A rising tide of lies, ignorance and disinformation on climate change… where is it coming from?

Start: 14 Apr 2010, 6:30 pm

Where: 

 Room G2, SOAS, off Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

PUBLIC MEETING

Wednesday 14th April, 6:30pm

Room G2 at SOAS
School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, off Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG. (Nearest tube: Russell Square). Map here.

Speakers including...

David Adam, Environmental Correspondent from the Guardian
Ben Stewart, Greenpeace
George Marshall, COIN - Climate Outreach and Information Network (founder)

Who are the “sceptics” or “deniers” , how are they organised, who is paying them? Is it true that theirs is the message that people most want to hear and why? What can we do to fight back? These questions and more... hear some answers and bring your own...

Support of sacked trade union organiser Juan Carlos Piedra and the living wage campaign:

Excellent video here of the demo last Friday at UCL which myself and Joseph attended, in support of sacked trade union organiser Juan Carlos Piedra and the living wage campaign:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S24YKZOi_aw




Venceremos
Andy

Visteon pension demonstration 31 March

Visteon pension demonstration 31 March


Assemble 12 noon outside UNITE
HQ,
128 Theobald's Road, Holborn, London, WC1X 8TN


March to Parliament Square for a demonstration at 2.00pm. Coaches being organised from Basildon, Enfield and Swansea.

VISTEON WORKERS MAY NOT GET THEIR PENSIONS


More info on the Visteon Pensioners Action Group
websitehttp://www.visteonpensionactiongroup.co.uk/

A rising tide of lies, ignorance and disinformation on climate change …where is it coming from ?

PUBLIC MEETING

Wednesday 14th April, 6.30 pm at SOAS, Room G2

SOAS- Scool of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, off Russell Square (Russell Square tube)

Turn right into the courtyard just off the very short Thornhaugh Street at the North West corner of Russel Square. Room G2 is in the main building on the right of the coutrtyard, up the steps. Lecture Room G2 is immediately on your left as you enter.

With

David Adam, environmental correspondent from the Guardian

Ben Stewart, Greenpeace

George Marshall, COIN ( Climate Outreach and Information Network), author ‘Carbon De-Tox’ etc

Who are the “sceptics” or “deniers” , how are they organised, who is paying them? Is it true that theirs is the message that people most want to hear and why ? What can we do to fight back ? These questions and more …..hear some answers and bring your own …………….

Updates www.campaigncc.org and info about the sceptic backlash at http://www.campaigncc.org/sceptics

Unite; Heathrow solidarity and anti-fascism in Barking

Acknowledgements to Andy Hewett
URGENT UNITE MOBILISATION

Calling all Unite Officers/Regional Committee/Activists

1. Show your support for BA Cabin Crew strike;

A further four days of strike action will commence on Saturday, unless our pressure forces Walsh back to the negotiating table.

Your support and solidarity is needed at Heathrow.

Come along to the Strike HQ at Bedfont FC, (ten minutes from Hatton Cross Station), The Orchard, Hatton Rd Bedfont, Middx, TW14 8QT. Please come by Public transport - parking will not be available at Bedfont FC - Piccadilly Line is running this weekend.

On Saturday, all day, there will be International solidarity themes with overseas visitors.

On Sunday, bring your family, kids and friends for the Cabin Crew Strikers Family day. Aim for 1pm.

All solidarity helps and sustains the strikers. You will feel proud of our union and our members - and you'll enjoy your visit. Please come - make sure this

crucial strike is won.

2. Defeat the BNP in Barking and Dagenham - mobilise on Saturday;

Unite is mobilising this Saturday (27th March) in Barking constituency. A busy weekend, but please make a priority of this - unless you are in West London .

The vile Nick Griffin of the BNP is standing against Margaret Hodge - he must be stopped, and the BNP must be stopped from winning the Council with their lies.

Unite have committed to support Barking's day of action in Goresbrook Ward this Saturday 27th March at 10am. We will be meeting at Dawson Hall, Hedgemans Road, 5 minutes from Becontree Train Station (District line), and mainly knocking on doors. This is important and effective work; you'll enjoy it.

We aim to have 100 people on the streets helping - our hatred and contempt for the evil of the BNP must be turned into action.

Please confirm your attendance with us for Barking - still come if you don't - but it assists if you notify in advance.

A very busy weekend - trade unionism brings with it responsibilities; let's make sure that London & Eastern Unite fulfils its role with distinction.

