TUC Emergency Demo re Right to Strike Monday May 22nd Parliament Square 6pm

 

From the TUC

TUC Emergency Demo re Right to Strike Monday May 22nd Parliament Square 6pm 
 
Multi-millionaire Tory politicians are attacking YOUR right to strike.
 
They're planning to SACK key workers who take action to improve pay and conditions.
 
Join the emergency rally in Westminster to say: REJECT and REPEAL the Strikes Bill.
Why we are protesting
We can’t afford to lose the right to strike. But multi-millionaire Tory politicians are attacking our right to strike for better pay and fair treatment at work.

They're planning to sack key workers who take action to improve pay and conditions. First they’re coming for paramedics, firefighters and rail workers- but who will be next?

Join the emergency protest in Westminster to demand that MPs REJECT the Strikes Bill and to demand that opposition parties commit to REPEAL the Strikes Bill.
 
This is our last chance to save key workers’ jobs, our last chance to save the right to a pay rise. We will not be silenced- come to the protest to make your voice heard. Protect the right to strike.
The attack on our right to strike has reached a critical point. On Monday, the Strikes Bill returns to the House of Commons where MPs will cast their final vote.
 
MPs will have a clear choice: will they support the right of working people to go on strike for fair pay? Or will they attack our fundamental rights and sack key workers if they take strike action?
 
The Tories have supported this bill at every stage, and proved they will stop at nothing to hurt working people. They have seen the impact our strikes have had, and know the public are on the side of striking workers. Their last resort is an outrageous attack on our right to strike.
 
On Monday, as the bill goes through its final stages, the TUC has called an emergency protest outside Parliament. Can you join and make your voice heard?
 
At the protest, we will hear from key workers and union leaders on what we must do next. We will not give in until these laws are defeated.
 
If the Tories are going to attack our right to strike, we need to make them pay a political price for it, so that they don't attack workers' rights again. And we need to make sure that opposition parties are committed to repealing this terrible law if they are elected. So can you join our emergency protest to call on MPs to reject and repeal the Strikes Bill?

Video: Today's #WeDemandBetter TUC sponsored march

 

DEMAND BETTER: join the TUC demonstration tomorrow. Assemble Portland Place from 11am, start March at noon and Rally in Parliament Square at 1pm

 

 

From the TUC

 

This Saturday, workers, families and pensioners will be marching through London as the TUC holds our We Demand Better demonstration. With hundreds of coaches booked from every part of the country and the weather set fair, it’s shaping up to be a memorable day. And we’ll be delivering a simple message to the government: enough is enough. 

 

With a PM who is more concerned with his own job security than anybody else’s, and a Chancellor who spends more heating his swimming pool than a minimum wage worker earns in a year, it’s time for change. Trade unions are fighting for action on the cost of living, for higher wages, and for a New Deal for working people.

 

We believe the cost-of-living emergency is the result of political choices made in Downing Street. Of course, it’s hard for government to control global energy prices – but austerity, benefit cuts and attacks on unions have held our living standards back. Even now, with City bonuses rising six times faster than wages, ministers are choosing to tax working people rather than wealth. And just last week, the PM warned workers against bargaining for higher pay.

 

The pressures facing households are getting worse. It now costs more than £100 to fill a family car, with many low-paid workers unable to drive to work. Energy bills are set to rise 23 times faster than wages. And next year, the influential OECD think tank forecasts zero growth for the UK economy – the worst performance among the G20 industrial nations, apart from Russia.

 

Rather than the Chancellor’s belated, half-hearted support package, we need real change. A decent pay rise for public sector workers. Fair pay agreements. A £15 minimum wage. And the Employment Bill we’ve been promised not once, not twice . . . but 20 times. And instead of bashing unions, ministers should back working people and boost collective bargaining.

 

But if the government won’t do what’s right, then we will. We are the trade union movement – and standing up for working people is what we do. And that includes workers who feel they have no alternative but to vote for industrial action to win fair treatment.

 

Now is the time to stand up for what we believe in. If you’ve had enough of this rotten government, and if you’re fed up with everything going up but wages, then join us in London this Saturday. And encourage your workmates, friends, family and neighbours to come too – and encourage everyone to join a union.

