Opinions – Page 4 – Notts Save Our Services

Anti-cuts events from Monday 31st Jan 2011 and into February and March – mainly Nottingham & Notts [updated as new events come in]

Here is advance notice of (mostly local or regional) anti-cuts events we know about from Monday 31st Jan 2011. These will be added to as more events are announced so please revisit this page. See also: Budget consultation events: Nottingham City Council from 31st Jan until 10th Feb.. Also take a look at our Recent Events, Comments and Twitter feed columns for more info and comments.

Monday 31st Jan – “1 million green jobs”, 7:00–8:30 pm. Friends Meeting House, St Helen’s Street, Derby DE1 3GY.
Details: https://nottssos.org.uk/2011/01/18/one-million-climate-jobs-now-solving-the-economic-and-environmental-crises-public-meeting-in-derby-on-31st-jan-2011/.

Tuesday 1st February. What’s happened to the Big Society? An open meeting to be addressed by Andrew Redfern, Chief Executive, Framework – the umbrella organization for the homeless in Nottingham and Notts. Hosted by St Barnabas’ Cathedral Justice & Peace Group. All welcome! Time/Date: 7.30pm – 9pm, Venue: St Barnabas Cathedral, McGuiness Room, Derby Rd, Nottingham, NG1 5AE. Details: httphttps://nottssos.org.uk/2011/01/18/whats-happened-to-the-big-society-open-meeting-on-1st-feb-2011/

Saturday 5th Feb – National Read-In event. Events being organised in Nottingham & Notts on the day include a read-in at Beeston library. Others include Stapleford and Sneinton. All start at 11am.

Saturday 7th Feb Regular Notts SOS planning meeting. Monday 7th February 2011, at ICC/YMCA, 7.30-9.15pm. Fortnightly, but check website for next meeting on 21st as venue may be changed.

Saturday 12th Feb – Anti-academy schools stall in Rushcliffe. Details to be announced. Previous meeting in Broxtowe: https://nottssos.org.uk/2011/01/05/fighting-academies-in-nottingham-and-nottinghamshire-broxtowe-meeting-thursday-6-january-2011/

Saturday 12th Feb – Mansfield SOS demo. March/Protest/Rally. Starts ‘Feather’ 11am. Short march finishes Mansfield Market Place for rally, 11.10am. Download leaflet [Word] [PDF] & poster [Word] [PDF]

Saturday 19th Feb – Keep The Post Public. CWU demo. Date: Saturday 19th February 2011. Assemble from 1pm (march will commence at 2pm). Place: Mail Centre, Padge Road, Beeston, Nottingham, NG9 2RR. Details: http://www.cwu.org/keep-the-post-public-march-and-rally-in-beeston-nottingham.html. See also: http://www.eclectech.co.uk/savethepostoffice.php in case anyone forgets privatisation started under Labour.

Tuesday 22th February Nottingham City Unison is organising a public protest on 12.30 in the Market Square . This is the day that the City Council Executive Board discusses and recommends the 2011/12 budget to the full council. All welcome. Public demonstration with speakers.

Wednesday 23rd Feb – Mencap Big Cuts Event, Nottingham Racecourse. One of a series of roadshow events across the country to tell people about the cuts happening in their area, and to look at ways we can work together to fight them. Details: http://www.mencap.org.uk/page.asp?id=20547. However – their aim to engage as a workfare provider as ‘Disability Works UK’ consortium seems problematic: http://wheresthebenefit.blogspot.com/2010/12/disability-works-does-it.html. If you are going to this event maybe this issue could be raised?

Thursday 24th Feb – Nottinghamshire County Council Lobby. Major lobby of County Hall, West Bridgford on the day the full council meets to set its Council Tax budget. Download Lobby flyer: Alternative to Notts County cuts lobby 24 Feb 2011

Monday 7th March – Nottingham City Council, at 2.00 pm. The City Council’s budget for 2011/12 will be considered at a meeting of the full City Council to be held at the Council House, Old Market Square, Nottingham. The agenda for the meeting will be published a week in advance and agendas for Council meetings can be viewed by following this link http://open.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/comm/goto.asp?Type=1|32. Previously, from Unison: previous article on Notts SOS. See also: http://www.nottinghamcityunison.org.uk/

Saturday 26th March – TUC ‘March for the alternative’: http://marchforthealternative.org.uk/. Put this in your diary now! London – initial details of route are here – http://marchforthealternative.org.uk/march-logistics/getting-there/.

