A quarter of a million public servants to ballot for strike

More than a quarter of a million civil and public servants will ballot for a strike over cuts to pensions, jobs and pay, following an overwhelming vote at the Public and Commercial Services union annual conference.

Ballot papers will be issued from next week and the ballot will close mid-June, with the first action possible later that month. The union is working closely with education unions who are also balloting over pensions or have already voted and taken strike action, bringing the total to 750,000 union members.

Delegates speaking in the debate talked about how the coalition government's policies are wreaking havoc on their livelihoods, their families and their communities, and pledged their commitment to campaign against all cuts.

The government's slash and burn approach to tackling the budget deficit will throw hundreds of thousands of public sector workers out of work, impose a pay freeze on those that remain, axe vital public services, and undermine hard-won rights such as pensions and redundancy terms.

The government has already made it clear it will implement Lord Hutton's proposals on public sector pensions, meaning civil and public servants will pay higher contributions and work longer for a lower pension.

The union wants: no detrimental changes to pensions or the civil service redundancy scheme; a strengthening of the Cabinet Office-agreed measures to avoid compulsory redundancies; and an end to the pay freeze and a fair pay rise for all.

The conference agreed to: hold a national ballot in defence of jobs, pensions and pay; and continue to work with other trade unions to co-ordinate action for maximum impact.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "Everything we have ever worked for is under threat - but we know there is an alternative and we are committed to fighting for it and, if necessary, striking for it.

"The economic crisis was not caused by our members' jobs, pensions or pay and it is shameful and wrong that the coalition government is attempting to scapegoat them in its bid to slash and burn the welfare state."

Collective Resistance blog

June 30th is shaping up to be an important day in trade union calenders. Similar action by teachers and lecturers unions, UCU and N.U.T., along with Unite and other unions could see the largest day of industrial action for a long time. March 26th saw half a million demonstrate in London against cuts. Communities across the country face devastation if the Con Dem plans to cut, privatise and decimate the NHS, Welfare State and pensions is allowed to go ahead.

Young and old, public and private sector workers, benefit claiments, the unemployed, students and workers all have the same interest in opposing these austerity measures.Communities are coming together to say enough is enough. It is in all our interests to join together in saying that there is an alternative to these cuts.

We can not have public services without public sector workers. The youth of today will be the pensioners of the future. It is for all our sakes that we build solidarity and show that enough is enough. This callous government of bankers and millionaires do not care for the Welfare State and never did.

We deny all allegiance to this institution of monarchy.

Elizabeth Windsor is scheduled to lay a wreath at the Dublin memorial to the 1916 revolutionaries. It’s fair to say that James Connolly would not be too happy with that idea and he was one of the rebellion’s leaders. Here is what he had to say on the occasion of a previous visit by the member of a caste that has  “fought every reform, persecuted every patriot, and intrigued against every good cause”.  It is pretty unambiguous and is a class based rejection of the institution.

As you are aware from reading the daily and weekly newspapers, we are about to be blessed with a visit from King George V.

Knowing from previous experience of Royal Visits, as well as from the Coronation orgies of the past few weeks, that the occasion will be utilised to make propaganda on behalf of royalty and aristocracy against the oncoming forces of democracy and National freedom, we desire to place before you some few reasons why you should unanimously refuse to countenance this visit, or to recognise it by your presence at its attendant processions or demonstrations. We appeal to you as workers, speaking to workers, whether your work be that of the brain or of the hand – manual or mental toil – it is of you and your children we are thinking; it is your cause we wish to safeguard and foster.

The future of the working class requires that all political and social positions should be open to all men and women; that all privileges of birth or wealth be abolished, and that every man or woman born into this land should have an equal opportunity to attain to the proudest position in the land. The Socialist demands that the only birth right necessary to qualify for public office should be the birth right of our common humanity.
Believing as we do that there is nothing on earth more sacred than humanity, we deny all allegiance to this institution of royalty, and hence we can only regard the visit of the King as adding fresh fuel to the fire of hatred with which we regard the plundering institutions of which he is the representative. Let the capitalist and landlord class flock to exalt him; he is theirs; in him they see embodied the idea of caste and class; they glorify him and exalt his importance that they might familiarise the public mind with the conception of political inequality, knowing well that a people mentally poisoned by the adulation of royalty can never attain to that spirit of self-reliant democracy necessary for the attainment of social freedom. The mind accustomed to political kings can easily be reconciled to social kings – capitalist kings of the workshop, the mill, the railway, the ships and the docks. Thus coronation and king's visits are by our astute neversleeping masters made into huge Imperialist propagandist campaigns in favour of political and social schemes against democracy. But if our masters and rulers are sleepless in their schemes against us, so we, rebels against their rule, must never sleep in our appeal to our fellows to maintain as publicly our belief in the dignity of our class – in the ultimate sovereignty of those who labour.

