From the Forest to the Square – All out for a big Notts demonstration against the cuts – Saturday 20th November

Saturday 20th November is when we must make the City and County authorities in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire aware of the strength of feeling that is growing against cuts to services, jobs, welfare and education. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a locally or centrally controlled budget, we can’t allow these cuts to go ahead without a fight.

To find out just some of what’s happening in Nottingham and Notts, read our Newsletter –
Notts SOS Newsletter No. 1
: [Word version] [PDF version]

We will be assembling at the Forest Recreation Ground from 11.30am and marching at 12.30pm to the Market Square in Nottingham City Centre for a rally. The event is ‘Demonstration Against the Cuts ‘ and we say “There is an alternative. Make the rich pay for the crisis.” Bring your banners and placards (otherwise some will be available from Notts SOS). Let’s make it as big & noisy as possible!

Unless we refuse to accept them, all these cuts will go ahead while the well off people who govern us remain unaffected. If services and welfare are taken away, many people with illnesses and disability will suffer. If education is cut children and students of all ages will suffer. Facilities will close or get reduced and many more people will suffer. Is this the kind of society we want to live in?

All this,

  • while the banks remain bailed out with billions of pounds.
  • while vast city bonuses are still being given to individuals.
  • while private interests are being allowed to take over every aspect of life.
  • while huge corporate tax bills, like those of Vodafone or Boots, are avoided by sleight of hand.
  • while inequality of earnings is greater than ever.
  • while food and fuel prices are rising.
  • while billions of pounds are spent on weapons.
  • while billions of the world’s poor remain poor or are exploited for financial gain.
  • while the environment is ignored in the relentless search for profit and growth.
  • while the cause of the financial crisis remains virtually unchanged.

There must be a better way.

We won’t change the world in a day, but we have to take a stand against austerity.

Let’s remind the politicians who the Big Society really is.

We call on all workers, benefits and pension recipients, community groups, arts organisations, charities, school and college students, to unite and show opposition to the cuts in our region. Campaigners from nearby areas are welcome to join.

Kerfuffle at tax-dodging Boots – in Worthing, West Sussex, but it could be anywhere …

This was circulated on the Community Action Network mailing list which is a network that is helping link up community solidarity groups around the UK. More info and links to groups in Worthing.

Kerfuffle at tax-dodging Boots

ANTI-CUTS protesters caused a kerfuffle at the Worthing branch of Boots at Saturday lunchtime, November 13, as they drew attention to the firm’s tax-dodging antics.

Five of them walked into the Montague Street shop and started handing out leaflets [see text below] to customers condemning the way Boots moved its HQ to a Swiss post office box to avoid paying some £86 million a year in UK taxes – while ordinary people are made to suffer by ConDem cuts.

It took some time for panicked staff to round them up from the two floors of the busy store and they and others then carried on the leafleting outside the two street entrances, attracting a lot of interest and support from shoppers.

Boots management called Sussex Police, who started asking activists to provide their names and addresses, which they declined to do.

The cops also said Boots was accusing them of harassing customers by forcing them to take leaflets, but on being told that this was not true they did not pursue the point.

Customers leaving the shop reported that Boots staff had tried to take from them the leaflets that they had been handed on their way in.

Around 300 leaflets were handed out in an effective mini-action that clearly left Boots rattled – as did the previous action down the road at Vodafone.

More of these actions will be staged in future. Why not come and join us next time?

Below is the text of the leaflet:

WHY BOOTS ARE WALKING RIGHT OVER ALL OF US!

DID you know that Boots The Chemist, that High Street shop with which we are all so familiar, is stealing £86 million a year from the British public thanks to a tax dodge?

That’s right! As exposed recently on BBC radio’s File on 4, it sneakily changed its HQ to a post office office box in Switzerland to avoid paying proper UK taxes and is now handing over only £14m a year instead of more than £100m.

