definitions of paedophilia or what causes it, The 'American Psychological Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders', classifies it as "a sexual deviation, a sociopathic condition and a non-psychotic mental disorder." However, sociological studies that have looked at paedophilia, do suggest that not all paedophiles are child molesters and vice versa and that not all paedophiles, act on their impulses. Likewise, many people who do sexually abuse children are not exclusively or primarily sexually attracted to them. It is also known that the vast majority of sexual violence, is committed by people known to the victim.
Sarah Goode, who has written two major sociological studies on paedophilia, says that "1-in-5 adult men are, to some degree, capable of being sexually aroused by children." She also adds: "Even less is known about female paedophiles, thought to be responsible for maybe 5% of abuse against pre-pubescent children in the UK."
New Editor for Freedom
THERE hasn't been an issue of the monthly Freedom (the anarchist paper) since February. It is likely that the March, April and May issues will arrive in the next month or so, as the new editor Charlotte takes over. Freedom has had a rocky existence over the last year partly because of the copyright challenge from David Hoffman last year but also more recently because of a fire apparently inflicted maliciously earlier this year. At the time of this incident it seemed that the police had good photographic evidence of the culprits but this later proved not to be the case.
Curiously another Charlotte, Charlotte Wilson, was the first editor of Freedom when it was founded in 1886. Charlotte Wilson was also a member of the Fabian Society. David Goodway in his book 'Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow' (2006) writes:
'Unlike such countries as France or Italy, Britain had never had a numerically significant anarchist movement; and so in the 1930s there was neither a tradition of sympathy for libertarian ideas and aspirations let alone, as in France, the resurgence of a major movement to provide solidarity for the Spanish Revolution (in 1936).'
Goodway adds:
'In Britain even the principle anarchist journal, Freedom, founded back in 1886, had folded in 1927.'
The Russian/ American anarchist, Emma Goldman wrote in 1937:
'... there is no Anarchist movement in England.... we have nothing in London or the provincial cities...'
David Goodway observes in his Conclusion:
'It has been seen that in Britain pure anarchism - unlike the broader libertarianism during the second decade of the twentieth century of syndicalism, industrial unionism, the Shop Stewards' and Workers' Committee Movement, and Guild Socialism - had never achieved any better than a minuscule following (other than among the Yiddish speakers of London's East End and possibly on Clydeside).'
In the late 1940s, Marie Louise Berneri wrote about Freedom:
'The paper gets better and better, and fewer and fewer people read it.'
Of Freedom in the 1950s, Goodway writes:
'The political and intellectual isolation of British anarchism, together with its lack of numerical support continued throughout the 1950s, leading (Colin) Ward to comment that "the problem of the 1960s is simply that of how to put anarchism back into the intellectual bloodstream, into the field of ideas which are taken seriously".'
Now in the 21st century, for the first time Freedom opted to advertise for a new editor and got six applications. The former editor Matthew had taken over at a difficult time following both the David Hoffman copywrite business and an internal dispute with a former editor. Matthew had been unfortunate in getting caught up in the dispute between Nick Heath and the Anarchist Federation (AF) in their dealings with Barry Woodling, the Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) and Northern Voices. This had led to him receiving a nasty, and some would say threatening letter from Mr. Heath, who works part-time in the Freedom Bookshop. Ultimately, Matthew was to suffer an attack of pneumonia and resigned his editorship.
Freedom has had a long history, and I attended its 75th anniversary Anarchist Ball at which Mick Mulligan played and George Melly sang in 1963. In the 1960s that was a point of anarchism's greatest influence and when Freedom, then a weekly, sold about 3,000 copies a week. Since then it has had some great people on its editorial board including John Retty, Peter Turner and Bill Christopher, as well as Vernon Richards and Charles Crute. But last year readers were shocked to learn that Freedom, now a monthly, only had a print order of some 300 copies, and little discernible influence beyond a small circle. Colin Ward did much to place anarchism on the intellectual agenda during the last half of the 20th century, the question is can it retain any credibility now when the British left is in such a derelict state?
_______________________________________________________
The next issue of the printed issue of NORTHERN VOICES No.14, will soon be available for sale with a with a review of one of Dave Goodway's books 'The Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: from William Morris to Colin Ward', Northern Voices can be obtained as follows:
Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included). Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' sent to c/o 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.
Tel.: 0161 793 5122.
email: northernvoices@hotmail.com
Curiously another Charlotte, Charlotte Wilson, was the first editor of Freedom when it was founded in 1886. Charlotte Wilson was also a member of the Fabian Society. David Goodway in his book 'Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow' (2006) writes:
'Unlike such countries as France or Italy, Britain had never had a numerically significant anarchist movement; and so in the 1930s there was neither a tradition of sympathy for libertarian ideas and aspirations let alone, as in France, the resurgence of a major movement to provide solidarity for the Spanish Revolution (in 1936).'
Goodway adds:
'In Britain even the principle anarchist journal, Freedom, founded back in 1886, had folded in 1927.'
The Russian/ American anarchist, Emma Goldman wrote in 1937:
'... there is no Anarchist movement in England.... we have nothing in London or the provincial cities...'
David Goodway observes in his Conclusion:
'It has been seen that in Britain pure anarchism - unlike the broader libertarianism during the second decade of the twentieth century of syndicalism, industrial unionism, the Shop Stewards' and Workers' Committee Movement, and Guild Socialism - had never achieved any better than a minuscule following (other than among the Yiddish speakers of London's East End and possibly on Clydeside).'
In the late 1940s, Marie Louise Berneri wrote about Freedom:
'The paper gets better and better, and fewer and fewer people read it.'
Of Freedom in the 1950s, Goodway writes:
'The political and intellectual isolation of British anarchism, together with its lack of numerical support continued throughout the 1950s, leading (Colin) Ward to comment that "the problem of the 1960s is simply that of how to put anarchism back into the intellectual bloodstream, into the field of ideas which are taken seriously".'
Now in the 21st century, for the first time Freedom opted to advertise for a new editor and got six applications. The former editor Matthew had taken over at a difficult time following both the David Hoffman copywrite business and an internal dispute with a former editor. Matthew had been unfortunate in getting caught up in the dispute between Nick Heath and the Anarchist Federation (AF) in their dealings with Barry Woodling, the Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) and Northern Voices. This had led to him receiving a nasty, and some would say threatening letter from Mr. Heath, who works part-time in the Freedom Bookshop. Ultimately, Matthew was to suffer an attack of pneumonia and resigned his editorship.
Freedom has had a long history, and I attended its 75th anniversary Anarchist Ball at which Mick Mulligan played and George Melly sang in 1963. In the 1960s that was a point of anarchism's greatest influence and when Freedom, then a weekly, sold about 3,000 copies a week. Since then it has had some great people on its editorial board including John Retty, Peter Turner and Bill Christopher, as well as Vernon Richards and Charles Crute. But last year readers were shocked to learn that Freedom, now a monthly, only had a print order of some 300 copies, and little discernible influence beyond a small circle. Colin Ward did much to place anarchism on the intellectual agenda during the last half of the 20th century, the question is can it retain any credibility now when the British left is in such a derelict state?
