Green Party solidarity for National Gallery strikers at PCS Rally in Trafalgar Square

As the Conservative Government moves to tighten anti-trade union laws, Romayne Phoenix, Green Party Trade Union Liaison officer, spoke today at the solidarity rally for National Gallery workers striking against privatisation. The rally was organised by their union the PCS and supported by the Green Party Trade Union Group.

Defy the Tories-Build the Fightback: 2pm Saturday at the Jubilee Clock

Brent Fightback, the local campaign against cuts and privatiation has called a 'Speak Out' event for Saturday May 23rd, 2pm at the Jubilee Clock in Harlesden High Street. In a message to supporters and the public Fightback say:

Only 24% voted for the new Tory government, but that's not stopping them from gearing up to scrap the human rights act, restrict the right to strike, close our hospitals and make vicious attacks on welfare for the unemployed, elderly and disabled.Cameron's chosen a minister of justice who believes in hanging, a minister for equalities who opposes equal marriage. They're talking about ending statutory maternity pay, taking housing benefits away from young jobseekers.

WE NEED TO TAKE TO THE STREETS!!! We'll be holding an open air assembly in Harlesden with an open mic and speakers from a range of campaigns to get the word out: enough is enough, We've had five years of Tory attacks on our Welfare State and we're not going to take it anymore!!

BRING YOUR PLACARDS, RAISE YOUR VOICES AND HELP BUILD FOR A MASSIVE ANTI-TORY DEMO ON JUNE 20th.

Rebecca Johnson, Green candidate for H&K will pledge to protect the NHS from privatisation, funding cuts and TTIP this afternoon

A cause the Greens support

38 Degrees members in Hampstead and Kilburn are to present a petition this afternoon outside Waitrose, close to Finchley Road station, asking candidates for the constituency to protect the NHS if elected.  Rebecca Johnson, Green Party candidate in H&K will be there.

The event starts at 3.30pm and is expected to last about 30 minutes.

This is the text of the petition:

Our NHS is precious. Please do everything you can to protect it, including:

* Stopping privatisation
* Making sure it has the funding it needs to provide high quality healthcare to everyone
* Protecting it from US health corporations by keeping the NHS out of TTIP

Why is this important?

Our NHS is precious. We all rely on it to care for us and our loved ones. We want to protect it for the future, and we don't want to see it run down or sold off.

Over the past few years, NHS funding has been squeezed so much that services are suffering. This winter, hospitals up and down the country have declared "major incidents" because they're struggling to cope. And now most hospitals are warning that their budget for next year has " reached the point where patient care is at risk."

Meanwhile, the government is letting profit-hungry companies take over more and more NHS services. At at a time of squeezed budgets, this is the last thing the NHS needs. We want an NHS where patient safety is put first, and where the NHS is run for the public good.

TTIP, the planned trade deal between the EU and the USA, could threaten the NHS further. If TTIP opens our NHS to American private healthcare companies, we could see even more privatisation and a slide into more US-style healthcare. We want the NHS excluded from TTIP.

Tory Barnet and Labour Brent outsourcing: similarities and differences as Barnet Unison votes to strike

Barnet Tory  'Easy Council' is facing industrial action over its outsourcing of services to private companies. 87% of Unison council workers have voted for strike action over the five commissioning projects that were agreed at the March 5th Full Council meeting. 

The proposals would mean outsourcing the majority of the Council workforce into one of five 'alternative delivery models':

1. Education & Skills and School Meals services

2. Library Service

3. Early Years: Children’s Centres

4. Adult Social Care

5. Street Scene Services

In a press release Unison said the Education & Skills and School Meals services is already in Competitive Dialogue discussions with the following contractors:

· Capita Business Services Ltd

· EC Harris LLP

· Mott MacDonald Ltd, trading as Cambridge Education

Looking at Capita’s track record LINK   in bidding and winning contracts it is highly likely they will win this contract making it the third big contract they will have won with Barnet Council.

