Notts Save Our Services – archived site
Defending jobs, services, welfare & education against cuts in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
Stories of fightback.
The anniversary issue of Notts SOS newsletter, no. 7, November 2011 is out. Our latest newsletter includes an overview of the year’s campaigning plus forthcoming action. We welcome new and updated information about local campaigns and about cuts to services.
Download screen readable version: NOTTS SOS NEWSLETTER 7 – NOV 2011 – Word version
Download PDF: NOTTS SOS NEWSLETTER 7 – NOV 2011 – PDF version
On Saturday 12th November 2011, meeting outside Boots on Upper Parliament Street, protestors and activist of Notts Uncut proceeded to Vodafone in Clumber Street, to remind them of the £8 billion pounds that they owe in taxes. This day of action marked one year of activity by Notts Uncut who have protested relentlessly against the companies who have been highlighted as moving their operations off-shore to avoid paying UK tax, linking this to the cuts in services that are supposedly due to lack of money in the public purse.
Other usual suspects were also visited including Topshop, Dorethy Perkins, another Vodafone, BHS in Broadmarch and of course Boots, eventually arriving back in the Market Square for tea and cakes at the Occupy Nottingham camp.
Full story: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/2167
More on Notts SOS about corporate tax and UK Uncut: https://nottssos.org.uk/tag/tax/
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/
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!
On Saturday 10th September 2011 at 12.30am Nottingham Un-cut protestors gathered outside the central library in Nottingham to start a day of action against tax avoiding companies. A nice report and great photos can be found here: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/2038. Notts Uncut: http://www.nottsuncut.co.uk or email nottsuncutaction@gmail.com
The following day the Sunday Telegraph reported that one of the main high street tax avoiders Sir Philip Green – who put investment company Taveta, that acquired Arcadia Stores empire Burton, Top Shop etc., in his wifes name in 2002 so managing to avoid paying £285 million in tax in the UK – is now claiming that the occupation of the Fortnum & Mason store earlier this year by protesters against Government cuts encouraged this summer’s rioters and looters. Funny old world.
Action for ESOL statement on 28th August 2011 – English for Speakers of Other Languages
Government U-Turn: Victory for the Action For ESOL campaign!
The Skills Funding Agency has confirmed that full funding is available for ESOL and other adult courses formerly subject to the restrictive eligibility criteria that would have excluded up to 75% of adults on so called ‘inactive’ benefits. This represented a huge attack on adult education, and would have affected students from some of the poorest inner city communities. Action for ESOL was particularly concerned with the impact on non-native speakers of English who need English to support their children, find work, access education and play a full role in their communities. 250,000 adult places that were risk this year can be now be saved! This is an important victory for the Action for ESOL campaign.
Read more: http://www.natecla.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=607
Action for ESOL: http://actionforesol.org
Notts Uncut visited Vodafone, NatWest, Top Shop/Top Man and Boots, continuing the UK-wide network of groups’ mission to highlight the massive amount of money avoided by tax avoidance schemes of corporations and money paid to bankers as bonuses after their being bailed out for billions of pounds using public money.
Vodafone’s tax avoidance was sanctioned by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs when an official let the company off passing future trade through Luxembourg with a much reduced tax bill for past trade, allowing the company to avoid £6 billion pounds of tax after the deal was made. Top Shop/Top Man is one of government advisor Sir Philip Green’s high street stores in the ‘Arcadia group’ whose ownership was passed to his wife who is based in the tax haven of Monaco, whisking £285 million of UK tax away in the process. Boots moved it’s HQ to Switzerland recently to avoid £100m of UK tax. All daylight robbery achieved without breaking any windows but by use of the machinery of capitalism that allows money to be moved around the world whilst governments say there is no alternative to cuts in services we need. Another Sir, Richard Branson is considering a move abroad for his Virgin enterprise as the rich show their contempt for the rest of us after using the UK as their money-making playground.
Read story and see photos on Nottingham Indymedia plus more photos on Facebook.
Before the protest, the growing group announced,
“Notts Uncut will be coming together again to remind the tax avoiding banks and corporations based in Nottingham that we haven’t gone away and we haven’t forgotten what they’re up to.
While the Con-Dem government is getting increasingly cut-happy, telling us that there is no money for homeless shelters and women’s refuges, that we can’t afford to give charities government grants, that students must pay £9000 a year for degree courses, that people living on the breadline must survive on less and less there is a select group of people who are not suffering from the cuts – the bankers and corporate fat cats. While ordinary people are suffering these people are still paying multi million pounds worth of bonuses and avoiding billions of pounds worth of tax. Let’s get out there and make sure the government and their super wealthy tax dodging mates know that we’re onto them!!”
