RESISTANCE IS ESSENTIAL.

Protest on Budget Day
11:30am, Wednesday 21 March
Downing Street, London

        

              Coalition of Resistance is organising a protest with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union and Stop the War Coalition. This is planned to coincide with when George Osborne leaves Downing Street to present the budget to the Queen. Our messages will be 'Not one more cut to public spending', 'Welfare not Warfare' and 'Scrap Trident'. If you can, come wearing hospital scrubs, nurses uniforms, academic mortarboard and gown, a firefighter's helmet or any other outfit that represents what this government wants to cut, privatise or scrap! Others will be dressed as bankers and politicians.
        Call for volunteers: If you plan to attend wearing an outfit that represents a service being cut or can help on the day please phone Sam on 07872 481769.
Please invite your friends and spread the word on Facebook. Click here for the event.

SOLIDARITY.

Activist Meeting:- 28 March Strike and demonstrations Protest on Budget Day
6:30pm, Monday 19 March
Room 4418, School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS), Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
         We are organising an activist meeting to bring together all those that want to help plan and build for the protests, strikes and demonstrations in the coming weeks. Please spread the word. If you want to organise an activist meeting in your area, we can put you in contact with others.

Please email coalitionofresistance@mail.com.

Upcoming Public Meetings

Croydon

7pm, Wednesday 14 March
Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, Croydon CR0 1BD
with Jeremy Corbyn MP

Newcastle

7pm, Wednesday 14 March,
Newcastle Arts Centre (Black Swan)
67 Westgate Road NE1 1SG
with Owen Jones, Lindsey German, speaker from Greece

Kings Lynn

7:30pm, Wednesday 14 March
Friends Meeting House
38 Bridge Street, King’s Lynn PE30 5AB
with Andy Bain (Coalition of Resistance, former president of TSSA)

Glasgow

6:30pm, Thursday 15 March
STUC Centre, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow G3 6NG with Owen Jones

York

7pm, Monday 26 March
Friend's Meeting House, Friargate, York YO1 9RL
with Mark Serwotka (PCS), Clare Solomon (Coalition of Resistance)

Doncaster

7pm, Tuesday 27 March
Danum Hotel, High St Doncaster DN1 1DN

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DEEMED A TERRORIST FOR FIGHTING FOR BETTER CONDITIONS.

       At last it is beginning to unravel in the public domain, the fact that employers have been running a blacklist for years. Though most trade unionists, those keen on health and safety and other activists have known all along, but what they couldn't be sure of was what information was listed against them, where did that information come from and of course its accuracy or otherwise. The fact that such blacklists are illegal is one thing but to have what appears to be confirmation that the police and MI5 were feeding the blacklist, blows a hole in the illusion that the police and MI5 etc. are there to protect us from criminals and terrorists. After all what is the terrorist or criminal element in pointing out to an employer that there is an asbestos danger in a particular workplace? It becomes obvious that the police and MI5 etc. are there to protect the wealth and power of those in control of the capitalist system. Anyone that in any way interferes with the profit making of our corporate masters is deemed an enemy and can be put on a blacklist that can have devastating effects on the individual and their family due to the fact that they will probably never again work at their trade. All this done with the help of the police and our secret services, who spout that they are there to protect “us”, from what? Are they there to protect us from those fighting for decent working conditions, proper health and safety regulations being followed. Idea that the police are there for law and order and to protect the public, is just for propaganda purposes, there might be a little spin off in that direction, but their main purpose is to protect the wealth of the powerful in this society. This from The Guardian.

STOP, TRADE UNIONIST

        The police or security services supplied information to a blacklist funded by the country's major construction firms that has kept thousands of people out of work over the past three decades.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has revealed that records that could only have come from the police or MI5 have been discovered in a vast database of files held on 3,200 victims who were deemed leftwing or troublesome.

The files were collected by the Consulting Association, a clandestine organisation funded by major names in the construction industry.

Its database was seized nearly three years ago, but the extraordinary nature of the information held has only now emerged, following an employment tribunal for one of the victims, Dave Smith, a 46-year-old engineer who had a 36-page file against his name and was victimised repeatedly for highlighting safety hazards on sites, including the presence of asbestos.

Continue READING.

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THE PRICE OF COOL!!

         So it's expensive, slick, cool and a must have for many, but Jobs created jobs that kill.


Created by: Online MBA Programs

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THE ONLY ANSWER - DIRECT ACTION.