Anti-cuts events week beginning Monday 24th Jan 2011 [plus Video ‘The Rise of Street Extremism | 10.01.11’]

Anti-cuts events: January 24th-30th 2011. Follow links for details. Plenty to get involved with.
Update: find out about further meetings and events here: http://nsafc.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/action-24th-jan-to-5th-feb/

Monday 24th Jan: Second National Day of Action Against Benefit Cuts. All day. Action in Nottingham – see http://nsafc.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/action-24th-jan-to-5th-feb/

Monday 24th Jan: NCVS meeting impact of cuts on voluntary and community groups, 2-4pm at YMCA/ICC, Nottingham.

Monday 24th Jan: Notts SOS meeting 7.30pm at YMCA/ICC, Nottingham. Our regular meeting. All welcome.

Tuesday 25th Jan – Mansfield SOS meeting, 7.15pm, at the Gas Board Sports and Social Club, Lime Tree Place, Mansfield.

Wednesday 26th Jan: UCU Open Forum, Nottingham Uni, Portland Building C11, 1pm-3pm.

Wednesday 26th Jan: Stand Up For the NHS, 7:30pm at Mechanics Institute, 3 North Sherwood Street, Nottingham.

Wednesday 26th Jan: National walkout to save EMA (Facebook). Download College students flyer about EMA produced at Network X

Thursday 27th Jan: Save Sherwood Forest meeting 7.30pm at YMCA/ICC, Nottingham.

Saturday 29th Jan: Education no-fees/cuts demo in London. Called by Education Activist Network, National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts and University College Union (UCU). Coaches leave Nottingham Trent SU at 8:30am, Nottingham Uni (Portland Building) at 9am. Tickets are £7 concession, £15 waged and must be bought in advance. To book text/call 07849 392 842. Download flyer: https://nottssos.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/national-demo-fees-cuts-29-jan-2011.pdf. There is also a demo in Manchester on the same day which UCU and PCS are also supporting – there are coaches – contact respective unions. Nottingham Students now have tickets to Manchester as well. So take your pick. Email nsafac [at] gmail.com for tickets both events.

Sunday 30th Jan: Nottingham UK Uncut event 1pm Clumber Street.

Video extra: Think tank Policy Exchange worries about ‘domestic extremism’, including anti-cuts campaigns (and websites!). Apparently it’s unfairness that makes ‘the British people’ rise up and this must be addressed by the government before it’s hijacked by the Left and anarchists. It’s a long video with a range of experts, who are mostly ex-police – maybe they are getting a bit worried? They are certainly saying the state should be getting more prepared. See/listen around 3 mins in about those terrible UKUncut flash mobs that have been used to close stores (see also near end of the video a suggestion that it’s time their website be brought down – how democratic!). Then 7 mins in – an infiltrator of CND talks about the general problem of anti-parliamentary groups. Various stuff about kettling and other public order tactics and the terrible constraints of the Human Rights Act. And a suggestion that a royal wedding protest with anti-cuts flavour could be a problem. Enjoy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3sc_prqw_s]

PolicyExchangeUK | 11 January 2011 | 0 likes, 42 dislikes
There are increasing signs that significant sections of the extreme left have little intention of confining their opposition to Coalition policies to peaceful, democratic protest. In recent weeks we have seen riots over student tuition fees, the forcible closure of high street stores by flashmobs and also growing demands for industrial action to undermine the Coalition administration, including from the leader of Britain’s biggest trade union.
Do these actions portend a dangerous new trend towards the use of physical force? If so, what can and should be done to prevent this phenomenon becoming a regular feature of the national landscape?

