Events & meetings – Page 7 – Notts Save Our Services

Anti Academies Alliance – Rushcliffe meeting and Midlands Conference in November 2011

Anti Academies Alliance Public Meeting
Campaigning against Academy Status at Rushcliffe School
7.30pm Tuesday 8 November 2011.
All Hallows Hall, Pierrepont Road, Lady Bay, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 5BP.

Download flyer: Rushcliffe AAA Leaflet Nov 2011

Speakers:
Chair: Martin Sleath – Parent
Jenny Day – AAA National Steering Committee
Liam Conway – Notts NUT
Andrea Oates – Broxtowe AAA

Also coming up:

Midlands Anti Academies Conference, Fighting Academy conversions and Free Schools
12th November 2011. Registration at 9.30am.
Birmingham & Midlands Institute, Margaret Street, Birmingham, B3 3BS. (Behind the Council House).
Full details: http://antiacademies.org.uk/2011/09/midlands-anti-academies-conference/

Hardest Hit demonstration in Nottingham City Centre attracts hundreds, while Market Square occupation continues

On Saturday 22 October 2011 hundreds of people gathered in Market Square, Nottingham, to listen to speeches and offer support to the many disabled people being ‘hardest hit’ by Government policies of cuts to services and welfare.
Full story and pictures: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/2113

Occupy Nottingham also continues in the Market Square taking a stand against the causes and effects of the capitalist crisis, now in its 10th day having moved towards the square’s water feature: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/2116

Join the resistance!!

Latest news from Notts SOS, Notts Uncut, Occupy Nottingham, plus forthcoming events

A lot has been happening in Nottingham over the last couple of weeks and especially since the weekend … here are some highlights:

Occupy Nottingham! The occupation of the Old Market Square, starting on the same day of the October 15th ‘Jarrow march 2011’ demonstration against youth unemployment, is still ongoing after 5 nights. This was part of a global day of action against austerity and many occupations are continuing elsewhere. Details on Indymedia: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2100. Although there was a slight drop-off of people after the initial surge over the weekend, numbers now seem to be growing. On day 5 there are now around 15 tents, a gazebo and a marquee. Join the occupation in the market square at anytime. Check out the link for the wishlist of things needed by the current occupiers.
Photos of day 6: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/2105

Notts Uncut took action on the 15th October against the corporate tax avoiders on our high street: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2090

Action against benefit harassment: The two participants arrested after the day of action against ATOS Healthcare which saw people going inside the private examination centre on Stoney Street have been bailed again after appearing at the Bridewell, to allow time for “further investigations”. All bail conditions (restricting them from parts of the town centre) have been dropped. Details: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2087

Universities and Colleges industrial action – UCU members started their first phase of its industrial action on 10th October with ‘Work to Contract’. “By working to contract, staff will refuse to undertake extra duties or work outside their contracted hours.”

Forthcoming events

The Hardest Hit are holding a rally this Saturday 22nd October at 12.30 in Market Square to defend benefits and services used by disabled people. Notts Uncut are planning an action to support this and are meeting outside Parliament St. Boots at 11am. Come along and support the rally.

The next Notts SOS meeting is on Monday 26th October 2011 at the usual venue, the YMCA International Community Centre on Mansfield Rd, starting 7.30pm and finishing around 9pm. Then fortnightly thereafter – all welcome.

A public Meeting, ‘Our NHS is in Mortal Danger’ organised by Bassetlaw SOS with Unison and Unite trade unions will take place on 4th November, at Worksop Town Hall, starting at 7 pm. Go and find out about the Government’s plans for the NHS. Find out what is proposed, how this will affect you and what you can do to make your voice heard. Full venuw address is The Ceres Suite, Worksop Town Hall, Potter Street, Worksop, S80 2AH. A Save Our NHS meeting was held in Nottingham last month.

Nottingham Students Against Fees and Cuts are preparing for a huge demonstration in London on 9th November: http://nsafc.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/students-to-march-on-the-city-london-nov-9th/

A national day of industrial action will take place on Wednesday 30th November with millions of public sector and education workers going on strike over attacks on pensions. The government will be facing the “biggest trade union mobilisation for a generation” after the Trades Union Congress (TUC) called the day of action. There will be transport from Nottingham.

Benefit claimants fight back! – Nottingham and national coverage of action against ATOS Healthcare on 30th September 2011

17 towns and cities around the UK saw actions and protests outside Atos offices as part of the National Day of Action Against Poverty Pimps Atos ‘Healthcare’ who work on behalf of the Dept. of Work and Pensions.

ATOS are responsible for carrying out the notorious Work Capability Assessment, a ruthless health testing procedure which has led to thousands of sick and disabled people being denied or stripped of vital benefits.

