Victimisation.

 

An appeal from LabourStart:

 

      A labour rights activist, Andy Hall, is facing the possibility of years in prison and a multi-million dollar fine because he helped write a report exposing rights violations, including the use of child labour, by a fruit processing company in Thailand.

      The charge against him is that he broadcasted "false statements to the media" -- which is untrue.

      Two global union federations have launched an online campaign through LabourStart to mobilize thousands of protest messages demanding that the charges be dropped.

 

Please take a moment to send off your message - click here.
And then please spread the word to your fellow union members.
 

Thanks very much!

 

Eric Lee

 

P.S. There's a 7 minute long interview with Andy on Radio Labour this week - click here to listen to it. 

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North Kelvin Meadow Belongs To The People.

     North Kelvin Meadow is a wild area  in the north west of Glasgow. In its past it has been several things, but it lay derelict for years and then the local community decided to develop it, they planted trees and cultivated other parts and generally managed the whole area and decades later they have a wonderful meadow/woodland for kids and adults alike to enjoy. An area to walk, play, meet, have events, the last wild place in the city for kids to learn about nature while having fun. Community driven for the benefit of all, a display of what a local community can achieve if left to their own devices.

       It is not a void sitting in an area, it is a vibrant city asset where regular events are held attracting 1000 or more people a month, people walk though it in all seasons enjoying the changes, parents with the children are frequent visitors. The kids love the freedom to run and roam. All this driven and maintained by the local community.

      You would imagine that the City Council would be proud of its citizens and what they had achieved, and perhaps even chip in a couple of quid here and there. However, this is Glasgow City Council and it is more corporate friendly than community friendly. It has the grand plan to level the whole area for developers and see it turned into high-end luxury flats.

      Think about it, the last wild place in the city, an environmentally friendly asset used by thousands, beneficial to all especially the kids, costing the council nothing, and they want to wipe it of the face of the map with the only beneficial effects being to the developers bank accounts. North Kelvin Meadow belongs to the people.

       The community is fighting back and have been for some time now, and yesterday they took their campaign to the City Chambers in George Square and voiced their disgust and anger. This campaign deserves the support from all of us citizens of the city, the North Kelvin meadow is there for all of us to use. If the council gets its way, it will not be there for much longer. 

You can help by signing their petition HERE:

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I Want To Believe.

Another day in April and another poem.

I WANT TO BELIEVE!

I want to believe

All that is good is out there

Sleeping in hearts that live in dark valleys,

About to blossom like some magic woodland,

In spite of war, in spite of greed

The essence that is humanity struggling to be free.

All around death arrives in many guises,

Silent as the frost poverty kills,

The ruthless march of war

With every drum beat seeks God’s blessing,

While the God fearing kill the God fearing,

Slaughter in the name of the greater good.

I want to believe

All that is good is out there

Sleeping in the hearts that live in dark valleys

About to blossom like some magic woodland,

Not just as the dream of poets.

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The Edge Fund Get-Together,

THE EDGE FUND GLASGOW LAUNCH www.edgefund.org.uk

SATURDAY 6TH APRIL - AFRICAN CARIBBEAN NETWORK CENTRE, 66 – 68 OSBORNE STREET, GLASGOW G1 5QH 7 – 10pm

ARE YOU A COMMUNITY ACTIVIST, ARTIST OR PERFORMER RAISING YOUR VOICE FOR JUSTICE?

• Are you and your community facing injustice or discrimination?
• Do you want to raise your voice and transform society? 
• Do you find you are treated differently to others because of your class, disability, gender, race, nationality, religion, sexuality or other factors?
• Do you want to do something about it?

