Janine's blog

Picket This Bigot!

Comrades up in Manchester are organising a picket and counter-rally when David Coleman speaks at an event in the city on May 17 2007. Coleman - a professor at Oxford University - is a nasty piece of work, founder of the odious MigrationWatch, which poses as some kind of academic research think-tank...

Farooq Tariq arrested

Letter from Labour Party Pakistan

The General Secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan, comrade Farooq Tariq was arrested from his Lahore office by a heavy contingent of Punjab Police at 1:30 p.m on Friday 4 May. He has been taken to Garhi Shahu police station, Lahore, where he is being detained....

CWU's Dave Ward Leaves Labour's Executive

Copied below is a report from the Observer. Ward claims that there is a "conflict of interest" between fighting government policy and sitting on Labour's NEC. Is there?! Back in the 1970s, the Labour Party NEC called a national demonstration against the then Labour government's policy, so presumably...

Sign to Stop Ticket Office Closures

Click here to sign the petition I have set up on the 10 Downing Street website, objecting to Tube ticket office closures.

And just to reassure you that I don't actually think that a petition alone will stop these closures, here is a set of campaign proposals that I and a couple of other activists...

Hazel Blears and Sweatshops

The freebie Metro newspaper today informs us that beloved-of-this-blog Hazel Blears has been caught out being dodgy again. And here is the story in the Manchester Evening News.
This time, she has allegedly been commissioning her campaign material (she's standing for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party...

Trot Bashing

A small outbreak of online Trot-bashing from some truly sad union hacks:

My favourite...

Hackney: Estate Plus?

Hackney Council has apparently rebranded its estate regeneration policy. It is now called 'Estate Plus'. Plus what, though?

... plus privatisation ... plus overcrowding ... plus community fragmentation ...

There are a few minuses as well though ...

... minus council housing ... minus green space...

RMT and TUC to part company?

There has been some talk in the RMT about parting company with the TUC, which seems to be based on three main factors:

  • A looming dispute over RMT's forthcoming merger with OILC;
  • Fear that the new merged T&G/Amicus super-union will dominate the TUC;
  • The fact that the TUC is generally crap.

I want to...

Diane Abbott and the Labour leadership election

Yesterday it seemed that any remaining hope that Diane Abbott MP might support John McDonnell's campaign for the Labour leadership had been extinguished. In the '60 Second Interview' in the 18 April edition of the Metro, she was asked who she supports for Labour leader and replied "Gordon without a...

Note to Trade Unions: You Can't Trust Nationalists

Below is a press release from RMT revealing that the Scottish National Party (SNP) has dropped its previous policy in support of rail renationalisation after ... getting big bucks from private rail owners.

Stagecoach owner Brian souter is also a notorious homophobe, having bankrolled the...

20 Years of the NUS Women's Officer post

The National Union of Students Women's Campaign is celebrating 20 years since the establishment of the full-time elected Women's Officer post. One way it has marked the occasion is to ask all former NUS Women's Officers a couple of questions. As a former holder of that esteemed office (1990/2), here...

Women's TUC: Sweatshop Labour policy

The TUC has still not deemed to post on its website the resolutions passed at Women's Conference over a month ago. Instead, we get a decidedly unhelpful "no documents available".

I'm not going to do their job for them and post the whole lot, but I am posting the resolution on sweatshop labour, that...

Sleep Deprivation

Here at Jblog HQ, we are suffering from sleep deprivation, due to the announcements from our neighbouring railway station. Loud and lengthy announcements to the zero people on the platform would be comical if it weren't actually a breach of my peace.

Fortunately(?), one of our councillors is the...

Nurseries Make Children Feral - Allegedly

Hot news today. Sending your kids to nursery turns them into yobs, yes it does.

Well actually, it doesn't, even according to the report cited - which claims that attending nursery for long hours, especially over 35 hours a week, may bring out anti-social behaviour in children. The report also says...

Gender Equality Duty

Under new legislation, the Gender Equality Duty comes into force on 6th April (this Friday). It compels all public authorities to promote gender equality and eliminate sex discrimination. The theory goes that instead of depending on individuals making complaints about sex discrimination, the duty...

Sign this, this, this, this and this

Possibly the Prime Minister may live to regret setting up the facility to place e-petitions on the 10 Downing Street website. Or possibly he just intends to ignore them. There are now 6,752.

Here are JBlog’s recommended five to sign before their deadline runs out (soon):

  1. Recycle priority. We the...

Adonis: At It Again

Andrew Adonis may well become the number one figure of contempt on this blog, nudging ahead of Ruth Kelly and George Galloway.

He has moved into pole position with his latest campaign to reduce car usage for taking kids to school.

He's going to cut the qualifying distance for free travel on...

Railworkers 4 McDonnell

If you think it's been a bit quiet here on JBlog for the last few days, it's not just because of jetlag following my conference binge of the last few weeks.

It's also because my blogging attentions have been preoccupied elsewhere, namely at the Rail4John blog. Check it out for news, reports...

Israel: Strike On, Strike Off

There I was, about to post the report (copied at the end) of a forthcoming general strike in Israel. But before I managed to do so, it's been called off.

Shame, cos I thought letting the England team in but not its fans was one of the most imaginative ways I've come across of giving yourself an...

Horror Movie

God, how vile. Some sadist is making a film about Margaret Thatcher.

Anyone up for organising protests/stunts outside screenings of it, the comments box is all yours ...

Perhaps I should tip my sick bag, rather than my hat, to Ben.

Women's TUC: Lone Working, Single Parents, TUC Women's Committee election

On the final morning, Community moved a resolution about single staffing in betting shops, concerned at threats and assaults against women working alone, and about employers not allowing women to leave work if a domestic emergency arose as the shop would have to close. Several supporting speakers...

International Women's Day: Past, Present, Future

March 8th each year is International Women’s Day. It is celebrated across the globe, and is a day for campaigners to draw attention to women’s continued second-class citizenship and need for equality. However, it is also celebrated by the very same governments and corporations that contribute to...

Trident: Taking The TUC Tops To Task

This morning, we were treated to an address by TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber. There are various little things he said that I could pick on and slag off, but I won't, because it was the overall message that bugged me. Basically, after listing the Labour government's bountiful gifts to workers...

Women Fight Back Against TUC Childcare Sell-Out

The TUC General Council has sabotaged childcare provision at TUC events by two appalling decisions - one, to refuse a proposal to provide childcare outside formal conference hours to enable parents to attend fringe meetings, social events etc; two, to change its own previous practice and bar school...

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