Given the circumstances of Anton Georgiou’s
resignation from Brent Council, Brent Green Party has released the following
statement:
"Democracy free of violent threats is more
important than any individual party interest. We will not stand in the Alperton
ward by-election brought about by Cllr Georgiou's resignation and urge the
Labour and Conservative parties to take similar action."
Ex-Cllr Anton Georgiou on his personal reasons for resigning
from Brent Council
Republished with permission from Brent Greens blog
Brian Orr of Brent Green Party and a former activist in the London Federation of Green Parties died on Monday 12th June, after an illness which began in Autumn last year.
Brian played a crucial role in re-starting Brent Green Party as an effective political body and went on to steer it through the early decades of this century. He was unstinting as an organiser of campaigns and as a campaigner. As Party Chair and Election agent he ensured that the party stood candidates in local, regional and national elections, and also stood as a candidate himself.
Brian Orr's election address to voters in the Stonebridge by-election 2007
Brian also worked with the London Federation of Green Parties as Treasurer during the time Noel Lynch was Chair of the Federation
Brian had a scientific background and training which informed his deep commitment to Green politics and ideas. Long before many others he was aware of the potentially catastrophic impacts of human-caused global climate change and its environmental feedbacks. He argued that this was manifesting itself in loss of biodiversity, especially of insects as the basis of the food chain. However he combined this understanding with a determination to enact these ideas politically as can be seen here
So, it is no surprise that he welcomed the intervention of Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion in the climate crisis campaign. In fact, he loved the development of ideas and politics through debate with his colleagues and comrades both in person and online. We will sorely miss provocative and insightful discussions with him.
He made a significant contribution, and we will miss him. We send our sympathy and condolences to his partner Liz and the family.
The news that National Education Union members in Brent will be striking on February 1st is welcomed by Brent Green Party, who together with the Green Party of England Wales as a whole, support all workers taking part in the current strike actions.
We recognise that NEU members are making just claims for pay increases that at least give some respite from the pressures of inflation which is outpacing the incomes of many except wealthy cabinet ministers and donors to Tory party coffers.
We know that the issue is not just pay, the NEU strikes and others are in defence of proper public provision in such vital areas such as education, health and transport. A viable low carbon economy can only be built on these foundations, so the strikes of the NEU members in Brent and many other trade unionists are an important part of wider struggles which are vital to us all.
SOLIDARITY TO THE NEU! SOLIDARITY TO STRIKERS!
Peter Murry, Trade Union Liaison Officer, Brent Green Party
Emma Wallace of Harrow Green Party, and out GLA constituency candidate for Brent and Harrow, convinced many environmentalists yesterday evening at the hustings organised by Brent Friends of the Earth.
Labour's Krupesh Hirani slumped to 26% after the hustings compared with 54% before he had spoken. Emma Wallace gained 11% to take the lead and Liberal Democrat Anton Georgiou quadrapled his vote from a meagre 4% to 17%.
The Conservative candidate was invited but did not attend.
Brent and Harrow Green Parties have launched a Crowdfunder to help Emma Wallace, our candidate in the GLA election, in her campaign. DONATE HERE
This election is held under a fair voting system so every vote
counts, which makes it one of the most important election campaigns the Greens
can fight.
Greens have a great record of delivering on the London
Assembly. From getting the Mayor to declare a Climate Emergency
to winning £45 million worth of funding for youth clubs. Sian Berry and
Caroline Russell, our two Green Party London Assembly members, get stuff done
and we can get more Greens in the Assembly to do more!
We just need your support and hopefully your donations,
because we are committed to using our platform in the Assembly to demand real
change.
We will fight for action on the climate
emergency so we can create the greenest city in the world.
We have a clear plan to keep London moving. We’ll
move past polluting cars and invest in the future of travel public transport,
walking and cycling.
And we will bring fresh thinking to housing,
aiming to make sure no one is struggling to put a roof over their head.
Every donation to this Crowdfunder is about reaching voters locally.
In Brent and Harrow we need to reach and win over as
many residents as possible. Your donation will help us reach
Londoners on social media, via the post and over the phone.
We can’t rely on billionaires and corporate donors
like the other parties. We are a grassroots movement and your
donations can help get our message through and win the support we need.