Full report: http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/2011/10/01/national-day-of-action-against-atos-round-up/

More on Nottingham action including photos and video of occupation of ATOS Healthcare examination centre on Stoney Street: https://nottssos.org.uk/2011/09/21/national-day-of-action-against-atos-30th-september-nottingham-event/
Nottingham Indymedia report: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/2053

See also: ‘Independent’ testing for Mobility Citycard in Nottingham: http://ncclols.blogspot.com/2011/09/ncc-brings-in-atos-style-independent.html

More on Notts SOS about opposition to welfare cuts: https://nottssos.org.uk/tag/benefits/

Jarrow March 2011 comes to Nottingham – Saturday 15th October 2011

At the start of October, Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) and other activists started a 330 mile march from Jarrow to London. “Why? Because we’ve had enough, and we know that it doesn’t have to be this way.” It is 75 years since the first Jarrow March/Crusade of October 1936, when mass unemployment and extreme poverty in the north-east of England drove 200 men to march in protest from Jarrow to London.

Notts Save Our Services will be welcoming the 2011 march on Saturday October 15th, on a day which is exactly 30 years since Norman Tebbit spoke his infamous words at a Tory party conference after the riots of 1981: “I grew up in the ’30s with an unemployed father. He didn’t riot. He got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking ’til he found it.” Seems like they haven’t learnt much as we have experienced both widespread riots AND major job cuts in 2011.

Notts SOS is to welcome the marchers on the Forest Recreation Ground, and march with them to Market Square, where there will be a joint demonstration against the cuts. The route of the March has been agreed and marchers will approach the Forest from Nottingham Road (Basford) for a brief meeting up on the Forest Recreation Ground, then the march will go down Mansfield Road into the city centre ending up in the Market Square.

This will be a major anti-cuts day for Nottingham and everyone is welcome to join the march and/or rally in the square against austerity, unemployment and education cuts. The march will also be welcomed in Mansfield the day before (see comment to this article for details).

The itinerary for October 15th is as follows:
10.00 Meet at Hucknall Ambulance Station on Annesley Road. Continue down Annesley Road to Hucknall Market Place.
10.15 Rally at Hucknall Market Place (for about 10 mins)
10.30 Leave Market Place and continue down High Street. High Street becomes Portland Street and then Nottingham Road.
11.00 Straight on at roundabout onto Hucknall Lane. Hucknall Lane becomes Main Street.
11.30 Turn left onto Bulwell Market Place for 20 min rally and 10 min break.
12.00 Leave Market place on Highbury Road. Continue as Highbury Road becomes Vernon Road.
12.30 Take left fork onto Nottingham Road. Continue as Nottingham Road becomes Sherwood Rise.
13.00 Cross Gregory Boulevard onto Forest Recreation Ground. Notts SOS demonstration assembles here – around 30 mins.
13.30 Leave Forest, turning right onto Mansfield Road. Right onto Upper Parliament Street. Left onto King Street. Continue on to Old Market Square.
14.30 Rally on Old Market Square.

Marchers will continue the march on Sunday 16th from Nottingham Trent Univ Clifton campus.

Sunday 16th October – Nottingham to Loughborough
10.30am Meet Clifton Lane (outside Nottingham Trent Uni)
10.40 Continue down Clifton Lane
11.00 Take first exit at roundabout and continue down Clifton Lane
12.15 Continue through Nottingham Road to Gotham
1.15 Nottingham Road becomes Leake Road.
Arriving 5.30pm in Loughborough with a Rally

All welcome – see you there!

Keep Our NHS Public & Unite public meeting opposes Con-Dem Health and Social Care bill – plus NHS meetings next week

At a packed public meeting on Thursday 22nd Sepember 2011 at the Mechanics Institute, North Sherwood Street, Nottingham, people heard about the progress of Andrew Lansley’s NHS Bill (having passed its 3rd reading and now going to the Lords). It’s all bad news of course. The meeting heard from speakers, Prof Wendy Savage [Keep our NHS Public], Barry Brown [Unite] & Gill George [Unite] laying out their concerns and all pointing out that this was all a device to dismantle the NHS and privatise many of its service.

Full report continues plus photos on Nottingham Indymedia: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/2048

The meeting also heard that privatisation was already well under way, with a consortia including Richard Branson’s Virgin having taken over NHS services in Surrey under the name Assura Medical. One of the speakers gave an example of protest by Unite members where speech threapists had harangued Health Minister Andrew Lansley in Downing Street.

In Nottingham there are two significant meetings to do with the NHS next week:

NHS Nottingham City AGM and Annual Public Meeting, Wednesday 28th. September 12.00 to 15.00, Council House, Old Market Square.