_______________________________________________________
The next issue of the printed issue of NORTHERN VOICES No.14, will soon be available for sale with a with a review of one of Dave Goodway's books 'The Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: from William Morris to Colin Ward', Northern Voices can be obtained as follows:
Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included). Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' sent to c/o 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.
Tel.: 0161 793 5122.
email: northernvoices@hotmail.com
Blackstone Edge Gathering & Roman Road
'Lancashire's Via Appia Antica'
NOT only the Chartists visited Blackstone Edge but local legend has it that the Romans built a road up it. The leader of the Littleborough contingent that ascended it for last Sunday's gathering Fiona insisted on taking us up the steep 'Roman Road' as the Romans built in straight lines.In his entry to 'Hidden Treasures of England,' Michael McNay writes:
'Anyone who has walked the old Appian Way in Rome will be familiar with the feel and look of a genuine Roman road: slabs of (in this case) lava rock laid with gaps between them of something like an inch. This may not be the scientific way to argue that the remarkable half-mile stretch of paved road climbing to Blackstone Edge in the Pennines off the A58 above Littleborough is also Roman and not, as some doubters feel, a route laid down at some later date, but it certainly has all the appearances of the genuine article. Moreover, there is no evidence that anyone bothered to build roads of this sort after the Romans until the coming of the turnpikes in the 18th century. Quite the contrary, in fact: the appalling state of the roads is why rivers and, later, canals were so important for transport.'
Mr McNay adds:
'The Blackstone Edge road has one other particularly Roman characteristic: it goes straight up the hill the direct way. It was part of the route from the fort at Manchester to Ilkley, and it is in excellent condition. One explanation for the wide groove that runs down the middle is that it was made to help braking, but since the road has no camber, my own guess is that it was put there simply to allow water to run off.'
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Blackstone Edge & Bury Black Pudding
LAST Sunday, a gathering took place on Blackstone Edge in Littleborough to commemorate the Chartist revival of 1846, when 30,000 Chartists gathered under this rocky outcrop on August Bank Holiday Sunday. This time there were about 50 present and a choir.
Paul Salverson, a Labour Councillor and Northern historian spoke about the need for more regional government in the North. A lecturer from Manchester University outlined the significance of the occassion to current events and present-day politics; the decline in turnout in the voting in the recent local elections were noted. Paul Salverson pondered the timidity of all the main stream politicians which had allowed the outsider Ukip Party to triumph.
Ultimately flags were raised and songs were sung, and some of us adjourned to the White House to drink Joseph Holt's bitter and in my case to eat some Bury Black Pudding on a spread of mashed potatoes and onion. Ominously as we decended Blackstone Edge we caught sight of the stripped carcase of a fully grown sheep with its rib-cage gleeming white in the sunlight.
The next gathering is likely to be on Sunday 4th May 2014.
If you would like to contribute a song or reading, or if you are willing to lead a walk up to Blackstone Edge from one of the valley towns or railway stations, please contact
Gwyneth Morgan at: gwyneth@blackstoneedgegathering.org.uk
Paul Salverson, a Labour Councillor and Northern historian spoke about the need for more regional government in the North. A lecturer from Manchester University outlined the significance of the occassion to current events and present-day politics; the decline in turnout in the voting in the recent local elections were noted. Paul Salverson pondered the timidity of all the main stream politicians which had allowed the outsider Ukip Party to triumph.
Ultimately flags were raised and songs were sung, and some of us adjourned to the White House to drink Joseph Holt's bitter and in my case to eat some Bury Black Pudding on a spread of mashed potatoes and onion. Ominously as we decended Blackstone Edge we caught sight of the stripped carcase of a fully grown sheep with its rib-cage gleeming white in the sunlight.
The next gathering is likely to be on Sunday 4th May 2014.
If you would like to contribute a song or reading, or if you are willing to lead a walk up to Blackstone Edge from one of the valley towns or railway stations, please contact
Gwyneth Morgan at: gwyneth@blackstoneedgegathering.org.uk
Blacklist Campaign Latest
Blacklist Flashmob
5pm Wed 8th May - TONITE
Crossrail site
100 Oxford Street
meet: Tottenham Court Rd tube
We have got TV crews following us today - so we need bodies
Manchester
7.30am Friday 10th May
Manchester City FC Academy construction project
(its right next to the stadium)
Blacklist Support Group
video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRB9DjmhBHg
blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/
Labour Disputes in Hong Kong & Bahrain
A month ago I wrote to you to ask for your support for striking dock workers in Hong Kong. Over 8,500 of you responded to the call and today I'm pleased to tell you that the strike is over. The workers have accepted an improved wage offer and promises of further negotiations on working conditions, as well as an assurance that there will be no retaliation against workers who participated in the strike.
The Union of Hong Kong Dockers issued a statement thanking us all for our solidarity. In it, they write:
'The passionate support and generous donations of the Hong Kong community, the international trade unions and organizations have helped us to sustain the strike for forty days. On behalf of our members, UHKD is thankful to all of you who have been giving us unwavering support. Together with you, we have demonstrated again the importance of workers’ unity in fighting not only for reasonable pay, but also our dignity and our future.'
(More details are available on the ITF website.).
It's a great win and demonstrates once again the incredible power of international solidarity. We've won a great victory in Hong Kong, but now we have to turn our attention to workers elsewhere who need our help.
In the past, LabourStart has highlighted the case of jailed Bahraini trade union leader Mahdi 'Issa Mahdi Abu Dheeb.
In early 2011, as peaceful protests spread across Bahrain, Mahdi 'Issa Mahdi Abu Dheeb and his colleague Jalila al-Salman called for a teachers’ strike to support the growing demands for reform.
Most of us would say that there were doing their job as leaders of a teachers' union. The authorities in Bahrain did not agree.
They were arrested on 6 April 2011. Mahdi spent 64 days in solitary confinement during which he says he was tortured and forced to sign a confession. His family did not know where he was for the first 24 days. Mahdi and Jalila were sentenced to prison. They were convicted for using their positions to call for a strike by teachers, halting the educational process and attempting to overthrow the ruling system.
Their sentences were eventually reduced on appeal – Mahdi’s to five years, Jalila to six months - but they should have never been arrested in the first place.
Jalila has since been released and I had the great pleasure to meet her recently at a teachers' union conference in Britain. But Mahdi is still in prison. For more than two years.
Amnesty International has issued a fresh call for his release. I urge you to support it - please click here.
Thank you.
