Notts Save Our Services – archived site
Defending jobs, services, welfare & education against cuts in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire
Anti workfare flying pickets rock Salvation Army in Edinburgh
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Anti workfare campaigners swooped on four Salvation Army shops in Edinburgh on 3rd March, blockading them all and turning away customers and a delivery lorry. Salvation Army managers were visibly rattled as a giant banner proclaiming IF YOU EXPLOIT US WE WILL SHUT YOU DOWN blocked the entrance to their shops.
Nottingham City Council have succeeded in their attempt to imprison pensioner Ross Longhurst for refusing to pay Council Tax as a protest against the Coalition Government’s austerity measures. He was sentenced on Thursday 13th March to 28 days in prison and was immediately taken out of court by six burly G4S persons. Read more:
http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/7616
Government statistics on the number of claimants forced to work for charities without pay reveal just over 12,000 disabled people have faced mandatory referrals to unpaid work since the workfare scheme was launched.
More action is needed to highlight the abuse of charities in government workfare schemes.
Local angle (Framework) latest news: http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/5789 Background on Framework: https://nottssos.org.uk/2013/05/05/opposing-charity-involvement-in-workfare-a-new-local-campaign/
Join The Atos Games!
On your marks, get set… for a week of Paralympic fun and games against Atos!
From Monday 27th to Friday 31st of August, join Disabled People Against Cuts for The Atos Games – five days of action against a company that’s sponsoring the Paralympics but wrecking disabled people’s lives.
We are calling on disabled people, disabled activists, families, colleagues, friends and supporters to come together and fight back against Atos’s attacks. Atos represents as dangerous an opponent as any government, law or barrier the disability movement has faced in its long history. It’s not just welfare, but our very identity and our place within society that is under attack.
And we are asking the whole of the anti-cuts movement to join us in our opposition to the company most responsible for driving through the government’s brutal cuts agenda. Let’s make it Games over for Atos!
We’re not against the Paralympics or the people taking part in it. We’re highlighting the hypocrisy of Atos, a company that soon may be taking disability benefits from the people winning medals for Team GB.
Ever since George Osborne announced he was slashing £18 billion from the welfare budget, the government has paid Atos £100 million a year to test 11,000sick and disabled people every week, then decide whether they’re ‘fit for work’.
Atos uses an inhumane computer programme to do the testing, and trains its staff to push people off benefits. The government has admitted the tests are flawed, and the British Medical Association wants them to end immediately.
But Atos continues to devastate people’s lives. Many have committed suicide because of its testing programme, and over 1,000 people have died of their illnesses soon after being found ‘fit for work’.
We won’t let them get away with murder, so join in The Atos Games however you can – online, on the phone, or on the streets!
· Monday 27th: A coffin full of your messages about Atos will be delivered to its doorstep.
· Tuesday 28th: Pay a visit to your local Atos office – and maybe even take your protest inside!
· Wednesday 29th: We’ll hold a spoof Paralympic awards ceremony, hopefully with some very special guests…
· Thursday 30th: Phone jam! Let’s flood Atos with calls, and generate a Twitter-storm they can’t ignore!
· Then on Friday 31st, join us in London where we’re teaming up with UK Uncut for the Grand Finale – an audacious, daring and disruptive action. Last time we shut down Oxford Circus, this time we will be performing miracles…!
Over the next few weeks we’ll give more details about each day of action. We’ll make sure that DPAC members and disabled people who can’t travel will be able to take part in different and accessible ways.
We’d really like YOU to make this week of action a great success! Let’s come together and show this monstrous company that we’re stronger than them. They’re the vulnerable ones and they know it.
Atos has offices in most towns across the country, so start organising an action for August 28th at your local Atos now!
Let the Atos Games begin!
Report from Boycott Workfare: http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=1352
Protests against workfare took place on 7-14 July across the UK in a week of action called by the Boycott Workfare network to escalate the campaign against forced unpaid work.
Another hugely successful and diverse week of action across the UK, saw actions in over twenty locations across the UK, hundreds of people step up the pressure with phone calls and online action, and even an Early Day Motion tabled in Parliament.
Holland & Barrett pulled out of workfare the day before its stores were to see more protests across the UK. The week ended as it began with yet another big high street name wavering in its use of workfare. Savers have said that they will use the people currently doing workfare until their placements expire, but it will not be taking on any new workfare workers, until it has spoken to ministers about concerns that if people refuse to they will have their benefits stopped.
Let’s hope they don’t buy the government’s line that the placements on the Work Experience scheme are now voluntary. Sanctions have only been temporarily suspended. People are still told that they risk losing benefits if they do not go on the scheme, and people who refuse are threatened with a mandatory scheme instead. So we will be keeping an eye on Savers. They wouldn’t be the first organisation to publicly claim that they have pulled out of workfare, only to sneak it back in. Which takes us to Scope.
Sadly, Scope continues to use workfare and has been cited by the government to help it promote its Mandatory Work Activity Scheme. You may like to contact Scope about this and what appear to be its attempts to mislead people over the scheme and the Boycott Workfare campaign. We call on all those charities still involved to pull out. Workfare is failing and is hugely unpopular with the general public. By supporting the Work Programme you are linking your organisation to a deeply unpopular policy which undermines social justice.