Welcome 2013 with revolutionary fervour at THE EDGE FUND GLASGOW LAUNCH PARTY 

Edge Fund activists are looking for artists, activists, performers and community organisers to make the Glasgow launch night amazing.  The Edge Fund is a really good sign of things to come. There are so many amazing people out there who can benefit. We want to showcase the biggest talents from the roaring belly of resistance on our streets and in our communities. Please do email over any links / suggestions ASAP to edgecommunity@riseup.net - Check out the Edge Fund launch in London here - more videos and footage here

 

PROGRAMME - 

• 7.00 – 7.30 performances – why we need to build community power .. the issues alive in Glasgow.
• 7.30 – 8.00 small group feedback
• 8.00 – 8.15 – Q and A 
• 8.15- 8.45 - Soulful music - chillax- connect shout outs to different crews, organisations and groups in the building, in case people wish to make connections and network.

EDGE FUND INFORMATION 

There is a new fund that can support you. If you are experiencing injustice and have your own ideas about how you can stop it happening or have an idea about how we can create a society where everyone is treated equally, please get in touch. It could be a new idea or one you have already put into action. It could be about jobs, housing, benefits, education, crime, access to public services, the environment or anything else that affects your daily life. EDGE FUND is a group of people from different backgrounds who decide together how the money should be given out. Within our group are both people who give and receive money.We are looking for people to jto join us, especially those most affected by inequality and injustice.  

If you have an idea for a project and need some money and support to develop it or make it happen, or would like to get involved in another way please call Sophie on 07767126915 or email edgefund@riseup.net. More information is on our website www.edgefund.org.uk

Here's just some of the amazing contributors performing on the night ......

• Cathy McCormack - long term anti-poverty campaigner from Easterhouse Glasgow, author of ‘The Wee Yellow Butterfly’ and radio presenter of the 'The War against the Poor in Britain' series 
• Rosie Kane - Comedian and former MSP performing parts of her new show!
• Galgael who provide a space that serves as something of a safe harbour for those whose lives have been battered by storms such as worklessness, depression or addiction 
• The Glasgow Sex Worker Open University (SWOU) - a project created by and for sex workers. SWOU's aim is to empower our community through workshops, debates, actions and art projects as well as fighting against our criminalisation 
• The African Caribbean Network who promote the inclusion of African and Caribbean residents as equal and valued members of their communities 
• Camcorder Guerrillas are a Glasgow community-based, voluntary collective of professional filmmakers, artists and activists, working together to make and showcase documentaries for those concerned with human rights, welfare and social justice initiatives 

AND BEFOREHAND .. LET FREEDOM RING TRAINING – READING OUR REALITY IN 2013 - SATURDAY 6TH APRIL - AFRICAN CARIBBEAN NETWORK CENTRE, 66 – 68 OSBORNE STREET, GLASGOW G1 5QH – 4 – 6pm

Let Freedom Ring! - from South Africa comes the UK launch of Training for Transformation in 2013 - “The greatest weapon in the hand of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” ― Steve Biko www.theglassishalffull.co.uk 

PLEASE NOTE THERE ARE LIMITED SPACES FOR THE TRAINING (4PM – 6PM) – MAXIMUM 20 SPACES – please respond ASAP to letfreedomring@theglassishalffull.co.uk. It is Free!

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Bread and Roses.

       A poem a day for the month of April. This one was taken from the article Bread and Roses on the Free Your Voice site:

         



As we come marching, marching in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: “Bread and roses! Bread and roses!”
As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women’s children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!
As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for — but we fight for roses, too!
As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days.
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler — ten that toil where one reposes,
Poem by James Oppenheim

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Liars and Hypocrites in High Places.

     It would be nice to see Iain Duncan Smith eat shit or openly back out. £53 a week is less than his income for a quarter of a day, not counting all the wee perks that go with being one of the in boys of the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption Club.

 

Yesterday in response to welfare reforms, Iain Duncan Smith said that he could live on £53 per week. Dom is calling on him to prove his claim.

177081 Signatures

Sign the Petition

Iain Duncan Smith: Iain Duncan Smith to live on £53 a week.