Eric Lee
Jim Pinkerton, 'Verdi Man' & opera buff
WHEN in the Autumn of 2001 the distinguished old Lancashire anarchist and former international secretary of the Syndicalist Workers' Federation, Jim Pinketon, had just suffered what was to be his first stroke and was speechless in bed in Ashton-under-Lyne General Hospital, Harold Sculthorpe produced a pair of headphones and played him some Puccini, Derek Pattison, another life-long friend said: 'Jim was more of a Verdi man, Harold!'. This year is the bicentennary of both Verdi and Wagner and it caused a little consternation when last December the Teatro alla Scala in Milan opened its season with 'Lohengrin' in observation of Wagner's bicentennial rather than with an opera by Verdi, who was born in Roncole, Italy, in the Duchy of Palma, on either the 9th or 10th, October 1813 (the records are unclear).
Wagner was born in Leipzig, Germany, on May 22nd, 1813 (no doubt the German records are clearer). It seems they never met and had little nice to say about each other. Yet in later life, in 1899, Verdi told a German newspaper that Wagner was 'one of the greatest geniuses' who left treasures of 'immortal worth', admitting that as an Italian, he could not claim to 'understand everything' in Wagner, but he declared before 'Trista und Isolde... I stand in wonder and terror.' The scholar Richard Taruskin has suggested that though some of Verdi's praise may have been genuine there is 'sufficient evidence of leg pulling' in the old man's answer to the fawning German interviewer. Anthony Tommasini, the journalist, writes: 'For the most part Wagner and Verdi existed as titans in their separate realms.'
The Puccini music made Jim Pinkerton jerk briefly in his hospital bed when the head-phones went on his ears possibly showing some recognition, but he was never to converse again with any of us and died on March 9th, 2002 at the age of 79-years. He was never again to listen to his 78rpm records of Caruso, Nelly Melba, Alfredo Kraus and a Zazuela from Spain or drink his fine Burgundy.
Since its excursion last year into Wagner the Teatro alla Scala has redressedv the balance in the months since with new productions of four Verdi operas, the latest being 'Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacto'. 'Oberto' was Verdi's first opera ever. Tommasini writes: 'By midcentury Verdi had become the Italian opera composer best known and most performed in Europe' as 'commissions even came to him from St. Petersburg ('La Forza del Destino') and Cairo ('Aida').' For Tommasini: 'He was a colossus who expanded on and experimented with the Italian tradition but never really moved beyond it.'
What did this mean for Verdi?
Anthony Tommasini writes:
'Verdi was born to an Italian opera tradition that embraced tried-and-true procedures regarding recitative and aria, scene structure and the like.' But, 'In letters he complained endlessly about the tyranny of the tradition... the ridiculous expectations of opera audiences for set-piece arias and ensembles could infuriate him as much as the absurdities of the Italian censors, who vetoed story lines and settings that were deemed incendiary.'
Stravinsky wrote in his book 'Poetics of Music' defending the oom-pah-pah aria in the style of Verdi:
'I know I am going to counter the general opinion that sees Verdi's best work in the deterioration of the genius that gave us "Rigoletto," "Il Trovatore," "Aida" and "La Traviata," ' but, 'I maintain that there is more substance and true invention in the aria "La donna è mobile" (The woman is fickle), for example, in which the elite saw nothing but deplorable facility, than in the rhetoric and vociferations of the "Ring," (Wagner) '
Jim Pinkerton, who retired as a copy-taker on the Sunday People in the 1980s, was a northern, working-class, anarchist intellectual who loved Verdi and took a dim view of the English anarchist movement. Culturally he would have preferred to belong to the Italian middle-class as that would have given him greater access to the music he so passionately desired. But politically he adored the Spanish anarcho-syndicalists of the CNT, particularly the Catalans, as compared to them, he observed: "we English are like shrivelled up prunes". When one considers the the British left today, particularly the half-baked anarchist movement of this island one can't help but think that he was right in this insight.
Alex Ferguson, Manchester United, and the 1959 Apprentice Strike
SIR Alex Ferguson is to retire as Manchester United's manager at the end of this season after 27 years in the job that some say has made him the most successful boss in British football. He had helped the team win 13 league titles, two Championship Leagues, the Cup Winners' Cup, five FA Cups and four League Cups.
It has been said that there is a plan in place for when Ferguson steps down. Ferguson said of his decision:
'The decision to retire is one that I have thought a great deal about and one that I have not taken lightly. It is the right time. It was important to me to leave an organisation in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so. The quality of this league winning squad, and the balance of ages within it, bodes well for continued success at the highest level whilst the structure of the youth set-up will ensure that the long- term future of the club remains a bright one. Our training facilities are amongst the finest in global sport and our home Old Trafford is rightfully regarded as one of the leading venues in the world. Going forward, I am delighted to take on the roles of both director and ambassador for the club.'
But he also spoke sympathetically of the Glazer family, who tookover United and who many up here in Manchester despise, he said:
'Over the past decade, the Glazer family have provided me with the platform to manage Manchester United to the best of my ability and I have been extremely fortunate to have worked with a talented and trustworthy chief executive in David Gill. I am truly grateful to all of them.'
In July 2010, Ferguson said:
'When Manchester United Football Club went plc without doubt it was always going to be bought. Somebody was going to buy it. It was inevitable. It's unfair that because a particular family like the Glazers have bought it, they should come under criticism when anybody could have bought it. I have to say they've done their job well. They support myself, the manager, they've supported the players. I've never been refused when I've asked for money for a player, so what can I do other than carry on the way we're doing it, and the way I'm allowed to carry on? I've no complaints.'
Since their takeover in 2005, Ferguson has consistently supported the Glazers but these comments are pointed at a time of widespread unrest among fans over the club's ownership and ability to attract top talent to Old Trafford. At that time the United manager, who then also reiterated that he has no immediate plans to retire, said:
'The debt has come through the club being bought out by an owner. You know very well that no matter which business is bought nowadays, it's usually bought with debt. Because it's a football club it seems to attract a different type of negative reporting via the media or particularly some of our fans.
In 2004, writing in his autobiography 'Granny Made Me An Anarchist', the Scot, Stuart Christie, was to write:
'We shook staid Central Scotland to the core, or so we thought... Four years earlier, in 1959, there had been a strike of Glasgow apprentices, something previously unheard of in industrial relations (the strike committee included men like Sir Alex Ferguson, Gus Macdonald and Billy Connolly, now lords or millionaires, or both).'
That engineering apprentice strike was to spread from Glasgow in May 1959 to Manchester, and much of the rest of England. I got involved when it came to Tweedale & Smalley, Rochdale in Lancashire. Clearly there is a lot more to Alex Ferguson than meets the eye.
_________________________________________________________
The next issue of the printed issue of NORTHERN VOICES No.14, will soon be available for sale. Northern Voices can be obtained as follows:
Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included). Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' sent to c/o 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.