These pension threats are part of the ongoing attack on the wages of workers whether immediate or deferred and the push to make us all work harder and longer to pay for the profit losses of the banks with their market manipulations. A crisis not of our making. All this while the rich are all but unaffected, the banks have been given billions, and corporate interests are taking the piss with massive tax dodges.
March, Rally & Meeting
Amongst a sea of trade union banners, trade unionists, services users and those threatened or already suffering from service cuts marched to Trinity Square. Anti-cuts activists involved with Notts SOS were prominent in the events. Trade union activists then marched to the Albert Hall for an indoor rally and campaign meeting. Speeches in Trinity Square continued to outline the threat to education, the NHS and local services from government policies. At County Hall, Notts Unison members and supporters protested against cuts and axing of vital services supporting people in the County.
At the same time as the Albert Hall meeting, after packing up began at Trinity Sq., Notts UnCut visited the usual targets of tax-avoiding companies in the city centre to protest against the hypocrisy of companies like Boots who now have their HQ abroad to avoid tax. All this whilst the Chamber of Commerce of Derby and Notts has the audacity to complain about the loss to UK PLC of one strike day. Especially galling as this was the same day that Lloyds TSB bank said they aim to axe 15,000 more jobs (on top of 27,500 losses already announced) as part of a review to get them back into the black – showing again that it is workers who are paying for the crisis, while it was reported by the Daily Telegraph that “Investors welcomed the results of the review sending Lloyds share price up more than 6pc in early trading to 47.17p”, showing which side private investors are on.
Notts Cold Cuts
Earlier in the morning, from 8am, Notts UnCut and Notts Save Our Services activists, including some individuals from unions not on strike today but supporting the strike action, went round pickets at Job Centres, Courts and the Tax Office handing out sandwiches, cake and chocolate, giving a boost to the official pickets.
The night before, other activists reported having superglued the locks to the doors of Job Centre Plus on Canal Street, and also Atos Origin on Stoney Street (who carry out health examinations which are being used to carry out government policy to kick a lot of disability claimants off vital benefits). Elsewhere in the UK, activists made the links between unemployed struggles and the PCS dispute.
Some of the high points: It a was a large and passionate march from the Forest and families with children who were missing school due to the teachers’ strike came along to support their school teachers. Royal Mail workers refused to cross picket lines. Workers asked for union application forms on pickets. Lots of honking of horns supporting the pickets and march, including bus drivers.
Some of the low points: At one point picket supporters were chased and shouted at by G4S security staff at the Tax Office for going off the right-of-way through the middle of the office grounds in order to find the strikers. Then at Castle College we heard that Teaching Assistants were disgracefully covering lecturers’ classes. Elsewhere some individuals seemed to have fallen for politicians’ rhetoric about pensions and against strike action.
But this will not be the end of the strikes and other actions against austerity. In fact action against destruction of the NHS will take place next week on Tuesday 5th (NHS founding anniversary) and a major day of action on Saturday 9th of July. Activity on the 5th will be in North Notts as well as Nottingham. Full details elsewhere on the site or coming soon. The next Notts SOS meeting is on Monday 4th July at the usual venue – YMCA International Community Centre on Mansfield Road, starting 7.30pm. Come and get involved with saving your services!
Other reports/photos: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk. See also UCU Castle College picket photos on facebook.
Join the Nottingham unions NUT, ATL, UCU, PCS joint strike march from The Forest and city centre rally at Trinity Square on 30th June, then meeting at Albert Hall with many solidarity actions. Supported by Notts Trades Council, Notts Save Our Services, Nottingham Students Against Fees and Cuts, University of Nottingham UCU Local Association, Notts Uncut, plus Notts Unison action at County Hall West Bridgford against cuts to social care provision in the County.
* NO PENSION CUTS!
* NO JOB CUTS!
* NO CUTS TO SERVICES!
* Bring banners, friends and family!
Timetable
Background: Striking for pensions | Striking against Job cuts | Striking for you and your services
Teachers, lecturers, and civil servants, in the NUT, ATL, UCU, and PCS are being forced to take strike action on 30th June.
The strike is against Con-Dem plans to:
– cut public sector pensions by a third;
– increase the public sector pension age to 68;
– make public sector workers pay 50% more for it!
– cut jobs, hundreds of government jobs have already been lost in Nottinghamshire
– close workplaces, such as DWP Sutton and Mansfield
– Cut all public sector pay at a time when inflation is above 5% and utility bills will be increased by 19%!
This strike action is not happening because union members and their families are greedy; pensions are a vital part of our pay. These union members have chosen to work in the public sector because they believe in providing good public services for all and taking strike action is never an easy decision.
