MEETING - STOP THE CUTS OF JOBS AND SERVICES!

Date: 19 May 09

Time: 6.30pm

Venue: St Matthew’s Tenant Hall, Brixton

“We take pride in our work and many of us have to do difficult jobs on low wages. We didn’t get Lambeth Living and the Council into this mess yet we pay the price with job cuts. But at the same time Lambeth Living and the council spend millions of pounds on consultants, the very people who got us into this mess in the first place. Hopefully we can build a campaign to give staff, tenants and leaseholders the respect that they deserve.” Employee of Lambeth Living

Are you fed up with:
• Rent rises? – Up 17%, on average £12 a week, £50 a month

• Council houses sold off? – Lambeth is auctioning off its huge stock of empty houses, while 16,000 on waiting list

• Over a fifth of Lambeth Living jobs to go and a third of jobs in some departments?– The former Housing Dept, now a separate company, says it has no money to keep staff on: experienced workers on the dole, more work for the rest, a worse service

• Wasted money? – Housing has a hole of millions of pounds in council funding, Home Office enquiry into lost refugee housing allocation… meanwhile consultants earn up to £1000 a day!

• Privatisation? – First Call emergency repairs service, concierge service and North Lambeth Cleaning to be privatised, even though existing contractors do an unsatisfactory job

At a time when unemployment is rising and many people are made redundant, this is a scandal. Lambeth Council is using the recession to destroy what remains of publicly accountable and halfway decent housing estate and squeeze housing staff and tenants as hard as they can.

We don’t have to put up with this. We can fight back. Come to a borough wide tenants, leaseholders and staff meeting, Lambeth Housing in Crisis. Speakers from Defend Council Housing, Unison, Tenants Council, LamPAG and speakers from local Trade Unions. But most of all YOU! Come and tell us what it’s like in your area. Let’s talk about what we can do to defend our homes and our jobs and build a campaign to take action!

Date: 19 May 09

Time: 6.30pm

Venue: St Matthew’s Tenant Hall, Brixton

Empty Homes in Lambeth - What to do next?

Unbelievably there are thousands of empty homes in Lambeth, despite the housing waiting lists being full. Lambeth Green Party is discussing this tomorrow night at its monthly meeting. Details below. It is open to the public. Hope to see some of you there.

"The next Lambeth Green Party monthly meeting will focus on our Empty Homes Campaign. Three speakers will tell us what Lambeth Council is doing, what a charity thinks the council should be doing and what the Green Party would do. The speakers are Maxine Wilson from Lambeth Council's Empty Property Service, James Rowlands from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and Rebecca Findlay, our parliamentary candidate for Streatham.There will be a question and answer session, followed by a 'parallel thinking' session to formulate our campaign, based on what we've learned.Date: Wednesday, 6th May 2009Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pmPlace: Brixton St Vincent’s Community Centre, Talma Road, London SW2 1ASSee http://www.bsvcc.org/contact.html for details on how to get there.The meeting is open to all and it would be great to publicise it as widely as possible. So please:- Tell as many people as possible about the event -
And, of course, come along yourself.Cheers,Rachel and MagdaCo-Convenors of Lambeth Green Party

The agenda is therefore as follows:1. Speakers on Empty Homes Campaign 2. Question and answer session."

Another Absentee Councillor

It would appear that some Labour councillors are not receiving sufficient public subsidy - poor things! Some of them are forced to go AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave). The latest case of this is in Prince's Ward in Lambeth (in the parliamentary constituency of Vauxhall). It would appear that Cllr Townend moved some time ago to Henleave in Bristol in order to get the nomination to become a parliamentary candidate there.

Clle Townend was successful in his ambition and continued to live in Bristol while drawing on his councillor's allowance of £10,212 per annum.According to today's South London Press: "Townend continued to draw on his allowance as a Lambeth councillor, claiming that he was able to represent the ward despite living elsewhere." When it came to light, however, that he had only attended two meetings over the last year, his claim was called into question.

On Friday Cllr Townend resigned and had the audacity to do so on a Bristol radio station! Lambeth Council has confirmed that he has resigned and says that a by election date will be set soon. And they wonder why politics has fallen into disrepute? I hope he serves his new constituents better in Bristol that his old ones in Lambeth, if elected that is. Somehow I expect that there will be a dramatic fall in Labour MPs elected next time.

Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel!

In response to the recent Israeli onslaught, 180 Palestinian organizations and unions have called for a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel.

