UCU
Lecturers' on strike
More than 100,000 lecturers struck last week. It was the biggest strike yet under David Cameron’s government—and it showed two things.
First, the strike won huge support, particularly among students. And second, lecturers want to keep fighting—and want to strike with other workers.
The action, on Thursday of last week, hit colleges and universities across Britain and Northern Ireland. The UCU union members are fighting attacks on their pension schemes, lack of protection over jobs and derisory below-inflation pay offers.
It had a big impact. Lots of classes were cancelled and few crossed picket lines. In lots of places, more pickets were out than during previous strikes.
Martyn Moss, a UCU regional official, said the strike at Liverpool Hope University was “the most solid in history. Not a single university lecturer went into work”.
Tom Hickey, a UCU executive member in Brighton, described the action as “the most successful strike in the history of the University of Brighton”.
Students occupied the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas), in central London, the night before the strike to show support for their lecturers. Many Unison union members refused to cross the picket lines.
At Birkbeck College, students were giving free tea, coffee and sandwiches to the pickets.
Richard Bowyer, a sessional lecturer in its law department, was one of many part-time lecturers on the picket lines.
Together
Sessional lecturers made a big sacrifice to join the strike. “My teaching is on Wednesdays and Thursdays so by striking I’m losing half my pay this week,” Richard said. He added, “I’d like to see people in different unions come out together.”
Naomi Bain, branch chair of Unison at Birkbeck, said that lots of Unison members had gained confidence by joining UCU picket lines.
Lots of people joined the UCU during the strike. Laura Miles, a lecturer at Bradford College, said, “Just on our picket line we gave out eight applications to join UCU, with two people joining.”
At Dundee University, some 40 people joined the union in the run-up to the strike.
Trade unionists from other unions also visited picket lines to show their support.
“We’ve had visits from the GMB union and the local trades council,” said James Eaden at Chesterfield College.
Paul Blackledge, branch secretary of the UCU at Leeds Metropolitan University, said council workers had stopped to show their support for strikers.
At the Institute of Education in London, eight members of the NUT national executive committee joined the picket line.
They talked about the need for workers to strike together. “It’s great that the UCU has taken the lead,” added Ann Lemon, another NUT executive member. “Now we need to follow them.”
Lecturers can stop the attack on education. The strikes can also be the start of a bigger revolt against the Tory assault on public services and the welfare state.
The UCU must escalate the action. And other workers must demand that their union leaders start strike ballots so that they can join the fight too
============================-
National Union Of Teachers – (NUT)
30 March - Wednesday - London
Tower Hamlets – East London
Teachers and council workers struck across Tower Hamlets, east London on Wednesday 30 March. They are fighting 500 job cuts that will hit everything from social services to schools and youth workers.
Schools across the borough came to a standstill.
Unison and NUT union members formed joint picket lines. Coordinated action between the two unions shut many of the schools as teachers and support staff refused to cross picket lines.
Teachers in Camden, north London, are also on strike today.
Over 30 Unison members picketed the Phoenix School in Tower Hamlets. They blew whistles and held up signs for drivers to honk in support. Bus drivers, cyclists and lorry drivers showed their solidarity. The noise was deafening.
Mohammed, a learning support worker, said, “It feels great to be here today, this is about us all being together. There are people here who might not have jobs tomorrow.”
Bin workers refused to cross the picket line at the nearby Central Foundation Girls School. Passers-by came to chat to the pickets and show solidarity.
“It wasn’t easy but we managed to build this strike at the base of the union. Local activists fought for the ballots. If this can happen in Tower Hamlets it can happen anywhere.”
Workers in Unison and the National Union of Teachers also picketed the Professional Development Centre in Mile End.
“Schools will be shocked when next year comes and services that used to exist simply won’t be there anymore.”
________________________________________
Camden
Hundreds of striking teachers recently marched through Camden in north London. National Union of teachers (NUT) members at 44 schools, children’s centres and other workplaces took strike action together against £20 million of cuts in jobs and services.
The strike was well supported. Cars and lorries hooted their horns in solidarity as strikers and their supporters gathered to march to a rally at the NUT’s London headquarters.
A big group of pickets massed outside South Camden Community School. Olayinka Williams, a humanities teacher there, said the cuts would have a “massive impact”.
“Students won’t have the personal connections they’ve been used to anymore.”
