Poem: For the People

Unison commissioned Tony Walsh, poet in residence at the Glastonbury Festival, to write a poem for the public services. His poem FOR THE PEOPLE can be found HERE

Strike for quality journalism

Local newspapers are under pressure because of a decline in advertising and readership as well as because of competition from the internet. However when publishers make cuts this often reinforces the decline with fewer journalists meaning less time for investigations and a tendency to do cut and paste jobs on press releases. Some newspapers end up padded out with stories from neighbouring areas rather than the their own borough.

I am convinced that a robust and active local press is absolutely necessary to hold the local council to account as well as providing a focus that cements local community solidarity.

Newsquest publishes the Harrow Times and Newsquest journalists in South London are to strike again this week in their continuing dispute over redundancies and in support of quality local journalism. Unlike some local newspapers the titles concerned are in profit.

The strike began on  Monday June 27 and is due to end at midnight on Thursday June 30.

NUJ negotiator Jenny Lennox said: “We’ve had a very successful two-day strike last week, and it is worth noting that a dozen journalists have joined the union since the dispute began. This reflects the deep anger which journalists employed by Newsquest at their bosses’ determination to avoid consulting with staff on the future of their papers.”

The NUJ strikers had previously adopted a unanimous vote of no confidence in their top management after a company decision to make an unspecified number of editorial staff redundant while the group’s titles continue to make substantial profits.

The strikers keep journalists and readers informed of developments through a special strike blog

The journalists deserve our support.

Lib Dem Councillor Joins the Greens

This is a statement from Hampshire County Councillor Alan Weeks who has decided to leave the Lib Dems and join the Greens:

When I was campaigning local voters made it clear to me that they were angry about the way they have been let down by the national Lib Dem party. What they were saying was right. I have been a Lib Dem (and Liberal before that) for about 25 years and it is not me that has changed. It is the values of the national Liberal Democrats that have changed. For example, on the tuition fees issue, it was untrustworthy for MPs to break personal pledges that they had made.

It was a tough decision for me to resign and join the Green Party after almost 25 years of service as a Lib Dem councillor. But my heart has to be in what I do and I could no longer support the direction taken by Lib Dem leaders.

Now I am looking forward and I am excited to be joining the Green Party. I realise that Green Party values of putting people and the environment before profit, provision and not privatisation of public services, promoting renewable energy and a high priority for animal welfare are in line with mine.

Parent urges others to rally behind teachers

This is a posting from a parent of  child at Kenmont Primary School in Hammersmith and Fulham but close to the Brent border.

Dear Parents

I am a parent and my son is in year 4. I feel very passionate about building support for our teachers.

Together, Governors, teachers and parents, we were able to defeat the plans of the doom merchants in the Tory council to convert our wonderful school into an Academy. Where they failed with us, they are attempting to do this to other schools.

The government took our taxes to bail out the bankers, and are forcing through austerity measures which will affect the most vulnerable in society and impoverish the rest of us for years to come, which is why they are attacking teacher’s pensions.

David Cameron said we are all in it together. Do you hear the cries of the bankers and their rich friends with their share of the burden? No, because the burden rest with us to keep them in the riches they so don’t deserve

• There are 13 millionaires in the Condemn Government’s cabinet whose wealth is safely tucked away in tax havens abroad and not a drop goes to the Inland Revenue.

• Barclays bank recently published figures showing it had paid 22 percent tax to the land Revenue. Closer examination showed that they included their employee’s income tax in their figures and in actual fact they paid only paid 1 percent of their profits in tax.

If the bankers and their rich friends won’t take the pain they caused, why should we?

Teachers have a right to a decent pension, after all their money goes into paying for it. It’s another way of trashing our teachers and the education our children deserve. Teachers are fighting back and a victory for them is a victory for all of us, especially the most vulnerable.

Kenmont teachers will be meeting with other teachers at Lyric Square which is on Kings Street in Hammersmith at 9am on Thursday morning. At 10am they will be going on a national demonstration starting at Lincolns Inn Fields in Holborn later that morning.

Since the kids won’t be at school for the day, show your support and join our teachers at Lyric Square.


LINK to other London actions on June 30th

Invisible menace threatens children's health

The North Circular at Neasden

I spent more than 10 years teaching at a primary school which was close to the North Circular in Brent. In contrast to other schools where I had taught there were high numbers of children on medication for asthma at the school. Classes often had 6-8 asthmatics compared with only one or two per class where I had taught before. Sports Day could be a nightmare. Although  local GP prescribing policies  may have contributed it appeared that the high level was down to the proximity of a very busy main road.

The impact of London pollution became clearer when we took children on residential trips. Children who had used an inhaler daily at school were able to do without them almost within hours of arriving at the Gordon Brown Outdoor Education Centre in Hampshire or the Youth Hostel in Epping Forest.As the coach reached the borders of London they began to request their inhalers.

New research by the Campaign for Clean Air has found that 1,148 schools in London are within 150 metres of roads carrying 10,000 or more vehicles per day and a total of 2,270 schools are within 400 metres of such roads.

This revelation comes at a time when new scientific research indicates that children exposed to higher levels of traffic-related air pollution at school and home may be at increased risk of developing asthma. Scientists say living near roads travelled by 10,000 or more vehicles per day could be responsible for some 15-30 per cent of all new cases of asthma in children; and of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and CHD (coronary heart disease) in adults 65 years of age and older.

Jenny Jones, the Green Party London Mayoral candidate says:

* parents and teachers must be told when there are high pollution days
*  the Mayor of London has to act immediately to lower fares and reduce the total number of cars on our roads.
* create a very low emission zone which only allows the very cleanest vehicles to enter central London.
*  the Mayor must stick to the promise that all new buses will be hybrids from next year
* reinstate the plans for hybrid taxis which he dropped last year.