In solidarity

Steve Hart

Regional Secretary

Unite London& Eastern Region

NUS & UCU defend Biosciences at Kent Uni

By Aaron Kiely


The Biosciences department at the University of Kent was under threat of eleven compulsory redundancies, around one-third of the staff. The University management claimed that research was poor within the department, despite the quality of teaching being ranked amongst the best by students. The University decided to ‘restructure’ the department and sack staff, some who had been in the department for up to twenty-two years in favour of employing research-only ‘high-fliers’ who would bring in better RAE scores.


After an historic extraordinary meeting of the UCU, over 130 members of the union unanimously voted to ballot for strike action or action short of a strike if the university planned to go ahead with the redundancies. Students were involved from the beginning and were invited to the meeting and links were formed at the earliest opportunity.


Several open meetings later, student groups on the campus united together and led grassroots action and planning to defend lecturers. It was crucial to garner the support of the average student and explain to them that defending the biosciences department was a matter of defending the quality of education and teaching standards. Student Union policy was passed to oppose the redundancies, mandating the Union to take a vastly differently stance to that of 2006 when it actively campaigned against the UCU during a pay dispute – pressure from Biosciences students and education activists ensured that such a course would be unthinkable in the present.


During an initial planning meeting of 20 students, the group debated strategy and unanimously agreed to plan a demonstration on a UCAS open-day against the job losses in solidarity with the lecturers. It was also agreed to send notice of such a demonstration to the deputy vice-chancellor stating that press would be invited. A week later, the student’s union sabbatical team also agreed to follow such a route and promised to make their resources available i.e. leaflet-printing, e-mails to all students and website updates. Over 350 students were confirmed to attend, with societies and individuals pledging to come out in number to be vocal in their opposition to the job cuts with local press such as the BBC and newspapers planning on creating coverage.


The day before the planned protest however, a joint statement from the UCU and University management was issued saying that strike action had been called off and all threats of compulsory redundancies had been lifted as well as plans for a redundancy avoidancy agreement; a clear and decisive victory for students and staff. Even at the University of Kent, noted in recent years for its political conservatism, students can lead important struggles, defend their education and most importantly come out victorious. The UCU issued a thank you to all students and noted that it was only possible because they had strong student support.


Here’s to a reinvigorated student movement at Kent, and long may it continue!
Aaron Kiely

An evening with Mark Steel & friends 'Laugh? I nearly voted!'

Sunday 25th April - starts 7pm The Dancehouse Theatre, Oxford Road, Manchester. Proceeds go to these wonderful and very lovely Prospective Parliamentary Candidates:

• Kay Phillips ( Respect Party – Blackley & Broughton ) www.kayphillips.org
• Gayle O’Donovan ( Green Party – Manchester Central) www.greengayle.com
• David Henry ( Hazel Must Go /TUSC – Salford & Eccles) www.davidhenry.org.uk

Tickets £10 are available online from www.gmrespect.org.uk
or
The Dancehouse Box Office. opening times. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. 4pm-7pm (0161) 237 9753 or www.thedancehouse.co.uk

Facebook Event: http://tinyurl.com/MarkSteelManchester

UCU London regional demo: Defend jobs, defend further, higher and adult education: 20 March 2010; meet 12pm at Kings College London,

UCU London regional demo
Defend jobs, defend further, higher and adult education: 20 March 2010; meet 12pm at Kings College London, then march to Downing Street to hand in a statement to the prime minister, Gordon Brown.

 Demo leaflet (.pdf) [216kb] Demo poster (.pdf) [299kb]

Save further education
Further education is entering a new phase of crisis. At least £200 million has been wiped from adult learning budgets for 2010/11 in England and, with a further £300 million of cuts to come over the next three years, more than 1,400 jobs are already under threat. The Association of Colleges says current cuts could place more than 7,000 jobs at risk. The job cuts could affect up to 160,000 adult learners on top of the 1.4 million adult learning places lost since 2005.

At a time when individuals and the broader economy need all the assistance possible to get out of recession, UCU believes that such cuts to further and adult education are a betrayal of our communities and our future. UCU has agreed an immediate and co-ordinated response. All English branches are being asked to write to principals asking them to join our campaign against the funding reductions and calling on them not to cut jobs.

Go to: Save further education

Convention of the left leaflet

Cuts? There is an alternative


KEEPING IT PUBLIC


http://gptu.net/pssess4X/3c/Cut-alternative.pdf

Upcoming dates:Brent PSC, TUSC, Venezuela Solidarity, Welfare State Rally, UAF Bolton

TUESDAY MARCH 16th Brent PSC AGM 7pm
VIVA PALESTINA CONVOY LOCAL MEETING 7.30


WILLESDEN GREEN LIBRARY
95 High Rd, NW10 2SF


THURSDAY 25 MARCH, 7.30pm
Launch rally for TUSC, Friends House, Euston
Speakers: Bob Crow, Dave Nellist (SP), Brian Caton (POA), Chris Baugh (PCS), Michale Lavalette (SWP). Details here


SATURDAY 27 MARCH
Venezuela under threat - Venezuela Solidarity Conference, 11.30am at the Simon Bolivar Hall, Grafton Way, W1 with the ambassador, Jeremy Corbyn, George Galloway and Iain Bruce. More details here.