Another striker said the cuts would hit special educational needs and English as an additional language services. “I don’t see why there’s such a rush to repay the deficit,” she added.
Trade unionists from the RMT, PCS, UCU and Unite unions came to show their support with the strikers. Dave Williams was with a group from Unite’s national executive that visited the pickets.
Lots of people talked about how inspired they felt after Saturday’s TUC demonstration. Steve Hedley, an RMT organiser, said the march showed that “the mood is there for a general strike”.
“If we had a general strike we could bring down the government. I think there’s more chance of a general strike than there has been for years. It’s the hypocrisy that gets to people.
“The bankers are still getting huge bonuses while we’ve got cuts.”
________________________________________
Tower Hamlets march and rally
Some 1,500 striking council workers and teachers marched united through Tower Hamlets in east London today.
The strikers are members of the Unison and teachers’ unions, whose branch banners led the march. There were also banners from schools across the borough, many of them handmade.
The march set off from Bethnal Green, through the rich and poor parts of the borough that sit so close together, on their way to a rally in Whitechapel in East London.
As the strikers passed council estates, people leaned out of their windows clapping and cheering.
But as they marched past Barclays bank, they chanted, “Barclays bank pays no tax, Tower Hamlets gets the axe” and “1, 2, 3, 4, cut the rich, not the poor”.
“I think it’s disgusting,” said Lynette Emery, a special needs teacher. “Our school budget has been cut by £20,000—that means our kids have lost their daily living skills outings, outings in the community. We can’t do them any more.
“The Barclays bankers’ bonuses this year are more than has been spent on education in this borough in a century. If we took their money there’d be no need for cuts.”
After the march it was standing room only as strikers and supporters crammed into the rally. In a show of unity it was held in the London Muslim Centre.
“It’s a simple message—together we are much stronger,” John McLoughlin, Tower Hamlets Unison branch secretary, told the crowd.
“We have set a marker that the future is bringing our unions together to strike together.” Unison deputy general secretary Keith Sonnet also spoke.
“You are an absolute inspiration,” said Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union. “We want this fight everywhere.” He pointed to the possibility of joint action over pensions.
“The PCS is already in discussions with the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and UCU at least to plan now for a joint strike that, if members vote for it, will see us have close on a million people on strike before the summer,” he said. “My appeal to every other public sector union is this—it should be all of us.”
He got a standing ovation—and the crowd chanted “general strike, general strike”.
-=================
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
Friday, 1 April 2011
FB-AUCPB - CLASS STRUGGLE UK APRIL 1 on
GMB
Tues 29 March - Hull
700 protest over lockout at Saltend, Hull
Hundreds of workers protested on Monday of this week in solidarity with workers locked out of the Saltend biofuel construction site in Hull, east Yorkshire.
Workers from North Lincolnshire refineries Lindsey and ConocoPhillips, Pembroke power station in Wales, and Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire joined the locked out workers.
Management put up a fence to block a gate to the area that workers had used to hold rallies since the lockout started two weeks ago.
Workers marched to the gate to rally.
They then drove into Hull and marched around the town centre. They held a rally of up to 700 workers.
The lockout is a clear attempt to attack a militant workforce.
The industry is wracked with corruption. The building bosses run blacklists to keep trade union militants off their sites.
As long as the poisonous system of contracting and subcontracting remains, there will be constant attempts to set worker against worker.
Everyone must stand against such divisions.
Militancy and unofficial action on construction sites terrifies the employers.
The delegations from other sites on the demonstration shows the potential for solidarity.
Since this is a national attack, there needs to be a national response.
Shutting down every construction site, power station and refinery around Britain would hit the multinationals where it hurts—in their profits.
Solidarity, including militant industrial action, is the only language the construction bosses understand.
National action has the power not just to win back the jobs, but to transform construction in favour of workers.
===============================
NASUWT
Tues 22 March - Wales – Powys
Powys teachers strike to save jobs
Teachers at a high school in Powys, Wales, are striking against compulsory redundancies. The NASUWT union members at Brecon High School struck on Thursday of last week.
They have five more strike dates planned—on Wednesday and Thursday of next week, and 5, 6 and 7 April.
Last week’s strike closed the school to all students except sixth formers. Rex Phillips, NASUWT organiser for Wales, described the action as “solid”.
Six jobs are under threat.
The head teacher, Ingrid Gallagher, claims that the school “has more staff than it needs”. But the NASUWT has accused the school’s governors of financial mismanagement and says they have turned a £100,000 surplus into a projected £650,000 deficit.