It's time to demand better. See you from 10.30 am in Portland Place.

 

18TH JUNE WE DEMAND BETTER PROTEST - BRENT TUC DELEGATION

JOINING THE DEMO ARRANGEMENTS

 

Brent TUC delegates and supporters will join the demo as a group so they can

march together behind BTUC's banner. 

11.30 meet at Regents Park Station on the Bakerloo line.

Walter Citrine, of the TUC and 1st Baron of Wembley - talk February 23rd

 

TUC issues safety demands before any return to work after lockdown

From the TUC


The TUC is today calling on government to introduce tough new measures to ensure that before lockdown restrictions are eased, all employers assess the risks of their staff team returning to work outside the home.

In a new report, the TUC outlines what government and employers need to do to keep workers safe at work after lockdown is eased, and to give staff the confidence they need:

Risk assessments in every workplace 

The union body is demanding that every employer in the UK be required to carry out a specific Covid-19 risk assessment, developed in consultation with unions and workers. 
The assessment must:

• Identify what risks exist in the workplace and set out specific steps to mitigate them, including through social distancing.
  
• Be agreed with the staff trade union, where there is one. 
  
• Be signed off by one of the UK’s 100,000 trade union health and safety reps, or by a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) inspector, to make sure that it is robust.
  
• Be completed and communicated to workers before they are expected to return to their normal place of work, which means that employers should start work on their assessments now.
  

Employers who fail to complete their risk assessments or put the appropriate safety measures in place should face serious penalties, including prosecution.

Workers have been failed 

These are demanding measures, which represent a step-change in the UK’s approach to health and safety at work, says the union body.

But the TUC believes that too many workers have already been put at unnecessary risk during the pandemic, including through lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) and inadequate social distancing procedures.  

Safety concerns

New TUC polling, also published today, shows that 2 in 5 (40%) workers surveyed, along with those who have recently become unemployed, are worried about returning to the normal place of work, including half (49%) of women.

Asked about their specific concerns:

• 2 in 5 (39%) are concerned about not being able to socially distance from colleagues when back at work, and over a quarter (28%) are concerned about not being able to socially distance from customers or clients.
  
• Over a third (34%) are concerned about exposing others in their household to greater risk.
  
• Nearly 1 in 6 (17%) workers across the economy are concerned about not having access to appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) at work.
  

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: 

Many employers have struck sensible deals with unions to protect workers’ health, safety and wellbeing. But too often decent employers are let down by those who play fast and loose with safety. 

We need tough new measures from government to reassure working people that their health and safety is a priority. Too many workers have already been forced to put their health on the line during this pandemic.

We all want everyone to get back to work and start rebuilding Britain. But workers need confidence that they won’t have to put themselves or their families at unnecessary risk.

Government must ensure that every employer performs a comprehensive risk assessment before asking staff to return to work. And bosses who don’t take steps to protect workers should be prosecuted.

If workers are asked to work in conditions they think are unsafe, they can refuse. And they should know that their unions will have their back.

TUC calls for a cross-party 'Just Transition Commission' to pave the way for low-carbon economy

The TUC has today (Monday) published A just transition to a greener, fairer economy – a roadmap to meeting the needs of working people in the transition to a low-carbon economy.

The roadmap sets out proposals for:

1. A Just Transition Commission: a cross-party national commission including business, consumers and unions to plan a clear and funded path to a low-carbon economy.
2. Workplace Transition Agreements: to put workers’ voices at the heart of transition plans in every workplace where change is required.
3. Transition skills funding: so that every worker has access to training in the new skills needed for a low carbon economy, and guaranteed pathways to new work.
4. Employment standard protections: to ensure new jobs in the low carbon economy are not of lower quality than jobs that are changed or superseded.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

Trade unions are committed to addressing the climate emergency. A greener economy can be a fairer economy too, with new work and better jobs right across Britain.

It’s vital to avoid the mistakes of the 1980s, when industrial change devastated communities because workers had no say. This time we need a plan that everyone can get behind, with workers’ voices at the heart of it.

