Do You Want To Go Done The Plughole?

      Experts come up with what we already know, living standards are falling fast. According to the Joseph Rowantree Foundation, real inflation since 2008 has risen by 25%, and we know that wages have fallen by at least 10% in the same period. The Foundation, also states that in the last 12 months the worst hit are pensioners and those living alone, pensioners seeing a 4.2% increase in living costs, while people living alone have seen an increase of 2.4%. George Gideon Osborne's attack on benefits such as freezing child benefit, tax credits "uprated" by 1% and the increase in the cost of essentials, meant a working couple with two children will be £230 worse off a year, a working lone parent £223 and a single person worse off by £49 per year. On top of this another bunch of experts gave us more information that we the ordinary people already know. The Office of the Children's Commissioner for England states. due to the governments spending cuts along with tax and benefit changes, an additional 500,000 children will be pushed into poverty by 2015.

       We living in this financial Mafia ideological attack don't need experts to tell us that we the ordinary people are being hit hard and being impoverished, and we don't accept experts to telling us that it is necessary. Our poverty is only necessary to save the financial mafia from losing some of their gamled plunderer, plunder that they stole from us the ordinary people.      

     This is the picture of a country where the ordinary people are spiraling down the deprivation plughole. No where in any government report or statement does it say that we will get back to even near the standard of living of 2008. That era is history, the new vision is of sweatshop Europe, with employment regulations shredded, wages at rock bottom and benefits evaporated. Then corporate Europe can compete with the Eastern sweatshop empire. Ah the wonders of capitalism.

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Scotland Against Fascism.

Edinburgh UAF Public meeting:
After the Woolwich murder...
Tuesday 2nd July,
7pm Edinburgh Central Mosque,
Potterrow EH8


       The racist Scottish Defence League and the Nazi British National Party are seeking to exploit the horrific murder of Lee Rigby to whip up hatred and division, which has already seen violent attacks against the Muslim community including a series of arson attacks on mosques in England.
      The racist SDL have organised demonstrations against mosques in Dundee and  Dumfries, as have the Nazi National Front in Aberdeen. All of these have been against the wishes of the local community.
    UAF has worked with local communities to organise counter-demos, to oppose and unite the community against the hate mongering and racism peddled by the SDL. The racist SDL have been repeatedly outnumbered and shown clearly that they are not welcome.
     The attacks in England after the horrendous Woolwich murder has been much worse. We invite you to come together to discuss how we can beat the racists as a united community.
Edinburgh Against The Racist SDL
email UafEdinburgh@riseup.net

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Glasgow ATOS, Anniversary Picket.

 

Glasgow Against ATOS, 1st Anniversary Picket.

Friday 28 June, 12:30 - 14:30

Corunna House,

Cadogan Street,

Glasgow.

       Another article by Glasgow Activist J. C. highlighting the vicious attack by this government on the ordinary people, in particular the brutal assault on the disabled and vulnerable in our society.

ATOS: Government approved Contract Killers!

    ATOS is a French multi-national company who have been employed by the Department of Works and Pensions to assess claimant’s fitness for work. In Glasgow their work capability assessment centre is based at Corunna House in Cadogan Street in the City centre.

       ATOS use a points based computer system to assess people. The majority of people who go through the ATOS process end up with no points or very few points; even severely disabled people or people with chronic illnesses or serious mental health problems have been declared fit for work by ATOS. We call the ATOS assessment centre at Corunna House “Lourdes” - because of its miraculous ability to cure people.

      Doctors who work for ATOS receive only eight days training in disability, and have found patients with severe M.S. and terminal cancer to be fit for work!

      ATOS’s brutal and insensitive treatment of the disabled has attracted widespread criticism from many sources. The General Medical Council are investigating allegations of improper conduct against twelve ATOS doctors, and two ATOS employees are under investigation after referring to patients as “parasites” and “down and outs”.