      Across the continent of Europe the people are taking direct action in an attempt protect themselves, the attack on the onrdinary people comes from all sides of the corporate fascism that we live under. While the social fabric of our lives is being torn assunder by "austerity cuts", our future is being plundered by the bargain basement sale of our public assets in the biggest asset stripping exercise of modern times. As the corporate world expands its empire it will move everything and everybody out of the way and in lots of cases it is a case of bulldozing people off their land with disasterous results, as was this case in Italy.

      Taken from Anarchist news dot org:  

        Widespread acts of resistance are taking place across Italy triggered by the near murderous actions of the police in Val Susa.

       A summary of the latest events - Baita Clarea is an area in Val Susa where works for the implementation of the TAV were due to start soon. On Monday 27th February the forces of order proceeded to evict and expropriate the land in Baita Clarea in order to clear the way for the devastating high speed railway works. On the same day Luca Abba’, a resident of the Val Susa whose land was also expropriated, climbed a pylon in an attempt to block the ongoing military operation. The cops ordered Luca to come down without taking precautions for his safety, pushing him even higher and failing to cut off the electricity of the pylon. As a result, Luca was electrocuted and fell several metres below. Rescue was delayed by cordons of antiriot cops but finally Luca was taken to hospital by helicopter. He is now out of danger although his conditions remain very serious.
Barricades were set up by NO TAV people in the area, which has been declared a ‘strategic site of national interest’.
Protests and blockages are being organized all over Italy.
The faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Bologna has been occupied in solidarity with the struggle in Val Susa. Here is the communiqué of the occupiers:Continue READING:

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DEMOCRACY VIA THE ARMY? I DON'T THINK SO!!

       At the time of the "Arab Spring" in Egypt I wrote up a little post stating that if the Egyptian peole are relying on the army to deliver democracy, they will be sorely disappointed. Think of the authoritarian regime with all its cronies discussing the control of the country with all those high ranking officers, they would be discussing crackdowns and surveillance, and imprisonment of the opposition. Then suddenly when the people rise up, the top ranking military are there defending democracy, it doesn't happen. They are all buddies in the same gang. The army by its structure is an authoritarian machine, democarcy is an anathema to its top brass, they live by power and authority.

To prove a point, this from Labour Start.

        Kamal Abbas, a leading figure in the fight to create independent democratic trade unions in Egypt, has been sentenced to six months in prison for the "crime" of insulting a Mubarak-era hack at an International Labor Organization conference. Abbas is used to such treatment at the hands of the Mubarak regime, which jailed him and tried to crush the Center for Trade Union and Worker Services (CTUWS) which he headed. But the Mubarak era is supposed to be behind us. After all, we are now one year into the Arab Spring.
       The world's trade unions are calling for a massive online mobilization to demand that the charges be dropped.

Please take a moment to click here and then spread the word.

Thank you!

Eric Lee

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ON-LINE FRAUD, HOW SAFE ARE YOU!!!

Created by: Online Marketing Degree

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A LIFE WITHOUT A FUTURE!!

   

          What is happening to the Greek people is an avoidable tragedy and is brutal by any standard of measuring. However we should not be lulled into thinking that Greece is the only problem facing the European people. Right across the continent the people are suffering in unimaginable numbers. If we look at the unemployment numbers in some of the major economies in Europe what we see is a depressing picture of ever increasing poverty. The unemployment figure for Italy is 8.5%, UK 8.4%, Portugal 14%, Greece 20.9%, Spain 22.5%, that's an awful lot of people who are unable to provide for themselves or their families, an awful lot of people living in poverty. However that masks the real tragedy, the youth unemployment, in Europe we are talking in millions upon millions. Young people who have their future obliterate because of the financial Mafia dictating the shape of our society. If you go through your early years unemployed and living on miserly unemployment benefit what kind of life will you have by the time you get to 30 or so? How do you provide a roof over your head, how do you provide for your family, what hope have you got of any kind of decent future? This so called “financial crisis” has destroyed the future of millions of ordinary people, but not that of the financial barons, and in doing has plunged generations of ordinary people  into poverty. The youth unemployment figures for the same major economies make extremely depressing reading, UK 22.2%, Portugal 23%, Italy 30%, Greece 48%, Spain 51.4%, in these countries alone, how many bighted lives does this translate into? This is the real picture behind all the nonsense spouted about the need for “austerity cuts”, these cuts translate into lives in misery, futures destroyed, a downward spiral for millions for generations to come.