What is monarchy? From whence does it derive its sanction? What has been its gift to humanity? Monarchy is a survival of the tyranny imposed by the hand of greed and treachery upon the human race in the darkest and most ignorant days of our history. It derives its only sanction from the sword of the marauder, and the helplessness of the producer, and its gifts to humanity are unknown, save as they can be measured in the pernicious examples of triumphant and shameless iniquities.

Every class in society save royalty, and especially British royalty, has through some of its members contributed something to the elevation of the race. But neither in science, nor in art, nor in literature, nor in exploration, nor in mechanical invention, nor in humanising of laws, nor in any sphere of human activity has a representative of British royalty helped forward the moral, intellectual or material improvement of mankind. But that royal family has opposed every forward move, fought every reform, persecuted every patriot, and intrigued against every good cause. Slandering every friend of the people, it has befriended every oppressor. Eulogised today by misguided clerics, it has been notorious in history for the revolting nature of its crimes. Murder, treachery, adultery, incest, theft, perjury – every crime known to man has been committed by some one or other of the race of monarchs from whom King George is proud to trace his descent.

“His blood has crept through scoundrels since the flood.”

We will not blame him for the crimes of his ancestors if he relinquishes the royal rights of his ancestors; but as long as he claims their rights, by virtue of descent, then, by virtue of descent, he must shoulder the responsibility for their crimes.

Fellow-workers, stand by the dignity of your class. All these parading royalties, all this insolent aristocracy, all these grovelling, dirt-eating capitalist traitors, all these are but signs of disease in any social state – diseases which a royal visit brings to a head and spews in all its nastiness before our horrified eyes. But as the recognition of the disease is the first stage towards its cure, so that we may rid our social state of its political and social diseases, we must recognise the elements of corruption. Hence, in bringing them all together and exposing their unity, even a royal visit may help us to understand and understanding, help us to know how to destroy the royal, aristocratic and capitalistic classes who live upon our labour. Their workshops, their lands, their mills, their factories, their ships, their railways must be voted into our hands who alone use them, public ownership must take the place of capitalist ownership, social democracy replace political and social inequality, the sovereignty of labour must supersede and destroy the sovereignty of birth and the monarchy of capitalism.

Ours be the task to enlighten the ignorant among our class, to dissipate and destroy the political and social superstitions of the enslaved masses and to hasten the coming day when, in the words of Joseph Brenan, the fearless patriot of ’48, all the world will maintain

“The Right Divine of Labour
To be first of earthly things;
That the Thinker and the Worker
Are Manhood’s only Kings.”

Thanks to Collective Resistance blog for this contribution.

Brighton NUS AGM Report

News from Brighton N.U.S.

We’re very pleased to announce that, during yesterday’s AGM of Brighton Students’ Union, the two motions that were put forward by Brighton Students Against Cuts were passed.  This means that from now on the Students’ Union is committed to:

1. supporting all future strike action by our lecturers, and
2. actively opposing the Government’s funding cuts to higher education and the University’s decision to charge £9000 a year tuition fees.

Additionally, motions were passed to: boycott all Israeli goods produced on illegal settlements; to ensure that students aren’t described as ‘consumers’ and have their fundamental rights as students upheld; and to encourage the University to promote widening access to higher education.

Finally, prior to any of these motions coming under discussion students voted not in favour of continuing our affiliation with NUS for the remainder of this academic year.  This means, until the start of next academic year, University of Brighton Students’ Union is an independent entity.