===============================
NUT
Go from Fury at the bankers on the streets of tower hamlets
Coventry teachers say no to academy
Teachers at Tile Hill Wood School and Language College in Coventry struck on Tuesday of this week against plans to turn their school into an academy.
The NUT union members unanimously backed strikes in a ballot, and 75 percent turned out to vote. Workers struck for half a day in the morning.
================================
UCU
Lecturers strike on
More than 100,000 lecturers struck last week. It was the biggest strike yet under David Cameron’s government—and it showed two things.
First, the strike won huge support, particularly among students. And second, lecturers want to keep fighting—and want to strike with other workers.
The action, on Thursday of last week, hit colleges and universities across Britain and Northern Ireland. The UCU union members are fighting attacks on their pension schemes, lack of protection over jobs and derisory below-inflation pay offers.
It had a big impact. Lots of classes were cancelled and few crossed picket lines. In lots of places, more pickets were out than during previous strikes.
Martyn Moss, a UCU regional official, said the strike at Liverpool Hope University was “the most solid in history. Not a single university lecturer went into work”.
========================================
PCS
UB40 speaks out against Tory cuts
UB40 band members Brian Travers and Jimmy Brown spoke out against unemployment at a Birmingham Against the Cuts press conference on Wednesday.
The press conference called on as many people as possible to join the TUC protest against the cuts this Saturday. It also highlighted rising unemployment in Birmingham, which now stands at 1 in 10— the title of a song by the band in 1981.
The band were joined by trade unionists, councillors and anti-cuts activists.
Unemployment in the West Midlands stands at 9.9 percent—that’s 265,000 people out of work, an increase of 27,000 in the last three months.
Caroline Johnson, assistant secretary of Birmingham Unison announced that the union has 18 coaches going to the demonstration on Saturday.
She said that Birmingham City Council’s plan to sack 7,000 workers as part of their budget cuts must be opposed.
Birmingham Unison is preparing to ballot its members in the coming weeks for industrial action against the cuts.
Other speakers included Birmingham Council Labour group leader Albert Bore, Tony Conway from the PCS and Mary Pearson from the NUT.
Jimmy Brown from UB40 closed the press conference saying that “a massive injustice is taking place”—because working people didn’t create the crisis, but will be expected to pay for it.
---------------------------------------------------------
Tues 29 March - Hull
700 protest over lockout at Saltend, Hull
Hundreds of workers protested on Monday of this week in solidarity with workers locked out of the Saltend biofuel construction site in Hull, east Yorkshire.
Workers from North Lincolnshire refineries Lindsey and ConocoPhillips, Pembroke power station in Wales, and Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire joined the locked out workers.
Management put up a fence to block a gate to the area that workers had used to hold rallies since the lockout started two weeks ago.
Workers marched to the gate to rally.
They then drove into Hull and marched around the town centre. They held a rally of up to 700 workers.
The lockout is a clear attempt to attack a militant workforce.
The industry is wracked with corruption. The building bosses run blacklists to keep trade union militants off their sites.
As long as the poisonous system of contracting and subcontracting remains, there will be constant attempts to set worker against worker.
Everyone must stand against such divisions.
Militancy and unofficial action on construction sites terrifies the employers.
The delegations from other sites on the demonstration shows the potential for solidarity.
Since this is a national attack, there needs to be a national response.
Shutting down every construction site, power station and refinery around Britain would hit the multinationals where it hurts—in their profits.
Solidarity, including militant industrial action, is the only language the construction bosses understand.
National action has the power not just to win back the jobs, but to transform construction in favour of workers.
===============================
NASUWT
Tues 22 March - Wales – Powys
Powys teachers strike to save jobs
Teachers at a high school in Powys, Wales, are striking against compulsory redundancies. The NASUWT union members at Brecon High School struck on Thursday of last week.
They have five more strike dates planned—on Wednesday and Thursday of next week, and 5, 6 and 7 April.
Last week’s strike closed the school to all students except sixth formers. Rex Phillips, NASUWT organiser for Wales, described the action as “solid”.
Six jobs are under threat.
The head teacher, Ingrid Gallagher, claims that the school “has more staff than it needs”. But the NASUWT has accused the school’s governors of financial mismanagement and says they have turned a £100,000 surplus into a projected £650,000 deficit.
