Christine Gilbert confirmed as Brent Interim Chief Executive for another year

Brent Council last night approved the extension of Christine Gilbert's appointment as Interim Chief Executive until after the elections in May 2014.  See my previous story LINK

The move was opposed by Paul Lorber, leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition, who said that there was no reason why the appointment of a new CEO should not be made not. He declared that he did not accept the reasoning behind the officer's report which argued that a delay would provide stability and safeguarding of the Council's reputation over the period of the move to the Civic Centre and the May 2014 local elections.

He said that the interim appointment had been made by officers in consultation with the Leader of the Council and that members should be fully involved if a candidate capable of working with any prospective leader were to be appointed. He also said that the new post holder should be on the council's payroll rather than have his or her salary paid into a private company.

Labour's majority, assisted by the vote of Barry Cheese who appears to be a semi-detached Lib Dem at present, ensured that Christine Gilbert, wife of ex-Labour MP and Minister Tony McNulty ensured kept her Brent job along with her second job with Haringey Council.

Officers gag debate on human rights and Veolia at Brent Council meeting

As Lib Dem councillor Ann Hunter commented last night it was ironic that on the evening that Brent Council bestowed  the  Freedom of Brent on freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, councillors were denied the freedom to put a motion on the issue of Veolia's complicity in the illegal occupation of Palestine.

Hunter quoted Mandela's statement that 'our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians' and later asked what Mandela would have made of a situation where, at the end of the council meeting, he was greeted by the horrific sight of  the 'rainbow' group of councillors being  shepherded into separate buses for African, African Caribbean, Asian, Jewish or white buses. That was what happened to Palestinians on the segregated buses run by Veolia in the occupied territories.

The Lib Dem motion that was not allowed to be debated read:

Council notes that:

•  the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, contravene international law.

• the resolution of the UN Human Rights Council adopted on 14 April 2010 expresses grave concern at: “The Israeli decision to establish and operate a tramway between West Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Pisgat Zeev, which is in clear violation of international law and relevant United Nations resolutions.”

• Veolia is a leading partner in the CityPass consortium contracted to build and operate this tramway.

• Veolia placed recruitment advertisements for tramway operatives in 2010 discriminating against the recruitment of Palestinians by requiring Hebrew “at a mother tongue level” and “full army service/civic service” which is undertaken by very few Palestinians.

• Veolia is also supporting illegal settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory with other services: namely running bus routes that discriminate against Palestinians and link illegal settlements in the Occupied West Bank to Israel and owning and operating a 33 hectare landfill site, Tovlan in the occupied Jordan Valley, which takes refuse from illegal settlements in the West Bank and from Israel. 

• that a written parliamentary answer from the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, on 23rd May 2012 stated that “a company may be excluded from a tender exercise, for example where a company … has committed an act of grave professional misconduct in the course of their business or profession.”

This Council therefore recognises that Veolia’s involvement in these activities amounts to complicity in violations of international law and constitutes grave misconduct in the course of Veolia’s business under any reasonable interpretation of that term.

Council calls on the Leader and Chief Executive not to sign or allow to be signed any new contracts or renewal of any existing contracts with Veolia or any other company complicit in breaches of international law so long as taking this action would not be in breach of any relevant legislation.

Council notes that acting on this call would not contravene the provisions of the Local Government Act 1988 because no reliance is being placed in this resolution on any of the prohibited non commercial matters set out in section 17(5) of the 1988 Act. Further, as there is nothing in the Local Government Act that prohibits the Council from making the decisions called for in the resolution it would be unlawful for the Council to falsely exclude those matters from consideration when making a decision about  contracting with Veolia, given the discretion that the Council is required to exercise under Regulation 23 (4) (e) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2006.

Councillors Hunter, Lorber, Hopkins and Hashmi

As Ann Hunter pointed out this is a very similar motion to that approved by Labour's Brent Central General Committee. The officer's letter repeated the stone-walling statement used to refuse information to Bin Veolia in Brent campaigners which is issued to anyone communicating with the council about the issue:

Dear Councillor

I am writing to advise you that the proposed Liberal Democrat Group motion on Veolia which was circulated to members on Friday cannot be debated and voted upon by the Council at its meeting tonight.

