Libraries judicial review ruling expected on Thursday

The judgement on the judicial review of Brent's libraries closure plans is expected to be handed down in Court on Thursday, October 13 at 10am

The Court room has yet to be notified. The outcome of the case will be stated at the hearing and then there are likely to be short arguments by the barristers about what should happen next. The hearing is expected to last no longer than 45 minutes

Please come to the High Court  on Thursday if you can. The Royal Courts of Justice entrance is on the Strand, London WC2A 2LL. See map at http://www.royalcourtsofjustice-events.co.uk/contact-us

Further news will be posted as soon as it is available..

Brent People's Assembly - Give Our Kids A Chance

With the economy in the doldrums, public sector redundancies, wage cuts affecting many residents and the housing benefit cap hitting families soon, it is imperative that we work together to defend out living conditions, our schools and our health service.  At the same time the cut in council funding has meant that we face closures of libraries and reductions in street sweeping and school crossing patrols. The People's Assembly is sub-titled 'Give Our Kids A Chance. Defending Our Jobs and Services'.

Brent Fightback, the local anti-cuts movement, is inviting campaigns, trade unions, voluntary organisations and community groups to a Brent People's Assembly on Saturday 12th November at Harlesden Methodist Church. The aim is to give local people a voice so that they can say how the cuts and increased charges are affecting them. We will be sharing information and ideas on how we can join together more effectively and ensure that everyone has a decent standard of living and our children have a future.

Marking 10 years of Brent Stop the War

Many thanks to Brent News Company TV for this report:

Evidence accumulating on impact of street sweeping cuts

When I suggested that the street sweeping cuts would make Brent 'London's dirtiest Olympic borough' I was accused of exaggerating. Cllr Moher claimed recently that Brent residents would not notice any difference and standards would be maintained. The cuts in sweeping regularity and weekend sweeping have been in place for just a week. This is what I noticed, along with guests attending a wedding at Brent Town Hall, along King's Drive in Wembley and outside Wembley ASDA at 10.30am this morning:

King's Drive, opposite Town Hall library

King's Drive, corner with Forty Lane

Bus stop outside ASDA, Wembley

Asda bus stop

Beside Kwik Fit, Wembley

 I would be interested to hear how things are looking in other parts of Brent.

Go for Green QE - not a banking black hole

The Bank of England has announced that it is to inject a further £75bn into the economy through quantitative easing. Responding to the decision, Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas said: 

While it's clear that quantitative easing is one of the only options left to get our ailing economy off its knees, the Bank of England's decision to usher in £75bn worth of unregulated QE is problematic.

Unless we impose constraints on private banks to ensure the money reaches the real economy, we're effectively throwing money into a banking black hole - a recipe for systemic economic failure and further social inequality.

What we need is properly regulated quantitative easing directed towards actually creating jobs, increasing lending to small businesses and facilitating the move towards a green economy.

A job creation strategy like the Green New Deal, for example, would ultimately pay for itself by generating incomes and boosting emerging green industries.

As the average annual energy bill reaches a shocking new high of around £1,000 per household, surely now is the time to consider a green quantitative easing programme to help fund energy efficiency solutions such as home insulation to help keep people's bills down, and create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process.

The challenge of climate change with China Miéville

China Miéville, award-winning fantasy fiction writer and author of the young adults' novel, “Un Lun Dun” will be appearing at the Willesden Green Library Centre on Monday 17^th October at 7.30pm to talk about creative fiction writing and the challenge of climate change.

In the light of recent reports on the rapid thawing of polar ice-caps, China will discuss whether fiction writers ought to amend their creative output to address climate change, the most serious long-term issue facing the world today.

The author is three-time winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award (Perdido Street Station, Iron Council and The City & The City) and has also won the British Fantasy Award twice (Perdido Street Station and The Scar). The City & The City, an existential thriller, was published in 2009 to dazzling critical acclaim and drew comparison with the works of Kafka and Orwell (The Times) and Phillip K. Dick (The Guardian). The City & The City recently won the British Science Fiction Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award and was also short listed for the Nebula and Hugo prizes.  His fifth novel, Un Lun Dun, won the 2008 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Book. He has also published extensively on international law.

Ken Montague, Secretary of the Brent Campaign against Climate Change says, “China really is one of the most exciting young writers in Britain today and as one of the originators of ‘weird fiction’ will bring a fresh and challenging perspective to the discussion of climate change and how we should respond to it.”

This event is the third in a series of “Environmental Writers” meetings at the Willesden Green Library Centre, where authors read from their books with environmental themes and discuss them with the audience. The series is organised by the Brent Campaign against Climate Change in liaison with the Brent Library Service.

The reading and discussion will take place at 7.30pm on Monday 17^th October 2011 at the Willesden Green Library Centre, 95 High Road, Willesden, NW10 2SF. This is a free event and all are welcome.

The World vs Wall Street - a message from Avaaz

 
A message from Avaaz.org

Thousands of Americans have non-violently occupied Wall St -- an epicentre of global financial power and corruption. They are the latest ray of light in a new movement for social justice that is spreading like wildfire from Madrid to Jerusalem to 146 other cities and counting, but they need our help to succeed.

As working families pay the bill for a financial crisis caused by corrupt elites, the protesters are calling for real democracy, social justice and anti-corruption. But they are under severe pressure from authorities, and some media are dismissing them as fringe groups. If millions of us from across the world stand with them, we'll boost their resolve and show the media and leaders that the protests are part of a massive mainstream movement for change. 