===============================
NUT
Go from Fury at the bankers on the streets of tower hamlets
Coventry teachers say no to academy
Teachers at Tile Hill Wood School and Language College in Coventry struck on Tuesday of this week against plans to turn their school into an academy.
The NUT union members unanimously backed strikes in a ballot, and 75 percent turned out to vote. Workers struck for half a day in the morning.
================================
UCU
Lecturers strike on
More than 100,000 lecturers struck last week. It was the biggest strike yet under David Cameron’s government—and it showed two things.
First, the strike won huge support, particularly among students. And second, lecturers want to keep fighting—and want to strike with other workers.
The action, on Thursday of last week, hit colleges and universities across Britain and Northern Ireland. The UCU union members are fighting attacks on their pension schemes, lack of protection over jobs and derisory below-inflation pay offers.
It had a big impact. Lots of classes were cancelled and few crossed picket lines. In lots of places, more pickets were out than during previous strikes.
Martyn Moss, a UCU regional official, said the strike at Liverpool Hope University was “the most solid in history. Not a single university lecturer went into work”.
========================================
PCS
UB40 speaks out against Tory cuts
UB40 band members Brian Travers and Jimmy Brown spoke out against unemployment at a Birmingham Against the Cuts press conference on Wednesday.
The press conference called on as many people as possible to join the TUC protest against the cuts this Saturday. It also highlighted rising unemployment in Birmingham, which now stands at 1 in 10— the title of a song by the band in 1981.
The band were joined by trade unionists, councillors and anti-cuts activists.
Unemployment in the West Midlands stands at 9.9 percent—that’s 265,000 people out of work, an increase of 27,000 in the last three months.
Caroline Johnson, assistant secretary of Birmingham Unison announced that the union has 18 coaches going to the demonstration on Saturday.
She said that Birmingham City Council’s plan to sack 7,000 workers as part of their budget cuts must be opposed.
Birmingham Unison is preparing to ballot its members in the coming weeks for industrial action against the cuts.
Other speakers included Birmingham Council Labour group leader Albert Bore, Tony Conway from the PCS and Mary Pearson from the NUT.
Jimmy Brown from UB40 closed the press conference saying that “a massive injustice is taking place”—because working people didn’t create the crisis, but will be expected to pay for it.
---------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
FOR BOLSHEVISM IN SOLIDARITY WITH LIBYAN PEOPLE
On March 29, For Bolshevism-AUCP took part in a demonstration with Libyan people protesting against NATO bombardment of Libya. It was held outside Lancaster House during the Libay Conference.
Up to 200 Libyans gathered outside a conference called by foreign secretary William Hague in London yesterday to pledge their allegiance to Colonel Muammar Gadaffi as Western nations demanded he leaves power.
Across the road from the Libyan demonstration against the conference on strategies for the country if Colonel Muammar Gadaffi is forced from power, Stop the War Coalition and CND also staged a protest demanding an end to the intervention led by France with Britain, the US and an array of other European nations.
We note that the imperialist leftist "stop the war coalition" quckly distanced itself from the Pro-Gadaffi part of the protest on account of the organisers spotting "something written on one of the banners that suggests they support Gaddafii". They quickly moved away to the other side of the road and largely out of view. Meanwhile the revolutionary left supporters including For Bolshevism-AUCPB remained with the Libyan people at the protest and in support of Gaddaffi.
Throughout the afternoon, pro-NATO Libyan oppositionists constantly tried stoking up tension at the demo by attacking the pro-Gadaffi protest by and sending in their provocatoers and trying to start fights.
click on title to view photos
Up to 200 Libyans gathered outside a conference called by foreign secretary William Hague in London yesterday to pledge their allegiance to Colonel Muammar Gadaffi as Western nations demanded he leaves power.
Across the road from the Libyan demonstration against the conference on strategies for the country if Colonel Muammar Gadaffi is forced from power, Stop the War Coalition and CND also staged a protest demanding an end to the intervention led by France with Britain, the US and an array of other European nations.
We note that the imperialist leftist "stop the war coalition" quckly distanced itself from the Pro-Gadaffi part of the protest on account of the organisers spotting "something written on one of the banners that suggests they support Gaddafii". They quickly moved away to the other side of the road and largely out of view. Meanwhile the revolutionary left supporters including For Bolshevism-AUCPB remained with the Libyan people at the protest and in support of Gaddaffi.