     The British Medical Association has condemned the ATOS assessment procedure as being not fit for purpose. Many M.P.’s have criticised ATOS’s brutally insensitive treatment of the disabled. Michael Meacher M.P. led a commons debate on this matter on the 17^th of January this year and criticised almost every aspect of its operations including the thousands of people who have died after ATOS have decided they were fit for work. You can see his speech on YouTube.

      A lady called Joyce Drummond recently quit her job at ATOS. Joyce worked as a nurse there but had to leave when she could no longer carry out what she was supposed to do. Joyce has gone on record and given many newspaper interviews about how ATOS assessments really work. She has explained that these are not genuine assessments but just an excuse to deprive people of their entitled benefit.

     The assessment starts well before you reach the assessment room. In fact, patient’s behaviour and abilities are observed from the moment you enter the building. When people go from the waiting room to the assessment room it is noted whether or not they are well presented, are they tidy, have they done their hair and make-up? And so on.

      Seemingly innocent questions are asked by the assessors:

• Do you have any pets – this can be linked with ability to bend to feed and walk.
• Do you look after someone else – parent or carer- if you do this will be taken as evidence of functioning
• Any training, voluntary work, socialising will be used as evidence of functioning.
• Can you use phone, computer, or washing machine?
• Can you manage bills?

     A whole range of dirty tricks is used against patients, because the ATOS assessments have nothing to do with fairness or compassion, or reorganising the benefits system, - it is all about taking money from the poorest and neediest in society.

     Joyce Drummond says that in her opinion the money given to Atos and spent on tribunals should be given to NHS GPs. They are best placed to make assessments regarding patients work capability. They have access to all medical reports, past history, specialist input and know their patients.

        How do ATOS decisions affect individuals and families?

Well, everyday there are stories in the papers describing the devastating effects of the decisions reached by ATOS.

       There are stories of people who are unable to work being left without any means of financial support.

       There are stories of people dying while awaiting results of their appeals after an ATOS assessment.

     There are stories of people committing suicide after appearing before ATOS.

      Nick Barker a farm labourer who had a brain haemorrhage which paralysed him down his left side and left him struggling to walk killed himself just before he was due to go up on his appeal. The coroner said the benefits assessment was the key to the tragedy.

      A lady called Linda Wootton, who had a heart and lung transplant was declared fit for work by Atos; her husband received the letter as she was dying in Hospital.

      I don’t intend to go through case after case, or pile on statistics and facts and figures; you can check all these things out online.

      Instead let me tell you what we are doing about ATOS.

      Glasgow against ATOS is committed to getting rid of ATOS and having them replaced by a compassionate and humane assessment procedure. In order to do this we campaign in every way we can.

We believe one of the most effective ways to campaign is through direct action. It is our experience that you can talk to politicians and officials till you are blue in the face and they will ignore you, but if you occupy their offices and invade their space they might actually have to do something.

       Over the past year, Glasgow against ATOS in conjunction with Citizens United and disability rights campaign group Black Triangle have carried out occupations of the Commonwealth Games office (who are sponsored by ATOS), and various banks and building societies who have dodged paying income tax,- If big business paid their taxes there would be no need for cuts of any kind. We have also confronted politicians face to face and at their offices and homes.

     On the last Friday of every month we have a picket outside ATOS at Corunna House starting around 12.00 a.m. Some of us stay there and leaflet and talk to people coming and going to their assessments, while the rest go on what we call a rolling picket. We go through the city centre with banners and a megaphone and hand out leaflets and bring the scandal of ATOS to public attention. Recently two of our group were arrested during one of our pickets for using the megaphone and will appear in court in June and July. We hope that activists and groups will support our demonstrations outside the court on these days.

We produce tons of leaflets, posters, banners and stuff like t-shirts to help raise public awareness of the immoral activities of ATOS and the plight of ATOS victims.

      We raise funds to pay for all of this; - we recently had a fantastic fundraising night which raised almost a thousand pounds. In addition to this we have had discussions with the trade unions at ATOS although we think that they are a bit unhappy with us after we occupied their offices at Corunna House a couple of weeks ago.