The movement for BDS is growing fast. South African Dockers refused to offload an Israeli ship on 5 Feb. In Norway on 8 January, locomotive drivers stopped trains and trams for 2 minutes and informed passengers of the solidarity stoppage.

The shop workers’ union is asking employers to remove Israeli goods from stores, and at least 6 major unions are demanding the Norwegian government withdraw all State investment in Israel.

Come along to a lunchtime meeting to discuss ideas on how we can develop the BDS campaign in Lambeth Unison.

Date: 29 April 2009
Venue: Lambeth Town Hall
Time: 1pm-2pm

DEFEND ADULT EDUCATION AT LAMBETH COLLEGE!

MARCH THROUGH BRIXTON TUESDAY 28 APRIL March starts at Brixton College 12.30pm and from Lambeth Town Hall 12.45pm

PUT STUDENTS FIRST!
REDUCE TEACHERS’ WORKLOAD
REINSTATE COURSE MANAGERS
Organised by Lambeth College UCU (teachers’ union)

WHY WE ARE STRIKING

Teachers are buckling at the knees trying to keep this College on its feet. On top of teaching 23 hours a week, we have to attend more and more meetings, complete excessive amounts of admin and paperwork, mark students’ work, carry out interviews, oversee exams, etc, etc. Teachers are working a lot of unpaid overtime hours, working through their breaks, and taking work home with them. For about 2 years we have been telling Lambeth College Management that we are suffering stress and illness due to overwork. However Management have ignored us and continued to pile on the workload even more. We are saying that we want our teaching hours reduced to 21 hours a week because we no longer have enough time to prepare lessons properly, and this is not fair on our students.

Management are also implementing a more hierarchical system of Management, cutting some existing manager posts (although this will cost more) - this means that teachers will have less support and be under even more pressure.

Since 2006, each year we have faced £millions in cuts to provision, and lived with repeated threats to the security of our jobs. Yet again this year we are expecting more massive cuts, so we know that things will only get worse.

Now we feel we have no choice but to take action. We have balloted our members and agreed to take 2 hours strike action (which means we will lose pay) to highlight the effect that workload and restructuring is having on our ability to provide a decent education to our students.

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR DEMONSTRATION

Support the occupation of Enfield Visteon workers!

Hot off the heels of workers who have occupied their factory in Belfast, workers in the Enfield Visteon plant joined them this week when they went into occupation on Wednesday 1 April. Some workers are demanding the factory be kept open and that workers make green products such as bikes, solar panels and turbines. The mood is confident and workers are asking for solidarity and support from the labour movement.

For more information visit: http://www.permanentrevolution.net/entry/2636

Greater London UNISON Young Members' Election Statements

This election will be voted for by all Young Members' of UNISON in the Greater London Region.

James Caspell - Regional Council Election Statement

I am a shop steward in the London Borough of Lambeth and also the Young Members’ and Publicity Officer for my Branch.

I believe that the interests of young members can only be served by a fighting, member-led union in which maximum participation is encouraged in an inclusive environment free of bullying and harassment of young workers.

We need to provide socialist answers to the financial and environmental crises of capitalism, which will affect young people most acutely in terms of unemployment, pay cuts and attacks on our rights won over decades. Only collectively owned, worker-controlled and democratically accountable public services can put people and the planet before the interests of private profit.

Regional Council is essential in ensuring that UNISON follows its own policies within Greater London. Our representatives should facilitate maximum participation of all members, including young workers, providing the confidence we need to fight our employers, fight the government and ultimately fight capitalism!

James Caspell - Europe and International Committee Election Statement

I have a long record as a trade unionist and student activist campaigning for international socialism and against climate change.

I am a shop steward in the London Borough of Lambeth and also the Young Members’ and Publicity Officer for my Branch. I have co-founded the LSE-Palestine Solidarity Initiative which seeks to provide material and practical assistance for those living under Israeli Occupation to apply to British universities. If elected, I would seek to champion the following issues:

• Ending the Israeli occupation in Palestine and campaigning for a secular, single-state solution. Supporting twinning initiatives with our Palestinian comrades.

• Supporting arms divestment and nuclear disarmament campaigns.

• Campaign to secure and extend the rights of migrant workers across the world.

• Putting trade unions at the forefront of the struggle against climate change; workplaces produce 40% of the UK's carbon emissions. Trade unions should also lobby for recognition and support for the millions of environmental refugees that are already a direct consequence of climate change.

Workers of the world unite!