Throughout the afternoon, pro-NATO Libyan oppositionists constantly tried stoking up tension at the demo by attacking the pro-Gadaffi protest by and sending in their provocatoers and trying to start fights.
click on title to view photos
Monday, 28 March 2011
MARCH 26 TUC MARCH CENTRAL LONDON
Over half a million people march in London against cuts.
On 26 March 2011, up to half a million people took to the streets of London in an anti-government protest against the vicious austerity measures being implemented by the Tory government that force working people to pay for the financial crisis of capitalism.
During the day, the main TUC anti-cuts march over 500 thousand people took part in the march that ended up in a rally at Hyde Park.
For Bolshevism-AUCPB group also took part along with other communist and leftist parties and organizations in selling For Bolshevism journals at the rally in Hyde Park and carrying out ideological, explanatory work among the working people. The For Bolshevism group began by selling copies of the English language journal of the AUCPB, “For Bolshevism Inside The Communist And Workers’ Movement” as the march was assembling on Embankment, then as the march was underway, merged with a more militant feeder march which had joined with the main column of demonstrators on the TUC march. Several militant anti-capitalist feeder marches from different points of London also marched and converged with the main TUC march. For Bolshevism-AUCPB and the anti-capitalist blocs all merged into a larger column, broke away from the TUC march route, then headed into the central shopping area of West London, targeting banks, and other businesses, clashing with riots police. After successfully breaking through police lines and avoiding being kettled by police, property damage was inflicted on the intended targets.
Well planned actions by militant workers, meant that Central London was effectively shut down all day by militant protestors as they clashed with riot police, breaking through police lines, then targeting banks and shops in Oxford street, Piccadilly and many other areas, where they had their windows smashed and paint bombs thrown at the front of the buildings. The Ritz Hotel and other posh hotels were attacked, fires started, and even Fortnums, the queens’s beloved and very expensive grocery store and many other shops were occupied by protestors. With this large, militant, flexible and mobile march moving swiftly around the city centre inflicting damage to capitalist exploiter property as a symbol of the people’s hatred towards capitalism, the 4500 riot police who were deployed to control the outburst of militant anger, were unable to contain the march. Trafalgar Sq was occupied too, where clashes broke out between protestors and riot police on the square and surrounding streets until early hours of Sunday morning..
May the struggle continue
For Bolshevism-AUCPB
LINKS AT TOP OF PAGE FOR REPORTS AND PHOTOS,
SOURCE: INDYMEDIA LONDON
READ TIMELINE March 26th, The Story Told by Those on the Streets
On 26 March 2011, up to half a million people took to the streets of London in an anti-government protest against the vicious austerity measures being implemented by the Tory government that force working people to pay for the financial crisis of capitalism.
During the day, the main TUC anti-cuts march over 500 thousand people took part in the march that ended up in a rally at Hyde Park.
For Bolshevism-AUCPB group also took part along with other communist and leftist parties and organizations in selling For Bolshevism journals at the rally in Hyde Park and carrying out ideological, explanatory work among the working people. The For Bolshevism group began by selling copies of the English language journal of the AUCPB, “For Bolshevism Inside The Communist And Workers’ Movement” as the march was assembling on Embankment, then as the march was underway, merged with a more militant feeder march which had joined with the main column of demonstrators on the TUC march. Several militant anti-capitalist feeder marches from different points of London also marched and converged with the main TUC march. For Bolshevism-AUCPB and the anti-capitalist blocs all merged into a larger column, broke away from the TUC march route, then headed into the central shopping area of West London, targeting banks, and other businesses, clashing with riots police. After successfully breaking through police lines and avoiding being kettled by police, property damage was inflicted on the intended targets.
Well planned actions by militant workers, meant that Central London was effectively shut down all day by militant protestors as they clashed with riot police, breaking through police lines, then targeting banks and shops in Oxford street, Piccadilly and many other areas, where they had their windows smashed and paint bombs thrown at the front of the buildings. The Ritz Hotel and other posh hotels were attacked, fires started, and even Fortnums, the queens’s beloved and very expensive grocery store and many other shops were occupied by protestors. With this large, militant, flexible and mobile march moving swiftly around the city centre inflicting damage to capitalist exploiter property as a symbol of the people’s hatred towards capitalism, the 4500 riot police who were deployed to control the outburst of militant anger, were unable to contain the march. Trafalgar Sq was occupied too, where clashes broke out between protestors and riot police on the square and surrounding streets until early hours of Sunday morning..