Unison Branch Secretary John Burgess said:

The vote was never in doubt. The workforce in Barnet is amazing and resilient. The vote confirms that our members have had enough of the ideological obsession with outsourcing. The Council does not value the workforce which can be seen when unpaid overtime and long hours are never recognised when putting together bids for outsourcing projects. The fact that the Council refuses to run in-house comparators has made it clear to our members that their future employment with the Council is threatened.

So where does this leave Brent Labour 'Increasingly uneasy' Council and their own 'alternative  models'? Using the Brent equivalents of the five Barnet services:

1. Brent Council's School Improvement Service has been run down and provides a core service only with many functions handed over to the Brent Schools Partnership. and schools buying in other services from a variety of providers,  School meals have been out-sourced for a long time. In addition the Brent Cabinet on April 14th will be deciding on future provision of Additional Resources Provision and English as an Additional Language  to pupils through a variety of contracts with Academies and Independent schools LINK
2. Brent Council proposed transferring the management  of the library services to an established trust or a new model with similar features.
3. Early Years: Children's Centres - Brent Council has agreed to a partnership arrangement with  the voluntary sector or charities.
4. Adult Social Care: There is a proposal going forward to the Brent Cabinet on April 14th for Extra Care to be provided via Direct Payments and a contract with Plexus/Mears LINK 
5. Street Scene Services (parks refuse etc) Brent has already outsourced street cleaning, recycling, waste collection, parks maintenance, and cemeteries to a sole contractor, Veolia. The Cabinet will also be discussing extending the contract with Gristwood and Toms for Arboricultural  services (dealing with trees beyond what Veolia do as part of the parks maintenance contract).

An additional item at the April 14th Brent Cabinet is a proposal to pay Penoyre and Prasad LLP £831,250  for work on a hybrid planning application for the Peel Site on the South Kilburn estate. LINK

I will leave readers to judge the similarities and differences between the approaches of the two council - one Conservative and the other Labour.  You may also want to consider why Unison's reaction appears to be different in the two councils and whether as a result of the Coalition's cuts to local government that outsourcing is inevitable...

Bob Blackman's record on environmental issues under scrutiny

Bob Blackman, former MP for Harrow East (he is now just a candidate) had his record put under scrutiny publicly last week  near St Anne's Shopping Centre, Harrow on the Hill, when a constituent erected a board displaying his responses to her letters on various environmental issues as well as the Robin Hood tax and TTIP.

It was a novel way to inform voters of his complacency in the face of residents' concerns.

Bob Blackman is a former leader of Brent Conservatives.

Will privatisation of Brent Council's Library Management damage the service?

There are so many proposals to cut and out-source services under consideration by Brent Council that it is all too easy to miss some important issues.

Labour Brent Council has closed six of the borough's 12 libraries. Now, as well as proposing to cut the amount spent on library stock the Council is also considering out-sourcing the management of the library service as a way of saving on rates. This is the proposal (ENS18) in the documentation that went to Cabinet last month LINK

To change the management of the library service to a trust arrangement. The exact arrangement will need to be determined. Within London, five authorities deliver their services in conjunction with other authorities, one delivers through a charitable trust established by the Council which also delivers other services such as leisure centres and seven have outsourced delivery to a social enterprise or a private sector provider. Elsewhere in the country, some library services have been outsourced to a staff-managed mutual or social enterprise, and larger library services have been commissioned to run smaller ones.  Charitable organisations are eligible for an 80% rebate on NNDR. Changes to rules on business rates in 2013 mean that 70% of the cost of this rebate is borne by Central Government with the remainder being covered by the local authority. Therefore the saving to the Council on business rates of transferring a library service to the charitable sector is 56% of the total rates bill - in Brent this amounts to a saving of approximately £160K. The exact level of savings would depend on the tenders received.

It will take approximately 12 months to complete this work and switch to a new management arrangement.

How would this affect users of this service?

• There would have to be public consultation and a full impact assessment before proceeding.

• There would be no direct impact on service users as there will be no reduction or significant change in service levels or quality.