        This is the reality of the system we call capitalism, this is the system working the only way it can, it cannot work for the benefit of all our people. If we wish to shape society so that it sees to the needs of all our people then capitalism has to go. We surely have the imagination and the compassion to come up with a fairer and more just system than a “winner take all and to hell with the hindmost” greed driven system of exploitation. As social creatures we can create a society based on mutual aid, free association and voluntary co-operation, a system freed from the greed motive built on sustainability and the desire to see to the needs of all our people. What we have at the moment is corporate fascism that feeds the ego of a small bunch of parasites who have a voracious insatiable greed.

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THE FIGHT FOR INTERNET FREEDOM.

      This campaign has delivered a 2.4 million petition to the European Parliament, but it seems it is not enough, so let's keep the pressure up and win this one. This from AVAAZ:

Our outcry has stunned European politicians and nearly buried ACTA, but the European Commission is now trying a last ditch attempt to revive it through a legal endorsement. We can stop it if we rally together again and demand the Court assesses ACTA's full impact on our Internet rights and freedoms. Sign the urgent petition now:

      In days, the European Commission will try a last ditch ttempt to revive ACTA. But if we intervene now this global attack on Internet freedom will collapse.
      We are so close to winning -- our 2.4 million strong petition has stunned politicians across Europe and halted the censors. Now the European Commission is on the back foot and hoping the Court of Justice will give ACTA the greenlight by presenting a very narrow legal question that is sure to receive a positive answer.
      But if we all raise our voices now we can ensure the Court looks at all the legal impacts of ACTA, and releases an opinion that tells the truth about ACTA's attack on our rights. Sign the urgent petition to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso to call on the Court to tell the whole truth:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/acta_time_to_win_eu//?vl
        The European Commission spent five years negotiating ACTA in secret with corporations, but in the last five weeks we've blown the ACTA debate into the open. Now the Commission is fighting to keep ACTA alive by getting the blessing of the EU’s highest court. The Commission, well-versed in bureaucratic dodges, may only present the court with a narrow question, preventing it from assessing ACTA's impacts on our freedom of expression, privacy and democracy.
      We’ve forced governments in Poland, Germany, Bulgaria and other countries to freeze ratification. And now, if we win this battle in the European Commission, we can stop ACTA for good. If the EU does not ratify, ACTA will never become a global agreement and negotiators will have to go back to the drawing board to produce a treaty that stops genuine abuses but protects our rights.
      Let's urgently call on the Commission and Court to give ACTA a full and fair hearing, and make sure the whole truth about this threat to our fundamental freedoms is revealed. Sign now and send this to everyone:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/acta_time_to_win_eu//?vl
       Millions of us joined together to fight for Internet freedom and stop the US censorship laws. We won, but now this threat is back on a global scale with ACTA. We've done what no one thought we could and stopped the treaty's march to ratification. Let's finish what we started and beat back ACTA, for good!

With hope and determination,

Alex, Pascal, Laura, Alice, Ricken, Dalia, Diego and the whole Avaaz team

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CORPORATE OLYMPIC MONEY SPINNER.

         A recent headline really shows the arrogance of the millionaires in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, it states “Politicians condemn Olympic strike threat”. This is all about the leader of Unite Union, Len McCluskey, stating that there could be industrial action during the Olympics. His statement "I believe the unions, and the general community, have got every right to be out protesting. – If the Olympics provide us with an opportunity, then that's exactly one that we should be looking at." seemed to have hurt their sensitivities.

       Our elected politicians never miss an opportunity to “condemn” any protest, demonstration or industrial action taken by the ordinary people to try to defend themselves against the savage attack being hurtled at them by the said elected politicians.

      Why should we listen to them, the pay themselves excellent salaries and generous expenses, secure for themselves wonderful pensions, get all sorts of perks and not content with that, lots of them fiddle the system. While wallowing in their unearned grandeur they state that there is no alternative to “austerity”. Then they have have the audacity and arrogance to tell us to take what they throw at us and accept our poverty with humility.