May the struggle continue
For Bolshevism-AUCPB
LINKS AT TOP OF PAGE FOR REPORTS AND PHOTOS,
SOURCE: INDYMEDIA LONDON
READ TIMELINE March 26th, The Story Told by Those on the Streets
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
FB-AUCPB-CLASS STRUGGLE UK
22 March – Glasgow – Scotland
Glasgow university occupation by students violently evicted by police.
A 49 day long occupation of the Hetherington Building at Glasgow University has today been violently evicted by cops. In response, occupiers, students and supporters have occupied the Senate Floor of Glasgow University.
Source: UK Indymedia
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/03/476411.html
ALSO
Today staff at the University of Bristol from the University College Union (UCU) were on strike over the proposed changes to the USS pension fund scheme. The proposals are currently to provide a two tier scheme, where existing members will continue with their final salary pension plans, but new members (or anyone who takes a substantial career break to start a family or because of illness) will be placed on a career average plan.
The USS pension fund is, and continues to be in good health, and UCU have proposed that any future stresses to the fund can more than be met by increasing contributions. Professor Brian Cantor, chair of the Employers' Pension Forum, has rejected UCU's request to continue talks, saying: 'we are not persuaded that it is appropriate to re-open formal negotiations, even with the involvement of Acas'.
Striking members of staff were joined on piket lines by numerous students carrying placards stating 'I support my lecturers.' A poll of Bristol University students conducted by the University of Bristol Union overwhelmingly found that students support the industrial action.
source Bristol Indymedia
http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/703826
=========================================
18 March - Wales – Lecturers out on strike
UCU members took strike action across Wales, as part of a dispute across Britain against attacks on pensions
=================================================
15 March – Southampton
Medirest workers in Unison trade union in Southhampton General Hospital are taking a second round of further strike action over three days. The low paid porters, cleaners, catering staff and domestic staff are striking over the firm’s refusal to pay wage arrears since 2006. They are also striking over conditions of training. They have vowed to keep striking until their demands are met.
=============================================
Glasgow university occupation by students violently evicted by police.
A 49 day long occupation of the Hetherington Building at Glasgow University has today been violently evicted by cops. In response, occupiers, students and supporters have occupied the Senate Floor of Glasgow University.
Source: UK Indymedia
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/03/476411.html
ALSO
Today staff at the University of Bristol from the University College Union (UCU) were on strike over the proposed changes to the USS pension fund scheme. The proposals are currently to provide a two tier scheme, where existing members will continue with their final salary pension plans, but new members (or anyone who takes a substantial career break to start a family or because of illness) will be placed on a career average plan.
The USS pension fund is, and continues to be in good health, and UCU have proposed that any future stresses to the fund can more than be met by increasing contributions. Professor Brian Cantor, chair of the Employers' Pension Forum, has rejected UCU's request to continue talks, saying: 'we are not persuaded that it is appropriate to re-open formal negotiations, even with the involvement of Acas'.
Striking members of staff were joined on piket lines by numerous students carrying placards stating 'I support my lecturers.' A poll of Bristol University students conducted by the University of Bristol Union overwhelmingly found that students support the industrial action.
source Bristol Indymedia
http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/703826
=========================================
18 March - Wales – Lecturers out on strike
UCU members took strike action across Wales, as part of a dispute across Britain against attacks on pensions
=================================================
15 March – Southampton
Medirest workers in Unison trade union in Southhampton General Hospital are taking a second round of further strike action over three days. The low paid porters, cleaners, catering staff and domestic staff are striking over the firm’s refusal to pay wage arrears since 2006. They are also striking over conditions of training. They have vowed to keep striking until their demands are met.
=============================================
Friday, 18 March 2011
FB AUCPB-CLASS STRUGGLE UK march 15 on
17 March Glasgow –Scotland
Glasgow University – strike action by lecturers and students
Lecturers supported by students took strike action at Glasgow university over savage government cuts being pushed through the higher education sector. This is all gaining support for a one day strike across Britain and the British occupied north of Ireland to take place on 24 March.
At the same time, students at Edinburgh University occupied the human resources building in solidarity with the lecturers on strike at 8 Scottish universities, over attacks on their pensions. A march of 200 students also took place lunchtime in support of the strikers.