Tel.: 0161 793 5122.
email: northernvoices@hotmail.com
It has been said that there is a plan in place for when Ferguson steps down. Ferguson said of his decision:
'The decision to retire is one that I have thought a great deal about and one that I have not taken lightly. It is the right time. It was important to me to leave an organisation in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so. The quality of this league winning squad, and the balance of ages within it, bodes well for continued success at the highest level whilst the structure of the youth set-up will ensure that the long- term future of the club remains a bright one. Our training facilities are amongst the finest in global sport and our home Old Trafford is rightfully regarded as one of the leading venues in the world. Going forward, I am delighted to take on the roles of both director and ambassador for the club.'
But he also spoke sympathetically of the Glazer family, who tookover United and who many up here in Manchester despise, he said:
'Over the past decade, the Glazer family have provided me with the platform to manage Manchester United to the best of my ability and I have been extremely fortunate to have worked with a talented and trustworthy chief executive in David Gill. I am truly grateful to all of them.'
In July 2010, Ferguson said:
'When Manchester United Football Club went plc without doubt it was always going to be bought. Somebody was going to buy it. It was inevitable. It's unfair that because a particular family like the Glazers have bought it, they should come under criticism when anybody could have bought it. I have to say they've done their job well. They support myself, the manager, they've supported the players. I've never been refused when I've asked for money for a player, so what can I do other than carry on the way we're doing it, and the way I'm allowed to carry on? I've no complaints.'
Since their takeover in 2005, Ferguson has consistently supported the Glazers but these comments are pointed at a time of widespread unrest among fans over the club's ownership and ability to attract top talent to Old Trafford. At that time the United manager, who then also reiterated that he has no immediate plans to retire, said:
'The debt has come through the club being bought out by an owner. You know very well that no matter which business is bought nowadays, it's usually bought with debt. Because it's a football club it seems to attract a different type of negative reporting via the media or particularly some of our fans.
In 2004, writing in his autobiography 'Granny Made Me An Anarchist', the Scot, Stuart Christie, was to write:
'We shook staid Central Scotland to the core, or so we thought... Four years earlier, in 1959, there had been a strike of Glasgow apprentices, something previously unheard of in industrial relations (the strike committee included men like Sir Alex Ferguson, Gus Macdonald and Billy Connolly, now lords or millionaires, or both).'
That engineering apprentice strike was to spread from Glasgow in May 1959 to Manchester, and much of the rest of England. I got involved when it came to Tweedale & Smalley, Rochdale in Lancashire. Clearly there is a lot more to Alex Ferguson than meets the eye.
_________________________________________________________
The next issue of the printed issue of NORTHERN VOICES No.14, will soon be available for sale. Northern Voices can be obtained as follows:
Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included). Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' sent to c/o 52, Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.
Tel.: 0161 793 5122.
email: northernvoices@hotmail.com
PCS Walkouts in Defence of Jobs
PCS national programme of action in defence of jobs, pay and conditions. Come and support the one hour walkouts this week in Manchester:
1. Equality & Human Rights Commission, Arndale Centre , 11.00-12.00, Wednesday 8 May. Picket on Corporation St, opposite Selfridges.
2. British Council, 11.00 -12.00, Friday 10 May. Picket on Whitworth St between Oxford St and Princess St.
Fore more information go to:
In Solidarity,
Richard Lighten
Secretary, Manchester Trades Union Council
07841411013
Friday, May 3, 2013
Manchester Airport Cleaner's Strike Tomorrow
Dear all - join their picket lines tomorrow if you can, pickets from 6am til 4pm...
Manchester airport cleaners to take 24-hour strike tomorrow (2 May) - Manchester Airport cleaning staff working for MITIE, one of the biggest cleaning companies in the UK, will take part in 24-hour strike action from tomorrow (Friday 3 May) over an attack on their terms and conditions http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/manchesterairportcleanerstotake24hourstrikethisfriday/
Manchester airport cleaners to take 24-hour strike tomorrow (2 May) - Manchester Airport cleaning staff working for MITIE, one of the biggest cleaning companies in the UK, will take part in 24-hour strike action from tomorrow (Friday 3 May) over an attack on their terms and conditions http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/manchesterairportcleanerstotake24hourstrikethisfriday/
Eric Hobsbawm- An Exemplar in Tergiversation!
Eric Hobsbawm - 'Neil Kinnock's favourite marxist' divided opinion like no other historian. Buckets of praise and criticism were heaped on him in equal measure. In 1994 the newspaper journalist Neil Ascheson said of Hobsbawm 'No historian writing in English can match his overwhelming command of fact and source'. In 2002 he was described by the Spectator magazine a quintessential Conservative publication as 'arguably our greatest living historian'. The historian Nial Ferguson wrote 'that Hobsbawm is one of the great historians of his generation is undeniable'.
Conversely critics such as the British historian David Pryce Jones charged that Hobsbawm was a professional historian 'who has steadily corrupted knowledge into propaganda and scorned the concept of objective truth' and 'He was neither an historian nor a professional'. A lacerating criticism to say the least. Brad Delong criticised Hobsbawms Magnum Opus 'Age of Extremes' thus: 'The remains of Hobsbawms commitment to world communism got in the way of his judgment and twisted his vision.' Therein lies the nub of the matter.
The Yale historian Timothy Snyder cites Orwell's analysis and dismay at the role and actions of the communists during the Spanish Civil War. In regard to the Communists in this war Hobsbawm merely says 'its pros and cons continue to be discussed in the political and historical literature.' He is clearly engaged here in an exercise in fence sitting! He refers to George Orwell not by his literary name but disparagingly as 'An upper class Englishman called Eric Blair'. An attempted put down of a distinguished libertarian writer.
Unlike the principled communist E P Thompson and indeed many others Hobsbawm didn't leave the Communist Party in 1956 after the bloody suppression of the Hungarian workers revolution by Soviet tanks. In a letter to the Daily Worker on November 9th, 1956 he defended the Soviet crushing of the Hungarian uprising although with "a heavy heart". Although paradoxically he signed an historians letter of protest.
In reviewing Hobsbawms memoirs and his albeit equivocal support for Stalinist Russia at times David Caute wrote: 'Didnt you know what Deutscher and Orwell knew.....the induced famine, the false confessions, the terror within the party, the massive forced labour of the Gulag? As Orwell himself documented a great deal of evidence was already reliably knowable.' Hobsbawm feebly claimed ignorance until Khrushchevs denunciation of Stalin at the 20th Party Congress in 1956.
In conclusion, Hobsbawm was undoubtedly preeminent amongst contemporary Marxist historians
although his erudition was tempered by evasion, avoidance and tergiversation. the epithet 'Tergiversator' seems appropriate. His claim that the demise of the Soviet Union was 'traumatic not only for Communists but Socialists everywhere' received short shrift form the journalist Francis Wheen who commented:
'Speak for yourself comrade, I like many other socialists greeted the fall of the Soviet model with unqualified rejoicing. Marxs favourite motto "de omnibus disputandum" (everything should be questioned) was not one which had any currency in the realm of "actually existing socialism"- a hideous hybrid of mendacity, thuggery and incompetence.'