     Our fight ties in with the bedroom tax campaign because the majority of families affected by the bedroom tax will have a disabled member who has probably suffered at the hands of ATOS at some point.

What is really going on?

      There is a war going on in society, a war between the people at the top - the ruling elite and big business, and the people at the bottom. A war between rich and poor, a war between the needy and the greedy!

This is a Class War!

     This is no exaggeration, working class people are the victims of this war and thousands of working class people die every year as a result of the war on the sick, disabled and unemployed.

What can we do? - Join the Fightback!

      How do we do it? - Get together, come up with ideas, produce leaflets, talk to each other and involve others, Take an interest – become involved in Glasgow Against ATOS or other campaigning groups.

Don’t Moan, - Organise! Don’t get Angry – Get Even!

Visit us on Facebook at Glasgow Against ATOS.

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Which Side Are You On??

      The following is a comment from a life long Glasgow activist, J. C. on the recent strike by PCS workers. If they expect solidarity from the people, they have to show solidarity with the people, and not forget that they themselves are WORKERS!!

 

To the Militant strikers of the PCS.

    Good Luck with your pension, pay and conditions by the way, ....But do you think you could stop fucking the unemployed about?

     Well it’s good to see that the PCS union members have the bottle to take strike action, - not unfortunately because they are no longer prepared to do the Government’s dirty work by implementing sanctions which means that claimants have no benefit to live on, not to prevent the needless deaths caused by Government contract killers ATOS, but to protect their own interests.

       Many PCS members seem to have managed without any problem to go along with Ian Duncan Smith’s vicious campaign of annihilation of the sick, disabled and unemployed. There was nothing they could do about it you see - orders are orders, and if they didn’t cut people’s benefits their Managers could have them up on a disciplinary, - Well boo hoo hoo!

     Have they no idea what they are doing to people when they implement these sanctions?

       Have they forgotten they are dealing with human beings?

      Can they not see they are playing the Bosses game, and that by toeing the line they are ruining the lives of working class people – their class!

      When they implement these sanctions they are throwing people into abject poverty; how are these claimants supposed to get by? How are they supposed to survive?

       Let’s look at it another way: What if it was your son or daughter on the receiving end of sanctions? What if it was you? Do you think you might be a bit more caring then?

      It’s no good trying to blame the Government- “The bad Tories made me do it”, or “The Management made me do it”, it’s no use trying to avoid responsibility for your actions – we all have a responsibility;- we have a responsibility for our actions and a responsibility to our class. Your actions are the final link in the chain of despair for many working class people. Have you read about the suicides? Have you read about the hardship and misery your actions are causing?

    How to stop the misery? Organise with your workmates and fellow Trade unionists and refuse to implement sanctions. If you can go on strike for pay, pensions and conditions, you can surely organise a strike to protect any PCS workers threatened by disciplinary action.

      Isn’t it better to stand up to the bosses than participate in actions that may cause people harm or even to take their own life?

     The Government are waging war on working class people and wittingly or otherwise you are helping them. It’s time the PCS reassessed their situation, it’s time they extended the solidarity expressed in their strike for pay and conditions to the rest of their class.

     During the Miner’s strike in the 1980’s Arthur Scargill made the point that despite being a despicable human being, Margaret Thatcher was at least standing up for her class - unlike the Labour Party who betrayed their working class members.

     In 1931 a young girl Florence Reece - the daughter of a mine worker, wrote a song in support of striking miners in Harlan County, Kentucky. She went on to become a social activist and songwriter, and spent the rest of her life campaigning on social and Union issues.

     The extraordinarily powerful song she wrote at 12 years of age asks the question, “Which side are you on?”

Well, which side are you on?

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A Kettle Takes A While To Boil.