That’s why we’re calling for a politicians, businesses, consumers and unions to make those plans together, through a Just Transition Commission.

Show some #NHSLove tomorrow & celebrate 70th anniversary

Message from Larry Sanders, Green Party Health Spokesperson

Tomorrow, I will be taking part in a demonstration in London celebrating the 70^thanniversary of our wonderful NHS.

The event has been organised by a range of health and campaign organisations, including Health Campaigns Together (of which the Green Party is an affiliate), the People's Assembly and the Trades Union Congress.

We assemble at 12 midday at Portland Place, London and will march together to Downing Street.

The marchers will include Greens, including Deputy Leader Amelia Womack, as well as people of all parties and none. Together we will affirm our support for a publicly owned and properly funded NHS, that is free for all, and show our appreciation of our amazing NHS workers.

JOIN ME

Yours in solidarity

Larry Sanders
Green Party Health Spokesperson

Progress as TUC takes on the issue of Climate Change

The TUC has unanimously passed the motion below on Climate Change. Although it does not contain everything Green Party members would want to see included it marks a step forward in trade union recognition of the issue. It is now even more important for the Green Party at national and local level to work closely with trade unions and local trades councils on practical policies to combat climate change and the promotion of a low carbon economy.

Congress notes the irrefutable evidence that dangerous climate change is driving unprecedented changes to our environment such as the devastating flooding witnessed in the UK in 2004.

Congress further notes the risk to meeting the challenge of climate change with the announcement of Donald Trump to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreement.

Similarly, Brexit negotiations and incoherent UK government policy risk undermining measures to achieve the UK carbon reduction targets.

Congress welcomes the report by the Transnational Institute Reclaiming Public Service: how cities and citizens are turning back privatization, which details the global trend to remunicipalise public services, including energy, and supports efforts by unions internationally to raise issues such as public ownership and democratic control as part of solutions to climate change.

Congress notes that transport is responsible for a quarter of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions and believes that a reduction in carbon dioxide levels must be the basis of the UK’s future transport policy in addition to building public transport capacity and moving more freight from road to rail.

Congress believes that to effectively combat climate change and move towards a low carbon economy we cannot leave this to the markets and therefore need a strong role for the public sector in driving the measures needed to undertake this transition.

Congress notes that pension schemes invest billions of pounds into fossil fuel corporations. To this end, Congress calls on the TUC to:

i.                     work with the Labour Party and others that advocate for an end to the UK’s rigged energy system to bring it back into public ownership and democratic control

ii.                   . advocate for a mass programme of retrofit and insulation of Britain’s homes and public buildings

iii.                  . lobby to demand rights for workplace environmental reps iv. lobby for the establishment of a Just Transition strategy for those workers affected by the industrial changes necessary to develop a more environmentally sustainable future for all, and develop practical steps needed to achieve this as integral to industrial strategy v. consult with all affiliates to seek input into the development of a cross sector industrial strategy that works towards delivering internationally agreed carbon emission reduction targets

iv.                 . investigate the long-term risks for pension funds investing in fossil fuels, promote divestment, and alternative reinvestment in the sustainable economy.

Mover: Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union

Seconder: Communication Workers Union

Supporters: Fire Brigades Union; ASLEF; TSSA

'Trade unions are not just for white men' - Grunwick film and panel at TUC on Friday

Friday April 15th at Trade Union Congress 23-28 Great Russell Street WC1B 3LS 7pm

The TUC Race Relations Committee in association with the SERTUC Film Club presents a screening of ‘The Great Grunwick Strike 1976-1978: A History’, followed by a panel discussion on the lessons that can be learnt from the dispute.

This documentary film takes a look at the Grunwick dispute which erupted at a photo processing plant in Willesden, London, in the summer of 1976 and lasted two years. A predominately East African and South Asian female workforce went on strike over appalling working conditions and the issue of trade union recognition.  The dispute is remembered as one of the most significant in the history of the British labour movement.

The following panel debate will be chaired by Kamaljeet Jandu and participants will include Chris Thomson (Filmmaker), Dr Sundari Anitha (Striking Women) and Sujata Aurora (Grunwick 40).

