By guest blogger Maria Exall
The Monday evening fringe meeting organised by the United Campaign for the Repeal of the Anti-Union Laws and the Institute of Employment Rights on the Trade Union Freedom Bill was packed. Over 200 delegates and visitors met to hear the latest reportback on the Trade...
I have spent today held captive by a ballot box. I was appointed as a scrutineer for the General Council election, which entails sitting next to a box all morning, counting votes for about an hour-and-a-half, then being banned from Congress floor and penned in by bodyguards for four hours to prevent...
Yesterday, a posse of RMT activists came down from London to make a noise about East London Line privatisation. Wearing T-shirts, holding a big banner and handing out leaflets and stickers and helped for a while by TSSA delegates, they succeeded in making sure that everyone at the Congress now knows...
Dr. Abdul Bari, new leader of the Muslim Council of Britain gave a speech to Congress on Monday afternoon, and the General Council presented us with a joint statement with the Muslim Council of Britain. There was no opportunity to propose amendments to it, just a take-it-or-leave-it vote, and little...
The debate on the National Health Service (click here and scroll down to C9 to read the composite) was similarly to the debates on Pensions and on Public Services - plenty of anger at what the government is doing to the NHS, rather less on strategy or definite proposals for action. Still, at least...
After the formalities and back-slapping that mark the start of Congress, the first big debate was on Pensions. As I reported yesterday, we had a long and uncontroversial composite motion on the subject.
Paul Kenny from the GMB moved the composite, and other speakers included Janice Godrich, PCS Pre...
Monday morning, first session, and that Booth woman is up at the microphone opening her gob already! NASUWT and PCS moved a resolution deploring violence against public service workers and calling on the TUC to set up a national register of assaults. Several union delegates spoke on the subject...
Congress starts tomorrow, so today is the day for going to your delegation meeting, unpacking your undies, blogging in the hotel bar and checking out some social functions later.
At the RMT delegation meeting, we got to the see the composited motions for the first time.
Most union motions to TUC...
I'm off to Brighton for TUC Congress, and will be blogging several times a day - just as I did last year. So check back on a regular basis between tomorrow and Thursday for the latest news from the annual parliament of the workers' movement (?!).
Just as I am getting back on my feet after my horrific injury last year, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority has bowled me over by turning down my claim.
They reckon that what happened to me was an accident rather than a crime. Obviously, the CICA thinks it knows better than both the...
Pass the sick bag. In a horribly creepy interview in the Sunday Times, Jasper Gerard not only drools all over the page, but falls over himself in praise of Jemima's concern for the poor.
Poverty's so distressing darling. What the poor need is a dose of pity from a rich globe-trotter with more money...
If you believe the propaganda department of Hackney Council, you'd think we live under the most generous and enlightened administration on the planet. Awash we are with fantastic new services. How will we ever find the time to enjoy them all or the means to thank our leaders as fullsomely as they...
City & Hackney Mental Health Trust wants to become a foundation trust. And as a service user, it wants my opinion on the idea.
I'll certainly give it that. Mental health services here - as everywhere else no doubt - are horribly underfunded, leaving poeple waiting six months or more for a first...
In May 1919, the Ministry of Labour reported a Home Office survey listing causes of revolutionary feeling amongst the working class. The top six?
I wonder what a similar survey might come up with today. Admittedly, they...
There a books Q&A doing the rounds of bloggers at the moment, and I've been tagged by Volty over at Shiraz Socialist. So here goes ...
1. One book that changed your life.
It was a song that changed my life (Going Underground by The Jam) rather than a book. But 'Ten Days That Shook the World' by John...
I'm happy to carry out a request from this campaign to publicise their case. Below is an extract from a press release advertising a press conference that has now happened. This case is, however, still ongoing, and your support would be most appreciated.
===============
HOME OFFICE CONTRADICTS...
Last week, a report suggested that shoplifters should not be sent to prison.
Sounds sensible to me. I can't see that the general public needs 'protecting' from a serious and imminent threat from shoplifters, and prison is more effective at turning shoplifters into burglars or multi-functional...
CBBC Newsround is running an on-line survey asking whether there are enough places to play outdoors.
Obviously, the answer is 'No'!
The government goes on and on about childhood obesity, but its 'solution' is to lecture ordinary people about our lifestyle habits but stop short of providing the...
Ernesto Leal came from Chile to Britain as a child in the 1970s, fleeing Pinochet's repression with the rest of his family. After living in Scotland for years, he now lives in Hackney. His first language is English, he now longer has family in Chile. Ernesto is British.
But the government wants to...
The press release below contains good news indeed - a spoke firmly in the wheel of the government's ridiculous and dangerous plans to allow profiteering private companies to run GP surgeries.
I generally try not to be the annoying person who rains on every parade, but it would be irresponsible not...
This summer, the Mayor of London gets new power over housing and planning in the capital. He says he will use these powers "mainly to ensure more affordable homes are built for Londoners."
There was council housing, then there was social housing, now there is affordable housing. But affordable to...
Ok, so it's not exactly organising the workers, and it may even turn out to contain some dodgy bits, but this made me laugh.
I should, of course, add that the title of this entry is a reference to the name of the website linked to in the text, and should not be misinterpreted as a reference to my...
Two news stories grabbed my attention today. Firstly, that applications for university places are down 3.6%. And secondly, that Army recruitment has risen by 9%.
Although presented as entirely separate stories, it seems to me that these are linked. What choices do young people make at 16 or 18? New...
Train drivers on Midland Mainline are to strike for six successive Fridays over the issue of management's treatment of medically-restricted drivers and ill-health severance.
With a 95.7% ballot majority (135 votes for; just 6 against), ASLEF has named strike dates on Fridays 25th August and 1st...
Is Hugo Chavez:
(a) the President of Venezuela?; or
(b) the real leader of the Arab people?
According to George Galloway at last Saturday's anti-war march, the answer is (b).
Workers' Liberty and Socialist Appeal / Hands Off Venezuela have had interesting debates as to whether Chavez is a friend...
RMT press release
FAR RIGHT activist Patrick Harrington has failed in his bid to have the Certification Officer overturn his expulsion from RMT for misconduct under the union's rules.
The Assistant Certification Officer yesterday dismissed three complaints that the union had breached its rules as...
I have written this report for the Hackney TUC website, but it is currently under hack attack, so I'm posting it here. This is my report with the Hackney TUC's President's hat on. You'll have to wait for my personal opinions on some of the issues discussed until I get back from my holiday in the...
This press release was issued on 25th July. I am glad to say that my own union, RMT has circulated and supported it. While we oppose a war against Iran, this can not become an excuse to prettify the regime or for trade unions to forget that their basic duty of solidarity is towards workers, against...
So the Child Support Agency is to be scrapped. Sounds like good news for all those people - men and women, 'caring' and 'absent' parents - who have been let down or persecuted by it. Problem is, it looks set to be replaced by something even worse.
Governments always announce their latest measures...
It seems that here in Hackney, we are not alone in having an incompetent Council when it comes to mobile phone masts and planning permission. After an effective campaign by local residents, Hackney Council refused permission to O2 to erect a mast on London Fields, just metres away from a primary...
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