As you may be aware, advice from counsel has been sought in relation to arguments concerning the involvement of certain companies in the Veolia group in various enterprises linked to the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.  The clear advice is, amongst other things, that there are no grounds for excluding Veolia ES (UK) Limited from the current procurement of the Public Realm contract on the basis of “grave professional misconduct” in accordance with Regulation 23(4)(e) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2006.

Motions which are illegal, improper or irregular are not permitted and in consequence it will not be appropriate to debate or vote on this Liberal Democratic Group motion.

Kathy Robinson

Senior Solicitor

Labour Mayor Bobby Thomas confirmed that the Labour group had received similar advice when  they wished to discuss the issue. However, when Paul Lorber, Lib Dem group leader tried to move a motion to suspend standing orders to discuss the basis of officers' advice he was accused of hypocrisy in an incandescent outburst by Muhammed Butt, Labour leader of the Council, who accused him of hypocrisy because when leader of the council he had 'happily signed a contract with Veolia'.  Butt dismissed the suspension of standing order move as 'frivolous'.

Lorber argued that elected councillors should challenge the officers' advice.  He had sought the basis of the ruling and had asked for a copy of the counsel's advice but officers' had failed to provide any evidence. He said that the issue had been debated in many councils across the country but officers had deemed councillors not capable of making a decision on the issue. Mayor Bobby Thomas lost his temper and began shouting at Lorber when Lorber suggested that Labour councillors were being invited to vote down the suspension of standing orders without hearing any information on what the challenge was about.

To a cry of 'Mandela - freedom of speech' Labour voted down the motion to suspend standing orders.

Michael Pavey reneges on anti-academy promises

Cllr Michael Pavey, only months into his new job as Brent's lead member for children and families, tonight reneged on his promises of opposition to academies made when he was standing for the position.

Making a statement at the full Brent Council meeting he  said that Gladstone Park Primary  was not a failing school, has suffered a blip, and results were improving. It was a shame that it was being forced to become an academy and instead it should have been supported in its improvement strategy. He welcomed the Parents Action Group campaign and commented that this was' community action at its very best' BUT he respected the governing body's approach to the CfBT.  He said. 'If we have to have an academy these are the sort of people we should support'. He went on to say  that this was the time to 'bury the hatchet.' (referring I think to both Copland and Gladstone Park).

On Copland he said that he was pleased to announce that the DfE had approved the council's application to impose an Interim Executive Board headed by Grahame Price of St Paul's Way School LINK and said that there had been a 'terrible situation' at Copland with two thirds of the lessons inadequate and it had been failing the most vulnerable pupils. After the IEB the next step in the 'radical surgery' that the school required was academy conversion.

No sign of any fightback on forced academy status and what amounts to the privatisation of our schools and their removal from local democratic accountability.

Brent Council should heed Mandela on the Veolia issue

This evening, as Nelson Mandela is reported to be in a critical condition, he will be honoured at tonight's Brent Council meeting with the Freedom of Brent.

It is hard today to remember that Mandela was not always a popular figure in this country and weas denounced as a terrorist by Margarter Thatcher whose government continued to sell arms to the apartheid regime.

A previous Labour Council in Brent, back in the 1980s, attracted controversy for supporting divestment from South Africa and boycott of companies that were alleged to support the apartheid regime and doubtless faced  opposition from council officers. They bravely stood up to the criticism and used every strategy in the book to implement the policy.

Now Palestine is as important a moral and human rights issue as South Africa was then and the present Brent Council has been asked by more that 2,500 people to support the Palestinian human rights struggle by removing Veolia from the current £250m Public Realm procurement. Campaigners accuse Veolia of  'grave misconduct' in its activities in the occupied territories of Palestine which provide infrastructural support to illegal Israel settlements.

President Nelson Mandela himself said at an event celebrating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People::

The so-called ‘Palestinian autonomous areas’ are bantustans. These are restricted entities within the power structure of the Israeli apartheid system."

I have come to join you today to add our own voice to the universal call for Palestinian self-determination and statehood. We would be beneath our own reason for existence as government and as a nation, if the resolution of the problems of the Middle East did not feature prominently on our agenda.

When in 1977, the United Nations passed the resolution inaugurating the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, it was asserting the recognition that injustice and gross human rights violations were being perpetrated in Palestine. In the same period, the UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system.