Nottingham University Hospitals Annual Public Meeting, Wednesday 28th. September 17.00 to 19.30, Cityside Restaurant, City Hospital, Hucknall Road. The meeting is open to all. Free car parking will be available in the purple car park, which is the closest car park to the Cityside Restaurant. It takes place at the Cityside Restaurant at the City Hospital campus from 5pm-7.30pm.

A map of the City Hospital showing the location of the car park is available here: http://www.nuh.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/transport/city_maps.aspx (marked ‘P’ opposite the Purple entrance).

We are going to attend these meetings in order to point out that:

1. The reorganisation of the PCT being carried out by NHS Nottingham City is illegal because the legislation to authorise this action, the Health and Social Care Bill, has not yet been passed by Parliament.

2. The plan by Nottingham University Hospitals to become a foundation trust should be dropped.

We urge as many people as possible to attend these events. What is needed are effective actions to disrupt the “reforms”.

Huge UK Uncut ‘Block the Bridge’ action in London over NHS ‘reform’ – free coach from Nottingham on October 9th

Update: Bridge occupied! http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/oct/09/anti-nhs-reforms-protest-block-bridge. Pictures: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/10358

UK Uncut are planning a huge action on Sunday 9th October in London. Their plan is to block Westminster Bridge, symbolically blocking the Health & Social Care Bill from Parliament. More details in the links below.

Notts Uncut have been able to arrange a free coach from Nottingham to take people to this event but we need to ensure that we fill the coach. If people want to reserve a seat, they need to e-mail nottsuncutaction@gmail.com and we will be in touch regarding departure time etc. Please spread the word.

Event details: http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/blog/block-the-bridge-block-the-bill

Facebook event details: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=287733427919847&pending

Notts Uncut website: http://www.nottsuncut.co.uk

For inspirarion, see: Occupy Wall Street and Brooklyn Bridge protest in New York. Latest news 5/10/2011: Organized Labor Joins the Occupation

National Day of Action Against ATOS – 30th September – Nottingham event – reports & photos added

NEWLY ADDED POST-EVENT: reports and photos via Nottingham Indymedia:
1. Photos in Hockley and outside ATOS: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/2051
2. Photos of ATOS occupation and arrests: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/2052
3. After release of one arrestee on bail http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/2050

Take action against ATOS Origin and the ‘Poverty Pimps’ in Nottingham on Friday 30th September 2011. Join us for the National Day of Action against ATOS Healthcare and the government’s attack on benefits for people with disability and illness through the ‘Work Capability Test’ and the Welfare Reform Bill. ATOS Healthcare (a division of ATOS Origin) have the Dept of Work & Pensions contract to carry out medical assessments using a proprietary computer program in local assessment centres using medical and admin staff with very questionnable conduct (see previous article about their antics: https://nottssos.org.uk/2011/08/22/atos-healthcare-medical-examiners-admin-under-fire-for-bad-mouthing-customers-and-improper-conduct/ ).

Nottingham local event: ATOS leaflet Nottingham Sept 2011

Join us for a demonstration and leafleting in Nottingham on Hockley (Goose Gate) Friday 30th September 2011 at 12.00pm (ATOS is on Stoney Street). Facebook details at http://tinyurl.com/nottsatos

Groups campaigning in Nottingham to protect welfare include:

Notts Save Our Services: http://www.nottssos.org.uk
Notts UnCut: http://www.nottsuncut.co.uk
Anarchists Against the Cuts
Anarchist Federation (Nottingham): http://nottsblackarrow.wordpress.com

Background

Atos Origin have £300 million contract with the Con-dem Government to continue carrying out ‘work capability assessments’. It is claimed assessments are to test what people can do rather than what they can’t. The real purpose is to strip benefits from as many people as possible. This testing system has already led to people with terminal illnesses and severe medical conditions being declared fit for work and having benefits cut. GP’s are ignored in favour of decisions made by ATOS Origin’s computer. Plans announced for the scrapping of Disability Living Allowance have also revealed that this intrusive testing is likely to be extended to everyone on some form of disability or health related benefit. To date around 40% of appeals against Atos Origin’s decisions have been successful. Atos have now extended their harassment of sick and disabled by using legal threats to silence websites which have been critical of them, see the Benefit Claimants Fightback website below for more details. http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/

More attacks on benefits coming up: Terminally Ill to have benefits stopped – under Welfare Reform Bill plans, ‘contributory-Employment and Support Allowance’ (c-ESA) will be time-limited to one year from April 2012. Terminally ill people who have accessed c-ESA since April 2011 may lose all out of work help in just six months as a result.

