Category: Road to success

Stories of fightback.

Join us in fighting the cuts – Notts SOS update for week beginning 27th Feb 2012

Last Thursday, Nottinghamshire County Council voted through its latest
cuts budget with the “independents” and LibDems tagging along with the
Tory majority.

Nevertheless,The fight against the cuts continues. In Nottinghamshire
they still need to be implemented and, across the river in the city,
it is just over a week before Nottingham City Council meet to agree
their budget. We’ll be there making it clear that we’re not happy with
the way they are meekly following central government’s diktats and
passing on the costs of the crisis to the ordinary people of
Nottingham.

Come along and get involved!

—–

BOYCOTT WORKFARE

Workfare is the name applied to a number of government programmes in
which people on workfare are expected to work without pay. Instead of
a living wage, they receive only JSA – a tiny £53 a week for the
under-25s – far below minimum wage.

Workfare means those in paid positions may see their jobs replaced by
this unpaid labour. Why would a company pay for people to do these
jobs when they can get free labour from the Job Centre?

There has been a lot of controversy about this over the last week,
following (ultimately successful) protests against Tescos which was a
participant in the “Work Experience Programme”.

In solidarity with Liverpool Uncut’s action against workfare on
Saturday 3rd March, Boycott Workfare has called a national day of
action against workfare. Notts Uncut are organising a demonstration as
part of this in Nottingham.

So many high street stores are involved in taking on forced unpaid
labour that there is plenty of choice – Asda, Holland & Barrett,
Primark, HMV, and Topshop to name but a few.

We can put a stop to this forced unpaid labour – Waterstones,
Sainsburys and TK Maxx have all recently announced that they would no
longer take unpaid placements – the other companies just need a bit
more encouragement to stop this exploitation.

Meet outside Wilkinsons, Parliament Street, 12pm

Protest details: http://s.coop/nottsworkfare

More on workfare: http://www.boycottworkfare.org

—————

OCCUPY NOTTINGHAM

The occupation of Nottingham’s Market Square has now been ongoing for
more than 4 months. The campers are inviting people along to an
outreach and social event in Sneinton. This is an opportunity to enjoy
a relaxed informative insight into the economy, the Occupy movement,
and its aims, achievements and plans the future.

What to expect:

Speakers/Open Debate: 7-8pm
Food, Music & Poetry: 8-9pm
Networking/Open Floor: 9-10pm

…and much much more!

This is a free event organised by the Occupy Nottingham Outreach
working group, and everyone is invited to get involved or attend for
an insightful, educational and fun evening!

The event will be held at Sneinton Hermitage Community Centre,
Sneinton Boulevard, NG2 4GN

More details: http://occupy-nottingham.org.uk

—————

CITY COUNCIL CUTS

On Monday March 5th, Nottingham City Council will be meeting to agree
its budget, slashing jobs and services and hiking council tax.

Notts SOS and Nottingham City Unison will be holding a join
demonstration outside the Council House from 12.30pm-1.30pm.

Unison are also holding a smaller demonstration at Loxley House on
Wednesday 29th February in defence of the essential car user allowance
which has already been cutback and is likely to be attacked further.

—————

ONE MILLION SIGNATURES FOR EUROPE

A petition has been launched calling for the “onerous debt” on Greece
to be written off. The intention is to collect a million signatures.
Under the Treaty of Lisbon, a petition with at least one million
signatures obtained from a number of Member States can be sent to the
Commission inviting it to change the law accordingly.