A coruscating critique which cannot be gainsaid.
Conversely critics such as the British historian David Pryce Jones charged that Hobsbawm was a professional historian 'who has steadily corrupted knowledge into propaganda and scorned the concept of objective truth' and 'He was neither an historian nor a professional'. A lacerating criticism to say the least. Brad Delong criticised Hobsbawms Magnum Opus 'Age of Extremes' thus: 'The remains of Hobsbawms commitment to world communism got in the way of his judgment and twisted his vision.' Therein lies the nub of the matter.
The Yale historian Timothy Snyder cites Orwell's analysis and dismay at the role and actions of the communists during the Spanish Civil War. In regard to the Communists in this war Hobsbawm merely says 'its pros and cons continue to be discussed in the political and historical literature.' He is clearly engaged here in an exercise in fence sitting! He refers to George Orwell not by his literary name but disparagingly as 'An upper class Englishman called Eric Blair'. An attempted put down of a distinguished libertarian writer.
Unlike the principled communist E P Thompson and indeed many others Hobsbawm didn't leave the Communist Party in 1956 after the bloody suppression of the Hungarian workers revolution by Soviet tanks. In a letter to the Daily Worker on November 9th, 1956 he defended the Soviet crushing of the Hungarian uprising although with "a heavy heart". Although paradoxically he signed an historians letter of protest.
In reviewing Hobsbawms memoirs and his albeit equivocal support for Stalinist Russia at times David Caute wrote: 'Didnt you know what Deutscher and Orwell knew.....the induced famine, the false confessions, the terror within the party, the massive forced labour of the Gulag? As Orwell himself documented a great deal of evidence was already reliably knowable.' Hobsbawm feebly claimed ignorance until Khrushchevs denunciation of Stalin at the 20th Party Congress in 1956.
In conclusion, Hobsbawm was undoubtedly preeminent amongst contemporary Marxist historians
although his erudition was tempered by evasion, avoidance and tergiversation. the epithet 'Tergiversator' seems appropriate. His claim that the demise of the Soviet Union was 'traumatic not only for Communists but Socialists everywhere' received short shrift form the journalist Francis Wheen who commented:
'Speak for yourself comrade, I like many other socialists greeted the fall of the Soviet model with unqualified rejoicing. Marxs favourite motto "de omnibus disputandum" (everything should be questioned) was not one which had any currency in the realm of "actually existing socialism"- a hideous hybrid of mendacity, thuggery and incompetence.'
A coruscating critique which cannot be gainsaid.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Seascape Exhibition at Touchstones Museum
'Waiting' by Newcastle artist Charles Napier Hemy - a painter best known for his marine paintings, with two of his works in the Tate collections.
BORN to a musical family at Newcastle-on-Tyne Charles Napier Hemy (1841-1917) and his two brothers, Thomas and Bernard, were painters. Charles Hemy trained in the Government School of Design, Newcastle, followed by the Antwerp Academy and the studio of Baron Leys. He returned to London in the 1870s and in 1881 moved to Falmouth in Cornwall. He produced painted figure and landscapes, but is best known works are Pilchards (1897) and London River (1904) which are in the Tate collections. Elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1898 and an Academician in 1910, he was also honoured as an Associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1890 and became a member in 1897. He died in Falmouth on September 30, 1917.
His oil painting 'The Armed Merchant Men' (1912) is part of an exhibition currently showing at the Touchstones' Museum, Rochdale. This exhibition running for a year from March 2013 is part of a show based on bringing together works from the Touchstones' permanent collection spanning many centuries that have been inspired by tidal waters. A more extensive review of this exhibition may be found in our forthcoming printed publication Northern Voices No.14 - Summer/ Autumn 2013.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Radical History Network of North East London
MEETING: ‘EVERYWHERE AND NOWHERE':
General Strikes, Solidarity Strikes and Industrial Solidarity
“The general strike is a revolution which is everywhere and nowhere”
(Fernand Pelloutier)
Wednesday 8th May, at 7.30 pm.
Venue: Wood Green Social Club.
3 Stuart Crescent, Wood Green,
London N22 5NJ
(Not far from Wood Green tube/end of White Hart Lane/nr Civic Centre
On the 87th anniversary of one of the most crucial days in the 1926 General Strike…
The General Strike was originally conceived as a revolutionary weapon – a way for the working class to seize control of society and remake it in their interest. In recent decades General Strikes have been used and proposed for less lofty aims; and in the current onslaught on our living and working
conditions, are seen as a defensive weapon, holding off the imposition of austerity…
But is a centrally organized General Strike with one specific aim an effective tactic, either for immediate practical gains, or to overthrow capitalism. Organised through the union structures and hierarchies which
often frustrate workers struggles, what can a General Strike realistically achieve? How might industrial solidarity be more effectively built? Amidst repeated agitation for One-day General Strikes – is a one day strike really a general Strike at all?
With these questions in mind, we aim to discuss several issues, including some of the myths and facts of the 1926 general Strike in the UK - was it really defeated by the TUC General Council selling it out? Or was it in fact sabotaged at a more local level?
Workers' struggles are very difficult in the context of 27% unemployment. We will look at how the recent general strikes in Spain have widened out to include action by unemployed people, students and pensioners, and how the recent struggles have connected industrial action with other important areas such as housing and
education. We also hope to discuss alternative tactics and strategies that have succeeded in winning strikes and building solidarity across industry lines, without necessarily being 'general Strikes' in name...
All welcome, come with an open mind…
General Strikes, Solidarity Strikes and Industrial Solidarity
“The general strike is a revolution which is everywhere and nowhere”
(Fernand Pelloutier)
Wednesday 8th May, at 7.30 pm.
Venue: Wood Green Social Club.
3 Stuart Crescent, Wood Green,
London N22 5NJ
(Not far from Wood Green tube/end of White Hart Lane/nr Civic Centre
On the 87th anniversary of one of the most crucial days in the 1926 General Strike…
The General Strike was originally conceived as a revolutionary weapon – a way for the working class to seize control of society and remake it in their interest. In recent decades General Strikes have been used and proposed for less lofty aims; and in the current onslaught on our living and working
conditions, are seen as a defensive weapon, holding off the imposition of austerity…
But is a centrally organized General Strike with one specific aim an effective tactic, either for immediate practical gains, or to overthrow capitalism. Organised through the union structures and hierarchies which
often frustrate workers struggles, what can a General Strike realistically achieve? How might industrial solidarity be more effectively built? Amidst repeated agitation for One-day General Strikes – is a one day strike really a general Strike at all?
With these questions in mind, we aim to discuss several issues, including some of the myths and facts of the 1926 general Strike in the UK - was it really defeated by the TUC General Council selling it out? Or was it in fact sabotaged at a more local level?