         Like all mass protests that erupt, they are never isolated incidents, they are usually the result of a long simmering discontent, anger, frustration, at injustice, inequality, corruption and the lack of control of their own lives. The protests in the Middle East, and Turkey didn't just suddenly happen out of nowhere, the anger frustration and disgust has been there for years. Brazil is the same story, a country held up by the financial Mafia as a modern wonder, a booming economy, but as is normal in this capitalist system, that means there is a mass under class that don't see the benefits of that "booming economy". The capitalist system is corruption, is repression, you can't expect to build a spectacle of opulent wealth on the backs of millions of poor without corruption and repression, nor can you expect those millions of poor to put up with it forever. A kettle takes a while to boil.

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Workers Know Your History, Fire Bombed In Castlemilk.

     Up and down the country communities are in struggle with the council or the government, it has always been that way, and always will, until the people themselves control their own communities. Issues keep coming up and some people think this is a new struggle, it is not, it is the same struggle that has been going on for centuries.  A struggle to determine the shape of our own lives.

    When an new issue arises communities have to think how best to handle it, how to organise, but we can learn from history, it has all been done before. In all our communities there are people who have been involved in defending their communities and it is from these people that we can learn how to meet the next issue, the next battle in this long struggle.

    They following is a recorded interview with on such person, a former resident of Castlemilk, once Europe's largest housing estate, and I'm sure there are lessons there for today.

Fire Bombed In Castlemilk. 

        May 1983 there was a group of tenants who had been burned out their tenement flats, about 4 or 5 families. There had been an empty flat on the bottom landing and someone had thrown a petrol bomb into it, - in Castlemilk – east end, and the tenants – it was lucky that noone was killed in it. The fire brigade had to be called and people had to be rescued, by the fire brigade, a lot of them suffered from smoke inhalation, there was nobody living in the bottom flat that was empty but it was petrol bombed and it nearly killed everyone else in the building.

      And they people were put in temporary accommodation only as long as it took the council to paint the close and fix up any of the burnt doors etc , and then they were told that was their houses ready and they would have to go back in. And even at that point you could still smell smoke in the whole building . But they were told that they would need to occupy the houses again because that was it and there wasn’t any other accommodation for them. And the people pointed out that not only was the place still smelled of burning but still smelling of smoke that they were terrified to return to that place again in case a similar incident happened. They pointed out that an awful lot of them had almost been killed in it.

      But the Housing Dept was completely unsympathetic about it. And they said that that would be the only housing that they would be offered and they could take it or leave it sort of thing. So again they had went to their local Tenants Association who went up to the Housing Department with them and basically had had the wool pulled over their eyes by the housing authorities who told them there was nothing that they could do about the whole thing. And as it so happened on their way out of the Housing Dept one of them met me and another couple of the guys that were involved in the other activities in Castlemilk and they told us about their situation and we immediately said did you go to your tenants group and they said that’s him there that’s the guy there from the Tenants Group and we quizzed him and he told us Oh the housing Association have told us that there’s nothing we can do about it and we will just have to accept it.

    And the people said to us ‘ is that right do we just have to accept that and can they force us to go back in there? ‘ And again I asked the question again ‘ Well how determined are you?’ And they said ‘well we are very determined’. And I said well you can be very determined but you might end up threatened with jail or stuff like that and the people said well, we don’t care that’s how bad we feel about the whole thing.

     So we had a wee meeting with them, a good discussion about the whole thing they were adamant that they weren’t going to return to that tenement building so we said lets try to work out a strategy of how to approach this, obviously the next stage was to go and lobby the housing dept again and demand to see the housing manager etc etc but what other things can we come up with?

      Despite the fact that a lot of the people there were political activists we were honestly stumped about what to come up with – we came up with a few ideas like we will go to see the housing manager , push him etc do this and do that, but here a wee woman one of the tenants that had been burned out her house who had never been involved in anything before stuck her hand up and timidly asked , ‘ See how we are basically homeless it would be a good idea for us to get a tent and put it in the grounds of the housing department and we will just live there we will just live in the grounds of the Housing dept. right outside and we all looked at one another because it was basically one of the best ideas we had ever heard! And we thought Brilliant! Absolutely Brilliant! That’s exactly what we will do.