Petition: http://www.1millionsignatures.eu/?a=en

—————

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Tuesday 28th February, 7pm-10pm
Occupy Nottingham community outreach and social evening, Sneinton
Hermitage Community Centre, Sneinton Boulevard, NG2 4GN
http://occupy-nottingham.org.uk

Wednesday 29th February
PCS protest against closures of DVLA offices. Nottingham Business Park, Strelley
https://imc.li/zxphu

Wednesday 29th February, 12.30pm-1.30pm
Nottingham City Unison protest outside Loxley House in defence of
essential car user allowances
http://www.nottinghamcityunison.org.uk/

Saturday 3rd March, 12pm
Protest against workfare. Meet outside Wilkinsons, Parliament Street.
http://s.coop/nottsworkfare

Monday 5th March, 12.30pm-1.30pm
Nottingham City Council meets to set its budget. A protest is being
organised by Notts City Unison and Notts SOS.
http://www.nottinghamcityunison.org.uk/

Wednesday 7th March, 1pm-7.30pm
Save our NHS mass day of action, Houses of Parliament, London.
http://s.coop/unitenhs

Wednesday 14th March
National student walkout over “reforms” to higher education
http://gu.com/p/35dqz

Saturday 17th March, 2pm
Nottingham Indymedia are organising an online security skillshare at
the Sumac Centre.This will include an introductory session on using
Indymedia to post your own news about campaigns
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/events/2413

Wednesday 28th March
Possible national strike action over pensions by PCS and NUT (and
maybe other unions)

Saturday 12th April, 2pm
Legal observer training organised by Nottingham Defence Campaign and
run by Green and Black Cross. Held at the Sumac Centre, Forest Fields
https://imc.li/2sgsx

—
Nottinghamshire Save Our Services (Notts SOS)

Website: https://nottssos.org.uk
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nottssos
OStatus: https://indy.im/nottssos
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/nottssosfb
Nottingham Indymedia:
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/groups/notts-save-our-services

Happy New Year from Notts SOS – January 2012 meetings and events

Happy new year from Notts SOS. With the festive break behind us, things are now getting started again. We’ll first be meeting this evening (Monday 9th January) then two weeks after that. There will also be another Notts Uncut demo on Saturday and a meeting about the policing of protest in Nottingham. Keep an eye on our website for updates.

NOTTS SOS MEETINGS

We meet every two weeks which means that the next meetings are Monday 9th January and Monday 23rd January.

As ever, we meet at 7.30pm at the YMCA International Community Centre, Mansfield Road. Meetings are usually finished before 9pm and there’s often an opportunity to carry on any discussion informally in the pub afterwards. Please do come along and get involved.

OCCUPY NOTTINGHAM

The occupation in the Market Square has now been in situ for almost 3 months, an astonishing success. However, the city council is now making noises about trying to evict the occupiers by the end of the month. Details are vague at the moment, but keep an eye on the occupations’ Twitter/Facebook pages for more news.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/occupynotts
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/occupy.nottingham

NOTTS UNCUT

Notts Uncut will be out and about again in 2012, visiting tax dodging companies in Nottingham on Saturday 14th January. They’re keen to build on the success of 2011 and show that they are not intimidated by the heavy-handed policing which they experienced during their “Christmas Special” protest in December.

Notts Uncut will be meeting outside Boots, Upper Parliament Street at 12 noon.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/nottssos
Website: http://www.nottsuncut.co.uk
Email: nottsuncutaction [at] gmail.com

RIGHT TO PROTEST MEETING

Following the arrests at the Notts Uncut “Christmas Special” and in light of the continuing prosecution of the “Atos Two” there is a need for people in Nottingham to get together to work out how we can effectively resist political policing.

To this end the Nottingham Defence Campaign are inviting people to an open meeting at the Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone St, NG7 6HX, at 2pm on Saturday 14th January to discuss we want to respond. The meeting will be relatively informal and the agenda can be shaped by the specific concerns of attendees, but likely points of discussion include legal observing and support, court solidarity, further protests and wider publicity.

Event details: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/events/2298

Please come along or, if you can’t make it, spread the word.