The attacks on the public sector are part of a much bigger agenda. The Con-Dems want to privatise the NHS, cut spending on schools and services, price our kids out of college and university, cut benefits to those in need and see unemployment soar.
In essence, they want to attack every service that we value and hold dear.
Yet none of this is necessary. The richest 1000 people in Britain have seen their wealth increase by £130 BILLION in the last two years to a staggering £396 BILLION. Instead of cutting staff the Government should employ more tax inspectors to get in the £120 billion in avoided, evaded and uncollected tax by the rich, such as the reported £6 BILLION owed by Vodafone.
We’re taking action to stand up for pensions and public services for all. Bring your family and join us on the demonstration and rally to show your support for public services and public servants.
Unison action at County Hall. Please back demonstration ahead of the Full Council meeting on 30 June. We’ll be protesting from 8.30am (the council meeting starts at 10am). All staff, service users and community groups welcome. Make some noise so your councillors can hear you!!!
Adult day care centres forced to close. The council plans to close 35 specialist adult day centres, and replace these with just 13 generic ones. UNISON fears this will leave too few centres, forcing elderly or vulnerable people to travel further. Over 118 care staff face the sack.
Supporting People budgets halved.The council also plans to cut £10million of funding to ‘Supporting People’ projects—with many axed or cut as much as 50%. The council under-spent by £24million in the last financial year, but intends to cut frontline services to the most vulnerable and needy. The council claims it has consulted widely on these plans, but UNISON fears these cuts have yet to be fully explained to those most likely to face them.
UKUncut support: Notts Uncut will be supporting the June 30th strikes by members of NUT, ATL, UCU and PCS.
Nottingham UKUncut will be involved in several activities throughout the day and would love as many people as possible to come along to any or all of them, starting the day by visiting the picket lines and delivering some breakfast to the strikers, meeting at 8am at the front of the railway station. After the pickets have all been fed we will be forming a Notts Uncut bloc on the march. Assemble at the Forest Recreation Ground at 11am and look out for the Notts Uncut banner. If you are able to come along at 8am to feed the pickets can you send us a message to let us know please – everything else, just turn up.
University of Nottingham UCU Local Association and Nottingham Students against Fees and Cuts. Those university staff who are able to take the day off (UCU has a seperate pension scheme not controlled by government in which changes have been railroaded by employers) will join at the Forest at 11am and March to Trinity Square. The key message from Nottingham University staff and students is that cuts to university teaching budgets by 80% and enormous rises in student fees will price out students of less wealthy families or leave them with crippling debts. Due to pension changes staff will get a pay cut and worse standard of living in retirement. Government and employers have chosen to make the people pay for the mistakes of the banks. Trade unions are right to defend the terms and conditions of ordinary workers. We urge you to support the actions on 30th June.
What can I do?
There has already been a great deal of work done but there is still much to do. Joint union leaflets are being produced and should be available for collection / distribution on Friday 24 June. Your help distributing these leaflets will be invaluable. I have attached an electronic copy for e-distribution, attachment to web sites etc but to order paper copies, please contact paul.williams@dsa.gsi.gov.uk 07771 940812.
Saturday 25 June
There will be an opportunities to leaflet in the Market Square, Nottingham from 12.00 and at Long Eaton Carnival, West Park, Wilsthorpe Rd from 12.00. Support at Long Eaton would be especially welcomed.
Thursday 30 June
It is hoped that p1cket lines can be advertised on the Trades Council website so please ensure you keep checking for updates.
ATL, NUT, PCS and UCU members will be delighted to see you and your members visiting their lines, marching with your flags and banners, celebrating in the Trinity Square and rallying in the Albert Hall so PLEASE publicise these events to your own membership, encourage them to pop along and show your support. We’d be delighted to pass on any messages to members in the participating unions so feel free to send them to this address.
If you are free on the day and would like to help out on the day, please let us know. Stewards are always welcome and ‘gophers’ a necessity. Anything you can do would be appreciated.
Speakers are required for the Trinity Square celebration – if you or a representative of your union or a campaign group you are involved in would like to speak in support of the action, please contact Cara Nurse of PCS at cara-lee.nurse@dsa.gsi.gov.uk, Paul Martin at nottspcs@hotmail.co.uk or 07986 351807
On Saturday 28th May, Notts Uncut organised an “emergency operation” in Nottingham city centre. They visited banks and tax dodging corporations to campaign in defence of the NHS. The protest was part of a national day of action called by UK Uncut. Read more: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/1814
See also: Eat the Rich! http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/1811
Notts Uncut website: http://www.nottsuncut.co.uk/