       And we did that the next day – we went in to see the manager pointed out that the people were not going to be returning to their tenement flats, had he another offer for them and he said that he ‘was not going to use that as another excuse for queue jumping’ and for trying to get into a better part of Castlemilk or whatever, you know.

      And of course the people were really indignant about that, it had nothing to do with that they had nearly lost their lives. So after a lot of arguing with him and him just refusing to help in any way whatsoever, we went outside, we got the tent that we had brought, and we pitched the tent and a couple of these collapsible chairs people sat outside the tent on that and from then on we started making posters and notices. Fortunately the bit of ground I mention about is right outside the door of the housing on a big triangle of ground I think there was a small fence at that point that you could just step over so we had the tent pitched and we started to hand draw notices and put them up on trees explaining to people going by and everybody that was going by we were able to tell them what was going on we were able to speak to them.

       So within a couple of days we had a couple of tents and tons of hand drawn notices up. People by this time that were going up and down to the shops because the housing office is right next to the main shopping area in Castlemilk so a lot of people had to pass it anyway and go up the lane that ran from the side of the housing dept down to the shopping centre . They had become used to what was happening and some people started giving us donations of money and then food and that was growing so we made a point of that we got big buckets and advertised what was going on and so on. And one day a guy passed and said ‘see how they poor people are staying in they tents would it not be better if they had a caravan and we said that would be brilliant. He said ‘I’ve got a caravan that I can give yous’.

       Well that night when the housing department was closed they had all went to their beds we brought the caravan in and lifted it over the wee fence. So the next day when the housing department authorities came in there was a caravan in the grounds. And by this time we had started printing up posters with the housing managers face on them and other posters saying ‘ cmon gies a hoose’ which was a reference to the Boys from the Black Stuff (TV) by Yosser, his phrase was ‘Cmon gies a job’ so we changed that a wee bit and as I say we had pictures of the Housing Manager’s face his name was Mugnaioni, I think so we changed that to Buggsieoni and posing as a housing manager for Wanted Posters and we covered the area with the posters and the trees with the posters and shortly after we got the caravan we thought lets extend this lets go and get another caravan and we did that so there was basically a couple of fairly big caravans and tents and stuff like that in the housing department. And every day that that was going on we basically occupied the housing department about 30 to 40 people occupying the housing dept petitioning to see the housing manager and ultimately they sent for the police and 3 days in a row all 30 people were arrested by the police. And the police said, ‘now you are all under arrest, now will you all walk from here to the police station which was 50 yards away or whatever and we all said no you will need to send cars and vans. So they got cars and vans from the surrounding areas to come and take us all to the police station to charge us and then let us go so we immediately went back to the housing department and occupied it again. We got great public support, we got tons and tons of money and food handed in by people. Some people that were passing ended up joining the campaign it was absolutely fantastic. We’ve got an article originally written by Jeanette McGinn for Workers City which covers the whole event. I think eventually I think it lasted six months or so. And to cut a very long story short the people that the housing manager had absolutely refused to rehouse would never rehouse they could only take that tenement block or not got rehoused in houses of their choice ultimately after 6 months of struggle and the housing manager explained to us that it could all have been resolved a lot quicker if we had not have interfered in the whole thing. Which by then we were used to hearing all that when we come into conflict with the authorities that the thing would have been dealt with quicker if we had not have been involved but in reality what that would have meant is that they would have had their way . So that was a very successful campaign

        To escalate the whole thing we were going to take one of the caravans and take it down to George Square and ram it in the door down there.

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Are We Brave Enough To Learn From Baboons?

      I have never been a follower of "it's human nature", as if the way we behave is all laid out in some grand plan, fixed, we are stuck with it, that's the way we are. So this little video was very interesting to me. Like the man said, "Are we brave enough to learn from Baboons?"

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Greed Versus The Environment

 

Health and Environmental Effects of the Tar Sands

 

      Across the United States, oil refineries are seeking permits to expand their facilities to process heavy crude oil from the tar sands. Processing tar sands oil will mean more asthma and respiratory diseases, more cancer, and more cardiovascular problems. Many local communities are opposing the expansions.