ORDER YOUR FREE TICKET HERE

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The Grunwick 40 campaign is raising funds to install a huge mural close to the factory site in Willesden as a permanent public reminder of the unity that the Grunwick strike represented.

Support their appeal by donating or asking your union branch to donate via www.crowdfunder.co.uk/grunwick40, or via www.paypal.me/grunwick40, or send a cheque payable to Brent Trades Council c/o 375 High Road, London NW10 2JR.

Message from Grunwick 40

We need your donations to commemorate the heroes of the Grunwick Strike

40 years ago a group of Asian women asked for the right to join a union and were sacked by their employer. Their bosses thought that Asian women were passive and obedient and wouldn't fight back.
But that group of workers gained the support of thousands and went on to wage one of the longest and most important disputes in post-war British history.

They changed the idea that trade unions were only for white men. They shattered stereotypes. And at a time of enormous racial prejudice they brought people together in unity and solidarity.
40 years on we want to celebrate them.

We have ambitious plans to install a big mural close to the original factory site in Willesden, as well as stage an historical exhibition and a conference. But we need money to make it happen.
Please give whatever you can afford.

We have some exclusive rewards for people who donate including badges, posters, DVDs and rare artwork from the 1970s so please consider making a personal donation or asking your union branch to make one. Every £ helps to ensure that the legacy of the brave Grunwick strikers is not lost.

Visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/grunwick40 to donate.

Brent comes together to challenge the Trade Union Bill

Brent Central Labour Party and Brent Trades Council will be holding an event against the Conservative Government's  Trade Union Bill on Thursday 29th October, 7.30pm at the Learie Constantine Centre Dudden Hill Lane (Nr Dollis Hill) tube. Speakers to include Dawn Butler and Ian Hodson (President of the Bakers Union).

This is what Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said on the issue on Huffington Post back in July:

The government last week set out its proposals to further reduce the rights of our trade unions, already labouring under the most restrictive laws in Europe, to cut away at rights that the Tolpuddle martyrs, who were being commemorated over the weekend, fought so hard for in the 19th Century.
These plans are dreadful, and must be fought tooth and nail, which the Green Party will be doing. And so will many others, I believe, with a swell of support already evident around the country. The strong support for TUC leader Frances O'Grady from the BBC Any Questions audience on Friday (17 July) night was encouraging.

But in raising this debate, the government is also opening up an opportunity - a chance for a debate about what unions are for, how important they are to economic stability and to an effective, productive economy and safe workplaces - a chance in short to argue for the reverse proposal, to call for the strengthening of the power and influence of unions, for the benefit of our economy, society and environment.

This debate is also a chance to tackle lazy stereotypes about unions so often promulgated by the right-wing media about "extremism", and "greed". The sort of stereotypes that the government wants to perpetuate, yet don't reflect the experiences of communities around Britain.

And it is a chance to highlight - as the Blacklist Support Group campaign has been doing - how even legal union activities and essential whistleblowing has not been protected by the state but instead been illegally repressed and spied upon by the authorities, a misuse of power reflected in the behaviour of undercover police operating against the environmental movement.

The debate comes at a time when we are seeing a resurgence in union activity, a growth in new areas - and when - perhaps most usefully of all in campaigning terms - Chancellor George Osborne has left some real chinks in his armour in his portrayal of the state of our low wage economy.

For even the Chancellor has identified low wages as a problem, and is calling for businesses to pay their workers more - £9 an hour by 2020. (The Green Party in the recent election was calling for £10 by 2020, and that had a lot of Tories I was debating with spluttering.) Osborne's acknowledged that the minimum wage should be a living wage, that workers should be paid enough money to live on, even if what he's proposing isn't really a living wage.

He's saying this at a time when organisations as apparently unlikely as the IMF and the World Bank are acknowledging that economic inequality, the rising wealth of the 1% while the rest of us get poorer, is a threat to future economic stability.

Yet it's those industries where unions have maintained their strength, and held together against the odds, that wages have best been maintained. Conversely, it's in industries where unions have been weak and membership low - the retailing sector leaps to mind - where wages have remained at or very barely above the minimum wage. If Osborne wants to see wages rise and be maintained, he needs strong unions.