Speakers:
Peter Clarke CVO OBE QPM | former Head of the Counter Terrorism Command and former Borough Commander in Brixton during the 1995 riots
Rt Hon David Maclean | former Minister of State at the Home Office and Parliamentary Adviser to the Police Superintendents Association
Paul Mercer | UK’s pre-eminent expert on extremist groups and author, Longman’s Directory of British Political Organisations [who also likes to spy for arms dealers it would appear.]
Henry Robinson | Anti Terrorist community and street activist and former Irish republican prisoner

One Million Climate Jobs Now! Solving the Economic and Environmental Crises – public meeting in Derby on 31st Jan 2011

One Million Climate Jobs Now! Solving the Economic and Environmental Crises – public meeting
Time/Date: 7:00–8:30 pm on Monday 31st January 2011.
Venue: Friends Meeting House, St Helen’s Street, Derby DE1 3GY.

Download leaflet: one million climate jobs now – joint NUT Derby Climate Coalition meeting

Speakers:
Suzanne Jeffrey: N.U.T.
Chandra Morbey: Rail Engineer in Derby

Suzanne Jeffrey is Chair of the National ‘Campaign against Climate
Change’ Trade Union group which has produced the best-selling
pamphlet ‘One million climate jobs’. This makes the case for the
creation of employment in renewable energy, refitting buildings,
public transport, industry and education.

Chandra Morbey will look at the potential for railways upon jobs
and the environment.

All welcome.

Nottingham City Unison: “NOTTINGHAM CITY COUNCIL PREPARED TO PASS ON CON-DEM CUTS” – press release 14th Jan 2011. Plus Notts Unison Press releases about Country Parks, Care Homes & NCC Lobby on 24th Feb

Read Nottingham City Unison press release 14th Jan 2011 about City cuts: “NOTTINGHAM CITY COUNCIL PREPARED TO PASS ON CON-DEM CUTS” [Word] [PDF]. Source: http://www.nottinghamcityunison.org.uk/

For Notts County, see also: Unison: alternatives to proposed Nottinghamshire service and job cuts.

Plus: FOR YOUR INFORMATION forwarded on from: Mike Scott (Notts Unison Branch Organiser)

(1) Please find attached letter we would like you to distribute to anyone you know who may be a user of our local Country Parks.

Notts County Council budget cuts will have a particularly devastating affect on the service provided by our local country parks and it is important we campaign vigorously against these disgraceful cuts.

Please get involved in this campaign and together we can stop this attack on our natural heritage.

(2) Equally unpaletable please circulate press release about closure of ALL existing 35 day care centres providing specific care support
-Replacing them with just 10 ‘generic’ centres providing ‘one service for all’.
-Only opening new centres for 46 weeks per year, not 52
-Cancelling meals and drinks provision unless this service can break even in each centre.
-Reducing staffing by half from 377 to just 192
-Cutting access to the centres for elderly care home residents to just 2 days per week maximum

Please respond to the County Council’s consultation on this matter by the 21st Jan and prepare to attend a major lobby of County Hall, West Bridgford on Thursday 24 February when the full council meets to set its Council Tax budget.

Dowload Lobby flyer: Alternative to Notts County cuts lobby 24 Feb 2011

What’s happened to the Big Society? – open meeting on 1st Feb 2011

What’s happened to the Big Society? An open meeting to be addressed by Andrew Redfern,
Chief Executive, Framework – the umbrella organization for the homeless in Nottingham and Notts.
Hosted by St Barnabas’ Cathedral Justice & Peace Group. All welcome!

Time/Date: 7.30pm – 9pm, Tuesday 1st February.
Venue: St Barnabas Cathedral, McGuiness Room, Derby Rd, Nottingham, NG1 5AE.
Contact: Patricia Stoat patricia.stoat [at] virgin.net

Unison: alternatives to proposed Nottinghamshire service and job cuts

Just before Christmas, Notts Unison wrote a letter to Councillor Kay Cuts, leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, outlining alternatives to the proposed Nottinghamshire service and job cuts: Open letter to Kay Cutts 20 dec 2010. No reply has been received as yet.