       Because the corporate world wants to hold a mainly public funded extravaganza in the hope of making even more money, and remembering the most cities that hold the Olympics are bankrupted after the event, why should we see it as some sacred festival, and restrain ourselves from defending ourselves against facing a generation or more of poverty? When it comes to defending ourselves the last people we should listen to are the politicians. The last thing that will benefit the ordinary people is a world wide corporate event that will make millions for broadcasters like Sky and Virgin etc. make millions for sponsors, and cost us the public, millions. We need a National Health Service, we need an decent education system, we need pensions that give dignity to our elderly, we need nurseries, we need libraries and we need a host of social services, we do not need an Olympic corporate money spinner.

ann arky's home. 

THE FOUNDATIONS ARE CRUMBLING.

      No matter where we look, the system is in crisis, but we are told by the illusion creators, that growth and prosperity is just around the corner, if only would would accept "austerity" in the mean time. Of course "austerity" translates in different ways, for some it means utter deprivation and for others, grinding poverty and for others it means just hanging on with their finger tips. However none of these "austerity" measures will in any way affect those administrating the policies. NO the "austerity" is for the ordinary people. No matter what magic mathematics the use, the ordinary people of Europe are in for a long spell of poverty where the very fabric of their social structures have been torn apart. 

     We either accept this debt serfdom and deprivation to allow the financial barons of this corporate fascism to re-capitalise their coffers, or we seize the moment, the opportunity, to take control of our own lives. We can organise across the continent of Europe refusing to be plunged into penury, and setting about creating a society that is based on the needs of all our people. The system is splitting at the foundations, it can't survive without our acceptance of poverty and deprivation, why should we? We are being offered, either accept poverty and deprivation, or everything will collapse and we will be faced with poverty and deprivation. If we accept their method, then it is poverty and deprivation for us and unimaginable wealth for them, the choice is ours.

     Once again an excellent article from Occupied London.

       We now see a need to grow, to become even more relevant, to move beyond the usual political subdivisions and beyond reacting to capital and state violence and grasp seriously this moment of rupture. Our contribution in this direction is this call to effectively share analysis and coordinate action across Europe.

       Information coming from the mainstream media intends to divide us: it seeks to put the blame for the crisis first on the laziness of one People, then on the greed of another. In the mainstream media, people are seen as isolated victims or as a mass of protesters, but never as thinking, desiring and acting people who can take control of their own futures in common. This is a new battlefield where our conditions of living, producing and reproducing will be set for generations to come. 

CONTINUE READING:

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DEFEND THE RIGHT TO PROTEST.

From "Defend the Right to Protest". 

 

 

       We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for taking the time to sign our petition in support of Alfie Meadows and the right to protest. Over 2000 of you have now signed, a brilliant start but we need more signatories. Please help us reach more people about Alfie's case by sharing the petition in work places, universities, colleges, with family, friends and on twitter and facebook. The petition can be found online: http://t.co/4daHLlp1 but we also attach a printable copy.
     There is now just under one month until Alfie Meadows court date, there are a range of other ways in which you can help the campaign demanding that charges be dropped against Alfie Meadows. Download a variety of campaign materials at: http://www.defendtherighttoprotest.org/justice-for-alfie-meadows/

You can also join the Justice for Alfie Meadows facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Justice-for-Alfie-Meadows-Drop-All-Charges-Now/176407952467757

        The Defend the Right to Protest Campaign demands JUSTICE for Alfie Meadows and all victims of police violence, join us at our public forum 'Stand Up For Justice!' on Monday 5th March, 7PM at Friends Meeting House, 173 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ. (Opposite Euston Station).
Speakers include: John McDonnell (MP), Imran Khan (Campaigning Lawyer and Solicitor for Stephen Lawrence's family), Alfie Meadows (Student Defendant), Frank Fernie (Imprisoned Protester, now free!), Liam Burns (NUS President), Maggie Mitchell (Parent of imprisoned student), Marcia Rigg (Sean Rigg Justice & Change campaign), Rob Evans (Guardian journalist) & More

For more information: http://www.defendtherighttoprotest.org/stand-up-for-justice-dtrtp-public-forum/
Join the facebook event and invite friends: http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/242723812474501/

        We will be holding a rally and demonstration on the first day of Alfie Meadows trial. Tariq Ali is amongst speakers confirmed to speak on the day.
Join us at Kingston Crown Court, 6-8 Penrhyn Road, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2BB on Monday 26th March, 9AM.
Join the facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/270548723014910/

        For regular updates about Alfie Meadows' Campaign and how you get involved with the wider campaign, visit: www.defendtherighttoprotest.org

Yours in Support,
Defend the Right to Protest

Email: info@defendtherighttoprotest.org
Facebook Page: defendtherighttoprotest / friend: Right to Protest
Twitter: @righttoprotest www.defendtherighttoprotest.org

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VICTORY FOR THE PEOPLE.