In Canada, the toxic burden on communities near the tar sands is already enormous. In addition to direct human exposure, oil contamination in the local watershed has led to arsenic in moose meat—a dietary staple for First Nations peoples—up to 33 times acceptable levels. Drinking water has also been contaminated.

      The alternative is simple: we need to break our addiction to oil and fossil fuels. We could be on the road to a new energy future if we simply redirect the investment capital slated for the tar sands into sustainable alternatives. Heightened investments in clean energy also mean the creation of new green jobs. We need to stop investing in dirty fossil fuels and start funding the future.

Read the full article HERE:

Read more: What are the Tar Sands? | Rainforest Action Network http://ran.org/what-are-tar-sands#ixzz2XAYsM8xS

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Brazil.

The truth about Brazil in photos:

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The Poison Chalice Of Western Aid.

      It appears that the “Arab Spring” in Egypt is heading for a military government. The Egyptian Military has said it might step in to maintain peace in the country. It may have been a people's uprising in Egypt, but the reins of power were never to be put in the hands of the people. Whenever the West steps in to support a “people's uprising”, you can rest assured that support will go to the right-wing, pro-Western capitalism groups and/or the religious fundamentalists.  

      So if there is a “people's uprising” it is sure to be met with reactionary forces from inside and outside their country. Libya is a prime example of Western aid and support flowing into a country, mooted as bring democracy, but in actual fact producing chaos and a quagmire of bloodshed that will last for decades, while at the same time getting rid of a regime that Western capitalism wasn't happy with.

       Western support for any uprising will never be for the benefit of the people of that country. It will either be to help to bring down a regime that Western capitalism doesn't like, or to prevent a true people's democracy from forming. This policy has resulted in millions of people suffering and dying and decades of chaos and faction fighting in countries across the globe. In recent years we have had Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and Iran is always on their agenda. 

      Only the people of a country can sort out the type of country they want, and they will have to do it by themselves. We in the West can show solidarity with any uprising by doing everything in our power to prevent our Western military juggernaut from running in waving the flag of "Western type" democracy. When and if, it happens here, we would most certainly not want any foreign military power from abroad pouring in to our "aid".

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Osborne, Successful Arsonist.

Ooops, my bad ----

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It's Busines As Usual.

       It seems that Jeremy Hunt, (our Health Minister) tried to sound and look shocked when the The Daily Telegraph announced that its under cover reporters had uncovered a scheme where by Pharmaceutical companies help chemists to rip-off the NHS. It's all pretence of course, as I'm sure Jeremy, (he who was caught fiddling his rent expenses) knows very well, that's the way this system works.

        It seems that the chemists can order drugs for the NHS and be overcharged by 50%, by the pharmaceutical company, sell them on to the NHS, with their mark-up on top, and then claim the over-charge back from the pharmaceutical company. Another little fiddle would be for the pharmaceutical company to send dupicate invoices, which the pharmaceutical representative stated was, “slightly perhaps underhand”

      Everybody knows that this is how this corrupt system works, bribes, back-handers, slush funds, duplicity, everything to get the edge on your competitor and rip-off the public. We all know what “lobbying” is about, call it what you will but it is all about paying for favours, but at the end of the day every penny paid in bribes, back-handers, slush-funds, and “lobbying” expenses, comes from you and I. These companies don't make the money in the back room on a desktop printer, they collect it from the public via their product or service. All the bonuses, bribes and fat salaries are collected from you the public. The pharmaceutical industry's alleged fiddles are paid for by you, the money that changes hands in “lobbying, is paid by you. That's the system we live in, a rip-off system for the very rich, they bribe their way to greater wealth with our money. Ah, the wonders of capitalism. 

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A Few Dates For Your Calendar.

        A few dates for your calendar, come together, discuss our problems and then we can find our answers, and start to create that society freed from the grip of profit, greed and corruption. If we don't discuss the problems from our perspective we will never get answers that are to our benefit.