SATURDAY 10 APRIL, 12noon
March to defend the Welfare State and Public Services, called by Keep Our NHS Public and all major unions. Assemble Victoria Gardens Temple tube) Rally 2pm Trafalgar Square


Step up the mobilisation against the facists
The BNP are campaigning to win the council in Barking & Dagenham. That means they would be able to implement their policies as far as possible in education, social services and housing. Most weekends, there will be leafleting and other forms of campaigning against the BNP. Latest news for mobilisation in Barking & Dagenham at the UAF wesbsite. Check up also the Hope Not Hate campaign.
In Bolton on saturday 20 March, Unite Against Fascism has called a national counter demonstration for all those who want to defend our multiracial society against the EDL's thuggery and violence.

Brent Campaign Against Climate Change meeting March 2 2010

Brent is the centre of the universe because P.Murry resides there at present, but there could be similar local meetings involving GP/pressure groups and the left going on elsewhere, please send reports/photos/vids to this blog.


http://blip.tv/file/3337205
Introduction


http://blip.tv/file/3337532
part 1


http://blip.tv/file/3337708
part2


http://blip.tv/file/3341912
part3


http://blip.tv/file/3340739
part4

Defending The Wefare State & Public Services Rally 10 April 2010

Defending The Wefare State & Public Services Rally 10 April 2010


March and Rally Assemble 12 noon Temple Place Embankment
Rally 2pm Trafalgar Sq
Full details on website at
http://www.10410demo.co.uk/index.html


Welcome
Since 1948, Britain has supported the idea that state pensions, health care, education and other public services are best provided by society as whole. But this idea is now under threat.


The state pension is totally inadequate, leaving at least 1 in 4 older people to live in poverty


7m households have a child living in poverty and existing benefits provide a very limited safety net


Unemployment now stands at over 2m and workfare offers no solution


10m adults are disabled and face huge barriers to escaping financial hardship


The NHS is slowly being privatised behind a smokescreen of choice and competition, and patients are suffering as a result


Our public services are now facing massive cuts and further privatisation


The welfare state and public services are an essential part of any civilised society - pooling the risk across the population and providing support and services to us all.


Why should you get involved?


Whoever wins the next general election will be looking at the welfare state and public services as a way of cutting public expenditure. This demonstration must therefore send a clear message to all the political parties that the majority of people do not want to see further cuts and privatisation.


On 10 April 2010 we will have a unique chance – just weeks before an expected general election – to make our voices heard. Staying at home and thinking it’s someone else’s job to speak out for the welfare state and public services won’t be enough. Make sure you are there!

Solidarity Demonstration for Pat O'Donnell 11am Tuesday 16th March

Solidarity Demonstration for Pat O'Donnell

11am Tuesday 16th March

Irish Embassy, 17 Grosvenor Place, London

Support Pat O'Donnell-Erris fisherman jailed for resisting Shell's attempt to impose an experimental gas pipeline on his community.


In February Pat O'Donnell was sentenced to 7 months in jail for convictions of “breach of the peace” and of "obstructing a Garda". This was for his part in the local communities ongoing resistance to Shell's attempt to impose an experimental gas pipeline on them.


While fisherman Pat O’Donnell is out of Shell’s way in prison, 2010 is set to be another year of disruption for the community. Previous years have seen continued harassment and intimidation by Gardai and Shell security, as well as the unlawful arrest and targeted jailing of key campaigners. The community has been fighting this project for over a decade. They are asking for the gas to be refined at sea which is standard practice around the world. The project as it stands will endanger their health, livelihoods & local environment; all for the profit of Shell.


Across Ireland local Shell to Sea groups have been holding solidarity protests and other events for Pat. In London on the 16th March supporters in Britain will show their support for Pat & the Erris community by holding a demonstration outside the Irish embassy demanding Pat's immediate release.


Please join us if you can. There will be a card to Pat to sign & a letter to give to the embassy.


For more information see:www.shelltosea.com & www.indymedia.ie


Please write to Pat in prison:


Pat O'Donnell


Castlerea Prison


Castlerea


Harristown


Co.Roscommon


Ireland

Green Left with Caroline Lucas at Brighton March for Jobs Rally 6/3/2010

Derek Wall and Caroline Lucas with Brighton GP banner





Alan Wheatley at the GP stall

Sussex Uni UCU secretary addresses the Rally

Caroline Lucas with GL members

Caroline with march for jobs placard and GL members.