Meanwhile, Boots boss Andy Hornby – the former chief of failed bank HBOS, walked away with more than £2m in his own pocket for his first nine months’ work.

It’s the same picture everywhere – Big Business is being allowed to get away without paying its fair share of taxes that the rest of us have to cough up. And the Fat Cat bosses are laughing in our faces with their massive pay cheques and luxury lifestyles.

This comes at a time when the Tory/Lib Dem government is telling us the country is broke and we’ve all got to make ‘sacrifices’. Thousands of people will be losing their jobs. Vital public services will be cut.

Those who cannot find work are to be punished with what amounts to slave labour or the threat of starvation. Only the rich are to be allowed a proper education with the massive hike in student fees.

The NHS is coming under attack from privatisation. We are all going to have to work until we drop dead because the state doesn’t want to pay us the pension we’ve earned.

This is not a coincidence! What we are seeing is a deliberate attack on the majority of the population by greedy global Big Business and its friends in the deeply unpleasant Conservative and Lib Dem parties. We say we have to fight back! The students in London have shown us the way – we have to make it quite clear to the ruling elite that we will not put up with DAYLIGHT ROBBERY from Boots or any other Fat Cat criminals!

Join the resistance!

Defend student occupation of Tory HQ – and follow up Day of Action on 24th November

Students and education workers at Conservative Party HQ - showing a lot more people than the so called rogue minority reported by the mainstream mediaSeveral people have already commented on this via our newsletter No 1, but I think we need more comments on here and a higher profile for the issue of tuition fees in the light of yesterday’s events in London. I for one want to place on record my support for those students who occupied Millbank Tower, Tory Party HQ.As others have said, the real violence here is the violent assault by the Tories and LibDems on the access rights of students, particularly working class students, to higher education. The comments of Aaron Porter, the President of NUS, calling his fellow protesters mindless hoodlums, were totally out of order. Up until the General Election Porter was to the right of the LibDems in that he supports tuition fees, though not any increase. Those who stormed Tory Party HQ were venting the frustration and anger not just of students but all those who are experiencing or will soon experience the Tory axe. The determination of these young people to say no to these attacks is an inspiration to us all – it is time for us all to stand up and be counted. Let’s mobilise as many students as possible for the demo on November 20th and show that thousands can demonstrate in Nottingham as well as London.

Liam

NEW – Press Release for Day of Action on Wednesday 24th November:
http://anticuts.com/2010/11/12/press-release-24th-november-walkout-and-day-of-action/

NEWER – Stop the hunt on the Millbank protestors (Facebook)

Vodafone pay your taxes! [with videos]

On Clumber Street in Nottingham city centre today a demonstration was held outside the Vodafone shop about their non-payment of tax in Britain and in other countries. Why are services and jobs being cut when this could be covered by getting corporations and the rich to pay up? Noone was available to answer this question as the shop had been closed before the demonstration got there, and a small police cordon was there too (to protect business, as usual?). The Nott SOS demonstration clearly stated it was not directed at Vodafone shopworkers or shoppers but at the directors, owners. This message was not lost on passers-by. As well from those on holding placards in front of the shop, down the whole of Clumber Street the cry of “Vodafone pay your taxes” could clearly be heard.

View [Photos] on Notts Indymedia.

Watch videos: [Video 1] [Video 2] [Video 3]. More information can be found on Indymedia UK and http://ukuncut.wordpress.com/

NEW: leaflet – http://notts.indymedia.org.uk/articles/668

Join Notts SOS for a major anti-cuts march and demonstration in Nottingham – Saturday 20th November 2010 [plus ‘Liar Liar’ video]

Image of Notts SOS Flyer for November 20th demo - same as PDFThis is an advance call out for the next Nottingham Save Our Services demonstration! Following protests in town and at County Hall during the week of the Spending Review, we will assemble at the Forest Recreation Ground at 11.30am and then march to the Market Square in Nottingham at 12.30pm on Saturday 20th November where we will hold a rally.. The event is ‘Demonstration Against the Cuts’ and we say “There is an alternative. Make the rich pay for the crisis.” Hopefully this will give you time to make your own banners and placards. Lets make it as big & noisy as possible! Download leaflet advertising the demo.