The  last bullet point is likely to be challenged during the consultation. On his blog  LINK Public Libraries campaigner and member of Voices for the Library, Alan Wylie, explored the issue:

Only a year after being awarded the accolade of the 2017 'City of Culture' Hull City Council are proposing to set up a "leisure company" to take over the running of their leisure facilities, libraries, museums, park ranger and catering services. Now one thing strikes me straight away about this; why are libraries part of the bundle, after all they are statutory and they aren't in my opinion solely a leisure service? 

The answer to the above question probably lies in the fact that most councils place their library services in 'Culure & Leisure' directorates, that someone including the LGA has been perpetrating the myth that libraries are non-statutory, that we have a government and a Secretary of State who fail to intervene to stop library cuts and closures and that we have a chasm in the leadership and promotion of the national service. Libraries have become easy to offload.
So what is a 'leisure company' or 'leisure trust' and what are some of the issues with this model of privatisation?

"What a Leisure Trust means in practice:

• Leisure services are outsourced to a separate organisation/company. 
• The Council retains ownership of the facilities, which are leased to the Trust.
• Virtually all the savings come from rate reductions and VAT savings, which are much smaller initially because of the high set up costs. 
• Direct democratic control of the service will cease - elected member representation on a trust is limited to less than 20% of the board.
• Company law requires that Board members must put the interests of the leisure trust before those of the local authority. 
• After a year the Trust will usually cease to use council services and will be responsible its own procurement and contracting or corporate and other services."

LINK

Unison Scotland have also raised concerns;

"UNISON is concerned that large sections of public service delivery are being shifted off to arms length bodies with very little research into the effectiveness of such change."

LINK

Recently in Renfrewshire there have been protests against plans to pass the running of similar services to Renfrewshire Leisure Limited (RLL).

LINK

And there are similar plans being proposed by Angus Council and Unison have yet again raised concerns; LINK

 “Unison is not convinced that farming out leisure facilities to arm’s-length trusts improves the service for the public or the staff.

“They are not an alternative means of community ownership of public assets. In fact the policy tends to be used to save local authorities tax.

 
“Our experience so far is some trusts perform satisfactorily after the initial separation but the promised savings, extra funding and other benefits tend not to materialise. 
 
“There is no evidence the public see an improvement in the service nor will the trust see a higher rate of private donations, which are often the reasons put forward.”
 
For more on leisure trusts see LINK

I hope that the Scrutiny Committee and Unison will look at some of these issues in detail and make representations before the Council adopts a move that has the disadvantages outlined above.

Caroline Lucas & Davy Jones condemn Green councillors' privatisation decision

The political decisions of the minority Green Council in Brighton and Hove have been controversial , locally and nationally, within the Green Party and within the broader left movement. At the crux of the argument has been the degree to which the Council should go along with the austerity agenda and implement cuts and costs savings, claiming that 'Green cuts' would be more progressive than those made by the other parties. At the same time the Council has also made considerable progress on the Green agenda. (See article on New Statesman website LINK)

A decision made at by some Green councillors at a Council committee last night has brought out the differences between the Council leadership's perspective and that of the city's Green MP and prospective MP.

Caroline Lucas MP, (Green Brighton and Hove) and Davy Jones (Green candidate for Brighton Kempton) have issued the following statement:

We are disappointed that at yesterday's Brighton & Hove Council Policy & Resources Committee meeting some Green Group councillors including the Council leader Jason Kitcat, voted to accept a Health & Well-Being Board recommendation to out-source a local NHS service (ICES) to provide specialist equipment for people with disabilities to a private sector provider.

It is a complicated situation - the Sussex Community NHS Trust was threatening to pull out of the service, "cost shunting" the responsibility over to the cash-strapped local Council that only provides a small component of the service currently. This is deeply regrettable. But we believe the Council has made a mistake in allowing itself to be forced by the NHS Trust to out-source this service to a private sector provider.

There was no necessity to make this decision earlier today – the existing contract runs until September 2015, leaving plenty of time to seek alternative solutions to keep the service in public hands.