A map which shows the schools affected across London, and enables you to see Brent in details can be found  HERE 
or you can download a PDF listing the schools 150metres from a road carrying more than 10,000 vehicles per day HERE

Among the Brent schools listed are Copland High, Gower House, Jewish Free School, Oliver Goldsmith Primary, Our Lady of Grace (Dollis Hill) Our Lady of Lourdes (Stonebridge), Park Lane Primary, Preston Manor High, St Augustine's Primary (Kilburn), Stonebridge Primary,

Simon Birkett, director of Clean Air in London, said:

The government and Mayor Johnson must tackle an invisible public health crisis harming as many people now as we thought during the Great Smog in December 1952.

We need one or more additional inner low emission zones that ban the oldest diesel vehicles from our most polluted roads, and a massive campaign to build public understanding of the dangers of air pollution with advice on how people can protect themselves.

Fun at Eco-Cultural Festival on Sunday

Click on image to enlarge

The Brent festival season is  well under way now and I will be in Queensbury with a Brent School Without Walls stall and running parachute games for children. This Festival is a great showcase for local dancing groups.

There's money in muck

With landfill sites rapidly being filled and the tax on landfill rising to £72 per tonne in 2013 local authorities are desperately looking for solutions. Rather than action on reducing waste in the first place, which many local authorities see as the responsibility of government, the emphasis is instead on recycling which is where big business enters the picture. There is a central contradiction here because the more that can be recycled the more money the waste contractors makes, while the more the overall amount of residual waste can be reduced the less they will make.

Presently the West London Waste Authority, covering Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond is in the process of awarding a 25 year contract for waste management which could be worth up to £485m (the estimated cost of continuing landfill at present rate). The bidding process is under way and the preferred bidder will be selected in 2013.  There has been controversy over because during public consultation potential waste processing sites were selected, many in Park Royal, without any details of the processes that would take place, raising fears about possible pollution from incinerators. There have been public protest meetings in Ealing about this issue but little action in Brent.  Cllr James Powney is our borough representative on the WLWA.

A similar process for long-term contracts has taken place in South London and North London Waste Authority selected the following bidders in April 2011:

• FCC Skanska (Formento de Construcciones y Contratas SA and Skanska Infrastructure Development UK Ltd) (consortium)
• SITA/ Lend Lease (SITA UK Ltd and Catalyst Lend Lease) (consortium)
• Veolia ES Aurora Ltd. 

The North London proposals have run into  trouble over a proposed plant at Pinkham Way in Haringey, on the border with Barnet and Enfield, with residents concerned about noise, congestion and pollution as well as the building itself. LINK  In South London, Croydon Green Party has been involved in a campaign against a proposed plant which they believe is really an incinerator:


In Brent itself the waste management contract with Veolia has been amended with some difficulty ahead of the new waste management strategy that starts in October 2011. Brent Council's contract with Veolia ends in 2014 and there will be a new bidding process to ensure best value. This process will be overseen by Cllr James Powney.

Veolia, a likely bidder for both contracts, is French multinational with a wide spread of interests including water (in north Brent it previously went under the names of Three Valleys Water), waste management and transport. It has been embroiled in controversy over its activities in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel which include a light rail system and waste management. Campaigners argue that Veolia is complicit in human rights violations. LINK

Despite this Veolia is seen to be in a favourable position for both contracts because of its possession of a depot in Alperton and a potential site for waste processing.  However,  Careys, a local company, set up an 'environmental solutions' company in February and named it after the Roman philosopher, Seneca, who is famous as a Stoic. The company newsletter even quotes Seneca: 'Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end'. Brent Council granted Careys planning permission for a 'super materials recycling facility' at Hannah Close in Neasden (below) in October 2010 with very little publicity and no response from environmental groups including the Green Party. The plant will process 1.1m tonnes of construction and demolition, business and household waste each year. By 2013 an energy producing 'wood biomass facility' will be operational which clearly raises issues over potential pollution.

The Seneca (Careys) plant in Neasden

In March 2011 Careys secured a public relations coup by agreeing to save the Welsh Harp Environmental Education Centre which had been threatened with closure due to local government cuts. They will pay half the revenue costs for the next two years which I understand is about £50,000. Brent Council leader Cllr Ann John took part in a photocall with John Carey at the Centre. LINK

Further information on these issues:
West London Waste Monitor
 UK Without Incineration Network
Brent Friends of the Earth

A tribute to Alf Filer - Brent activist

I am sorry to have to record that Alf Filer, a  Brent socialist activist, died last night in a car crash. Alf had recently taken early retirement from his job as an FE lecturer in Harrow and moved to Worthing. He apparently  died when a another car crashed into his broken down vehicle on the Brighton-Worthing road.

Alf, a member of Socialist Resistance was active in the Coalition of Resistance and a supporter of the Palestinian cause. He had a long history in Brent going back to the Grunwick strike and was a supporter of Brent Fightback until he moved to Worthing, where by all accounts he shook the place up!  On a personal level he had undertaken the challenging task of bringing up his two sons on his own.

Alf played a leading role in the defence of the Harrow Mosque when it was threatened by the English Defence League and Stop the Islamisation of Europe. He referred back to the Battle of Cable Street to emphasis the importance of mass community mobilisation against the extreme right.

Alf invited me as a Green Party representative  to a student hustings at his college at the General Election and I was able to see at first-hand the regard in which he was held by his students. Students were polled beforehand on their voting intentions and then afterwards when they had heard contributions from the candidates. This very practically demonstrated his conviction  that debate and education could change ideas and change minds.

Alf will be much missed and my thoughts are with his sons Leon and Lawrence at this difficult time.

LINK to Tony Greenstein's tribute