Workers' struggles are very difficult in the context of 27% unemployment. We will look at how the recent general strikes in Spain have widened out to include action by unemployed people, students and pensioners, and how the recent struggles have connected industrial action with other important areas such as housing and
education. We also hope to discuss alternative tactics and strategies that have succeeded in winning strikes and building solidarity across industry lines, without necessarily being 'general Strikes' in name...
All welcome, come with an open mind…
Dario Fo's 'Can't Pay Won't Pay' at Bolton Octagon
ON 11 May the Octagon Theatre, Bolton hosts a performance and discussion of Dario Fo's 1980s political play that has given its title to a number of popular campaigns, including that anti Poll Tax groups. It is still highly relevant in our current climate of austerity.
We face attacks on welfare benefits and our public institutions like the NHS. So the play raises a number of questions - why don't we protest more? Is it fear or is it apathy? Have we lost faith in our mainstream political parties and the economic system they uphold? Is there an alternative? While we can't hope to answer these question satisfactorily in one day, you can contribute to an important debate.
We've asked a number of politicians, activists, protestors and members of our local and wider community to come along to the Octagon on Saturday 11 May to participate in this debate along with the highly talented cast and Director of Can't Pay Won't Pay.
The Investigate Day starts at 10.30 am. The morning debate and an exploration of the play's themes lasts until 1 pm. This costs £5.
It's followed at 2 pm by a matinee performance of Can't Pay Won't Pay. Then there will be a post play discussion with the Director and cast. The whole day costs Coasts£Coasts £17.50 or £14.50 concessions.
Investigate Days are becoming increasingly popular so book early to avoid disappointment.
www.octagonbolton.co.uk/3079/Investigate-Cant-Pay-Wont-Pay/391
If you can't make it on 11 May, the play is being performed from 25th April to 18th May by the excellent Octagon cast. Visit the Octagon website for further information. https://www.octagonbolton.co.uk/145/Cant-Pay-Wont-Pay/508
We face attacks on welfare benefits and our public institutions like the NHS. So the play raises a number of questions - why don't we protest more? Is it fear or is it apathy? Have we lost faith in our mainstream political parties and the economic system they uphold? Is there an alternative? While we can't hope to answer these question satisfactorily in one day, you can contribute to an important debate.
We've asked a number of politicians, activists, protestors and members of our local and wider community to come along to the Octagon on Saturday 11 May to participate in this debate along with the highly talented cast and Director of Can't Pay Won't Pay.
The Investigate Day starts at 10.30 am. The morning debate and an exploration of the play's themes lasts until 1 pm. This costs £5.
It's followed at 2 pm by a matinee performance of Can't Pay Won't Pay. Then there will be a post play discussion with the Director and cast. The whole day costs Coasts£Coasts £17.50 or £14.50 concessions.
Investigate Days are becoming increasingly popular so book early to avoid disappointment.
www.octagonbolton.co.uk/3079/Investigate-Cant-Pay-Wont-Pay/391
If you can't make it on 11 May, the play is being performed from 25th April to 18th May by the excellent Octagon cast. Visit the Octagon website for further information. https://www.octagonbolton.co.uk/145/Cant-Pay-Wont-Pay/508
Sign of the times: Another Food Bank in Salford
BARBARA Keeley, MP for Worsley and Eccles South, opened a new food bank yesterday at Cleggs Lane Methodist Church, in Little Hulton, Salford, the service is designed to help people struggling to put food in their stomachs during the recession. While Worsley is a relatively posh area of Salford, Little Hulton is much more down-beat with a large area of social housing.
The new service was launched from 11am yesterday at the church in Cleggs Lane. Among those in attendance were pupils from Harrop Fold School and Dukesgate Academy, who performed songs and poems, and, of course, Barbara Keeley, MP for Worsley and Eccles South, addressed the gathering.
It had been uncertain if Ms. Keeley would attend owing to other duties and it had been hard to get anyone else to cut the ribbon at the opening of the food bank, but as soon as it was announced that she would be there, other local politicians flew in to get a perch at the event like a flock of incontinent parrots.
The outlet will be run by the same people behind the Farnworth and Kearsley Foodbank, in conjunction with national charity Trussel Trust. It will support people living in Little Hulton, including those living on four neighbouring housing estates, and will also serve Walkden.
The Rev Philip Brooks, a minister at the church, said: 'We feel that the new food bank at Cleggs Lane will be a vital addition to local provision, as all the indications are that food poverty in Little Hulton will worsen.'
Visitors will be able to find out about the food bank and the work already being done by Farnworth and Kearsley Foodbank and Trussel Trust.
The new service was launched from 11am yesterday at the church in Cleggs Lane. Among those in attendance were pupils from Harrop Fold School and Dukesgate Academy, who performed songs and poems, and, of course, Barbara Keeley, MP for Worsley and Eccles South, addressed the gathering.
It had been uncertain if Ms. Keeley would attend owing to other duties and it had been hard to get anyone else to cut the ribbon at the opening of the food bank, but as soon as it was announced that she would be there, other local politicians flew in to get a perch at the event like a flock of incontinent parrots.
The outlet will be run by the same people behind the Farnworth and Kearsley Foodbank, in conjunction with national charity Trussel Trust. It will support people living in Little Hulton, including those living on four neighbouring housing estates, and will also serve Walkden.
The Rev Philip Brooks, a minister at the church, said: 'We feel that the new food bank at Cleggs Lane will be a vital addition to local provision, as all the indications are that food poverty in Little Hulton will worsen.'
Visitors will be able to find out about the food bank and the work already being done by Farnworth and Kearsley Foodbank and Trussel Trust.
Radical Booksellers Radical Bookfair 2013
Hi folks,
hope you can come to the
ALLIANCE OF RADICAL BOOKSELLERS RADICAL BOOKFAIR 2013
Saturday May 11th
10am-5pm.
Conway Hall,
Red Lion Square,
Holborn,
London WC1R 4RL
Please come along the first ARB London Radical Bookfair 2013 - an event
which will showcases the depth and breadth of radical publishing and
bookselling in the UK.
Lots of info up now about guest speakers and stallholders:
http://londonradicalbookfair.wordpress.com/stalls-guest-speakers/
Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/London-Radical-Bookfair/497414930304046
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ARBRadBookfair
Alliance of Radical Booksellers:
http://www.radicalbooksellers.co.uk/
hope you can come to the
ALLIANCE OF RADICAL BOOKSELLERS RADICAL BOOKFAIR 2013
Saturday May 11th
10am-5pm.
Conway Hall,
Red Lion Square,
Holborn,
London WC1R 4RL
Please come along the first ARB London Radical Bookfair 2013 - an event
which will showcases the depth and breadth of radical publishing and
bookselling in the UK.