And the Chancellor is calling for a big rise in the productivity of our economy, up towards German levels - in the very economy where unions have far more legal powers and rights, where their partnership with management is seen as essential in the levels of productivity that have proved so elusive in Britain.

Further, the government proposals come at a time when the need for health and safety in the workplace - the maintenance of which is an important role that unions can play when corner-cutting management fails to live up to its responsibilities - is being dreadfully demonstrated.

There have been far too many horrific workplace incidents recently: in the last few days two factory explosions left six dead, the horrific death of a Crossrail construction worker under tonnes of concrete, the tragic death of an inexperienced young worker on the Crick Institute beside St Pancras station.

That calls into question the government's slashing of health and safety provision, but strong unions could help to stand up for worker protection. No worker should die as a result of safety lapses anywhere, but particularly here in Britain, an advanced, wealthy economy that has the capacity to ensure safety. As the Hazards at Work campaign says, "Better red tape than red bandages".

It's clear that a healthy society, an economically stable and balanced society, needs strong unions. This government has given us a chance to put that case, and it is time to do it loudly and clearly.

Pavey internal review into Brent Human Resources to be published later this month.

The internal review by Cllr Michael Pavey into possible improvements in policy and practice in he Council's Human Resources department will go before the General Purposes Committee on Thursday January 29th.

It should be available on the Council's website a week before the Committe meeting.

The review is much narrower than the independent inquiry requested by many Brent organisations including Brent Green Party, Brent Trades Union Council, Brent Againt Racism Campaign, Brent Labour Representation Committee and many individuals that would have looked at a wider range of issues.

Since the internal review was set up an Employment Tribunal Appeal judge has found that the Council had no grounds for appeal against the findings of racial discrimination, victimisation and constructive dismissal.

The officers concerned are still in post.

Greens on the TUC March - Britain Needs A Pay Rise

The Green Party is experiencing a surge in membership following the Referendum in Scotland and UKIP's by-election result.

No More Austerity:Britain needs a Pay Rise-Join the TUC March Tomorrow

Many Brent residents and trade unionists will be joining the TUC March tomorrow. Green Party actvists will be there.

More details about the march and testimonies fro mvarious workers are available HERE

March 22nd Stand Up to Racism and Fascism 11am Parliament Square

Stand up to racism and fascism demo 22 March 2014 marking UN Anti-Racism Day

- No to scapegoating of immigrants
- No to Islamophobia
- Yes to diversity

Rally and Demo marking UN Anti-Racism Day
11am, Saturday 22nd March 2014
Central London

A day of action against racism has been called for across Europe to coincide with UN Anti-Racism Day. With eyes on the European elections in May parties in most countries of the right, centre and even the traditional left are allowing politics and the media to be dominated by racism and xenophobia. Islamophobia and antisemitism and the scapegoating of minorities – immigrants, Roma, Black and Asian communities – have become the norm. In Britain the fascist and far right are seeking gains, but there is an even greater immediate threat.

No to scapegoating immigrants

That is the increasing tendency of mainstream political parties to tail-end the right-wing, populist UKIP. They are out-vying each other in calls for draconian ‘antiimmigration’ policies and generally promoting a ‘Little Englander’ anti-foreign, anti-European mentality, most recently seen with the hostility and racism whipped up towards the projected arrival of Bulgarian and Romanian migrant workers.

No to Islamophobia

In particular it has become acceptable to promote fear and hatred of Muslim people and Islam as a religion. This racism creates a climate of Islamophobia, leading directly to more attacks on the Muslim population, including murder and violent attacks on mosques.

Remember Mandela – YES to diversity

In remembering Nelson Mandela we too should cherish “the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and equal opportunities”. UN Anti-racism Day commemorates the victims of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, when 69 peaceful demonstrators against apartheid were killed by South African police forces.

Many organisations and communities have come together to call for this parade and rally. Join us in rejecting racism and showing that migrants are welcome. Let’s celebrate diversity by expressing our cultures and identities. Let’s demonstrate our confidence in a future free of scapegoating, racism and hatred.

