Choke traffic - not people, join Jenny tomorrow

The Green Party’s London Mayoral candidate, Jenny Jones is set to take part in a new campaign by UK environmental group, Climate Rush, on Wednesday July 13th which could see some central London roads being temporarily disrupted in order to highlight the severity of the capital’s air pollution problem.

Jenny will make a keynote speech ahead of the Roadblockprotest in which a group of cyclists will hit London’s streets and stage a ‘die-in’ at an unspecified location, holding the space for up to 29 minutes, symbolic of the 29,000 premature deaths attributed to poor air quality in the UK – nearly 5% of all annual UK deaths. Doctors and nurses will check the pulses of the protesters and mark the position of their bodies with chalk.

At the end of the 29 minutes the protesters aim to get up and walk away.

Jenny Jones, along with London Assembly colleague, Darren Johnson, has fought an ongoing battle with Boris Johnson to reduce London’s deadly pollution levels. 

Jenny says:

Getting clean air is rapidly emerging as the number one environmental and public health issue for Londoners. This is hardly surprising when both the government and Mayor have done so little about the pollution which is killing the equivalent of an estimated 4,300 Londoners every year.  

Young, energetic campaigners like Climate Rush will ensure that clean air is a big priority during the Mayoral elections. The real test for Mayoral candidates is whether they can agree to take real action to reduce traffic,lower fares and create a very low emission zone which only allows the cleanest of vehicles to enter central London.

Immigration Advisory Service Closure 'A tragedy"

In response to the news that the Immigration Advisory Service, one of the UK's leading asylum charities, has gone into administration with some 200 jobs at risk, Jean Lambert, London's Green MEP since 1999, has said:

"It is an absolute tragedy that the Immigration Advisory Service is to close.
 
"For almost twenty years, the IAS has provided vital free advice and representations to people faced with real immigration and asylum difficulties - people who often have had nowhere else to turn for support.

"Whilst the reasons behind the closure remain unclear, cuts to the legal aid budget are sure to have played a contributing factor - further proof that the Government's draconian spending cuts are disproportionately hitting the most vulnerable.

"With cut backs in legal aid, and increased financial pressure on local authorities and other advice agencies, the pool of experienced and knowledgeable immigration advisors is getting smaller by the day."

IAS statement HERE

Lucas presses Hague for action on Israel human rights detentions

Several British citizens, including Pippa Bartolotti, Deputy Leader of the Wales Green Party, have been detained in Israel this weekend while en route to Bethlehem for a human rights demonstration.

The group was held at Ben Gurion airport and were then transferred to Givon Prison. It remains unclear under what legislation they are being held, and whether any charges have been brought.

There are also reports that they have been denied food and water for long periods of time. The group may now be faced with deportation.

Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas has written to Foreign Secretary William Hague, saying in part:
"There does not appear to be any grounds for these citizens being detained, as traveling to the West Bank is meant to be permitted for British citizens.

"Does Israel now have a policy of seeking to prevent human rights defenders from entering the occupied territories or entering Israel?"

She encouraged Hague to "press for these British citizens to be immediately released and for moves to deport them to be called to a halt, so they can continue with their peaceful visit."

Profiteers take no prisoners

After a weekend when the inhumanity of profit hungry private companies has been exposed in all its ugliness it is amazing that the Government has published its plans to introduce that ethos into the public sector.

We have seen News International exploiting murdered children and the families of bomb victims and war casualties. British Gas has announced massive price increases despite their massive profits which will impact disproportionately on the poorest and Southern Cross has gone broke leaving thousands of the elderly in care homes feeling bewildered and insecure.

And Cameron and co want to extend privatisation  to the public services  that are depended on by the most vulnerable in our society!

When I was reporting the London Stock Exchange 40 years ago I remember how my editors were gob-smacked when I got news that Rolls Royce had gone broke. They were so disbelieving that this top British company, epitomising British industry and engineering had become bankrupt, that there was a delay before they put the news out on the wires. Of course Rolls Royce was nationalised, rescued by the state, until the profit making sections were hived off.  In more recent times the state has had to rescue the banks and step in to help casualties of exploitative insurance companies. The state of course is funded by our taxes.

Public anger at the continuing excessive bank bonuses and energy company profits is becoming more evident in my conversations with local people. What is seldom focused on is that state intervention hands over money to bolster these profits further. When Government ministers insist that winter fuel payments and other subsidies help out the vulnerable they don't add that these payments then go straight to the energy companies - public funds add to company profits.

I listened to a government minister arguing on the Today programme this morning that free schools and academies would not be allowed to make a profit. This may in theory be true (for the moment) but what those academies then do is buy in services, previously supplied by the local authority, from private companies. Academies and free schools are financed by public funds and these are handed over to the private suppliers - who are profit making. In the process the local authority, already decimated by government cuts, is further undermined.

C.Offe (Contradictions of the Welfare State 1984) argued that commodification (privatisation) of society, the post-war project of the Right,  nonetheless requires a welfare state to provide the conditions for that commodification - a safety blanket for the casualties of competition and a training programme for future worker-consumers. The contradiction that he focused on was that the welfare state is dependent on the commodity form for its financing but in order to provide the conditions for commodification the welfare state has itself to be outside it. Post war the welfare state developed an ethos and ideology outside the values of individualism and private profit that in times of crisis directly challenged those values.