Lots of info up now about guest speakers and stallholders:
http://londonradicalbookfair.wordpress.com/stalls-guest-speakers/
Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/London-Radical-Bookfair/497414930304046
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ARBRadBookfair
Alliance of Radical Booksellers:
http://www.radicalbooksellers.co.uk/
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Ukip and Scrutiny in Political Life
YESTERDAY, Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, said Ukip candidates were being put under the same scrutiny as those from other parties, and asked whether it was right to trawl through would-be councillors' social media accounts, he said: 'I don't know whether that's happened, I'm just saying it happens to all parties and candidates are put under scrutiny.'
This is interesting. Years ago, Jim Pinkerton told me: 'Brian, we (the anarchists) must always be prepared for the floodlight of publicity to fall upon us!'
He ought to know; for Jim worked formerly for the Daily Herald, and later for the Sunday People in the Copy department, he had also in the 1960s been interviewed by Perigrine Worsthorne, then a journalist on the Sunday Telegraph about the radical and militant National Rank & File (trade union) Movement and its involvement in unofficial strikes at that time. At the time Jim Pinkerton was the International Secretary of the Syndicalist Workers' Federation (SWF), one of the affiliated bodies attached to the National Rank & File Movement.
Anyone who involves themselves in politics or public life ought to anticipate that they may be exposed to publicity and have to answer for their actions. This must be the case with Ukip in the forthcoming local elections as it must be for some tin-pot left-wing group like say the Anarchist Federation. Any organisation that is grown-up and sets out to change society must expect to be put under a microscope and investigated. That must go for Nigel Farage as it must for the leaders of some smelly little orthodoxy. It may well be that as Ken Clarke has said about Ukip that some of their candidates are 'clowns', but all parties and candidates should be put under scrutiny.
This is interesting. Years ago, Jim Pinkerton told me: 'Brian, we (the anarchists) must always be prepared for the floodlight of publicity to fall upon us!'
He ought to know; for Jim worked formerly for the Daily Herald, and later for the Sunday People in the Copy department, he had also in the 1960s been interviewed by Perigrine Worsthorne, then a journalist on the Sunday Telegraph about the radical and militant National Rank & File (trade union) Movement and its involvement in unofficial strikes at that time. At the time Jim Pinkerton was the International Secretary of the Syndicalist Workers' Federation (SWF), one of the affiliated bodies attached to the National Rank & File Movement.
Anyone who involves themselves in politics or public life ought to anticipate that they may be exposed to publicity and have to answer for their actions. This must be the case with Ukip in the forthcoming local elections as it must be for some tin-pot left-wing group like say the Anarchist Federation. Any organisation that is grown-up and sets out to change society must expect to be put under a microscope and investigated. That must go for Nigel Farage as it must for the leaders of some smelly little orthodoxy. It may well be that as Ken Clarke has said about Ukip that some of their candidates are 'clowns', but all parties and candidates should be put under scrutiny.
Northern Artist Harold Riley at Salford Art Gallery
'Sun Over River Irwell' by Harold Riley
WHAT could be more appropriate than Salford Museum and Art Gallery showing a retrospective of Harold Riley's work?
Harold was born in Salford in 1934. His relationship with Salford Art Gallery started at an early ages when he sold his first painting to the gallery aged 11. He went to Salford Grammer School and at 17 won a scholarship to The Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London. Harold Riley has dedicated much of his career to capturing the everyday street life in Salford.
This is an opportunity to see Harold Riley's work in the city he was born and city that inspired him. This exhibition will be in our semi-permanent space and will run from Saturday 4 May 2013 to Sunday 23 February 2014.
Contact for further information, images, quotes etc:
Kellie Brown, Marketing Officer, Salford Community Culture, 0161 778 0819, kellie.brown@scll.co.uk
Amy Goodwin, Exhibitions Officer, Salford Community Culture, 0161 778 0883, amy.goodwin@scll.co.uk
Ashton-under-Lyne: Universal Credit
YESTERDAY saw a small demonstration at mid-day outside Ashton-under-Lyne Town Hall in Tameside, called by the PCS union against a pilot scheme which was just introduced to test the consequences of the Government's proposed new Universal credit to try to simplify a range of benefits into a single benefit: the proposal is to combine JSA, ESA, IS, Housing Benefit and tax credits. It is estimated that 8 million households will get this universal credit (UC). Optimistically, the Government hopes this scheme will be implemented during the four years from 2013 to 2017.
The demo yesterday was sup[ported by Alec McFadden, the TUC-JCC representative for the North West and manager of Salford Unemployed Centre, supporters of Salford Against the Cuts, and delegates from Tameside Trade Council. John Pearson and other members of the PCS union, Alec McFadden and Barry Woodling (Salford Against the Cuts and the Northern Anarchist Network[NAN]) addressed the gathering.
There are fears that this new benefit will lead to less benefits for claimants and to administrative problems within the benefit system. Even the Government seems nervous as witnessed by the introduction of this small and cautious pilot in Ashton which only applies to a few postcodes in the tameside area. Later some of the demonstrators led by delegates from Tameside TUC went to leaflet outside the local Job Centre, where many of the media had congregated. There the press officer for the Dept. of Work & Pensions [DWP]/ Job Centre told Barry Woodling that the scheme was operating well so far. Some leafleters were distributing a flyer criticising the 'Bedroom Tax'.
Ashton-under-Lyne and Tameside is an interesting as in the 1990s it was one of the areas that was foremost in challenging the Job Seeker's Allowance.
The demo yesterday was sup[ported by Alec McFadden, the TUC-JCC representative for the North West and manager of Salford Unemployed Centre, supporters of Salford Against the Cuts, and delegates from Tameside Trade Council. John Pearson and other members of the PCS union, Alec McFadden and Barry Woodling (Salford Against the Cuts and the Northern Anarchist Network[NAN]) addressed the gathering.
There are fears that this new benefit will lead to less benefits for claimants and to administrative problems within the benefit system. Even the Government seems nervous as witnessed by the introduction of this small and cautious pilot in Ashton which only applies to a few postcodes in the tameside area. Later some of the demonstrators led by delegates from Tameside TUC went to leaflet outside the local Job Centre, where many of the media had congregated. There the press officer for the Dept. of Work & Pensions [DWP]/ Job Centre told Barry Woodling that the scheme was operating well so far. Some leafleters were distributing a flyer criticising the 'Bedroom Tax'.
Ashton-under-Lyne and Tameside is an interesting as in the 1990s it was one of the areas that was foremost in challenging the Job Seeker's Allowance.
RAF Waddington: Ground the Drones Campaign
LAST Saturday saw hundreds march to RAF Waddington against the UK government's use of Drones in Afghanistan, now controlled from the military airbase near Lincoln.
The pressure of our campaign has already been felt after the Ministry of Defence was forced to admit just two days before the protest that the Waddington control centre is now in operation. But much of the secrecy about how British drones are being used, and the threat of new interventions, remains.