We are particularly disappointed in today’s decision as it is not one that is in line with national or local Green Party policy, that unreservedly opposes the privatisation of NHS services. Neither was the ICES decision brought before the local Green Group or Green Party in advance for discussion. The Green Party councillors on the Council recently successfully proposed a motion to the full Council meeting opposing privatisation of NHS services.

We reiterate our outright opposition to the out-sourcing of the ICES service and to support the staff in the NHS in their campaigns to remain in the public sector, and NHS campaigners fighting against privatisation.

Brent Cabinet considers part privatisation of Children's Centres

Mikey Pavey launches Labour Friends of Sure Start

When lead member for Brent Children and Families, Cllr Michael Pavey launched Labour friends of Sure Start aimed at campaigning for and championing Children's Centres.

Now as Deputy Leader he and Cabinet colleagues are discussing plans to part-privatise Children's Centres in order to save money.

In Phase One of the scheme to make Children's Centres 'sustainable' a tier of local management was removed. Phase Two brought in private and voluntary providers for some Centres:

.    Phase Two comprises the reconfiguration of Barham Library Children’s Centre, St Raphael’s Intergenerational Centre and Treetops Children’s Centre to provide children’s centre nursery places via private and voluntary providers. This change was approved by Cabinet in July and the early years team is working with Property Services and Legal Services to develop suitable agreements and get the new provision in place. 


Now Phase Three proposes to out-source day to day management of and governance of other Centres:

3.19  Phase Three proposal. The proposed third phase of change is to develop a new model of delivery. It is proposed to consult service users, staff and other stakeholders on a proposal to tender the management and day to day governance of the children’s centres to an experienced provider with that provider taking on the running of the buildings, the employment and management of staff and the responsibility for service delivery to meet the core offer requirements. 


 3.20  Under this model the selected provider will resource and develop the required universal services and the Local Authority will fund the targeted Early Intervention services for the most vulnerable families. Under this model the strategic role for the Early Years Service will be to secure good quality children’s centres, challenge practice and performance management, supporting good Ofsted outcomes and focusing resources on the targeted households and other families with additional needs. 


3.21  Essentially this model attempts to deliver a similar level of service to the current model (or potentially better) for a reduced level of resourcing from the local authority. It looks to future sustainability, since external service providers will have the ability to leverage in additional funds from their own contacts for example the National Lottery, European funding, etc which the current service, as a council service, cannot access. 


 This excludes Curzon, Fawood and Challenge House who already have a partnership.

The proposals, following DfE rules, have to go to formal consultation taking 3 - 4 months and the Council would have to devise an appropriate procurement process which may prove complex.

Eventually, unless the proposals are successfully challenged, Centre staff, and some office staff, would be TUPEd over to the new provider.

It will be argued, as often with cuts and privatisation, that new efficiencies will reduce costs without detriment to the quality of service, and further that this is the only way to enable Children's Centres to survive in the Council's dire financial situation. Councillors will point to other local authorities where such arrangements exist as well as those that have closed their Centres.

Save Our NHS for the Common Good

Brilliant 'Gove Must Go' rap by Chester MC

The fight is not just against Michael Gove but against the whole neoliberal Global Education Reform Project (GERM) supported by all three main political parties, nevertheless this is FUN!

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

Greens back STEM 6 free school strike

 

Pic: Jenny Leow

 Statement from Islington Green Party

Teachers are on strike this week at the STEM 6 Academy, a newly opened free school on City Road, for students aged 16 -18 wanting to specialise in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

Teachers were individually coerced into signing harsh contracts before Christmas and now wish to obtain union recognition in order to re-negotiate these contracts. The contracts allow teachers to be laid off without notice - effectively a zero hours system - pay increases at management discretion only, and many more oppressive conditions.

Islington Green Party has no hesitation in supporting these teachers. The privatisation of our schooling system is having disastrous results in both losing local democratic involvement and harming the rights of those who work in these private schools. Even academic results are not expected to be an improvement on community-state run schools as demonstrated from a similar politically-driven experiment in Sweden.