       It seems that the Kremlin in George Square have yielded to pressure from you. After a strong campaign by the people of Glasgow they have decided to ease their money grabbing ways and Let Glasgow Flourish. Unite and organise and we can win battles. 

 ORGANISE.

        Thanks to over 14,000 signatures (including you!) Glasgow City Council announced last week that they will scrap the proposed fees for public events which are temporary or free of charge.

      But Edinburgh and other councils across Scotland are yet to decide their plans for the legislation and there is suggestion that some still intend to implement the fees.

Kris Haddow, a playwright who started the petition on Change.org, wants all Scottish councils to follow Glasgow's lead, so he's asking everyone to keep the pressure up by sharing the petition with your friends on Facebook, Twitter or via email. Every signature will help show local councils across Scotland that the public do not support this ‘tax on the arts’.

         Kris said "this is great news for the campaign in Glasgow but we still need to keep up the pressure and ensure that Edinburgh and other councils across Scotland follow suit and scrap the public entertainment licence fees. I urge you to continue sharing the petition until such time as we have achieved success in all areas. Thank you for signing and supporting this petition."

Thanks for being part of this,
- Brie and the Change.org team

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HORIZONTALISM IN THE WORKPLACE.

Horizontal Organisation In The Workplace.  

A Talk by A.Rice

A Public Event for Radical Glasgow by Martin O'Neil

Tuesday 6th March 7pm-9pm

The Electron Club
CCA
350 Sauchiehall Street
Glasgow G2 3JD

        As managerialism kicks in and workplace pressures increase, creating a strong united voice is vital to protecting ourselves as workers. Our Union branch divided the single Rep’s role into 7 jobs,so sharing the power. We found that evolving union structures from a hierarchy to a shared power model was crucial to maintaining a presence in these brutal times. 

Facebook Event Page:
http://www.facebook.com/events/326646870716144/?context=create#!/events/326646870716144/

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BOYCOTT WORK-FARE.

      Slavery has been with us from time immemorial and reasonable people have always, on principle, fought against the idea of slavery. One of the first records of slavery being forbidden was in 550 BC in Achaemenid Persia where it was generally banned, their religion Zoroastrianism explicitly forbid slavery. As we move through history, over time we see scores of places introducing laws to forbid slavery or the slave trade. In 960 the Doge of Venice approved a law prohibiting slavery. Even on these islands in 1102 the Council of London made the trade in slaves illegal and in 1569 the English Court ruled that English law could not recognise slavery and again here in 1701, Lord Chief Justice ruled that a slave became free as soon as he arrived in England. Now here we are in the 21st. century and we have a government of millionaires trying their damnedest to reintroduce slavery in this country. They have tried to dress it up in more modern language and have given it a nice sounding name, they call it "Work-fare". The idea is that if you are unemployed and are receiving the princely sum of £67 a week job seekers allowance, to survive on, then you are obliged to accept being sent to some extremely rich company and work there for "NOTHING" failing to do so could see you lose your £67 benefit money. They say it is voluntary, voluntary slavery, but those who have been unfortunate enough to be put in this position make it quite clear that you are under pressure to go to your newly prescribed master and do his bidding, for nothing. The big businesses would love to grab this opportunity to have an army of unpaid young people scurrying around with the sweat dripping off their forehead, filling their selves or what ever they demand. However some are drawing back from the scheme, not out of compassion for the young slaves, but for the bad publicity that is coming their way when they do participate. People are objecting to this humiliating way of treating our young people, groups are demonstrating outside and in their premises and they public is beginning to see through the tinsel dressing and fancy words that they have dressed up this degrading scheme of modern slavery.