A comment in January by the Secretary of State for Defence showed just how easy a new intervention might be when he had turned down a request from France to send drones to Mali because of the "unacceptable impact on our operations in Afghanistan". The question of whether or not British people want a new war in Mali was not even raised.
The widespread media coverage on drones that Saturday's demonstration has provoked has started an important debate about their use and showed just how important a strong anti-drones campaign will be in the coming months.
Stop the War would like to thank all those who participated in Saturday's successful demo.
Read the report from Common Dreams on the Ground the Drones demo, including TV reports from Sky and the BBC.
David Shariatmadari argues that drones might be changing more minds about war now that killing is conducted from our doorstep.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Greater Manchester March and Rally for International Workers Day
SATURDAY 4th May
Assemble: Bexley Square, Salford 10am
March from Bexley Square at ~11am
Rally: Friends Meeting House, Manchester 12:30pm
with Dot Gibson, National Pensioners Convention, Pete Middleman, PCS NW Regional Secretary, and Ryan Bradshaw, Anti-Bedroom Tax Campaigner and Member of Young Legal Aid Lawyers.
Save our NHS – No to Cuts and Privatisation
Defend All Jobs and Public Services
Axe the Bedroom Tax! Scrap Welfare Reforms!
Make the Rich Pay! Don’t Cut the Poor!
International Solidarity against Austerity
Richard Lighten
Secretary, Manchester Trades Union Council
07841411013
manchestertuc.org
Black Puddings & the Food Program
YESTERDAY Radio Four's Food Program broadcast Charles Campion's report from Normandy in France on the World Black Pudding Championships, which featured not only the classic Lancashire black pudding and the french bodin noir, but also entries from Japan, Austria and Ireland. This year close on six hundred butchers from all over the world competed and celebrated this ancient dish which most of the great food cultures have created over the centuries in some form of blood sausage.
The program reported that though this dish has been made in this country since the arrival of the Romans, in many areas of Britian it has fallen out of favour. In Bury, and Lancashire it still holds its own however, and every week Bury market is flooded with folk from other parts in search of the famous traditional Bury Black Pudding.
It seems that the French version Boudin Noir is softer with a thinner skin and more like a Pâté in texture, while the typical Lancashire black pudding has lumps of fat in it and a thicker skin. The advice given was that many English people tend to cook the pudding to death, and that it should take long to cook. Up here in Lancashire it is recommended that we boil them for a brief period. On the program it was suggested that it could be combined with tomato ketchup or even piccalilli.
My view is that the best way I have found is the one suggested by Elizabeth David in her book French Provincial Cooking for grilled black pudding with apples:
'Boudin, black pudding, or blood pudding which, in France, is nearly always heavily flavoured with onion and much less insipid than the kind found in Engalnd, is cut into lengths of about 5 inches, painted with olive oil or pork fat and grilled about 5 minutes on each side. Serve it on a bed of peeled, cored and sliced sweet apples, six to a pound of sausage, gentlly fried in pork fat.'
The program reported that though this dish has been made in this country since the arrival of the Romans, in many areas of Britian it has fallen out of favour. In Bury, and Lancashire it still holds its own however, and every week Bury market is flooded with folk from other parts in search of the famous traditional Bury Black Pudding.
It seems that the French version Boudin Noir is softer with a thinner skin and more like a Pâté in texture, while the typical Lancashire black pudding has lumps of fat in it and a thicker skin. The advice given was that many English people tend to cook the pudding to death, and that it should take long to cook. Up here in Lancashire it is recommended that we boil them for a brief period. On the program it was suggested that it could be combined with tomato ketchup or even piccalilli.
My view is that the best way I have found is the one suggested by Elizabeth David in her book French Provincial Cooking for grilled black pudding with apples:
'Boudin, black pudding, or blood pudding which, in France, is nearly always heavily flavoured with onion and much less insipid than the kind found in Engalnd, is cut into lengths of about 5 inches, painted with olive oil or pork fat and grilled about 5 minutes on each side. Serve it on a bed of peeled, cored and sliced sweet apples, six to a pound of sausage, gentlly fried in pork fat.'
Third Post Office strike on Monday
POST Office staff in the country’s network of 373 Crown Post Offices will take a third round of strike action on Monday April 29 in a dispute over closures, franchising, jobs and pay. Management continue to refuse to negotiate, despite their financial arguments being proved wrong.
Strike action will start at 1pm on Monday April 29 and will affect up to 4,000 staff working in 373 Crown (main) post offices. Post Office staff voted by nine to one (88%) in favour of strike action and have already taken strike action on Easter Saturday and April 19.
CWU is opposed to Post Office plans to close or franchise 76 Crown offices – 20% of the network –which would affect over 800 jobs. The union is seeking protection for jobs and services, and wants to secure a fair pay rise for staff who have had no rise since April 2011. CWU believes the Post Office is trying to meet government targets by drastic cost-cutting.
Andy Furey, CWU national official, said: 'The Post Office has admitted that it’s got its sums wrong on the cost of our pay claim. They embellished the figure by over £6 million – effectively doubling the cost of what we’ve asked. Despite admitting this they still stubbornly refuse to negotiate. The Post Office’s mistakes in relation to our pay claim calls into question the accuracy of other Post Office numbers – including the alleged size of the losses in the Crown network. This part of the network handles 20% of all Post Office business and delivers 40% of financial services sales, despite making up only 3% of the whole network. It really is the driver and heart of the network which is why we are so concerned about the closure and franchise plans. We can help the Post Office find a positive way forward for the network, but they must be prepared to listen to the concerns of their staff who voted by nine to one to back strike action. Without negotiation this dispute will continue.'
Strike action on Easter Saturday and Friday April 19 was overwhelmingly supported by CWU members.
The pay numbers
A pay rise was due in April 2012 for Crown Post Office staff but is still outstanding. Other staff employed by the Post Office – in areas such as supply chain and administration – have received pay rises of 3.5% and 3.25% in this period (2012-13 and 2013-14) without strings attached. This is exactly the same as what CWU is seeking for Crown staff. Postmasters have also received a pay agreement totalling £11 million for one year. But the counter staff in Crown offices have had nothing since April 2011. The Post Office claimed in internal communications to staff that the CWU pay claim would cost the company £12 million. In fact, the CWU’s claim for 3.5% and 3.25% would cost just over £5m. In a meeting with the company a fortnight ago, CWU negotiators challenged the figures and the Post Office subsequently admitted their figures were wrong and misleading and confirmed this in a communication to staff.
Closures
In February the Post Office announced its intention to close or franchise 76 Crown offices – 20 per cent of the remaining network. This has raised fears over job security for over 800 people working in those offices and uncertainty for the future of other Crown offices. If the closures go ahead, hundreds of staff would never see some of the money being dangled by the Post Office as a ‘pay offer’ because they would no longer work for the company.
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