Thursday 24 September 2009

Day out in Brighton

Protest at the Labour Party conference
Time to hammer New Labour's failings home

Just a quick mailout to check that everyone has their tickets to Brighton. If not, you can reply to this mail to sort some out.

Hope to see everyone there on Sunday. No excuses.

Friday 24 July 2009

Vestas Supporter's Meeting Tonight

Save Jobs, Save the Planet, Save Vestas

Campaign Against Climate Change public meeting tonight
6pm
ULU, Malet Street, WC1E 7HY

Speakers include:

Chris Baugh - PCS
Seumas Milne - The Guardian
Johnathan Neale - Campaign Against Climate Change
Vestas Worker

Bring friends and colleagues along, as well as anyone you know who's interested in industrial or climate issues.

Rage Against New Labour


The growing anger against the Labour government’s handling of the recession is building momentum for protests at the Labour Party conference on 27 September.

The PCS civil service workers’ union and the NUT teachers’ union last week became the latest national unions to back the protests. The lecturers’ UCU and journalists’ NUJ unions are already backing protests on the day.

More than two million people are unemployed in Britain – and the number is rising quickly. Almost a million unemployed people are under 25.

This protest can unite all the strands of the workers movement, anti-war, anti-fascist and anti-privatisation campaigns in a huge outpouring of scorn for the failures of the New Labour party. However, in order to be united against the government's neo-liberal agenda, we have to be there! So it's time to contact people in your network, start arguing about why we need to demonstrate our anger with New Labour, and why we need a political alternative.

Tickets on the ‘Big Red Train’ from London to the march are available for £20 waged (£10 concs). Go to » www.righttowork.org.uk

Thursday 23 July 2009

Vestas occupation still going strong


Around 300 people gathered outside the occupied Vestas factory on the Isle of Wight this evening.

At 6:30 pm this evening the crowd heard the news that the company has applied for a possession order against the occupation. However, the court case is not until next Wednesday, giving extra time to build the campaign further.

The RMT union has come forward to back the occupation and pay the legal bills of the case.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said, “Why is the RMT here? It’s because we won’t walk away from workers whether they are in a union or not.”

Crow compared the Vestas struggle to that of the suffragettes and of Nelson Mandela who had defied the law for their causes. “Who are the real criminals?” he asked. “It’s the crowd that run this place.

The Campaign Against Climate Change has organised a public meeting in solidarity with the Vestas occupation on Friday evening in London, 6pm at the ULU, Malet Street.

Download support materials:

SW leaflet (» www.swp.org.uk/resources/v_leaf200709.pdf)

Collection sheet (» www.swp.org.uk/resources/v_coll200709.pdf)

Poster (» www.swp.org.uk/resources/v_post200709.pdf)

Monday 20 July 2009

Vestas factory in occupation!


Workers at Vestas, the wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight threatened with closure by management, have gone into occupation to save their jobs and keep alive the possibility of ecologically sound industry.

We call on everyone to send their solidarity and greetings to the workers there, and to take collections as soon as possible. The more support we give them, the more likely another victory to add to the ones seen at Visteon, Waterford, Lindsey and Prisme. Every successful fight makes the prospect of workers fighting back against the bosses offensive more likely, and helps rejuvenate working class political and economic strength.

If we can stand up and tell them 'We won't pay for your crisis', then we might just be able to stave off the coming attacks, and put forward our vision of a brighter future for ordinary people, instead of the sacrifice and hypocrisy spread by the parties at Westminster.

Sri Lanka and the struggle for Tamil freedom with Matt Foot

This weeks branch meeting will be on 'Sri Lanka and the struggle for Tamil freedom' with Matt Foot, campaiging lawyer representing the oppressed Tamil people in their struggle for justice.

Thursday 23 July
Kitap Evi bookshop, 410 High Road, Tottenham, N17 9JB
7:30 pm

As always everyone is welcome, and bring along as many people as you can to hear this great speaker give the real story of the roots of the Tamil struggle for liberation, and the vicious government campaign to crush their last vestiges of resistance.

Friday 12 June 2009

Fight for The Right to Work: A conference to build the resistance

For too long thousands of jobs have been destroyed without resistance. For too long the issue of unemployment—especially youth unemployment—has been ignored. It is time to organise the fightback.

The occupations and campaigns at Visteon, the occupations at Prisme in Dundee and the occupation at Waterford Crystal have changed the atmosphere inside the working class movement.

We desperately need more resistance.

The economic crisis, internationally and domestically, is leading to soaring unemployment, insecurity and devastation of communities.

UK unemployment is well over 2 million and headed sharply upwards. Young people are particularly badly affected. There are already 820,000 unemployed under the age of 25, and 600,000 people leave school this summer. Many will not find jobs.

The government has found hundreds of billions to bailout banks and financial institutions.

But instead of saving jobs, Gordon Brown is pressing ahead with policies that cut them—from Royal Mail to local government to the civil service to the NHS.

Individual unions and the TUC should be leading the fight against job losses by opposing redundancies, resisting closures and demanding a transformation of government policy.

This is a conference to learn from the experience of resistance, encourage more struggles, and bring together trade unionists, the unemployed, school and college leavers.

It’s a chance to increase the pressure on trade union leaders, develop the networks of resistance, and come up with campaigning ideas over the most crucial issue facing workers today.

Make sure you are there, and get your union branch, stewards’ committee, campaign organisation or student union to send delegates.

Download timetable