This year could be our century's 1968, but to succeed it must be a movement of all citizens, from every walk of life. Click to join the call for real democracy -- a giant live counter of every one of us who signs the petition will be erected in the centre of the occupation in New York, and live webcasted on the petition page:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_world_vs_wall_st/?vl

The worldwide wave of protest is the latest chapter in this year's story of global people power. In Egypt, people took over Tahrir Square and toppled their dictator. In India, one man's fast brought millions onto the streets and the government to its knees -- winning real action to end corruption. For months, Greek citizens relentlessly protested unfair cuts to public spending. In Spain, thousands of "indignados" defied a ban on pre-election demonstrations and mounted a protest camp in Sol square to speak out against political corruption and the government's handling of the economic crisis. And this summer across Israel, people have built "tent cities" to protest against the rising costs of housing and for social justice.

These national threads are connected by a global narrative of determination to end the collusion of corrupt elites and politicians -- who have in many countries helped cause a damaging financial crisis and now want working families to pay the bill. The mass movement that is responding can not only ensure that the burden of recession doesn't fall on the most vulnerable, it can also help right the balance of power between democracy and corruption. Click to stand with the movement:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_world_vs_wall_st/?vl

In every uprising, from Cairo to New York, the call for an accountable government that serves the people is clear, and our global community has backed that people power across the world wherever it has broken out. The time of politicians in the pocket of the corrupt few is ending, and in its place we are building real democracies, of, by, and for people. 

With hope,
Emma, Maria Paz, Alice, Ricken, Morgan, Brianna, Shibayan and the rest of the Avaaz team

PETITION LINK

Is this 'freedom from control' Michael Gove?

Michael Gove in his arguments for academies and free schools always emphasises that they will be 'free of local authority control' and further can make their own decisions about the curriculum. Of course the real situation in local authority schools is that strategic direction is decided for each school by a representative governing body with elected parent and staff representatives alongside members or nominees of  the democratically elected local authority.  He fails to mention that academies and free schools, directly funded by the government, are in the final analysis under government control - in effect 'nationalised' schools.

His advocacy of 'freedom' is limited however. He is keen to put foward his own ideas about what should be in the curriculum, including British narrative history, and exposed his nascent authoritarianism last week by putting pressure on schools in Islington and Haringey to cancel pupil trips to the weekend's Tottenham Palestinian Literacy Festival where children's writer and broadcaster Michael Rosen was due to speak.Children were going to take part in workshops on human rights and living under occupation and encouraged to enter a creative writing competition.

Schools decided not to take part after being contacted by the Department for Education officials who asked them if they were meeting their responsibilities under the 1996 Education Act (Section 407) to provide both sides of opposing political views. The festival was organised by a branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Jeremy Corbyn MP for Islington North, who supports the festival, said: "It was a great opportunity for children to understand the wealth and joy of Palestinian literature and a little of the history of the region. It's not in any way biased, but a festival which encourages children to broaden their horizons. The children were looking forward to it."

There are some interesting comments on the Evening Standard's website about the decision LINK including this one with which I strongly agree::

I find it astounding that the Education Secretary has stepped in to prevent schools having access to a literary festival. It's a repressive and frightening decision, and also a breach of the Human Rights Act.

To quote from article ten.

"Everyone has the right of freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers. This Article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises."

By not allowing schools to take part, Michael Gove is denying the right of freedom of speech, which is a matter of great concern, given he's a government official.

This comment gives the literary background:

Poetry has always been the Arab world's dominant literary form. When Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish died in 2008 he was honoured with a state funeral and three days of national mourning. (I recommend the long poem 'The Siege' for starters) Mourid Barghouti is another Palestinian poet of international stature - try 'Midnight' (Arc Press). Lately, Palestinians writing in English have distinguished themselves in the field of memoir: you could start with Ghada Karmi's beautifully written 'In Search of Fatima'; Raja Shehadah's personal guide to the West Bank 'Palestinian Walks' (Winner of the George Orwell Award), and Karl Sabbagh's Palestine: A Personal History' Ghada and Karl were key speakers at the Festival, as was Selma Dabbagh, whose first novel 'Out of It' is due to be published by Bloomsbury this winter. I do hope you explore these writers, whose stories fill in the huge gaps left by our media when it comes to the Palestinian narrative. As a member of PSC - an anti-racist organization - I myself will be working to help challenge Gove's outrageous and potentially slanderous decision.

The curriculum of our schools has always been a contested area and the clash was probably at its sharpest when Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit  abolished the progressive Inner London Education  Authority. Tebbit accused ILEA schools of  driving children to truancy by teaching  'anti-sexist, anti-racist, gay, lesbian, CND rubbish' in schools. Margaret Thatcher said, 'You know about political indoctrination in some of the inner cities. Well, I could show you examination papers.... I sometimes look at the Continent, where they have not only a core curriclum but a core syllabus. That would be an enormous leaps for us to take, because my generation still recoils from having a system that any government could manipulate...What we are considering is whether we should take that leap.'

Both Conservative and Labour governments did take that approach and Gove is moving towards imposing his own control under the guise of opposing that of  local authorities.

Interestingly on March 31st  2010, before the General Election, Liberal Democrat Friends of  Palestine warned about a Conservative win:

If the Conservatives win the election, the influence of the Greater Israel lobby –those extremists who believe Israel has a right to add to its territory by swallowing up land it conquered in 1967, rather than by negotiating fair boundaries with thePalestinians on an arms-length basis - will increase. Extreme Conservative views are exemplified by those of Michael Gove MP. Find out about them at http://www.ldfp.eu/gove.htm

Needless to say that link no longer works - the page has been removed.