FBU
15 March- London
Fire brigade bosses in London are threatening to cut overtime payments, claiming the Fire Service can manage with less.
FBU website
15 March
Lancashire - Garstang High School
Teachers unions are planning to ballot for strike action over against a proposal to turn it into an academy.
Also three school students were excluded temporarily last week at John Port School, in Etwall, Derbyshire after they walked out with striking teachers who were striking over plans to turn the school into an academy. Governors backed plans to turn it in to an academy and it is set to become one on 1 April. Unions are threatening further strikes.
NASUWT
Glasgow University – strike action by lecturers and students
Lecturers supported by students took strike action at Glasgow university over savage government cuts being pushed through the higher education sector. This is all gaining support for a one day strike across Britain and the British occupied north of Ireland to take place on 24 March.
At the same time, students at Edinburgh University occupied the human resources building in solidarity with the lecturers on strike at 8 Scottish universities, over attacks on their pensions. A march of 200 students also took place lunchtime in support of the strikers.
FBU
15 March- London
Fire brigade bosses in London are threatening to cut overtime payments, claiming the Fire Service can manage with less.
FBU website
15 March
Lancashire - Garstang High School
Teachers unions are planning to ballot for strike action over against a proposal to turn it into an academy.
Also three school students were excluded temporarily last week at John Port School, in Etwall, Derbyshire after they walked out with striking teachers who were striking over plans to turn the school into an academy. Governors backed plans to turn it in to an academy and it is set to become one on 1 April. Unions are threatening further strikes.
NASUWT
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
UK Workers struggle
5,000 protest in Sheffield as Lib Dems cower behind fence
Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, protected by 1,000 police and a huge metal fence, was the focus of many people's anger.
5,000 people marched on the Lib Dem conference in Shelfield on Saturday to ‘Rage against the Lib Dems’.
Rage at the Liberal liars sparked what was the biggest demonstration in the city for many years, organised by the Right to Work campaign and Sheffield Against the Cuts.
Trade unionists joined the protest in groups, including blocs of council workers, teachers, nurses and railway workers. Students and pensioners came out in force too.
The march was organised by Right to Work and Sheffield Against the Cuts. The CWU mobilised. Friends of the Earth and the local Save Our Sure Start campaign were there. There were lots of families and lots of home made placards. The banging of drums filled the air.
==========================================
Angry march through east London for NHS Day X
Angry health workers and students took to the streets of the City of
London yesterday last Wednesday in a protest against cuts and Tory threats to privatise the NHS.
Student nurses and medics, many dressed in blue or white scrubs, joined the 1000-strong march outside the Royal London hospital in Whitechapel, east London.
Together with doctors, nurses, and an array of therapists, they took to the streets chanting, “public health, not private wealth”, and, in a reference to Tory plans going through parliament, “kill, kill, kill the bill, it will make you very ill.”
The protest was organised by a recently-formed network of health workers and students, in all unions and none. Many had spent the week leafleting their lecturers, putting posters in surgeries and putting up stalls outside hospitals.
==================
London marks women's day
Sunday 13 March 2011
by Louise Nousratpour
Leading communist women gathered in London this weekend to celebrate International Women's Day as an important day for the working class to assess the achievents of the past year and prepare for challenges ahead.
An international panel of women representing several countries' Communist Parties brought greetings to a packed meeting at Marx Memorial Library.
Their tales of struggle against gender-specific discrimination and violence were remarkable similar and their enemies the same - imperialism and neoliberal policies.
But a positive tone was struck by new Cuban ambassador Esther Armenteros, who told the audience that she was proof that gender and race equality could be achieved in a socialist system.
"I was born into a very poor black family living in a society where discrimination was rife and opportunities scarce," she explained.
"I was 12 when the revolution swept Cuba and it changed everything. Suddenly all possibilities were open to people like me. Today, there is equal pay and equal rights in our country. In some areas we have excelled compared to men to a point that the government has had to put quotas in in favour of men."
Ms Armenteros condemned the decades-long US economic blockade on Cuba, adding: "Can you imagine how much better women's situations could have been?"
Chairing the event Communist Party of Britain women's organiser Liz Payne highlighted the significant achievements women have made in capitalist countries.
But she dismissed claims by sections of the bourgeoisie that women should now hang up their marching boots.
"Recent reports from the UN and Unicef show that women's lives everywhere are still alarmingly bleak - they suffer violence and face economic and social discrimination," Ms Payne said.