Website: https://network23.org/
Indy.im: https://indy.im/nottsdefence
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nottsdefence

—
Notts Save Our Services
Web: http://www.nottssos.org.uk
Twitter: @nottssos

Looking back over 2011 on Nottingham Indymedia – lots of good anti-cuts photos

A nice pictorial summary of 2011 is presented on Nottingham Indymedia. Lots of anti-cuts activity is recorded: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2294

The past year has been a particularly tumultuous one which has seen the wave of Middle Eastern revolutions, the Libyan war, the August Riots, the indignados and occupy movements, the Eurozone crisis, Hackgate, the continuing militancy of the anti-cuts movement and much more. Nottingham has felt the reverberations of many of these global events, with an Occupy Nottingham camp in the Market Square, anti-police riots, the biggest trade union march for decades and many solidarity and anti-cuts actions and demonstrations.

Come and join Notts SOS and make 2012 a year when the voices of anti-cuts campaigning cannot be ignored.

NOTTS SOS meetings in January 2012

Regular Notts SOS meetings resume in 2012 on Mondays 9th and 23rd January. These take place fortnighly at the YMCA International Community Centre on Mansfield Road and start at 7.30 finishing around 9.00pm.

Come along and get involved or if you can’t make it, contact us and tell us about your anti-cuts activities.

What cuts? In our News section we have covered the cuts in City and Council budgets:

Another round of cuts is due in 2012 and we must be ready to take action again.

Other ways to keep informed of Notts SOS activities are as follows.

Keep up to date by subscribing to this blog (scroll down and add your email address on the right of this page to receive a message whenever there is a new blog post. You can also join the Notts SOS facebook page or follow us on Notts SOS twitter.

Look out for our occasional newsletters: https://nottssos.org.uk/2011/11/16/notts-sos-newsletter-no-7-november-2011/

Invitation to join Occupy Nottingham on New Year’s Eve in the Market Square

A message from Occupy Nottingham who have been occupying the Market Square with a tent city since October 15th 2011 to highlight the failings of the global financial system and to say enough is enough – a different world is needed.

Come & join us in the Market Place on New Years Eve!

Stand with us around the camp if you are in agreement & support us & our message, lets stand together to begin 2012 as one voice for change & an end to greed!

Facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/occupy.nottingham

More coverage of the Occupation in Nottingham: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2287

Notts Uncut Xmas Special gets ‘pigged’ with 3 arrests

On Saturday 17th December Notts UnCut yet again highlighted tax-dodging companies who are peddling their produce on Nottingham City high streets such as Boots (Swiss HQ), Vodaphone (Luxembourg HQ) and the various Arcadia Gruop outlets like Top Man/Top Shop, Burtons and Dorothy whose ownership was transferred by Philip Green to his wife who for tax purposes is based in Monaco, so avoiding UK tax.

On this occasion the force of the law decided that this message was too rich for Nottingham people and decided to arrest 2 of the protesters, and a third when the protest ended up at the Bridewell police station, demanding release of the first two.

All in this together?

Indymedia coverage: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2276

Background to the demo: https://nottssos.org.uk/2011/12/15/notts-uncut-christmas-special-saturday-17th-december-2011-2/

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

Notts Uncut Christmas Special – Saturday 17th December 2011

Notts Uncut’s next action is this Saturday (17th December) and will be meeting at 1pm outside Parliament St. Boots and moving onto their target, which will be decided by UK Uncut’s facebook poll.

Come along and bring your anti-cuts Christmas carol songsheets and Santa hats.

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

Link to Facebook poll: http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/actions/782

A Notts SOS article from 2010 to get you in a festive mood: https://nottssos.org.uk/2010/12/20/christmas-carols-subverted-into-anti-cuts-protests-with-12-days-of-cripmas-video/

Coverage of the N30 strike day in Nottingham

Coverage of the November 30th coordinated strike day in defence of pensions can be found on Nottingham Indymedia with a feature article linking up various submitted articles and photos: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/2241

In Nottingham over 10,000 people marched from the Forest into the city centre, many after taking part in pickets of their workplaces, and it was wonderful to be received by applause as we turned the corner of Mansfield Rd. and Parliament St. The march then passed via Speakers’ Corner and through the Old Market Square alongside Occupy Nottingham and ended up in and outside of Albert Hall for a rally.