·Please note all donations will go to Harrow
Green Party to help our campaign to elect Emma Wallace to the London Assembly.
·We're required to run permissibility checks on
donations over £500. These will be completed as pledges are made. For the same
reason, we cannot accept anonymous donations over £500.
·If you make multiple donations to us, they may
be aggregated for our reporting purposes.
·Your details will appear in our election returns
if valued over £500, and if you donate over £7,500 your identity will appear on
the Electoral Commission website
Promoted by Martin Francis on behalf of Emma Wallace and Brent
and Harrow Green Parties c/o 23 Saltcroft Close. Wembley, HA9 9JJ.
Brent Trades Council, Brent Central Labour Party and Stand Up To Racism organised a
demonstration in solidarity with Dawn Butler MP (Brent Central) after she and her staff
received racist threats and windows were broken in her Walm Lane office contributing to her decision to close it down. She has also been attacked relentlessly on social media.
Brent Green Party, Green Party Trade Union Group and Green Left supported the demonstration and I spoke on their behalf about the importance of challenging racism and sexism and the need for democratically elected representatives to work unhindered for their constituents. It is about democracy.
I went on to warn about the need for opposition to fascism as well as racism in a new era of 'strong men' in Europe, South America and the USA as we face possibly the worst ever econonic recession.
We have our political differences with Dawn but it is essential that unite across parties to challenge these threats,
This article by Brent Young Greens member Macsen Brown was first published on the Bright Green blog LINK yesetrday and is republished with the author's permission.
The campaign for the 2019 General Election is well underway, and the
parties are well into the rhythm of things. The Lib Dems are cranking
out their dodgy bar charts, the Tories are hitting the scene with a
steady stream of lies and deception – and everyone is insisting that
they’re the only party that is taking the climate emergency seriously.
But it seems to me that there is only one party that is even remotely
close to understanding the radical political, economic and social
change that beating this civilisational crisis requires – and that is
the Green Party. This is of course my personal opinion, and by no means
an endorsement of the party on behalf of the wider school strike
movement or the UK Student Climate Network.
This snap election, originally called to resolve an artificial crisis
of Tory/Liberal creation, comes at the end of a year of change. It is
the cumulation of decades of neoliberalism, privatisation, greed and
austerity – which is in itself a continuation of centuries of
colonialist and capitalist exploitation of the Global South and of
workers everywhere.
This crisis began centuries ago, but every day that goes by it
increases in intensity. We missed our last chance to save the world
decades ago, what we are trying to do now is to limit the death count
and build a sustainable society that can better resist the catastrophe
this system has unleashed. Friday the 29th is a Global Climate Strike,
but here in the UK it is also opportunity for disenfranchised young
people like myself to make our voices heard. We strike monthly because
as it stands the government is not meeting our demands, the government
is failing to keep us safe.
Today thousands of us will be striking to demand that the UK economy
is completely decarbonised by 2030 through a Green New Deal. Integral to
this is a worker-led just transition away from the fossil fuel industry
and others that contribute to this climate crisis. The Green New Deal
calls for the rewilding and the restoration of habitats devastated by
the capitalist class’ rampant search for profit, it also calls for the
elimination of inequality on a local, national and global scale. The
political and economic system that gave us this crisis is responsible
for the destruction of communities and lives across the UK, but also
across the planet. The Green Party manifesto recognises this, pairing
radical environmental policies with a social transformation on a scale
that is simply not met by other parties.
The work of Labour for a Green New Deal has been phenomenal, and that
the membership did indeed pass a GND resolution at their most recent
conference – the fact remains that Labour’s Green Industrial Revolution
(though miles ahead of the Tories’ farce of a climate policy) has been
watered down by the leadership and as it stands lacks the ambition and
scope of a genuine Green New Deal. They will often point to their
success in getting parliament to declare a climate emergency as proof of
their worthiness, but words don’t cut it alone – and besides, it was
Green councillor Carla Denyer who got the first climate emergency motion
passed in Bristol.
The Lib Dems similarly fall short of the line with a failure to
commit to decarbonisation by 2030, and a continued endorsement of the
neoliberalism and austerity that continues to ravage our climate and our
communities.
