Wednesday 25 September 2013

TWO EVENTS TOMORROW – and the demonstration on Sunday!



Fire-fighters on strike

Can you visit a fire station on strike over pensions? FBU members will walk out together at noon. These are the addresses of all fire-stations in Southwark:

Dockhead 8 Wolseley Street, SE1 2BP
Old Kent Road 405 Old Kent Road, SE1 5JH
Peckham 78-80 Peckham Road SE5 8PR (also threatened with losing one of their two pumps/fire engines)
Southwark 94 Southwark Bridge Road, SE1 0EG (also due for closure)

South London People's Assembly
At 7pm, there will be a meeting of the South London People's Assembly (SLPA), for anyone who wants to help organise an Assembly in South London. Discussing the admin structure of the South London People's Assembly and people taking responsibility for roles. The SLPA email says: “Please come with a readiness to take on responsibility.” Venue: The Antelope a pub close to Tooting Library: 76 Mitcham Road, Tooting, SW17 9NG (Location - http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/pubsandbars/the-antelope-maps-61327.html) Apologies for late notice – this   was only posted a few hours ago.

BUY YOUR COACH TICKET!
I hope you are coming to the demonstration on Sunday. We pick-up at  7am in Peckham High St and 7.30 outside LSBU- see attached flyer. The coach tickets are now available at £10/£5 due to the trades council’s agreement to underwrite the cost of the coach. Can you notify your network contacts? Cheques payable to ‘Southwark TUC’. There are also some free places (via UNISON) that we can offer.

Please ring me to reserve your seat.
Chris Kelly
Sec, Southwark SOS
07939 090 667

Friday 13 September 2013

Demonstrate against austerity!

12 September 2013

With the announcement that the government is about to sell-off the Royal Mail as well as all the other attacks on incomes, welfare benefits, health and other services, there is no better time than now to get together in opposition to austerity.

Subsidised coaches from south London on 29 Sept can take you to demonstrate alongside tens of thousands of others, outside the Tory party Conference.

- Details of coaches are at http://www.nhsdemotransport.org/

- Email us at southwarksos@gmail.com if you want a ticket.

Don’t forget to tweet this listing, post it on your Facebook page, or help us with leafleting for these events. Thank you.

EVENTS LIST

Saturday 14 September

11am to 12.30pm. Rally for Education. Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre, Westminster SW1P 3EE. Speakers include: Christine Blower (General Secretary, NUT), Patrick Roach (Deputy General Secretary, NASUWT). Teachers, parents, support staff and governors all invited.

Saturday 14 September

2pm. Leafleting to advertise the national demonstration outside the Tory Party conference. Rye Lane, Peckham (outside Boots). Organised by local People’s Assembly supporters. Contact 07939 090 667 or email southwarksos@gmail.com if you can help on Saturday, or at other times or locations. More information about the demonstration below and also at http://www.tuc.org.uk/industrial/tuc-22405-f0.cfm

Tuesday 17 September

7pm. South London People's Assembly planning meeting at The Bread and Roses, 68 Clapham Manor Street, SW4 6DZ. All welcome. See more at https://www.facebook.com/South London People's Assembly

Tuesday 17 September

8pm. Film & social night - The NHS: A Difficult Beginning. Showing of a BBC documentary telling the story of the struggle to create the NHS in 1948. Doors open at 7pm. Venue: The Side Room, The Sun of Camberwell, Coldharbour Lane, SE5 9QW. Supported by King’s Unite branch. Open to clinical and non-clinical hospital workers. Enquiries/contact: healthworkersocial@hotmail.com

Thursday 19 September

7.15pm. Organising meeting of Lambeth Keep Our NHS Public campaign in the Duke of Cambridge pub, 74 Lansdowne Way, Stockwell. SW8 2DQ.

Saturday 21 September

12pm-1pm. Benefit Justice stall to petition and leaflet against the Bedroom Tax. Rye Lane, Peckham outside Boots. To help the campaign or get petition forms for your estate contact southwarkbenefitjustice@gmail.com or see their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/southwarkbenefitjustice

Saturday 21 September

2pm. Leafleting to advertise the national demonstration outside the Tory Party conference. Organised by local People’s Assembly supporters. Contact 07939 090 667 or email southwarksos@gmail.com if you can help at a local shopping centre, or at other times or locations this week. More information about the demonstration below and also at http://www.tuc.org.uk/industrial/tuc-22405-f0.cfm

Monday 23 September

6pm. South London Unite the Resistance organising meeting. Agenda includes plans for solidarity action with teachers’ strikes, CWU action against the sell-off of Royal Mail, Firefighters dispute, etc. Venue: Rear Bar, Effra Hall Tavern, Kellett Road, Brixton, SW2. For more information and an agenda, phone 07956579466. For information about the national UtR organisation go to http://uniteresist.org/

Thursday 26 September

10.30am – 12.30pm. Meeting on ‘The Council’s Budget Challenge’. Speaker: Ambrose Omoma (Southwark Council) at InSpire, St Peter’s Crypt, Liverpool Grove SE17 5HH. Organised by Southwark Pensioners Forum. More information from mail@southwarkpensioners.org.uk or phone 020 7708 4556.