The Cameron project, intensifying the process begun under Thatcher and Blair, takes this a stage further by attempting to commodify the public sector/welfare state itself and undermining its ethos of service and mutuality.  In the process it is in danger of destroying  the safety blanket. The sick, the elderly, the disabled will be 'supported' by companies employing low-skilled, low-paid, temporary labour in order to maximise profits from funding provided by state-funded 'personalised' budgets. In other words, our taxes which already fall disproportionately on the lower paid, are handed over as profits to the private sector.

In the case of Southern Cross there is a real danger that old people will die due to lack of care when myriad small companies take over the running of care homes and there are similar dangers in the employment of private companies in assessing benefit claimants.

As I talk to people about these I sense a strong frustration and feeling of powerlessness: "There is nobody defending our interest;" And they are right as far as the main political parties are concerned - they are steeped in neo-liberalism and take for granted, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the private sector is more efficient. At the same time the various bodies which are supposed to defend the interests of the people: Press Complaints Commission, energy regulators etc are shown to be powerless faced with massive multi-national companies and conglomerates.

This leaves the way clear for the Green Party to become a powerful advocate of the people. challenging the attack on public services and putting forward alternative ideas regarding fairness and mutuality.

Vital meetings this week

BRENT STOP THE WAR MEETING MONDAY 11th JULY, 7.30 p.m.
For the next Brent Stop the War meeting, we are very fortunate to have Gregg Muttit as our speaker.  He is the author of a very powerful book: Fuel on the Fire, oil and politics in occupied Iraq.  The meeting will be at the Brent Trades Hall (Apollo Club), 375 High Rd, Willesden, NW10 2JR and will start at 7.30 pm.  Or for a flyer advertising the meeting and a map to show the venue, go to our website www.brentstopwar.org.uk

BRENT FIGHTBACK PUBLIC MEETING, THURSDAY 14th JULY, 7.30 p.m.

The meeting is on Where Next For the Fight Against the ConDem Attacks? and the speaker will be Zita Holbourne who is an executive member of both the PCS union and BARAC - Black Activists Rising Against Cuts. It will be on Thursday 14th July 7.30 pm at the Learie Constantine Centre 43 - 47 Dudden Hill Lane NW10 2ET (map here: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=522165&Y=184885&A=Y&Z=110 ).   We hope that following the successful strike rally and demonstration on June 30th many more trades unionists and activists will come along, contribute to the meeting and get involved in Brent Fightback. Everybody is welcome whether they are trade union members, service users, students, pensioners, employed or unemployed.  

Please pass this invitation on to everyone you know who is affected by the cuts and the government's attacks on pay, pensions, benefits, housing, the NHS and education.

Old St Andrew's footpath cleared

Last month I highlighted the fly-tipping at Old St Andrew's Church Yard in Kingsbury LINK. The main dumping was on the public footpath leading from the church yard to St Andrew's Road.

I recently bumped into the local street sweeper and he told me that his supervisor had asked him to clean up the path in addition to his normal work when he had time.

I was delighted today to see that most of the bulky fly-tipping had been removed, including toys that appeared to have been dumped over the fence of the nursery.  I had sent links to my posting to Streetcare and the vicar of St Andrew's and perhaps that had some impact.

There are still some discarded carrier bags and beer cans which appear to be dumped by people who use the ancient church yard for drinking sessions, but it is good to see some improvement.

Come on Rachel, Brent is right behind you!

 The BBC has succumbed to pressure and will be screening the Women's World Cup match between England and France on BBC2 at 5pm.

Local woman Rachel Yankey, who scored the second goal against Japan in England's 2-0 win, will have lots of Brent kids cheering her on. She is well known to them from her football training sessions at local schools, after school clubs, and summer training schemes.

I worked with her at Park Lane Primary School when she did after-school football training. She was always hard working, committed and totally unassuming.  She is an excellent role model for local children.

All change in the local press

A couple of weeks after reporter Tara Brady moved from the Wembley and Willesden Observer to the rival Willesden and Brent Times, Kate Ferguson  of the WBT has moved to the Hampstead and Highgate Express (the Ham and High).

I am sorry to see Kate go as she has been a committed and resourceful reporter who went well beyond the re-writing of press releases that is becoming characteristic of so many cash-starved local papers. Tara Brady is well able to take up the baton.

Meanwhile things at the WWO are less clear.  There has long been a problem of the title not living up to its name with a preponderance of Harrow news, features and letters and this seems to have worsened recently - purchasers need more than a token Brent story on the front page.  The Harrow Observer series needs to strengthen its reporting of Brent issues as well as extending its features to cover the borough if it is to win credibility.

The Harrow Times dabbled in reporting Brent issues a while ago and seemed to be trying to increase the paper's range but again this has diminished recently. This week there is only one Brent story (the teachers' strike). There is no attempt to connect up issues common to the two boroughs such as academy schools,