Zero hours contracts are a pernicious ploy to help employers avoid paying a reliable living wage, and leave employees uncertain how much they will earn even from week to week. Such contracts are unattractive in any sector but seem particularly inappropriate for education where outcomes for the students depend on committed and confident teachers.

Teachers are professionals and deserve to be treated as such. This would not only benefit the teachers themselves but also the students, their future employers, and the wider community.

Follow Natalie Bennett and sign the TeacherROAR declaration

It was good to see that Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party, has signed the TeacherROAR declaration, as have I.  Most of the demands are Green Party policy:

The teacherROAR movement wants: an educational landscape where teachers are not denigrated and attacked by politicians and in the press; where teachers are praised, encouraged and supported to develop their practice; where education policy is evidence-based and not used as a political football; where the need for social justice and equality is placed at the heart of education policy; where the curriculum is progressive, broad, balanced and fit for the 21st Century; where learning is child-centered; where we are developing children to their full potential in all areas and not simply preparing them for work; where education is not treated as a marketable product with customers, consumers and products; where our children are not over-tested and among the most stressed in the western world; where our pay and conditions are improving and not under constant attack; and where teachers are respected and trusted professionals whose opinion is valued and listen to by politicians.

We the undersigned declare ourselves part of the teacherROAR movement and pledge to fight for a better, fairer education system.

To add your signature and comment follow this LINK

A parent who signed the declaration commented:

As a parent, I'd like my children to be taught by people who know that they are respected, supported, and listened to. I'd like my children to be tested, when they are tested, in ways which put their needs before the government's political need for league tables. I want my children to be prepared to live lives as engaged citizens, not passive consumers, and I want the education system to be ringfenced to protect it from the whims of successive Secretaties of State and whatever political or personal agendas they may bring with them.

A teacher wrote:

Teachers are facing a concerted campaign of vilification and bullying. This government (with the support of many in the media, right-wing think tanks etc) is determined to atomise and demoralise teachers. They want to make us cheaper to hire and fire, because this will render us more exploitable and education more profitable. Teachers must stand together to resist these attacks, and we must support anyone else opposed to the increasing privatisation and commodification of the public sector.

Hands off Copland School - Public Meeting Thursday

The Copland Action Committee, supported by ATL, GMB, NASUWT and NUT have organised the public meeting below as Copland faces forced academisation. This will leave NO local authority secondary schools in the London Borough of Brent.

STOP GOVE'S PRIVATISATION OF

 SCHOOLS FOR PROFIT

HANDS OFF COPLAND SCHOOL

 THURSDAY NOVEMBER 28TH 7PM

 Holiday Inn, Empire Way, Wembley, HA9 8DS

Map LINK

A public meeting for staff, parents, pupils and the community

 

Now Woodfield School consults on academy conversion

Woodfield School, a secondary special needs school in Kingsbury, Brent has announced that it is consulting on the possibility of converting to secondary status.

It would be the first special needs school to convert and the last of the local authority secondary schools to move to academy status.

The document below has sent out to interested parties and sets out the Governing Body's position:

The Governing Body of Woodfield School is exploring whether to convert to academy status. As part of this exploration, the Governors are seeking responses about whether to convert, especially the reasons for the views that are held. The responses will help inform Governors’ final decision.

Greens get behind the striking teachers

Thousands of teachers were on strike today over changes in pay, pensions and conditions of service. I joined in the protest after a quick call to Vanessa Feltz's BBC Radio Show (first call after news http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01hj0n1)

The Green Party placard above got lost of attention and rounds of applause from teachers showing the potential for support we have out there. Natalie Bennett, Green Party leader, joined the march and Caroline Lucas MP, addressed a rally of strikers.

Teachers crowd outside the Emmanuel Centre which was already overflowing

A lot of support for today;s strike came from parents

Cheeky Caroline greets Labour in Brighton with 'Greens are the REAL opposition' message

Labour Party members attending their conference in Brighton this weekend, in the constituency of the UK’s first Green MP, will be welcomed by a billboard making the case that it is Caroline Lucas who is offering the real opposition in parliament.