It’s not just our campaign that is making workfare wobble. Every time figures are published, the Work Programme is exposed as failing. So much so that banks are now refusing to lend to workfare profiteers. It’s just too risky. A4E sub-contractor Eco Actif suddenly collapsed on Friday morning when it ran out of money.
Boycott Workfare thanks all those people and organisations who took part in and supported the week of action. To our new friends we say welcome. This campaign is what you make it, it’s your campaign, its achievements are your achievements.
Hundreds of people took action and thousands more now know about the campaign. So we’ve been inundated with people’s reports of where they have been sent to do workfare. Here are the latest organisations to be named and shamed through our whistle-blowing form: Currys, Bournemouth Borough Council, Marks & Spencer, Days Hotel, Ty Hafan charity shop, ISS Facilities, PKD Sporting Solutions Ltd, The Big Bargain Company, Butlins, Durham County Council, Grow Up
And one person managed to photograph a list from their job centre including: Stead & Simpson, Travis Perkins, Peacocks, Modern Classics, and Music4Children.
There’s more to do, this campaign is making a real difference, so take action with us to help it win!
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This week, after the national week of action, activists in Nottingham handed out anti-workfare leaflets at local Job Centres. Two leafletting sessions were drowned out by the rain during the week of action!
This is the latest update from Nottinghamshire Save Our Services (Notts SOS).
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NOTTS SOS MEETINGS
We meet every two weeks. We missed a week for Easter, so the next
meetings will be tomorrow (Monday 16th April) and Mon 30th April.
Meetings start at 7.30pm and are held at the 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.
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LEGAL OBSERVER TRAINING
Have you ever been at a demo, near a line of police, and witnessed the
police do something you’re pretty sure they’re not supposed to do?
Baton someone, for instance, or stop and search a nearby protester, or
snatch somebody out of the crowd? Ever wondered how you can: a) know
what to do, and b) how you can help them?
Now is your chance to find out.
Nottingham Defence Campaign have invited Green and Black Cross to run
a Legal Observer training session at Nottingham’s Sumac Centre from
2pm on Saturday 21st April.
It is a comprehensive training, that will cover:
* Police tactics
* Stop & search law & procedure
* How to support arrests
* Police ranks & command structure
* Supporting direction action
* How to best legally support activists and nail the inappropriate
policing afterwards
If you are an experienced activist there will be parts you know
already, but the depth we go into should give you more confidence and
knowledge of how to deal with the police.
It will consist of 4 hours of training and some well-deserved breaks in between.
Legal Observers are consistently key to helping people at protests,
whether that is by handing out key legal advice on bust cards or
finding witnesses for arrests.
Details: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/events/2414
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OCCUPY NOTTINGHAM
On Saturday April 14th, Occupy Nottingham marked six months in the
Market Square.
The Council’s plans to evict them continue. At the court hearing on
Thursday 5th April, the judge set a court date for 30th April,
anticipating that the hearing could last up to 3 days.
Report of hearing: http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2508
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DATE FOR YOUR DIARY
Monday 16th April, 7.30pm
Notts SOS meeting. ICC, Mansfield Rd
Saturday 21st April, 2pm
Legal observer training organised by Nottingham Defence Campaign and
run by Green and Black Cross. Held at the Sumac Centre
https://imc.li/2sgsx
Friday 27th April, 7.15pm-late
Notts Trades Council May Day social. The Polish Eagle Club. £5 on the
door/concessions
Monday 30th April
Occupy Nottingham: first day of trial
Monday 30th April, 7.30pm
Notts SOS meeting. ICC, Mansfield Rd
Saturday 5th May, 10am
May Day march from the Forest Recreation Ground for a rally in the
Market Square. Speakers to include Mark Serwotka from PCS
Thursday 10th May, 7.30pm
Kill the Act! Meeting about the Health and Social Care Act. Friends
Meeting House, Rosemary Street, Mansfield,, Notts., NG19 6AB
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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
Sign up to our email list for regular updates:
https://groups.google.com/group/notts-sos-announcements
This is the latest update from Nottinghamshire Save Our Services (Notts SOS).
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NOTTS SOS MEETINGS
We meet every two weeks. The next meeting will be on Monday 16th April
(missing a week due to the Easter holiday) and Mon 30th April.
Meetings start at 7.30pm and are held at the 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.
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OCCUPY NOTTINGHAM
On Thursday 5th April, Occupy Nottingham will be back in court to
challenge the eviction notice served by Nottingham City Council.