Started by: Dom,

     This petition calls for Iain Duncan Smith, the current Work and Pensions Secretary, to prove his claim of being able to live on £7.57 a day, or £53 a week.

     On Monday's Today Programme David Bennett, a market trader, said that after his housing benefit had been cut, he lives on £53 per week. The next interviewee was Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, who was defending the changes. The interviewer then asked him if he could live on this amount. He replied: "If I had to, I would."

     This petition calls on Iain Duncan Smith to live on this budget for at least one year. This would help realise the conservative party`s current mantra that "We are all in this together".

     This would mean a 97% reduction in his current income, which is £1,581.02 a week or £225 a day after tax* [Source: The Telegraph]

Please join me.

Click here to sign Dom's petition, "Iain Duncan Smith: Iain Duncan Smith to live on £53 a week.".

You can also check out other popular petitions on Change.org by clicking here.

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The Illusion of Democracy Difts Off Like Smoke in The Breeze.

       Conditions in Greece are deplorable for the ordinary people, thanks to the financial mafia and the Troika having "saved" them, but for immigrants the conditions are made much worse by the constant persecution by the state apparatus and by the violence from the fascists of Golden Dawn. Vicious attacks on immigrants by this fascist organisation go unhindered as the police turn a blind eye, they are also subject to brutal treatment by the police. Now it seems that the Greek state is in collusion with the Turkish state to return political refugees to Turkey, some having fled Turkey ten or more years ago and are now settled in Greece with families and friends. 

     In the recent weeks, Turkish and Kurdish political refugees in Greece are faced with constant prosecutions (arrests, searches at their homes, detentions when they protest in front of the Turkish Embassy). Turkey is activating several extradiction signals, even for refugees who have been in Greece for over a decade, and whose asylum requests are still pending due to the substantially inefficient system of asylum granting.

Read the full article HERE:

       As the days pass the illusion of democracy in Europe drifts off like smoke in a breeze. Governments openly co-operate with the financial mafia in looting the public purse, human rights are violated on a daily basis, and the corporate world at an ever increasing pace, takes control of all public space.

      It doesn't have to be this way, there are alternatives, capitalism is not the only game in town. There is a war going on at the moment, it is one class against another. The corporate financial class is looting and plundering the assets of the ordinary people, who as a class, have the power to reshape our world to a better place for all. Our class make and distribute everything in this world, their class dictate what we make and how we distribute it. Why do we let them, we don't need them, they need us. It is our sweat blood and tears that keep the parasites in their marble halls, while we go cold and hungry, why do we continue to do so?

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I'm Proud.

       It Appears that April is National Poetry Writing Month, the idea is that you have to come up with a poem a day. I don't know if you should write one a day, which is a tall order if your a busy buddie, or just come up with one a day from somewhere. I'm also not sure if it is just an American thing. I suppose I should have done more research. However, no country should have a monopoly of such a wonderful idea. So where are all your beautiful little verses?

I'M PROUD.

I’m proud of my people, proud to be one of them,

that great mass on society’s bottom rung.

Those who, with coal-dust under their nails

in their eyes, in their lungs

claw at the earths entrails.

Their brothers,

cement in their hair

in their mouth, in their ears,

oil ingrained in their fingers,

on their face.

Sisters, glistening with sweat

midst the ceaseless noise of machines

that throw out shirts, shoes, toys, carpets

for other people.

Those with soil and sweat stuck to their skin

smelling of the earth, feeding the multitude,

grinding out their lives in a harsh pitiless system

weighted down

with a sack load of half-dead dreams,

sometimes brought to their knees

by a tidal wave of despair,

never defeated,

groping in the dark to find tomorrow,

keeping hope alive;

they amaze me.

Somehow, from somewhere

in this cold, cruel

unforgiving scheme of things

they find love for their children.

Not a teaspoonful, not a cupful,

but buckets full, to bathe them in,

to pour over them.