The Green Party Trade Union Group supports PCS

The Green Party Trade Union Group supports PCS (Public and Commercial Services Union) members in their strike action today and tomorrow. Their action in defense of their conditions, is defense of the pay and conditions of all workers, (especially public sector workers) which are now under attack. It is also a defense of properly funded public services which are a benefit to all communities in the UK. We hope Green Party members will show their support for PCS strikers by visiting their picket lines and demonstrations.
“The dispute is over changes to the civil service compensation scheme which will see staff robbed of up to a third of their entitlements and see loyal civil and public servants lose tens of thousands of pounds if they are forced out of a job. The union fears that the government wants to make it easier for whoever wins the general election to cut low paid civil and public servants on the cheap.” (PCS website 8/3/2010)

London 5/3/2010;Protest against the EDL at the Houses of Parliament

Photos by Martin Francis

London FBU supports Greens

London region of the Fire Brigades Union has agreed to make a donation to the Green Party's London election fund.


This was proposed by barnet Branch of FBU and reflects the solidarity with them shown by Noel Lynch and other members of Barnet GP

Kassel Conference for Ecology & Socialism

(acknowledgements to Gareth Price-Thomas)
Saturday 13th to Sunday 14th March 2010
Proccedings will be in German
Location: Region Kassel Volkshochschule hall, Wilhelmshöher Allee 21, 34117 Kassel


Organised by the SALZ Education Association in cooperation with the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, the latter being the think tank of the German socialist party ‘Die Linke’ (‘The Left’). The two main organisers are Dr. Michael Rieger and Peter Schüren.


Talks include ‘The International Situation from an Ecological Perspective’ (Dr. Bruno Kern, co-author of Ecosocialism or Barbarism, available at http://www.ecosocialistnetwork.org/Docs.htm), ‘The Environmental and Climate Crisis as Part of the Global Economic Crisis’ (Dr. Winfried Wolf), ‘Is there an Ecological Planned Economy?’ (Dr. Klaus Engert), ‘History, Significance and Perspectives of the Anti-Nuclear Movement’ (Thies Gleiss), ‘The Belem Ecosocialist Manifesto’ (Dr. Manuel Kellner) and ‘Quality of Work and New Conceptions of Work’ (Dr. Jürgen Klippert).


To book tickets (€25 when paid in advance), or for more details, please send correspondence to salzkreis@yahoo.de.


Prof. Karl Hermann Tjaden, teacher of political economy and economic sociology at the Gesamthochschule Kassel, writes:
“If the word ‘globalisation’ means anything at all, it signifies the now global nature of capitalist destructivity.


Even ruling-class politics acknowledges the issue of climate change. However, it disputes the connection between capitalist production and lifestyle and the ecological catastrophes which threaten us all.


But while intergovernmental conferences are taking place, NATO is making rather more concrete preparations: the expected floods of immigrants from new drought or flood zones are being classified as a danger to European stability, and will in the event be pushed back by military force. As in a pressure-cooker, social contradictions are heating up and intensifying on an international level – quite literally, in an ecological sense – and it becomes increasingly clear that the interests of the ruling class contradict the interests of the human race.


The direct ecological consequences of climate change are engendering massive global socio-political consequences which we can only tackle on a global level. What we need is a new internationalism.


The goal of our conference is to develop concrete demands and strategies out of the cooperation of different left, anticapitalist, socialist and communist tendencies, movements and parties, in order to act internationally against the continuing destruction of our natural resources as well as the capitalist build-up, the corollaries of which include a development of the surveillance state as well as cuts in social welfare. We want to search together for starting points for international democratic collaboration similar to what was laid down in the Belem Ecosocialist Declaration. The bourgeois ideological obsession with technical productivity ignores the need for a change in social relations. What is required is a world-wide programme of demands developed in concordance with the social and ecological movements, the trade unions and the anticapitalist organisations.


The social dimension of the ecological crisis demands international solidarity from below in order to push back capitalist globalisation from above. This solidarity must be based on a new rapport between economy and ecology, and can only be achieved with the end of the irresponsible, profit-driven capitalist dominance over nature and humanity. For this we shall need new understandings of work and productivity which respect the relationship between work and life and the effects of employment on the health and wellbeing of humankind.


We are headed for ecological crisis, but what can be done politically to steer us away from this and towards a dignified human existence in accordance with nature? How can this challenge, to develop new forms of international solidaristic cooperation, be put into political practice?”