Saturday 3rd March
Protest against Work fare - Protest against slave labour

MEET TOP SHOP BUCHANAN STREET (OUTSIDE BUCHANAN GALLERIES) 1PM

        In solidarity with Liverpool Uncut’s action against workfare on Saturday 3rd March, Boycott Workfare has called a national day of action against workfare. There will be a Boycott Workfare action in Central London on this day and people all over the UK are to take action on their high streets.
         So many high street stores are involved in taking on forced unpaid labour that there is plenty of choice –Asda, Holland & Barrett, Primark, HMV, TK Maxx and Topshop to name but a few. Get a group together, make a plan, and head to the streets. Workfare means that those on benefits are forced into unpaid work for multi-million pound companies. Instead of the living wage – they receive £2.25 an hour in benefits for 30 hours of work.
       Workfare means those in paid positions may see their jobs replaced by this unpaid labour. Why would a company pay for people to do these jobs when they can get free labour from the Job Centre?
       We can put a stop to this forced unpaid labour – Waterstones and Sainsburys recently announced that they would no longer take unpaid placements – the other companies just need a bit more encouragement to stop this exploitation. We demand an end to this exploitation and call for welfare rights and living wages for all!

If you continue to exploit us, we WILL shut you down!
http://www.facebook.com/events/163269033789710/

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OCCUPY AIPAC.

An open letter from Chris Hedges: 

I invite you to join me at the Occupy AIPAC Summit in Washington this weekend.

       I spent seven years in the Middle East. I lived for two of those seven years in Jerusalem. I was the Middle East Bureau Chief for the New York Times. AIPAC does not speak for Jews or for Israel. It speaks for right-wing ideologues who believe that because they have capacity to wage war, they have a right to wage war.
And just as these elites were too blind and too enamored of their own rhetoric to see what invading Iraq would trigger, so too are they unable to comprehend the regional conflagration that would be unleashed by attacking Iran.
      The uprisings from Tunisia to Egypt to Greece to Occupy Wall Street to our gathering outside AIPAC's doors in Washington are all the same primal struggle for justice. The battle for justice in Middle East is our battle. It is part of the vast, global battle against the 1 percent. It is a battle against the fossil fuel industry, the weapons manufacturers, the security and surveillance state, the misuse of public funds that wastes $ 4 trillion on wars that never had to be fought, the trillions more in looted taxpayer money to prop up insolvent banks and swell bloated military budgets, the battle to protect working men and women who are left struggling in the name of "austerity" to save their homes and find work.
       Join us at Occupy AIPAC this weekend. Help us make the voices of the 99 percent—the voices of mothers, fathers and children in the squalid refugee camps in Gaza, in the suburbs of Tehran and in the bleak industrial wastelands in Ohio—heard. Yours,
Chris Hedges.

Read 10 Reasons Why the Israel Lobby is So Dangerous

Sign the petition

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LOCK-OUTS, PAY-OFFS, THEY'RE ALL AT IT.

An appeal for solidarity from Labour Start:

       Workers locked out by a French-owned company in Canada need our help today. It's now been three months since Acadian Coach Lines, a subsidiary of French multinational Keolis, locked out their employees because of a labour dispute. This has resulted in no intercity bus service in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, leaving many who rely on buses to get to and from cities in these provinces stranded.

Being locked out of work is always bad. For an employer to do this in mid-winter is positively cruel.

Please show your support for these workers today -

click here. It will take you less than one minute to send a strong message to Keolis demanding that they return to negotiations.

And to see what recent campaigns you may have missed,

click here.

Thanks very much!

Eric Lee

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SCOTLAND'S LAST LIVING LINK!!

       Thomas Watters, the last surviving Scot who volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War, 1936/39 has died aged 99. Thomas had settled in Hertfordshire but was originally from Glasgow. In 1936 he was driving a Glasgow Corporation bus for a living when he decided along with approximately 500 other Scots to join the International Brigade to fight the fascist Franco's army. While in Spain he was a member of Scottish Ambulance Unit. In June 2009 at a ceremony in the Spanish Embassy in London he was honoured with an honorary Spanish citizenship. In 2010 he returned to Glasgow to give a speech at the rededication ceremony of the newly restored statue “Pasionaria” which stands on the north side of the River Clyde in Glasgow's city centre to commemorate the Spanish Civil War and the part played by the citizens of Glasgow.

       It is always sad to lose the last living link with any courageous working class event, and the volunteers from Scotland, and other parts of the world, who went to fight fascism in Spain were taking part in what can only be described as a courageous sacrifice for freedom for others, not just for themselves. We, the working class, should always remember our history, or we become a people without a history and without a culture.

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WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - GLASGOW WEAVERS STRIKE.