They seem to know

that one day this world will be ours

and to take care of it

we will need those who have been loved.

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Cyprus, Parasites Gambling Casino.

       So the political elite of Cyprus have come up with a wonderful plan to save the south half of the Island. After the financial Mafia confined the ordinary citizens to the pit of poverty with the plundering of their bank accounts, the local political parasites come up with the idea that to encourage gambling casinos to mushroom on the island would save the day, so to this end they are granting them tax breaks. Think of it as a gambling paradise for the rich parasites to sun themselves by day, and fritter away their millions in the evening. Of course the ordinary citizens of the island who have been mugged and robbed by the financial Mafia will only see this transformation through a plate glass window, or as cheap labour, serving coffee and sweeping the floors etc., how wonderful for the locals. Once again the rich have come running to the rescue, turning up to employ them at the minimum wage or less, to pander to the parasites every wish. A millionaires holiday camp built and run on the cheap labour of a mugged population. Isn't capitalism wonderful!!

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Sweets That Leave a Bitter Taste in Your Mouth.

       Sweet tasting, but leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. A call for solidarity from Labour Start:

      Chances are you've never heard of Mondelez.  But you know the company. Mondelez is the new name for Kraft, one of the world's largest food companies. They make Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers, Philadelphia cream cheese, Toblerone, Green & Blacks, and Cadbury chocolates -- familiar brands around the world.

      The company says it exists to “create delicious moments of joy for our consumers, employees and communities around the world.” Actually, its record on workers' rights is somewhat less than stellar.

       According to the IUF -- the global union federation representing food workers -- union leaders in Egypt and Tunisia have been unjustly fired in the performance of their duties and a worker was fired after losing his thumb in an accident in the factory in Alexandria. The IUF has asked Mondelez CEO Irene Rosenfeld for a meeting to discuss this.

But she's refusing to even talk about the issues.

       I realize that it's still a holiday weekend for many of you, but please take a moment to join me in sending a clear message to Ms. Rosenfeld demanding that she engage with the IUF, rectify the human rights abuses at her company, and reinstate all unjustly fired workers.

Click here to send off your message.

Thank you -- and have a great Easter and Passover.

Eric Lee

P.S. Want to know more about the Mondelez workers and their fight for justice?  Visit the new Screamdelez website.

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Workers Know Your History, Francisco Ascaso Abadia.

      April first, all fools day, but it also marks another anniversary. April, 1, 1901, in Spain, Francisco Ascaso Abadía was born. Though his life was short, it was one of struggle, serving the cause of the ordinary people. He died on the first day of conflict of the Spanish civil war in Barcelona, (The following is from The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest) An important figure in both the Spanish anarchosyndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Labor Confederation, CNT) and the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (Iberian Anarchist Federation, FAI) from 1922 until his death, Ascaso Abadía is associated with Buenaventura Durruti and Juan García Oliver , fellow members of the group Solidarity (Los Solidarios, later Nosotros [We]), who were together nicknamed “the three musketeers.” Imprisoned in 1923 for the assassination of Zaragoza's archbishop, Ascaso escaped, joining Durruti in France and traveling to the Americas. They returned to Europe by April 1926, and by 1931 Ascaso was back in Spain as one of the leading radicals of the movement. Deported to Africa in 1932, he returned with enhanced prestige, battling moderate forces both as an editor of Solidaridad Obrera (Workers' Solidarity) and as secretary of the Catalan CNT during 1934–5. Critical of the policies of the Asturian CNT, he opposed alliances with political organizations. Ascaso supported the formation of armed militia from CNT members and was at the forefront of the street battles in the 1936 Spanish Revolution; he died on July 20 during the struggle for Barcelona's Atarazanas Barracks. SEE ALSO: Abad de Santillán, Diego (1897–1983); Anarchism, Spain; Anarchosyndicalism; Asturias Uprising, October 1934 ; Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). 

                            

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