Beeston & Chilwell Defend Library Services campaign launched – public meeting 20th January and stalls on 15th & 16th – plus info about library cuts in the City too

A campaign has been launched against cuts at Beeston & Inham Nook Libraries and for a good local library service for all.

BEESTON & CHILWELL DEFEND LIBRARY SERVICES – PUBLIC MEETING

Venue: Chilwell College House Junior School

Date/Time: Thursday 20th Jan 2011, 7.30pm to 9pm

There will be a stall and leafleting of Beeston High Rd (outside Boots the Chemist) on Saturday 15th Jan (10.30 am – 12pm). There will also be a leafleting of Beeston West, Beeston North and Beeston Central on Sunday 16th Jan. 10.30am. Volunteers welcome and please get in touch by email or mobile (07710 903 483) if you’d like to be involved.

See also: Local corrie actor (sutton in ashfield) speaks out against the library cuts: http://m.mirror.co.uk/article?a=m4:22833474

And in the City ….

Recent news on cuts to City Libraries:
* Opening hours to be cut by 10%, with consequent cuts in staffing
* Some redundancies, including library managers
* Book budget cut by 25%
* Carlton Road Library closing later in the year (previously known)
* No cuts at senior management level
* Further cuts likely later

This is in the addition to the established campaign, which relates to County Libraries (book budget cut by 75%!).

National link: Voices for the Library.

Sign the petition to defend ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages)

NATECLA (National Association of Teachers of English and Community Language to Adults) have launched a petition to defend ESOL provision. In Nottingham, loss of ESOL funding will impact on users and jobs in Further Education colleges.

The Coalition Government plans to radically reduce spending on ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) provision, whilst imposing new restrictions on fee remission. Asylum seekers will be excluded entirely from publicly funded language classes, whilst others will be expected to pay more. It is widely accepted that language education is crucial for migrant integration. Cutting language education will further marginalise migrants, making it harder for them to find decent jobs or to participate in the local community.

Please sign petition today and circulate the message widely!
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/defend-esol/signatures.html

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.

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.

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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See also: Nottingham Against Austerity

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Reminder – earlier in day on 21st at 12.30 there will be a protest in the Market Square against City Council care charges:

Criticism of Nottingham City Council over brand exercise for leisure centres while access is being cut

The local NCC Lols blog has revealed that while Nottingham City Council is making cuts to the sports and leisure concessions scheme that will make it harder for people to afford to go, they have decided to spend over £150k over 3 years on ‘branding’ for the leisure centres which is presumably to make them more attractive to users. NCC lols say:

NCC has been trading off this ‘we’re on your side’ nonsense for a while yet they are making sports and leisure facilities
less accessible to those on low incomes (including removing concessions from those on Income Support) while throwing a load of
money on a vanity project.

This is exactly the kind of thing anti-cuts campaigners need to be aware of – there clearly ARE alternatives to cuts and branding seems especially superfluous if the cuts are going to mean we can’t afford to go anyway.

Christmas carols subverted into anti-cuts protests [with ’12 Days of Cripmas’ and ‘tax Vodafone’ videos]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKdKzalMhXc]The 12 Days Of Cripmas is a topical take of a classic carol listing the benefits and services currently being removed from disabled people in Britain. The lyrics were written by a user of the Ouch messageboards, sent to Where’s The Benefit and the track produced and directed by BendyGirl of The Broken Of Britain. We’re all incredibly proud of Imana our 11 yr old singing star who is a child carer for her mum who has Multiple Sclerosis.

A few of reports from the recent 15th December national day of protest about cuts affecting welfare and disabled people are online:
London: Disabled People Against Cuts, “Nativity Play”, Trafalgar Square: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/6720
Glasgow: Citizens United: http://www.indymediascotland.org/node/22619
Oxford: Uninvisible Rally: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/12/470796.html

See also, about a specific cut in Notts County (courtesy of Parish of Nottingham blog, where Vogon commander would appear to be County leader Kay Cutts): http://parishofnottinghamshire.blogspot.com/2010/11/disabled-to-suffer-under-vogon.html
Creative carols were also sung on the 18th Dec anti-tax avoidance demonstrations in Nottingham.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOc2FBY7ZU0&feature=player_embedded]

[Video 1] [Video 2] [Video 3]

Look at pictures: in Notts SOS facebook gallery

See also – a comment on Notts Trades Council website about Christmas pop: http://www.nottstuc.org/2010/12/on-seasonal-note.html

Lively protest rally at Notts County Council while cabinet agreed plan to close Gedling school – 15th Dec 2010

On Wednesday 15th December, supporters of the Gedling School held a demonstration outside County Hall to protest plans to close the school. Despite this protest and others, councillors in cabinet decided to go ahead with a “consultation” on the closure of the school. This is an unfortunate development, but it isn’t the end of the story.

Indymedia article with video: Save Gedling School rally at County Hall

Video link: Kids Chanting Outside County Hall

Evening Post article: Council goes ahead with Gedling School closure consultation

About 100 people, including pupils, teachers and residents, demonstrated against the Nottinghamshire County Council plans to start a consultation with the public on closing the school.

Year 11 pupil Sophie Foster, 15, was among 70 students holding banners and chanting ‘save our school.’

She said: “It’s disgusting that the county council are even planning to put Gedling School up for closure.

“The school definitely should not shut – I’ve been there nearly five years and it has been fantastic.”

Terry Chambers, Year 9 progress leader at Gedling school, said: “I’ve been there nearly 31 years and it would be a massive blow to the community not just in academic terms but for the whole of Gedling.”

CAMPAIGN LINKS:
Save Gedling School: http://savegedlingschool.wordpress.com/
Save Gedling School (campaign supporters network): http://savegedlingschool.ning.com/
Save Gedling School Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Our-School-The-Gedling-School/146243182088229

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