         We should never forget that in any industrial struggle you are not only fighting your employer, but the powers that be. The authorities will always throw the full extent of their power in support of the employer and against the workers. You elect them and they support your employer, that's how the system works. That power can be police intimidation/brutality/provocation, to bringing the troops onto the streets to crush the resistance of the group in dispute. Britain is no different in that respect, we have had the troops on the streets on numerous occasions. Troops were put on the streets in Liverpool during the 1911 dockers strike, resulting in two strikers being shot dead on the street. Later in Glasgow 1919 during the 40 hour week struggle, once again the state brought troops on to the streets. That event in Glasgow became known as Bloody Friday. We can go away back to what was probably the first organised strike in the country and the then authorities ran true to form and brought the troops out against the strikers, that was the 1787 Glasgow weavers strike. Don't ever expect "YOUR" elected representatives to support you in any workers dispute, they support the system, which is one of exploitation and business orientated, your are just the replaceable wee cogs in their greed machine.

Memorial at The Weavers Cemetery Calton Glasgow.

  

GLASGOW’S WEAVERS’ STRIKE, 1787

BACKGROUND.

Glasgow’s population at this period was around 60,000. Weaving was the main occupation in Glasgow and surrounding districts after the collapse of the tobacco trade due to the American War of Independence. The movement for parliamentary reform was still a seed in people’s hearts. It took the French Revolution to cause it to shoot and grow. Attempts by workers to unite in defence of their living standards were deemed an offence under common law. The weavers’ strike of 1787 was the first recorded strike in Glasgow’s history.

Around June 1787 the Glasgow weavers and those of surrounding areas learned that the payments for weaving muslin were to be cut. This would be the second cut to the weavers income in eight months. Many meetings were held around the districts and on June the 30th 1787 seven thousand attended a meeting on Glasgow Green. On the 4th of July terms of a unanimous resolution from the meeting appeared in a letter printed in the Glasgow Mercury. The letter was sent by James Mirrie on behalf of the committee appointed by the weavers. The letter pointed out that the cut suggested by the manufacturers would bring weavers income down by one-fourth while other trades had been rightfully rising in face of an increase in house rents and other means of subsistence. It also stated that they would not 'offer violence to any man or his work'.

STRIKE.

The strike started in June and lasted through July, August, September in to October. Calton was a district then just outside Glasgow’s boundary. Most of the population of the district were weavers. Around mid-day on Monday 3rd September, the authorities of Glasgow learned that a large crowd of weavers had formed at Calton near the city boundary at Gallowgate. The Lord Provost and Magistrates arrived to disperse the crowd but were driven back by stones thrown by the weavers. Later in the day the authorities were informed that the weavers were again assembling and proposed to march to Glasgow Cathedral.

RIOT ACT.

The 39th Regiment of Foot, under the command of Colonel Kellet was sent. With them went the Lord Provost, the Sheriff-Substitute, a Magistrate and others intent on dispersing the weavers. The groups met at a spot near Drygate Bridge. The soldiers were ordered to open fire, 3 weavers were killed outright and three were mortally wounded. A considerable number were wounded. How many can only be guessed at.

It is now accepted that the Riot Act was not read, it is claimed that the Sheriff-Substitute was preparing to read the Riot Act when the soldiers opened fire in self defence. After the riot Magistrates offered rewards for information leading to the arrest of activists. As well as James Granger, one of the main organisers of the strike, others were arrested but not brought to trial. On the 4th September the Magistrates brought in another regiment from Beith.

Towards the end of September Colonel Kellet and Major Powlet were presented with the freedom of the city. At the Tontine Tavern a dinner was given for the officers. Each soldier stationed in Glasgow was given a new pair of shoes and stockings.

TRIAL AND SENTENCE.

James Granger’s trial, he was then aged 38, married and had six children, took place in Edinburgh in the year 1788. It was the first case of “forming illegal combinations” in Scotland. He was found guilty on Tuesday 22nd July and sentenced on Friday 25th The sentence was that he be carried to the Tollbooth, to remain there until the 13th August, on which day he would be publicly whipped through the streets of the city at the hands of the Common Executioner; that he should then be set at liberty and allowed till the 15th October to settle his affairs, after which he is to banish himself from Scotland for seven years, under the usual certifications, in case of his again returning during that term. A severe price to pay for trying to prevent a wage cut. James Granger returned and took part in the 1811-1812 strike and lived to the age of 75.

      This was the scene at Glasgow Trongate 1919 after the events of the 40 hour week strike which resulted in what became know as "Bloody Friday", look closely and you will see the troops have "fixed bayonets".

More on Glasgow's working class history can be found HERE.

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