Please spread word of these successes to any mailing lists you have access to.  We’re very proud that this academic year started with University of Brighton’s first ever occupation and ended with tangible and significant victories within our Students’ Union.  Looking to next academic year, with a politicised Students’ Union and the fact that the effects of the Government’s funding cuts will start to be felt by students in their everyday lives, we’re excited to see what can be achieved in the resistance to the marketisation of higher education.

http://brightonresistance.wordpress.com/

The Spirit of Rachel Corrie Mission

This press release was issued this morning from Perdana Global Peace Foundation.

The Spirit of Rachel Corrie Mission, involving a Malaysian owned ship carrying aid for Palestine, has been intercepted and attacked by the Israeli naval forces in the Palestinian security zone this morning at 6.54 am local time. The ship’s 12 crew and passengers are safe. Currently the ship has been forced to anchor in the Egyptian waters at one and a half nautical miles from the Gazan waters.

This latest event occurred in the wake of yesterday’s sad commemoration of the ‘ Nakba’ in which many lost their lives. ‘Nakba’ the Arabic word for catastrophe means “the expulsion and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and land in 1948″.

The humanitarian initiative is sponsored by Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF) and participating in this mission includes anti-war activists and journalists from the Asian, American and European continents.

The mission crew on the ship -- The Spirit of Rachel Corrie (officially known as FINCH)

The cargo ship The Spirit of Rachel Corrie (officially known as FINCH) is carrying 7.5 kilometers of UPVC (plastic) sewage pipes to help restore the devastated sewerage system in Gaza. The ship was named after the courageous American activist who was crushed and killed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 while trying to prevent the demolition of another Palestinian home. She died at 23.

The Spirit of Rachel Corrie Mission is part of the Perdana Global Peace Foundation’s (PGPF) “Break the Siege on Gaza” campaign. The purpose of this campaign is to highlight the effects of the illegally imposed Israeli siege and raise awareness of the human rights violations of the people of Gaza. Breaking the siege and ending the illegal collective punishment of 1.5 million people must be a priority for the international community.

On 27 December 2008, the Israeli military launched Operation Cast Lead, which not only killed some 1400 Palestinians, but also destroyed vital infrastructure leaving the Gazans with critical water and sewage problems. Repair of the infrastructure has proved impossible as Israel has prevented the entry of construction materials and fuel to resolve this dire situation.

According to a report from the Emergency Water, Sanitation and Hygiene group (EWASH), “the release of 80 million litres of untreated or partially treated sewage into the environment and Mediterranean Sea each day is primarily a result of the Israeli imposed blockade on the Gaza Strip.”

Gaza, one of the world’s most densely populated areas, is currently dealing with serious health issues such as the blue baby syndrome, diarrhea and other waterborne diseases like typhoid and hepatitis A. The World Health Organization is warning of a possible cholera epidemic if nothing is done rapidly to resolve this sanitation crisis.

According to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel: “Between 90% and 95% of the aquifers in the Gaza Strip are not safe for drinking.” The primary cause of the current problem originates from the destruction, during Operation Cast Lead, of “20 kilometers of water pipes, 7.5 kilometers of sewage pipes and 5,700 mobile water tanks”.

While the Gazans are experiencing the dramatic environmental impacts of the sewage and water crisis, the effects have already reached the Israeli shores, and could spread further affecting neighbouring countries. This severe health and environmental issue needs to be dealt with urgently. The international community must demand that the illegal Israeli blockade be lifted.

The Spirit of Rachel Corrie Mission stemmed from PGFP’s participation in the Freedom Flotilla in 2010, in which 9 activists were killed by Israeli commandos. Following a fact finding mission conducted in Gaza in October 2010, PGPF decided to continue its efforts to assist Palestinians and shows this project as the most immediate of all priorities.

The continuing efforts to break the siege of Gaza and focus international attention on the injustices committed against Palestinians is likened to the Freedom Rides of fifty years ago by Alice Walker in this powerful statement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB6qZs-VJLw

After a little delay, a  freedom flotilla will sail for Gaza in late June, comprising boats from Turkey, Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, USA, Canada and Britain.  They do so in the face of threats and intimidation, and mindful of Israel's murderous attacks on the freedom flotilla in May last year.

"If we allowed the Freedom Ride to stop after so much violence had been inflicted, the message would have been sent that they can stop a nonviolent campaign by inflicting massive violence."  --1961, Diane Nash, Freedom Ride organizer.