Representatives from Sudan, Iraq and Iran all condemned their country's Islamic laws restricting women's rights.
Azar Sepehr of the Democratic Organisation of Iranian Women said: "Discrimination against women is enshrined in law in Iran."
Iraqi Women's League speaker Nora Mohammed Ali warned that the puppet regime in her country had pushed women's rights back decades by introducing regressive marriage and other anti-women laws.
"Girls as young as seven are forced to wear the hijab, though the government denies this is happening," Ms Mohammed Ali said.
Amal Gabrala of Communist Party of Sudan called for the women's struggle to be linked to the wider working class struggle: "Let us remember Rosa Luxemburg and the likes of her, whose memory and work continue to inspire us."
Representatives from the Bangladeshi and Indian communist parties also took part.
Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, protected by 1,000 police and a huge metal fence, was the focus of many people's anger.
5,000 people marched on the Lib Dem conference in Shelfield on Saturday to ‘Rage against the Lib Dems’.
Rage at the Liberal liars sparked what was the biggest demonstration in the city for many years, organised by the Right to Work campaign and Sheffield Against the Cuts.
Trade unionists joined the protest in groups, including blocs of council workers, teachers, nurses and railway workers. Students and pensioners came out in force too.
The march was organised by Right to Work and Sheffield Against the Cuts. The CWU mobilised. Friends of the Earth and the local Save Our Sure Start campaign were there. There were lots of families and lots of home made placards. The banging of drums filled the air.
==========================================
Angry march through east London for NHS Day X
Angry health workers and students took to the streets of the City of
London yesterday last Wednesday in a protest against cuts and Tory threats to privatise the NHS.
Student nurses and medics, many dressed in blue or white scrubs, joined the 1000-strong march outside the Royal London hospital in Whitechapel, east London.
Together with doctors, nurses, and an array of therapists, they took to the streets chanting, “public health, not private wealth”, and, in a reference to Tory plans going through parliament, “kill, kill, kill the bill, it will make you very ill.”
The protest was organised by a recently-formed network of health workers and students, in all unions and none. Many had spent the week leafleting their lecturers, putting posters in surgeries and putting up stalls outside hospitals.
==================
London marks women's day
Sunday 13 March 2011
by Louise Nousratpour
Leading communist women gathered in London this weekend to celebrate International Women's Day as an important day for the working class to assess the achievents of the past year and prepare for challenges ahead.
An international panel of women representing several countries' Communist Parties brought greetings to a packed meeting at Marx Memorial Library.
Their tales of struggle against gender-specific discrimination and violence were remarkable similar and their enemies the same - imperialism and neoliberal policies.
But a positive tone was struck by new Cuban ambassador Esther Armenteros, who told the audience that she was proof that gender and race equality could be achieved in a socialist system.
"I was born into a very poor black family living in a society where discrimination was rife and opportunities scarce," she explained.
"I was 12 when the revolution swept Cuba and it changed everything. Suddenly all possibilities were open to people like me. Today, there is equal pay and equal rights in our country. In some areas we have excelled compared to men to a point that the government has had to put quotas in in favour of men."
Ms Armenteros condemned the decades-long US economic blockade on Cuba, adding: "Can you imagine how much better women's situations could have been?"
Chairing the event Communist Party of Britain women's organiser Liz Payne highlighted the significant achievements women have made in capitalist countries.
But she dismissed claims by sections of the bourgeoisie that women should now hang up their marching boots.
"Recent reports from the UN and Unicef show that women's lives everywhere are still alarmingly bleak - they suffer violence and face economic and social discrimination," Ms Payne said.
Representatives from Sudan, Iraq and Iran all condemned their country's Islamic laws restricting women's rights.
Azar Sepehr of the Democratic Organisation of Iranian Women said: "Discrimination against women is enshrined in law in Iran."
Iraqi Women's League speaker Nora Mohammed Ali warned that the puppet regime in her country had pushed women's rights back decades by introducing regressive marriage and other anti-women laws.
"Girls as young as seven are forced to wear the hijab, though the government denies this is happening," Ms Mohammed Ali said.
Amal Gabrala of Communist Party of Sudan called for the women's struggle to be linked to the wider working class struggle: "Let us remember Rosa Luxemburg and the likes of her, whose memory and work continue to inspire us."
Representatives from the Bangladeshi and Indian communist parties also took part.
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