Earlier in the day those in Notts SOS and Notts UnCut who were not involved in the industrial action, including many students, supported picket lines at workplaces in the city and county with refreshments and good cheer. For a few hours after the march, a Critical Mass group of 25 cyclists cycled (at extremely slow pace) around the city centre, spreading the word about the strike and the fight against government cuts everywhere they went. There was a huge amount of public support for the message. The ride ended at the Sumac Centre in Forest Fields where the Autonomous Nottingham free space had relocated.

View N30 slideshow on Notts TUC: http://www.nottstuc.org/2011/12/images-from-nottingham-strike-march.html

Industrial action continues (including work to contract at Universities and Colleges by members of UCU) while several unions have been in talks with the government since the 30th. More pressure will be needed to prevent the loss of hard won pensions, pay and conditions over the coming months. The NHS and benefits are also under sustained attack. Notts SOS will continue its work in bringing together people who are fighting austerity in its various guises.

After our last meeting of 2011 took place this evening, Notts SOS will resume its meetings in the New Year, on Monday 9th January 2012. All welcome!
There will be various events before then though, so do keep checking our website (you can also subscribe to get notification of new articles – just enter your email on the right).

November 30th – support the strikes in Nottingham & Notts!

On November 30th, public sector unions will strike together in defence
of their pensions. The government-led attack which they are fighting
is part of the wider cuts agenda. Notts SOS will be supporting what is
likely to be the largest strike in decades and we urge you to do so as
well.

Check out some of the things happening on November 30th that we know
about below.

The former Conservative Social Club on Church Street Lenton has been
occupied as a free space to support the strike. There will be events
there on Wednesday and throughout the week.

More details: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2211 – note this venue has been evicted so please check indymedia to check if the events marked Free Space are going ahead.

NOVEMBER 30: TIMETABLE

Early morning onwards – Pickets outside all public buildings, schools,
universities, etc. affected by the strike. Notts Uncut with the help
of Occupy Nottingham are planning to do a roaming soup kitchen feeding
the pickets.

List of pickets in Nottingham: http://www.nottstuc.org/p/nov-30-meetings.html

Contact Notts Uncut: nottsuncutaction@gmail.com

10.30 – Start assembling for the march on the Forest

11.30 – March leaves the Forest for the Market Square

12.30 – Trade Union rally at the Albert Hall (tickets available from
trade unions)

13.00 – Critical Mass solidarity bike ride will leave from Market Square

More details: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/events/2183

15.00 – Soup & Discussion of N30 and the future of workers’ struggle
at Notts Free Space

More info: http://network23.org/autonomousnottingham/2011/11/22/notts-free-space/

19.00 – Nottingham journalists campaign to save public broadcasting
meeting at New Mechanics

More info: http://www.nottstuc.org/2011/11/bbc-presenters-step-forward-to-save.html

19.30 – Dinner and film showing of The Take at Notts Free Space

More info: http://network23.org/autonomousnottingham/2011/11/22/notts-free-space/

—
Notts Save Our Services
Web: http://www.nottssos.org.uk
Twitter: @nottssos

ATOS 2 defiant and plead not guilty to aggravated trespass – much support at courts in Nottingham

On Friday 25 November 2011 the “Atos Two” who were arrested during a protest at the ATOS Healthcare medical examination centre on Stoney Street in were due in Nottingham Magistrates Court. Bailed for 9.45am a solidarity demo had been called outside at 9.30am which was very well supported (see photo). There is already national awareness of the action taken by the authorities over this protest. ATOS (or SEMA in Scotland) has been the subject of protests all over the UK for its role in the government’s attack on disabled and ill benefits claimants. The ATOS Two trial will be held from Monday 27th February 2012.

Full story and more photos: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2202

Press release: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2206

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

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