People’s March for the NHS – in Nottingham again on Saturday March 28th, 2015

People’s March for the NHS will visit Nottingham again on Saturday March 28th. The start time is 11am at The Forest Recreation Ground, Gregory Boulevard, NG7 6HB Nottingham. A march will then leave Forest Recreation Ground to Speaker’s Corner (next to Brian Clough statue, Market Square Nottingham) for a rally at 12.30pm. The march is organised by ‘People’s Vote for the NHS’ which is aiming to get Labour back in power to ‘save’ the NHS.
See also event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/936262406398523/

Analysis on the NHS policy of the main parties can be examined here:
http://election.kingsfund.org.uk/

A socialist left viewpoint on ‘are Labour and Tories the same’ with an eye on elections is here: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/01/labour-and-tories-aren-t-same-so-why-do-voters-still-think-they-are

One personal viewpoint on Labour’s NHS record local to Nottingham can be found here in the Notts SOS blog from October 16, 2010: https://nottssos.org.uk/2010/10/16/get-involved-with-notts-sos-%E2%80%93-appeal-from-a-nottingham-city-nhs-worker/

Another view on the cuts and NHS with local relevance, this time from the Anarchist Federation, Nottingham local group, is the anti-cuts leaflet, published shortly after the last General Election, to be found here [PDF leaflet] http://www.afed.org.uk/nottingham/af_anti_cuts_leaflet_sept_2010.pdf

Nottingham City Council budget cuts protest rally on Monday 9th March 2015, 1pm

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate release
Scrap the Bedroom Tax Defend Council Tax Benefit Nottingham: Cathy Meadows 07913476905

Local Group rallies against Nottingham City Council budget cuts in Nottingham Market Square on Monday 9 March 1pm

A campaign group is rallying outside Nottingham City Council’s budget meeting at the Council House at 1pm on Monday 9 March. The group want to protest against :

  • proposed increase to council tax
  • cuts to advice services
  • unspecified cuts to leisure services which could mean cuts to library services including shorter opening hours, fewer staff and increased for computer use at libraries
  • lack of detail in budget proposals during the consultation period (see above)
  • failure of the City Council to publicise Bedroom Tax refund available to all social housing tenants in the City who were overcharged under to the Consequential Provision Regulations (CPR) 2006.

The group which campaigns against the bedroom tax and cuts to council tax benefit say that people hit by the bedroom tax and those receiving council tax support are having to use money meant for food, fuel and bills to try and make up shortfalls in council tax benefit and housing benefit – This is causing extreme hardship, debt and stress made worse by the threat of pursuit by Nottingham City Council . On top of that services which support people with debt, and court cases are being cut.

See also: https://nottssos.org.uk/2015/02/21/nottingham-council-cuts-consultations-what-will-it-mean/

UCU strike and NCAFC

ucu_strike_2014Members of the University and College Union, UCU (the largest trade union and professional association for academics, lecturers, trainers, researchers and academic-related staff working in further and higher education throughout the UK), are joined with Unison, Unite and EIS on strike today for fair pay. Visit: http://fairpay.web.ucu.org.uk
for details and live updates. The one-day strike will be followed next week by a third 2-hour strike of UCU, two having already taken place in 2014, action which is due to escalate unless there is negotiation. Local action is taking place at higher education organisations University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University. Local action has included pickets and ‘teach-outs’ in the city centre. At University of Nottingham, Unison and Unite members are not out due to local agreements.

Update: UCU members at Aberdeen, Bradford, East London, West of Scotland, Greenwich, Staffordshire, the Leeds College of Art, Manchester Met, Nottingham Trent, Robert Gordon and Queen Mary UL are all being called out on Monday 10th Feb for a full day strike because management has been docking a full days pay for a 2 hour strike.

Also see the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts for news of student-led actions and solidarity: http://anticuts.com.

Read also: Why the universities strikes are about more than just a ‘measly’ pay offer.

Twitter (good for recent updates across UK, including photos): https://twitter.com/#fairpayinhe

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Anti-workfare week of action hailed a success – Boycott Workfare summing up – July 2012

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!

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!

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