Collective action can stop these cuts – Notts SOS member speaks on The Guardian’s ‘comment is free’

A member of Notts SOS has written the latest article in The Guardian’s The cuts get personal section.

Rosemary Muge guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 December 2010 12.30pm:

Our group in Nottingham has a genuine belief the cuts could be stopped if sufficient protest was amassed locally and nationally …

Read Rosemary’s full article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/21/resistance-cuts-capitalism

The article concludes:

Our group has a genuine belief that the cuts could be stopped if sufficient protest was amassed locally and nationally. I would like to believe this, and am certainly prepared to act as though I believe it and move towards that end. But sometimes you just have to fight for things even if you don’t think you’ll get them. My own pragmatic and more realistic hope is that during what is to come in the next few years, sufficient noise will be made by groups like ours for people to realise what is going on: that this is a bad and unfair way to run things – and that we are not all in this together.

Capitalism – as it has evolved by the 21st century – has caused this. There could be better ways of controlling and regulating it if only there was a party with the will and the ability to do it, and a people sufficiently engaged and aware to vote them into power.

Want to get involved? Come to the Notts SOS conference on 15th January 2001. Our first meeting of the New Year is on Monday 10 January 2011 at 7.30pm in the ICC/YMCA. See https://nottssos.org.uk/contact/ for venue information and how to contact us.

Collective action can stop these cuts – Notts SOS member speaks on The Guardian’s ‘comment is free’

A member of Notts SOS has written the latest article in The Guardian’s The cuts get personal section.

Rosemary Muge guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 December 2010 12.30pm:

Our group in Nottingham has a genuine belief the cuts could be stopped if sufficient protest was amassed locally and nationally …

Read Rosemary’s full article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/21/resistance-cuts-capitalism

The article concludes:

Our group has a genuine belief that the cuts could be stopped if sufficient protest was amassed locally and nationally. I would like to believe this, and am certainly prepared to act as though I believe it and move towards that end. But sometimes you just have to fight for things even if you don’t think you’ll get them. My own pragmatic and more realistic hope is that during what is to come in the next few years, sufficient noise will be made by groups like ours for people to realise what is going on: that this is a bad and unfair way to run things – and that we are not all in this together.

Capitalism – as it has evolved by the 21st century – has caused this. There could be better ways of controlling and regulating it if only there was a party with the will and the ability to do it, and a people sufficiently engaged and aware to vote them into power.

Notts Cuts Watch #10 – cuts and anti-cuts news from Nottingham and Notts – last one for 2010

A Yuletide missive from the compiler of Notts Cuts Watch, hopefully to be resumed in 2011:

Even with Christmas only just over the horizon, the cuts have continued over the last week, with the announcement of the funding settlement for local councils hitting Nottingham particularly hard. Even Cuts Watch has been cutback, this week’s edition arriving late and in a slimmed down version. “Normal” service may or may not resume after the holiday period.

Read Cuts Watch #10 (covering December 13th-19th 2010): http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/821

Plus – somethings to amuse…

Introducing a new economic comparator: Pudsey. Ministers say charities can step into the gap caused by cuts to services. So how many Children in Need appeals would it take to fill the gap? False Economy blog. 20/12/2010.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koY6kXhQDQo]

Planning meeting to launch ‘Nottingham Solidarity Network’ – Forest Fields and Hyson Green area – Tuesday 21st December 2010

An initiative has come out of Anarchists Against the Cuts to form a network aimed at fighting cuts and fostering community action in Forest Fields and Hyson Green and hopefully across Nottingham:

The Nottingham Solidarity Network will be forming soon! We are currently a group of community activists in the Forest Fields and Hyson Green area who want to form a network of local groups across the city. The aim of this network would be to support each other and show solidarity with one another. We are committed to local community ownership of our own resources, where people genuinely take back decision making for themselves. We have no party political agenda or time for the authorities.

There will be a meeting to decide how the network will take shape at the Sumac Centre on Tue 21st Dec, 7pm.

Article continues on Notts Indymedia: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/816

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