We are also calling for a radical reformation of the way young people
are educated about the climate crisis – that the government Teach the
Future. The Green manifesto calls for an English Climate Emergency
Education Act (just like TTF) as well as putting schools back into the
hands of our communities, building links between students and the world
around them – both human and natural. We need to start preparing young
people for the new world that is coming, for better or worse; and the
Green Party’s evidence-based, pragmatic policy is a step towards we
need.
We are also asking that the government Tell the Future, with a
massive public information campaign that ensures everyone in the UK
genuinely understands the sheer scale and scope of this crisis, and what
needs to be done to fight back.
Finally, the future must be empowered. This means finally giving 16
and 17 year olds the vote, as a Green government would do, but it also
means going far, far beyond that. I feel very strongly that everyone
living in a country has a right to take part in that country’s
democratic process, that suffrage must be genuinely universal. This
means extending the franchise to prisoners and migrants as well as
removing the barriers that prevent people without fixed addresses from
exercising their right.
But what use is having a vote if it counts for nothing? What this
crisis shows us is that now, just as we always have, we need a
democratic revolution. This means electing national representatives by
the fairest system (STV), organising ourselves horizontally with maximal
direct participation from people in their communities, making decisions
as a community. It’s not just Cymru, Alba and Éire, we all need
independence from Westminster.
Of course, the Green Party is not perfect, but looking at the choice
that adults will have to make in December it seems to me that they’re by
far the best one you can make.
It’s time we stopped settling for second best, that we stopped
picking the lesser of many evils. We are often sneered at and called
idealists, but in reality I can think of no party more pragmatic and
rational than the Greens. There can be no delusion that things can go on
as they are, that we can compromise or find a middle ground between
climate justice and genocide. We must do what reality demands, not what
politicians can be bothered to do.
'Wembley Park' Ltd (how did they manage to take over the name of our neighbourhood?), estate managers for the Quintain development have emphatically denied rumours that they intend to install facial recognition on their estate around Wembley Stadium. In response to an enquiry from Wembley Matters they said:
We do not operate cameras with facial recognition and have no intention of installing them.
This is good news as installation of facial recognition cameras in the Kings Cross development has been extremely contoversial both in terms of their intrusion into privacy but also because of their inaccuracy.
The issue does highlight how much of what was once public space has been privatised and access open to restrictions.
This was brought home to me last weekend when I was part of a Brent Green Party group leafleting for support for the Climate Strike on September 20th. We were giving out postcards about the strike to passersby on the space between Olympic Way and Wembley Library and were approached by a 'Wembley Park' security guard who asked us for our licence or written permission to leaflet. When we said we had neither he asked us to move out of the area. We could only leaflet on the narrow pavement on Engineers Way. Later when we leafleted on the pedestrianised road (Boulevard) that leads from Engineers Way we were again told to move on.
Not only have they taken over our neighbourhood's name but also our freedom to interact on political matters with local people.
The security notices define what is prohibited on the estate but end with a catch-all statement that gives 'Wembley Park' total control of what happens in the area:
When we queried this with 'Wembley Park' they replied:
Like every well-managed estate, we ask anyone who wants to distribute leaflets in #WembleyPark to approach our estate team for approval and to obtain the appropriate licence from Brent Council.
Peter Murry, Trade Union
Liasion Officer for Brent Green Party and the London Federation of Green
Parties has issued the following statement about today's strike:
Brent Green Party and
London Federation of Green Parties send support and solidarity to the
staff of Strathcona School who will be going on strike today with the
support of the NEU to oppose the closure of the school.
This closure which
damages the education of students at Strathcona and the communities which it
serves, is happening in spite of numerous objections from students' parents and
other members of the public. Brent council should be acting to defend local
authority education and not diminish it.
Shaka Lish of Brent Green Party and Greens of Colour, spoke yesterday at Brent Stands Up to Trump! a meeting called to publicise the demonstrations on July 13th and 14th. The meeting was supported by Brent Central Labour Party, Brent Stand Up to Racism and Brent Stop the War. After hearing from panelists those at the meeting organised leafleting throughout the borough to publicise the demonstrations.
Action Day for Willesden Green by-election. Join us, take pics, help out, ask questions, grab posters & find out about @TheGreenParty!