More by Notts SOS about benefits: https://nottssos.org.uk/tag/benefits/

Press Release
Towns and cities around the UK will see protests tomorrow (30th September) against Atos, the IT Company responsible for carrying out the con-dem government’s Work Capability Assessment. As part of a National Day of Action Against Atos, organised by disability, claimant and anti-cuts activists, people will be gathering outside Atos’ offices in Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Brighton, Chatham, Cheshire, Birmingham, Glasgow, Hasting, Norwich, Oxford, Bristol, Chester, Plymouth, Sheffield and York.

In London a demonstration is being held outside the BMJ Careers Fair where Atos will be exhibiting in an attempt to recruit doctors to work on their Disability Assessment teams. Thousands of people have been denied or stripped of vital benefit because of decisions made based on Atos’ assessment procedure which involves a short interview and a computer based test. Many people have had conditions worsened, either by being forced into the workplace, having much needed money withdrawn or the stress of the assessment process, which has been described as relentless. Sadly some have taken their own lives after hearing of Atos and the DWP’s decisions to remove their benefits. Even people with cancer and other terminal illnesses have been deemed ‘fit for work’. The government has pledged that this form of testing will be extended to all disability and health related benefits.

This week over one hundred groups and individuals signed a letter to the BMJ and the RCN urging them to stop allowing Atos to recruit at their events and in their publications: http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/open-letter-on-atos-healthcare-to-the-bmj-and-rcn/

An online protest will see companies and organisations which do business with Atos contacted and informed of this company’s ‘callous and cruel’ treatment of disabled and sick people.

Supporters of Disabled People Against Cuts have said that “As long as ATOS continues to treat disabled claimants little better than animals they will continue to protest against them and seek means to discredit them.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

The Day of Action has been called by a range of different groups and organisations throughout the UK. For the full list of supporting organisations and further details of all protests please visit the website at: http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/
Contact details of some of the paticipating groups are as follows:
· Benefit Claimants Fightback: notowelfarecuts@yahoo.co.uk
· Black Triangle: info@blacktrianglecampaign.org Scotland contact: 07778 316875
· Defend Welfare network
· Disabled People Against Cuts: mail@dpac.uk.net contact:07714 927533
· WinVisible (women with visible and invisible disabilities): win@winvisible.org Tel: 020 7482 2496.

Atos Healthcare is part of Atos, the French multinational IT company which operates in 42 countries and which has the IT contract for the Olympic Games.

The National Day of Action Against Atos is the sixth National Day of Protest targeting benefit cuts, which has seen a diverse network of claimant, disability and anti-cuts groups and individuals taking action in every major city in the UK. As well as protests outside Atos offices, demonstrations have been held outside jobcentres, workfare provider’s offices, the Daily Mail for witch-hunting benefit “scroungers” and Westminster Council over the ban on soup runs.

Notts SOS planning meeting – Monday 12th September 2011 at the ICC

Notts Save Our Services will have its fortnightly meeting tonight – Monday 12th September – at the usual venue (YMCA International Community Centre on Mansfield Road), starting at 7.30pm and finishing around 9pm. We’ll be planning our forthcoming demonstration on October 15th, the same day that the Youth Fight For Jobs ‘Jarrow March 2011’ will complete its leg from Bulwell into Nottingham City Centre. We’ll also be discussing the next steps in the Save Our NHS Campaign (don’t forget the public meeting on the 22nd), proposals to address ‘welfare reform’ and reports from actions (Notts UnCut had their latest city centre event on Saturday). Meetings are open to all, and the agenda is formed on the day, so come and bring your ideas. We usually take the opportunity to go to a pub on Mansfield Road after the meeting.

Did you know? – you can get an email everytime a blog article is published on the Notts SOS website. Just scroll down and fill in the ‘Email Subscription’ form on the right. We also have a facebook page with notification of forthcoming events and a twitter feed.

March for the Alternative – Birmingham. Sunday 18 September
Notts Trades Council will be funding a coach to this TUC sponsored event which will leave depart from the following locations / times:

Mansfield Civic Centre – 8.30 am
Sutton Bus Station – 8.45 am
Kirkby Council Offices – 9.00 am
Hucknall Market Place – 9.15 am
Nottingham Royal Centre – 9.30 am

The coach is free to Trades Council delegates and families but travellers will be asked to make a donation. Please let Paul Martin know as soon as possible if you require seats on the coach and your preferred pick up point. The return coach is expected to leave Birmingham at around 4.00 pm. Paul Martin is on 07986 351 807.

Save our NHS Protest in the Market Square on 6th September – report and photos

On Tuesday 6th September 2011 people gathered from 5.30pm in the Market Square, Nottingham to protest at the Health and Social Care Bill.
MPs vote on the Health and Social Care Bill this evening. A public meeting Save our NHS: Kill Lansley’s ‘amended’ Bill will be held in Nottingham on 22nd September. Find more photos on Nottingham Indymedia.