Sunday 29 September

All Day. Save Our NHS – national demonstration outside the Tory Party conference, Manchester.

Supported by UNITE, GMB, UNISON and other organisations. Ask your campaign group/trade union branch to support this protest. Southwark Trade Union Council is coordinating local transport arrangements. Coaches leave Peckham High Street at 7am and London Road Elephant & Castle at 7.30am. For tickets, phone 07939090667 or email to southwarksos@gmail.com. Assemble 11am Liverpool Road, Manchester M3 4FP, marching to a rally in Whitworth Park. For trains chartered by UNITE the Union and People’s Assembly see their websites. For transport from Lewisham, Lambeth and elsewhere see www.nhsdemotransport.org Here's a video saying why you should go: http://youtu.be/hEPuiIDg4Tc

Advance notice

Thursday 17 October

London teaching unions NUT & NASUWT will be on strike for one day. More info at http://www.teachers.org.uk/node/19075 . To request parents leaflet to give out at your local school, or to send messages of support, contact secretary@southwarknut.org.uk or mwdavern@hotmail.co.uk, and teacher union reps at your local school.

Saturday 19 October

12 noon – 5pm. ‘Organising to Win’ conference Workshops for those new to organising in the workplace and their communities as well as those who have experience in the trade unions and campaigns. Bloomsbury Baptist Church, 235 Shaftsbury Avenue, WC2H 8EP. Organised by Unite the Resistance. For more information or to book your place, go to http://uniteresist.org/2013/07/unite-the-resistance-conference-19-october-organising-to-win/

Saturday 2 November

Times tbc. Lambeth People’s Assembly, Lambeth Town Hall. More details at http://lambethsaveourservices.org/

Tuesday 5 November

Day of civil disobedience called by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity. More details to be announced. See http://thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/

OTHER LOCAL CAMPAIGNS:

Royal Mail campaign against privatisation

Background information and petition sheet from the Communication Workers Union at the website, http://www.cwu.org/save-our-royal-mail.html

Fire stations closures

Southwark campaign information and their action plans are to be found at http://www.saveourstations.org.uk/southwark and London action at http://www.london.fbu.org.uk/?page_id=527

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

Southwark Pensioners Action Group

Meets bi-monthly. Campaign information at http://www.spag.btck.co.uk/ 

Thursday 5 September 2013

COACH TICKETS for the demonstration outside the Tory Conference, 29 Sept.

I hope you will be joining the tens of thousands at the ‘No to Austerity. Save the NHS’ demonstration in Manchester. It is backed by several national unions as well as the TUC. We have a coach leaving Peckham and picking up at Elephant & Castle, returning the same day. Tickets are £20 waged / £10 Concessions. Although there are special trains, bear in mind the total journey time is very similar whether you go by coach or train.

UNISON has brought ten coach tickets. Contact Sue Plain UNISON Branch Secretary on 020 7525 6034 or at sue.plain@southwark.gov.uk .

Ring Chris on 07939 090 667 to buy tickets or to get tickets to sell to others.


Can your trade union help to sponsor a coach?

We expect to fill one coach and possibly two, but we rely on further trade union branches to donate. (King’s Hospital UNITE has already given £500)

·        Please raise support in your campaign group, TRA or trade union branch. Union donations are urgently needed. You may have to contact your branch secretary very soon if it is to get on the agenda of the first meeting in September.  I can provide you with details of where donations should be sent.


SSOS UPDATES

Tuesday 10th September

SLaM Annual public meeting 5.30pm at Maudsley Hospital. Contact Frank Wood UNITE (07798 531734 ) for further info.

The next SSOS meeting

We didn’t have a meeting in August but with an Autumn beginning with a week of action by DPAC and then the possibility of strikes by teachers, firefighters, post office workers and others, there is a lot for anti-cuts activists to do. We have a meeting pencilled in for either Wednesday 18th or 25th  September but attendance at recent meetings has been small so we want to have organising meetings that represent the local active groups of campaigners and trade unions if these meetings are to be useful. Can you attend? Please tell me which date (18th or 25th) you prefer. 


Some members of the SSOS organising group have been attending the South London organising meetings of the People’s Assembly and it seem sensible to coordinate our SSOS activities with theirs, where we can. If you want to receive details of local PA meetings contact Lia Korn at  lilimarauk@hotmail.co.uk to go on the mailing list.