Sunday 17th June
11am-1pm
Willesden Green station.
Sian Berry (Green Party Assembly Member) and Rashid Nix (Green party activist from Lambeth) will be joing us. Our candidates are Shaka Lish (above), William Relton and Peter Murry.
Some of the eighteen Green Party candidates standing for election in Brent
Brent Green Party launched its comprehensive manifesto for the Council elections at the weekend. Candidates are standing on a platform of challenging the 'One Party' Brent Council pledging to hold the Council to account for its decisions, ensuring that its policies and decisions are robustly scrutinised, extending democracy so that all councillors have a share in decision making and putting forward imaginative and radical new ideas to improve the quality of life and life chances of Brent residents.
You can read more about Green candidiates for Brent Council HERE
The full Manifesto is available here and can be downloaded (page symbol menu bottom left):
Brent Green Party in an open letter to Carolyn Downs, Brent Council Chief Executive, has posed questions about the contaminated waste at Paddington Green Cemetery:
OPEN Letter to CEO London Borough of Brent, Councillor Butt,
Councillor Southwood cc Councillor Duffy
As Green
Party Trade Union Liaison Officer for Brent and for the London
Federation of Green Parties, and as a council tax paying resident of the
London Borough of Brent, I am very concerned to hear from Councillor
Duffy’s email, that there are contamination problems arising from the
dumping and disposal of asbestos contaminated soil in Paddington Old
Cemetery.
As I am sure the CEO of Brent and the Brent Councillors dealing with this matter, are aware asbestos is relatively safe when
undisturbed, but if it is caused to give off dust, which is harmful if
inhaled, that dust can give rise to severe health problems which may not
be apparent until years later.
I would
therefore like assurances that the Council did not deliberately send
asbestos contaminated waste to Paddington Old Cemetery, and that once
Council became aware of the presence of such waste, it ensured that:
1. all
workers dealing with the waste were fully briefed as to its potentially
hazardous nature and advised to inform their GPs of possible exposure.
2. all workers dealing with the waste were fully equipped with appropriate protection
3.
measures were taken to ensure that the waste would affect members of the
public visiting the Cemetery and the students and staff of the school
which neighbours the Cemetery.
4. the
school and the NEU Health and Safety representative was notified of the
presence of the waste and warned when it was likely to be disturbed.
Cllr Butt has co-signed the letter criticising the Labour NEC over their intervention on the Haringey Development Vehicle LINK. That, combined with his letter to Village School staff criticising union members over their strike action LINK, has intensified criticism from Brent Labour Party members and Brent Momentum who took to Facebook and Twitter over the weekend to express their views.
Green Party London Assembly Members Caroline Russell and Sian Berry with Brent Green Simon Erskine
Climate change campaigners are urging Brent Council to take
its money out of fossil fuels.
A new campaign group, Divest Brent, launched this week. The
activists hope to put pressure on the Council to “divest” from the fossil fuel
industry by withdrawing any money they have invested in companies involved in
digging for or burning coal, oil and gas.
Industry
Recently published figures indicate that the Council has over
£37 million invested in the fossil fuel industry through its pension fund.
Campaigner and Green Party activist Simon Erskine explained that the divestment
movement had already scored many victories in recent years and has become a
powerful method of forcing organisations to consider their contribution to
human-made climate change.
He told Wembley Matters:
It sends a message to the industry and
it raises awareness of the issue.
People may not already be aware of where their money is going
and might be concerned to learn they are helping to finance the fossil fuel
industry.
Fossil fuels belong to the past; they are not the answer to
climate change, they are the problem.
In the same way, people no longer want to invest in tobacco
or the arms trade.
Earlier this month a protest was staged outside City Hall to
call for the Greater London Authority to divest from fossil fuels. The London
Assembly has already passed a motion requesting the London Mayor to do exactly
that.
Organisations in the UK that have committed to fossil fuel
divestment so far include Oxford and Bristol city councils, the University of
Glasgow and the British Medical Association. A number of London Boroughs have
also committed – including neighbouring borough, Hammersmith & Fulham.
Globally more than 800 institutions (from government,
faith-based, philanthropic and educational organisations etc), representing
well over $5 trillion in assets, have committed to divest.
