Strikes, marches, protests: all are happening this month!

The welfare benefit cuts will have a massive impact on the lives of thousands of Southwark residents in the coming months. Local meetings, some with more than a hundred angry residents, have shocked Council officers. The government has already been pushed into a corner over the bedroom tax but next week’s budget statement is bound to include even more cuts. 250,000 civil servants will strike against cuts next week and marches and protests are also planned by many different campaigns. Our list below has the details.

EVENTS LIST

Saturday 16 March

12 noon. March to Save Clapham Fire Station, assembling on Clapham Common. Residents, trade unionists, everyone – come along! Details at www.facebook.com/SaveClaphamFireStation

Saturday 16 March

10am - 4pm, Resisting Austerity in Europe and the UK Conference. Congress House, Great Russell St, London WC1 3LS. Organised by SERTUC Public Services and International Committees. To book, contact 020 7467 1218, or email JAdams@tuc.org.uk

Saturday 16 March

2-5pm. Anti-Academies Alliance AGM at Hughes Parry Hall nr King’s Cross. All are welcome to attend. More details from www.antiacademies.org.uk Facebook event here .

Saturday 16 March

3 pm onwards. Boycott Workfare – a mass workfare sleuth along the Walworth Road, (meet at 3pm in front of Strata Tower) followed by a social at London Action Resource Centre (LARC) - travel expenses will be covered. All welcome! Then social at 5pm at LARC (travel expenses to LARC will be covered) Facebook event. Find out about what happens in a sleuth here.

Saturdays, 16 March - 4 May

11am – 4pm. Housing Consultation about the future of housing in Southwark: Make your voice heard! A series of Southwark Council’s ‘community conversations’. 16 March in Peckham Square, 23 March in The Blue, 6 April outside Co-op, Lordship Lane, Dulwich, 13 April Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, 20 April at  Butterfly Walk Shopping Centre, Camberwell, 27 April at Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, 4 May 2013, in  Dulwich Park.

Monday 18 March

6.30pm. Organising Meeting of London Keep Our NHS Public, planning for the Defend London NHS Demonstration on 18 May. Venue: Camden Town Hall, Judd St, WC1 (Opposite Kings Cross station). More information from www.keepournhspublic.com or contact LondonKeepOurNHSPublic@gmail.com

Tuesday 19 March

7pm. Southwark Defend Council Housing campaign meeting. Venue: St. John's parish office, 18 Larcom Street SE17 1NQ.

Wednesday 20 March

George Osborne will make his budget speech.

7am – 10am. National PCS strike day – picket lines across Southwark – visit them at government offices, galleries, courts, job centres etc. For specific locations contact southwarksos@gmail.com

12 noon - 2pm Rally in central London Assemble Old Palace Yard, next to the Palace of Westminster. Big screen showing Osborne delivering the budget. Speakers include strikers and PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka.  All trade unionists/ supporters are welcome to attend the rally. Campaign information and updates at: http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/national-campaigns/action-now/index.cfm 

5.30pm. March against Tory budget cuts - Stop attacking the welfare state - Hands off our NHS. We don’t know yet what George Osborne has in store for us on Budget Day but we know it won’t be good. Assemble outside King’s College, the Strand. March to Downing Street rally from 6.30pm See http://uniteresist.org/

7.30pm. Planning Southwark’s anti-cuts campaigns: Southwark Save Our Services Organising Meeting (See below)

Wednesday 20 March

7.30pm. Southwark Save Our Services Organising Meeting – Main items: Building campaigns against the welfare benefit changes, for Benefits Justice, against the bedroom tax, supporting the PCS strikes, saving our Fire Stations. Room A3 at South Bank Uni London Road Building SE1. (Note this later start time due to protest events in central London beforehand.)

Thursday 21 March

7pm. Meeting of Lambeth Keep Our NHS Public at Duke of Cambridge pub, 74, Lansdowne Way, Stockwell, SW8 2DR. More details from lambethkonp@gmail.com

Monday 25th March

7pm. No Ifs, No Buts - NOT GUILTY! How we fought and won. Public meeting called by Defend the Right to Protest campaign: With Alfie Meadows (acquitted student protester), Matt Foot, Zak King, Max Watson & Sussex Uni Occupier. Details here. Venue: SOAS, off Russell Square WC1H 0XG.

Friday 5 April

1pm. National half-day strike of PCS members to mark the end of the 2012/13 tax year and in protest about imposed extra pension contributions, while millionaires are being given a tax cut.  This starts a week of tax justice campaigning highlighting the £120 billion tax gap. More details at the PCS website here.

Advance notice

Wednesday 17 April

7pm. Two Community Council meetings: in Camberwell and in Peckham & Nunhead – an opportunity to tell the Councillors not to cooperate with welfare benefit changes or to evict tenants in arrears because of them. Check the council’s website to see if welfare benefit changes are on the agenda.

Monday 22 April

7pm. Two Community Council meetings: in Dulwich and in Walworth – an opportunity to tell the Councillors not to cooperate with welfare benefit changes or to evict tenants in arrears because of them. Check the council’s website to see if welfare benefit changes are on the agenda.

Saturday 11 May

Second Benefit Justice Summit: To create one national voice to end the war on the poor; to oppose the bedroom tax, cuts in council-tax benefit, ending disability living allowance and other cuts. Video of first BJ Summit are here . Details to be announced via website  http://benefitjustice.wordpress.com or send emails to benefitjustice@gmail.com

Saturday 18 May

12 noon. London wide demonstration to Save the NHS. Assemble Jubilee Gardens, Waterloo SE1. Supported by a range of Hospital Campaigns, UNITE the union and London Labour Party. Get your trade union or community organisation to back the call! (See 18 March, above -London Keep Our NHS Public meeting)

Saturday 22 June

9.30am – 5pm. People's Assembly Against Austerity. Central Hall Westminster, Storey’s Gate, London, SW1H 9NH. Called by the Coalition of Resistance. Details here .

ON-GOING CAMPAIGNS:

Fire stations closures campaign information at http://www.saveourstations.org.uk/

Southwark Disabled People Against Cuts meeting meet at Southwark Independent Living Centre, 10 Bradenham Close, SE17 2QB. Details from southwarkdpac@mail.com

Benefit Justice Campaign

To create one national voice to end the war on the poor; to oppose the bedroom tax, cuts in council-tax benefit, ending disability living allowance and other cuts. Their website is http://benefitjustice.wordpress.com. Send emails to benefitjustice@gmail.com

Follow us!

http://southwarksaveourservices.blogspot.com/

Twitter @southwarkSOS

Facebook: Southwark SSOS

Are you part of a community group or campaign? We’d like to hear from you. Tell us what you’re doing and we can advertise your anti-cuts campaign activities. Email us at. All our organising meetings are open. Please come along (details above).