Mon 24th June - Turning Words into Action (Dundee)

 

7.30pm Dundee Voluntary Action, 10 Constitution Road, Dundee DD1 1LL

 

      Speakers include Susan Archibald, Disability Campaigner.

Forum organised by Unite the Resistance in Scotland.

      The forum will bring together people from different campaigns resisting Austerity. By standing together we gain strength and learn from each other’s experiences.

 

      Supported by Black Triangle, UNITE R&F M&E Construction Branch and UNITE Scottish Housing Association Branch

 

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Tues 25th June - Turning Words into Action (Edinburgh) 

 

7.30pm Augustine Church, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1EL

 

     Francis Wylie (UNITE United Left) will be speaking on blacklisting and fighting back, John McArdle (Black Triangle) on the attacks on disabled people, Penny Gower (EIS-FELA President) on Tory changes to our employment rights & PCS speaker (to be confirmed)

 

Forum organised by Unite the Resistance in Scotland

 

       The forum will bring together people from different campaigns resisting Austerity. By standing together we gain strength and learn from each other’s experiences.

 

      Supported by Black Triangle, UNITE R&F M&E Construction Branch and UNITE Scottish Housing Association Branch

 

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Tues 25th June - Turning Words into Action (Glasgow) 

 

7.30pm Jurys Inn, Jamaica Street, Glasgow, G1 4QE

 

     Jim Harte (UNITE R&F M&E Construction branch) on the Blacklist and Joyce Drummond (ATOS campaigner) on ATOS and the assault on welfare. Other speakers to be announced

 

Forum organised by Unite the Resistance in Scotland

 

     The forum will bring together people from different campaigns resisting Austerity. By standing together we gain strength and learn from each other’s experiences.

 

Supported by Black Triangle, UNITE R&F M&E Construction Branch and UNITE Scottish Housing Association Branch

 

 

Sat 29 June - Armed Forces Day

 

       Events to mark Armed Forces Day are being held around the UK on or around 29 June.

 

      "In both Iraq and Afghanistan, once the reasons for going to war were found to be false, or unattainable or just forgotten, those with a vested interest in continuing the wars resorted to one of the oldest tricks in the book.

They cultivated the myth of the soldier as hero.

They told you that you might not understand why the war continued but that you should support the soldiers.

Never again will I be complicit in the killing and torture of my Brothers and Sisters.

Never again will accept the vile religion of Patriotism.

I refuse to pull on that rancid uniform.

I refuse to fight for Queen and Country."

 

Ben Griffin, former SAS soldier

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Sat 29 June - Scotland United Against the Bedroom Tax

 

10.30am - 4pm Meadowbank Stadium 139-141 London Road, EH7 6AE Edinburgh

 

      Local campaign groups, trade union branches, equality campaign organisations and housing and legal specialists and politicians are invited to come along to explore the options available to mitigate and eliminate the bedroom tax and its impacts.

 

Organised by the STUC

 

http://no2bedroomtax.co.uk/event/scotland-united-against-the-bedroom-tax-conference/

 

https://www.facebook.com/events/149017925283500/  

PATRIOTISM.

No, I shall not die for the fluttering flag,

if truth be known, ‘tis nothing but a multi-coloured rag

held aloft by some foolish hand

inciting worker and peasant to kill

on some green and wooded hill,

peasant and worker from some other land.

Nor shall I shed blood for the fluttering rag

that brings out fools to stand and brag

of brutal deeds painted grand,

deeds where rustic and craftsman lie so still

killed by my brothers' misguided hand.

No allegiance have I for the Nation

this man made autocratic creation

that divides my brothers in a world so small,

binds us to a country's cause, right or wrong,

bids us follow its drum, sing its song,

then sheds our blood in some border brawl.

No, I'll be no slave to flag or nation,

have no ear for power oration,

though its iron heel is on my breast,

my back feels its leather thong,

at patriotism's barracoon, I'll be no guest.

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