The anti-public spending cuts campaign, Notts Save Our Services, is holding a one day event on Saturday, 15th. January at Dunkirk and Old Lenton Community Centre. We are bringing together a wide range of providers and users of vital services. The aim is to develop effective, challenging ways of opposing and obstructing the Coalition Government’s assault upon both the public and voluntary sectors.
Brainstorming groups will focus on areas such as local government, education, benefits/pensions, health services, military spending, etc.. The conference runs from 10.30 to 16.00 with food and refreshments available. All opponents of the public spending cuts are welcome and further details are available on our website https://nottssos.org.uk
For more information contact Ross Longhurst on 0115 837 7937.
New year, new cuts. After an unplanned two week break, Notts Cuts Watch is back with a rundown of the cuts and resistance in Nottinghamshire since Christmas. Read Notts Cuts Watch #12 (covering last week Jan 3th-9th 2011): http://nottingham.indymedia.org.uk/articles/859
Here are forthcoming events this week and next – follow links for details:
Monday 10th Jan – the first Notts SOS meeting of the year, at the ICC/YMCA. All welcome. Full venue details.
Tuesday 18th January – Mansfield Notts SOS group next meets at 7pm on Tuesday 18th January at the Gas Club, off Lime Tree Place (At the bottom of Ratcliffe Gate). Mansfield Group of Notts SOS are planning a demonstration against the cuts in Mansfield in Mid February – more information soon. Come along if you want to help organise and build for a demo in Mansfield to fight the cuts.
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.
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.
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.
Time/Date.: 10:30 am until 4:00 pm on Saturday 15th January 2011
Please fill in form below and email it to nottssos [at] gmail.com to indicate attendence to help us with numbers etc.
Our event is also listed on Facebook – you can indicate attendence there but please email completed form too, please.
Across the UK, groups have sprung up in opposition to the cuts being imposed by the Coalition Government – with students, protesting against the trebling of fees, taking the lead. Locally Notts Save Our Services (Notts SOS) has organised a public meeting, a demonstration attracting more than 1,000 people and a number of smaller actions. Students have rallied at both local universities and occupied the Great Hall at University of Nottingham.
But it is not enough to simply protest against the cuts, even in vast numbers. This is one of the key lessons from the movement against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If we want to win, we need a strategy. Notts SOS have some ideas about what this might involve, but we don’t pretend to have all the answers. It is with this in mind that we are organising the Combating the Cuts event on Saturday, 15th. January 2011.
We hope to bring together as many people as possible to come up with ideas for campaigning around the different lines of attack on our communities and then try and build these into a coherent strategy. For this to work, we need participation to be as wide as possible: activists, service users, public sector workers, trade unionists, the unemployed and others. We need your ideas to carry the fight-back forward.
So get in touch with us to let us know that you will be participating. Also tell people you know about this important event.
Find out further details by emailing nottssos [at] gmail.com or by phoning 0115 837 7937. Disabled access and facilities. Drinks and food will be available. If you need a creche please email rosemarymuge [at] googlemail.com expressing your interest and we may be able to book one.
To help us with numbers please email Notts Save Our Services at: nottssos [at] gmail.com
I am interested in participating in the Combating the Cuts Event and I would like to receive further details:
The start of the Notts SOS meeting on Monday 13th December 2010 formed part of an ITV news report on the more than £60 million Nottingham City Council cuts announced on the same day. Councillor Graham Chapman also attended the meeting where he was vigourously challenged that the City Council should not implement cuts.
We’ve produced the second of our newsletters in two-page format to make it easier to print off. We’ll also be distributing these on Notts SOS stalls. Hope you like it. Get in touch if you’d like to contribute to the next, or just send us a short article or information about your anti-cuts activities.
Notts SOS campaigners meet each week in Nottingham to share information and to discuss and organise anti-cuts activities. Groups and inidividuals who are fighting cuts to services are welcome to participate in these meetings. Venue details are on our contacts page.
Forthcoming events include continued action against student fees on Tuesday 30th November, a second demonstration outside Vodafone in December and a Notts SOS conference in January. We will also discuss holding a joint stall with Nottingham CND who are campaigning to scrap Trident 2.
Read a round-up of last weeks cuts and anti-cuts news: Notts Cuts Watch #7 on Nottingham Indymedia.