We call on all workers, benefits and pension recipients, community groups, charities, school and college students, to unite and show opposition to the cuts in our region. Campaigners from nearby areas are welcome to join.
Download Flyer for Notts SOS 20th November 2010 Demonstration (A4 also suitable as poster). Alternative download Flyer for Notts SOS Nov 20th Demo – two A5 leaflets per page.

Download Notts SOS Newsletter No. 1: [Word version] [PDF version]

Feel free to visit the Notts SOS stall in the Market Square this Saturday at 12 noon this weekend (6th Nov) and join the Clumber Street Vodaphone protest at 2pm if you can. From now until the demonstration we will be having stalls around the city and surburbs. We will also be meeting each Monday at the International Community Centre (YMCA Mansfield Road) from 7.30pm until 9.30pm. All welcome.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQFwxw57NBI&hl=en_GB&feature=player_embedded&version=3]

Coaches to the NUS and UCU education demonstration in London – Wednesday 10 November 2010

Poster to advertise the NUS and UCU demo-lition event on November 10th 2010The UCU (Universities and College Union) and NUS (National Union of Students) are jointly organising a national demo, ‘Fund Our Future: Stop Education Cuts’ on Wednesday 10 November 2010, in central London. Nottingham Trent University and University of Nottingham UCU will have a coaches running for members and non-members who want to attend the demonstration (contact local unions for information). The NUS at University of Nottingham will also be running coaches.

Protest outside Vodafone, Clumber Street, Nottingham City Cente, 2pm Saturday 6th November

Notts SOS have called a protest outside Vodafone in Nottingham City Centre over their huge unpaid tax bill. Protestors will be gathering outside the store on Clumber Street in the City centre at 2pm to say that business should pay tax too.

The protest will take place directly after the Notts SOS campaign stall that will be present from 12-2pm in the Market Square.Full details for the Nottingham action can be found on Notts Indymedia & Notts Trades Union Council websites.

Read more about the Vodaphone campaign and previous actions on Indymedia UK. For photos of protest across the UK see: http://ukuncut.wordpress.com/

Housing under attack – join a flash mob in Market Square, Tuesday 2nd Nov at 6pm

Logo of Framework, homelessness charity in Nottingham and Notts

At the Notts SOS meeting last night it was announced that Framework workers have called for a “flash mob” – that is, a mass of people to turn up in Nottingham City Centre in the Market Square today Tuesday 2nd November 2010, to make a poignant protest.
Update: Framework flash mob took place – read a report on Notts Indymedia.
Continue reading “Housing under attack – join a flash mob in Market Square, Tuesday 2nd Nov at 6pm”

‘Youth Fight for Jobs’ on the Notts SOS Market Square demonstration on 20th October

The Comprehensive Spending Review, launched by the government on Wednesday October 20th, marked cuts D-Day. Notwithstanding the super-rich who caused the economic crisis in the first place, nobody will be untouched by these cuts – jobs and services are set to be haemorraghed by the government.

Youth Fight for Jobs held a national day of protest on October 20th to tell the government loud and clear that we do not agree with the cuts. Continue reading “‘Youth Fight for Jobs’ on the Notts SOS Market Square demonstration on 20th October”

Militants attack Nottinghamshire County Hall during week of cuts revelations

Militants attacked Nottinghamshire County Hall in West Bridgford last Wednesday night. “Fuck austerity!” and “Fight the cuts!” were painted on walls and damage was done to windows. In an anonymous communique published on Notts Indymedia, they claim that they will “continue to attack in solidarity with all those who are abused by goverments and banks in the name of capitalism”. Continue reading “Militants attack Nottinghamshire County Hall during week of cuts revelations”

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