Press release: http://s.coop/gnf8
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DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Thursday 5th April
Occupy Nottingham court date
http://occupy-nottingham.org.uk
Thursday April 16th, 6pm
“Home delivery” of pasties to George Osborne. Call for Tory candidates
elsewhere in the country to be pied as well
http://wp.me/pZOug-fZ
Monday 16th April, 7.30pm
Notts SOS meeting. ICC, Mansfield Rd
Saturday 21st April, 2pm
Legal observer training organised by Nottingham Defence Campaign and
run by Green and Black Cross. Held at the Sumac Centre
https://imc.li/2sgsx
Friday 27th April, 7.15pm-late
Notts Trades Council May Day social. The Polish Eagle Club. £5 on the
door/concessions
Monday 30th April, 7.30pm
Notts SOS meeting. ICC, Mansfield Rd
Saturday 5th May, 10am
May Day march from the Forest Recreation Ground for a rally in the
Market Square. Speakers to include Mark Serwotka from PCS
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Nottinghamshire Save Our Services (Notts SOS)
We will be running a Notts SOS Stall in Old Market Square, 11.00 to 14.00 Saturday 21st January.
Come and sign a petition against council cuts and pick up general info, or just come over for a chat. Volunteers to help with this or future stalls are welcome.
This is the latest update from Notts SOS about anti-cuts activity in
and around Notttingham.
This week updates on the campaign for public sector pensions, the
ongoing struggle to save the NHS, Nottingham’s “Atos Two” who have now
had the charges against them dropped and reforms to disability
benefits.
Thanks for your interest and support.
1) NOTTS SOS MEETING
We meet every two weeks which means that the next meetings is on
Monday 23rd January.
As ever, we meet at 7.30pm at the 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.
2) PROTECT PUBLIC SECTOR PENSIONS
Notts Trades Council are calling for the fight to protect public
sector pensions to be stepped-up. The “Heads of Agreement” agreed by
some unions, but rejected by others, do not change the fundamental
issues for public sector workers – working longer and paying more to
get less in retirement.
The trades council have convened a special public meeting on Tuesday
17th January from 7.30 pm at the Nottingham Mechanics Institute 3
North Sherwood Street, Nottingham, NG1 4EZ. All are invited to come
along and share your views and ideas on how this dispute can be won.
Details: http://www.nottstuc.org/2012/01/public-sector-pensions-we-must-fight-on.html
3) SAVE THE NHS
The more pressure that is put on personnel involved in changes in the
National Health Service the more likely it is that we can obstruct the
Government’s privatization plan.
Please find below a model letter for patients who are concerned about
the Government’s proposed changes to the NHS.
Nottingham and Notts Branch of Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) urge you
to post or email this letter to the doctors at the general practice at
which you are registered. You may wish to alter the text to express
your particular concerns.
Also please forward this letter on to other people who may wish to use
it. It would be useful if you would inform KONP of any responses you
receive.
Contact: info@Notts-KONP.org.uk
* * *
Dear Dr./Drs. … .
I am very concerned about the changes to Primary Health Care that the
Government is trying to bring about by means of its Health and Social
Care Bill.
The Government intends that the provision of much health care will be
brought about by means of Clinical Commissioning Groups purchasing
appropriate services. We have been led to believe that it will be
general practitioners in CCG’s who will actively choose the suppliers
of services. However, close scrutiny of the proposed legislation
reveals that most GP’s will not be deemed to be suitably qualified and
experienced to make such decisions. In practice it will be
representatives of private health care companies who will effectively
decide how the money will be spent. As you are probably aware, the
British Medical Association has expressed serious concerns about this
and other aspects of the proposed changes to the NHS.
In general it seems to me that the Government’s proposed changes to
the NHS do not have the aim of creating a more effective health care
service. Rather the real aim is to provide opportunities for private
companies to make profits. Such a change could well result in a
decline in standards of health care. There is some very useful
briefing information on the website of Allyson Pollock –
http://allysonpollock.co.uk and more campaign information on
www.keepournhspublic.com
As one of your patients I would like to know what are your views on
the Government’s plans for change in the NHS. I suggest a discussion
of these matters at the next meeting of your patient participations
group.
Yours sincerely,
(Signature)
4) ATOS TWO
We are delighted to be able to report that the two Nottingham
residents arrested during a protest at Atos ‘Healthcare’ in September
last year have had their charges dropped.
You can find more details on Nottingham Indymedia:
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2340
Despite the case being dropped a demonstration against Atos Healthcare
and police repression is still going ahead on Friday 3rd February.
People will be meeting at 12.30pm at the junction Carlton Street and
Heathcote Street, Hockley (outside Ice Nine).
For event details, leaflets, posters etc.:
http://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/2335
5) SPARTACUS REPORT
A new report has been released exposing the government’s spin over
it’s attempts to ‘reform’ (i.e. cut) Disability Living Allowance.
This report is a comprehensive presentation of the most relevant
evidence available on Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and the
proposals to replace it with a new benefit, Personal Independence
Payments (PIP). It gathers together existing information and analyses
over 500 group responses to the Government’s Response to Disability
Living Allowance reform.
Unsurprisingly, the report finds that the government’s consultation on
the issue was flawed and failed to meet the Government’s code of
practice for consultations. Also, the fact that 74% of respondents
were opposed to the plans (including Boris Johnson for pity’s sake)
seems to have been brushed aside.
Read the report online (opens in Google Docs): http://bit.ly/x7KaeW
If you are on Twitter, search #spartacusreport for more info and comment.
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Notts Save Our Services
Twitter: @nottssos