Homeless.

Image courtesy of BBC

            I have lived a long life, heading for 90, and throughout the adult period of that life I have heard repeated bullshit spewed out by the crooks and liars that hold the reins of power. As each election approaches, (I call them crooks and liars competitions) I've listened to those phoney pledges, "We will end child poverty" "we'll end homelessness". So here we are and the figures for homelessness are staggering to say the least. The figures here are for England alone, I have no doubt that the other three parts of this part of the planet called The United Kingdom will swell the numbers considerably.

Image courtesy of Edinburgh Live.

 

         No doubt when the elected crooks and liars hear of these figures they may 

spout, "pandemic", "Ukraine", but the figures are the worst for 25 years. In England, according to a recent report by Shelter, almost 250,000 are in temporary accommodation, this is up 74% over the last 10 years, the present bunch of crooks and liars have been in control for 13 years, so we know where the blame lies. In this human disaster there are123,000 children living, (if you can call it living) in temporary accommodation. In England 1 in 208 are homeless,15,000 are living in hostels and there are 2,400 sleeping rough.

Image courtesy of The Mirror.

 

         This is an indictment of failure of the present economic system, it is not that 

we live in a poor country, we are among the richest countries in the world. Yet all my long life I have heard these callous phoney promises, but the poverty and deprivation continues. It is not an immutable fact of nature, it is the result of an economic system that pillages and plunders the riches created by the people and channels it into the coffers of the wealthy, powerful, pampered, parasite class. We are the causalities of a class war, a war we can win if we come together in organised solidarity, throughout our workplaces and communities. We have the numbers, the imagination and the knowledge to end this cruel insanity and create that better and fairer world for all our people.

 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

A Worker Is A Worker, Is A Worker, Is A Worker!!

       You have got to hand it to our corporate lords and masters, they never give up on their policy of trying to eliminate all workers organisations. The last thing they want is for the workers to be organised to defend their wages and conditions. Of course they get the backing of the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, who crap on about the evil unions destroying everybody’s day by calling a strike, and the government responding with legislation to “limit the power of the unions”. One other the trend, is to get the workers “self-employed”, you do our work, but you are not one of our workers, you’re on you own buddy. Uber is probably the best known, but there are others. At the moment the people who “work” for Deliveroo are classified by the company as individual contractors, so the company refuses to recognise the union. With ”self-employed”, zero hours contracts, and part time work, the workforce is fragmented, apart from losing out on all the normally accept conditions, that were won by unionised struggle, and go with a “job”, such as holiday pay etc., it makes it more difficult to be organised to protect you pay and conditions, let alone fight for improvements. The bosses are well organised, they know the need to be organised, as they see the true position, bosses and workers are on opposite sides. The workers have to take a leaf out of that book, and realise the need for all “workers”, no matter the label that the bosses put on them, to be organised. The bosses know and accept that it is a struggle of opposites and they will pull out every dirty trick to get the advantage for their side of the battle. We have to do the same, come together, organise to support each other, and see the boss class as the enemy of our desire for that better life for all.

This appeal from Labour Start:

        Since November, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) has been attempting to gain recognition (a collective bargaining agreement) from Deliveroo in London.
        If the IWGB is successful, it will be the first collective bargaining agreement in the UK's so called "gig economy" and will force Deliveroo to recognise their riders as workers.
        This will give them the right to the minimum wage, paid holidays, legal protection against discrimination and more.
        Deliveroo has rejected the initial request, but the union remains determined to succeed and a tribunal case is currently pending. But it shouldn't take a tribunal case to compel Deliveroo to do the right thing. They should recognise their drivers as "workers" and should recognise the union for the purposes of collective bargaining now.

Please click here to send a message to Deliveroo telling them to recognise the union now.

       And please share this message with your friends, family and fellow trade union members.

Thank you!



Eric Lee

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Workers Know Your History, Bread And Roses,1912.

    

      We can pick a year, a month, a week, a day, and there will be a workers struggle to remember. Some short snap revolts, other long planned and organised battles for decency in our lives, and for justice. Some explode into the public consciousness, others, just a whisper in somebody's heart.

    This year the 11th. January marks the 102nd. anniversary of one well organised struggle on the other side of the world, in the textile mills of Massachusetts, USA. The Bread and Roses strike 1912.

 This from Huffington Post education:

    The trust and solidarity required to mount a successful strike was not magically born on January 11 and 12, 1912, when workers walked off the job due to a reduction in their pay. Some 20 active foreign-language chapters of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were present in the city for at least five years. IWW organizer James P. Thompson stated in the October 1912 issue of Solidarity: "It is absolutely foolish to say the strike 'happened without any apparent cause'; 'that it was lightning out of a clear sky,' etc. As a matter of fact, it was a harvest, it was a result of seeds sown before. . . "

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk