Janine's blog

This blog will not be running on this site any more. I am now a contributing blogger on Stroppyblog. The old stuff will stay here.

As my regular reader will know, I am writing a book about Poplarism in the 1920s. I'm just drafting a section about the extent to which the Poplar struggle was influenced by religion. But I think there is more to be said about this than I want to include in the book, so I thought I'd share it with you here ...

Here (in italics) you will see Respect's entry in a guide to political parties for people with learning disabilities produced by the Disability Rights Coalition. The text was submitted by Respect themselves.

35 teachers at Haggerston School in Hackney face disciplinary action for refusing to cross a Unite!/T&G picket line of striking school meals workers. You can read all about it on Hackney TUC's website. Below is an email I have just sent to the head teacher.

May saw the start of a very-welcome socialist feminist discussion group in London. Organised by Workers' Liberty, it is meeting every month. The first discussion was about the German socialist women's movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As this is a pet subject of mine, I was happy to be asked to introduce the discussion.

Apparently, when you complain about your union not producing a leaflet, you are in fact volunteering to produce it yourself! So here is a leaflet against Tube ticket office closures which I and other RMT activists will be dishing out to passengers, together with stuff from TSSA too.

Jon Cruddas has emailed me to thank me for supporting him in Labour's Deputy Leadership election, even though I, erm, didn't.

The thank-you note is copied below. I particularly enjoyed his description of Harriet Harman's "compassion", a view I am sure is shared by the single parents whose benefits she cut.

One of my great heroes is Minnie Lansbury. She is one of those socialist feminists who would be an icon if more people had even heard of her.

Briefly ... Minnie was born in 1889 in Stepney to Jewish parents named Glassman.

Fancy a billion quid between you and your mate? Pierre Lagrange and Noam Gottesman are in line for what the papers call a 'windfall', surely one of the greatest under-statements of our time.

Hackney Council is carrying out an appraisal for estate cleaning and ground maintenance services, and are considering three options:

1. Full outsourcing of contractors for both services across Hackney Homes.

Take a look at the second and third petitions on this page of the Downing Street petitions site.

The first wants the Prime Minister to "continue the support for faith schools and to ensure that in all schools the teaching of traditional ‘faith’ views of origins is included alongside the more recent scientific ‘theories’ which many scientists ‘believe'", and goes on to argue that "Evolution and other scientific theories should not be taught as fact but instead along side other ‘faith’ views of origins."

Here's an interesting source of information. Apparently, the Olympic Games and other 'mega-events' have displaced some 2 million people from their hom

The TUC has written to non-unionised businesses, explaining to them that trade unions are "good for business".

For a vile example of antisemitism, check out this YouTube page. It manages to denounce the war on terror and Israel as a 'racist apartheid terrorist state'. It also drips antisemitism from every sentence.

The other day, the pamphlet of election addresses for Labour’s Deputy Leader dropped through my letter box. Regular readers will know that I am not a Labour Party member and my union is not affiliated, both of us expelled for preferring socialist candidates in elections to Blairites. But I am a member of another affiliated organisation, the Labour Camapign for Lesbian and Gay Rights – so I get my voting paper.

A kind friend thought I would appreciate a look at OK! magazine. Not because I’m a celeb obsessive, of course, but because of the eight pages devoted to my erstwhile political sparring partner Derek Draper – the man who once threatened to get his cousins from Chorley to come and sort me out.

How it is that union leaders are so pathetically accommodating to the class enemies who run the Labour Party, but hard as nails in refusing to do their members' bidding?

We have already heard of embarrassing fawning to Brown and the coterie of right-wing no-marks scrabbling to be his deputy from leaders of the T&G, CWU and others.

I have reported to blog readers before that I am receiving unsolicited 'spam' email from Jon Cruddas' campaign, who seem to think there is some reason why I might back their man. Me being a principled socialist, there is not.

A report has claimed that East End schools are dividing by race.

While 17 Tower Hamlets primary schools have more than 90%+ Bangladeshi pupils, nine have fewer than 10%. Three of the borough's 15 secondaries have less than 3% Bangladeshi pupils, while two have more than 95% Bangladeshi pupils and three over 80%.

At yesterday's RMT Regional Council, our new women's newsletter had its first outing, with 500 copies distributed amongst delegates. Mostly, it was well-received, welcomed by both women and (most) men, who expect it to go down very well in the workplaces.

Two wee anecdotes:

1. A couple of people I know who live in the Clapton Pond area have recently been the unfortunate victims of crime. One has had his car stolen for the second time in the last year. The other was forced to hand over his motorbike at knifepoint.

The Women and Work Commission was New Labour's attempt to address the embarrassment and injustice of the enduring gender pay gap. But its report was woeful, in great part blaming women and girls for going into low-paid jobs and men and boys for renouncing those jobs for better-paid work. Bastards.

Below is an extract from a Parliamentary discussion about compulsory sex education.

Brilliant. Network Rail have made big bucks, have dipped their short arms into their deep pockets to fish out a tiny bit to share with the workers - and have excluded the maintenance workers in the Grayrigg area and the Scottish signallers who Network Rail forced to take strike action earlier this year!

Good news from the Court of Appeal, where Chagos islanders have won an important stage of their legal fight to return to their home.

I have just finished laying out the new women's newsletter for RMT's London Transport region, amusingly entitled 'Time Of The Month'. It was put together by our regional Women's Officer, Jackie Darby, and myself - with contributions from several other women members.

File this under 'Deaths That Will Cause Me No Tears'. Jerry Falwell, religious fruitcake and rampant reactionary, has departed this mortal coil, aged 73.

Here are some of his lowlights:

Homophobia within the police hampers investigations into 'queerbashing' and murder, according to an independent review. The report was conducted by the Metropolitan Police's Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Advisory Group (LGBT AG) and sanctioned by the Met itself.

Click here.

Update: the poll is no longer on that page. Instead there is an article about how John McDonnell is struggling to get on the ballot paper. You can help make his struggle easier by emailing one or more of the following 'undecided' Labour MPs, urging them to nominate John.

Oh yes they do. It's official.

Joint HSE/CIPD research - 'Management Competencies for Preventing and Reducing Stress at Work' - shows that "a manager's behaviour can have a major impact on employees' stress levels affecting the well-being of employees and organisational performance."