Ali Warrington, another Divest Brent campaigner, said:
It’s
really exciting to bring the fastest-growing divestment movement in history to
Brent. We need to act locally and ensure our representatives do
what’s right and invest ethically. The companies they’re investing in are creating
devastating climate change, and are insecure investments financially.
To support the campaign sign the petition HERE and email, Facebook and Tweet your friends urging them to sign.
This is the petition:
Brent Council should divest its pension
fund from fossil fuel companies to protect the people of Brent. So we
ask Brent Council to make a public divestment statement committing the
Brent Pension Fund to:
1. Immediately freeze any new investment in the top 200
publicly-traded fossil fuel companies with largest known carbon reserves
(oil, coal and gas)
2. Divest from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include
fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds in the top 200 list and
shift these funds to lower risk, ethical investments within 5 years
3. Advocate to other pension funds, including the London Pension Fund
Authority and Local Government Pension Scheme members to do the same
4. To do the above in a timely manner - by setting up a working group
to report back on a strategy to bring about divestment within three
months from the submission of this petition
Why is this important?
We believe divestment from fossil fuels to be not only ethically and environmentally correct, but also financially prudent.
Climate change is the greatest challenge humanity has encountered.
The 20 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1981 and 2016 was
the hottest ever [1]. Higher average temperatures are directly linked
to extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, floods and
storms.
Scientists have unanimously concluded that these changes are a
consequence of human activity, arising from the burning of fossil fuels
[2]. Moreover, this activity has resulted in unprecedented levels of air
pollution, now regarded as a major world killer [3].
In a speech at Lloyd’s of London in September 2015, Mark Carney,
Governor of the Bank of England said that by the time ‘climate change
becomes a defining issue for financial stability, it may already be too
late’. Carney warned investors that policies to address climate change
‘would render the vast majority of reserves ‘stranded’ – oil, gas and
coal that will be literary unburnable’ [4].
In order to continue developing fossil fuel reserves – particularly
in the difficult areas where the remaining reserves are located
(including the Arctic, the mouth of the Amazon and tar sands in
sensitive areas) the developing companies need investment – divestment
is a way of cutting off the funds needed to carry out these damaging
activities. It also sends a powerful signal to the companies and others
that it is time to move away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy.
Brent Green Party has announced that it backs Cllr John Duffy’s call for a
public consultation on improving Brent Council’s environmental services.
A spokesperson said:
‘Leaving aside Cllr Duffy’s difficulties with the Labour Group we believe it
is in residents’ interests to review environmental services, particularly waste
collection and fly-tipping, with a view to improving efficiency and value for
money.
'We know from speaking to residents that their daily experience of Brent as
a ‘dirty borough’ littered with discarded mattresses, clothing and much else,
is demoralising and degrading.
‘Cllr Duffy has expertise in this area that the Council should utilise
rather than ignore.’
The Green Party's parliamentary candidate for Brent Central, Shaka Lish, has challenged Brent Council about the felling of trees in Gladstone Park. Accusing Brent Council of an act of 'wilful vandalism' she asked, 'What is the point of cutting down our beautiful, healthy, ancient trees?' She asked if the Council had any plans to replace them. At the recent Brent Clean Air meeting at the Civic Centre, Brent Council leader Muhammed Butt, extolled the benefits of trees to combat air pollution but a closer examination shows this may be no more than hot air. A Freedom of Information request by Wembley Matters LINK established that Brent Council keeps no records of trees lost, felled and replaced in its parks and that none of the 62 trees removed on Brent Housing Partnership estates Jan 1st-Dec 31st 2016 had been replaced.
Parks maintenance is contracted out to Veolia as part of the Public Realm contract and Gristwood and Toms is contracted to deal with trees over a specific height. It's ironic given all the above that Brent Council has received a Forestry Commission London's Trees and Woodland Award LINK:
Borough Tree Award - Brent Council Tree Planting Project, Sudbury Town, Barn Hill,
Harlesden and Kensal Green
The Trees and Development Award: Wembley Park – Arena Square and Wembley Park Boulevard.
Market Square (meantime planting). Quintain, London Borough of Brent