Nakba Remembered-There will be no peace in the Middle East until there is justice for the Palestinians

Maybe the Palestinian unity demonstrations on March 15 were a false start, but  public protests to mark the Nakba appear to have something of the Arab Spring about them.  Peaceful demonstrators assembled at Qalandia, al-Ma'asara, Nablus, Bil'in and many other places across the West Bank, Gaza and in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Syria at the borders with Israel's defacto state, as well as in Jaffa.  The demonstrations have been  met with repression and violence from Israeli military, sometimes supplemented by the private security guards of settlements.

Reports of 17 Palestinians shot dead and many arrested by the IDF are coming through. The new sense of unity amongst Palestinians will ensure the struggle continues until they are liberated from the illegal Zionist occupation of their lands. The Israeli apartheid state and its so-called "peace wall", along with the illegal settlements, must be dismanteld if there is to be true peace in the Middle East.

From Syria to Egypt, the people of the region are rising up against dictators and despots. Just as they disappear off the scene so must the Zionist state.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1blt7MMJBoU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sN5vskL7IQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7dhYLyugmQ

In Israel, the Nakba is now the subject of a draconian law outlawing it's commemoration by publicly-funded bodies, including schools attended by Israel's Palestinian citizens.  Zochrot ("Remembering") protested the law by commemorating the Nakba in Tel Aviv.

Worthing Solidarity Network supporting Don't Cut Us Out

WSN activists travelled across to Chichester yesterday morning to support another excellent hundreds-strong protest outside West Sussex County Council, organised by the Dont Cut Us Out campaign. DCUO had managed to get more than 20,000 signatures on a strongly-worded petition calling not only for an end to adult social care cuts, but for the money to be found by using WSCC's reserve and calling on the government to tax the banks who caused the crisis.

The protest was VERY noisy, angry and determined. Once inside the chamber, every Tory who spoke with barely-concealed contempt for the people affected and their supporters was heckled loudly from the public gallery. A Lib/Lab motion calling for a pause and echoing the call for use of county council reserves was derided by Tories as 'bad housekeeping' and putting at risk contingencies such as keeping the roads clear in case of snow! With private healthcare director and adult services cabinet member Peter Catchpole clearly having already made his decision, DCUO are considering the next moves for their high-profile campaign to stop David Cameron's local cronies ruining the lives of 4,000 of our county's most vulnerable people.

 

 

 

Cllr Peter Catchpole -certainly not a man of or for the people-surprising that he even has the time to make cuts, or does he do it with his eyes closed?

 

Originally a biochemist, Peter Catchpole worked as a senior executive in the NHS for over 30 years, 20 of these as a Chief Executive. He has also been a non-executive director/advisor for organisations in the not-for-profit, private and charity sectors. Peter's current portfolio consists of the following: Fellow of the Faculty of Health - teaching at the University of Brighton; Non-Executive Director of the Special Health Authority NHS Direct; and Chair of the Audit Committee. In the regulatory sector he is a member of the General Dental Council, Associate Member of the General Medical Council Fitness to Practice Committees, a lay member of the Nursing & Midwives Conduct and Competence Committee, a lay member of the British Association of Psychotherapy and Counselling Conduct Committee and in Clinical Governance, a Management Reviewer for the Healthcare Commission. He is also an Independent Health Care Consultant and business advisor to the independent health sector.

Peter is the Cabinet Member for Adults' Services

Committee membership
North Horsham County Local Committee

Outside bodies
Peter represents the County Council on the following organisations

Horsham Citizens' Advice Bureau Management Committee
South East Employers (Deputy Member)

 

http://was.westsussex.gov.uk/yourlocalinfoweb/viewCouncillor?query=279

Are West Sussex County Councillors deaf?

Hundreds demonstrated yesterday morning in Chichester in support of the Dont Cut Us Out campaign, defending the weakest in society from the cuts in Adult Social Care. A young demonstrator shouted out that they "must all need hearing aids because they do not listen", referring to Cllr Peter Catchpole, ( (Cabinet member for adults’ services) and the Tory councillors.