Organised by the TUC and sponsored by CWU, GMB, NASUWT, NUT, PCS, Unison, Unite the Union

EDUCATION NOT FOR SALE: TUC report condemns profiteering from education

...

 The government's free school and academy programme has cost taxpayers nearly £80m in consultants' fees according to a new TUC report published today.

The research – which analyses official Department for Education (DfE) figures –shows how since 2010 ministers have signed off £77m of public funds to lawyers, head-hunters, accountants, estate agents and management consultants.

The report says the additional bureaucratic cost of starting up free schools and academies is diverting money away from children’s education.

The findings come as the TUC and its education unions prepare to launch a new campaign against privatisation and profit-making in schools, colleges and universities.

The report raises a series of concerns about the government’s education reforms including:

The use of private consultants – £76.7m of taxpayer funds (which might otherwise have been available for children’s education) has been paid to 14 private firms to provide additional services to free schools and academies since the government took office.

These include PKF UK Ltd, an accountancy group whose parent firm BDO UK claims on its website to offer “offshore tax planning” to “high net-worth individuals”.  PKF UK Ltd was paid more than £8m in public funds between December 2010 and June 2013.

Another company to receive millions in public money is Veredus, which is part-owned by outsourcing giant Capita. Veredus, which specialises in head-hunting, has received over 4.7m from the government.

Value for money – the government has expanded its free school-building programme despite the fact that many remain under-subscribed.

Between October 2012 and December 2013 it spent over £200m of taxpayers’ money to purchase land and property for free schools, bringing the total spent on free school-building projects to over £500m since 2010.

These purchases went through even though free school students make up a tiny proportion of school learners in England.DfE figures show that last autumn the 154 English free schools for which official data was available were teaching 21,973 pupils – the equivalent of 11 large secondary schools. This equates to just 0.3 per cent of the 7.5m pupils currently attending state-funded schools in England.

Conflicts of interest – the TUC research also reveals that at least three of the twelve largest chains of academies (schools funded and overseen directly by the government and managed independently of local authorities) have links to the Conservative Party.

Lord Harris of the Harris Federation has been a Conservative donor, Lord Fink, a director of Ark Schools, who – like Lord Harris – is a Conservative Peer and is a former Conservative Party treasurer and major donor, and the David Ross Foundation, which was set up by the co-founder of Carphone Warehouse, who has also donated to the Party.

The report also highlights how the academy sponsor and Conservative donor Theodore Agnew chairs the DfE’s academies board, an internal group aiming to boost the number of sponsored academies.

Value extraction – the report highlights how taxpayer-funded academy chains have paid millions of pounds into the private businesses of directors, trustees and their relatives.

These include Grace Academy, which runs three schools in the Midlands and was set up by Conservative donor Lord Edmiston. Grace Academy has paid more than £1m either directly to or through companies owned or controlled by Lord Edmiston, to trustees’ relatives and to members of the board of trustees.

Corporate ownership – the number of private companies applying to run free schools has tripled since 2011.

Between 2011 and 2013 applications from corporate sponsors shot up from 8 to 25 per cent. Over the same period applications from teacher-led groups plummeted from 24 to 6 per cent and applications from parent and community groups fell by a third.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The government’s education reforms are being driven by free-market dogma rather than what is best for learners.

“Money that should be spent on children’s education is instead being swallowed up by private firms and in expensive property deals.

“This report highlights how companies have been allowed to cream-off millions in profits from running schools and support services.

“Let us be under no doubt, our world-class public education system is under threat from corporate interests and our schools, colleges and universities are now less accountable to taxpayers and local communities.”

Next Tuesday (18 March) the TUC and the education unions are launching Education Not For Sale – a campaign against privatisation and profit-making in schools, colleges and universities.

Education Not For Sale calls for:

•  A commitment from all political parties that no school should be run for profit, either directly or indirectly, and for this to be enshrined in legislation.
• All publically-funded education institutions must be democratically accountable to their local communities, which includes a key strategic role for local authorities.
• All pupils at state-funded schools must be taught by fully qualified teachers and all schools must be governed by the national curriculum.
• The funding and governance of all state-funded schools should be fully transparent to enable local communities to determine how state funding is being used, and potentially misused, in all local schools. This should include requiring all schools to establish a register of interests to prevent indirect profit-making by private companies
• In further and higher education, the government should introduce a new requirement that public support must only go to educational and training organisations that are not-for-profit, and should put in place a tougher regulation for those organisations owned by for-profit companies.