We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.

Bishop Desmond Tutu after visiting Palestine said:

I have been to the Occupied Territory and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of apartheid.

As the Council honours Mandela tonight they should consider the Veolia issue in the light of their own history and that of the anti-apartheid struggle.

Mark Steel has them rolling in the aisles at the People's Assembly

People's Assembly generates hope but this must result in action

It was always going to be hard to enable as many voices as possible to be heard in a gathering of more than 4,000 people but yesterday's People's Assembly got close. Central Hall, marquees outside and the Emmanuel Centre down the road were buzzing with ideas and viewpoints, as well as simply heaving with people.

Much more united us than separated us, this included a deep dislike of the Coalition and the Conservatives (there was laughter when the caption maker misheard a quote and described Tories as 'worse than Birmingham' instead of vermin)and there was a determination to not only describe what was wrong but to provide hope that together we could bring about change.

Although many wanted to see trade unions take a lead, and there were calls for a general strike, there was also an emphasis on community organisation and resistance, and providers and users of services such as health, social work and education working together.

I attended the sessions on 'climate change and jobs' at which Caroline Lucas spoke (clip above), 'protecting public education'; and 'democracy and decision-making-fixing our broken political system' at which Natalie Bennett ran a workshop.

Caroline Lucas's call for renationalisation of the railways received enthusiastic applause as did her statement that capitalism was incompatible with solving the climate crisis.

In the education workshop speeches from the platform were interspersed with batches of one minute contributions from the floor. I managed to get a rather incoherent one minute plug in for a 'Reclaim Our Schools' movement made up of teachers, parents, governors and school students and that seemed in line with Christine Blower's (NUT) suggestion of a Reclaim Education campaign. It was important to resist and challenge efforts at divide and rule.

Throughout there was a thread of argument about the crisis in democracy, representation and accountability and this came together in the sometimes chaotic democracy workshop where issues of electoral reform, community organising, local people's assemblies came together and many were introduced to 'jazz hands' for the first time. (Hands are waved in the air silently to express approval rather than clapping).

Discussions and debate continued in the nearby cafes, pubs and restaurants afterwards and are due to continue at local people's assemblies in the future as well as a student assembly in November. It will be important not to lose the momentum, enthusiasm and hope as well as to refine and spread the emerging ideas.

Palestinian footballer's experience should galvanise Brent Council to act on human rights

 

Palestinian footballer Mahmoud Sarsak will be speaking at the Pakistan Community Centre in Willesden  Green on Thursday to share his experiences with local people, as Brent Council sticks to its decision to refuse to exclude Veolia, a company that aids illegal occupation of Palestine, from a lucrative contract worth more than £250m over 16 years.

Sarsak lost half his body weight in a hunger strike that lasted 92 days fighting for human rights in his homeland. His courage and determination should bring it home to Brent Council, a council with a noble record of campaigning against apartheid South Africa decades ago, that they too should make a stand.

The people of Brent do not want their taxes and Council Tax to be used to provide profits to a company that  also profits from  illegal abuses of human rights.

Dawn Butler backs General Strike at People's Assembly

Poster for the General Strike in Oakland, California 2011

I understand Dawn Butler, former Brent South MP,  surprised Brent Labour Party members at today's People's Assembly by appearing to back a General Strike against the Coalition's anti-welfare and austerity measures.

Intervening in the workshop on 'The economics of anti-austerity, jobs, investment and tax justice', at which former Brent East MP Ken Livingstone was one of the speakers, she apparently asked the audience for a show of hands for a General  Strike, and despite catcalls from the audience,continued to press her case and state categorically that she was justified in disagreeing with the Labour leadership.

This swerve to the left by one of the candidates for the Brent Central Labour nomination surprised many present. One of her potential opponents for the  candidancy is Kate Osamore, Tottenham activist and member of Unite, who is said to be backed by Livingstone and, if she agrees to stand, likely to be the candidate of the left in Brent.

Osamore was present at the Assembly chairing the workshop 'Immigration is not to blame - countering racism, Islamophobia and the far right'.

Patrick Vernon who is actively campaigning for the nomination managed to combine attendance at the People's Assembly with an appearance elsewhere to press the case for June 22nd to become a public holiday,Windrush Day, to celebrate multicultural Britain.