The digital advert will be on display prominently on Queen’s Road – one of Brighton’s main thoroughfares. The street is the main route down which Labour delegates and lobbyists who arrive by train will travel to reach the conference at the sea-front Metropole Hotel.

The ad starts with a check list, against a red backdrop, reading: “Saving the NHS, Fighting Austerity, Railways in Public Hands, Scrapping Trident.” As the screen turns green, the billboard says “Brought to you by the Green Party.”

The final screen displays a photo of Caroline Lucas MP and reads: “Welcome to Brighton – Home of the True Opposition in Parliament. p.s. Labour is down the hill on the right.”

Rob Shepherd, Chair of Brighton and Hove Green Party, said, “We know a lot of Labour members want their party leadership to stand up to austerity and NHS privatisation, and to support progressive policies such as public ownership of the railways.

“We wanted to remind them that there’s an MP already fighting for these causes in Parliament. It would be great to see Labour members using their conference to encourage Ed Miliband to follow Caroline’s lead on standing up for these causes, and bring together a powerful coalition of voices to reverse the consensus that austerity and privatisation are the only game in town.”

The Green Party’s own autumn conference took place last weekend, also in Brighton.  In her conference speech Caroline Lucas criticised cuts to welfare and local services, and argued that it is the Green Party, rather than Labour, that is offering the real opposition to the Government's agenda of austerity and privatisation.

She is speaking at two events at Labour’s conference – a Compass panel discussion called ‘Labour – an open tribe?’ and an Institute for Public Policy Research event titled ‘The Condition of Britain’.

Her Private Member’s Bill to bring the railways back into public hands is due its second reading next month.

Rally and rhetoric at WL People's Assembly but strategy needed

Owen Jones gets into his stride (Photo: Simerjit Gill)

 

About 100 attended the Assembly (Photo: Simerjit Gill)

Last night's West London People's Assembly was certainly a lively affair with many passionate speeches but I was a little concerned when I saw the chair of the meeting and 5 speakers on the platform. There was some anxiety at the main People's Assembly at Central Hall that it would be more of a rally than an organising meeting. In the event it was a bit of both. I was concerned that this local assembly, covering Brent, Hammersmith  & Fulham and Ealing, would also be more of a rally, although surely that must be where we  analyse and prioritise  local issues and our strategy?

Although speakers were keen to say they would not just describe how awful things are it inevitably becomes the main theme topped off with rousing calls for action and unity. This certainly raises morale but doesn't get down to the nitty gritty. Advertising trains and coaches for the Tory Party demonstration on September 29th is important but what are the next steps in keeping our local A&Es open or fighting the privatisation of our schools? How relevant is it to organise across boroughs when local councils, even of the same political complexion, are dealing with the cuts in such different ways?

 Next month there will be a founding meeting of the West London People's Assembly where its structure will be decided and officers elected and perhaps these issues will be discussed then.

As a common issue across the boroughs, and of course a national issues, the future of the NHS was prominent in the speeches and contributions as was the general theme of the poor being made to pay for the bankers' crisis, and the demonising of the poor by politicians and media in an effort to divide and rule. The focus on the real human stories behind austerity made us both more angry and more determined.

It was good that the Campaign Against Climate Change shared the platform with UK Uncut, hospital campaigners and trade unionists. Suzanne Jeffrey for CaCC made some telling points comparing  the economic and climate crises.

She said government and bankers knew the system was a sham but pretended there was no problem  or indeed that they were creating the problem, and when the crisis broke blamed it on over spending in the public sector and making the poor pay. Government and industry similarly pretended  there was no problem with climate change, denying their role in creating and increasing the problem, and then shifted the responsibility on to ordinary people and their life styles, or even worse on to people in developing countries.

Having just returned from the Green Party it was interesting to note that many of the solutions that Owen Jones proposed in his summing up are in fact Green Party policy.