 Full report is available HERE

Six page campaign booklet PDF available here: LINK

Misconceptions about welfare

Calling Brent Youth: All I want for Christmas is a Future that works

 A one-day rally and workshop for 16-27 year olds on Youth Unemployment, Education, Apprenticeships and a welfare system that works.

Tell your story on youth unemployment and find your voice in our activism workshops.

Organised by Brent Youth and SERTUC Young Members Network

CONTACT: David Braniff on 020 7467 1283 or email LondonYouth@TUC.org.uk

 Saturday December 8th, 11am-4pm
 Harlesden Methodists Church,

25 High Street, Harlesden, NW10 4NE London, United Kingdom

View Map · Get Directions

A message from Paul Kenny about October 20th

I will be marching with Green Party colleagues on Saturday but non-Green Party readers may be interested in joining this contingent:

Dear Martin 


Over the last 2 years we have seen one of the worst ideological attacks on our country and our economy with the governments failed austerity plan.

The economy is not growing, incomes are not rising and the gap between the richest and poorest in society is growing.

On top of all that this week the government attacked our employment rights in their Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill. A bill that is designed to protect business from third party harassment claims, that makes it easier for businesses to fire people and reduces protections for whistleblowers at work.
They have got it the wrong way round – they are protecting businesses not workers.
 TULO
It is time for us to demand a better plan to protect our jobs, our rights and our futures. This Saturday TULO are marching for an alternative to this governments failed plan – we are going out to make sure that people know there is a different way.

Will you join us on Saturday? Click here to join http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/page/signup/we-re-marching-for-a-future-that-works---march-with-us
TULO will be assembling just outside Blackfriars station from 11.15am. The march will go along embankment and up to Hyde Park where there will be a rally organised by the TUC.

We need to show everyone that austerity is not the only way. We need to make it clear that we need a new plan that includes jobs, that protects our rights at work and that ensures the future of our NHS.

We need you on Saturday to make it clear that millions of people are not happy with this Tory-led government. So please sign up here http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/page/signup/we-re-marching-for-a-future-that-works---march-with-us

I look forward to seeing you soon.
Paul
Paul Kenny
Chair of TULO

Why Greens will be marching for 'A Future that Works' on October 20th

This article by Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales


The march for "a future that works" organised by the trade union movement on October 20th is vital to the movement against austerity.

We need to be looking to a new economic model rather than these tired, heartless false economies that hit the most vulnerable the hardest.

We should be investing in the future, creating jobs and stabilising the economy. Instead we see more of the same privatisation, casualisation and demonisation of the poor, disabled and public sector workers.

Deficit in thinking

Even in the government's own terms massive cuts to public services made no sense - and the fact that government borrowing is at a record high only underlines how economically illiterate this "deficit reduction" project has been.

Instead of hitting the target of a 4.6% reduction in the deficit in fact the deficit has grown by 22% between April and August.

You cannot put an economy back on its feet by throwing people out of work and undermining the public services that keep society ticking.

If the Coalition government was serious about tackling the gap between government spending and income it would be ruthlessly tackling tax avoidance on the part of the rich and large corporations. It would cut spending on nuclear weapons and unnescesary road building - but these cuts are ideologically motivated and are really about the privatisation and carving up of public services, we cannot allow that to happen.

Marching makes a difference
I firmly believe we need to help build a movement for a more sustainable economic system. A movement that reins in the banking and financial sector while investing in the real economy, giving us a solid foundation with which to face the critical challenges of the twenty first century.

We shouldn't simply go back to Labour's 2006 spending priorities - their love affair with the casino capitalism of international finance and growth for its own sake helped bring us to this point. We should though build alliances across the trade union movement, political organisations and campaign groups to take this government head on.

I'll be marching on October 20th, I hope you'll join me.