A petition signed by 20,000 people, with the backing of the local bishops, was presented to the Council . Don't Cut Us Out campaigners are angry at the county council's decision to stop providing care to adults with "moderate" needs. They are demanding a judicial review and an end to these cuts. Will the callous councillors listen? Probably not. After all, profits, bankers and fat cat salaries are more important than people! Shame on them.

At the County Council meeting on Friday, a  motion calling for a pause allowing a working party to review possible alternatives was thrown out by 45 votes to 22, with two abstentions.  Cllr Michael Brown, cabinet member for finance and resources, said there was an absolute necessity for the Government to reduce the nation’s enormous fiscal deficit and borrowing. In developing the budget, they took care to ensure those depending on support were prioritised so the most vulnerable were protected as far as possible.
Budget changes proposed by the petition would lead to cuts in the library service, fire and rescue and highway work. “We have to learn to manage with what we have got,” he warned.

Well sorry, none of this washes with us. Spending on bailing out bankers, funding Trident, allowing companies to evade tax, financing illegal wars and letting private rail franchise companies to get out of paying money back to the taxpayers that they owe us, is immoral. We do not accept the arguements for any cuts in public services . What  the bankers and the City have is what they have taken from the people and we won't pay for their crises.

Barry Pickthall, spokesperson for Don’t Cut Us Out, said: “The campaign has won unprecedented support from members of the public who see these callous cuts as not only being unfair, but cruel.

“The council is targeting the wrong people. These are not malingerers or the work shy. They are people with life-long disabilities and the elderly nearing the end of their lives.

“Some have a mental age as low as eight yet the council is expecting them to live without any support. How many councillors would let your eight-year-olds wander the streets unsupervised?”

“The elderly and those with learning disabilities are among the most vulnerable in society. They have a right to life, not just an existence.

“That is why we are seeking a judicial review to stop the cuts and force the council to reflect on the damage they are doing to so many vulnerable people.”

Go to the link below to see the video on the demo.

http://www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/video_hundreds_protest_against_cuts_to_benefits_and_care_support_1_2680208

 

Don’t Cut Us Out reveals council ‘dossier of shame’

Published on Tuesday 10 May 2011 08:00

CAMPAIGNERS fighting to protect the vulnerable have released a “dossier of shame” highlighting where West Sussex County Council money is being spent.


The revelation from the Don’t Cut Us Out campaign is just part of its push to help protect a predicted 4,500 disabled and elderly people in the county who are set to have their funding cut.

Statistics show the county council is still planning on giving its annual grant of £160,000 to Chichester Harbour Conservancy, £80,000 to Chichester Festival Theatre, and is willing to pay Kieran Stigant, West Sussex County Council chief executive, more than the prime minister.

Research also show 21 staff within the county council earn in excess of £100,000 a year compared to 12 employees at East Sussex County Council.

And, at a time when the council is tightening its belt, it has paid a PR company £13,000 to help it better understand what residents want.

This produced the new motto, “With you, for you – making the most of West Sussex”.
According to the campaign, central government has awarded West Sussex an additional £51 million to lesson the impact of these cuts, but the council has decided to use just £15 million of this and put the remaining amount towards increasing reserves.

Campaign spokesman Barry Pickthall said: “West Sussex County Council says there is no alternative but to cut front-line benefits and care support to 4,500 disabled and elderly across the county.

“The council spends 40 per cent of its annual budget on adult services, and has used accountancy, rather than common sense, to determine how to divide up their £79m reduction.

“The Don’t Cut Us Out campaign has shown cutting benefits and care support to the disabled and elderly will not save money.

“Expert after expert say when you take away care support from those with ‘moderate’ disabilities, they quickly slip down to ‘substantial’ and even ‘critical’ levels and require much more financial support as a result – but not before enduring enormous distress and trauma.”

A spokesman from the county council said the “dossier of shame” would be discussed during the full county council meeting on Friday, May 13.

He added: “The scale of the financial challenge facing the county council is immense and no services are immune from playing a part in delivering savings.

“We have to make this change to the eligibility criteria, because of severe budget pressures and the need to ensure we target funding to those people with the greatest needs.

“We would stress again that support for those with substantial and critical needs will continue.”

http://www.littlehamptongazette.co.uk/news/local/don_t_cut_us_out_reveals_council_dossier_of_shame_1_2663288